Action Drama series (Heavy life and death consequences) I like
1. TWD
2. GOT
3. Sopranos
4. The Shield
5. Breaking Bad
6. The Wire
This is where it should be clarified if we're just listing our FAVORITE shows or the ones we think are the "Best of the Cable Era".
I've never watched "The Walking Dead", but it seems to be a polarizing show where opinions fall into two camps. #1 - "It's a great show. I love it." #2 - "I guess the first season was well done, but the rest of the series kind of crap."
I do see that consensus critical rating has hovered between 75-82 on Metacritic which is pretty good... But I don't think it would be labelled as one of the greatest shows of this era. Kind of like... I enjoy the shows "Shameless", "Girls" and "Silicon Valley" for what they are, but I would never consider either one of the best shows of the modern era.
Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, The Wire, Mad Men and Sopranos consistently scored in the 90s. "Breaking Bad Season 5", for instance, scored a 99/100 on Metacritic which is the highest score a show has received.
A couple more shows that have scored in the 90s.
"The Americans" - I've never seen it (it doesn't get many viewers), but I hear it's really great.
"Louie" - I enjoy it, but wouldn't call it a "comedy" at this point.
"Sherlock" (BBC) - Extremely well done, but it's kind of like a movie series and less of a show since each season only has a few episodes.
"Deadwood" - Perhaps the first to kick off this television golden age? EDIT: Season 1 got an 80 and season 3 got a 85, so perhaps it shouldn't be included in the conversation. I feel like it puttered out a bit.
As far as I can tell, nothing else got consistently high critical praise.