The powerful final season of Rectify is finally on air! Season 4 opens with Daniel dealing with the complicated group dynamics of living at the New Canaan Project, and figuring how to cope in his new environment.
With its skewed insights into carceral cruelty, Rectify took the slot that "The Wire" used to occupy: it's the smart crime drama whose fans have trouble persuading others to watch, because it sounds too grim-or maybe too good for you.
There are few series with this much concentration on character and the small moments that make our days better, even in the face of suffering and sadness.
Rectify allows us to know and care for these characters even when they try to hold us at arm's length, by embracing their truths in quiet moments that connect us.
As ever, Rectify remains most interested in exploring the gray areas, and with the New Canaan House, it does so in a setting where morality is even more black-and-white than it is in Paulie.
We may never see another show like Rectify. It was a program as unafraid of silence as it was of melodrama. And it's another series on this list that entirely transcended its set-up.
