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Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~

Oasx posted:

Why wouldn’t you want to rank them?

All shows are equal, I'm a communist :ussr:

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CeeJee
Dec 4, 2001
Oven Wrangler
20: Bunheads
Such a joy to watch, any random episode is fun to rewatch on its own and still has little new things to discouver like a
vicious dig at Scott Rudin long before it was the hip thing to do. There is also the incredible work done to shoot long, one take
dance scenes in a ballet studio that is all mirrors. With kid actors whose hours are extremely short and on a tiny budget.
Amy Sherman-Palladino has some podcast interviews on making the show that are fascinating. I chose this over Maisel which has
somewhat drifted from the core characters to staging elaborate period scenes.

19: Derry Girls
Rather then choosing between Bunheads and this, I just put them both on. It's a top 20 after all. Again, a show that will
be enjoyable again and again.

18:Legends of Tomorrow
After season 1 I would never have guessed this would end up here. But the Time Idiots pulled it off against all odds and logic
as they always do. In all these silly characters they developed depth and growth that the other CW DC shows never managed.

17:Justified
Quite possibly the coolest show ever. Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins played off each other perfectly in the tales of crime and punishment
in Harlan County, Where the sun comes up about ten in the mornin' And the sun goes down about three in the day a hard place where hard men
and women do what they can to survive. And barely anyone leaves Harlan alive.

16:Spartacus
Hidden beneath all the sex and blood is one of the best written shows I've ever watched. Every major character has a crystal
clear motivation for their actions and everything is driven by those actions in a believable (in the show world) way. At its core the love
between Batiatus and Lucretia which drives it all which is beautiful in a way. Tragedy robbed the show of its star but it was able to carry
on with how strong it was as a whole.

15:The 100
Now the final lever was pulled it managed to end in a satisfying way, no small feat considering how it has ended the world the characters lived
in several times. After a weak opening this show became a roller coaster with stakes being raised all the time and hard choices embraced instead
of being avoided.

14:Arcane
A 2021 only show, I loved this so much it had to be on the list. The animation, the voice casting, the characters, the storyline, it gripped me
from start to finish. A show to get close to the screen for to take it all in fully.


13:Orphan Black
Tatiana Maslany playing two dozen distinct characters or variations of them was amazing to watch and made the rest of the show almost irrelevant.
Had the rest been a little better this would have been a top 10 show for sure. For now I honour the show and can't wait for She-Hulk.


12:The Expanse
Of all the shows that are currently on, I'm going to miss this one the most, more then some higher on the list. Getting to fly with the Roci
is always a blast and while this show was resurrected by getting patronage from King Bezos it still will leave us too soon. So many stories left untold.
Why not move half a percent of the budget from Wheel of Time ? Whyyyyy ?


11:Better Call Saul
A great show that could have been as good as BB or better but is held back by wanting to have its cake and eating it too by having
too many characters from BB that are both hard to accept as younger versions of those characters and lack stakes as their fate is set in stone.
Give me a Kim Wexler spin off and it's a sure top 5 entry.

10:Dark
German Precision Story Engineering ! A wildly complex show which does pull it off in a way that feels natural. Their refusal to put
any of their actors in old/young person makeup or use CGI age changing for portraying their characters 33 years apart was a brave one and cannot
have been easy. Although they did cheat a little with having two children of actors playing their young selves. Seeing a new character appear and
instantly recognize them as an old/young known one was great. And sometimes they could not find the right one but hey, some people change a lot
in 33 years. Having experienced German TV shows as either plodding slow krimis or dumb action seeing this was also a sign that the Germans had arrived
on the big TV show stage.

9:Banshee
A brutal and gripping crime drama set far away from the cities they usually take place. One of many budget driven choices of the show which all
come together wonderfully to prove sometimes Less Is More. Barely known (cheap) actors from New Zealand and Denmark, barely known (cheap) directors
from Europe, some vacant (cheap) buildings in a small town and you can make a great show for pennies. A rewatch after watching The Boys is also
useful to appreciate the brilliance of Antony Starr whose often subtle performance got somewhat lost between the more outlandish characters sharing the screen.

8:The Thick Of It
The Peter Capaldi Verbal Abuse Show, it's Yes Minister for the new century and again the most useful lesson in how politics works.

7:Game of Thrones
Like the euology of a sports star, let's not dwell too much on the last years of the deceased. Let's celebrate the early years of triumph and glory, when
GoT was something to look forward to, when every episode generated as much discussion as other shows did over multiple seasons. When this poo poo was good, it
was REALLY good and nothing can take that away, not even the show itself. Or how every appearance of a GoT star now in a movie is a warning it's going to be poo poo.

6:Chernobyl
The scariest horror show in history.


5:The Genius
If you see some of the twists and turns it's hard to believe there is not a team of very talented writers who worked very hard to come up with this.


4:The Leftovers
At first I hated this. But the frustration was exactly how it was intended, the state all the characters in the show were in looking for answers and explanations
that were not coming. And living in the world of today it only has become more clear how brilliantly this show captures the effects of a global crisis.

3:Succession
A master class in acting, writing and production. Shows about rich assholes are as old as TV itself but this takes it to the next level. I shudder to think
how much it costs to get to use that yacht, that fleet of luxury helicopters everytime the Roys mount an invasion into an enemy stronghold or those NYC appartments.
The performances are just as extravagant, showing off a wealth in quality like a Russian oligarch showing off his diamond encrusted cellphone. This talent could sustain
a dozen other shows and they are hoarding it all, it's an outrage.


2:The Crown
Speaking of shows with an absurdly talented cast, this one is every bit as good as Succession and I rate it slightly higher as its story actually progresses as it is driven
by historical events. And every new season finds brilliant new cast members from that seemingly infinte pool of British talent. And it's the minor characters that
get a chance to shine. Pip Torrens, Alex Jennings, Erin Doherty, Emma Corrin, Jane Lapotaire, all are outside the direct main cast but shine brightly.


1: Breaking Bad
No need to add anything to everything said already about BB, it's a stellar achievement on any level you look at it.

Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~
Yeah I'm really tempted to edit my list again to fit Arcane in. It's the best animation thing I've ever seen

Looten Plunder
Jul 11, 2006
Grimey Drawer

Escobarbarian posted:

I only have two more entries to write so I am now sure I’ll get it in time for tomorrow night. But jesus, this is exhausting! How do you do it so much, Jerusalem?

The deadline is rather arbitrary as I'm not going to have time to do a countdown write up in time for a reveal tomorrow and that is the last day I can do until Friday (Australia time), but hurry up and get your poo poo in as I want to stop the count so I can start to officially tally up everything.

Edit: Oh, I've just looked at a timezone converter, it appears you have another 12+ hours anyway.

Looten Plunder fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Jan 10, 2022

Looten Plunder
Jul 11, 2006
Grimey Drawer

CeeJee posted:

8:The Thick Of It
The Peter Capaldi Verbal Abuse Show, it's Yes Minister for the new century and again the most useful lesson in how politics works.

The fourth season of this was in 2012 so it's eligable but the bulk of this show was 2005-2009. You good with that?

Open Source Idiom
Jan 4, 2013
This was pretty fun.

Would people be keen to do something like this again, but for the noughties? I'd be pretty keen to read people's thoughts about that decade too.

Looten Plunder
Jul 11, 2006
Grimey Drawer
Are you trying to break me? I've still gotta get done with these two polla.

We'll see how this goes but yeah. Maybe next year. Would need to give Terriers some love and ensure it includes 2010 as well though.

Would also need to consider the amount of crossover that would place take place with the likes of Mad Men and Breaking Bad likely domination both lists.

Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~
I dunno if they'd dominate so much if the Wire and the Sopranos were in the mix

BetterLekNextTime
Jul 22, 2008

It's all a matter of perspective...
Grimey Drawer

Looten Plunder posted:

Are you trying to break me? I've still gotta get done with these two polla.

We'll see how this goes but yeah. Maybe next year.

On the one hand, I'd say the sooner the better so I actually have some chance of remembering what I watched 15-20 years ago. But on the other hand, the longer we wait the more chance I'll have to watch some of the great shows of that decade.

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
Quick note: I forgot to do that “only seasons that aired in the last decade count” thing and simply judged the shows by their entire run. Oops!

Looten: I put the full list at the bottom, so you don’t have to tally it up as you go.


Honourable mentions (or “how to turn your top 20 into a top 30”):

Better Things (FX, 2016-present)
The first two seasons of this were incredible and then CK got outed and shitcanned and it somehow got even better. Pamela Adlon is phenomenally talented, and her singular voice means there was never any danger of this show becoming Louie 2.0. TV’s best-ever portrayal of motherhood.

BoJack Horseman (Netflix, 2014-2020)
After one of the roughest starts ever this show delivered a perfect blend of goofy hijinks, brutal Hollywood satire, and thoughtful takes on depression, family trauma, and a multitude of other heavy subjects every year. Not a lot of shows are this funny; very few are this hard-hitting.

Chernobyl (HBO, 2019)
The best TV miniseries ever made? This look into the 1986 nuclear disaster, and the horrendous handling of its tragic aftermath, was one of the most draining and powerful stories on our screens in the past decade, with fantastic direction and script work and bravura central performances. Moving bits of card around on a board has never been so intense.

Fargo (FX, 2014-present)
Okay, taking this one out REALLY hurt. Seasons 1 and 2 are near-perfect seasons of television, and season 3 is no slouch either - they’re all beautifully strange crime stories with killer casts and strong thematic backbones. Season 4 isn’t bad, really, and it has a lot of great individual scenes, but the lack of cohesion really drags it down and takes this show juuuuuust out of the top 20 in a way 2015 me would beat me up for.

Halt and Catch Fire (AMC, 2014-17)
Although it started off trying a little too hard to be 80s Mad Men with computers, by the end of the first season the show had found its voice and gave us an excellent character drama with so much to say about the joy of collaboration and invention. And each of the five main characters was phenomenally well-drawn, with the show finding seemingly the exact perfect actor for each of them. Wins the award for “Show I most owe a rewatch”.

How To With John Wilson (HBO, 2020-present)
Hey, New York. John Wilson - a guy who has filmed seemingly everything that’s ever happened to him for forever - teams up with Nathan Fielder and his crew for an insane mix of curious documentary and unpredictable, frequently unbelievable interactions with the craziest people America has to offer. Has made me belly laugh while my skin simultaneously crawled, cry at Avatar fanatics on Christmas Day, and write a lot of effusive tweets.

Justified (FX, 2010-15)
Extremely cool crime drama based on cool Elmore Leonard stories with the cool Timothy Olyphant as a cool US Marshal and the also cool Walton Goggins as a cool crime lord as their lives intertwine with various other cool villainous figures in cool Harlan County, KY. In one episode Olyphant throws a bullet at someone and then says “Next one’s comin’ faster.” That’s so cool!!!!

Parks and Recreation (NBC, 2009-15)
This show has been talked to death and everyone loves it so I don’t think this bit needs to be too long. It’s Parks and Rec! Ron Swanson! Leslie Knope! Chris Pratt when he was still really likeable! It’s really cool and funny with one of the best ensemble sitcom casts ever collected.

The OA (Netflix, 2016-19)
I didn’t watch season 1 originally because it sounded like hippy-dippy nonsense and that one scene that went viral looked insanely stupid. Turns out it was extremely powerful and beautiful hippy-dippy nonsense, with the viral scene working really well in context. The second season doubled down on all this weirdness and added a hefty dose of noir mystery, resulting in one of the most unique rides I’ve ever been taken on and among the saddest I’ve ever been about a show’s premature cancellation.

Watchmen (HBO, 2019)
While it’s impossible not to be trepidatious about any continuation to one of the great works of art of recent decades, putting Damon Lindelof - the creator of LOST and another show that will show up much, much later in this list…. - in charge of it went a long way to assuaging my fears. The result was an electric, hilarious, intense mix of moving social commentary, exciting superhero action, and a fitting expansion of the show’s universe. The best piece of fanfiction ever written.


Dishonourable mentions:
Horace and Pete (n/a, 2016)
Louie (FX, 2010-2015)


These two shows are both amazing. Horace and Pete especially is one of the best times I’ve ever had watching a show, and something that in another world I would never stop recommending to people. Both of them would have made the list easily…….but god drat, Louis CK is such a piece of poo poo, and his actions and subsequent attempts at returning to comedy have tainted his work for me so so badly. He really was one of the best to ever do it. Now he’s just another rear end in a top hat.

ok it’s time for the list!!!!!!!!!!



20. Mr. Robot (USA, 2015-19)

It’s not easy to remember now, but when this show debuted in 2015 it hit the scene like a god drat nuclear bomb - an intense mix of techno-thriller and mental illness drama, with a unique, striking visual style and an arresting lead performance from future Oscar winner Rami Malek, made for a show everyone was paying attention to. Interest slowly dropped as the series continued, with it seeming to be almost entirely forgotten by the fourth and final season, but this wasn’t reflected in the show itself, which seemed to only get better - and stranger - as it went on.

It would be easy to focus on the surreal nature of Mr. Robot, the techno-paranoia and anarchistic themes, and creator Sam Esmail’s stylistic bag of tricks, but it would never have been as effective if the human elements weren’t so phenomenal. Malek’s Elliot is a powerful, sad character, and without the web of connections that he’s in the centre of, with such excellent characters as Carly Chaikin’s Darlene, Grace Gummer’s Dom, and Christian Slater’s mentor/ghost/dad/mentor ghost dad titular character, all the interesting use of negative space and weird twists wouldn’t mean a thing. In that oft-ignored fourth season - the show’s best, in my opinion - it upended its status quo multiple times, but even when it was creating entire new universes it always came back to the characters’ wants and needs. Also, there was a romantic airport chase set to Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Run Away With Me”, and who could have a problem with that?



19. Barry (HBO, 2018-present)

Bill Hader has, for a very long time, been a reliably hilarious comedic performer who has elevated every piece of material he’s been given. But with this show, he showed that he’s not only a master of comedy, but of dramatic acting, writing, directing, co-showrunning……honestly, you could tell me he was the key grip and I’d believe you.

The basic premise - a detached hitman decides to try and make it in LA - is rife with comic potential, which Barry explores in great detail. But as funny as the show very often is, it’s the drama that takes the show to another level, most notably with Hader’s exploration of Barry’s sadness, attempts to connect, and occasional brutality. The first season seemed like a perfect one-and-done, with many (including me) skeptical about any further episodes, but season 2 shut us up by being better in literally every way - funnier, but even more gut-wrenching. The supporting cast are also incredible, from industry legends like Stephen Root and a never-better Henry Winkler to Sarah Goldberg as aspiring actress Sally and Anthony Carrington, the show’s breakout star, as enthusiastic mafioso NoHo Hank. Supposedly, the COVID delay means Hader and co-creator Alec Berg have already written two more seasons. It harms me that I can’t watch these episodes immediately.



18. Ted Lasso (Apple TV+, 2020-present)

It was the summer of 2020. Everyone was miserable: sick of lockdown (little did we know…..), sick of injustice, sick of US election news. We needed a pick-me-up, and thankfully, Jason Sudeikis was moustached up and ready to provide.

Adapted from a series of promos made to advertise NBC Sports’ acquisition of Premier League broadcast rights, the show kept the central conceit - an American football coach is hired to coach a soccer team in London, despite not knowing anything about the game - but tossed out the clueless idiot persona, reinventing Ted as a kind and empathetic figure who wants to bring out the best in everyone around him. This kindness - as well as a great cast of supporting characters, and an extremely well-told version of the underdog team trope - meant the first season was an unexpected and well-deserved smash hit. Sudeikis and co-creators (including Bill Lawrence, master of Emotional Sitcom Stuff) could have easily rested on their laurels for season 2, but instead they reached for the stars, creating a messy and controversial but HUGELY ambitious and effective second season that interrogated Ted’s style without lessening it, and gave most every other character a strong, powerful arc. Apple TV+ has become, over the past year and a bit, one of the best streaming services on the market, and this is their crown jewel.



17. The Americans (FX, 2013-18)

I’ve never had as much trouble getting into a show I ended up loving as this, starting and dropping it at least four times before finally powering through in time for the end of the decade. Looking back now, I’m really not sure what my issue was, because now all I can think of is how phenomenal it is.

The title is very inaccurate - the characters are Russian, not American! - but this story of KGB agents presenting themselves as a typical American family in DC has all the intensity and excitement of the best spy thrillers, while also being an incredible treatise on family, nationality, and the toll endless service can take. As fantastic as the writing is, this show would be absolutely nothing without the twin central performances from Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell, which rank among any list of the best TV performances of all time. Their chemistry is electric (they’ve been romantically involved since the first season), and the hurt, determination, and exhaustion they bring to their roles is never less than superlative. Although the show has some slight ebbs and flows, it ended with one of the greatest final seasons in years, and certainly the most intense since Breaking Bad’s. I haven’t even touched the insane secondary cast or fantastic filmmaking. Wow.



16. Review (Comedy Central, 2014-2017)

Let’s get this out of the way: Andy Daly is funnier than your favourite comedic actor. The man has, over a long career, consistently been the best and funniest thing about most things he’s appeared in, from Eastbound & Down to Comedy Bang! Bang! This is the only TV show he’s created (adapted, technically, from an Australian show), yet it’s also by far his best work, as he chronicled the downfall of ‘life reviewer’ Forrest MacNeil with horrific, hilarious detail.

MacNeil’s issue is that he is unable to say no to any viewer request, no matter how much it would cause his life to fall further into shambles, and over three seasons this escalated in so many wince-inducing ways that I wouldn’t dare spoil here, except to reveal the title of the third (and most acclaimed) episode: ‘Pancakes, Divorce, Pancakes’. It’s as dark as dark comedy gets, but it’s also genuinely gut-bustingly hilarious, both because of Forrest’s ridiculous interpretation of the requests and the supporting cast’s reactions to his insanity. This was an incredibly low-rated series - maybe the least-watched show on my list - and it’s a beautiful miracle that Comedy Central actually gave it a third season to wrap things up, even if it was unfortunately only three episodes. This is the best work by a comedy legend, and it deserves a lot more attention than it gets.



15. Hannibal (NBC, 2013-15)
God drat, that’s a bad tagline.

It’s not exactly news to any of us that dramas on US broadcast networks…..well……stink. There have been a great many exceptions, but even most of the good ones still followed a general formula or were fairly ‘safe’ for a lot of their run. But every so often, you get something like a LOST or a Person of Interest, which use this formula to tell a really good story (i mean i haven’t seen poi and don’t think i would like it but i generally trust the people who do). And even rarer than that are truly exemplary shows that break every rule and somehow manage to get airtime. Twin Peaks, perhaps others……and Bryan Fuller’s wildly violent, intensely gay masterpiece.

Certainly Hannibal started its run as a case of the week show - albeit a psychologically absorbing one where one of the investigators is secretly a murderous cannibal - but it didn’t take long to shed that skin and become one of the strangest and most brutal shows to ever see time on the Big Four. Focusing largely on the warped and strangely romantic relationship between Hugh Dancy’s sensitive profiler and the incomparable Mads Mikkelsen’s definitive version of the infamous cannibalistic psychiatrist, Fuller gave us three seasons of some of the most hauntingly beautiful images ever seen on television, while the storylines only got darker and also funnier assuming you’re a lunatic like me. It also got way more pretentious, which put some people off, but only gave me more of an appetite for this insanity. It is a minor miracle that this show ran for three seasons on literally NBC, and as long as Fuller keeps vaguely hinting at a possible continuation he’ll have me hooked.



14. Nathan For You (Comedy Central, 2013-17)

Nathan Fielder, and the show he hosts and co-created, are incredibly idiosyncratic, and somewhat hard to describe. The basic recipe is a fair amount of Sacha Baron Cohen, a dash of Andy Kaufman, a large helping of cringe comedy, mixed together the language of the most irritating marketing consultants. Bake for 350 at something something cooking metaphor, and you have one of the single funniest shows ever made, an unbelievably audacious send-up of business tactics and commercialism that took tricking the general public for comedy to a whole new level.

Each episode follows Fielder - a real business school graduate - as he pitches struggling businesses a variety of insane and outlandish ideas, with so much of the humour coming from how much the owners will put up with when the cameras are on. In an ideal world anyone reading this who hasn’t seen the show will click off right now and go in completely blind, but man……the forty maids, the gas rebate excursion, Smokers Allowed, The Banzai Predicament! The pet store grave! loving Dumb Starbucks! Every season has several episodes and moments that are among the funniest ever recorded and broadcast. Yet this isn’t even all the show has to offer, as several running jokes, such as Fielder’s social anxiety and a recurring terrible Bill Gates impersonator, culminate in “Finding Frances”, which continues the hilarity but is also a melancholic look at love and regret that also completely breaks down the already thin walls between the show’s reality and fiction.



13. Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon Network, 2014)

In a perfect world, I wouldn’t need to give any reasoning for this, because it would already be known as an Autumn classic that everyone sits down to watch when the leaves change. The only miniseries in my top 20 (depending on your definition of my first place show, anyway), Over the Garden Wall is a wonderful mix of Grimm Brothers fairy tales and Studio Ghibli’s ethereal beauty, filtered through the Adventure Time style of animation and humour, with art inspired by, among other things, 19th century board games, New England foliage, and chromolithography. It’s folksy, fantastic, and f…….FUCKIN GOOD OKAY.

Following a pair of half-brothers as they search for their way home in a mysterious world known only as The Unknown, creator Patrick McHale takes us through a great variety of supernatural, fascinating locations with hilarious and/or spooky side characters which flesh out this world brilliantly. But the show’s heart and humour really shine with the lead duo - Elijah Wood’s worry-wart Wirt and Collin Dean’s naive and earnest Greg. Add a gorgeous period-appropriate soundtrack and a voice cast with legends such as Christopher Lloyd, Tim Curry, and Melanie Lynskey, and you have yourself a genuine classic which I doubt I will ever tire of.



12. Fleabag (BBC Two/One, 2016-19)

As an official British Person, I feel obliged to tell you that most British TV is really loving poo poo. There are so many sitcoms especially that are considered classic by most people on this fucko island that are simply horrible. Even a lot of the ones I like can’t hold a candle to my favourite American shows. But every so often one comes along that is so funny and brilliant that it blows me out of the water and can easily go toe-to-toe with my favourite shows of all time. The original version of The Office is one. Fleabag is another.

Adapted by creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge from her own one-woman show (I’ve seen it. It’s good, but it’s about as “one-person show” as it gets, y’know?), Fleabag is a masterful look at sexuality and trauma, mixing constant belly laughs with heartbreaking drama expertly, while also being one of the best examples ever of fourth wall breaking in any piece of media. Waller-Bridge’s protagonist is phenomenal, but it speaks to her skills that the side characters are frequently even better and funnier, from Brett Gelman’s sleazy brother-in-law to Olivia Colman’s awful godmother-cum-stepmother - but the real star of the show is Sian Clifford as relentlessly uptight sister Claire, one of the funniest characters these damned isles have ever created. The first season was a brilliant tragicomedy, which would probably have been somewhere in my honourable mentions, but it’s thanks to the amazing second season that this show is this high, as Fleabag begins a dangerous friendship with a priest, which…..I mean, stop reading this and go watch it already! It’s on Prime in your country probably!



11. You’re the Worst (FX/FXX, 2014-19)

When I first watched You’re the Worst, it felt like creator Stephen Falk had dug around in my brain, found the exact version of my favourite style of comedy, and put it on the screen. So much of this show is the show I wish I could write: the insane balancing act of pessimistic, edgy tone with genuine heart and warmth, the powerful and nuanced character arcs, and above all the sheer amount of unbelievably hilarious lines, just line after line, every single episode, for five freaking seasons, oh my god. There were more than a few shows doing the “alt-romcom” thing in the mid-2010s, from New Girl to Married, but this was by far the best.

The series largely follows British writer/alcoholic Jimmy, who doesn’t believe in true love, and all-American hot mess Gretchen, who is terrified of it, as they attempt to overcome their myriad of issues and self-destructive tendencies and pursue something akin to a regular adult relationship. Already starting off on a strong note by being unbelievably funny and well-cast (Aya Cash gives one of the best performances of the decade as Gretchen and it’s insane it took until The Boys for her to get the attention she deserves), the series only went from strength to strength as it began to tackle heavier subjects such as depression, veteran’s issues, and grief, while never losing its acidic tone or absolute hilarity. If this show had been on Netflix from the go, I absolutely believe it would have acquired the word of mouth necessary to become a huge hit. I’m not sure who I need to fight about that one, but I truly hope these words inspire at least one person to pick this show up.

Escobarbarian fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Jan 10, 2022

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer

10. Community (NBC/Yahoo! Screen, 2009-2015)

There have been so many words written about Community on the internet over the past decade-plus that there’s really nothing I can bring to the table. At this point, anyone who’s likely to be reading this list will know all about it - the humble beginnings, the intensely ambitious and meta episodes that changed TV forever, the firing of divisive creator Dan Harmon, the largely dreadful season fourth without him before his insanely unlikely rehiring, and its cancellation and last-second resurrection for a final season on an otherwise unknown streaming service that closed its doors not long afterwards. The story of Community is full of hyperbole, slapfights, some unfortunate workplace harassment, and yes, a large dose of pretension, but the legacy of the show is a phenomenal one.

There’s a lot of things I think Community does as well or better than any other network sitcom in history. It very well might be the funniest show line-for-line that any of the Big Four have ever given us, thanks to Harmon’s intensive writer’s room, where every single line was agonised over. It’s definitely the equal of something like Cheers or NewsRadio when it comes to the lead ensemble, both as far as creating an amazing set of characters who play off each other well and casting some of the most insanely gifted comic performers in the industry, all of whom had incredible chemistry together, to play them. The first season of this show - which is just a sitcom about a group of misfits at a community college - was already one of my favourite sitcom seasons ever, and that’s before Harmon fully played his hand and gave us paintball wars, zombies, bottle episodes, documentary episodes, claymation episodes, alternate timeline episodes, and that one episode with the magical trampoline.

I have rewatched the first three seasons of Community more than any other show ever - seriously, I think a list of my 71 most-watched TV episodes would be all 71 episodes in those seasons - and it’s never gotten old, or stopped being hilarious, or slipped even slightly. It’s simply the absolute pinnacle of the single-camera network sitcom.



09. Breaking Bad (AMC, 2008-2013)

This is the second entry in a row where I really feel like there’s nothing I can say that hasn’t been said a thousand times already by far more literate people than me. Everybody knows what Breaking Bad is, how it’s exciting as all hell with strong character arcs, how its seat-of-the-pants writing style threw all ideas of planned arcs being inherently better right out of the window, how it became the first show to really gain an audience via streaming, how it introduced us to some of the best actors in the world and reintroduced Bryan Cranston as a dramatic powerhouse. All I can really say is that this show has, from day one, deserved every single bit of acclaim it’s been given.

Meek high school teacher cooks meth!!!!!!!! is only the springboard for five seasons of complex and intense crime drama, every element of which was operating on the highest possible level. You have creator Vince Gilligan and his writing staff’s strong sense of character, always ensuring that the action stayed relatable and personal. You have the gorgeous visuals, which helped raise the bar for cinematic language in television (those MONTAGES, though!). You have a cast of brilliant performers, from Aaron Paul to Anna Gunn Giancarlo Esposito to Cranston himself delivering an all-time top 10 TV performance and selling every second of Walter White’s transformation. And you have the action, where ever-raising stakes lead to some of the most nail-biting moments the small screen will ever witness. It’s all just loving brilliant, and there’s a reason it ended up with a wheelbarrow of Emmys by the end.

Breaking Bad is one of the best shows of all time, and introduced us to Vince Gilligan and company’s excellent style of filmmaking. However, I believe it was another show that perfected and refined this style. TO BE CONTINUED…..



08. Patriot (Prime Video, 2017-18)

I’m not, at all, an “argh! critics!” person. I personally believe that media criticism serves a very important purpose, and there are several TV critics who I follow and love reading articles by, whether I agree with them or not. But the fact every single one either ignored this amazing, unique, one-of-a-kind, individual, distinctive (are you getting it yet????) tragicomic spy thriller, or wrote it off as a series of quirks, means there’s really no other option but to scream argh!!!!!!!! Critics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Steven Conrad is absolutely one of the most singular TV creators working today. Aside from a couple of scripts for fairly well-received but ultimately largely forgotten movies (anyone remember Ben Stiller’s Walter Mitty remake? anyone? is this thing on-), this was his first major work, and it’s a hell of a way to introduce yourself - the best description I can give of this series is that it’s like the farcical espionage of the Coen brothers’ Burn After Reading with the world-weary tone of their Inside Llewyn Davis, but even that doesn’t come close to really explaining the show’s idiosyncratic style, its love of repeated phrases, its use of Conrad’s gift for comedic framing and blocking, and the amount of tails the storyline seems like it’s running off and chasing before all tying it together in the end. And the cast of characters is just superb, from Michael Dorman’s melancholy lead in John Tavner to his brother, Edward ‘Cool Rick’ Tavner, Luxembourg detective Agatha Albans, mother fuckin Kurtwood Smith as mother fuckin Leslie Claret, and over a dozen more who are all unique and hilarious.

Basically, it’s pretty good. You could even say it’s cool, guy. I’m definitely a McMillan man now. This show turned out shipshape. And that’s the basis of it.



07. Succession (HBO, 2018-present)

As the hit show of this exact moment in time, it’s likely I don’t need to explain Succession as much as I do other shows on the list. It’s the bitingly funny and brutally dramatic tale of the Roy family, who head up a global media conglomerate and all, with no exceptions, deserve the guillotine. It’s about a monster of a man who has fundamentally crippled his children in so many ways, and whether or not they can ever work their way out from under mountains of trauma. And it also has people going piss-mad, performing humiliating raps, suing Greenpeace, and sending dick pics to entirely the wrong person. What more could you want?

When this show first premiered, a lot of people really didn’t know what to make of it. Is it a comedy, a drama, or what? Why are all these characters so unlikeable? What kind of story is this meant to be? It took a few episodes for things to clear up, but it became clear that, while hilariously funny, this is a drama with some level of sympathy for most of its characters. They may all be horrible people, but many of them were created that way, and the focus on parental abuse means there is actually still something to root for. It’s also far more contemporary and relevant than most shows - these are the people who control the media right now, who push their agendas and aim to increase their own wealth at the cost of human decency and even human life, and the show paints them as the pathetic, egotistical figures they really are, becoming a ruthless evisceration of those who hold true power. And it also has not just the best set of characters of any currently running show, but the best cast, with every single person here absolutely perfect for their role and performing superlatively.

We don’t yet know how long Succession will run for - best guesses say one or two more seasons - but it’s already on course to become an all-timer. The hype is absolutely real with this one, and perhaps the biggest compliment I can give is that it feels like this is the show where creator Jesse Armstrong - who already wrote for some of the absolute best and funniest British shows of all time, including co-creating the incredible Peep Show - finally came into his own.



06. Adventure Time (Cartoon Network, 2010-18)

As you may be able to tell from this list, I’m a pretty big fan of hyperbole. But what I’m about to say here is gonna be the absolute worst example of that. I think the great episodes of Adventure Time - and there’s a ton of them. like, well over a hundred - are not only the best animated TV show of the last decade, not only the best animated piece of media of the last decade, or even of the whole century so far…..in my opinion, they are the pinnacle of Western animation. And given that I’m not a huge anime guy, that means I believe they are the best animated thing that has ever existed. Yep.

The first couple seasons of AT were really fun - wildly imaginative and visually stupendous, with an incredible world and cast of characters - but other than the reliance on admittedly effective absurdist humour, I personally didn’t find much to hold into. But creator Pendleton Ward and executive producer (later showrunner) Adam Muto packed their writing and storyboarding teams with some of the best people from the indie comics world, and when their voices finally started spilling out properly into the show itself, it led to some of the best storytelling, visual design, thematic exploration, and character development of any show, animated or otherwise. The Land of Ooo is a television world that rivals Springfield and Pawnee for the best and most well-explored fictional landscape, and the weird and wonderful characters that populate it aren’t just sources of wackiness, but some of the most fully-realised characters TV has ever brought us. There are so many artists and boarders who I became huge fans of because of their AT work, but none so much as Jesse Moynihan, whose surreal, abstract, and achingly human episodes resonated with me about as much as any piece of media ever has.

This isn’t exactly the most consistent show on the list - I already talked about the beginning, and by the end some storylines did edge dangerously into fanfiction territory (although the finale was near-perfect). But when this show soared, it soared SO drat HIGH. It not only successfully flew close to the sun, but then also flew directly into the sun, and the sun then exploded due to its sheer power. Amazing show.



05. Atlanta (FX, 2016-present)

Is it possible to write an intro to an Atlanta blurb without starting off by talking about how talented Donald Glover is? Absolutely not: Donald Glover is one of the best creatives working in any industry today, not just a successful, acclaimed musician and producer but also an unparalleled comic talent, as comfortable playing dorky simpletons like Troy Barnes as he is suave hustlers like Lando Calrissian. Yet when Atlanta first premiered, it became crystal clear that Glover’s talents also spread out to showrunning and directing - and not only that, but that these were by far his biggest strengths, resulting in one of the most unique and electric shows TV has ever seen.

Primarily the story of Glovers lead, Earn, becoming the manager for his up-and-coming rapper cousin, Miles (aka Paper Boi, played to perfection by Brian Tyree Henry in one of the top 5 performances of the decade), the show also has a tendency to branch off in weird and wonderful directions. In between the story episodes, there are episodes where characters appear on snooty talk shows, attend parties hoping for a selfie with Drake, or just try and get a god damned haircut already. The writing is unbelievably funny - this is certainly the funniest of the last decade’s crop of comedy-dramas - and the direction, headed up by Hiro Murai, is truly exemplary, so gorgeous and moody.

And then of course, there’s ‘Teddy Perkins’, the episode it’s impossible to ignore when talking about Atlanta, a terrifying and bizarre dramatic horror masterpiece that serves as the peak of Atlanta’s surreal tone and strong thematic script work to date. There is one show to come that was overall more surprising overall week-to-week, but none were as good as this at truly leaving you with absolutely no idea what could happen. Also Lakeith Stanfield and Zazie Beetz are there! What a cast, seriously.

It has been four god damned years since Atlanta last aired, and the third season is finally coming in March after various scheduling and COVID delays. Will it be the best show of 2022? It’s very possible. But it’ll definitely have some really stiff competition in the form of the final season of the next show on this list….



04. Better Call Saul (AMC, 2015-present)

The biggest compliment you can give Saul is that you can say you think it’s better than Breaking Bad and nobody will bat an eyelid. Breaking Bad was an amazing show that introduced us to an incredible world, but with this show - literally a spin-off and a prequel, two potential recipes for disaster - the creative team (to quote Alan Sepinwall) got even better at telling stories within that world, resulting in not just the rare piece of media that surpasses its predecessor, but one of the single greatest pieces of storytelling the medium has to offer! drat!

So what is Better Call Saul? Well, it’s largely an origin story, showing how an earnest but tricksy Jimmy McGill becomes the slimy and immoral Saul Goodman who will later have a very bumpy relationship with a couple of meth dealers, as well as how ex-cop Mike Ehrmantraut becomes the cartel enforcer we meet in BB. But it cares about way more than how to get these characters to those places - Jimmy’s world is cut-throat, tragic, and sometimes warm, and the depiction of his career results on one of TV’s best-ever legal dramas on top of everything else. His downfall and transition - which almost happened at the end of season one before the s2 premiere did a quick reversal in one of the best creative decisions ever made - has been so perfectly-drawn, with a mixture of exciting and achingly sad moments sending him down the path to sleaze.

This also has one of the best casts top-to-bottom ever assembled - I would shout out everyone individually, but it would take too long, so I’ll stick to Rhea Thee Seehorn as Kim Wexler, one of TV’s best-ever performances for one of its best-ever characters, whose fantastic and unpredictable arc mean so much about this show remains a mystery even as it reaches its predetermined ending point. Okay FINE I do also have to mention Bob Odenkirk, already a legend for his comedy work, who also revealed himself to be an incredible dramatic force, going toe-to-tie with any other male dramatic TV lead and usually coming out ahead.

It’s still so wild to me that not only did a prequel spin-off easily surpass its predecessor but that it does so while only getting better and better, with every single season improving on the one before. Will they stick the landing? Fumble slightly like BB did? Fail completely? I don’t know (well, it won’t be the last one, will it now), but I know finding out is going to be a fantastic experience.



03. The Leftovers (HBO, 2014-17)

Damon Lindelof is, these days, one of my favourite TV creators, someone who I will watch everything by without question and expect it to be a highlight of the year. But back in 2014, when this show premiered, he was just the LOST creator (a show I loved from beginning to end, but that also had heavy flaws) with a new show I found far too self-indulgent and pretentious, finally dropping it after the sixth episode had an opening I thought was truly stupid. The next year, critics promised the show had undergone a soft reboot and become a better version of itself, so I reluctantly checked it out again…..and I was spellbound. I went back and rewatched the first season - it got great literally immediately after the scene I turned it off at. Always be willing to admit when you were wrong, because sometimes it leads you to something you consider one of the most transcendent and powerful shows ever made.

Lindelof created this show with author Tom Perotta based on his novel where one day two percent of the world suddenly vanishes with no explanation - not enough to heavily disrupt society, but enough to drive the entire world insane with grief, PTSD, and the sheer mystery of it. As you might expect from the LOST guy, he brought a heavy dose of supernatural to the table (especially in later seasons, as the show moved past the novel), but also a real warmth and fantastic jet-black comedy. The structure of the show, where main storyline episodes were intertwined with character spotlights, led to some of the best character studies ever written or performed, and kept the focus entirely on the characters even as everything else got loopier and loopier - nothing here is weird just for the sake of it, but comes completely naturally.

And it’s a really incredible set of characters, from Justin Theroux’s police chief to Christopher Eccleston’s priest, but none are better than Carrie Coon as Nora Durst, a woman who lost her entire family in the disappearance. I’m not gonna dress this up with flowery terms - simply put, I think Carrie Coon’s performance in this show is the best performance an actor has given in the last decade, and rivals the best TV performances of all time such as James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano. The filmmaking is also phenomenal, which several fantastic directors (primarily Mimi Leder), creating gorgeous shots and ensuring the grounded yet out-there nature of the writing also comes across in the visuals. And while I do still think the first season is a tiny bit too ponderous, the other two are, to use a phrase that can come across as meaningless if used incorrectly, so loving human in a way that leads me to connect to them like very few other shows.

I’m not very satisfied with my blurb for this one, but that’s because more than any other show here it is so hard to accurately depict the emotions I felt watching it. It’s one of my top 5 shows ever and I will return to it time and time again and continue to tell everyone I know about it. But wait, if this is one of my top 5 of all time, and it’s only at number three, then what could possibly……oh. Oh ho ho ho ho. Oh man.



02. Mad Men (AMC, 2007-2015)

With so many genres these days it can be difficult to categorise things. The Sopranos is my favourite show of all time, but is it a straight drama, or a crime drama? Both? A mix? Straime drama????? Atlanta mixes extremely broad comedy sequences with ones that are extremely dark or surreal. So how do you categorise that? I say all this so you understand that when I make this next statement, I’ve made various distinctions and ignored others in my mind in order to be able to make it. Anyway, here goes: I think Mad Men is probably the best straight drama series ever broadcast. It’s not about anything exciting or inherently dramatic. There are no gunfights, spellcasters, or alternate worlds. But what we do have is a whole lot of incredible character and thematic work, emotional intelligence, and level of craft that surpasses just about every other show in existence.

At its core, Mad Men is about ennui, emptiness, and dissatisfaction - an eternal unhappiness that can be hidden deeply behind a successful outer presentation. To many, this comes off as petty, or “white people problems”, compared to other issues in the world, but the truth is it’s a universal feeling that has likely affected us all at one point or another. But creator Matthew Weiner chose the setting and period he did for a reason - advertising is all about selling a false idea of happiness or contentment, convincing someone that using a certain brand of underwear or flying on a specific airline will make you more content. What could be more apt? And for the Western world, the 1960s were such a period of upheaval and social change that it’s the best possible era in which to set a tale of identities fracturing. Getting to luxuriate in the sophisticated fashion and decor doesn’t hurt, either - this can be an ugly, messy show, but it’s extremely good-looking and well-put-together on the surface, much like its lead character Don Draper, the ideal of everything described in this paragraph, a successful and acclaimed creative director who came from a lie and then went on to make a living conjuring lies, all while living a lie of his own.

Were this just the tale of Don Draper, with Jon Hamm crushing it every episode (unbelievably great at capturing Don’s suave, confident exterior, but amazing at his pathetic, desperate interior), this show would already be in the running for any best-ever list, but there are so, so many other fantastic characters here who each present a new and fascinating perspective. Peggy Olsen, the shy prude who slowly finds her way. Pete Campbell, the slimy rich kid who always feels entitled to more. Betty Draper, the typical 1950s housewife who doesn’t understand why slavish devotion to her man isn’t giving her everything she needs. Roger Sterling, the aging womaniser who may or may not be learning his limits. Joan Holloway, the office manager who begins to want far more than just to be wanted. Paul Kinsey……insufferably performatively woke over half a decade before the term even existed. All these characters and a great many more aren’t just superbly-performed and extremely well-dressed, but painted with so many fascinating depths that the intelligent, witty, layered, and heartfelt scripts slowly uncovered. On top of all that, it’s a visual masterpiece, mixing incredible, sumptuous sets and costumes with restrained, classical cinematography.

Mad Men is so superb in every way that it easily slots into the second place entry in my favourite shows of all time list, just behind Sopranos. So how come it didn’t top this list? If this is my favourite ongoing series that aired in the past decade, and I already said many thousands of words ago that I thought Chernobyl was the best TV miniseries ever, so what could be first? Why, it would have to be something that had been off the air for a really long time! Something that came back for a single season that smashed everyone’s expectations and blew everyone away! Something from one of the best minds working in the creative industries! Something truly incredible and special! Something with hard-of-hearing subtitle descriptions for both forceful urination and ominous wooshing!



01. Twin Peaks: The Return (Showtime, 2017)

I mean, it wasn’t even close.

The French film magazine Cahiers du Cinema - previously the home of French New Wave pioneers Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard - made some very mild waves in both 2017 and 2019 when they declared Twin Peaks: The Return - David Lynch and Mark Frost’s triumphant return to the show that changed television forever in the early 90s - not just the best film of the year, but also the best of the decade. Now, to be clear, this is not a movie. It’s absolutely a TV show, deliberately episodic and paced exactly like television. I have always and will continue to decry any description of any show as a whatever-hour movie. But this still made me incredibly satisfied, because here’s the thing. Twin Peaks: The Return is better than any movie released in the 2010s. And any book, any album. Certainly any podcast, as much as I love the McElroy family. This isn’t just my favourite show of the past ten years but one of my favourite single pieces of media, in any category, of all time. Basically, what I’m saying here is that it’s okay, I guess.

Television revivals are notoriously a tricky prospect, and have as much of a chance of being an Arrested Development season 5 as they do an Arrested Development season 4. So it’s easy to be trepidatious. But from the second David Lynch announced his involvement, to the second before I hit play on the first episode (ignoring the small period where Lynch left the project as a hilarious negotiation tactic, ending up with double the original episode order), I never had anything but true belief that he would pull it off. He’s one of the best filmmakers of all time, probably the best ever at exploring the human subconscious, and definitely one of the most influential, and this was eighteen hours of new material from a director who hadn’t released a movie in a decade. It’s no spoiler to say that when it dropped - the first four episodes in one go, one of the best presents I ever got - it hooked and captivated me. The summer of 2017 was one of the best periods of my life for many reasons, but the weekly doses of this show - as well as the online discussion and the actual podcast I co-hosted about it, sadly now unavailable - contributed far more to that than I’d like to admit.

There’s just so much good poo poo packed into these episodes. Lynch’s mastery of mood and tone, his slow pacing, his amazing sound design, his dark comedy, his work with actors….it’s all as effective as it ever was, with every episode having at least two or three terrifying and/or transcendent scenes. Mark Frost, despite apparently only being involved in the writing of the original nine-episode version, still does his best work steadying the ship, providing a more human element than needed and bringing his love of nutso conspiracy theories to some of the best storylines. The cast - both the original members and the new additions - are all giving career-best work, none more than Kyle MacLachlan who gives not just one but something like five of the best performances of the last decade, every single version of Dale Cooper or his simple-minded alter ego Dougie Jones just bravura performances in any way you can imagine. He is SO terrifying and SO funny and SO steadfast and SO loving and Lynch’s confidence in him could not have paid off any better. The music, the cinematography, the editing……I mean, what can I say? It’s all GOAT-level. Everybody here is doing the best work of their lives, and not faltering for eighteen freaking hours. What other piece of media can claim that?

I love Twin Peaks: The Return. I love that so much of it ended up being devoted to a ridiculous farce about a babyman learning how to do everything all over again. I love that so much of the rest of it is completely terrifying, as evil forces wreak havoc on the world. I love that we got to see so many old characters, and witness satisfying, earned resolutions for many of them. I love that every new character, from Janey-E Jones to Wally Brando, were hilarious, memorable, and original. I love the locations, from the bizarro versions of Vegas and South Dakota to the familiar Douglas firs and small-town cosiness of the titular town, to the phenomenally imaginative depictions of worlds beyond ours, most intensely horrifying but some almost serene. I love how so much of this franchise revival is so overtly anti-nostalgia - Lynch knows that you may be able to walk the same path, but you can never truly go home again. I love the Roadhouse musical performances, especially the one that had me in fits of laughter in a hotel room at three in the morning. I love how it resisted any semblance of a traditional ending, instead deepening and darkening the story ever further. I love that one bit where the guy sweeps the floor for the entire length of Green Onions. And I adore Part 8, an origin-story-cum-abstract-visual-art-project that is by far the most experimental and daring episode to ever air as part of an ongoing television series, and very possibly the best.

Despite my extreme praise for every part of it, I do recognise that this is not a quote-unquote “perfect” show, and there are definitely some flaws, some storylines that are frustratingly not followed up on, some with annoyingly abrupt resolutions, some effects that go past even Lynch’s endearing home studio style into kinda just bad. But when something hits you like this did me, you really couldn’t care less about any of that poo poo. No other piece of media in the last ten years gripped me this tightly, or engaged me this thoroughly, or made me this happy. It was the only show I ever considered for the top spot on this list, and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever seen or will ever see. drat good!



If you read all of that, wow! Thank you! I love TV so much and although I find writing long things difficult I really wanted to pay homage to all the shows I loved. It’s been such an incredible decade for the medium and I’ve had a lot of fun participating in the last decade’s worth of polls.

Here’s just the list:

20. Mr. Robot
19. Barry
18. Ted Lasso
17. The Americans
16. Review
15. Hannibal
14. Nathan For You
13. Over the Garden Wall
12. Fleabag
11. You’re the Worst
10. Community
09. Breaking Bad
08. Patriot
07. Succession
06. Adventure Time
05. Atlanta
04. Better Call Saul
03. The Leftovers
02. Mad Men
01. Twin Peaks: The Return

Escobarbarian fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Jan 10, 2022

Rob Filter
Jan 19, 2009

BSam posted:

{amazing post}

1 powers

probably the best superhero show of all time. i wish it was part of the mcu


This hilarious shitpost made me laugh out loud multiple times. The punchline "I wish it was a part of the mcu" is perfect. Thank you for posting this.

Enjoying all the serious lists as well.

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

That's an incredible write-up, Esco, and you correctly picked the right entry for #1 :hellyeah:

Yer Burnt
Feb 26, 2007

Sneaking in before deadline.

20) Riverdale (2017-present): A never-ending fever dream that dares you to keep up with its shenanigans. It's not a good show per se, but I need it on my list because it is definitely memorable.

19) Orphan Black (2013-2017): This could have been much better than it was, however Tatiana Maslany is absolutely incredible.

18) Castle Rock (2018-2019): Wonderful ode to Stephen King and the second season featuring Lizzie Caplan as young Annie Wilkes was awesome. I probably should watch more of the recent Stephen King shows.

17) Black Mirror (2011-2019): This show gave us much to ponder about until reality overtook it.

16) Cobra Kai (2018-present): A ridiculous show that can get you cheering for the characters.

15) Broad City (2014-2019): Maybe dated because of its woke liberalism but ultimately charming for the celebration of friendship at its heart. Also, I still often leave my house repeating Lincoln's PKW (Phone, Keys, Wallet) memory trick.

14) Better Things (2016-present): This show finds beauty in lovely mundane life.

13) Humans (2015-2018): This one is a British/AMC co-production starring Gemma Chan and a few others as robots that developed along quite nicely over its three seasons.

12) Ted Lasso (2020-present): I just started watching the second season, so maybe it could be higher. It is a nice heart-warming show that takes over the Optimism mantle from Parks and Recreation.

11) It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (2005-present): 91 episodes (some great) within the eligibility period covering seasons 7 to 15. They recognized the need to evolve the characters to keep going.

10) The 100 (2014-2020): This show has outlived CW Teen Drama, Clexa diehards, and a few apocalypses. The later seasons didn't seem to be as popular but I loved exploring new worlds and the convoluted time jumping narrative.

9) The Crown (2016-present): Fantastic production values and acting taking us through 20th century British history from a unique and privileged perspective.

8) Why Women Kill (2019-present): Desperate Housewives-y anthology series. The latest second season was especially great with Allison Tollman bringing her Fargo Flavor and developing into a Walter White-ish Monster.

7) Barry (2018-present): Good modern anti-heroism.

6) Breaking Bad (2008-2013): He sure was a villain after all.

5) Better Call Saul (2015-present): I like when they show a character doing their job well and with pride.

4) Legends of Tomorrow (2016-present)
https://twitter.com/khaoticreveries/status/1478949684559417346?s=20This show found itself and leaned into ridiculousness and joy.

3) Veep (2012-2019)

Fantastic insults.

2) Kingdom (2014-2017)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qdvrJ7QUrM
Manpain, the series. Powerhouse performances from Frank Grillo, Matt Lauria, Paul Walter Hauser and especially Jonathan Tucker.

1) Fargo (2014-?)

Seasons 1 and 2 were classics.
3 was less memorable but still had Ewan McGregor brothers, Nikki Swango and sharp-toothed VM Varga.
As for season 4, I honestly loved its expansive messiness although it probably would've ended better if it wasn't for covid.
Overall, fun ambitious storytelling.

Yer Burnt fucked around with this message at 08:06 on Jan 11, 2022

Looten Plunder
Jul 11, 2006
Grimey Drawer
Fine I'll allow it

Looten Plunder fucked around with this message at 07:52 on Jan 11, 2022

MrBuddyLee
Aug 24, 2004
IN DEBUT, I SPEW!!!
Hail Procrastinatorio, final edit 11:54pm AZT 1/10/21. Honorable Mentions:
Walking Dead all action no (meaningful) talk
Review meta genius
Archer set a lot of the tone for the decade
Australian Survivor improving on a formula, minus the 8 episodes a week part
The Mandalorian finally one actually feels like a star wars
Patriot deserves better, made me cry laughing so often
Bojack Horseman deserves better, made me laugh crying so often
Broad City shower rod on the subway says it all
Last Week Tonight was the nominal anti-Rump War Room
Game of Thrones do not reward making GBS threads the bed
American Horror Story iconic moments; an actors' sandbox with a few really fun seasons
Ted Lasso kept us from going full feral during pandemic
Black Mirror was occasionally great but needed more consistency
Person of Interest primed us for man vs machine a decade too soon
Mrs. America is important
Galavant do
Schmigadon't
Silicon Valley captured the kooky side of 1990s Silicon Valley but missed the heart
Dispatches from Elsewhere celebrated individuality and teamwork
Rectify should be in my top 20 but is the victim of my procrastination. Languid Southern drama, poignant character studies.

20. For All Mankind
gently caress it. It was super watchable and entertaining and taught us real-world feminism by improving upon the sausage party that was the Space Race.

19. Hannibal
Eventually got too up its own rear end, but before it did, was a glorious mindfuck.

18. Boardwalk Empire
So many memorable characters. That's good writing.

17. Fleabag
This or Broad City? This is the deeper show.

16. Taskmaster
Watch people get frustrated, with a comedic wrapping glazing the theme of mild-to-moderate humiliation.

15. The Americans
Shows how and how barely the "good guys" won the Cold War.

14. Rick and Morty
I love my uncle to death, but I'd trade him for Uncle Rick in a heartbeat and he knows it.

13. Mr Robot
For a while there it looked like they were really going to say something BIG.

12. The Good Place
It's always a good idea to bring philosophy to the masses.

11. Halt and Catch Fire
This feels like the serious side of Silicon Valley felt in the 1990s.

10. Veep
I'd watch a West Wing reboot if they promised to be this lovely to each other.

9. Breaking Bad
So much of the magic of this show is in the fine details. Also, some episodes suck, so skip 'em.

8. Fargo
It's tough to reboot every season and maintain flow but dontchaknow they pulled it off.

7. Mad Men
Would be a nearly sufficient thematic summary for the decade it covers.

6. The Expanse
Making great sci-fi for TV is way harder than climbing into orbit on a stack of urine bottles.

5. Better Call Saul
A very well-told story, just happens to be about someone we met in another well-told story

4. The Knick
You had me at "lunatic junkie surgeon"

3. Atlanta
Life's problems are just so much worse without a heaping of privilege

2. Chernobyl
Future generations will watch this in lieu of PhDs in Comparative Government

1. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Come for the songs, stay for the mental health boot camp

MrBuddyLee fucked around with this message at 08:58 on Jan 11, 2022

Looten Plunder
Jul 11, 2006
Grimey Drawer
:siren:Nominations are closed:siren:

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
Thank you so much for all your hard work putting this together and PMing so many people, Looten!

Bulky Bartokomous
Nov 3, 2006

In Mypos, only the strong survive.

Escobarbarian posted:

Thank you so much for all your hard work putting this together and PMing so many people, Looten!

Looten Plunder
Jul 11, 2006
Grimey Drawer
No spoilers, but there is some surprising results!

Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~
I think what I'm most curious about is Breaking Bad vs. Better Call Saul. Really feels like the upset is on

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
It definitely felt like Saul was ahead early on but a few voters put BB at 1 so we’ll have to see!

Looten, any idea when you’ll do the countdown? Absolutely no rush at all, I just wanna make sure I’ll be around :)

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

Chiming in to say thanks as well for running this, Looten :)

The Perfect Element
Dec 5, 2005
"This is a bit of a... a poof song"
I've absolutely loved the write ups you guys have done. Can't wait to watch through the shows I've missed! Goons are the best.

Looten Plunder
Jul 11, 2006
Grimey Drawer
I'm thinking of doing it Thursday night US time but it all depends on how much free time I get during my work days to do all the prep. If not, it will probably be Sunday or Monday night US time.

Looten Plunder
Jul 11, 2006
Grimey Drawer
I've made a grave mistake. The eligibility window should have been from 1st Jan 2012, not 1st Jan 2011.

Oh well.... let's just pretend that never happened.

I also should have probably run this years annual one prior to the 10 year one. :negative:

Looten Plunder fucked around with this message at 11:21 on Jan 12, 2022

BSam
Nov 24, 2012

Looten Plunder posted:

Just wanting to confirm. Is this a meme list or do genuinely believe Powers is the greatest show of the last decade and you believe it so much that you didn't even feel the need to capitalise the show title?

A fair comment, I have edited to fix that.

Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~

BSam posted:

A fair comment, I have edited to fix that.

lmao

Rob Filter
Jan 19, 2009

BSam posted:

A fair comment, I have edited to fix that.

Perfect edit.

Looten Plunder
Jul 11, 2006
Grimey Drawer
Ok I :lol:d

bowmore
Oct 6, 2008



Lipstick Apathy
Any chance of a late entry?

Looten Plunder
Jul 11, 2006
Grimey Drawer
Nope sorry

bowmore
Oct 6, 2008



Lipstick Apathy
No worries

Looten Plunder
Jul 11, 2006
Grimey Drawer
Collating the results, and I'm stunned that not one single person voted for Succession in the 2018 Poll. I was literally the only person that put it in their top 10 for the year, and I missed the cut off for submitting my votes by about an hour.

Looten Plunder posted:

Have i missed it?

Edit: I think I missed it, but here is my top 50 anyway. Won't bother with commentary as it appears it won't be counted.

10 The Good Place
9 The Deuce
8 Big Mouth
7 The Terror
6 Succession
5 Better Call Saul
4 Sharp Objects
3 Patriot
2 Barry
1 Atlanta

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
It was 17 in my 2018 list :negative:

Looten Plunder
Jul 11, 2006
Grimey Drawer
My votes not counting cost so many shows:
Better Call Saul would have gained 2 spots and finished 3rd
Barry would have gained 1 spot and finished 5th
Patriot would have gained 2 spots and finished 7th
The Terror would have gained 5 spots and finished 20th
Big Mouth woudl have gained 3 spots and finished 30th
Sharp Objects would have 13 spots and finished 33rd

What could have been!

Open Source Idiom
Jan 4, 2013

Looten Plunder posted:

My votes not counting cost so many shows:
Better Call Saul would have gained 2 spots and finished 3rd
Barry would have gained 1 spot and finished 5th
Patriot would have gained 2 spots and finished 7th
The Terror would have gained 5 spots and finished 20th
Big Mouth woudl have gained 3 spots and finished 30th
Sharp Objects would have 13 spots and finished 33rd

What could have been!

getting the distinct impression from this post that you didn't vote for taskmaster NZ smh

Looten Plunder
Jul 11, 2006
Grimey Drawer
To clarify, that was all for the 2018 poll, not this one

CeeJee
Dec 4, 2001
Oven Wrangler

Looten Plunder posted:

The fourth season of this was in 2012 so it's eligable but the bulk of this show was 2005-2009. You good with that?

Yeah, I did not realize there was this gap but the fourth season is my favourite by far and without that one it would not have made any list.

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Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
I agree, it’s my favourite season by far.

If this is being done at evening US time I’ll probably be asleep during whatever countdown but I look forward to reading it later :)

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