The Thick of It (2005)

Armando Iannucci's BBC comedy is the meanest and most accurate thing on this list. A hapless minister at the fictional Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship lurches from crisis to crisis while Peter Capaldi's Malcolm Tucker, the government's foul-mouthed communications chief, arrives to scream the damage into shape. Some of the dialogue was improvised, which is why the panic feels so real and the insults so inventive. It ran for four series from 2005 to 2012, and the third gave British politics the word "omnishambles." The early episodes are short and scrappy, so give it a few before judging.