The Four TV Shows That Explain America, tell me about this news in (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/opinion/best-tv-shows-sopranos-breaking-bad-wire-mad-men.html)

The New York Times published a major feature titled “The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century,” compiled from votes by hundreds of television creators, actors, showrunners, and critics. Within this widespread discussion of the era’s definitive television, the four foundational prestige dramasThe Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men, and Breaking Badfrequently emerge as the cornerstone quartet that collectively defined modern American prestige television and captured the complex cultural, institutional, and psychological realities of America during this century.

These four shows are often seen as mapping different facets of American society: The Sopranos explores the decay of the American Dream and suburban morality through organized crime; The Wire dissects systemic corruption across urban institutions like politics, education, law enforcement, and media; Mad Men examines the psychological and cultural shifts of mid-century corporate America and consumerism; and Breaking Bad traces the descent of ordinary middle-class existence into the ruthless underbelly of capitalism and individual ambition.