The Corner (2000)

Six episodes, and some of the heaviest hours on this list in plain human cost. Adapted from David Simon and Ed Burns's nonfiction book about a year around one West Baltimore drug corner, it tells a true story using the real people's names, which makes the addiction and the family damage impossible to file away as fiction. Charles S. Dutton directed all six episodes and won the Emmy for it, and the series took Outstanding Miniseries as well. You can treat it as the rough draft of The Wire, but it needs no other show to make sense. There is no police case to drive the plot, only people trying to get through the year, so pace yourself with one episode a night.