Now Streaming Classic TV Shows That Will Keep You on the Edge of Your Seat

This gritty cop drama about a corrupt L.A. detective running his squad outside the rules of the law is “seldom less than riveting,” according to Rotten Tomatoes. During its seven-season run, the show took home two Golden Globes — one for Best Television Series – Drama and one for actor Michael Chiklis — and an Emmy award, also for Chiklis.

The riveting three-season series is about cocaine kingpins, including Pablo Escobar, whose corrupting influence permeated all levels of Colombian society in the 1980s. The series is unsparing in the culpability of the United States regarding the ineffectual attempts to defeat the drug lords. Critics on Rotten Tomatoes gave the series a Freshness rating of 89%, and 94% of audiences like the gripping and often violent account of the drug saga. “Narcos” holds a rating of 8.8 out of 10 among nearly 333,000 IMDb users.

The five-season series of tales of the macabre and the unexplained remains the gold standard for thought-provoking and innovative television. The Golden Globe and Emmy-Award winning series, “an excursion into the odd” as intoned by host and master storyteller Rod Serling, has a Freshness rating among Rotten Tomatoes critics of 82%, and 96% of audiences enjoyed the series. IMDb users gave “the Zone” 9.0 out of 10.

“The Wire,” which ran for five seasons, is a highly praised series about the impact of drugs on Baltimore, as experienced through various segments of the city’s society — law enforcement, the media, and narcotics dealers. The 60-episode series has a score of 9.3 out of 10 among more than 268,000 IMDb users, making it the sixth top rated show on the site.

“Breaking Bad” is about a high school chemistry teacher who produces and sells methamphetamine to help his family financially after learning he has cancer, while keeping his side job secret from his family, and evading law enforcement and drug gangs. The series is one of the most critically acclaimed television series of all time. It won 16 Emmys over its five seasons, which culminated in its finale, which was the most-watched original broadcast in television history at the time. “Breaking Bad” currently has a rating of 9.5 out of 10 on IMDb with more than 1.3 million ratings, and a Freshness rating of 96% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and 98% from users on the site.