Some movies have big casts and give everyone in said cast quite a bit to do (see the likes ofMagnoliaand too manyRobert Altmanmovies to count), buttelevisionseems to benefit big casts even more. Writers and actors have multiple hours to work with, after all, rather than just a couple of hours, and shows that have multiple seasons can quiteeasily have dozens of well-developed characters appearing throughout.
Leaving aside sitcoms and animated TV, these shows all stand out for having particularly great casts. Some are rather star-studded (mainly the ones that were produced by – and aired on –HBO), but others stand out because the casting was on point, and everyone got a ton to do, even if they weren’t necessarily A-listers.For present purposes, both the size and overall quality of these casts were consideredas best as possible.
10’Lost' (2004–2010)
Good oldLost, which still feels likethe grandest, strangest, and potentially most ambitiousdrama series to ever air on network television. And, with the move to streaming, and the continued dominance of HBO and other cable channels,maybeLostwill remain peak network TV. It’s at least as big as that kind of show can be, as well as incredibly cinematic, with both the visuals and the acting helping in that regard.
Lostwas a lot of genres, and it had alot of people in its main cast. There were all the initial survivors of the plane crash that kicked off the series, people off the island who appeared in flashbacks and/or later seasons, plus others (and Others) involved with the island who showed up asLostmarched along.Singling out an MVP is hard, but some of the best in the main cast included Terry O’Quinn (Locke),Jorge Garcia(Hurley), andJosh Holloway(Sawyer).
9’Game of Thrones' (2011–2019)
LikeLost,Game of Thronesproved a little more divisive as it went along, and did ultimately begin in a smoother way than it ended. But it’s still a journey worth embarking on, sincethe scope ofGame of Thronesremains staggering, and even more thanLost,there are just too many people here to even try and single out the best ones.
ThroughoutGame of Thrones, though, what can be said is that the casting was largely perfect, because there are so many different kinds of characters here, and everyone chosen fits said characters well. Also,Game of Thronesproved to be a star-making series for so many of the actors who appeared in it, with only a handful being very well-established in the years beforeGame of Thronesaired (likeSean Bean, who played Season 1’s lead character).
8’Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (1997–2003)
Buffy the Vampire Slayeris another network TV show that transcended the bounds of what most shows that aired 20+ episodes a year were thought capable of. It wasn’t the first great long-running drama series, but itdoes stand up as one of the best, and it gave many talented actors theopportunity to play interesting and evolving characters who got to change in dramatic ways over the course of seven seasons.
Part of that had to do with the show beginning in high school, and ending with exploring young adulthood, meaning the leads — namely,Sarah Michelle Gellar,Nicholas Brendon, andAlyson Hannigan— got to effectively grow as actors while their characters grew up, but anyone around for more than a season (not a ton, when death was so frequent) also got pretty engaging character arcs. The writing inBuffy the Vampire Slayerprobably stands out a little more than the acting, but thequality of that acting (and the pitch-perfect casting) is also more than worthy of mention.
7’Succession' (2018–2023)
UnlikeGame of Thronesand some more spectacle-heavy HBO shows,Successionwas the sort of thing that’d live or diebased solely on its writing and acting. It was well-filmed, and the production value was high, particularly with characters frequently traveling to lavish locations for just one or two episodes, butmost ofSuccessioninvolves people arguing, getting insulted,yelling, and embarrassing themselves, and so the writing and acting have to be great.
Brian Cox, playing the central character(insofar as everyone else revolves around Logan), was key to this, but everyone else in the cast, not quite as well-established, also matched Cox in intensity and versatility.Jeremy Strong,Kieran Culkin,Matthew Macfadyen, andSarah Snookare all particularly great, and givesome of the best performances from any TV show of the 21st century so far throughoutSuccession’s four-season-long run.
Even ifBreaking Badhad only featured one great performance, and that performance had beenBryan Cranston’s, it would still be a pretty great show. Cranston stars as Walter White, anddominates a good many episodes, since he’s almost always at the center of things. He changes dramatically in so many ways across the show’s run; the whole series was designed to show him starting one way, and ending another.
But then rewatching or thinking aboutBreaking Badfurther makes things feel a bit more nuanced, since Cranston was able to more subtly showcase Walt’s dark side early on, before he leaped off the deep end entirely, morally speaking, in effect. And Cranston is far from the only great actor here, of course,withthe likes of Anna Gunn,Aaron Paul,Giancarlo Esposito,Bob Odenkirk,and Jonathan Banks all being superb here, too.
5’The Wire' (2002–2008)
Though it’s hackneyed, sometimes, to look at a fictional work and say “Oh, X City is the main character,” it fits forThe Wire. This is a show that’s almost entirely about the city of Baltimore, and each of its five seasons introducesa new side of the city, complete with a bunch of new characters. Also, most of the ones who’ve already been established (and who weren’t killed off) show up again, even if the focus of each subsequent season isn’t necessarily on them.
So, what you get is a surprisingly epic series. Baltimore might not be as big asGame of Thrones' Westeros, but thescope of both shows feels comparable, and there are about as many memorable characters in each. Some of the best actors inThe Wire(to name a distressingly small number, because we don’t want to be here all day), includeMichael K. Williams (Omar),Idris Elba (Stringer Bell),Dominic West (McNulty), and Andre Royo (Bubbles).Oh, and Michael B. Jordan is in this showfor a little while, too, which is cool, since he’s gone on tobecome a pretty massive movie starin the years since.
4’Twin Peaks' (1990–1991, 2017)
Most people will say thatTwin Peaksredefined television as a medium, and in this instance, most people are right. It was created byDavid LynchandMark Frost(theformer otherwise mostly known for his movies), and was, all at once, a horror series, a police procedural, and a quirky sort of soap opera with tons ofunusual characters living in the titular town torn apartby a shocking murder.
The cast included younger up-and-coming actors, Kyle MacLachlan (who was to Lynch whatRobert De Niro is to Martin Scorsese), and a ton of previously established/veteran actors, too, including the likes ofRichard Beymer,Piper Laurie, andRuss Tamblyn. Just about everyone managed to match the unusual energy and style ofTwin Peaks, and all contributed in their own strange ways to the show being as inevitably memorable as it was.
3’Deadwood' (2004–2006)
For a while,Deadwoodstood as one of the rare HBO dramas that didn’t get to end on its own terms, with it coming to a close a bit abruptly after three seasons. Thankfully, a2019 TV movie provided some pretty solid closure, but even if it hadn’t,Deadwoodwould still be able to be appreciated asa great historical drama series, and perhaps TV’s best-ever Western show, too.
The town of Deadwood is, unsurprisingly, the setting, and various characters here are based on real-life people, as best as possible. For some, not a lot was known about them, so historical liberties are taken, and considered acceptable, in this instance.Unlike some of the other dramashere with ensemble casts,Deadwooddoes have a stand-out actor in Ian McShane, who is scarily great (and forceful) as Al Swearengen, but everyone else is also perfectly cast, and all around excellent.
2’Angels in America' (2003)
Admittedly, all the other shows being mentioned here were series that ran for multiple seasons/years, whileAngels in Americawas a miniseries, and only about six hours long altogether. Butit has a cast that would be massive and all-star in nature if it were a film, and so for a television miniseries (one on HBO, sure, but still) to have that kind of cast is worth noting.
Al Pacino is in this, and great and bombastic as ever, with the rest of the cast also includingthe likes of Meryl Streep,Patrick Wilson,Mary-Louise Parker,Emma Thompson,Jeffrey Wright, andJames Cromwell. It’s an ambitious miniseries that goes big dramatically, and covers some pretty intense themes, but everyone is more than up for the task, andthe quality of acting here really does transcend the majority of television out there, be it series or miniseries.
1’The Sopranos' (1999–2007)
Since it might well bethe definitive crime series(though itdid sometimes feel like a comedy),The Sopranosis worthy of securing the #1 spot here. It has a ton of characters, thereby needing a great many actors, and the cast changes, grows, and shrinks as the show goes along, seeing as death is a constant throughout, for both minor and major characters. LikeBreaking Bad,The Sopranosis also anchored by one superb central performance, that ofJames Gandolfini’s, who plays Tony Soprano.
He gives what might be the best performance in TV history, though countless supporting actors hereare almost just as good, including Edie Falco,Michael Imperioli,Lorraine Bracco,and Dominic Chianese. The acting is basically perfect, andso are many episodes ofThe Sopranos, more generally speaking, and there honestly aren’t enough words to express just how great the entire ensemble cast here is.
The Sopranos
New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano deals with personal and professional issues in his home and business life that affect his mental state, leading him to seek professional psychiatric counseling.
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