Although many of us loved our late-night Channel 4 viewings of Oz, I'm not sure we fully appreciated at the time just how groundbreaking it was. Naturally, The Sopranos is held aloft as the king of premium American cable TV dramas, but it was Oz that started it all. Oz was the first, and the fact that it has held up so well is remarkable, but it is that it laid the path for everything that followed. From The Sopranos to Breaking Bad, The Shield to Sons of Anarchy and beyond. The likes of David Chase, Kurt Sutter and Vince Gilligan are all massively talented writers that would have made it regardless, but I still like to think they send Tom Fontanta a Christmas Card every year that just says "thanks".