Shonda Rhimes

2012 · 7 Seasons · ABC · Drama / Thriller

Scandal made Thursday nights appointment television again, turning Kerry Washington's crisis-fixer Olivia Pope into an era-defining character and live-tweeting into a national sport. Shonda Rhimes's D.C. runs on monologues delivered at sprint speed, wine glasses the size of fishbowls, and twists deployed with total shamelessness, and for its first few seasons the velocity is intoxicating. Then the secret spy agency eats the show. Community consensus maps a steep arc, thrilling rise, gladiator peak, and a long back half of diminishing sanity that even devoted fans describe with affectionate exhaustion. The handled-it years remain legitimately great television.

2005 · 22 Seasons · ABC · Medical Drama / Romance

The longest-running primetime medical drama in American television history, and a show that has survived more cast departures, character deaths, and natural disasters than most soap operas dream of. Grey's Anatomy built its legacy on the strength of its early seasons, when Meredith Grey's intern class felt fresh and the emotional stakes hit hard, and has sustained itself through sheer force of formula and a fanbase that has grown up alongside the show. The first five seasons are peak Shonda Rhimes. Everything after varies wildly, but the show's ability to generate big emotional moments has never completely disappeared.

2022 · 1 Season · Netflix · Drama

Julia Garner's committed performance as fake heiress Anna Delvey is the main attraction of a series that's too long, too scattered, and too enamored with its subject to deliver on its considerable promise.