This is going to be a very long post, so I'll waste as little time up top
as possible. I watched lot of TV this decade. I loved a lot of shows. I also
love making ranked list, so here's my ranking of my 100 favorite shows from the
2010s. I expect you to disagree wholeheartedly with me. Hopefully, there might
be a show you haven't heard of or this reminds you how much you liked another.
Regardless, I had a blast figuring this out.
One very important note though. I'm only considering episodes that aired this
decade (Jan 1, 2010 - Dec 31, 2019). So, remember that when a show you loved
early on that limped to the end - cough, How I Met Your Mother, cough,
Dexter, cough, The Office - is missing from the list.
Before you complain, I missed a lot of shows. Here's a "brief" list of shows that I haven't watched: Adventure Time, American Gods, Bodyguard, Broad City, Counterpart, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Dark, Downton Abbey, Empire, Enlightened, Escape at Dannemora, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The Girlfriend Experience, The Good Wife, Grey's Anatomy, Horace and Pete, How to Get Away With Murder, Insecure, Inside Amy Schumer, iZombie, Jane the Virgin, Key & Peele, The Knick, Lady Dynamite, Masters of Sex, Olive Kitteridge, Outlander, Penny Dreadful, RuPaul's Drag Race, Search Party, Sense8, Star Trek: Discovery, Treme, True Blood, Twin Peaks: The Return, The Vampire Diaries, Vikings. Otherwise, if it didn't make the list, that probably means I didn't like it that much.
Before you complain, I missed a lot of shows. Here's a "brief" list of shows that I haven't watched: Adventure Time, American Gods, Bodyguard, Broad City, Counterpart, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Dark, Downton Abbey, Empire, Enlightened, Escape at Dannemora, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The Girlfriend Experience, The Good Wife, Grey's Anatomy, Horace and Pete, How to Get Away With Murder, Insecure, Inside Amy Schumer, iZombie, Jane the Virgin, Key & Peele, The Knick, Lady Dynamite, Masters of Sex, Olive Kitteridge, Outlander, Penny Dreadful, RuPaul's Drag Race, Search Party, Sense8, Star Trek: Discovery, Treme, True Blood, Twin Peaks: The Return, The Vampire Diaries, Vikings. Otherwise, if it didn't make the list, that probably means I didn't like it that much.
For each show, I'll list how much aired in the last decade, how much I
watched, what the show is, why it's on my list, the best episode, and where it
can be watched now (if I know).
Seasons 1-3 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: 2% of the world's population
disappears after a mysterious event. A couple years later, a group of people in
a small New York town and eventually Texas and Australia try to make sense of
life after this traumatic event.
Why: Like the mystery at the center of
the series, I can't really explain why I love this show so much. After the fans
of LOST were furious over Damon Lindelof's (and Carlton Cuse's)
inability to explain all the mysteries sufficiently, Lindelof went in a
completely different direction and made a show centered on a mystery that he
had no intention of solving. The show isn't about the "Sudden
Departure". It's about how the world reacts to it. The world-building of
this series is second to none. It's overflowing with quirks and details that
make it feel real. While people rightfully focus on how depressing the series
can be, especially in the divisive first season (which I loved completely),
it's also an insane and darkly hilarious show. It's career best work for a lot
of people, including Justin Theroux, Amy Brenneman, Ann Dowd, Regina King, and Christopher Eccleston. Liv Tyler makes a stunning turn, proving that she has
far more acting chops than anyone realized. The suddenly red hot Margaret
Qualley got her formal start on the show. Most importantly, this show gave us
Carrie Coon, who was mostly a theater actress before taking over The
Leftovers. There are two kinds of people: those who know that Carrie Coon
is a national treasure and those who don't know who she is yet. Her role as
Nora Durst is a powerhouse performance. I loved every place this show brought
me to, whether it was something as mundane as a business conference, as surreal
as a hotel in the afterlife (?), or as insane as a lion themed sex boat. This
show is an experience that I adored. By the end, it didn't answer any of my
questions, and that's exactly how I wanted it.
Best Episode: Season 2, Episode 8 - "International
Assassin"
Where To Stream It Now: HBO Now/Go
2. Parks and Recreation
Mid Season 2 - 7 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: A comedy about Leslie Knope and
the other employees of the Parks and Recreation department, forever trying to
make Pawnee, IN a better place to live in.
Why: Thanks to shows like Arrested
Development, The Office, Malcolm in the Middle, and It's
Always Sunny* the 2000s were marked by the comedy found in awful people
being awful to each other. Then Michael Schur came along with the radical idea
that a show about genuinely good people can still be funny. Parks and Rec
is among the most hopeful and optimistic series that TV has ever seen and still
manages to be hilarious. The 2010s thankfully exclude the 1st season of the
show, when it was still figuring things out, so only the A or A+ seasons count
toward these rankings. Parks and Rec continually redefined the rules of
TV sitcoms. It found comedy in people getting along. It repeatedly proved that
happy couples can be funny couples. If you every need a jolt of optimism about
humanity, put on a couple episodes of Parks and Rec, and it will restore
your faith in humanity. This is a truly exceptional series.
*All inspired by the likes of Seinfeld and The Larry Sanders Show
On a personal note, this show is very special to me. Despite my lifelong
obsession with TV, Parks and Rec is somehow the first show I ever
watched from the first episode to the last without ever missing one while it
aired. It's also the only show I've successfully recommended to people on a
large scale. Most shows I have trouble convincing other people to watch. This
one turned out to be an easy sell.
What often gets missed about Parks and Rec is that it's an all-time
great cast. Like, top 10 in TV history. Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope is one of
the most inspiring TV leads ever with her unwavering determination and
positivity. Chris Pratt has become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.
Aubrey Plaza has headlined several movies. Aziz Ansari , Rashida Jones, Rob
Lowe, and Rhetta all went on to headline their own acclaimed series, often
contributing as producers, directors, and writers as well. Adam Scott rebuilt
his career from being the asshole in movies like Step Brothers to being
the fantasy of nerdy girls everywhere. Then there's Nick Offerman. Ron Swanson
belongs in the TV pantheon of great characters. I remain mystified by the fact
that he never got a single Emmy nomination for the role. I challenge you to
name on one hand shows that had more raw talent than Parks and Recreation.
While my personal list favors The Leftovers, if I was trying to be
objective, then Parks and Rec is easily my show of the decade.
Best Episode: Season 3, Episode 2 - "Flu
Season"
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
3. Veep
All 7 Seasons (I watched all of it)
What: Vice President Selina Meyer and
her staff follow the ups and downs of her career while proving that
incompetence isn't a disqualifier for political success.
Why: The way that I differ most from
people who are actually employed as critics is my love of comedy. I don't think
the ability to make someone laugh gets the credit it deserves. It's easy to
underappreciate how hard it is to be funny. I'll get to the same serious shows
that every other "best of the decade" list will have shortly. But
first, there are a lot of comedies to appreciate. No show made me laugh as hard
or consistently as Veep. The show went through many narrative twists and
turns, but the astounding cast of comedy veterans never failed to make me
laugh. I don't have the space to list all the names of people who made me laugh
throughout the show. Julia Louise-Dreyfus won 6 Emmys for her work; it's hard
to complain about any of those wins. Tony Hale proved that Arrested
Development wasn't a fluke. Anna Chlumsky effectively got people to stop thinking
of her as My Girl. Timothy Simons, Sam Richardson, Dan Bakkerdahl, and
Peter MacNicol were criminally underrated scene stealers. Regardless of whether
it was Armando Ianucci or David Mendel in change, this series had some of the
most beautiful profanity that I've ever heard and the most ingenious staging
I've ever seen. The shows slipped a little in the final season when it had
trouble matching the insanity of the actual Trump presidency, but I can't hold
that too much against it. If you like to laugh, you need to watch this show.
Best Episode: Season 4, Episode 9 -
"Testimony"
Where To Stream It Now: HBO Now
4. Community
All 6 Seasons (I watched all of it)
What: The members of a study group at an
exceptionally odd community college attempt to get their lives back on track
while living through pop-culture inspired adventures.
Why: Rating Community is tricky,
because it had one of the more eventful production histories of any series. The
first 3 seasons are pure gold, as far as I'm concerned. Dan Harmon somehow
tricked a broadcast network (NBC) into indulging all of his crazy ideas. For
those years Community was the most unpredictable show on TV. One week,
it could be a parody of every NASA movie. The next it could be a direct homage
to an obscure indie movie from 30 years
ago. Or it could be a stop-motion style Christmas episode or a clip episode
cutting to stories that never actually happened in the series. Dan Harmon was
fired before season 4, which caused a dip in quality so severe that season 4
became known as the "gas leak season". Harmon took over again in
season 5, but by then, it was clear that the magic was lost. And there's the
sixth season, ordered by Yahoo as part of their brief attempt at a streaming
service. That season failed for two major reasons. Without any guidelines to
abide by, Harmon's creative swings went a little too far and the show was too
indulgent. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, is that the cast was all
clearly ready to move on, if they hadn't already left the show. The casting on Community
was masterful. Joel McHale, Alison Brie, Gillians Jacobs, Ken Jeong, and
Donald Glover have all gone on to lead their own shows, often to critical
acclaim. This is the first show to harness the potential of Donald Glover as a
superstar, and his pairing with Dani Pudi on the show made for one of the TV
best friendships of the decade. Unlike
the other shows this high on the list, Community is the only one you can
safely check out of before the end, but when it burned brightest in those first
few seasons, no show was as clever, form-breaking, and hilarious.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 23 -
"Modern Warfare"
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
5. 30 Rock
Mid Season 4 - 7 (I watched all of it)
What: Liz Lemon tries to have it all as a
single women in New York while running an SNL-like show. Meanwhile, her
friend/mentor/boss Jack Donaghy attempts to climb the greater NBC corporate
ladder.
Why: 30 Rock is my favorite
show of all time. It only fell on this list because the second half of the show
(the episodes airing in the 2010s) are weaker than the first half. This show is
still a near-perfect joke machine. Every time I rewatch it, I pick up on new jokes
and references. Jack McBrayer's Kenneth Parcell lost a little charm when Donald
Glover left the writing staff after season 3. That's more than made up for by
the fact that the writers constantly challenged how cartoonish Jenna Moroney
(Jane Krakowski) and Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) could get, and constantly
realized there wasn't a limit. 30 Rock ended strong, with a finale that
I have such warm feelings for. Still the highlight of the series is one of TV's
perfect friendships: Liz and Jack. Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin are such pros. The
show never ruined the friendship by trying to make them a couple. It's a
balanced relationship despite being a mentor-mentee relationship. It's clear
the show has contempt for Jack's beliefs, but it never let that bleed into
being contempt for Jack, which is much harder than it sounds.
I just plain love this show.
Best Episode: Season 5, Episode 16 - "TGS
Hates Women"
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
6. Brooklyn Nine Nine
Seasons 1-6 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: In the criminal justice system,
absurd offenses are considered especially hilarious. In New York City, the
dedicated detectives who investigate these delightful felonies are members of
an elite squad known as the 99th precinct. These are their stories.
Why: Brooklyn Nine Nine uses the Parks and Rec formula - deep ensemble, characters who
are all people trying to do good, a hilariously stern and understated
department head - and makes a show that is nearly as good. The main difference
is that Amy Poehler gave a pantheon-level lead performance while Andy Samberg
is merely giving a really strong lead performance. I'm sure I'll say this a
lot: It's hard to praise comedies since all I'm really saying is "it made
me laugh a lot". B99 is very funny. After a slightly rocky start
(like, maybe 10 episodes, if that) it quickly figured out how to maximize
everyone in the cast. I really can't stress this enough. If you like Parks
and Rec, there is no reason you shouldn't be watching B99 as well.
They are different shows, but they both come from a refreshing place of joy and
enthusiasm.
Best Episode: Season 5, Episode 14 - "The
Box"
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
7. The Middle
Mid Season 1 - 9 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: A lower middle-class Indiana family
tries to get through the day and raise the children to be respectable adults.
Why: This is my comfort food show of
the decade. It's a decidedly not sexy show. There's no brand-name showrunner
behind it. It's no Emmy darling. It didn't even stunt-cast from the same pool
of actors that every other comedy did. Much like the Heck family at the center
of it, The Middle adapted to whatever life threw at it. The show
retooled numerous times, first by shifting away from Heck matriarch Frankie's
(Patricia Heaton) work life to spend more time with the family, then in the
later seasons shifting to the children more as they went off to college.
I love the whole family. Patricia Heaton revels in how unglamourous
motherhood is. Neil Flynn is sneakily brilliant in the way he underplays Mike
Heck, the father. He plays it like he's checked out most of the time, just
there to collect a paycheck, but that's a long con. The few times that Mike
opens up are among my favorite moments of TV this decade, entirely because they
are so rare and carefully chosen. Atticus Shaffer has a great time turning a
bunch of odd tics into a running commentary about being the child the parents
don't have any energy left to parent. Charlie McDermott starts as a
stereotypical teenager and the show tracks his growth into a [somewhat]
responsible adult in a really rewarding way. Eden Sher's Sue Heck is the
biggest optimist TV has ever seen. At first, it seems like the show is making
fun of her, but you come to realize that her unwavering can-do spirit despite
everything is something admirable.
Two of the harder to pinpoint things I love about this show. 1) Whoever was
the show's historian deserved a raise. This show is amazing at subtle
callbacks. Running gags like always forgetting the snack bag, Brick's dinner table
chair, and the oven comforter were all over this show. They tracked it all. It
never played directly into the plot, but that attention to detail showed me
that the people working on it really cared about getting it right. 2) Once or
twice a season, there'd be an episode or extended scene that was just the whole
family having a 5-way conversation. These were always great, building off each
other's relationships and running jokes (like the infamous "death
napkin").
I liked other shows more than The Middle. I'm not sure I cared about
any more than The Middle.
Best Episode: Season 7, Episode 13 -
"Floating 50"
Where To Stream It Now: Nowhere that I can find
8. The Americans
All 6 Seasons (I watched all of it)
What: Russian spies posing as a married
American couple in the 1980s attempt to undermine the American government in
whatever ways their country asks while not getting caught.
Why: If I was going to design the ideal
prestige show, I'd look to The Americans, because it followed the
playbook as well as any show ever. You start with a couple leads (Keri Russell
and Matthew Rhys, in this case) you like who haven't be given a great
opportunity to shine yet. Maybe a beloved former teen star who has used the
last 15 years to hone her craft and a British actor in search of an American
vehicle. Make the show about something cool (like, Russian spies in the 80s,
pretending to be Americans), but use that as a Trojan horse to tell a story
about something more universal and human (like a marriage). Get that one guy you
really liked in that thing (Noah Emmerich) as a long-term obstacle. Cast a
couple kids, and hope that one (Holly Taylor) grows into a great performer and
asset later in the run. Don't be too precious about which characters stick
around, so the show can have real stakes. Then, of course, assemble a
world-class writers room, rotate through some of TV's best directors, give it a
killer soundtrack of non-obvious needle drops, set an endgame years in
advanced, and make a series finale so good that it forever ruins that one U2
song. OK, maybe the formula got too specific toward the end, but you get the
idea. A great ending isn't required to rank highly with me (I don't even
remember Community's finale), but as the final impression I have of a
show, it helps a lot. The Americans' ending hurt my heart in a great
way. There are a couple parts that I've rewatched numerous times since it aired
and they still get me.
Best Episode: Season 3, Episode 9 - "Do Mail
Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?
Where To Stream It Now: Amazon Prime
9. Master of None
Seasons 1-2 [Ongoing?] (I watched all of it)
What: The son of Indian immigrants tries
to make it in the entertainment industry in New York, or at least become a
decent person.
Why: The TV episode is slowly dying.
Thanks to streaming and binge culture, showrunners are increasingly seeing
their shows as "a <insert number> hour movie". That sounds
great, because it suggests a clear vision and endgame. Here's the thing though.
TV shows aren't movies. Making "a 13 hour movie" sounds great when
you're David Simon making a season of The Wire. The Wire is one
of the greatest shows ever made though. Even David Simon has had trouble
reproducing the same success. Most showrunners aren't David Simon. They're
worse, and it shows. The series they make have poor flow, bad structure, and
story imbalance because they cut a bunch of scenes together into an
episode-sized chunk and call it a day. Imagine if writers wrote novels like
that. It would be a mess.
Besides, the episodic structure is an advantage, not a liability. Even the
best serialized shows have distinct episodes. Just look at Master of None.
It's the brain child of Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang. There's an overall structure
to both seasons, but every episode is distinct and surprising. They use each
episode as an excuse to talk about something totally different yet part of the
same whole. One episode could be about the difference between how the children
of immigrants and their parents were raised. Another could track Thanksgiving
over the years of a woman whose family is coming to terms with her coming out.
(Both those episodes won Emmys for writing, by the way) How about a black and
white episode modeled after classic Italian films like The Bicycle Thief?
Most of my favorite shows of this decade were about different perspectives on
familiar stories. I love the curiosity at the heart of Master of None.
Ansari and Yang actively use the show to investigate their different
blindspots. It isn't one big lecture either. The show is funny, romantic, and
thought provoking in equal measure. Ansari and Yang are in no hurry to do
another season, but I hope they find inspiration for more, even though the
current ending is pretty perfect.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 2 -
"Parents"
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
10. Breaking Bad
Seasons 3-5 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: Notorious Meth dealer and former
Chemistry teacher Walter White builds his criminal enterprise while trying to
stay ahead of the authorities and arguing that he's doing it for the benefit
of his family.
Why: This almost isn't
fair. The decade cutoff means that Season 1 (which was cut short by the writers
strike and Season 2 (my least favorite season) weren't included. No other show
benefited so much from the cutoff. That means, Breaking Bad gets judged
on 3 (but really 4) all-time seasons. At this point, everyone knows the show is
great. By the end, it was incredibly popular. Critical consensus is that it's a
classic. Like Scarface then Fight Club before it, Breaking Bad's
anti-hero has been embraced by every college-aged male in the country*. By now,
we're all pretty tired of hearing about how great Breaking Bad is. In
case you aren't though: Breaking Bad is the gold standard when it come
to rising tension and the willingness to back characters into a corner. The
writers never took the easy path. The directors list is murderer's row of the
best working TV directors this decade. The cinematography is beautiful. Oh
yeah, and the actors are all as good as it gets. Those who binged this show are
missing out. There was nothing quite like getting to one of those cliff hangers
("Crawl Space", Gliding Over All", "To'hajiilee") and
having to wait a week or even a year for the payoff. Even ranked this high, I
feel like I'm underselling this show.
*This continues a long line of people really
missing the point of the story.
Best Episode: Season 5, Episode 14 - "Ozymandias"
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
11. American Vandal
Seasons 1-2 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: A mockumentary series about high
school students trying to solve crimes and hopefully not ruin innocent people's
lives.
Why: Good parody is a lot harder than
it sounds. On the surface, it's just jokes about a piece of film, literature,
television, etc. Anyone can do that. However, ideally, parody is just a vessel
to get to a larger discussion. For example , Galaxy Quest uses jokes
about Star Trek as a way to tell a story about fighting irrelevancy and
appreciating the relationships in your life. On the surface, American Vandal
is an extended riff off true crime stories like the Serial podcast. The
tagline "Who drew the dicks?" is objectively sophomoric,
ridiculous, and funny. Then, the first season of the show uses that as a way to
tell a story about how others' perception of someone can become a
self-fulfilling prophecy. Also, it's about responsible broadcasting and the
unintended consequences of your actions. Both seasons are spot-on parodies of
all the ridiculous conventions of true-crime stories - the investigative process,
the odd characters who turn up, the unreliability of witnesses. It makes some
very stupid jokes that made me laugh a lot. But, both seasons also had a tightly
constructed narrative with an emotional payoff and smart observations about
growing up in the current social media climate. I've watched both seasons of
this unfairly cancelled series as much as any show this decade and continue to
find new things to like about it.
Best Episode: Season 2, Episode 1 - "The
Brownout"
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
12. Mad Men
Seasons 4-7 (I watched all of it)
What: Don Draper and the other Madison
Avenue advertising executives navigate the late 1960s and early 70s.
Why: Mad Men is the gold
standard for people who love to unpack an episode of TV. Every episode is
distinctly about something and layered with deeper meanings. As the series
barrelled into the 1970s in the back half of its run, there wasn't a smarter
show that aired. It's a show that's all about slow-burns and delayed payoffs.
Some of the biggest laughs I've had watching any show came from Mad Men.
I pity anyone who doesn't get the perfection of "Not great, Bob". The
cast of this show was magnificent. It's truly absurd that Jon Hamm's Emmy win
for the last season is the only win for acting the series ever received. Did it
really take Elisabeth Moss until The Handmaid's Tale for her to win
something? Did they even watch "The Suitcase"? I get why the show
never gained a large audience. The plot wasn't as exciting as Game or
Thrones or Breaking Bad. The narrative arcs were always more
discrete than that. And yeah, it could be pretentious. The latter seasons
sometimes didn't seem like they knew where they were going. They never seemed
to know what to do with Don Draper's wives and exes. Even still, multiple times
per season there would be something transcendent like a Don Draper sales pitch,
Peggy Olson walking down the hall smoking a cigarette, or Bert Cooper singing
"The Best Things In Life Are Free". The later seasons of Mad Men
had more payoffs per scene than any series.
Best Episode: Season 4, Episode 7 - "The
Suitcase"
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
13. Better Call Saul
Season 1-4 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: A Breaking Bad prequel
about how misunderstood lawyer Jimmy McGill become the unscrupulous Saul
Goodman.
Why: This is why cynicism isn't good. I
heard that after the near perfect, multi-season race to the end of Breaking
Bad, they were going to make a spin-off about the early days of Walter
White's crooked lawyer Saul Goodman, I couldn't have been more against it. It
sounded like a cash grab and the move of a creatively bankrupt network that
didn't want to take a chance on something new. That might've also been true,
but it turned out that watching Jimmy McGill devolve into Saul Goodman was
every bit as tragic and captivating as seeing Walter White become Heisenberg. Better
Call Saul quickly revealed itself to be much more than a desperate
continuation of Breaking Bad. It fully stands on its own. I'm actually
dreading when Jimmy's story inevitably catches up to Walter White's. The two
shows share the same universe, but their stories have very different emotional
anchors. Bob Odenkirk turned out to be a hell of a leading man. The big
discovery of this show is Rhea Seehorn's Kim Wexler who is probably the most
interesting and sympathetic character in the entire extended Breaking Bad TV-verse.
This show is incredibly acted, expertly directed, and smartly written. The only
demerit against it is that it until I see how it ends, it still doesn't quite
measure up to the series that bore it.
Best Episode: Season 3, Episode 5 – “Chicanery”
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
14. O.J.: Made in America
Limited Series (I watched all of it)
What: A documentary series covering the
life of O.J. Simpson and the Los Angeles that made him and put him on trial for
murder.
Why: This is a spectacular bit of
documentary filmmaking. In five neat parts across 8 hours, Ezra Edelman breaks
down every bit of O.J. Simpson's life. This is incredibly thorough. It tracks
OJ's school days, football career, and life up to and even after the famous
trial. It attempts to delve inside his head. It sets up the history of Los
Angeles leading up to that trial and gives context to the heightened racial response
to it. Basically, if you've ever had a question about OJ Simpson, you should
consult this documentary. If you don't give a damn about OJ Simpson but would
like to understand why his trial was such a big deal, you should watch this
documentary. If you just want to understand the ‘92 LA Riots, you should watch
this documentary. If think you’ll not care about it and want to prove wrong,
then watch it. I promise not to be too smug when you come around on it. It's
fantastic. Don't think of it as an 8-hour documentary. Think of it as a documentary
series that only has 5 parts. And each installment is great.
I would like to not that, I probably should’ve bundled this into 30 for 30
as a whole, but this is so perfectly distinct that I decided to make an exception.
Best Episode: N/A*
Where To Stream It Now: ESPN+
*Thanks to some Emmy nonsense, most sites choose to pretend this is an
8-hour movie, so it’s hard to find an episode list. Whichever one talks about
the LA Riots is my pick though.
15. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Season 1-6 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: Every week, John Oliver covers the
headlines and takes a deep dive into some under-discussed topic, all while
finding plenty of room for jokes.
Why: At this point, Last Week Tonight
is the only late night comedy show I keep up with. Only airing once a week
helps. But really, I love this show for the same reason I loved Penn &
Teller's Bullshit*back in the day. In addition to responding to the stories
of the week, Last Week Tonight does deep dives into topics that no other
show goes into detail on. Even if I don't end up agreeing with every point the
show makes, I respect that they even bother look at robocalls, foreign
elections, state attorneys general, or debt buyers. More importantly, the show
is just plain hilarious. Most people think of him as the successor to Jon
Stewart, but really, he's taken Stephen Colbert's throne as the great mobilizer
of stupid shit. Nearly every week, there's an "I can't believe they let
him do that" stunt on the show, whether it's something as simple as a joke
website or as intricate as the ongoing saga with Russell Crowe's loincloth from
Cinderella Man. The only downside to this show is that it means there's
less time for John Oliver to be in things like Community which he was
also hilarious in.
*Fun Fact: Bullshit did actually air a
season in the last decade but it won't make my list. As much as I loved that
show at its peak, it struggled to find good topics by the end.
Best Episode: Episodes specifically refer to
current events, so it’s especially hard to look on them in hindsight.
Where To Stream It Now: HBO Now
16. BoJack Horseman
Season 1-6 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: Former sitcom star BoJack Horseman
tries to overcome his addictions and depression while living in Hollywood and
attempting a comeback in this absolutely absurd animated series.
Why: No show, animated or live-action,
mixes the silly with the sad as well as BoJack Horseman. Every frame of
this show is dense with visual gags. Entire episodes are built around a payoff
to a single joke. Anything is subject to becoming a running gag. It's TV's #1
supplier of funny names and humorous rhymes, alliteration, and assonance. It's
easy to lose count of all the famous actors and actresses who show up for self-deprecating
jokes. Just ask ‘Character Actress Margo Martindale’. Yet, just as often, this
is one of the best character studies on depression and addiction in any medium.
It takes half of the first season to realize that the show is aspiring for
something more than being an "off-brand" Adult Swim show, but once it
gets to that point, the show hooked me in and never let go. Sadly, the final
batch of episodes won't air until early 2020, so the BoJack Horseman
that makes this list is an incomplete piece, much like BoJack the character,
voiced by Will Arnett, who has never been better.
Best Episode: Season 5, Episode 6 – “Free
Churro”
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
17. Game of Thrones
Seasons 1-8 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: The inhabitants of the fictional
medieval fantasy world of Westeros all maneuver for the Iron Throne and control
of the seven kingdoms.
Why: I think the ratings and all the
Emmy wins mean that I don't need to convince anyone on Game of Thrones. However,
there are a few things that I believe get lost about the show. It's the single
most impressive production ever made for TV. Nothing on TV has ever been this
big and complex to make. Although, I'm sure a few services will incur big
losses in the next decade tying to match the success (I'm looking at you,
Amazon). The cast is absurdly good. How many people from this cast could you
see starring in another TV show or in a hit movie? 10, maybe more. I mean, they
already have Aquaman, Sarah Connor, and Jean Grey. For a show originally sold
on "Sean Bean and some other British actors you might recognize"
that's impressive. Everyone wants to shit on the last couple seasons like they
were disasters. Even if you think that, it ignores the fact that even adapting
the books in the first place was an incredible achievement. Those books are
dense and huge, and they managed to make them work somehow. I do have to dock
the show a few spots in my rankings just because they did really stumble toward
the end, but Game of Thrones is rightfully the monoculture show of the
decade.
Best Episode: Season 6, Episode 10 – “The Winds
of Winter”
Where To Stream It Now: HBO Now
18. Fargo
Seasons 1-3 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: An anthology series about the
hapless criminals in the greater South Dakota area and the many ridiculous ways
that their plans fall apart.
Why: The Coen Brothers are two of the
most idiosyncratic filmmakers around. It takes some kind of hubris to think you
can adapt their work successfully. Well, Noah Hawley did it successfully for
three seasons with entirely new stories and star-studded casts. That's
incredibly impressive. I can't wait for season 4 of this impossible little show
in 2020.
Best Episode: Season 2, Episode 8 – “Loplop”
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
19. Rectify
Seasons 1-4 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: After serving 19 years on death row
for murder, Daniel Holden is released from prison when DNA evidence absolves
him, and he must attempt to reintegrate to society even if no one is ready or
comfortable with seeing him free again.
Why: The best word for this show is
meditative. It's not incredibly plotty. The question of who committed the
murder that Daniel Holden was convicted of isn't the focus at all. It's a
side-story most of the time, because the show is much more concerned with
seeing what kind of toll being on death row did took on him and his family.
Lead actor Aden Young gives a very internal performance. He makes something as
mundane as staring at the large selection of sandals in a store somehow
engaging. Despite the characters being middle-class southerners in a small
town, the show never looks down on them. I haven't seen many shows discuss
religion in such a balanced way. It's neither preachy nor patronizing. This is
an understated series that virtually no one watched, because it aired on the
Sundance network. Did you know there was a Sundance network? Did you know that
it had original programming? All I'm saying is that you should really watch the
show. You'll know pretty quickly if the quiet, calm pace is something that works
for you. But, honestly, it makes me angry that no one ever knows what I’m
talking about when I bring this show up.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 6 – “Jacob’s Ladder”
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
20. Halt and Catch Fire
Seasons 1-4 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: A group of people look for success
during the tech booms of the 80s and early 90s.
Why: Early in season one, this show was
kind of a mess. Lee Pace's Joe MacMillan was a poor man's Don Draper and
everyone in the cast targeted their antagonization the wrong way. Right around
the road trip episode late in the season, the creative team finally figured out
all the dynamics. Lee Pace and Scoot McNairy worked best on the fringes. Toby
Huss was the heart of the show, not the heel. Most importantly, Kerry Bishe and
Mackenzie Davis as aspiring tech pioneers in a male dominated industry were the
central protagonists. This show made probably the best pivot of any show I saw
this decade and was willing to reshuffle the deck whenever the story called for
it. And this has a final scene that makes my heart swell. I don't mean the one with
Lee Pace. I mean the scene before that, with Bishe and Davis (the REAL final
scene). I love it so much.
Best Episode: Season 3, Episode 7 – “The
Threshold”
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
21. The Good Place
Seasons 1-4 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: Four people try to make it out of
the afterlife alive.
Why: If the 2010s taught me anything,
it's that I can trust anything that Michael Schur puts his name too. The
Good Place used a long-con in the first season to make its name, and since
then, it’s been the gold standard of high concept, plot heavy sitcoms. In addition
to getting two of TV's most likable people (Ted Danson, Kristen Bell), this
show introduced me to a bunch of people I didn't know at the time and love now.
I mean, scene-stealers don't get any better than D'Arcy Carden and Manny
Jancinto. It's a shame that the final few episodes won't air until the
beginning on 2020, because this show would benefit from having a complete set.
Best Episode: Season 2, Episode 2 – “Dance Dance
Resolution”
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
22. American Crime Story
Seasons 1-2 [Ongoing] (I watched Season 1)
What: An anthology series covering the
assorted players during different high-profile crimes and trials.
Why: I had trouble rating this show. I
only watched season one, which was just about perfect. And, since it's an
anthology series, the season told a complete story. But, how highly can I
really rate it if I've only seen half the show? I’m just going to ignore season
2 and drop it a couple spots. The People vs. OJ Simpson (Season 1) is so
damn good. The cast is stacked (virtually everyone possible was nominated for
and won Emmys). The season is amazingly structured, taking full advantage of
the structure of TV series. Every episode had its own focus and idea to explore
while still moving the narrative forward. It knew exactly when to be cynical
and when to be sincere; when to be optimistic and when to be indignant. If it
was somehow possible to combine that season with OJ: Made in America,
that super-show could very well top my list.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 6 – “Marcia,
Marcia, Marcia”
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
23. Friday Night Lights
Seasons 4-5 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: After getting fired from his job
at a prestigious Texas high school, a Football coach takes a job across town at
the poor high school and tries to turn them into the best team in the state.
Why: It's hard to say whether Parks
& Rec or FNL have seen their profile raised more in the last
decade. Surely, those are the top two. FNL was well on its way to
becoming a beloved classic before it essentially rebooted for the final two
seasons. A show about high school football that aired on a broadcast network
had no business being this good. With the show well established by Season 4, it
fully weaponized Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton's performances as Coach and
Mrs. Taylor. The final two seasons added Michael B. Jordan to an already
stacked ensemble. The likes of Taylor Kitsch and Jesse Plemons hung around for
a while too. The soft reboot of the last two seasons was a little clumsy. The
show's staff historian probably lost his/her mind keeping track of all the inconsistencies
in character ages and previous experiences. Thankfully, the show got to end on
its own terms thanks to a unique agreement between DirectTV and NBC. It had a
wholly satisfying ending and cemented itself as one of TV's great (greatest?)
family dramas.
Best Episode: Season 5, Episode 13 – “Always”
Where To Stream It Now: Amazon Prime
24. Review
Seasons 1-3 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: “Reviewer of Life” Forrest McNeil
hosts a show in which he rates different life experiences sent to him by
viewers. His commitment to this job slowly ruins his life.
Why: No one watched this obscure little
show, so let me introduce you to it. It's a comedy structured to look like a
sort of news serial. Host Forrest MacNeil, played by the perfectly cast Andrew
Daly, receives suggestions from viewers at home about life experiences they
want him to review. Sometimes, they could be as mundane as going on a boat
ride, but more often they were something severe like joining a cult or even
murder. Ever committed to his job as a reviewer of life, Forrest completes
these tasks with often hilarious and disastrous results. This is the kind of
show I'd have to rewind just because I'd laugh through entire scenes. It's a
unique show that disappeared virtually as soon as it aired. I loved the insanity
of it though and the absurd, dark places it went.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 3 – “Pancakes;
Divorce; Pancakes”
Where To Stream It Now: ComedyCentral.com
25. Barry
Seasons 1-2 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: A hitman attempts to reform his
life when he discovers a love for acting.
Why: This is the show that got Henry
Winkler a long-overdue Emmy. That alone is enough to put it in the top 50. Bill
Hader gets to mix his exceptional comedic talents with his dramatic chops.
Season 1 ended so perfectly, that I would've been fine if it was a one-and-done
series, but the episode "ronny/lily" fully justified the existence of
season 2. I laughed for at least 20 straight minutes of that episode, and
that's not an exaggeration. It's definitely my favorite TV episode of 2019 and
probably top 5 for the decade. Oh, and did I mention NoHo Hank?
Best Episode: Season 2, Episode 5 – “ronny/lily”
Where To Stream It Now: HBO Now
26. Girls
Seasons 1-6 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: Four 20-something women in Brooklyn
try to navigate adulthood while dodging as much adult responsibility as
possible.
Why: If this list was about which show
inspired the most think pieces, Girls would win by a hefty margin. It
was an incredibly divisive show. Creator/showrunner/star Lena Dunham made a
show about spoiled millennials who have little or no self-awareness, and that
rubbed a lot of people the wrong way (especially the people who thought it was
a commentary on millennials as a whole rather than four characters who happened
to be millennials). I think it's obvious that Dunham was fully aware of all the
characters' flaws and milked that for comedy. Other people disagree, or hated
the characters too viscerally to put up with the rest of it. I get it, I guess,
but I enjoyed the hell out of it and looked forward to every controversial
decision. She's quite the provocateur. I also think she really loved all those
characters. And don't forget, Girls did discover Adam Driver.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 7 – “Welcome to
Bushwick a.k.a The Crackcident”
Where To Stream It Now: HBO Now
27. Schitt's Creek
Seasons 1-5 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: A rich family is forced to rebuild
their lives in a small, rural town after they suddenly find themselves broke.
Why: I'll admit, I had my doubts. I
passed on the show when it first premiered because it looked like a
mean-spirited show about cruel rich people looking down on small-town folk.
Then it exploded in this last year, so I decided to give it a try, thinking
that I've been wrong before about shows plenty of times. At first, I was right.
It is a little mean early on, mostly so it could establish the characters. It
gets better every season though and becomes one of the kindest, sweetest shows
on TV. By season 5, I loved every single character and every single
relationship. It's the rare comedy that makes me laugh just because I'm so damn
happy about what's happening. That's a level that most shows never reach. If I
had a little longer to sit with the show, even this ranking could feel too low.
Best Episode: Season 5, Episode 13 – “The Hike”
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
28. Silicon Valley
Seasons 1-6 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: A group of computer programmers
attempt to rise up the ranks of Silicon Valley despite having no idea what
they're doing.
Why: The truth is, most sitcoms overstay
their welcome. It's built into their DNA. Dramas are more serialized and
focused on an endgame. Comedies want to be funny, and if there's a narrative,
that's a bonus. Silicon Valley is the first comedy on my list to follow
the normal sitcom pattern. The first season was excellent. I've watched it
multiple times. Season two is still hilarious. By season 6 though, the rhythms
are a little familiar. The story has been running in place, contriving ways to
extend its life. So, consider this ranking a compromise. The show started as
one of my favorite shows on TV. It ended as a show I just liked. Those early
seasons though: marvelous. Zach Woods' line reading are a thing of beauty.
Thomas Middleditch gives a transformative performance that's hard to appreciate
unless you've seen him in something else. I still sometimes wonder what
would've happened to the show had the great Christopher Evan Welch not died
during the first season.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 8 – “Optimal
Tip-to-Tip Efficiency”
Where To Stream It Now: HBO Now
29. black-ish
Seasons 1-6 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: An upper-middle class black family
tries to negotiate its cultural identity with its predominantly white
surroundings.
Why: Another trend of the 2010s was
that ABC produced a ridiculous number of great family comedies. The formula was
simple: take a family, find a slightly different perspective, hire strong leads
as the parents, and hope you get lucky with a couple of the kids. There's
nothing special about Black-ish on its surface. Most episodes take some
generic topic and find a way to filter it through the lens of a black family.
It explores every dynamic. Parents vs. children. Parents vs. grandparents. Males
vs. females. White vs. black. Black vs. black. Rich vs. poor. This is one of
the more thoughtful shows out there. What makes is special though is that it
manages to cover topics like gun control, religion, social status, the
election, etc. while also being hilarious. Just as soon as any character is in
danger of getting sanctimonious, the show pulls back and finds the humor in the
situation. A constant highlight is when the father, Dre (Anthony Anderson)
brings his family's topic of the week to his astoundingly inappropriate
coworkers. This show is excellent at finding new angles to come at some of the
oldest sitcom topics and tropes. In nearly 6 seasons, they've only had one
significant misstep: a 4-episode are about Dre and Bow (Tracee-Ellis Ross)
having marital problems that I couldn't stand. It went on too long, hit the
same points over and over again, and forgot the humor that even the most
serious of other episodes always had.
Best Episode: Season 4, Episode 4 – “Advance to
Go (Collect $200)”
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
30. Fleabag
Seasons 1-2 [The End?] (I watched all of it)
What: A comedy about a woman attempting
to cope with life in London after a fairly recent tragedy.
Why: Phoebe Waller-Bridge is having a
moment right now. That's because she is an incredible talent and Fleabag is
her baby. The masterstroke of this series is that it blends Fleabag (the only
name we know the protagonist by), the fourth wall breaking narrator, with
what's going on in a scene. She will mid-sentence switch between talking to
another character and talking to the audience. The precision and execution is
breathtaking at times. I can't imagine how hard it must've been to shoot a
scene. Precision really is the best word for this show. Both seasons follow the
British model of 6 episodes each, and there is no fat on those bones. The
second season in particular is as near perfect as a season of TV gets. It's
hilarious, filled with terrific performances (Sian Clifford, Olivia
Colman,...Sexy Priest), and shatters all narrative walls.
Best Episode: Season 2, Episode 4
Where To Stream It Now: Amazon Prime
31. Atlanta
Seasons 1-2 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: A rapper and his cousin try to
find success in the Atlanta rap scene.
Why: By the nature of the size and concept
of this list, I'm using a lot of superlatives and even hyperbole. Right now, I
want to be clear that what I'm about to say is not some offhand exaggeration. Are
you ready?
I think Donald Glover is a generational talent.
There is no reason why he can't be the biggest star in the world (Think
1980s Eddie Murphy but with an actually successful singing career). I think
that guy is so ridiculously talented that every year he isn't top 10 on IMDB's
star meter is a year that the world has failed. I loved him the most doing
straight comedy in Community, but since I've accepted that Childish
Gambino isn't going anywhere, Atlanta is a fine compromise. He isn't the
only big name to come out of the show. In 2018, I joked that studios weren't
allowed to release a movie unless they had a star of Atlanta in it.
Brian Tyree Henry, LaKeith Stanfield, and Zazie Beetz are stars on the rise who
could own a sizable chunk of the next decade. You should watch Atlanta,
if for no other reason than to get in early on them. My description of Atlanta
fails to capture the scope of the show. Technically, the spine of the show is
about Paper Boi's (Henry's) rap career and Earn's (Glover's) attempt to be his
manager, but episodes can be about virtually anything: a basketball pro-am tournament,
a public access talk show, or a day trapped in a cavernous mansion with an
eccentric millionaire. The show is more interesting than it is funny a lot of
the time, which does sometimes feel like a waste. That said, I love starting a
new episode and never knowing what to expect.
Best Episode: Season 2, Episode 6 – “Teddy
Perkins”
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu (Partial)
32. The Carmichael Show
Seasons 1-3 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: A throwback sitcom about a black
family who discuss different cultural issues.
Why: The power of a multi-cam, laugh
track comedy is that it's a lot like a play. Single-cam shows like 30 Rock
or The Office are more about short scenes and cutaways. A good multicam
puts a few characters in a room and lets the conversation go on for a while. The
Carmichael Show took this to an extreme. Episodes rarely left the family
room or kitchen of the house. Each episode had an A-story and that's it.
Similar to Black-ish, every week had a topic they wanted to discuss
which normally pitted the characters against each other in some way. Most
often, it was the old generation (David Alan Grier, Loretta Devine) with the
new generation (Jerrod Carmichael, Amber Stevens West). Grier and Devine in
particular are such esteemed veterans, that sometimes they'd take on the entire
rest of the cast with their minority stance. And inevitably, Lil Rae Howery and
pre-Girl's Trip Tiffany Haddish would show up to deliver an immediate
jolt of laughter (not that the episodes ever lacked it otherwise). There just
aren't many shows like this anymore that are theatric (as in the stage, not
movies) and performance-driven. It's basically a Norman Lear show for a new
generation, and I was happy to get all three short seasons of it.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 6 – “Guns”
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
33. Sex Education
Season 1 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: A teen boy in England uses what he
has picked up from his sex therapist mother to run his own underground sex
therapy business at school.
Why: I really am a sucker for a certain
brand of high school "coming of age" story. Sex Education is a
combination of two 80's genres: John Hughes and the lewd sex comedy (except,
updated to not feel so predatory). Other than the very stark depiction of and
discussion about sex, the show is fairly traditional and archetypal. It's about
Asa Butterfield as a social reject. He has a gay best friend (Ncuti Gatwa)
looking for acceptance from his family and his peers. There's the renegade bad
girl (Emma Mackey - look for her to start showing up a lot in the next few
years), the local bully and headmaster's son (Connor Swindells), head athlete
and most popular kid in school (Kedar Williams-Stirling), and many other
familiar types. But, pretty quickly, the show moves past the tropes to turn them
into complex characters that defy the narratives we put on them. This is a show
that tries to have a discussion about what high school is like now rather than
pretend that it fits the definitions written 40 years ago. Then there's Gillian
Anderson as Butterfield's mother, who is just plain awesome and hilarious. The
show has only finished one season so far. Even though I really loved that
season (I've already watched it twice, and I don't have the time to do that for
a lot of shows), the potential to fall apart in future seasons is too high, so
I'm hedging my future assessment a bit by placing it this low.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 3
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
34. Unbelievable
Limited Series (I watched all of it)
What: A crime drama telling the dual
stories of a girl charged with lying about being raped and a pair of detectives
a couple years later investigating a serial rapist with a very similar MO as
the one the girl was accused of lying about.
Why: The most significant contribution
to the TV landscape from the last decade is the rise of the limited series.
It's essentially the same as a mini-series, except it's not designed as a
special event. Not every story can be ongoing nor can they be fit cut down into
a movie. Something like Unbelievable couldn't've existed before maybe
2015. I couldn't stop watching this show. It's not that I wanted to know what
happened next. Often, things got worse for characters before they got better. I
wanted to get to the end, because I just needed to know that someone got
justice. The show works on a lot of levels. Kaitlyn Dever's experience in the
first episode is a horror show of incompetence. Later episodes pair a brash
Toni Collette and Merritt Wever - giving the most AMSR performance I've ever
seen - as detectives in a "buddy cop" drama. The parallel storylines
continue to inform each other, and when they finally meet, it's so damn
cathartic. It's not the easiest show to get through, but it's such a rewarding
experience by the end.
Best Episode: Episode 1
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
35. Speechless
Seasons 1-3 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: The family of a special needs
child try to stay out of their own way long enough to overcome the challenges
they face every day.
Why: By my count, this is the third ABC
Family comedy to make my list (and it won't be the last). This one benefits
some by the fact that it was cancelled before it had a chance to get bad. The
best thing about these ABC family comedies is that there's some difference that
the show gets sold on, then the series immediately runs as far as it can away
from any potential tokenism in that pitch. Speechless is about a family
with a special needs child. Several plots are about some complication that
arises from that, which makes it different than any other family comedy. But,
it doesn't lean on that premise to make it good. I love Speechless
because Minnie Driver is excellent in it (and gets to use her natural accent.
Please take note, all other shows that ask foreign actors to use an American
accent for no goddamn reason). The coolest thing about the show is how even
though JJ, the son with cerebral palsy, has to have other people read what he's
saying (since he's non-verbal), I still have a clear sense of his voice. This
show did a lot to make me appreciate the difference between writing and
performance when it comes to building a character.
Best Episode: Season 2, Episode 10 - “S-I---SILENT
NIGHT”
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
36. Wild Wild Country
Limited series (I watched all of it)
What: A documentary series about the
Rajneesh cult that took over an Oregon county in the 80s.
Why: I suppose I could've been nearly
as entertained by this story had I just read about it on Wikipedia. But, that
would deprived me of seeing Ma Anand Sheela in action, and she's one of the
most charismatic real characters I've come across. This is an excellently
edited and organized documentary series that tells a story I couldn't believe I
hadn't heard before.
Best Episode: Episode 3
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
37. Hannibal
Seasons 1-3 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: The story of the early days of
Hannibal Lector.
Why: It makes no sense that this series
survived for three seasons on a broadcast network. This show from Brian Fuller
is baroque and insane. I lost track of the number of times I heard someone
describe the show as ‘hauntingly beautiful’. It spins a couple paragraphs from
the Thomas Harris books into an intense origin story before eventually getting
to an interpretation of the Red Dragon story. This is not an easy show. I
honestly don't know how anyone can watch more than one episode at a time
without getting overwhelmed. It's a visual feast, and Mads Mikkelsen left an indelible
mark on the role of Dr. Hannibal Lector.
Best Episode: Season 2, Episode 13 – “Mizumono”
Where To Stream It Now: Amazon Prime
38. Fresh Off the Boat
Seasons 1-6 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: A Taiwanese family moves from
Washington DC to Orlando in the mid-90s and attempt to acclimate to their new
surroundings.
Why: This show is one-part 90s period
piece and one-part Asian-American story. I enjoy both parts of it, but
Constance Wu's intense "mama bear" performance is what really turned
me onto the show. Randall Park is great too. They cast the children quite well.
And I enjoy how Chelsey Crisp and Ray Wise somehow became series regulars. As
with all these ABC family comedies, this is just a fun show.
Best Episode: Season 3, Episode 1 – “Coming from
America”
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
39. 30 for 30
Mid Season 1-4 [Ongoing] (I watched assorted installments)
What: A series of sports docs from ESPN
covering a variety of topics.
Why: What if I told you that ESPN's
plan to make 30 sports docs by 30 filmmakers to celebrate its 30th anniversary
was so successful that they've continued for a decade now, with almost 100
docs, not including shoot-offs like shorts, podcasts, and soccer stories? The
name 30 for 30 became so synonymous with quality sports docs that ESPN
has continued to use the name well past the 30 movie and year mark. They tried
to rebrand them as ESPN Films and people thoroughly rejected it. It's almost
unfair to even call this a series. It's more of a brand, but if series is how
IMDB categorizes it, that's good enough for me. No matter what kind of sports
fan you are, 30 for 30 has you covered. As a basketball fan, I loved Winning
Time, Once Brothers, Survive and Advance, and many, many
others. Even if you don't love the sport in question, there's just plain
excellent filmmaking in these. "June 17th, 1994" combines real
footage from around the sports world from that day to tell a compelling story
about the multitudes contained in a single day. “Elway to Marino” follows the
intricacies of a single NFL Draft night and its long-term effects on the NFL. “The
Two Escobars”, about the drug lord and Columbian soccer player with the same
last name and intersecting lives, would otherwise be one of my favorite movies
of the decade, period. Of course, not all the episodes are gems, and more
recent episodes have started to follow more of a formula. So, the series as a
whole averages out to here on my list.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 16 – “The Two
Escobars”
Where To Stream It Now: ESPN+
40. One Day At A Time
Seasons 1-3 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: A comedy about several generations
of a Cuban-American family living in the same apartment.
Why: There's nothing subtle about this
show. It openly talks about issues like heritage, sexuality, and immigration.
It's a throwback show with a loud and reactive studio audience who cheers
whenever certain characters dance into a scene. Rita Moreno in particular blows
the roof off the house whenever she's on screen. But One Day At a Time
uses its lack of subtlety to its advantage, because it also has a big heart and
big laughs. This is the kind of show that, even though I can see a joke coming
from a mile away, I still laugh because the punchlines are delivered with
enough verve and enthusiasm to overcome the predictability. It's nice to have a
show that I can't be cynical about.
Best Episode: Season 2, Episode 5 – “Locked
Down”
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
41. Mindhunter
Seasons 1-2 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: A drama about the early days of
the FBI's investigation of serial killers.
Why: I like seeing people who are good
at their job and have a genuine curiosity, so this show is catnip for me. It's
about how two FBI officers and eventually a psychologist from the private
sector pretty much discover all the things we now know about serial killers.
They do this early on by interviewing different killers and later on by
applying what they’ve learned to solving a series of murders in Atlanta. It's a
methodic and process-driven show. David Fincher is an active producer, and it
has a lot of that Zodiac energy too it.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 3
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
42. Succession
Seasons 1-2 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: A bickering family that owns a
major media conglomerate vie for power, even if they have to take down each other
to do it.
Why: This show has been on a meteoric
rise the last year, and I may look silly putting it this low when I look back
in a couple years. There's about ongoing debate about if Succession is a
funny drama or a dark comedy. I don't care, but I like that it's hard to land
on an answer. This show is about awful, petty people. Without ever being
sympathetic to them, the show still gets fans* to be invested in what happens
to them. Often, the tensest moments are the funniest. I love the sleazebag charisma
of half the cast and the unpredictable intensity of everyone else. I'm curious
to see how long it can last as the internet's favorite show.
*This is a show that turns some people off immediately and emphatically. It turns out that not everyone wants to see awful people be awful to each other.
Best Episode: Season 2, Episode 10 – “This Is Not for Tears”
Where To Stream It Now: HBO Now
43. Homeland
Season 1-7 [Ongoing] (I watched Seasons 1-4)
What: A bipolar CIA agent tries to figure
out if a longtime American POW has been turned by terrorists after he
mysteriously resurfaces.
Why: It's amazing how well Homeland matches
a certain kind of prestige drama series arc. The first season is amazing. The
story, performances, and direction are all perfect. It ends on a decision made
to continue the series rather than follow the natural arc of that story and
those characters. The second season looks like it’s keeping pace just because
the writers and directors know how to maximize the actors' talents, but the
story falls about. By season 3, the story is running on fumes, and without
sufficient material to play off, the actors fall into the habit of relying on
the same tricks. Season 4 finally moves on with a new story, but by then, it's
mostly a poor imitation of itself. That's when I stopped watching, but it's
getting ready to premiere its 8th season. I'll always have the great work of
Claire Danes, Damien Lewis, and Mandy Patinkin early on to look back on
lovingly. I mostly try not to think about much past that first season and a
half.
Best Episode: Season 2, Episode 5 – “Q&A”
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu (partial)/Showtime
44. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Seasons 1-4 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: After years being held captive by
a madman in a bunker, Kimmy Schmidt decides to rebuild her life by moving to
New York City.
Why: Best opening theme song and best
marriage of a lead character with an actress. This is Tina Fey and Robert
Carlock's follow-up to 30 Rock. It was originally set to air on NBC but
smartly relocated to Netflix. Like 30 Rock, this is a world-class joke
machine. I loved it almost immediately, mostly thanks to Ellie Kemper's impossibly
specific energy. I did hit a wall with the show at some point that I can't
explain. I never liked Titus Burgess' Titus Andromedon. That character always
annoyed me, and the more the show fell in love with that performance, the less
I liked it. But still, it had a lot of other good people delivering at least a
few great jokes per episode.
Best Episode: Season 3, Episode 6 – “Kimmy is a
Feminist!”
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
45. Happy Endings
Seasons 1-3 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: A group of six friends try to
regroup after one leaves another at the alter.
Why: In a different world, Happy
Endings would've been the next Friends. It's one of the finest joke
machines of the decade and the cast is exceptional. All six members of the cast
could lead their own show. In fact, many have since cancellation. However, none
of them have been used better than they were in this ensemble. This show
introduced me to Zachary Knighton. It redeemed Casey Wilson after SNL
couldn't figure out what to do with her. Eliza Coupe brought her scary
intensity. Adam Pally played perhaps my favorite gay sitcom character of all
time. Most importantly, the show figured out a way to weaponize Elisha Cuthbert
in remarkable ways. Sadly, the show never caught hold with larger audiences
thanks to a rocky start, and ABC could never find a way to add viewers later on.
In a world of serialized television, it's refreshing how I can put on any
random episode of this and know that I'll get at least a handful of belly
laughs and never feel lost.
Best Episode: Season 2, Episode 17: The
Kerkovich Way
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
46. The Jim Gaffigan Show
Seasons 1-2 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: New York comedian Jim Gaffigan lives
in the city with his family and, uhhh...it's pretty much Jim Gaffigan's really
life but changed a little to make a funny TV show.
Why: There isn't much to dislike about
this super-charming comedy: one of the many descendants of Louie in this
decade. It wasn't always the funniest show, but few series put me in as good a
mood as this. Everything about this show was likable. I loved the way that Jim
and his wife (played by Ashley Williams - his actual wife was an integral part
behind the scenes - argued but were never adversaries. Jim's a lazy but a good
man. It's perhaps the most honest show about religion in years. Jim is
recognizably Catholic. His priest is a recurring character and one of the
nicest people in any show. Jim doesn't like going to church but he still does
when he feels guilty enough. And the show never preaches. I can't say enough
about how delightful this show was. If you need any more convincing, how about
a season-long running gag of unexplained Macaulay Culkin cameos*? It's only
fitting that the two season run came to an end because Gaffigan and his wife
were afraid that they weren't spending enough time with their children.
*Seriously, I have no idea how they got Macaulay Culkin to keep showing up
for no reason.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 9: The Bible
Story
Where To Stream It Now: Nowhere that I can find.
47. Documentary Now!
Seasons 1-3 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: A series of fictional
documentaries based on real classics of the medium.
Why: Not a lot of these shows
aggressively target a niche audience. Most seek widespread appeal and settle
into a small group of fans. Documentary Now! is almost exclusively for
documentary nerds. Even if you haven't seen all the classics it plays off (The
War Room, Grey Gardens, and Stop Making Sense to name only a
few), I have enough familiarity to appreciate a lot of the jokes. What I'd
recommend is that you watch some of the great documentaries then enjoy a few
episodes of Bill Hader and Fred Armisen's brainchild. I mean, if it's good
enough for Helen Mirren, it's good enough for all of us.
Best Episode: Season 2, Episode 1 – “The Bunker”
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
48. Russian Doll
Season 1 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: A Groundhog Day story about
a woman in New York City who keeps returning to the same party on the same
night after she dies.
Why: This show was created by Leslye
Headland, Natasha Lyonne, and Amy Poehler. If that isn't a brain-trust that
excites you, then you have questionable taste. I like Groundhog Day
stories like this. The show has a ton of fun with the idea. Natasha Lyonne's
personality is ideal to milk comedy from the premise. It all comes together
very satisfyingly. I do worry about how the idea can be used for a second
season. The one season that's aired wrapped up so nicely though.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 1 – “Nothing in
This World Is Easy”
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
49. Ramy
Season 1 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: The Muslim son of Egyptian
immigrants tries to figure out how his religion and American identity can
coexist.
Why: I love when a show can be
entertaining while showing me something I haven't seen before. Ramy does
both of these things. It's funny, easy to watch, and has a great cast. At the
same time, every episode is filled with things I hadn't seen before. I really don't
know what being Muslim in the U.S. looks like. And what I really love about Ramy
is how much it undercuts Ramy's own idealized thoughts of Islam. He actually
wants an arranged marriage at one point, and his parents shoot it down simply
because that don't get out much and it would be too much trouble to find
someone. Ramy goes back to see his extended family in Egypt expecting to find
something purer and finds that everyone is just as ipad obsessed there as
everyone here, only with poorly filtered water. I like getting a glimpse into a
different perspective without it feeling like it is trying to sell me on it.
This is a show about a guy in a different situation than mine but with a lot of
the same concerns.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 4 – “Strawberries”
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
50. Chuck
Seasons 3-5 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: Aimless computer geek Chuck
Bartowski gets government secrets downloaded into his brain and becomes an
undercover asset with two special agents as his handlers.
Why: Prime Chuck ended with
Season 2. That's when it wore out the premise and had to somehow go even
crazier. This show was majorly hit by the decade cutoff. Even lesser Chuck
was still among the most purely entertaining TV of the decade though. Seasons
3-5 had an impressive run of guest stars, intent on appealing to every corner
of genre fandom. It's impressive how Chuck managed to get to five
seasons, given the [at the time] pathetic ratings It survived only because NBC
had a hundred bigger fires to put out. And, there was that infamous Subway
sponsorship, which became a running joke in the text of the show. Escapism doesn't
get much more entertaining and ridiculous than Chuck.
Best Episode: Season 4, Episode 9 – “Chuck Versus
Phase Three”
Where To Stream It Now: Amazon Prime
51. Better Things
Seasons 1-3 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: Pamela Adlon is a mother and
actress in L.A. trying to balance the two jobs.
Why: Unlike the other
show from this list created in part by Louis C.K., this show isn't torpedoed by
his connection to it. That's because it is and always has been Pamela Adlon's
show. It was true when she created it and starred in it in season one. It was
true when she began directing it in season two. It was fully confirmed when
C.K. didn't write any of the episodes in season three. And Aldon is a force to
be reckoned with. Using her own life as a single mother working as an actress
in L.A., she's made a deeply personal, often funny, often frustrating, often
sad series. It helps that the child cast can be just as emotionally nimble in
their performances as Adlon.
Best Episode: Season 2, Episode 6: Eulogy
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
52. Boardwalk Empire
Seasons 1-5 (I watched all of it)
What: A gangster epic about prohibition
era New Jersey.
Why: It's easy to forget that Boardwalk
Empire was HBO's great post-Sopranos hope, with the all-star cast,
high production value, and Martin Scorsese connection. A year later, Game of
Thrones became a big hit and shifted HBO's priorities. Boardwalk Empire
remained a sturdy and reliable show for five seasons though. It was the ideal
prestige also-ran: the kind of show that was always the 11th show on a top
10 list.
Best Episode: Season 2, Episode 12 – “To The
Lost”
Where To Stream It Now: HBO Now
53. Killing Eve
Seasons 1-2 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: A security agent and an assassin
chase each other as their lives becoming increasingly linked.
Why: As if we needed more evidence that
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is the best. She created this series and ran the first
season before handing it off. It's hard to sell the series on the concept
alone. The idea has been done a thousand times - an agent hunts down a serial
killer. The thrill of this series is the wit of the dialogue and the strength
of the lead performances (Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer). The first season is a blast.
I turned on the pilot one night on a whim and couldn't go to sleep until I'd
fully caught up on it. The second season still has the strong central
performances, but the story is starting to fall apart. I do worry what the
2020s hold for it.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 5 - "I Have
a Thing About Bathrooms"
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu (Partial)
54. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Seasons 1-3 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: A New York Jewish housewife in the
1950s discovers a talent for stand-up comedy.
Why: There are few things more easily
enjoyable than Amy Sherman-Palladino finding an actress capable of delivering
her zippy dialogue. Maisel isn’t a perfect show. I can barely tell you what
happens in any season. But, like Gilmore Girls before it, put an episode
on, and I’m having a blast. Unlike Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, Maisel
wasn’t undone by crazy expectations. This just got to be a fun show. Rachel Brosnahan
has a deep, Palladino-approved cast around her.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 3 – “Because You
Left”
Where To Stream It Now: Amazon Prime
55. Catastrophe
Seasons 1-4 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: After a fling with an Irish schoolteacher
while on a business trip, an American businessman finds out that they're going
to have a child.
Why: One place where TV still fails is
depicting real romantic relationships. That is Catastrophe's greatest
strength though. Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney (who also co-created and
co-wrote the show) play a very believable couple. They bicker and fight all the
time, but they also make each other laugh and prefer each other's company over
anyone else's. The best jokes all come from authentic places. And, if you need
any more convincing, how about this? It has Carrie Fisher's final performance
(and it's a great one). Also, it's follows the British model, so each season is
a brisk 6 episodes.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 5
Where To Stream It Now: Amazon Prime
56. Louie
Seasons 1-5 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: Louis C.K. plays a fictionalized
version of himself trying to figure out day-to-day life.
Why: I'm incredibly torn about
this. Since I have nowhere else for this rant, I'll do it here.
Louie is undeniably one of the most influential shows of the decade. The
"Louis Deal" is something every stand-up wanted after it worked for
CK. Along with the Showtime shows of the late 2000s, it cleared the way for the
30 minute "Dramedy" that has taken over critical lists now. Atlanta,
Master of None, Baskets, Lady Dynamite, Maron, The
Jim Gaffigan Show. None of them would've existed in that form without Louie
clearing the way. It changed the way people approached 30-minute shows. For
better or worse, it is an important show.
On a personal note, Louis CK is one of the very
few people I looked up to. He embodied the "noble sleazebag": the guy
who had bad thoughts but strived to be better than them. My appreciation of
Louis CK depended on one idea: he was a guy who accepted his flaws but didn't
act on them. He found ways to laugh at his flaws. His mission appeared to be
about finding the way to be a decent person despite the things that were wrong
about him. Then, of course, the news came out that he was the creep that his
haters always assumed he was. This disappointed me without surprising me.
I love a lot of things about this show. It's
about an unreliable narrator. Louie is a grown-up Doug Funnie. His every
worry and annoyance is actualized in the show. When he has a bad first date and
goes in for a kiss, his date literally bolts and hops on a helicopter to
escape. When he can't sleep because the garbage truck is too loud, garbage men
literally break into his room and empty the trash there. Circa 2016, the scene
I found most sadly relatable was one in which he first tries to kiss a
character played by his frequent collaborator Pamela Adlon. The scene plays like
he’s forcing himself upon her. Given the established perspective of the show, I
read that as Louie believing that no woman would ever really be interested in
him, so if he was able to kiss one, it must be because he forced it. It’s the
imposter complex but applied to dating. It’s pathetic, but incredibly honest. Obviously,
so much in the show, especially that scene, takes on a different context when
you consider the things he's accused of. It's all a lot more predatory.
Suddenly, the way I interpret the show is much different, more literal, and
more abhorrent.
I have a theory about Louis CK. I think that he
was a complete creep until sometime in the late 2000s. Something, maybe it was
having a kid, made him come to terms with the fucked-up shit about himself. I
think he tried to improve himself. Right around then, his comedy got a lot more
introspective and personal. He tried to work through his demons in his show and
his stand-up. I think he changed and hoped that the indefensible shit that he'd
done would never catch up to him. I do believe that the Louis CK of 2017, when
the stories broke about him, was different from the Louis CK who did those
things*. And, if I’m being terribly honest, when the new first broke about
about CK, I probably could've been swayed by a decent apology from him if it
seemed sincere enough. He could’ve said the right things to get me to think
“Let’s hear him out”. Here’s the problem. When did the things that he's accused
of, he was already a full grown adult who should've known better. I mean, I
guess personal growth can happen whenever, but he doesn’t deserve the benefit
of the doubt. His response since all this came out has been awful. I'm not in
the business of trying to excuse anything Louis CK has done at this point. I'll
admit that it's hard for me though. I don't look up to a lot of people. I
looked up to him. I had a tough time with this.
*I'm not holding this theory as gospel. I'm not
aware of more recent jerk-off stories. If there are any, I believe them and readily
accept that they tear this theory apart.
I get that you should be able to separate the
artist from the art. The problem is, Louie is a show that's directly
tied to its creator in a way that few other shows are. At one point, this
would've been an easy top 5 show for me. Now, I struggle to even keep it where
I have it now.
Still, there are things in that show that hit me
profoundly. For example, that Robin Williams episode with the funeral hits me
like a punch in the gut. I haven't been able to rewatch it since Williams'
death, even though it’s an exceptional eulogy. I wish this show could’ve been
made by a less problematic person. Then again, I don’t think a less problematic
person could’ve made this show.
Best Episode: Season 4, Episode 3 – “So Did the
Fat Lady”
Where To Stream It Now: Nowhere that I can find.
57. Looking for Alaska
Limited Series (I watched all of it)
What: Mischievous teens at an Alabama
boarding school go on adventures, blissfully unaware of the tragedy that's
right around the corner.
Why: This is adapted from a book
written by the guy who wrote The Fault in Our Stars, and let's just say,
it's very much on brand. I fell hard for this show. The cast is immediately
likable. I would've happily hung out with them for 100 episodes. When the show
takes a swing toward the tragic, I was hit hard because of how much I cared
about the characters. This show is also an astounding time capsule. I was a
teen in the mid-2000s, and this show flooded me with nostalgia. I felt just
like a boomer watching Woodstock.
Best Episode: Episode 7 – “Now Comes the
Mystery”
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
<Fuck it. I don’t have it in me to pick any more Best Episodes>
58. Brockmire
Seasons 1-3 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: Disgraced Baseball announcer Jim
Brockmire attempts to rebuild his career by taking a job for a tiny minor
league team.
Why: It's pretty common for me to say a
movie or show would've worked better as a Funny or Die sketch. Brockmire
is the exact opposite. It actually started as a 2010 Funny or Die short.
Someone smart realized that Hank Azaria as a hard-drinking announcer making
pedantic play-calls was an idea that had legs and they built a show around it.
I don't care at all about baseball, but I'm all in for hearing Azaria's tremendous
line-reads. This is a great show to watch if you just want an excuse to laugh.
Where To Stream It Now: Brockmire
59. The Deuce
Seasons 1-3 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: The evolution of the Manhattan sex
industry in the 70s and 80s.
Why: David Simon is a victim of his own
success. The Wire is one of the best shows ever made. The Deuce
is The Wire, except about sex work. Simon and George Pelecanos know how
to do this kind of show - giant cast, interconnected stories, long-form
storytelling, institutional failures - better than anyone. So, this show is
effective and a pleasure to watch. You know, except for the depressing bits. It
does sort of feel like Simon and Pelecanos doing more of the same though.
"It's like The Wire but not as good" isn't the worst review a
show could get. Extra points for an unexpectedly touching finale.
Where To Stream It Now: HBO Now
60. Parenthood
Seasons 1-6 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: The trials and tribulations of the
extended Braverman family in the greater Berkley area.
Why: Imagine Friday Night Lights
without the football. This is Jason Katims' follow-up to FNL. The large
Braverman family is never short on drama - a son on the autism spectrum,
cancer, a son Dax Sheppard never knew about, new businesses, etc. The term that
I've never been able to forget describing the show was "the crying
Olympics", because this show is design to tug at your heartstrings. This
featured one of the more impressive ensembles you'll find, with a platoon of TV
veterans who could all be leading their own series. If all this show did was
introduce me to Mae Whittman's all-star ability to cry, that would be enough.
It is interesting to compare the show to FNL. You realize that, even if
you didn't care about the football itself, that did allow FNL to get
outside itself on occasion. As much as I liked Parenthood, it was a
drama about an upper-middle class family almost exclusively dealing with 1st-world
problems and achieving unearned success. It had trouble finding real stakes,
which put even more onus on the cast, who, to their credit, were equipped to
take on that load.
Where To Stream It Now: Nowhere that I can find.
61. Orange is the New Black
Seasons 1-7 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: A story of life in a women’s
prison using a privileged white woman as an entry point POV character.
Why: This might be the most important
show of the decade, because the rise of streaming is the story of the decade.
Technically, Lillyhammer was Netflix's first original series.
Arrested Development was the first revival. House of Cards was the
formal prestige announcement of Netflix as a major player. Orange is the New
Black is the first purely streaming hit though. It proved that audiences
would flock to Netflix, even without a major marketing push or big names
attached to it. It is astounding how big the cast got to be for this show.
Characters that started 20th or 30th on the call sheet turned out to be
actresses capable of carrying entire episodes. I don't think people appreciate
how remarkable that is. Jenji Kohan is a showrunner known for not sitting still
for very long (just look at Weeds). She's always trying something new,
which means that the show could be hit or miss at times. The prison riot season
is the perfect example of this: a big creative swing that didn't really work, but
also an exciting risk that most successful series would never take. While much
of the audience had trailed off by the end, the final season wrapped things up
very nicely.
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
62. Justified
Seasons 1-6 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: Loose cannon US Marshal Raylan
Givens gets reassigned to the Eastern Kentucky town he grew up in.
Why: Justified maybe came out a
decade too late. It's a sturdy drama - part procedural, part serial - with a
serious male anti-hero (of sorts). Each season brings in a few guest stars to
play the season's "big bads". You can put the show on in the
background just as easily as you can make it appointment viewing. I don't have
anything bad to say about it. The worst thing I can say about it is that it
sometime felt more like a prestige TV greatest hits collection than something
that pushed prestige TV forward. But hey, Timothy Olyphant vs. Walton Goggins
never gets old. Jere Burns got to play one of TV's great cockroaches. It gave
Margo Martindale a career best role. It introduced the world to Kaitlyn Dever
about 8 years ahead of schedule. And it even let us see what Sam Elliott looks
like without a mustache.
Where To Stream It Now: Amazon Prime
63. Stranger Things
Seasons 1-3 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: A small Indiana town in the 80s
becomes a hotbed of supernatural occurrences thanks to secret government
experiments.
Why: No one was ready for how
immediately Stranger Things became a hit, and the response to the show
has swung wildly ever since. My stance has always been that it is a really,
really fun show and one of the great successes of the binging era but not a
“great series”. It's so easy to accidentally watch an entire season in one
sitting. Whoever was in charge of the casting of the younger actors/actresses
deserves the highest marks. The adult cast is pretty great too. I think the
show gained 10 spots alone, because it enabled me to fulfill a lifelong dream
of mine and try New Coke thanks to a season 3 promotion. It was...ok.
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
64. Orphan Black
Seasons 1-5 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: A streetwise British woman
discovers that she has a bunch of clones as part of some secret government or
corporate conspiracy.
Why: Frankly, I couldn't explain what
happens in this show if I tried. Each season stacked nonsense upon more
nonsense. The reason the show made the list is Tatiana Maslany's virtuoso work.
She plays all the clones (obviously) with distinct personalities, often
playing off only herself in scenes seamlessly. While watching any episode, I'd
completely forget that it's the same actress playing all the different
characters. If Hollywood doesn't figure out how to get Maslany an Oscar
nomination or a major movie franchise in the 2020s, then they have failed to do
their jobs.
Where To Stream It Now: Amazon Prime
65. Saturday Night Live
Mid Season 35-45 [Ongoing] (I watched mid season 36-45)
What: A legendary sketch comedy series
that...I shouldn't need to explain this to you.
Why: People love to talk about how SNL
just isn't as good as it used to be. People are also stupid. By design, the
series is hit or miss and people only have long-term memory of the hits. The
early part of the decade had people like Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Bill
Hader, Jenny Slate, Will Forte, Andy Samberg, and Fred Armisen who have gone on
to lead hit movies and TV shows. Now it has people like Kate McKinnon, Beck
Bennet, Aidy Bryant, Cecily Strong, and Kyle Mooney who are looking like the
next generation of stars. Kenan Thompson reached legendary status by becoming
the longest tenured cast member ever. The show got a nice creative bump thanks
to the 2016 election. Sure, the show doesn't have the same cultural impact that
it used to (because no show does anymore). SNL just keeps chugging along
showing no sign of slowing down. I laughed a lot. I saw some great hosts. I saw
some mediocre hosts. I actually really like the Michael Che/Colling Jost
Weekend Update. As long as there is an SNL to watch, I'll watch it.
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
66. Everything Sucks!
Season 1 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: A high school dramedy set in
Oregon in the 1990s.
Why: Netflix releases dozens of series
a year, multiple per week at this point. A lot of them fall through the cracks,
and Netflix doesn't have the same patience for them anymore. In hindsight, it's
pretty obvious that Everything Sucks! wasn't going to last. Like great
one-and-done series before it (My So Called Life, Freaks & Geeks)
there's nothing about the description of it that captures what's great about
it. It really is just a show about some A/V club and drama club kids in a high
school. There are some nice 90s details in there to get nostalgic about.
Really, what works about it though is that I like all the characters. I’m
curious to see how many of them pop in the future, because that always seems to
happen for shows like this. So far, only Sydney Sweeney has started to break
out*. The hardest part about recommending this thoroughly delightful series is
that the lone season ends with a big cliffhanger. A TV series is about the
journey, not the destination though.
*Just since this show premiered in February 2018, Sweeny has been a regular
on The Handmaid's Tale, Sharp Objects, and Euphoria
and been in a half dozen movies, including Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
67. The Night Of
Limited Series [?] (I watched all of it)
What:
A man wakes up to find the woman he spent the night with stabbed to
death and he has no memory of what happened.
Why: The premiere episode of this
HBO limited crime series might be the single most effective episode of TV this
decade. It follows Nassir (Riz Ahmed) through a night of extreme highs and lows
ultimately leading to him being charged with the murder of a young woman he
just met. It's a masterclass in tension. I liked a lot of other things about
the series - his murder trial had a lot of good beats, his time in prison was
filled with great moments, the evolution of his lawyer (played by John
Turturro) is odd in a very watchable way - but that first episode is why this
show was able to make my list. I think HBO has hinted at making more seasons of
this. I'm not sure I want that, unless they it's as a new anthology season.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 1 – “The Beach”
Where To Stream It Now: HBO Now
68. The Jinx
Limited Series (I watched all of it)
What: A documentary series about real
estate executive Robert Durst, who has been a key suspect in multiple unsolved
murders.
Why: The true crime craze hasn't hit me
as hard as it has some friends of mine, but I've enjoyed plenty of the series
and movies. Three things set The Jinx apart. 1) Andrew Jarecki has spent
years obsessing about these crimes. Before he spent years making The Jinx
in 2015, he made the film All Good Things in 2010, which is a
dramatization of Durst's story, which also came from years of research. 2)
Robert Durst is a singular character. The kind that you couldn't make up
because he wouldn't sound believable. 3) That ending. It’s impossible to
recreate the thrill of when it originally aired, but it still holds up. It's
the kind of ending that you want all of these crime docs to have: finding out
something major that you couldn't've looked up online before it aired.
Best Episode: Season 1, Episode 6: "What
the Hell Did I Do?"
Where To Stream It Now: HBO Now
69. GLOW
Seasons 1-3 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: A dramatization of the personal
and professional lives of the women starring in the Gorgeous Ladies of
Wrestling.
Why: This late in the list, I don't need
to go into that much detail to explain these rankings. This is a bingable
comedy with a stellar cast. It's a long overdue starring role for the great
Alison Brie. Each season is a different adventure. I'm not sure how long they
can keep it up, but it's been enjoyable so far.
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
70. 13 Reasons Why
Seasons 1-3 [Ongoing] (I watched season 1)
What: A high school girl commits
suicides and leaves tapes for the people who she believes played a part in
leading her to it.
Why: I've covered a lot of my thoughts
on the first season before, and I stand by most of those thoughts. The first
season floored me. Yes, it's probably triggering for some people. Yes, the
setup is wildly implausible. But, if you can get past that, it's full of
terrific performances and harrowing moments. Had they stopped at season 1,
which the very premise suggests it should've, this would be a top 50 show
easily. I didn't even bother with the 2nd and 3rd seasons, because their very
existence dilutes the idea of the series.
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
71. The Haunting of Hill House
Limited Series (I watched all of it)
What: Years after tragic events, a family
gets pulled back to the malevolent house where those events happened.
Why: Mike Flanagan is one of my
favorite horror filmmakers, so I was excited when he came out with this Netflix
horror series. The cast is a nice mix of seasoned veterans and unfamiliar
faces. Flanagan shows a lot of restraint, not over-relying on jump scares.
Instead, he sets a haunting atmosphere and builds to the scares. I guess a
second season is coming in 2020, but it appears to be a completely new story
with new characters, which is exactly as it should be.
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
72. New Girl
Seasons 1-7 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: After a rough break-up, a woman
moves into an apartment with 3 single men.
Why: Look, the show started out rough.
They over-relied on Zooey Dechanael being "adorkable". Eventually,
they toned that down, turned it into more of an ensemble comedy, figured out
everyone's strengths, and became a reliable joke-machine style comedy.
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
73. Shameless
Seasons 1-10 [Ongoing] (I watched seasons 1-7)
What: Th misadventures of the Galleghers,
a rowdy lower-class Chicago family of misfits.
Why: One of the blackest marks on the
Emmys is that they never nominated Emmy Rossum for her work on this series.
I've gotten a little behind on it, because it eventually settled into a repetitive
pattern (and if I'm being honest, Debbie in particular become so
uninterestingly loathsome that it scared me off the rest of the show). The show
churns through a lot of plot, takes a lot of big swings, and continually finds
new ways to use the talented cast. When it works, it's a super-enjoyable watch.
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix/Showtime
74. Big Little Lies
Seasons 1-2 [The End?] (I watched all of it)
What: The women of a rich California
town get caught up in a murder investigation.
Why: Reese Witherspoon. Nicole Kidman.
Shailene Woodley. Zoe Kravitz. Laura Dern. Then Merly Streep. Need I say more?
I never really cared about the story of these super-rich people who were often
the source of their own problems. I just loved seeing that all-star cast bounce
off each other.
Where To Stream It Now: HBO Now
75. The Crown
Seasons 1-3 [Ongoing] (I watched all
of it)
What: A dramatization of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth II.
Why: I don't really care about the
British monarchy in the 20th century. I watched this for the gorgeous
production design and the excellent performances. Clair Foy, Vanessa Kirby, and
Matt Smith transitioned nicely after two seasons to Olivia Colman, Helena Bonham
Carter, and Tobias Menzies in season 3. John Lithgow was a treat in season 1 as
Winston Churchill - not an obvious casting choice that worked anyway.
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
76. American Ninja Warrior
Seasons 2-11 [Ongoing] (I watched seasons 7-11)
What: People in much better shape than me
try to complete a series of obstacle courses.
Why: This is one of only two reality
shows on my list. Sorry. It's not the kind of programming I like to watch. Yes,
I'm sure that cooking or singing competition show has some wild characters. Drag
Race is super fun. I just don't care for them. The main reason I like American
Ninja Warrior is, for whatever reason, I enjoy seeing people earnestly
competing in obstacle courses. Even the cheesiness works for it. They have the
formula down to a science.
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu (Partial)
77. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Seasons 6-14 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: Five awful people who run an Irish
pub do everything they can to never mature.
Why: It's Always Sunny is now the longest running live-action sitcom (by season count) in TV
history. The 29-year-olds who created the show in 2005 are in their mid-40s
now, and I'll admit, the style of comedy hasn't aged perfectly. However, it's
reached a fascinating point thanks to how old it is. This very episodic series
has become a unique kind of serial. Nearly every episode in these later seasons
is referencing or further developing an episode from earlier in the series'
run. Whether it's a return to Thunder Gun or an all-female reboot of the
Wade Boggs episode, there's always some piece of Paddy's Pub history that's
getting referenced. For such an insular show, through sheer number of years,
there's a tremendous amount of world-building and mythology. But, if I'm really
being honest, it's the "Fat Mac" season that I really loved this
decade. In addition to that season including some of the funniest episodes, the
whole thing sums up what makes this show special. Rob McElhenney just decided
to get fat for a season just for a running gag. Then, a few years later, he got
super ripped, just to pay off the running joke that "Fat Mac" was
"building mass" in order to get in better shape. There's a commitment
to this series that is unique.
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
78. Psych
Mid Season 4-8 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: Sean Spencer uses his keen
observation skills taught to him by his detective father to con the cops into
hiring him as a psychic consultant.
Why: I needed to represent the
"blue sky" USA Network era somewhere on this list. That's the era
when all USA shows were set in nice towns that never had a cloud in the sky and
focused more on the banter between costars than the fairly absurd plots. Monk
started it. Psych focused it. Burn Notice perfected it. By the
2010s, the network strategy shifted before Mr. Robot fully killed it
off, but there were still a few good seasons of Psych in there. I don't
remember much about the last few seasons. By design, the show sort of blends
together. I always enjoyed the dynamic between James Roday and Dule Hill's Sean
and Gus. They had complementary temperaments but their overlap in interests
snapped into focus just often enough to make sure they didn't become
adversarial. Pysch might've fallen of my list entirely - its consistency
makes it easy to not appreciate it - if not for the Psych movie that USA
aired a couple years after it ended. That movie, while imperfect, reminded me
how much I love spending time with these characters (including Maggie Lawson,
who just couldn't find a network vehicle that worked for her).
Where To Stream It Now: Amazon Prime
79. Chernobyl
Limited Series (I watched all of it)
What: After a massive explosion at a
nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Soviet officials try to minimize the effects
of the disaster.
Why: This surprise HBO
hit was the top-rated show on IMDB for a time (a flawed but telling metric). In
5 episodes, this limited series about the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl found many
ways to disturb people. From discovery to containment to litigation, it's horrifying
to see how close it was to being a catastrophe of a magnitude the world has
never seen. Anchored by a trio of subtle but brilliant performances (Jarred
Harris, Stellan Skarsgard, Emily Watson), it turned out to be well worth the
hype.
Best Episode: Episode 1: "1:23:45"
Where To Stream It Now: HBO Now
80. Dear White People
Seasons 1-3 [Ongoing] (I watched Seasons 1-2)
What: The black students at a fictional
Ivy League university deal with assorted race issues around campus.
Why: I worry that I sound cheesy or
patronizing when I explain what I like about Dear White People. Other
than the fact that it's occasionally very, very funny, I learn a lot from the
show. I have a pretty insular existence, so I don't find a lot of outlets to
hear discussions like the ones in Dear White People. It's not that the
show is changing my mind on things - I'm pretty much already on the show's side
about most topics. Rather, it points out perspectives that never occurred to
me. I know this makes it sound like an "eat your vegetables" show.
And, honestly, I'm always slow to watch the seasons because I sometimes think
of it that way. Then I get around to watching it and can't figure out why I
waited so long.
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
81. Rick & Morty
Seasons 1-4 [Ongoing] (I watched Seasons 1-3)
What: A boy and his genius scientist
grandfather go on crazy adventures.
Why: This is one of those shows I'm
hesitant to like, just because I find the vocal fans really annoying. It's how
I'm sure other people felt about me and the other show Dan Harmon co-created (Community).
But, I have to admit, this show is clever as hell. The Adult Swim brand is
built on the idea that all the rules that shows have had up to that point are a
needless shackle. That's why surreal humor and nonsequitors run rampant over the
different series. This tends to annoy me. How can I explain why the best?
OK.
Let's look at a bank robber. Most Adult Swim shows are a guy who runs into
a bank with a gun brandished - no plan, no forethought - and tells them to
empty the vault. It's possible that he gets away with it free and clear. But,
more than likely, he messes up and kills some people or gets caught in the act.
Maybe with a little thought and investigation after the fact he's tracked down
and exposed. Even when they appear to work in the moment, Adult Swim shows
don't tend to hold up under scrutiny. They try a bunch of things with no
discernable planning, hoping for the best. Rick and Morty is like the
Joker robbing the bank at the beginning of The Dark Knight. He has an
expertly-crafted plan. A lot of planning and forethought went into it
beforehand, which allows the Joker the freedom to look like a madman when he's
actually robbing the bank. The plan isn't anarchy. The plan is to appear as
anarchy and to inspire anarchy.
I suppose I could've just said that the difference is anarchy in
development vs. anarchy in result. Whatever. While people tend to think of Rick
& Morty as a vehicle for Pickle Rick and Szechuan Sauce jokes, its
greatest strength is that it's made by people who have a profound understanding
of classic storytelling and how to fuse that with the endless possibility
afforded by animation.
There. Have I suck ALL the fun out of it?
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
82. Bob's Burgers
Seasons 1-10 [Ongoing] (I watched Season 1-2, 6-10)
What: Bob Belcher and his family run a
local Burger restaurant and wilder things happen to them.
Why: I really couldn't tell you why Bob's
Burgers worked where so many other Fox animated series have failed. It's
clear that Fox has no idea how to replicate the success of The Simpsons.
King of the Hill* lasted 13 seasons mostly by hiding in the 7:30 EST
slot. Futurama and Family Guy both had to get cancelled before
they caught on. Dozens of other shows have come and gone. The formula for Bob's
Burgers is nothing special. Two parents. Three kids. Several recurring
townspeople. Strong cast of voice actors. A distinctive but not attention-calling
animation style. It all works though. It's even won a few Emmys.
*Fun Fact: King of the Hill aired four episodes
in 2010, technically qualifying it for this list.
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
83. Big Mouth
Seasons 1-3 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: An animated comedy about the ups
and downs of puberty.
Why: It turns out that if you give a
bunch of funny people the creative freedom to make something that sounds like a
minefield of an idea, sometimes it works out. It took a lot of convincing to
get me to watch Big Mouth. The voice cast is filled with people like
Nick Kroll, Jason Mantzoukas, and Fred Armisen who I can lose patience with
quickly*. The idea of an animated puberty shows just sounds like an excuse for
a lot of dick jokes. And, that's pretty much what Big Mouth is. What
makes it good though, is that it takes the concerns of puberty seriously and
finds ways of literalizing them in extreme ways. That's how you end up with
Maya Rudolph playing a literal Hormone Monster (along with some of the best
line-reading in her very accomplished career). The show is hit or miss for me.
It's pretty common for at least one story per episode to not work at all. But,
when it's all working, it's pretty wonderful how sweetly and maturely it looks
at the changes children go through at this confusing time in their lives.
*They actually all have a similar problem. It always feels like they are
playing to the other actors more than the other characters. I've heard all of
them described as the funniest people in any room, and I believe it. But, they
seem more concerned with getting the other actors to break than getting a scene
to work. Sometimes the results are marvelous, but it doesn't take much to move
into excruciating. I like them all. They just need a short leash.
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
84. Black Mirror
Seasons 1-5 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: A Sci-Fi anthology series,
normally telling stories about technology's dangerous influence on us.
Why: The collection of British (and
more recently, American) actors is unimpeachable. The list of writers and
directors gets more impressive every season. When episodes hit ("Hang the
DJ", "San Junipero", "Be Right Back"), the series is
sublime. The rest of the time, the show is pretty forgettable. I have a lower
Sci-Fi tolerance than other people I know, so I wouldn't be surprised if this
ranking ends up comparatively low. I'm glad that someone is out there continuing
Ron Serling's legacy.
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
85. The Simpsons
Seasons 21-31 [Ongoing] (I watched assorted episodes and all of Seasons
26-31)
What: OK, shame on you if you need me to
explain what this show is.
Why: The Simpsons will never get
back to its glory days. Those early seasons, when it was genuinely disruptive
and featured a legendary collection of writers, are impossible to replicate.
Just because The Simpsons is "not as good" doesn't mean that
it is "bad now". I've enjoyed all the famous guest voices and
rehashes of stories they've done before in over 600 episodes. It's crazy that The
Simpsons passed Gunsmoke's seemingly untouchable record for episodes
in a primetime series and it barely made a blip in the entertainment news when
it happened.
Where To Stream It Now: Disney+
86. Pose
Season 1-2 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: A series about the ball culture in
New York City in the late 80s that was eventually coopted by Madonna's
"Vogue".
Why: I have issues with a lot of Ryan
Murphy shows - you'll notice that American Horror Story doesn't come
close to making my cut - but I do love how he uses his clout to get shows like Pose
on the air that otherwise never would've been greenlit by a network. While this
show can successfully go into darker territory like the AIDS crisis or the dangers
of sex work, the show is at its best in the joyous ballroom scenes. Few shows
can reach the highs of Pose at its best, and I love how many terrific
performers it introduced me to. I'll admit, I had more trouble with the second
season, which had a tendency to try for a home run every episode. I'm curious
to see where the show goes from here, given that season 2 ended in such a nice
place. There are plenty more stories to tell, but the narrative has moved far
past the original concept.
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
87. Battlebots
Seasons 1-4 [Ongoing] (I watched Seasons 1,2, and 4)
What: A competition series about robots
competing against each other in combat.
Why: Look, there's nothing special about
the production, hosting, or in-between segments. I just like watching robots
beat the hell out of each other. I think it's an entertaining application of
STEM education. I love seeing the inventiveness of the designs. This is the
perfect summer distraction series as far as I'm concerned.
Where To Stream It Now: Nowhere that I can find.
88. The Big Bang Theory
Midseason 3-12 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: A bunch of nerds live in an
apartment next to an attractive woman.*
*The best sitcoms have the thinnest concepts. That allows them to be malleable
enough to last several seasons.
Why: By 2010, The Big Bang Theory
had moved away from laughing at its lead characters and toward laughing with
them. They slowly added more female cast members to give it more balance. BBT
might end up being the last successful traditional sitcom ever. I always had my
issues with the show, since it had no idea that it had turned Sheldon into the
villain and always sacrificed story for an easy punchline. But, I'd be a fool
to say that it wasn't a good show. I always enjoyed when a new episode popped
up on my DVR, and it was nice to have at least one show that I could talk to my
parents about. I'm afraid I did have to dock it a few spots in my rankings
because of how it stumbled to the end. They had a whole season to prepare a
good ending, yet they still rushed to put something together and sold out
Penny's character development at the end. One good Sheldon speech couldn't save
that.
Where To Stream It Now: Nowhere that I can find.
89. The Last Man on Earth
Seasons 1-4 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: After years of thinking that he's
the only person alive after a mysterious disease kills off the world population,
Phil Miller discovers that he's not alone after all.
Why: This is a gloriously weird series
that fully embraced Will Forte's quirky sense of humor. At times, he seemed
intent on turning off every fan with how profoundly unlikable Phil Miller was.
In between those moments was a rotating cast of very eclectic performers (This
is a side of January Jones I promise that you haven't seen before), some ingenious
cameos, frequent location changes, and unexpected punchlines. It's sucks that
the show was cancelled after ending on a tantalizing cliffhanger, but lasting for
four whole seasons on a major network was already a minor miracle.
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
90. Lodge 49
Seasons 1-2 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: An aimless screwup finds meaning
after he joins a dusty fraternal order.
Why: Sometimes, you just want a good
hang. It's hard to sell the charm of this series, because it's kind of like
waking up after getting stoned. The laughs are mostly gentle but occasionally
build to huge punchlines. Even the most mundane acts feel somehow surreal. I
just wanted to hang out with this show for as long as AMC would let me (which
turned out to be two seasons - one more than I thought I'd get).
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
91. Looking
Seasons 1-2 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: Three gay men in San Francisco try
to find success in love and in their careers,
Why: It introduced me to Jonathan
Groff. It introduced me to Raul Castillo. So, what do I have to complain about?
This is a fairly gentle and romantic comedy that was a pleasure to watch. It
would've been nice if HBO would've kept it around longer, but it at least got a
nice TV movie to function as a series finale.
Where To Stream It Now: HBO Now
92. The Handmaid's Tale
Seasons 1-3 [Ongoing] (I watched all of it)
What: Set in a dystopian America, one of
the few women still capable of birthing children is forced to be a concubine
for a high ranking government official.
Why: This is a classic "great
performances, poor story" series. Elisabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski, Ann
Dowd, Samira Wiley, Alexis Bledel: this show is overflowing with heavyweight
performances. The series quickly resorted to being misery porn though that
refused to let the story move forward in ways that felt believable. I'd also be
lying if I said that I didn’t hold it against the series that people tried way
too hard to insist that "this could really happen, the way things are
going". I'm happy to just accept the world of this series as a starting
point, but it is not a plausible vision of how this world could become that
world. The worldbuilding isn't that good. The great acting gets me to believe
it in the moment though.
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
93. The End of the F***ing World
Seasons 1-2 [The End?] (I watched all of it)
What: Two teenagers - one moody, the other
a possible sociopath - bond and go on a road trip with disastrous results.
Why: A very unneeded second season hurt
my overall opinion of it some. Season 2 was good but undid what would've been a
great ending to the story. What I really enjoyed about the series was that it
took advantage of a benefit of streaming that's often ignored. Most shows use
the lack of commercials as an excuse to edit even less and make episodes even
longer. Instead, The End of the Fucking World often clocked in at less
time than a standard network sitcom. The lesson here is that an episode only
needs to be as long as the story requires. Padding it out doesn't make it
better.
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
94. CNN's The Decades
The 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s (I watched all of it)
What: A collection of documentary
mini-series focusing on a different decade in American history.
Why: Since the days when I'd rewatch
the same episodes of VH1's I Love The 80s a dozen or more times each, I
knew that I had a weakness for pop culture history. I love seeing how the
narratives of different eras develop and how different groups try to repackage
the stories. I struck gold when I found these CNN series that started in 2014.
Some people get tired of hearing about boomer nostalgia or think it's too soon
to have a clear-eyed assessment of the 2000s. But, I never get tired of hearing
about the Space Race, yuppies, and the glory days of Must-See TV. I just wish
they could find a way to go back even further. Based on the different TV
docuseries I've seen over the years, pop culture didn't start until 1963.
C'mon, show me The Fifties in 2020.
Best Episode: The Sixties, Episode 7: The Space
Race
Where To Stream It Now: Netflix
95. Cougar Town
Mid Season 1-6 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: A woman in her 40s start
sleeping with younger men after her divorce. A bunch of winos on a cul de
sac hang out and have a good time.
Why: Not enough shows are
good hangs. This show had a rough start, a bad premise, and an unfortunate title.
By the time the calendar turned to 2010 though, the show had settled into a new
status quo. Instead of being a show about Courtney Cox sleeping with younger
men, it became an ensemble show about a bunch of wino friends who like to hang
out. At its best, there were few shows as easy and enjoyable to watch. It may
have overstayed its welcome by the end, but what show doesn't?
Best Episode: Season 3: Episode 5: "A One Story Town"
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
96. Modern Family
Mid Season 1-11 [The End] (I watched all of it)
What: An extended family in different
configurations go through humorous everyday experiences.
Why: Only half of the first season of
this Emmy favorite counts in this decade. Sadly, that is by far the best
season. Despite a truly exceptional cast, I soured pretty quickly on the show.
With a lesser cast, I would've dropped it a long time ago. Modern Family
is a highly directed show. The episodes are less about earning laughs in the
moment. Instead, it's all about how it can move everything into place for
punchlines at the end. There's a high degree of difficulty to do this right.
The first season was excellent at this build to the end. It won the Emmy for
best comedy series (which I was fine with). Then, the second season got a
little lazier. The construction of the jokes got a little less tight. The seams
of the plotting got more visible. And they won the Emmy for best comedy series
again. Season 3 got a little lazier still. They won again. And that's how
things went for a while. They kept getting validated despite getting sloppier.
By the time it stopped winning Emmys, it was too late to turn the show around,
and it was fully relying on the great cast to make things work. I mainly watch
the show for the occasional funny line read and for the one or two episodes a
year when the writers actually get inspired to do something interesting. That
and how much I liked the first season is enough to make the cut on my decade
list, but the only reason I'm still watching at this point is because it would
feel silly to drop it this close to the end.
Where To Stream It Now: Nowhere that I can find.
97. Four Weddings and a Funeral
Limited Series (I watched all of it)
What: A group of 20 and 30-something
friends go through a series of RomCom clichés over several years.
Why: This is Mindy Kaling's love letter
to RomComs. I enjoy RomComs. I enjoy Mindy Kaling. That's a perfect marriage by
my math. It makes a terrific case for why RomComs work best as 90 minute
movies. Still, I'm a sucker for a winsome, attractive cast of characters whose
greatest concern is finding love in this crazy world. It's the definition of disposable
TV, and I'm OK with that.
Where To Stream It Now: Hulu
A Few More
There are three more shows that will make my top 100 cut that still haven’t
ended. I want to get this out now though.
*. The Mandalorian
Seasons 1 [Ongoing] (I will watch all of it)
What: After a dangerous mission leaves
an intergalactic bounty hunter with precious cargo, he takes whatever jobs he
can find while outrunning the bounty now on his own head.
Why: It’s taken over 40 years to
finally get a proper Star Wars TV series, and thankfully, Disney didn’t
aim too high. The Mandalorian is a simple series, full of Star Wars
flavor, expanding the universe in small ways. And, it doesn’t matter if “Baby
Yoda” is pandering. He sure is cute.
Where To Stream It Now: Disney+
*. Watchmen
Season 1 [The End?] (I will watch all of it)
What: 40 years after the events of the Watchmen
comics, this series picks up in Tulsa, OK.
Why: This is a solid marriage of Damon
Lindelof’s previous two projects. It has the perspective and sadness of The
Leftovers and the deep mythology of LOST. Not surprisingly, I loved
the worldbuilding in Watchmen, but I often found the need for Sparknotes
to be a deterrent. For people who are already familiar with the story or are
prone to intense fandom, this is overflowing with details and new perspectives.
It’s a little unforgiving for anyone trying to be a more casual fan of the
show. I guess that is my way of saying it’s an excellent sequel and “only” a
very good stand-alone series. I’m pretty much always going to enjoy a Damon
Lindelof series, I’ve determined. Especially if it’s starring Regina King.
Where To Stream It Now: HBO Now
*. His Dark Materials
Season 1 [Ongoing] (I will watch all of it)
What: A fantasy series about a parallel world
to our own, following one girl caught in the middle of a sort of government
conspiracy.
Why: His Dark Materials is a great example of how there’s just no pleasing me. I just complained
about Watchmen taking too little time to hold my hand, and now I’m going
to complain that His Dark Materials spends too much time hand-holding. I
suppose the difference is that I’ve read the His Dark Materials books
and I’ve never read Watchmen. This series has a dense mythology that’s
fairly hard to explain without sounding like an exposition dump. This BBC
co-production is very handsomely made. It looks expensive. The cast is top
notch. I especially like Lin-Manuel Miranda’s slyer take on Aeronaut Lee
Scoesby. This doesn’t fill the Game of Thrones-sized hole in HBO’s
schedule, but it’s an enjoyable enough fantasy adventure. Especially once the
story gets going. And it benefits so much by simply being better than the 2007
attempt at a feature film that literally killed a major studio*.
*To be fair, the movie actually did quite well overseas. The problem is,
New Line Cinema sold off the international right to help fund the movie,
banking on it being a hit in the US. It was not, because the movie just
couldn’t fit the story into a 2hr package. Also, I stand by Nicole Kidman as
the best casting for Mrs. Coulter, although Ruth Wilson isn’t bad.
Where To Stream It Now: HBO Now
Next 10 Cuts
In no particular order, (and because apparently 100 shows isn’t enough for
me) these shows barely missed my cut.
Westworld
I loved the production value. I quickly stopped caring about the repetitive
philosophical discussions and narrative trickery.
Legion
It was prone to getting too far up its own ass stylistically in seasons 2
and 3. Occasionally though, the results were scenes or sequences I’d rewatch
several times to marvel at. It’s nice to have this trippy extension of the Marvel
universe out there.
The Pacific
Falling just short of Band of Brothers is nothing to sneeze at. If
HBO ever brings the same level of care and star-power to World War I then I’ll
be helpless against it from becoming a favorite series of mine.
UnREAL
The first season of this Lifetime scripted-take on Reality Dating shows was
incredible and had me ready to look at Lifetime as this decade’s AMC. Then
season 2 was a mess. And season 3. And season 4, which they dumped on Hulu.
Such a massive letdown.
True Detective
The first season was a near perfect mix of writer, director, and stars.
Then the writer decided he didn’t need the director in seasons 2 and 3, which
exposed how delicate the balance was early on. Still, the show gave a
peak-McConaissance performance, a knife-throwing Rachel McAdams, and a
lost-in-time Mahershala Ali.
Bates Motel
A show I cared about entirely because of the performances. It will take
years for Freddie Highmore to shake the typecasting brought from this role.
Vera Farmiga is a boss. And, it gave me a healthy dose of Olivia Cooke.
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life
This would’ve been my favorite show of 2008. While it was nice to hang out
in Star Hollow again, this follow-up refused to allow any character growth in the
9 years that lapsed since the end of the series. I ended up feeling sadder for
the characters than pleased to see them again.
Transparent
This show about messy people started quite strong, but at some point, I
started to actively hate too many of the characters to be engaged by it.
When They See Us
It was a good decade for taking a fresh look at old injustices. Shows like American
Crime Story and When They See Us acted as scripted cousins of the
true crime boom and changed the perspective of familiar stories to make people
realize how truly fucked up the legal system can be.
The Vietnam War
After 18 hours, I feel like I could tell you the best road
to take from Saigon to Hanoi. Super in-depth Ken Burns and Lynn Novick
documentary series that leaves no stone left unturned.
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