StreamAllThis

A snapshot of television

Every list of television shows is a snapshot of a moment. On 16 January 2014, the home page of StreamAllThis listed the last episodes of more than two hundred shows, one row per show with its season and its episode: Modern Family, season 5, episode 12; American Horror Story, season 3, episode 11; Arrow, season 2, episode 10; Criminal Minds, season 9, episode 12. Next to the table, a small calendar listed the programmes of the evening, Community at eight on NBC, Parks and Recreation at half past, White Collar at nine on USA Network. It was the middle of a television season that now looks like the last great winter of the old networks, a few months before streaming changed the way the world watched series.

This guide brings that snapshot back to life. It gathers 151 scripted series named on that home page of January 2014, leaving out the reality shows, the talk shows and the news, and sorts them by the network where each began, on twelve shelves in three families. Each series has its English synopsis, its seasons and episodes as they stand on TMDB today, its creators and cast, and a Watch now button that opens it on JustWatch, where you can see the services that offer it in your country. The guide Start with StreamAllThis picks one series from each shelf, and the guide The last episodes explains the snapshot.

The first family, The big four, holds the series that began on the four great American networks, CBS, ABC, NBC and FOX. The second, Cable and youth, holds the series of the youth networks, The CW, ABC Family and MTV, and of basic cable, from FX and AMC to USA Network, TNT, Syfy, Lifetime and Comedy Central. The third, Pay, streaming and abroad, holds the series of HBO and Cinemax, of Showtime, Starz and Netflix, and of the channels of Britain and Canada. Together the series carry about 351,500 votes on TMDB, with an average rating of 7.54; the most voted is Game of Thrones, which was waiting for its fourth season in January 2014, and the best rated is Breaking Bad, which had ended less than four months earlier, with a 9.0.

The site of 2014

The Wayback Machine keeps copies of streamallthis.me from 2013 to 2024 and of streamallthis.is from 2014 onward, and the capture of 16 January 2014 shows the site at its plainest. It is a white page with a narrow column in the middle, about 860 pixels wide, in which every box is drawn with a dotted grey line. At the top, the name of the site stands in large grey capitals of Verdana inside a dotted box. On the left, a small dotted menu holds four links in Tahoma: Home, TV Shows List, TV Shows Calendar and Contact. In the middle, the Last Episodes table runs down the page with three grey columns, Show, Season and Episode, every show name in capitals; on the right, the TV Shows Calendar gives the evening's programmes, each with its season and episode code, its hour and its network, under a date in teal.

This guide keeps that look: the white page, the dotted grey boxes, the grey capitals of Verdana and Tahoma, and the teal of the calendar for the links. The Last Episodes table becomes the board of the home page, a dotted table of the twelve networks, each row with the name of the shelf in capitals, its family in teal and its number of series. Each shelf is a dotted box with its name in grey capitals and a dotted All shows button, and each poster sits in a thin dotted frame with the name of its first network in grey capitals at the bottom, such as CBS or BBC One. Behind every poster there is a full page with the synopsis, the seasons and the Watch now button, which opens JustWatch. The guide The site of 2014 describes the capture; only its look was measured, and the guide uses its own data and images from TMDB.

How the networks work

The guide began with the 233 show pages linked from the home page of 16 January 2014. Each name was matched with its series on TMDB; the reality competitions, the talk shows, the news programmes and the soap operas were left out, from American Idol and The Voice to Saturday Night Live and the Real Housewives, and so were a few programmes of other kinds. The 151 series that remain are dramas, comedies and cartoons, and each sits on the shelf of the network where it began: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, for example, sits with FOX, where it was in January 2014, though it later moved to NBC, and Supernatural sits with the youth networks, since it began on The WB before moving to The CW. The four great networks each keep their fourteen most voted series; the other shelves keep up to thirteen.

The seasons and episodes of each series are those listed on TMDB today, so they include everything made after 2014: Grey's Anatomy, in its tenth season in the capture, now counts 22, and The Simpsons, in its 25th, now counts 38. The guide How the networks work sums up the rules, and the guide What happened next follows the series after the winter of 2014.

The big four

The first family, The big four, gathers 55 series that began on CBS, ABC, NBC and FOX, with about 147,100 votes and an average of 7.61. In 2014 the four great networks still made most of the series that Americans watched, on a calendar of September premieres, a break at Christmas and finales in May, with seasons of twenty episodes or more. Their shelves hold the long runs of the guide: the four networks account for more than half of its 18,147 episodes. The guide The big four sums up the family.

CBS

The shelf CBS holds fourteen series from 2000 to 2013, and with about 49,900 votes it is the most voted shelf of the family. In January 2014 CBS was the most watched network in America, and its shelf shows why: comedies of Chuck Lorre and police procedurals. The Big Bang Theory, of 2007, the most voted series of the shelf, was in its seventh season of twelve, and Two and a Half Men, of 2003, by the same producer, in its eleventh of twelve. How I Met Your Mother, of 2005, rated 8.1, was airing its ninth and final season: the capture lists its fourteenth episode, two months before the finale of March 2014, and 2 Broke Girls, of 2011, was in its third.

The procedurals fill the rest of the shelf. The Mentalist, of 2008, with Simon Baker, is its best rated series, with an 8.4; Criminal Minds, of 2005, rated 8.3, was in its ninth season, as the capture shows, and is one of the two series of the shelf still returning today, with NCIS. NCIS, of 2003, was in its eleventh season, and its spin-off NCIS: Los Angeles, of 2009, in its fifth; CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, of 2000, the oldest series of the shelf, was in its fourteenth, a year before its end. Person of Interest, of 2011, by Jonathan Nolan, with a computer that predicts crimes, rated 8.1; Elementary, of 2012, a Sherlock Holmes in New York with Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu; Hawaii Five-0, of 2010, the remake of the series of 1968; Blue Bloods, of 2010, a family of New York police officers, and Under the Dome, of 2013, from the novel of Stephen King, the summer series of the network, complete it.

ABC

The shelf ABC holds fourteen series from 2005 to 2013, and it is the shelf of Shonda Rhimes and of the family sitcom. Grey's Anatomy, of 2005, the most voted and best rated series of the shelf, with an 8.2, was in its tenth season in January 2014 and is still returning today; Scandal, of 2012, the other series of Rhimes, with Kerry Washington as a fixer of Washington, was in its third. The comedies of the shelf are Modern Family, of 2009, the first show of the Last Episodes table of the capture, in its fifth season, and the winner of five Emmy Awards in a row for best comedy; The Middle, of 2009; The Goldbergs, of 2013, a family of the 1980s, then in its first season; Suburgatory, of 2011; Cougar Town, of 2009, which had moved to TBS for its fifth season, and Last Man Standing, of 2011, with Tim Allen.

The dramas of the shelf are the fairy tales and the mysteries. Once Upon a Time, of 2011, in which the characters of the fairy tales are trapped in a town of Maine with their memories erased, was in its third season, and its spin-off Once Upon a Time in Wonderland was on the air that winter too. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., of 2013, by Joss Whedon, the first series of the Marvel universe on television, was in its first season, rated 7.5 and the second most voted series of the shelf; Castle, of 2009, with Nathan Fillion as a crime novelist who helps the police, rated 8.0, was in its sixth; Revenge, of 2011, a young woman who returns to the Hamptons to destroy the families who ruined her father, was in its third, and Nashville, of 2012, with Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere as two country singers, was in its second, as the capture shows. Body of Proof, of 2011, a medical examiner played by Dana Delany, had already been cancelled in 2013, and completes the shelf.

NBC

The shelf NBC holds thirteen series from 1999 to 2014, and with an average of 7.77 and eight series rated 8 or more it is the best rated shelf of the family. Its comedies were the great comedies of the decade: The Office, of 2005, the American version of the British series, the most voted and best rated series of the shelf, with an 8.6, had ended in May 2013; Parks and Recreation, of 2009, with Amy Poehler, was in its sixth season, and Community, of 2009, the comedy of Dan Harmon, in its fifth, both on the calendar of the evening of 16 January. Its dramas were the new hits of the network: The Blacklist, of 2013, with James Spader as a criminal who offers to help the FBI, then in its first season; Hannibal, of 2013, by Bryan Fuller, with Mads Mikkelsen as the cannibal psychiatrist, rated 8.3; Grimm, of 2011, a detective of Portland who hunts the creatures of the fairy tales, rated 8.3, and Revolution, of 2012, by Eric Kripke, a world in which electricity has stopped working, then in its second and last season.

Two series of the shelf were brand new in the capture. Chicago P.D., of 2014, rated 8.4, the spin-off of Chicago Fire, of 2012, also rated 8.4, had premiered on 8 January, eight days before the capture, and the Last Episodes table shows its second episode; both are still returning today, in the universe of the producer Dick Wolf, who also made Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, of 1999, the oldest series of the shelf, then in its fifteenth season and still on the air. Dracula, of 2013, with Jonathan Rhys Meyers, lasted a single season; Parenthood, of 2010, the family drama of Jason Katims, was in its fifth season, on the calendar of the evening, and Smash, of 2012, a musical about the making of a Broadway show, had ended in 2013.

FOX

The shelf FOX holds fourteen series from 1989 to 2013, and it is the shelf of the cartoons. The Simpsons, of 1989, the oldest series of the whole guide and the most voted of the shelf, was in its 25th season in January 2014 and is still returning; Family Guy, of 1999, American Dad!, of 2005, and Bob's Burgers, of 2011, the three cartoons of Sunday night, are all still returning too, and Futurama, of 1999, the other cartoon of Matt Groening, rated 8.4, the best rated series of the shelf, had just ended its run on Comedy Central in 2013. Four of the ten series of the big four still returning today are on this shelf.

The comedies of live action are Brooklyn Nine-Nine, of 2013, with Andy Samberg, in its first season in the capture, rated 8.2, and the winner of the Golden Globe for best comedy series four days earlier, on 12 January 2014; New Girl, of 2011, with Zooey Deschanel, in its third; Arrested Development, of 2003, revived by Netflix in 2013; Glee, of 2009, the musical of a high school club, and Raising Hope, of 2010. The dramas are Bones, of 2005, with Emily Deschanel as a forensic anthropologist, rated 8.2; Sleepy Hollow, of 2013, Ichabod Crane awakened in the present; The Following, of 2013, with Kevin Bacon against a cult of serial killers, and Almost Human, of 2013, a police officer of the future with an android partner, a single season of thirteen episodes.

Cable and youth

The second family, Cable and youth, gathers 61 series of the youth networks and of basic cable, with about 128,500 votes and an average of 7.44. In 2014 cable was where American television took its risks: shorter seasons of ten or thirteen episodes, darker heroes, and a freedom of tone the networks rarely allowed. The youth networks, The CW, ABC Family and MTV, had their own audience of teenagers and young adults, who watched vampires, werewolves and secrets of high school. The guide Cable and youth sums up the family.

The CW, ABC Family and MTV

The shelf The CW, ABC Family and MTV holds thirteen series from 2005 to 2013. Its most voted series is The Vampire Diaries, of 2009, then in its fifth season, and its best rated is the spin-off The Originals, of 2013, about the first family of vampires in New Orleans, then in its first season and rated 8.6; the Last Episodes table of the capture shows its tenth episode. Supernatural, of 2005, which began on The WB, was in its ninth season of fifteen, rated 8.3, and Arrow, of 2012, the first series of the DC heroes of The CW, in its second, as the capture shows.

MTV and ABC Family brought the teenagers of the shelf. Teen Wolf, of 2011, rated 8.4, was in its third season; Awkward., of 2011, is a comedy of high school with Ashley Rickards; Pretty Little Liars, of 2010, four friends tormented by a mysterious A, was in its fourth season, the fifteenth episode in the capture, and The Fosters, of 2013, a family with two mothers, in its first. The rest of the shelf is the romance and fantasy of The CW: Reign, of 2013, the young Mary, Queen of Scots, at the court of France, rated 8.1; Beauty and the Beast, of 2012; Nikita, of 2010, with Maggie Q as a former assassin, then in its fourth and last season; Hart of Dixie, of 2011, a doctor of New York in a small town of Alabama, and The Tomorrow People, of 2013, a single season of young people with powers.

FX and AMC

The shelf FX and AMC holds thirteen series from 2005 to 2013, and it is the best rated and most voted shelf of the guide, with an average of 7.91 and about 55,600 votes. Its best rated series is the best rated of the guide: Breaking Bad, of 2008, by Vince Gilligan, with Bryan Cranston as the chemistry teacher who became a drug lord, rated 9.0, had ended on 29 September 2013, and the site still listed its show page in January. AMC had two more of the great dramas of the age: Mad Men, of 2007, the advertising agency of the 1960s, waiting for its seventh and last season, and The Walking Dead, of 2010, the zombie saga, then halfway through its fourth season and the most watched series of cable. The Killing, of 2011, and Hell on Wheels, of 2011, a western of the railroad, complete the dramas of AMC.

FX had the outlaws. Sons of Anarchy, of 2008, a motorcycle club of California, rated 8.4, had ended its sixth season in December; Justified, of 2010, with Timothy Olyphant as a marshal of Kentucky, was beginning its fifth season, the second episode in the capture; The Americans, of 2013, two Soviet spies living as an American family in the 1980s, was preparing its second, and American Horror Story, of 2011, the anthology of Ryan Murphy, was finishing its third season, Coven, the eleventh episode in the capture; it is one of the two series of the shelf still returning today, with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The comedies of FX are Archer, of 2009, the cartoon of a vain spy; It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, of 2005, rated 8.3, the longest-running live-action comedy of American television; Wilfred, of 2011, with Elijah Wood and a man in a dog costume, and Anger Management, of 2012, with Charlie Sheen, a hundred episodes in two seasons.

USA Network and TNT

The shelf USA Network and TNT holds thirteen series from 2006 to 2013, the light dramas of basic cable, often called blue sky series for their sunny tone. The most voted and best rated series of the shelf are Suits, of 2011, the lawyers of New York with Gabriel Macht and Patrick J. Adams, which found a new audience on Netflix in 2023, and White Collar, of 2009, a con man who helps the FBI, both rated 8.2; White Collar was on the calendar of the evening of 16 January. Psych, of 2006, a fake psychic detective, was in its eighth and last season; Burn Notice, of 2007, a spy who has been fired, had ended in 2013; Covert Affairs, of 2010, Royal Pains, of 2009, a doctor of the Hamptons, Graceland, of 2013, undercover agents in a beach house, and Necessary Roughness, of 2011, complete the series of USA Network.

TNT brought the crime and the science fiction: Rizzoli & Isles, of 2010, a detective and a medical examiner of Boston, rated 7.9; Major Crimes, of 2012, the spin-off of The Closer; Perception, of 2012, a neuroscientist who helps the FBI; Falling Skies, of 2011, a resistance against alien invaders, produced by Steven Spielberg, and Mob City, of 2013, by Frank Darabont, a gangster drama of Los Angeles in the 1940s, a single season of six episodes, aired in December 2013 and listed in the capture a few weeks later.

Syfy, Lifetime and A&E

The shelf Syfy, Lifetime and A&E holds ten series from 2009 to 2014. Syfy brought the science fiction and fantasy: Warehouse 13, of 2009, agents who collect dangerous artefacts, the most voted series of the shelf, rated 7.7; Haven, of 2010, a small town of Maine with supernatural troubles, from Stephen King; Being Human, of 2011, the American version of the British series about a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost who share a house, and Helix, of 2014, by Ronald D. Moore, scientists facing a virus in an Arctic base, which had premiered on 10 January, six days before the capture. Lifetime brought Drop Dead Diva, of 2009, a model reborn in the body of a lawyer, rated 7.7; Devious Maids, of 2013, by Marc Cherry; Witches of East End, of 2013, and The Client List, of 2012, with Jennifer Love Hewitt. A&E brought Longmire, of 2012, a sheriff of Wyoming, later continued by Netflix, rated 7.7, and The Glades, of 2010, a detective of Florida.

Comedy on cable

The shelf Comedy on cable holds twelve series from 1997 to 2013 of Comedy Central, Adult Swim, TBS, TV Land and other channels, and it holds the most voted series of the family after the dramas of AMC. Rick and Morty, of 2013, by Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, had premiered on Adult Swim six weeks before the capture, on 2 December 2013; today, rated 8.7, it is the best rated series of the shelf and one of the most voted of the guide. South Park, of 1997, the oldest series of the shelf, was waiting for its eighteenth season; both are still returning. Brickleberry, of 2012, a cartoon of the rangers of a national park; Kroll Show, of 2013, the sketches of Nick Kroll, then in its second season, and Eagleheart, of 2011, a parody of the action series of the 1990s, complete the channels of comedy.

The sitcoms of the shelf are the old-fashioned kind, with a studio audience. Ground Floor, of 2013, by Bill Lawrence, a banker in love with a woman of the building's maintenance crew, was on the calendar of the evening, at ten on TBS, and Men at Work, of 2012, the comedy of Breckin Meyer about four friends at a magazine, was in its third season, the first episode in the capture. The Exes and Kirstie, of TV Land, with Kirstie Alley, Real Husbands of Hollywood, of BET, with Kevin Hart, See Dad Run, of Nick at Nite, and Single Ladies, of VH1, complete the shelf.

Pay, streaming and abroad

The last family, Pay, streaming and abroad, gathers 35 series of the pay channels, of the first great streaming service and of the channels of Britain and Canada, with about 76,000 votes and an average of 7.60. It is the smallest family of the guide, but it holds its most voted series, Game of Thrones, and a winter of extraordinary premieres: in the week before the capture, HBO launched True Detective, Girls began its third season, Shameless and House of Lies returned on Showtime, and the BBC finished the third series of Sherlock. The guide Pay, streaming and abroad sums up the family.

HBO and Cinemax

The shelf HBO and Cinemax holds eleven series from 2008 to 2014. Its most voted series is the most voted of the guide: Game of Thrones, of 2011, rated 8.5, with about 28,000 votes, was waiting in January 2014 for its fourth season, which began in April with a royal wedding in King's Landing. The newest series of the shelf is True Detective, of 2014, with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as two detectives of Louisiana hunting a killer across seventeen years, which premiered on 12 January, four days before the capture, rated 8.3 and still returning today with new stories and new casts. Banshee, of 2013, a thief who takes the identity of a small-town sheriff, rated 8.0, began its second season on Cinemax on 10 January.

The dramas of HBO in their last seasons were Boardwalk Empire, of 2010, the bootleggers of Atlantic City in the 1920s, rated 8.0; True Blood, of 2008, the vampires of Louisiana, and Treme, of 2010, by David Simon, the musicians of New Orleans after the hurricane, which had ended in December 2013. The Newsroom, of 2012, by Aaron Sorkin, with Jeff Daniels as a news anchor, rated 8.1, was waiting for its third and last season. The comedies were Veep, of 2012, by Armando Iannucci, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the vice president; Girls, of 2012, by and with Lena Dunham, which began its third season on 12 January; Eastbound and Down, of 2009, with Danny McBride as a washed-up pitcher, which had ended in November 2013, and Getting On, of 2013, the nurses of a geriatric ward.

Showtime, Starz and Netflix

The shelf Showtime, Starz and Netflix holds eleven series from 2006 to 2013. Its most voted series is Dexter, of 2006, with Michael C. Hall as the serial killer who kills only killers, rated 8.2, which had ended in September 2013, and Shameless, of 2011, the Gallagher family of Chicago, also rated 8.2, began its fourth season on 12 January. Homeland, of 2011, with Claire Danes as an agent of the CIA, had just ended its third season in December; Ray Donovan, of 2013, with Liev Schreiber as a fixer of Hollywood, and Masters of Sex, of 2013, the pioneers of the science of sex in the 1950s, had finished their first seasons, and House of Lies, of 2012, with Don Cheadle as a management consultant, returned for its third on 12 January. The Borgias, of 2011, the papal family of Rome, had ended in 2013, as had The Big C, of 2010; Episodes, of 2011, with Matt LeBlanc playing a version of himself, was a co-production with the BBC.

Two series of the shelf came from outside Showtime. Da Vinci's Demons, of 2013, by David S. Goyer, the young Leonardo as an adventurer of Florence, was a series of Starz, and Orange Is the New Black, of 2013, by Jenji Kohan, the women of a federal prison, was the only series of the capture made for a streaming service: Netflix had released its first season in July 2013, and it would soon become one of the most watched original series of the service. Today, rated 7.6, it stands for the moment the snapshot catches, when streaming was only beginning to make its own series.

From Britain and Canada

The shelf From Britain and Canada holds thirteen series from 2005 to 2013, and the capture shows how quickly the British series reached their audience abroad. Its best rated and most voted series is Sherlock, of 2010, by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, rated 8.5: its third series aired on BBC One from 1 to 12 January 2014, the week before the capture. The Christmas specials of 2013 were on the list too: Doctor Who, of 2005, with the farewell of Matt Smith as the Doctor; Downton Abbey, of 2010, the aristocrats and servants of Julian Fellowes, rated 8.1, and Call the Midwife, of 2012, the midwives of the East End of London in the 1950s, still returning today. The capture also lists the last special of The IT Crowd, of 2006, the comedy of Graham Linehan about the computer department of a London company, rated 8.2.

The young series of the British cable channel E4 are Skins, of 2007, the teenagers of Bristol, rated 8.1, and Misfits, of 2009, young offenders with superpowers, which had ended in December 2013. The dramas of BBC One are Ripper Street, of 2012, the police of Whitechapel after Jack the Ripper, cancelled by the BBC in December 2013 and then saved by Amazon; The White Queen, of 2013, the Wars of the Roses; and Atlantis, of 2013, a fantasy of ancient Greece; Strike Back, of 2010, the special forces series of Sky One and Cinemax, completes the British half. The Canadian series of the shelf are Lost Girl, of 2010, a succubus who solves crimes in the hidden world of the Fae, made for Showcase, and Rookie Blue, of 2010, the young police officers of Toronto, made for Global.

The evening of 16 January

The calendar of the capture gives a precise picture of one evening of American television. On Thursday, 16 January 2014, NBC opened its night of comedy at eight with the fourth episode of the fifth season of Community, followed at half past by Parks and Recreation, then by The Michael J. Fox Show at half past nine and the family drama Parenthood at ten. At nine, USA Network had White Collar and the Canadian channel CTV had Saving Hope; at ten, ABC had The Assets, a spy drama about the traitor Aldrich Ames that lasted eight episodes, and TBS had Ground Floor. Of the comedies of that evening, three are on the shelves of the guide, Community, Parks and Recreation and Ground Floor, and all three have ended since. The guide The calendar of 16 January lists the whole evening.

The new shows of the 2013 season

The collection New in the 2013 season gathers the 28 series of the guide that began between June 2013 and the capture, oldest first, from The Fosters, of 3 June, to True Detective, of 12 January. They show a television season in full change. The summer brought Under the Dome, Ray Donovan and the first season of Orange Is the New Black; the autumn brought the network novelties, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Blacklist, Sleepy Hollow, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Goldbergs, The Originals and Reign; and December and January brought Rick and Morty, Chicago P.D., Helix and True Detective, the newest series of the guide. Their fates were very different: The Tomorrow People, Dracula, Almost Human and Mob City lasted a single season, while The Blacklist ran for ten, The Goldbergs for ten and Brooklyn Nine-Nine for eight, and Rick and Morty, Chicago P.D. and True Detective are still returning today. The guide The new shows of 2013 follows them one by one.

What happened next

Of the 151 series of the guide, TMDB now marks 104 as ended, 31 as canceled and only sixteen as still returning, gathered in the collection Still returning. The survivors are the cartoons, The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad!, Bob's Burgers, South Park and Rick and Morty; the long dramas of the networks, Grey's Anatomy, Criminal Minds, NCIS and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; the two Chicago series of Dick Wolf; the anthologies American Horror Story and True Detective, and two series of cable and of the BBC, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Call the Midwife. With an average of 8.03, the survivors are rated well above the guide as a whole.

The winter of 2014 was also the beginning of the end for many shows of the capture. How I Met Your Mother ended in March 2014; Psych, Community on NBC and Parenthood within a year or two; and the great dramas of cable, Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, True Blood and Sons of Anarchy, all ended in 2014 or 2015. Several series moved: Community to Yahoo! Screen, Brooklyn Nine-Nine to NBC, Last Man Standing to FOX, Longmire and Arrested Development to Netflix and Ripper Street to Amazon. The guide What happened next follows each shelf.

The creators

A few creators appear twice in the guide. Chuck Lorre created The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men; Shonda Rhimes Grey's Anatomy and Scandal; Matt Groening The Simpsons and Futurama; Dan Harmon Community and Rick and Morty; Ryan Murphy Glee and American Horror Story; Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson The Vampire Diaries, and Williamson also The Following; Greg Berlanti Arrow and The Tomorrow People; Eric Kripke Supernatural and Revolution, and Frank Darabont The Walking Dead and Mob City. Dick Wolf, Jeff Eastin, who made White Collar and Graceland, and Jeff Davis, who made Criminal Minds and Teen Wolf, are on the list too. The guide The creators lists them all.

StreamAllThis in figures

The 151 series of the guide began from 1989 to 2014: one in the 1980s, The Simpsons, four in the 1990s, forty in the 2000s and 106 in the 2010s. Together they hold 1,094 seasons and 18,147 episodes as TMDB counts them today, and they carry about 351,500 votes, with an average rating of 7.54. Forty-six series reach 8 or more, gathered in the collection Rated 8 or more, best first, from Breaking Bad, with a 9.0, and Rick and Morty, with an 8.7. The series with the most episodes is The Simpsons, with 808, followed by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NCIS, Grey's Anatomy and Family Guy; the shortest is Mob City, with six. The guide The figures gathers every number.

Where to begin

For a first visit, choose one series from each family. From The big four, try The Office, the best rated series of the network shelves, or Brooklyn Nine-Nine, in the first season it was airing in the capture. From Cable and youth, try Breaking Bad, the best rated series of the guide, or Justified, the marshal of Kentucky. From Pay, streaming and abroad, try True Detective, which had premiered four days before the capture, or Sherlock, whose third series had just ended. And for a laugh, try Parks and Recreation, Veep or The IT Crowd. The guide Start with StreamAllThis gives one pick from each shelf.

How to use StreamAllThis

The home page opens with the introduction in a dotted box and then the Last episodes, the board of the twelve shelves, a dotted table in two columns. Each row shows the name of the shelf in grey capitals, its number of series, and its family in teal, and leads to its row on the same page. Each row is a dotted box with the name of the shelf in grey capitals, a line of posters and a dotted All shows button that opens the full shelf. The menu in the header leads to the three families, and the search box finds any series by its title; the guide Search tips explains how.

Each poster carries the year of the first episode and the TMDB rating and, in a grey band at the bottom, the name of its first network, for example CBS or BBC One; under the poster come the first genre and the number of episodes. The page of each series has the English synopsis, the seasons and episodes, the creators, the cast and the genres. The Watch now button opens the series on JustWatch, which shows the services that offer it in your country, and the button Add to My List keeps it in My list, stored in your browser. The guide How to use StreamAllThis explains each part, and the guide The Watch now button explains how JustWatch works.

Reading the table

The Last Episodes table of the capture runs to 229 rows, and reading it is like reading the schedule of a whole winter. Sixty of its shows were in their first season, the sign of a season full of novelties, from Almost Human and The Blacklist to Ravenswood, The Tomorrow People and Killer Women. At the other end of the table stood the veterans: Saturday Night Live in its 39th season, The Simpsons in its 25th, The Amazing Race in its 23rd, America's Next Top Model in its 20th, South Park in its 17th, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and The Biggest Loser in their fifteenth, CSI in its fourteenth and American Idol in its thirteenth, which had just begun. Among the scripted series of the guide, the longest runs of the table were those of The Simpsons, South Park, Special Victims Unit, CSI, Family Guy and NCIS.

The table also shows how the season was built. Many of the dramas of the networks were between their tenth and fifteenth episodes, back from the break of Christmas: Criminal Minds and NCIS at their twelfth and thirteenth, Person of Interest at its thirteenth, Pretty Little Liars at its fifteenth. The cable series were only beginning: Justified was at the second episode of its fifth season, Cougar Town at the second of its fifth on TBS, Men at Work and Kroll Show at the first episodes of their new seasons. And a handful of shows were in their first weeks, Chicago P.D. at its second episode and Killer Women at its second, alongside the reality programmes of January, Face Off and American Idol at their first. The guide The last episodes reads the table row by row.

The shows left out

About forty shows of the capture are left out of the guide because they are reality competitions, talk shows, news programmes, game shows or soap operas rather than series with a story, and a few dozen more because their shelf was already full. The list of the capture had many of them: the singing contests American Idol and The Voice, the dance contest Dancing with the Stars, the weight-loss contest The Biggest Loser, the business pitches of Shark Tank, the travel race of The Amazing Race, the make-up artists of Face Off and the models of America's Next Top Model; the families of Keeping Up with the Kardashians and the many cities of the Real Housewives; the sketch comedy of Saturday Night Live, and a few documentary series. They were as popular as the dramas in 2014, but they are made to be watched live, week by week, and they rarely hold their place in a catalogue of series. The guide How the networks work lists the rules.

The winter of the British

The capture of January 2014 shows how close the British and American seasons had become. The Christmas specials of the BBC and ITV, Doctor Who, Downton Abbey and Call the Midwife, all broadcast on 25 December 2013, were listed three weeks later alongside the American series, and the third series of Sherlock, which had ended in Britain on 12 January, would reach American television a week after the capture, on 19 January. The British cable channel E4 had just finished Misfits in December, the BBC had just cancelled Ripper Street, and the comedy of Channel 4, The IT Crowd, had closed with a single special, The Last Byte, in September 2013. The shelf From Britain and Canada gathers them, with the Canadian series that American channels bought: Lost Girl, shown on Syfy, and Rookie Blue, shown on ABC. The guide The winter of 2014 puts the whole season in order.

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