That's a pretty good list.
If I had to rank the best shows I've ever seen I'd say: 1) Breaking Bad; 2) The Wire; 3) Battlestar Galactica (2000s remake). If I had to rank my favorite shows it would be the same three shows but in reverse order.
The thing that those three shows have in common is that they have compelling, memorable characters and none of them drag on too long. They also all have awesome endings IMO (though some would dispute that as it pertains to The Wire and BSG). Breaking Bad is probably the best acted show and best directed show I've seen. The Wire is the best written show I've seen and doubles as having profound real life relevance. BSG has an incredible ability to address complex philosophical, political, and social issues while still being an entertaining space journey...it also has an amazing soundtrack composed by Bear Mcreary.
Battlestar's ending wasn't the best, but I also don't think it was as bad as some people made it out to be. We're not talking Lost or Sopranos ending bad here. And yeah, the soundtrack is amazing.
As for The Wire, I don't think that was a show that required any kind of epic ending. The point of the ending is that, ultimately, nothing really changed. We loved all these characters, but at the end of the day, the system is broken. I thought it was a brilliant ending when viewed in that light. Not the best ending ever, but perfectly fitting for the show it concluded.
The Shield has the best ending of any show I've ever seen. Unlike Breaking Bad, it doesn't amount to sheer fan service. It's an absolutely brutal ending where no one ends up getting what they want, and most characters end up having their lives ruined, if they survived at all.
Breaking Bad's ending was entertaining, to be sure, but as I said, it was mostly fan service. It wrapped everything up way too neatly. Enjoyable, sure, but too clean for the show it wrapped up.
Justified is another show with a great ending. I loved basically all of that show. It never really makes a claim for best show ever, but it's got such incredible dialogue that it's impossible not to love. Raylan Givens and Boyd Crowder are absolutely two of the best characters in TV history, and I loved their last confrontation in Justified even though it wasn't even remotely what I expected it to be. It also probably has the greatest cast of any TV show ever.
For the record, I place Breaking Bad below The Wire because it doesn't really have any kind of message. It's just an incredibly well done show. The Wire makes a ton of statements about police, politics, race relations, the drug war, and on and on and on while still being an incredibly compelling show with some of the best, most memorable characters in television history.
