The best television shows of our times are unquestionably The Sopranos, The Wire, and Breaking Bad. But Deadwood, the iconoclastic Western created for HBO by David Milch, has just as much to offer, namely, a brutal, lawless, and utterly enchanting world. Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), the crafty saloon keeper who runs the Gold Rush town, is a sociopath who is as selfish and savage as Tony Soprano, as charismatic, too, and beset with similar flickers of self-awareness and self-doubt. Deadwood was based on real events and people, but Milch’s improvisations on language, characters, and scenery are all his own, inimitable and addictive. —Alessandra Stanley

Alessandra Stanley is a Co-Editor of AIR MAIL