Everybody loves a good TV drama to curl up and watch, and the best part about dramas is that the bigger and grander they are, the more enjoyable they get. Be it fantastical sets, outrageous characters, long-running storylines, or unexpected plot twists, some television shows can get really over-the-top, and audiences love it.
Over the past few decades, some truly magnificent television dramas have graced our screens, while some are recent hits which take things to the next level. Watching the OTT-ness unfurl in these shows is very exciting for audiences.
Sherlock
Created by English stalwarts Mark Gatiss and Stephen Moffat, Sherlock was big on everything — the cats, the sets, the cinematography, and the plot twists. With huge names like Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman on the roster, the performances were precise and amazing, and Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock Holmes was a excitable and unpredictable, especially with his mind palace antics.
No one can forget the absolutely incredulous mystery of how Sherlock survived the Reichenbach Fall (one of Sherlock's best scenes), and the elaborate and farfetched explanation for it. Nobody quite knows when Sherlock will return, but the amount of action packed into just three to four episodes made this series quite brilliant.
Downton Abbey
The much-loved Downton Abbey was a hit because of a couple of elements, namely the beautiful location and costuming, along with the shocking twists and deaths in the show. Characters like Mary, Edith, Robert, and the downstairs crew were always making questionable life choices on Downton Abbey with outrageous outcomes (think Kemal Pamuk's death by intimacy).
The gorgeous costumes of all the leading ladies and the men made it an extravagant affair, and the estate where it was shot was nothing short of excessive.
Gossip Girl
The irreplaceable original series was made to illicit "OMG" reactions from its viewers, and the gratuitous depiction of teen sex in itself was pretty over-the-top. Throw in obscene amounts of wealth and decadence with out of control teenagers, and one has a television drama that is contentious but addictive.
So many plot twists in Gossip Girl are unforgettable, not limited to Serena "murdering" a man, a royal wedding, Bart and Chuck's mother dying and coming back to life, Georgina convincing Dan she had his baby and more. Few shows can compare to the self-indulgence of the show and its outfits that were ahead of its time.
Grey's Anatomy
The longest-running scripted primetime show in the history of television, the Ellen Pompeo-starrer is known as a phenomenon rather than just another show, and viewers love the amazing amalgamation it is of medical emergencies, life or death situations, heart wrenching love affairs, and tragic loss.
Grey's Anatomy is a highly dramatized version of what a hospital looks like and works through, with Izzie cutting Denny's LVAD wire to get him a heart, and Casey dying because of negligent checkups due to social drama. These storylines are very exaggerated, but fans keep coming back for more.
Supernatural
Another drama that has an enduring appeal, it was originally only supposed to run for five seasons. By popular demand, the story of two brothers who started off as ghost hunters and eventually got involved in the biblical happenings between heaven and hell.
Fighting off disturbed spirits and ghouls got replaced by the war between angels and demons, with Lucifer and God making appearances and staying for major plotlines. Sam and Dean also returned from the dead several times, making this show a truly unbelievable one sometimes.
Pretty Little Liars
What started off as a highly intriguing show about a group of best friends who receive threats in the form of texts from a dead member rapidly freewheeled into a territory of confusion and several confusing plotlines running together, or entirely forgotten.
The number of twists were hard to keep track of, as were the number of A's who were targetting the girls. Add to that a life-sized creepy dollhouse for the girls, a team of A's intimidating them, shocking deaths, more than one evil twin, and trusted teachers who turned on the girls and audiences have one show bloated with too much mystery and surprises to keep up with.
Squid Game
The most recent addition to TV drama history, Netflix's Squid Game was a mix of difficult games, death around every corner, a wake up call about class disparity, wealth distribution, and the shocking apathy of the rich men who watched the game like sports.
It's easily one of the most violent and scary shows on streaming channels, without being an out and out horror show. The games and their consequences were definitely over-the-top, but the most shocking was the extra gore and horrific deeds by the staff that were piled onto an already heavy premise.
Shameless
The tale of an impoverished family in the neighborhoods of Chicago, their alcoholic father, and their struggles to survive sounds like a sad premise, but Showtime's Shameless was anything but that. The Gallagher family really leaned into the 'survival of the fittest' and used their basest instincts and the most elaborate scams and schemes to get by.
Drug peddling, running over an ex, pretending to love a terminal patient, smuggling people across the border, selling out old ladies for their laundromats... the list goes on, and nothing was off the table for these cutthroat kids who learnt to survive by being their most shameless selves.
Game Of Thrones
Based on the opulent novels by George R.R. Martin, Game Of Thrones is one of the most recognizable shows in the world, and the scale of it makes it one of the sumptuous dramas of all time. The sprawling locations are like nothing ever seen in a television show, and the grand wars fought between the houses for the Iron Throne were captivating.
The show spared no expense for the visuals, and the rivalries and history between the houses, combined with the elements of supernatural like White Walkers made it one to remember.
Riverdale
Nothing beats the absolute unpredictability and shock factor of Riverdale. In fact, the show often and intentionally veers into nonsensical territory, but it seems to have leaned into it and transformed it from a teen mystery show to a horror-supernatural one with all kinds of weirdness happening in it.
Cults, the return of dead characters, UFOs, new serial killers every other day, and killer teenagers are sprinkled liberally on the script, and the added musical elements that the writers just can't seem to let go of add to the chaos and over-the-top nature of this teen drama.