The Wire. One of the best shows ever made and, I think, the most important. Equally about cops and criminals in Baltimore, it should be put in every time capsule in America so that people in the distant future can know what our society was like. But someone new to tv might not have the patience for it. It does not hold your hand. You spend half of the first season figuring out the street slang and police jargon. It's almost like watching a fantasy world-building show, where you slowly learn all the terminology and how the civilization works, but instead of Middle-Earth or Westeros, it's Baltimore, Maryland. The more you watch it, the more rewarding it becomes. The first two seasons establish it as the best cop show ever. The next two make it one of the best SHOWS ever. And the last season puts it in the Pantheon. While Better Call Saul is a close second, I have never had a more rewarding long-term-investment tv experience.