Top 10 TV Shows of the decade

Mine are:

The Wire
30 Rock
The Daily Show
Arrested Development
Mad Men
Friday Night Lights
The Office (UK)
Party Down
How I met your mother
Nevermind the Buzzcocks (with Simon Amstell!)

What are yours?

The Office (US)
The Office (US)
The Office (US)
The Office (US)
The Office (US)
The Office (US)
The Office (US)
The Office (US)
The Office (US)
The Office (US)

The Office (UK)
Deadwood

and I really can't endorse anything else.

i've been thinking about this and for me it's roughly:

The Wire
The West Wing
The Daily Show
30 Rock
Lost
The Soup
How I Met Your Mother
The Venture Bros.
Freaks & Geeks
Veronica Mars

does freaks and geeks count? it would probably be no. 2 on my list if it did

why not?

I just always thought of it as being a 90s show.

the first 6 of F&G's 18 episodes aired in 1999, so it's kind of awkwardly straddling two decades, but for all intents and purposes I'm just considering the whole show part of this decade.

and even if not those last 12 episodes are as much a reason to include it as all of them would be.

In no order, except for F&G being #1 (it ran until spring 2000; not sure if that counts as a show of this decade or not.)

Freaks and Geeks
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (last three seasons)
Undeclared
Survivor
Firefly
The Joe Schmo Show
Veronica Mars (1st season only)
Curb Your Enthusiasm
So NoTORIous

I don't know, there are lots of other shows I kind of liked but these are the ones that had some particular virtue I really admired. Didn't see The Wire but based on my love for Homicide I assume it would be on my list if it had, so I'll leave it at 9.

damn i never finished undeclared, i liked the first ten or so eps i saw

blue planet
sopranos
samurai jack
how its made
once & again
home movies
veronica mars
its always sunny...
undeclared
in treatment

I really need to get ahold of that Freaks and Geeks DVD to see what all the fuss is about. It's the Iron Giant of TV shows.

damn, forgot to list Home Movies

The Wire
The Sopranos
Breaking Bad
Mad Men
The Office (UK)
30 Rock
Arrested Development
Friday Night Lights
Dexter
Curb Your Enthusiasm

#11: Firefly

I liked F&G but consider it a 90s show.

what a strikingly terrible list

i love you & all dude, but... samurai jack???

its a beautiful dream filled with longing...

Can't come up with 10 off hand, but Carnivale would probably feature on the list

the shield
the sopranos
freaks and geeks
30 rock
mad men
the thick of it
'the century of the self' or 'the power of nightmares' or 'the trap'
the west wing
the office (US)
arrested development

11: battlestar galactica before it suuuuucked

big brother

(UK)

LOST
The Wire
House, MD
Dexter
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
The Daily Show
The Colbert Report
The Corner special
When the Levees Broke special
CSI (well, the early seasons anyway)

ian how do u not kno tht samurai jack is amazing?

Arrested Development
The Office (UK)
The Thick of It
Battlestar Galactica (miniseries through to the first quarterr of season 3)
Sopranos
The Wire
Spaced (series 2)
Mad Men
Spiral
Doctor Who (mostly)
*Insert forgotten choice here*

Battlestar Galactica (miniseries through to the first quarterr of season 3)

yeah, that's about right isn't it? post-new caprica.

I stopped watching BSG halfway thru sn.03 because it was so bad but I hear it got better

so bad halfway thru sn.03 that is; great up till then

the series never quite reaches the heights it did in the first couple of years, but the last couple of seasons aren't what i'd call bad at all - it's largely internet grousing. there's still the odd terrible episode but still pretty entertaining, i'd say

The Wire
Arrested Development
30 Rock
How I Met Your Mother
Monkey Dust
Futurama
Never Mind The Buzzcocks w/ Amstell
Have I Got News For You
Mad Men
Spaced v. Freaks and Geeks, although I'm not sure if either of them made it into this decade.

Actually fuck that list due to it having no Gilmore Girls or Veronica Mars.

planet earth

arrested development
30 rock
flight of the conchords
the office
peep show

don't watch dramas/sci fi soaps, and i'm fucked if i'm putting in grand designs.

I stopped watching BSG halfway thru sn.03 because it was so bad but I hear it got better

― cozwn, Friday, September 18, 2009 10:42 AM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

seasons three and four had their moments. they weren't *complete* shit. the last episodes (aka the second half of season four, but really 'season five') were just terrible.

They weren't complete shit, but they were far from the best TV shows of the decade.

Series two of Spaced was 2001, so it counts.

Shit, how could i forget

COME DINE WITH ME?

masterchef goes large u ingrates

The Thick Of It
Curb Your Enthusiasm
The Shield
Lost
Blue Planet/Planet Earth
The Wire
Doctor Who when on form
Mad Men
Peep Show
Probably The Office UK but I could happily never watch it ever again

That's excluding things that I could just never make the investment of time to get into, like The Sopranos and The West Wing.

masterchef goes large u ingrates

Good music researcher I will admit - but less "COOKING DOESN'T GET ANY HARDER THAN THIS" thanks.
Peep Show, yes totally.

Arrested Development
Frisky Dingo
The Thick Of It
PARTS OF Monkey Dust
Loads of American shows I never got round to watching, I saw some of The Wire and it was obviously really pretty good
erm
Nathan Barley?
hahaha
Peep Show (before blanket M&W saturation became insufferable)
Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights (before PK became insufferable)

...I don't watch much TV

mitchell and webb look? very short run i know.

Being Human.

aw c'mon, they were go-to comedy talking-heads in the british media for about two years xp

david mitchell is very high-profile. except for the flashdance thing, not so much with the other guy.

The Wire
Peep Show
Battlestar Galactica
Mad Men
The Thick of It
Samurai Jack
The Sopranos
Doctor Who
Blue Planet
Psychoville

might replace office (US) with family guy in my list. drudge siren.

i was wondering whether or not to add the tv sketch show specifically, not quibbling against either messrs mitchell or webb

yeha if i'm being honest family guy and south park are on mine too but didn't know if they were kosher.

BBC's Bleak House adaptation was pretty good, I hear.

State of Play should get an honourable mention, and Shameless before it became interminable.

BBC's Bleak House adaptation was pretty good, I hear.

― this must be what FAIL is really like (ledge), Friday, September 18, 2009 12:32 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah. i saw this and it's good. but idk who'd put it on a top-ten.

'state of play' was good but the ending (iirc) felt like a really massive cop-out.

anyone rep for bronx is burning?

let's get properly joy press... wonderfalls anyone?

multi-series only

1. Arrested Development
2. Lost
3. 30 Rock
4. The Sopranos
5. Doctor Who despite all the shit
6. Futurama
7. Six Feet Under (surprised it's so forgotten/underloved)
8. POPULAR
9. The Thick Of It
10. Battlestar Galactica (SEASONS 1-3 ONLY)

u should give 'glee' a watch, if u haven't already, blueski... much better than nip/tuck, tho it's too early to say how it stacks against popular

i watch 0 tv series at the moment except like Mock The Week :/

it's only 3 episodes in so won't be hard to catch up :)

entourage from having watched the first two series so far.

If Top Gear only was 1 off specials where they had ludicrous races across Europe or Japan or whatever, it would totally make my list. Also, yeah, Masterchef was the nuts but I'm starting to hate all the cleb and professional versions.

darragh: stop there, entourage season three and on will only disappoint.

;_;

i thought it got better in series five but six (from what i've seen) is so fucking awful that that might have been a mirage.

Nice to see that I've missed nothing

A couple more no one's mentioned: The Armando Iannucci Shows, A History of Britain.

'state of play' was good but the ending (iirc) felt like a really massive cop-out.

Yeah, it didn't really make sense and felt like an extra twist for the sake of it. Excellent up till then though.

The Wire
Veronica Mars
Sopranos
Mad Men
The Office (UK)
In De Gloria (way beyond fantastic, as good if not better than The Wire)
Buffy The Vampire Slayah
The Shield
Firefly

Add-ons:
CSI Las Vegas (first two seasons only though)
Dexter
House

entourage from having watched the first two series so far.
You'll see DJ AM pop up. RIP, Adam.

Battlestar Galactica. That's it. It's the greatest show in the history of television. Every second of it from the pilot to the season finale. Even the webisodes.

even though there are absolutely shows that were really good for a while and then fell off (what up CSI, Entourage, House), I kinda feel like if you have to qualify "only these seasons" or "only the first year" for a show on your list maybe it shouldn't be on your list. lots of my favorite albums are by people i wouldn't consider my favorite bands, if you know what i mean.

i dunno, then you're talking more about 'most consistently good' but most shows go thru real peaks and troughs over the years

no one's gonna rep gilmore girls?

Actually fuck that list due to it having no Gilmore Girls or Veronica Mars.

― Like BANG! Bust 'em in the wang like it aint no thang (a hoy hoy), Friday, 18 September 2009 10:56 (4 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah TV is almost by nature a really uneven medium, but i feel like either you're OK with the whole body of work or not -- i don't love the last season of The Wire but i'm not gonna add any caveats like that while putting it at the top of my list (xpost)

oh nice xp

The last season of The Wire can't match the magnificence of the fourth, but it's still pretty great.

A lot of mine have been mentioned already (Peep Show, The West Wing, House MD, State of Play, nu-Who). Would rep hard for the first season of Heroes, but it's gotten so shite since then that I can't be arsed.

Others for consideration: The Inbetweeners. Also Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, because it is super-awesome.

Is there ever going to be another series of The Inbetweeners? Which reminds me: Skins! (Which reminds me: Shameless! Although it suffers from 'gone on too long and got incredibly shite' syndrome).

^i dunno, i agree shameless had a dip for a while there but the most recent series showed significant improvement

Lost interest in Shameless after the first three series (which were great!).

even though there are absolutely shows that were really good for a while and then fell off (what up CSI, Entourage, House), I kinda feel like if you have to qualify "only these seasons" or "only the first year" for a show on your list maybe it shouldn't be on your list.

Nah, that's like marking the Rolling Stones down for their post-1975 output.

which everybody does, let's face it.

anyway, if a tv show had a run as long as the stones pre mid 70's, it'd be on the list.

LOST
Veronica Mars
Doctor Who
The Wire
How I Met Your Mother
Arrested Development
Mad Men
The Daily Show/Colbert Report
Freaks and Geeks
Supernatural (seriously. I wrote this show off early in its run but recently marathon-ed it while sick with flu one weekend and it totally rivals LOST in the sheer WTF-ness of its plot developments, esp in seasons 3 and 4. also consistently and surprisingly funny. also totally crushing on that one Winchester brother.)

If miniseries like State of Play and Bleak House count, then I have to mention Band of Brothers - might be my favourite miniseries of all time.

Psychoville
Arrested Development
Mighty Boosh
The Office (UK)
Family Guy
Skins
Shameless
Peep Show
Mad Men
Nathan Barley

Honourable mentions to League Of Gentlemen and Flight of the Conchords.

comparing a show that's had 1 or 2 great seasons and 5 bad ones to the Stones isn't fair, though. that'd be more like a show like Saturday Night Live. 1-season wonders bands that had one great album and then went to shit; you might love the album still but you wouldn't call them your favorite band.

I'm really suprised by how little love Pushing Daisies recieves here. Yes its a saccharine fairy-tale for adults, but there's no other broadcast show with comparable set/costume/cinematography.

Also in the escapist but forgotten category: Farscape. The writing was often on a par with Firefly, and the show managed not to insult its audience too much over 4 years, which is something of a record for modern sci-fi.

receives, even.

Shame it looked like Muppets in Space then.

I keep forgetting it's a tv show and not just an excuse to drool over Anna Friel tbh. xpost.

no-one's picked 24

I liked Pushing Daisies a lot, it would definitely be in the teens of my list, and probably in the top 10 if it had been on the air for more episodes (I was on the fence about having Freaks & Geeks in my top 10 too).

also wasn't really into Friel.

Couldn't stand Pushing Daisies. 24 is too formulaic and of its time to be considered a classic, much as I enjoyed the first couple of series (Alright then, the first five series).

Damages
The Wire
30 Rock
How I Met Your Mother
The O.C.
House
The Venture Bros
Family Guy
Battlestar Galactica
Arrested Development

Special Mentions: The Office (US), Gossip Girl, Glee, American Idol, The Daily Show, Firefly, Pushing Daisies

What's Glee?

Oh, and South Park maybe somewhere on there.

Is it wrong to ANTICIPATE Ryan Murphy's new show GLEE?

Glee is a show that aired its 3rd episode two days ago ¯\(°_o)/¯

xpost

the wire
mad men
south park
frontline
30 rock
sopranos
lost
planet earth
breaking bad
sports center

That's why it's a special mention and not a top 10 show of the decade.

Oh yeah, does Match of the Day 2 count? <3 2 good 2 bad

the wire.

i assume there were other tv shows this decade, but i spent most of it without a tv. (plz note: not (always) because i wanted to.) pretty sure this is the only one i've seen enough of to have an actual considered-type opinion on.

(though i suppose this will be a good netflix guide in the future.)

I'm only counting series that actually started in the 00s.

The Office (UK)
30 Rock
L O S T
Arrested Development
Peep Show
Deadwood
Gilmore Girls
Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!
The Wire
How I Met Your Mother

I'm sure I forgot something that I love a lot.

oh joe good call w/ planet earth

American Idol
The Wire
30 Rock
The Office (US)
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
True Blood
Sex and the City
Oz (ended in 2003)
Arrested Development
Daily Show/Colbert

yeah Planet Earth was one of the main ones just outside my top 10 that i thought about posting

i don't think i've watched enough TV shows for my "top ten" to have any real meaning, but i did love a bunch of shows. plus i get the feeling that i'd grow to like just about any show if i was forced to watch it enough (desperate housewives)

Ohhhhhhhh, didn't realize that Six Feet Under started in '01. Might replace HIMYM with SFU. Maybe.

yeah there was a TV thread a few months ago where there was a little bit of discussion about how television is probably the most seductive medium in that with enough exposure you could end up getting into just about any halfway decent show in a way that i don't think is true w/ movies or music or books (xpost)

oh joe good call w/ planet earth

― dorroughmac (k3vin k.), 18 September 2009 15:22 (9 minutes ago) Bookmark

:(

Planet Earth probably my favourite single series thing

just above According To Bex

it's called According To Jim here in the US

The Wire
The Office (US)
The Sopranos
Arrested Development
The O.C. (first two seasons)
30 Rock
House
The Riches
My Name is Earl (so disappointed this was canceled)
The Office (UK)

If Spaced counts, that would slot in above House. Thought about Fringe but kinda hard to say after only one season.

Lost
Arrested Development
The Office
30 Rock
The Wire
Mad Men
Six Feet Under
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Freaks and Geeks
The O.C.

How many best shows of the decade get eliminated if you filter out shows that have series-long story arcs?

definite "series-long story arcs"

er DEFINE

what's with calling seasons "series"? british thing?

Sort of stunned by the lack of love for Survivor here, whose first season was maybe the last Thriller-level all-US pop culture event any of us will ever experience, unless you count the 2008 election as part of pop culture. And which on top of this was intellectually richer -- because you actually had to think about what to do! -- than all but a tiny handful of scripted shows. And which on top of THAT had more effect than anything else on what 2000s TV looked like, by a mile.

(As you can see, I'm not here to make friends.)

it's a british thing where seasons are a set of months of the year.

i never got into Survivor; only reality show i really considered was American Idol and maybe some nature/documentary cable shows

(As you can see, I'm not here to make friends.)

Ha, did you hear the Rich Juzwiak thing on This American Life last week?

I liked Pushing Daisies a lot but its run was way too short. Pretty much every Bryan Fuller show (Daisies, Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me) would make it in my top 20 list I think - all decent shows that ended before they could peak. I sort of wish he hadn't made Pushing Daisies at all and stuck with Heroes instead - from everything I've read, him leaving to do PD was a big part of why Heroes went to shit so quickly after the first season.

yeah i've had his other 2 shows on my Netflix queue for a while -- any suggestion as to which would be better to watch first?

re: series = any show where a recap of the rest of the series would help you watch it better.

I've only seen Survivor being cited as being setting higher standards for crap like in that book that says crap of today is more sophisticated and requires more brainpower to process than crap of yesteryear. It was called "crap is actually good for you" or something.

I think go with Wonderfalls because it's shorter. xp

o i read that book it was enlightening

also, survivor would fall into the series-long arc thing right? If you just watched a random episode without knowing the prior backstab and maneuvering history, you're missing the full effect.

I guess another way to put it is, "How many of these shows aren't really soap operas?"

are we talking about like any show with episode-to-episode continuity that doesn't hit the reset button Simpsons-style every time, or stuff like 24 with a distinct storyline arc for each year of the show?

Because, yeah, even most American sitcoms now have some overarching storylines that run through multiple seasons.

The Riches
My Name is Earl (so disappointed this was canceled)

I really liked the Riches, probably not Top 10, but it was pretty good, despite Eddie Izzard's terrible accent. Also in this category of pretty good but not top 10: Eli Stone (yes, I know everyone else hates it, and the second series was a bit shit, but, c'mon, ludicrous musical interlude dream sequences are great!), Jericho, Journeyman, Burn Notice. All but one of these have now been cancelled, so I am evidently out of the Popular American TV loop.

My Name Is Earl was a massive set of diminishing returns after the first series. Jaime Pressley is consistently hilarious though.

Other UK things I would rep for:

Life On Mars
Spooks

like, all non-animated non-reality shows pretty much? xp

also, survivor would fall into the series-long arc thing right? If you just watched a random episode without knowing the prior backstab and maneuvering history, you're missing the full effect.

Yep, and it also has the feature of "many more shitty seasons than good seasons" so it's hard to justify if you're of the view that you average over the show's whole life.

My Name Is Earl was a massive set of diminishing returns after the first series. Jaime Pressley is consistently hilarious though.

Oh this is definitely true. Pressley was pretty much the only thing that kept me watching to the very end, but she was brilliant enough to make the show a can't miss every week.

Because, yeah, even most American sitcoms now have some overarching storylines that run through multiple seasons.

― Size-zero-brigade-embrace-token-chubby-chops (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, September 18, 2009 12:15 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I kinda understand this, because The Office and How I Met Your Mother are definitely more into long arcs and character development than the average sitcom. but c'mon, you can't say older shows like Seinfeld or Cheers or Roseanne didn't have a lot of long-term continuity and stories that developed over the course of the series (even if in the case of, say, Seinfeld it was more about running jokes and recurring themes).

it's a british thing where seasons are a set of months of the year.

In the US, up until 15 years ago or so, there was such a thing as a "TV season." Cable and reality shows have changed that to a large degree, but most scripted network shows do still adhere to a 22-episode schedule from September through May, with summer reruns. So "season" makes sense because the show regularly airs during the same set of months.

I get the impression that British TV shows are not nearly this regular: e.g., series 2 of Rumpole of the Bailey aired from May-July 1979, and series 3 aired from October-November 1983. I remember finding it weird a few years ago when The Sopranos wasn't eligible for an Emmy, since they hadn't aired any episodes in the previous year, but I guess that's par for the course across the pond, eh?

continuity isn't a disqualifier but writing the show to an audience expected to know the continuity is.
Example: I'm sure Frazier has a continuity, but all you really need to know is Frazier used to be on Cheers but now he's divorced and has a talk show, and most of the time you don't even need to know that he used to be on Cheers.

P.S. Reality television is the navel-gazing nadir of Western civilization, and I think at least one generation of Americans is going to be ruined by it and everything of its ilk that reward being a useless, talentless, horrible human being with easy fame and riches. </old man fist-shaking>

search for 'scrubs'

no results for 'scrubs'

good work everyone.

How does America coped from May till September?

cope*

series 2 of Rumpole of the Bailey aired from May-July 1979

holy shit i had no idea it was that old

sam, may til september is fuckin summer!

"Reality television is the navel-gazing nadir of Western civilization, and I think at least one generation of Americans is going to be ruined by it"

At least they know game theory, HA!
Why has no one yet pitched a reality show called Prisoner's Dilemma?

Oh ok, I come from a place where the weather is crazy all the time and doesn't really effect what happens socially so I'm just as likely to watch telly in summer.

Sort of stunned by the lack of love for Survivor here, whose first season was maybe the last Thriller-level all-US pop culture event any of us will ever experience, unless you count the 2008 election as part of pop culture. And which on top of this was intellectually richer -- because you actually had to think about what to do! -- than all but a tiny handful of scripted shows. And which on top of THAT had more effect than anything else on what 2000s TV looked like, by a mile.

I enjoyed the first season of Survivor and had zero interest in it after that. It did seem novel at the time - in retrospect it just seems like a harbinger. It influenced 100000 trashy shows and about 5 good ones (anything related to Flavor Flav, obv.) It'd be one thing if these lists were filled with reality TV shows and nobody was mentioning survivor, but it's pretty clear that nobody here thinks super highly of the genre overall.

"Intellectually richer" is uh...no comment. And I think it's too soon to make your first claim, but it's interesting.

Reality television is our gladatorial circus. A confirmation that base human nature hasn't changed much in 2000 years: a lot of people like to watch other people cry.

tbh reality tv needs more lions

I enjoyed the first season of Survivor and had zero interest in it after that.

Yup.

"Reality television is our gladatorial circus."
Vince McMahon would like a word with you...

Can someone motivate me to get through season 2 of Friday Night Lights? I fell off around the time of the serial rapist storyline. Season 1 was one my favorite seasons of television for the decade though.

surprised there's no mention of Project Runway yet! definitely the cream of the crop as far as reality goes.

Hey anyone like Friday Night Lights but hate football and esp. hate high school football, not just the game itself but everything it entangles? I might give it a go if someone vouches for it.

i'll play!

Lost
The Office (US)
Arrested Development
How I Met Your Mother
30 Rock
West Wing
The Sopranos
Freaks & Geeks
Mad Men
Sex & The City (started in 98 but ran to 2004. If this doesn't count, I will shift vote to Undeclared.

)

i thought everyone who loves Friday Night Lights was all "it's not a sports show, you don't have to like football" about it

i don't feel like there's any reason to discount a show that started in the '90s if you like a show for the episodes that ran this decade. if i made a long list SNL and the Simpsons would definitely be in there somewhere outside the top 10.

I've definitely been able to get some non-football lovers in to FNL. What I loved about the 1st season was that it had a sort of cynical view of the "entanglements" of high school football, but really celebrated the simple joys of the game. I would highly recommend it.

yeah, I tried to squeeze Roseanne into the 90s shows, even though it started in 1988.

xpost

I can't believe I forgot The Shield. I liked it better than 3/4 of the shit on my list. I knew I was missing a great cop show in there.

The Wire
Undeclared
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
How I Met Your Mother
The Unit
Top Chef
Dawson's Creek
The OC
Deadwood
Rome

I forgot about Rome, too! Great show.

I've had season 2 of Rome sat unwatched in my house for about a year now. I should really get round to that.

i honestly don't get all the mentions for Undeclared, unless people are mainly subbing it in if they consider F&G a 90s show. it was funny but i can think of a dozen short-lived sitcoms i liked just as much.

Hey anyone like Friday Night Lights but hate football and esp. hate high school football, not just the game itself but everything it entangles? I might give it a go if someone vouches for it.

I hate football and all sports, but FNL is an excellent show. Especially its first season.

Oh shit, Rome. Totally forgot that one too.

I guess what I'm asking is FNL more like the Wire than it is like Freaks and Geeks?

Not in any particular order after Rome, which I love beyond it's actual worth:

Rome
The Shield
The Wire
Top Gear
Project Runway
Spaced
Samurai Jack
How Not To Decorate
Gilmore Girls
Planet Earth

xxxp - no F&G sub for me, I've never made it through more than a handful of episodes, I just don't get the love for that show.

If I were really honest with myself, I'd sub out Top Chef for Undressed.

I guess what I'm asking is FNL more like the Wire than it is like Freaks and Geeks?

Definitely the Wire since it goes for the whole realistic depiction of a small town in Texas w/o glossing over the gritty aspects. It got a little "OC" for my taste in the 2nd season... i guess that was kind of there in the 1st season, but only slightly.

OK sold!

re: F&G's appeal -- if you are not fond of dramatized awkwardness, there's not much in this show for you, except maybe Joe Flaherty reprising Count Floyd.

oh joe good call w/ planet earth

yah - my blue planet vote was tryna cheat and vote for both tbh~~

i agree w/some dude upthread i think if u r going to rep for a show u have (lol) to count every season and every episode. if i did a list of the ten best episodes of the decade a lot of good stuff i left off - family guy, 30 rock, south park, how i met.. - would be there but as a whole they are frustratingly inconsistent.

if i was going to rep for reality shows itd be the amazing race which was fantastic

I dunno about this 'has to be perfect all the way through thing' - for example BSG is obviously deeply flawed, but it's given me so much pleasure and has raised the bar for SF on TV so much that I couldn't not include it.

blue planet v planet earth is a tough call

No wai with the counting every season and episode. Some of my favorite albums only have two or three tracks I love - but those few outweigh albums where I really like a bunch more.

noone said "has to be perfect" -- just that you should be able to just list the show's name and not say "oh, except the last 4 seasons, those sucked"

same way you should be able to say the Stones are your favorite band without saying "don't get me wrong, i don't own Steel Wheels or anything"

ex. S1-4 of Buffy (despite 5-7 that had to be endured, mostly) bests the West Wing even though there were no seasons of TWW that I didn't like.

damn, it'd be a lot easier for me to do a 90s list... does that thread exist

off the top of my head imo:

the wire
projrun
24 (first couple of seasons)
top chef
deadwood
~*modern marvels*~
good eats
the adam carolla project
breaking bonaduce
generation kill

Season 5 of The West Wing was a big drag, IIRC; the show needed the election storyline in its last two seasons to revive it.

haha i devoured the first 4 seasons of West Wing in the past year or two, now i'm kinda slowly trudgring through S5, good to hear that it gets better toward the end

here's the 90s thread: Great TV shows of the 90s

My list of shows of the decade that started pre-2000:

Strangers With Candy
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Angel
The Sopranos
Friends
Big Train
Smack The Pony

Also, I guess it'll have to be number 11 (or 12) on my other top 10 list, but I can't believe I forgot Reno 911!. And Look Around You.

for no real reason but with a lot of deliberation the ten best (probably) episodes of the decade

south park - scott tenorman must die S5E4
sopranos - university S3E6
moral orel - nature (part 2) S2E30
veronica mars - an echolls family christmas S1E10
six feet under - everyones waiting S6E12
30 rock - jack meets dennis S1E6
sopranos - cold stones S6.1E11
family guy - oceans three and half S7E7
mad men - the jet set S2E11
its always sunny... - charlie has cancer S1E4

As I have way too much free time on my hands, anyone up for us doing this properly with a rockist 'omg the corner is way better than the wire' poll with nominations and voting and a top 50 or whatever (before we do it with music and everyone becomes a bitch about how well radiohead should do even though we all like radiohead?)

I can barely remember episodes individually, much less pick the best.

i thought about spearheading a poll but decided i didn't need to give myself more opportunities to argue about Sopranos vs. Wire or 30 Rock vs. Arrested Development. if you did one i'd totally be into the idea, though. (xpost)

xpost

Yeah, it's become increasingly difficult for me to think of TV shows in terms of discrete, episode-long units anymore. Scenes, yeah, but episode demarcations seem almost arbitrary these days, unless it's a Very Special Episode (like Seinfeld promoting Bee Movie on 30 Rock...hilarious!).

A poll would be rad. I'm getting a sense of what the winners would be, based solely on the level of repetition in this thread.

Well yeah but I'm thinking a poll would be useful just to see what places before the obvious winners (like every poll).

wow. sorry i missed that sopranos v. wire poll. can't believe it was so lopsided. would've been in the minority.

i support a poll if and only if the person running it gives half the votes 4 the wire 2 the wb drama of his or her choice

There was an episode of Frontline where they were interviewing someone outside about how unsafe SUVs were and one block over there's a loud sound -- they rush to it -- it's an overturned SUV.

Frontline is best reality TV!

You all got no love for PBS (sniff)

As a britisher, I don't know what was on the wb. Sorry.

OK, inspired by Lamp I'm going to pick my fave episode from each of my choices

The Wire - "That's Got His Own" - S04E11
Peep Show - "University Challenge" - S02E04
Battlestar Galactica - "Exodus Part 2" - S03E04
Mad Men - "Red in the Face" - S01E07
The Thick of It - Can't choose, all equally brilliant
Samurai Jack - "The Princess and the Bounty Hunters" S04E05
The Sopranos - "College" - S01E05
Doctor Who - "Family of Blood" - S03E09
Blue Planet - "The Deep" - S01E02
Psychoville - "Lomax" - S01E02

What a crazy Friday night I'm having.

Ok, well if people are up for it, i'll start a propah nominations thread on Monday. Thinking 5 nominations each? Once someone has voted for 30 Rock and The Sopranos once then it will force people to go for other things and everyone finding 10 shows to nominate might end up with some incredibly shit shows nominated just to fill the numbers. Maybe 7 as a trade-off.

Is this going to be an old school poll with email votes and stuff? Definitely up for that.

i think 7 is a good number.

As a britisher, I don't know what was on the wb. Sorry.

― Like BANG! Bust 'em in the wang like it aint no thang (a hoy hoy), Friday, September 18, 2009 2:34 PM (24 minutes ago)

wasnt gilmore girls on the wb?

God knows, I only became addicted to it when e4 started showing an episode a day last year (which they have now started doing with How I Met Your Mother and Veronica Mars.)

yeah i got into it late too, watched occasional episodes w/ girl a couple years ago, just now getting through the DVDs

Hey, don't think anyone's said Futurama yet.

Friday Night Lights
Mad Men
Lost
American Idol
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Project Runway
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Big Love
30 Rock
Daily Show

Wonder Showzen
The Devil's Whore
Ideal
Come Dine With Me
TV Burp
Clocking Off
Nathan Barley
Boy A
Criminal Justice
Wallander (UK)
American Future: A History
Apparitions

That's 12.

TV Burp and Boy A are good ones.

Oh, I forgot American High./Tape Store

Eh, I ruined that, I meant "(no Tape Store)."

Xp to Darin - Big Love!! Good call.

Big Love is another one I might have put on my top 10. Only seen the first two seasons, though.

UK-based contribution:

DavidM, I was going to mention Clocking Off too. Also have mad love for the mentally absurd At Home With The Braithwaites, so just chucking that in there.

US-based contribution:

Have I missed something good by not sticking with How I Met Your Mother? Loads of mentions, I gave up after one and a half eps. Can I put a somewhere-around-top-twenty-ish vote in for Two and a Half Men as well, consistent lolz over several seasons.

this is hard! Buffy and The Wire seem a cut above the many, many shows i love. Freaks and Geeks, too, if we're counting it. after those, everything else i like seems more or less equally good.

Buffy was a great 90s show, and a terrible 00s show

Have I missed something good by not sticking with How I Met Your Mother?

Absolutely. I completely ignored its existence for years because it just didn't seem like My Thing. But after repeatedly hearing people whose opinions I trust rave about it, I bought the first season DVD. And then the second, shortly thereafter. And I was completely hooked by the time I was working my way through the third. Pretty consistently funny (despite its highly conventional sitcom format), smart, touching, and cozy. And its attention to detail and continuity are ridiculous. Jokes are set up and seemingly forgotten by episode's end, only to get a hilarious callback on down the line (hello, slap fight!). In short, being a long-time viewer really pays off.

Buffy season 5 was '03 and is better than anything else in the 00s except for the Wire, maybe.

xpost

lol okay not '03 but '00-'01. grown so old.

i guess maybe i'm favoring hourlong dramas over half-hour comedy. i would also include 30 Rock, except i don't even watch it anymore. :-/

Buffy season 5 was '03 and is better than anything else in the 00s except for the Wire, maybe.

Haven't seen it in years, but I used to rep pretty hardcore for Buffy season 5 as the best single season of a television show ever. Yeah, s4 of The Wire or s3 of Deadwood might be challengers, but it'd be close.

Battlestar Galactica
The Wire
The Office (US)
30 Rock
Project Runway
Arrested Development

There are a lot of other shows I like well enough - Dexter, Big Love, Six Feet Under, Lost - but I either haven't seen enough of them to put them on a list, or in the case of Lost, am annoyed with the show about as often as I enjoy it.

lost
avatar the last airbender
firefly
its always sunny in philadelphia
curb your enthusiasm
arrested development
spongebob squarepants
daily show/colber report - this can count as one
so you think you can dance
satsuke/ninja warrior

The Wire (only discovered this recently, love love love love love)
The Sopranos (Sunday nights are STILL empty without it)
Friday Night Lights (I never believed that this would work as a tv show. I was SO wrong)
Battlestar Galactica (even with the dull spots, it was one of the best shows on tv)
Farscape (more than muppets in space.)
Doctor Who (even with flying busses, RTD, the whole silly circus, it was still GREAT)
The West Wing (giant wheel of cheese. what's next?. the rubber ball. waders. even Jimmy Smits & Alan Alda. so great.)
Deadwood (and here I was thinking Doris Day was the one true Calamity Jane)
Carnivale (freemasons! yess!)
Spongebob Squarepants (i love you patrick star)

North Square

US

Curb Your Enthusiasm
Arrested Development
Sopranos
House
Wife Swap
Eastbound and Down
Party Down
GR Kitchen Nightmares
Chappelle's Show
Rome

UK

Phoenix Nights
Mighty Boosh
Shameless
Bo’ Selecta!
Planet Earth
Nevermind the Buzzcocks
Black Books

Oh, I forgot about Firefly. I would add that to my list. And we own the DVDs of Planet Earth, so that should probably go on there, too.

The Wire
30 Rock
Justice League Unlimited
Teen Titans
America's Next Top Model -- even if the last ~7 cycles have been different degrees of forgettable, five of the first six are such incendiary surreal masterpieces of spectacle.
Doctor Who
Friday Night Lights
Bones
So You Think You Can Dance
Freaks & Geeks -- if not eligible, I unno, Veronica Mars.
Really rilly want to squeeze Studio 60 Sports Night in there somewhere. No The West Wing because I rewatched the first two seasons and was put off, plus I'm still butthurt about the season Sorkin jumped ship.

Special honors to Generation Kill for achievement in miniseries.

Another good miniseries was The Lost Room.

Sports Night is 90s though, right?

Sports Night went off the air in March 2000.

Sort of stunned by the lack of love for Survivor here, whose first season was maybe the last Thriller-level all-US pop culture event any of us will ever experience, unless you count the 2008 election as part of pop culture. And which on top of this was intellectually richer -- because you actually had to think about what to do! -- than all but a tiny handful of scripted shows. And which on top of THAT had more effect than anything else on what 2000s TV looked like, by a mile.

Eight years later, I'm still watching. (CHRIST, that Russell.) But really, Survivor = Thriller? I'd have thought American Idol, especially in terms of staying power. Sure, the finale of Borneo got almost 60 million, but it's been falling solidly since then. The last time it had a real impact on all of pop culture, not just reality pop culture, was when fools thought they were trying to incite race wars on Cook Islands. "Intellectually richer" is provocatism, dude, the show (and all reality) gets by on spectacle and outrage, and with Survivor, it's less about strategy and more about managing to soothe irrationality.

But eff a person who calls reality programming the nadir of anything.

Really rilly want to squeeze Studio 60 Sports Night in there somewhere. No The West Wing because I rewatched the first two seasons and was put off, plus I'm still butthurt about the season Sorkin jumped ship.

I felt the same way for a long time, and episode for episode I still like SN better and consider it one of my favorites of the 90s, but more recently I gave in and am enjoying working my way through WW on Netflix.

But really, Survivor = Thriller? I'd have thought American Idol, especially in terms of staying power.

This is a good point, actually -- I never watch American Idol and so probably underestimate just how nationally unifying it is.

xpost - I remember when Sorkin left, noticing the change in story/character everything so quickly, became so appalled that I refused to watch. And laughed at everyone who did. We started watching the series from the beginning earlier in the year, and I figured, okay fuck it I'll watch the non-Sorkin seasons just to say that I made it through. Once the early kinks were worked out, they really did settle into a groove where they stopped trying to emulate the rhythm Sorkin had started, and it really came into its own. Even Smits and Alda became likeable, which I never thought I would say. But they really did do a good job with it in the end. Nowhere near as awful and unholy as I thought it was initially :)

Five I like which haven't been mentioned.

Gilette Soccer Saturday
The Lost World of Mitchell and Kenyon
The Book Group
Happiness
IT Crowd

the sopranos
the wire
battlestar galactica
dexter
house, md
the office (USA)
tim & eric awesome show great job
dave chappelle
friday night lights
lost

take it to the other thread fellas :)

Friday Night Lights
Freaks And Geeks
Mad Men
The Wire
The Sopranos
Rescue Me
Six Feet Under
Army Wives
Weeds
Big Love

xp Can't this thread still be for people to post their top 10 lists?

Go crazy, not gonna go all Hitler on this shiz.

Frisky Dingo
Wonder Showzen
Freaks and Geeks
The Wire
AD
Office (US)
Daily Show / Colbert
Curb Your Enthusiasm
AB: No Reservations
Reno 911

Official Ogmor Top Ten British Comedy Shows

Noble & Silver (especially the special, & in a better dimension this would have got broadcast -(youtube) watch?v=AO5cFvwbJAU)
15 Storeys High < what I most fancy watching now
Shooting Stars (Vegas&Self era in particular)
Peep Show
Jam (the Morris pick for a few incredibly intense moments, but other stuff more consistent w/Brass Eye paedogeddon episode a high point)
The Thick Of It
Snuff Box
The Office/Extras
Da Ali G Show (though the US stuff is the best)
Time Trumpet

Else: Six Feet Under, The Wire&Generation Kill, South Park, Jonathan Meades (most recent Off Kilter was awesome and beautiful), doc on Joe Bussard, those late-night Bach organ pieces on BBC, John Pilger, Monty Don going round zen gardens, Obama's Rev. Wright speech, Band of Brothers, David Attenborough, Robespierre doc/drama w/Mantel&Zizek

Most gutted to have missed: that Cromwell McNulty effort, Catterick, Red Riding

carnivale - honorable mention for getting me through the terrible first week after i broke the shit out of my collarbone and had to sleep in a chair

South Park
SVU
Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job
Wonder Showzen
Dexter
Home Movies
Cheaters
Chappelle's Show
Da Ali G Show
Freaks & Geeks

and 5 more..
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
Primetime Glick
Sealab 2021
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Curb Your Enthusiasm

and Stella

not sure i'm adding much to the convo but here we go

(in order roughly)

the sopranos
law & order: svu
24
the chappelle show
the daily show
party down
good eats
top chef
30 rock
arrested development

"As I have way too much free time on my hands, anyone up for us doing this properly with a rockist 'omg the corner is way better than the wire' poll with nominations and voting and a top 50 or whatever"

This would be awesome

I'm clearly not a huge TV head:

Time-Life 30-minute infomercials
Planet Earth
Mad Men
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
Top Chef
The Jon Stewart Show/The Colbert Report
Behind the Music
How It's Made
American Gangster
World Series of Poker

I'm adding any shows that people mention from here onto the official nominations list here Hey Dummy! It's the ILX Decade End TV Poll Nominations Thread!!!!!!!! btw. Well, I will do when I've had some breakfast first.

I think I need to start watching Top Chef.

Time-Life 30-minute infomercials

I love you for this, Matos! I could watch DAYS of those things! And they don't have to be Time-Life.

oh yeah SOUTH PARK...kinda forgot about it

i mean, love it our hate it, that's landmark shit

uh just realized 'iron chef' text not found shame on us

The Japanese Iron Chef is all '90s, was just imported to U.S. in '00s, which is why it wasn't my No. 1.

TOP 10:

1. The Sopranos (1999-2007)
2. The Wire (2002-2008)
3. Saturday Night Live (1975-, live comedy series) [give love where it's due, esp. post-Tina Fey leaving, pre-Amy Poehler leaving, after which no love is due except for Tracy Morgan hosting and the Mother's Day digital short]
4. Lost (2004-)
5. Mad Men (2007-)
6. Generation Kill (2008, mini-series)
7. Arrested Development (2003-2006)
8. Deadwood (2004-2006)
9. The Office (2005-, U.S.)
10. In Treatment (2008-, U.S.)

Strongly considered:

Angel (1999-2004) [Jasmine/religion subplot of Season 4 one of the more subversive things ever]
Angels in America (2003, TV mini-series) [sticks in my mind as powerful/important]
Battlestar Galactica (2004-, '00s version) [for at least a season or two]/Battlestar Galactica: Razor (2007, TV movie)
Big Love (2006-)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) [my life at the time, can't watch it on DVD]
Clerks: The Animated Series (2000) [funniest thing he ever did]
Firefly (2002-2004)
Flight of the Conchords (2007-) [especially Season 2]
Friends (1994-2004)
Law & Order (1990-) [Jerry Orbach run through 2004; then new cast/seemingly new writing from 2008 on]
Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (2000, TV documentary)
Sex & the City (1998-2004) [I lost interest, and its re-run ubiquity makes its formulae grate, but for a year or so in the early '00s there was nothing else as fresh]
Six Feet Under (2001-2005) [if not for a slump and a cheesy finale, would have made my Top 10]
The Hills (2006-) [only loved as perverse realism before I learned it was "reality," but still amazes on that level]
The L Word (2004-2009) [serious second-season slump and then comeback]
The Simpsons (1989-) [another slump and comeback]
True Blood (2008-) [only saw first season]
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006, TV documentary mini-series)

Much love for all the other vid-crack here (and I'll check out what I've missed--F & G?). The Wondershowzen mention brought me back to this:

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/fe4086c5f4/clarence-explores-freedom-of-speech-from-wondershowzenfan

The Wire
The West Wing
The Daily Show
30 Rock
Lost
The Soup
How I Met Your Mother
The Venture Bros.
Freaks & Geeks
Veronica Mars

― murda mo not mo murda (some dude), Thursday, September 17, 2009 11:56 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

some dudes basically got it for me... i might sub out venture bros for mad men

o and "how its made" in place of the soup

ding ding ding Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiit! It's the ILX Decade-End TV Poll!!!!! ding ding ding

o and "how its made"

luv this show