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10. Mad Men (2007-present)
Creator: Matthew Weiner
Stars: Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, Bryan Batt, Michael Gladis, Aaron Staton, Rich Sommer, Robert Morse, John Slattery
Network: AMC
Unless you worked on Madison Avenue in the early 1960s, AMC’s first foray into original drama has all the otherworldliness of a foreign film. It’s easy to covet a time when working in an office meant sharp suits, free-flowing liquor and nary a computer screen or Blackberry to tie you down. It’s also easy to feel superior to the characters’ rampant racism and misogyny. But there’s something all too familiar at the heart of Mad Men—the failings of the powerful and petty never go out of style. Josh Jackson
9. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)
Creator: Joss Whedon
Stars: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Charisma Carpenter, David Boreanaz, Seth Green, Marc Blucas, Emma Caulfield, Michelle Trachtenberg, Amber Benson, James Marsters, Anthony Stewart Head
Networks: The WB, UPN
Buffy the Vampire Slayer had it all: Romance, drama, tragedy, suspense. The show took the teen-soap formula and elevated it to an art. It was a unique combination of tragic romance, apocalyptic fantasy and the clincher—emotional realism. It also featured the most serious and realistic depiction of human loss ever witnessed on the small screen (in “The Body,” dealing with the death of Buffy’s mom by natural causes). Humor? The writers understood the campy sheen that must accompany any show named Buffy. They also knew how to use snappy dialogue and uncomfortable situations to full effect. Complex characters? You’d be hard pressed to find another program that had the same range and consistency of character development. Everyone matured (or devolved) at his or her own realistic rate. As some feminist writers have argued, TV had never before seen the complexity of relationships among women that you saw with the likes of Buffy, Willow, Joyce and Dawn. Plot? The writers employed elaborate multi-episode, multi-season story arcs. People and events of the past always had a way of popping back up, the way they do in real life. Philosophy? Series creator Joss Whedon was all about the “meta”—the ideas and story behind the story. Each season had a driving concept, and he explored an astonishingly wide range of topics. Quick asides referencing Sartre or Aquinas were as at home as the pop-culture references. The show spawned an active academic community around it (see “Buffy studies” at Wikipedia.org). Whedon wanted his heroine to be iconic. As he put it, “I wanted people to embrace it in a way that exists beyond, ‘Oh, that was a wonderful show about lawyers; let’s have dinner.’” He succeeded, creating a WB/UPN show that bears closer resemblance to the works of Dostoevsky and Kafka than 90210 or Dawson’s Creek. Tim Regan-Porter
8. Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009)
Creators: Glen A. Larson (original), Ronald D. Moore, David Eick
Stars: Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, James Callis, Michael Hogan, Aaron Douglas, Tricia Heifer, Grace Park, Tahmoh Penikett
Network: Sci-Fi (SyFy)
Ronald D. Moore turned a cheesy ’70s show into a gritty, unflinching look at what it means to be human, and ended up with one of the best sci-fi series of all time. With the crew of Galactica encountering no aliens during its exodus, the show was free to pit religion against science, freedom against security and family against conscience—tensions with no easy answers. It’s an epic tale with few villains and fewer heroes—just flawed people fighting for survival. Josh Jackson
7. Lost (2004-present)
Creator: J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber, Damon Lindelof
Stars: Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Naveen Andrews, Michael Emerson, Terry O’Quinn, Josh Holloway, Jorge Garcia, Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim
Network: ABC
When J.J. Abrams first marooned his plane-crash survivors on a remote island, no one realized the show’s name was a double entendre: It took crowd-sourced blogs to make sense of all the hidden clues, relevant connections, time shifts and intertwined storylines, and each season has given us far more questions than answers. But there’s something refreshing about a network TV show that trusts the mental rigor of its audience instead of dumbing everything down to the lowest common denominator. Sometimes it’s good to be a little lost. Josh Jackson
6. The Sopranos (1999-2007)
Creator: David Chase
Stars: James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Dominic Chianese, Steven Van Zandt, Tony Sirico, Robert Iler
Network: HBO
For eight years, James Gandolfini crawled deep inside the complexities of Tony Soprano—loving father, son and husband, goodhearted friend, master of sardonic one-liners (“How do you vandalize a pool?”), troubled psych patient, serial adulterer, mob boss and brutal, remorseless killer—inspiring as much dumbfounded loathing and shuddering sympathy as any character in TV history. Murderers aren’t one-dimensional; they have feelings, aspirations, justifications, families. The Sopranos brilliantly and believably explored this dynamic, turning the crime-drama on its head and taking dysfunction to the extreme in the process. As unfathomable as their world was, the characters of this tragic, beautifully arcing modern epic were so real that they became like family to us, too. Steve LaBate
5. The Office BBC (2001-2003); NBC (2005-present)
Creators: Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant
Stars: BBC: Ricky Gervais, Martin Freeman, Mackenzie Crook, Lucy Davis, Oliver Chris, Patrick Baladi, Stacey Roca, Ralph Ineson, Stirling Gallacher; NBC: Steve Carell
John Krasinski, Rainn Wilson, Jenna Fischer, B. J. Novak, Oscar Nunez, Brian Baumgartner, Angela Kinsey, Ed Helms, Creed Bratton, Phyllis Smith, Leslie David Baker, Kate Flannery, Mindy Kaling, Paul Lieberstein
Ricky Gervais’ immortal Britcom deserves full marks for establishing this comedy franchise that killed the laugh track and introduced us to a hilarious bunch of paper-pushing mopes. Defying expectations that it would pale in comparison, NBC’s Office has become an institution unto itself. At its best, the American version is just as awkward as its predecessor, while showing a lot more heart than the gang could muster in sooty old England. Nick Marino
4. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (1996-present)
Creators: Madeleine Smithberg, Lizz Winstead
Stars: Jon Stewart, Samantha Bee, Jason Jones, John Hodgman, John Oliver, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Rob Corddry, Ed Helms
Network: Comedy Central
Amidst the madness and absurdity of the post-9/11 world, as the old-standby TV-news anchors retired or passed away, young America was looking for its new Cronkite, Rather, Jennings or Brokaw. Into this void, improbably, stepped comedian Jon Stewart and his band of brilliantly deadpan correspondents. While The Daily Show never really claimed to be more than a satirical faux-news show, it is so much more, offering the smartest, most unflinching social commentary on television. Steve LaBate
3. The West Wing (1999-2006)
Creator: Aaron Sorkin
Stars: Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, Bradley Whitford, Richard Schiff, Rob Lowe, Stockard Channing, Joshua Malina, John Spencer, Dulé Hill
Network: NBC
Television’s quintessential political drama began in the Clinton era, soldiered on through Bush and 9/11, and ended in the earliest days of the Age of Obama. Weirdly, the show’s political climate was more stable than reality itself. And maybe that was its appeal. The West Wing showed us government not as it was, but as it could be—a White House run by quippy, tireless, big-hearted public servants who believed in governing with decency. President Josiah Bartlet would give any of his real-life counterparts a run for their money. Nick Marino
2. The Wire (2002-2008)
Creator: David Simon
Stars: Dominic West, Lance Reddick, Sonja Sohn, Idris Elba, Domenick Lombardozzi, Ellis Carver, Andre Royo, Wendell Pierce, Rhonda Pearlman
Network: HBO
Series mastermind David Simon conceived The Wire as a modern Greek tragedy, a morality play set in a drug-infested urban war zone where conventional good guys and bad guys barely exist. Everyone is conflicted and compromised. We didn’t need The Wire to remind us that “the system”—the criminal justice system, the political system, the education system—is broken. But no other cultural enterprise (and certainly no television show) has shown us precisely how the infrastructure has collapsed, forcing us to consider the impossible decisions required for repair. Amidst the rubble of a failed city, Simon created an engrossing human drama about the eternal struggle between aspiration and desperation, ambition and resignation—in other words, the fight for the American Dream. Nick Marino
1. Arrested Development (2003-2006)
Creator: Mitch Hurwitz
Stars: Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Portia de Rossi, Tony Hale, David Cross, Michael Cera, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, Alia Shawkat, Ron Howard
Network: Fox
Mitch Hurwitz’ sitcom about a “wealthy family who lost everything and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together” debuted six weeks after Two and a Half Men, but never gathered the audience to keep the show alive. Still, Hurwitz packed a whole lot of awesome into three short seasons. How much awesome? Well, there was the chicken dance, for starters. And Franklin’s “It’s Not Easy Being White.” There was Ron Howard’s spot-on narration, and Tobias Funke’s Blue Man ambitions. There was Mrs. Featherbottom and Charlize Theron as Rita, Michael Bluth’s mentally challenged love interest. Not since Seinfeld has a comic storyline been so perfectly constructed, with every loose thread tying so perfectly into the next act: The Oedipal Buster spiting his mother Lucille by dating her friend Lucille, and eventually losing his hand to a hungry loose seal; George Michael crushing on his cousin only to have the house cave in when they finally kiss; the “Save Our Bluths” campaign trying to simultaneously rescue the family and rescue the show from cancellation. Arrested Development took self-referencing postmodernism to an absurdist extreme, jumping shark after shark, but that was the point. They even brought on the original shark-jumper—Henry Winkler—as the family lawyer. And when he was replaced, naturally, it was by Scott Baio. Each of the Bluth family members was among the best characters on television, and Jason Bateman played a brilliant straight man to them all. The show was canned three years ago. Meanwhile, Two and a Half Men is still trotting out new episodes. What the hell is wrong with you, America? Josh Jackson
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Without Six Feet Under, this list has no legitimacy whatsoever . . .
I usually enjoy Kate Kiefer's writing in Paste, but this time she provided just enough comic relief. Twice.
And I agree: Where's Six Feet Under?
I do wish Six Feet Under was on this list, easily my number one. But I must applaud Paste for probably being the only list of greatest shows of this decade that will come out that won't have The Sopranos at #1.
Sadly, Six Feet Under was the last thing knocked off the list to make room for Dexter. I agree that it was a great show. Maybe we should have rounded up to 21?
Great list, but the absence of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is conspicuous.
Gee, except for Buffy, Lost and the occasional Comedy Central show, I've never watched any of these. The biggest reason is I just can't afford to pay for premium TV on top of the standard outragious cable bill. I think there should be separate catagories, emmys included, for network vs cable programs.
Agreed. I think I'm going to shoot myself in the face. I love "The Office" and "The West Wing" but you lack a college education or something if you honestly think it's better than "The Sopranos." Norman Mailer once proclaimed it was the only television show that approached the depth of a novel, and he was right. (This came before, I assume, he saw saw "The Wire.")
I haven't seen "Six Feet Under," but, judging by its reputation, it deserves a spot on this list.
I also ask: Where the heck is "My So-Called Life?" That show was unbelievably good.
Back to "Sopranos": Look, I'm not demanding it be placed at No. 1. There's some novelty to keeping "Arrested Development" there (another show I have not seen). But, Christ. C'mon. Dunder f---ing Mifflin is better than Tony?
Kill your television.
Except for 30 Rock. And Fringe.
i realize its been said but six feet under was the most beautifully shot, amazingly written and heartbreaking show that i have personally ever seen.
it seems by your list that you are looking for shows that were revolutionary, trend setting etc. which is great. i don't like buffy but i understand why its here. although again, the way six feet under made its audience rethink about the meaning of death is revolutionary in itself.
i realize that it has been said but i must say again how much i believe that six feet under should be on this list, and close to the top.
it has got to be the most beautiful written, amazingly shot and most heartbreaking show that has ever grazed television.
and i understand that many shows on here are here because they are revolutionary or trend setting. i appreciate why buffy is included here even though i highly dislike the actual show.
although plain and simply, six feet under made its audience rethink what death meant. a concept that is revolutionary in itself.
i realize that it has been said but i must say again how much i believe that six feet under should be on this list, and close to the top.
it has got to be the most beautiful written, amazingly shot and most heartbreaking show that has ever grazed television.
and i understand that many shows on here are here because they are revolutionary or trend setting. i appreciate why buffy is included here even though i highly dislike the actual show.
although plain and simply, six feet under made its audience rethink the meaning of death. a concept that is revolutionary in itself.
Thanks for the explanation Josh, but SFU had no business being as low as #21. Awesome show.
...and what about "The Shield"?
Dexter over Six Feet Under? Please, without Six Feet Under, Dexter wouldn't even be on the map! Deadwood? (Great acting! HORRIBLE writing.)
Firefly was a great TV show that was cancelled pre-maturely.
Boston Legal? Survivor (you let in news commentary shows & not reality TV?)
I sure hope these "Best of" lists aren't taking time away from you finding new material. Please don't send me a year end issue of your top 50 Best of Lists!
Also, I am reminded of your #1 album of 2008 She & Him. LOL! you still standing by that?!? LOL.
Rock Out Friday Night Lights - such an underrated show.
As with any "best of" list, of course there will always be shows people think deserve to be there in place of other ones that shouldn't. It's all highly subjective, but I always find it fun to read why people think their fave shows are the best.
You included lots of my faves, so I'm a happy camper.
And Cribbster, while I agree My So-Called Life was an amazing show, it was made in the 90s, and therefore does not qualify for this list.
It's important to leave an obvious choice off the list in order to generate more comments.
Thus, the exclusion of Six Feet Under, the defining show of the decade. (Could Dexter have happened without it??)
Sports Night
Sports Night. Comedy/Drama at its best.
A very good list. Provocative and fair-minded with the understanding that making people genuinely laugh is infinitely more difficult than immersing them into drama. Keep up the good work.
Sports Night was indeed a great show... from the Nineties.
WHY IS VERONICA MARS NOT ON HERE? I DEMAND AN ANSWER.
Okay, now you need to do a 20 Best You Tube videos list, starting with the laughing baby:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HttF5HVYtlQ
I agree Six Feet Under should at least be in the top 5.
Where is House? Definitely deserves it more than Buffy . . . seriously.
I agree with most of these. I just would have put Milch's Deadwood higher.
Here's a write-up I did a few weeks ago on Milch's under-rated, under-seen pre-Deadwood series BIG APPLE: http://mediumprimitivecool.blogspot.com/2009/10/big-apple-underrated-underseen-gem-of.html
Top three are pretty decent. But then it starts to tail off. Buffy? Good god. After that, I halfway expected to see Smallville, Fringe or better yet Raven. ;)
I actually agree with most of the selections here, if not the order...but I seriously can't believe Family Guy is on here and not Six Feet Under.
And those that are shocked at Buffy's inclusion (especially when they try to compare it to Smallville. SERIOUSLY?!?) clearly aren't very familiar with the show. Buffy is a classic example of a show being MUCH more than it appears on the surface. It definitely deserves to be on this list. Much more so than Family Guy and Friday Night Lights.
What about House? Come on...HOUSE!
Good list but Six Feet Under and Rescue Me are the big omissions. Family Guy and Friday Night Lights should come off in favor of those two. Both good shows but Six Feet Under and Rescue Me are simply better in my opinion.
When I saw Family Guy on the list, I should have been leery. The first two seasons were pretty good, but its been essentially primates flinging poo ever since.... Hell, American Dad on its worst day is better than Family Guy on its best day.
Im not going to ever get into the whole South Park vs. Family Guy debacle, or where South Park and The Simpsons are on your list....
I will give you points for putting Battlestar Galactica on the list, but if youre going to look out into space for great Television.... where the FRELL is Farscape???? It is quite possibly one of the greatest television shows to ever dance across the cathode ray tube.
Damages
Rescue Me
The Shield
Come on, Freaks and Geeks? Arrested Development?
It's Always Sunny should be right up there with arrested development.
I can understand some of the choices for this list but its the ones not on the list that got me.
Where is.....
CSI
CSI: Miami
Prison Break
The Unit
NCIS
The Simpsons
ER
Law & Order SVU
I have watched the viewer ratings, and at least one of the three CSI series would be on this list, so this list is wrong...
I have watched the viewer ratings, and at least one of three CSI series would be on this list, so this is wrong...
Arrested is to Comedy as Six Feet Under is to Drama? Where the fokkin hell is it?
Decent list, but again without Six Feet Under, lacking judgement.
But... This list should really be renamed the best "American" tv shows of the decade. American cable television isn't the only place creating good tv.
Good list with typical quibbles. But, as good as Arrested Development is, it is a sin to put the Wire #2. This is probably the greatest show in the history of television, and I am not exaggerating.This is held by many critics and viewers. AD is one of the better comedies of all time, but The Wire would get many more votes than anything on this list as the best show ever made.
But, I know where the bias is. Josh is the editor. Josh loves AD and as one that follows Josh on twitter, I know he had not finished the entire The Wire as of a couple of months ago.
Josh, have you finished The Wire?
Also it is easier to make sure everyone has watched AD than survived The Wire. I demand a recount.
Would have included Veronica Mars, but overall, a good list.
Great list! But Grey's Anatomy should have been on the list in my opinion.
this was a pretty good List but Veronica Mars is a major ommission that is better then alot of the shows on here.
Ive never seen Six feet under but i will definitly check it out based on the comments here
Good list overall, but frankly, Weeds is total shit. I'd be surprised if the writers have ever smoked pot, or met black people before casting the series. I tried to like this show, but the ho-hum drive-by shooting in the first season was just too much. These characters are not real, not even close. Weeds sucks. Replace it with Six Feet Under, and replace Buffy with--anything else, and you've got a near-perfect list.
Wow. No mention of 24. 24 and Six Feet Under along with The Shield deserve to be on this list ahead of shows like Battlestar Galactica, Freaks and Geeks,
Weeds is great, it's also on Showtime. Not HBO.
Family Guy on HBO?!??
Awesome list and I couldn't agree more!! I would have put Dexter at #1, though. Best show on TV. Arrested Development was awesome - should never have been canceled. The Office, LOST, there's nothing like them.
Gotto give a shout out to Keith Carradine for playing a major role in 2 out of the 20 shows: Dexter and Deadwood.
Thanks for making this list and validating the thoughts of all of us who appreciate amazing writing and edge-pushing TV.
Six Feet Under should be on the list. The best I've ever seen!!!!
I'm glad to see Dexter!
Lost?! Come on!!! I used to be a fan... but the writers became completely LOST. Very sad.
What the this list is ridiculous no Six Feet Under!!!
Seriously I am appauled!!
Six Feet Under is more than the best show in this decade!!
It's one of the best shows of ALL TIME!! This show is a major disservice to Six Feet Under!!! I'm angry.
six feet under is one of my favorite shows. its like you all read my mind.
1. agreed with everyone on Six Feet Under. What is wrong with you people?
2. Dexter was only good in the first season.
3. Family Guy is awful.
4. Lost is terrible now, and has been for several seasons.
5. Mad Men should be higher than #10.
6. Deadwood should be higher. Well, maybe not, but not because it's not an incredible show-- only because it doesn't have an ending. Bummer.
7. Yay for Friday Night Lights! I'm with you on that one.
This list isn't very good.
wow this was the worst list of tv shows i have seen in my entire life
Great to see Lost up so high. Those saying it has gotten terrible obviously have not watched the last two seasons.
I agree, where is Six Feet Under ??? Must be a mistake...
I agree, where is Six Feet Under ??? Must be a mistake...
And if you put Buffy in the 2000's, it's missing OZ too, what about The Shield ? or Carnivale ?
Strange list. No Sixth Feet Under?
Agree with most of the comments. Tough to make a top 20 list and put Colbert Report and Daily Show on it when they are essentially the same show.
I would have liked to have seen the following on the list or at least some kind of honorable mention:
Six Feet Under
24
Rescue Me
The Shield
Survivor (based on your reasoning w/ some of the others this re-wrote the book on reality TV)
Agreed. The list is meaningless without the inclusion of Six Feet Under.
There is a SERIOUS lack of credibility with the individuals who created this list.
I simply can't believe Six Feet Under was left off this list. It's almost laughable. It is hands down one of the best shows that has ever been on the air. EVER.
it's pretty much a shame this list has no "six feet under." very much agreed that it's hard to even take it seriously. there is also no "south park."
with all this anger over the exclusion of 'Six feet under', I got to check this show out...
Overall good list cept I think The Office (US) is too high. no.s 20, 18, 15 shows I have not seen, cannot judge.
We can all agree on one thing, there have been some great tv shows this decade imo.
What no Firefly, ATHF, the Venture Bros.? It just doesnt seem right. though the one thing that saves the list is arrested development at number one.
omg where is F.R.I.E.N.D.S. ??? they were awesome!! lol
Where is prison break this is a joke
Without The Shield -- arguably the best-acted and most well-written series of the last decade -- occupying at least a Top 4 slot here, this list has no credibility. And Six Feet Under surely belongs in a Top 15 or better. Try again.
where is prison break??
Like everyone else says: Where is Six Feet Under?
What about the Shield, Six Feet Under, Rescue Me? American Idol, even? Guess you had to make room for your "Liberal Agenda" with the Daily Show and Colbert. Here's a show I'm sure you'll enjoy... #1 on my list The Glenn Beck Show.
Descent list, but something is seriously wrong. As I scrolled down I just waited to see 'Six Feet Under' at #1...but then it wasn't there at all?!?! I am happy so many other viewers also react. Perhaps some of the people reading this will check it out if they haven't seen it. I am a VERY picky movie/show viewer, but Six Feet Under hit me very deep. It touches you at an emotional and humane level unlike anything else. The acting is outstanding. Dialogue, script, directing, everything is perfect. Wish it had kept going forever, however the extraordinarily amazing finale made up for it all.
Even though I consider myself a communist (not in the Soviet sense), I still think 24 should be up there. Never mind if the thrills and suspense are cryptofascist - it's still captivating. And The Wire and Sopranos should have got exemplary statuses - medals of honor, not just a place in your unimportant list that tells more about the journo than art on TV. They will be remembered in 50 years time, unlike Arrested Development (I had my dose of weird rich folks with 'Dallas'). The Shield should be there too.
I was unimpressed with Six feet under, but it is rated so high by other people that I can't help but take their word for it. I really like this list, probably cause the three best shows on it are my three favorites. If you think Sopranos is better than The West Wing, Arrested or The Wire, you don't know much about much
No offense but how could someone be unimpressed with six feet under. My guess is it wasnt watched in its entirety. I have seen many tv shows. All on the list. And six feet under is without question the best tv drama i have ever seen. Michael C Hall is amazing along with every member of the cast. And the finale is what other tv dramas can only judge their own performance on and hope to achieve.
This is a good list, although I would have ranked some things differently. Six Feet Under definitely should have been higher than #21, and I would have ranked Dexter higher as well. Arrested was great, but by the third season the writing had seriously deteriorated. I would not have put it at #1, or in the top 5 for that matter. And kudos for recognizing the quality drama that is Battlestar Galactica!