Aaron Sorkin's Television Series, Ranked

The home of the walk-and-talk. Thomas Schlamme's long tracking shots through the corridors turn policy arguments into momentum, and Martin Sheen's President Bartlet anchors an ensemble that cares far too much about everything, which is exactly the appeal. It won four consecutive Emmys for Outstanding Drama Series. Sorkin left at the end of the fourth season and John Wells took over as head writer, so the rhythm changes from season five. If you want pure Sorkin, the season four finale is a natural stopping point; the later seasons are a different, steadier show that still has plenty to offer.

The best place to go after The West Wing, and a clear rehearsal for it. This half-hour follows the staff of a late-night sports show on the fictional Continental Sports Channel, with Peter Krause and Josh Charles as the anchors and Felicity Huffman as the producer holding it together. You do not need to care about sport: the show is about deadlines, loyalty and getting it right on air. ABC insisted on a laugh track, which fades through the first season and is gone by the second, so the early episodes jar a little. Two seasons and 45 episodes make it an easy binge. Thomas Schlamme won an Emmy for directing the pilot, and the corridor energy he later brought to the White House starts here.

Sorkin on HBO, with cable news as the cause. Jeff Daniels plays anchor Will McAvoy, the role that won him the 2013 Emmy for lead actor in a drama, and the first season builds each episode around a real news event from the recent past, so you watch the staff get right what you already know happened. That hindsight is the show's trick and its weakness. The speeches can tip into lectures, a common complaint in the mixed reviews of the first season; critics were kinder to the second. Emily Mortimer and Sam Waterston give the newsroom its warmth. At 25 episodes across three seasons, the uneven stretches never last long.

The ambitious one that did not work, and fascinating for exactly that reason. Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford play a writer and a producer brought back to rescue a live sketch show after its creator's on-air rant against television, and the pilot crackles with the old energy. The problem is the comedy inside the drama: a series about a sketch show needs its sketches to land, and they rarely do. A pilot seen by 13.4 million viewers lost a large share of them within weeks, and NBC cancelled it after a single season of 22 episodes, while 30 Rock, set behind a similar show, was renewed. Watch it for Perry and Whitford's rapport and for a writer arguing with his own industry.