20 TV shows with the best soundtracks and music

Big Little Lies

There is so much to tout about Big Little Lies that it’s hard to reduce a conversation to one just about music. But there are few shows airing on television right now that treat the music as sacredly and honorably as this one.

Every single track is impeccably chosen for i’s scene, and most of the time, it will cut right through you. The emotional toil of this show is can’t really be measured in words, but you can certainly track it through it’s music.

The above scene in which Shailene Woodley’s Jane is running to a song that we can’t really print the name of is, by far, one of the best moments of my television history. As a show telling women’s stories, the music is carefully crafted with a deft hand to make sure it hits its female viewers in their sweet spots. A mix of nostalgia, bittersweet memories (usually over a tragic romance) and the guilt and pressure of motherhood, the show’s music tells a story all on its own.

With tracks from Elvis, the B-52’s, Fleetwood Mac, Alabama Shakes, PJ Harvey and St. Paul and the Broken Bones, it encapsulates the female experience like no other show I’ve come across. It’s jubilant, mournful, angry, repentant and grateful. Just like the female experience, it runs the gamut of human emotions.