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BENJAMONSTER AWARDS 2025: Outstanding Drama Series

Today's award is Outstanding Drama Series!

Past Awards in This Category: 2024   2023   2022   2021   2020

This year's nominees are...










THE BEAR (FX/Hulu)
THE HANDMAID'S TALE (Hulu)
LANDMAN (Paramount+)
THE LAST OF US (HBO)
MATLOCK (CBS)
THE PITT (Max)
SEVERANCE (Apple TV+)

And the Winner Is...
THE PITT
Max
I've always been sort of "meh" on medical dramas. I never watched ER, it was a little before my time and I never watched it after the fact. I have watched the first seasons of some network dramas and still use Chicago Med as a background show. So imagine my surprise when I completely fell in love with The Pitt. I can't remember getting this excited about the first season of an on-going drama in a long time and I just couldn't wait for Thursdays to spend an hour with this team of doctors and nurses. It managed to make medical dramas cool again and it also showed us how a broadcast-type drama can work in the streaming world. It's not exactly like a broadcast show and it's certainly not like many other streaming shows. It's a perfect mix in a way that I hope other shows can learn from. I also loved hearing about how much they cared about getting things right and it showed with how much doctors and nurses praised the show. And, it will be back in January! And I can't wait.

Thoughts on the Rest of the Nominees:
The Pitt was one of my favorite shows in awhile so this wasn't that close but there were other good dramas on TV though a lot of them maybe paled in comparison to previous seasons. The second season of The Last of Us had its moments (hello, episode two) and was still compelling TV even if it felt a bit wayward. I don't think the third season of The Bear was as bad as many said, but it wasn't as strong as the incredible second season. Severance started really interesting but didn't sustain it through the entire season. The Handmaid's Tale was a show that went on too long but the last couple episodes of the final season were really compelling. Among the new shows, Matlock was a by the books legal drama a lot of the time but the beginning and end of the season really had an interesting through line. And I know Landman was dumb but darn it, it was one of the shows I most enjoyed watching all season partly because of all the craziness.

Tomorrow: The final award - Outstanding Comedy Series!

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