The drama genre, and more specifically, tragedy, seems intent to shove our humanity right into plain sight. Sort of like science fiction, but with less quantifiable awesome.
If I remember much from high school English, tragedy aims at catharsis, both of the characters, but also of the audience. They were supposed to bring you down so far that when you walked away, the simplistic drudgery of your normal daily life was supposed to seem like the best thing ever.
Now we live in an arguably post-scarcity culture, where instant gratification is the norm. Fist-pounding brosefs want to see Transformer testicles and egregious light saber battles. Reflection and introspection is synonymous with feeling bad, and isn't considered entertainment.
At least that's why I think dramas don't sell well.
Perusing the drama lists over at IMDB, in no good order, here's the ones I'm a fan of (even if they're only marginally dramatic):
(First numbers are the IMDB Top 250 ratings, second are the years).
Depressingly, I took off "The Seven Samurai." Both age and culture boundaries were too much, I suppose. The ending ("The farmers have won. We have lost. ") is supposed to be what gets you in the end, but in failing to relate to the characters, I didn't feel for their tragedy despite having successfully defended their village.
The others above, though, are pretty flawless.
