Before the days of prestige television, Hollywood's greatest directors tended to stick to the big screen. Primarily, these directors stuck to cinema because there was more glory (and less of a time commitment) in coming up with a two-hour story than in developing a sprawling epic comprised of dozens of hours of content. Then, the golden age of television arrived, and film industries worldwide witnessed a mass exodus of talent as some of the most prominent filmmakers decided to cross over.

That being said, auteur television isn't an entirely new phenomenon. While it's much more prevalent today than ever before, renowned filmmakers like David Lynch, Robert Altman, and even Alfred Hitchcock paved the way for the future generation of talents like Alex Garland, Aaron Sorkin, and Nicolas Winding Refn. In the process, these ten directors proved that any artist with a clear and unique vision can shape the medium of television to conform to their standards, not vice versa.

10 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Provided a Blueprint for Auteur Television

Alfred Hitchcock didn't just redefine what cinema was capable of in the 1940s and 50s; he exemplified the potential storytelling possibilities inherent in television with his classic television show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. While mainly serving as a host, introducing and concluding weekly stories that provided its audience with decidedly entertaining and warped social critique, Hitch also spent a lot of time behind the camera directing some of the series' best episodes.

Episodes like "Lamb to the Slaughter," "Revenge," "Breakdown," and "One More Mile to Go" all contain the same elements that turned so many of Alfred Hitchcock's films into box office hits, including his mastery of framing and trademarked wit. For a series that emerged during the advent of television, Alfred Hitchcock Presents was surprisingly anti-establishment and often mocked the arbitrary qualities of most other television series airing around that time. Hitch proved from the very start that, given enough talent (and leeway), television could be as effective as cinema.

9 Tanner '88 Proved Television Could Look and Feel like Real Life

Alfred Hitchcock might have been one of the first acclaimed directors to dabble in television, but afterward, the well ran dry for several decades. It wouldn't be until the late 1980s that television once more saw an influx of Hollywood talent try their hand at the "idiot box." One of the first to do so was American New Wave director Robert Altman, who created a series so original in Tanner '88 that most people thought it was a documentary.

In the 1980s, Robert Altman teamed up with HBO, a new upstart premium cable channel, to create a series that followed the behind-the-scenes campaign of a fringe Democratic presidential candidate in 1988. Shot in a cinéma vérité style that incorporated fundamental aspects of the 1988 Democratic primaries, Tanner '88 epitomized Altman's warm-hearted idealism and fundamental belief in the good of politicians. It also laid the groundwork for future auteur series that align more closely with society's views of today's political circus, like Veep​​​​​​.

8 Peacemaker Is Old Fashioned Entertainment for a New Generation

As the brainchild of DCU architect, James Gunn, Peacemaker is the television series that helped prove he would be the perfect director to carry DC's cinematic universe into the modern era. A continuation of what Gunn started with The Suicide Squad, both that film and Peacemaker are arguably the only two good entries to come out of the later stages of the DCEU. As good as that film was, Peacemaker might be even better.

Starring John Cena in the title role of the jingoistic hired gun Peacemaker, this series stands out because of how much fun it is. Television was created to provide mindless entertainment (for good and bad) that audiences could turn on and lose themselves in. Peacemaker epitomizes this approach, providing a ridiculous story about extraterrestrial butterfly creatures posing as humans and feeding off the amber fluid produced by a giant alien monstrosity, "The Cow." Premises don't get much more ludicrous than this; however, they also don't come much more enjoyable.

7 Devs Shows that Television Is just as Unsettling as Cinema

Alex Garland has many titles: author, screenwriter, and film director. In 2020, he added a new entry to his resume: television series creator, thanks to his unsettling sci-fi series, Devs. This eight-episode limited series felt like a natural extension of his two previous films, Annihilation, and Ex Machina, concentrating on the relationship between a Silicon Valley visionary, played by Nick Offerman, and an entry-level computer engineer, played by Sonoya Mizuno.

Boasting a typically ultra-aggressive sound design and metaphysical visuals, Devs explores some incredibly dark and pessimistic themes about the lengths the ungodly wealthy are willing to go to get what they want. Boasting sequences of megalomania and violence, not to mention a healthy helping of mysterious intrigue, Devs offers a story full of twists and turns that's made all the more exciting thanks to Garland's masterful direction.

6 What We Do in the Shadows Introduces Laughs to Prestige TV

Not all prestige television is inherently dramatic; sometimes, an audience just wants to laugh. Thankfully, series like What We Do in the Shadows exist for that sole purpose. Based on the 2014 film of the same name, What We Do in the Shadows was created by Jemaine Clement based upon the screenplay he wrote alongside Taika Waititi, the hit filmmaker behind further box office successes like Thor: Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit, who has served as an executive producer throughout the series' run.

Retaining the mockumentary concept of the feature film, What We Do in the Shadows tells the hilarious story of four vampire roommates navigating the complexities of modern-day living in New York City's Staten Island. Since these vampires are relatively clueless, they employ a human familiar, Guillermo, who serves as the audience's proxy through much of the series. Critically acclaimed thanks to its cast and sensational writing, What We Do in the Shadows will wrap up in 2024, bringing an end to the beloved series' narrative.

5 Too Old to Die Young Proved Cinematic Aesthetic can Survive the Transition to the Small Screen

The Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn exploded into the North American market with the release of his hit film, Drive. While that film has sadly yet to see a follow-up, interested parties will find many of the same elements that made that film hit so hard in Refn's Amazon Prime television series Too Old To Die Young. Created alongside comic book writer Ed Brubaker, this series features all the brutality, violence, and striking aesthetic of Drive that landed Refn on so many cinephiles' cinematic maps.

The ten episodes of Too Old to Die Young add up to over 13 hours of content as a Los Angeles police detective, played with steely intensity by Miles Teller, moonlights as a contract killer whose night job intensifies after his partner is brutally killed. As one might expect with a description like that, it takes time and patience to truly appreciate a series as beautiful, dreamlike, and tense as this blood and neon-soaked waking nightmare.

4 The West Wing Was a Monumental Evolution in Television

A conversation about the best television series of the 2000s is practically impossible without mentioning Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing. While he never directed an episode of the series, he created the show and penned nearly 100 episodes throughout its seven seasons on TV. While the aesthetic of this television series was very by-the-numbers and now looks dated, the content Sorkin was responsible for shepherding is anything but.

Moreover, The West Wing deserves further credit for being one of the first mainstream television series to successfully lure a legitimate movie star away from Hollywood in the presence of Martin Sheen. Television could evolve as much as it might have hoped for under the stewardship of behind-the-scenes artists like Aaron Sorkin, but without mainstream actors willing to provide their charisma, the era of auteur television would have died in the cradle. Thankfully, The West Wing made sure that didn't happen.

3 True Detective Season One Turned a Little-Known Filmmaker Into a Visionary Artist

Most of the time, established filmmakers use their already respected names to help sell a television show to an audience. In season one of True Detective, the opposite happened. Cary Fukunaga exploded onto the scene by directing all eight episodes of what has become one of the most critically and popularly acclaimed television seasons in the medium's history.

As future seasons of True Detective would prove, Cary Fukunaga provided the perfect counterbalance to series creator Nic Pizzolatto's strained plot contrivances. True Detective's occasional lapses into narrative incoherence can be more readily forgiven with a pure and utter stylist like Fukunaga at the helm. All it takes is a bit of Southern Gothic dread mixed with a healthy helping of neo-noir atmosphere to get an audience's heart racing.

2 The Young Pope Paved the Way for The New Pope