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.

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