Tangled Up In Wires

Our best of the decade lists roll on with our list of best TV shows of the last 10 years. In judging these, we looked at the shows quality over its overall run or run up until this current season (our year end list will touch on that), as well as its degree of influence. Disagree and think we’re a couple of idiots who don’t know what real comedy or drama is? Think we’re the greatest people to talk about TV since it was invented? Sound off in the comments section below!

25. House
One of the more popular shows of the decade, House combined ER, CSI, and Scrubs into a consistently satisfying show that produced one of the best TV personalities in its title character. Hugh Laurie’s portrayal of the sarcastic genius Dr. House is worth tuning in for on a regular basis, but the show always manages to keep the tension rising for the full hour before reaching its conclusion. Perhaps the best part of house is that you don’t need an extensive background on the show to watch it, making it easy to enjoy each time you turn it on. (M)

24. Dexter
As time goes on, Dexter has kind of flown off the rails (let’s just not talk about this season’s unfortunate repositioning of Dexter as America’s Favorite Serial Killer: how will he adjust to life in Suburbia?) but even at its most ridiculous, Michael C. Hall is there to ground the show. Hall isn’t afraid to embrace Dexter’s nasty, dark side, but he’s at his best when playing Dexter as an alien thrust into human society; squirming and struggling to pass for normal when surrounded by constant threats. (J)

23. Extras
Ricky Gervais took the cringe comedy he perfected on the The Office and brought it to Hollywood with his fantastic Extras. The premise of the show is simple, Gervais plays an extra who strives for more, while having wacky run ins with celebrities playing themselves. Each episode was essentially a set up for an awkward moment with a celebrity and for Andy, and it usually was incredibly cringe inducing while gut-bustingly funny. Standouts include a graphic Kate Winslet, a childish Daniel Ratcliff, a stoic Ian McKellen, and of course, an perverted Patrick Stewart. (M)

22. The Venture Bros.
The Venture Bros. isn’t really a parody, even though a quick plot summary reads as such. But parodies are generally a loosely strung-together series of one liners and jokes (see pretty much everything else on Adult Swim), whereas The Venture Bros. manages to balance together some extremely intricate mythology, legitimate character development, cultural criticism, and, yes, a very long and very funny series of one-liners and jokes. In episodes like “The Doctor is Sin” the show is at its best, turning the hero-villain dynamic on its head and showing that even superscientists and arch-villains in butterfly suits have feelings too. (J)

21. Scrubs
Though it veered off course towards the end of its run (we’re counting this new season as a spin-off), the first few years of Scrubs were fantastic television. The show never hesitated to add the crushing aspects of working in a hospital, but also never relied on gimmicks seen in hospital dramas. Instead, Scrubs always featured a high degree of goofy humor while highlighting the actual ups and downs of working in a hospital. The characters were all lovable, especially the constantly grumpy Dr. Cox, played to perfection by John C. McGinley. The popularity of the show has grown since it went into syndication, and rightfully so, as it was one of the better, unique comedies of the 2000s. (M)

20. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia‘s genius lies in how harmless it can seem at first. “A group of friends who hang out in a bar and get into schenanigans? I’ve seen this show before.” But Sunny takes its schlocky tropes in such wrong directions, and with such deranged glee, that it quickly becomes obvious that this isn’t like other sitcoms. Like a 2000s Seinfeld, Sunny stretches the limit of what is acceptable behavior within a sitcom until there are no limits left. (J)

19. Firefly
People forget that there was a time when Joss Whedon was a successful television wunderkind with a JJ Abrams-level ceiling. But that was before Firefly, his difficult, heady sci-fi western about a future that looks a lot more like our past. Whedon cleverly inverts the utopic social order of Star Trek, turning the Federation (actually called the Alliance, but its the same general idea) into the bad guys, making a show celebrating ingenuity and individualism, while avoiding any sort of heavy-handed sermonizing. Plus he recurited a stellar cast, led with Han Solo swagger by Nathan Fillion (who deserves to be a much, much bigger star thanks to this role). Sadly Firefly only lasted one season, but what a season it was. (J)

18. Friday Night Lights
Perhaps the most naturalistic show ever on television, Friday Night Lights quickly grew past its premise of a town obsessed with high school football. In addition to the drama you’d expect, the show has touched on a father in Iraq, racism, class difference, paraplegics, and the enormous expectations placed on high school stars. Rather than just keep the same cast, even after some have graduated, the show hasn’t been afraid to keep its cast revolving, consistently bringing in well thought out characters. As a result, FNL is not just a show for football fans, but for fans of great TV. (M)

17. Big Love
What started as a show with a gimmicky concept, a Mormon man with three wives, evolved to become a family drama about faith and convictions, which has gotten better and better as it has gone on. The show is driven by a terrific cast, most notably the three wives played by Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny, and Ginnifer Goodwin. While it’s not a show you can just pick up and watch at any point, Big Love is a unique drama that puts the pedal to the floor for every episode and is a pleasure to watch each week. (M)

16. Pushing Daisies
Cheerful whimsy is a hard tone to carry through a 13-hour season, but Pushing Daisies pulled it off by weighting down its twee elements with a genuine sadness. Constructed like a fairy tale and set in a world that looks like a Tim Burton-directed Amelie, Pushing Daisies was an hour of happiness beamed directly into your living room, buoyed by an amazing ensemble without a single weak link or overwhelming personality (although, if I had to pick a favorite, it would be Chi McBride). One of the great tragedies of the strike is that it sabotaged the burdgeoning success on one of TV’s most unique shows. (J)

15. How I Met Your Mother
The only show on our list with a laugh track, How I Met Your Mother started as a sitcom with a clever premise and expanded to become one of the most inventive and hip shows on TV. While the performance of Neil Patrick Harris as ultimate ladies man Barney has drawn the most praise, the rest of the cast is equally as fantastic in their less over the top roles, especially Cobie Smulders as Canadian newswoman Robin. If you remain unconvinced, check out the Season 2 episode “Slap Bet.” There are few episodes of TV in the last 10 years better than that. (M)

14. Flight of the Conchords
Blending deadpan silliness with genuinely catchy songs, Flight of the Conchords turned into a minor phenomenon, as word of mouth spread about just how hilarious the show was. Even as the quality of the music teetered off a little bit in the second season, the show’s hilarious writing and talented supporting cast (including two of the decade’s funniest creations: Rhys Darby’s clueless manager/New Zealand consulate drone Murray and Kristen Schaal’s creepily obsessed superfan Mel) carried it through. (J)

13. The Office (US)
After a lackluster first season, the American version of The Office looked like a flop. But with the Season 2 opener “The Dundies,” The Office started having its own identity and it paid off big time. Rather than stay focused on just a few characters, the show expanded through the offices of Dunder-Mifflin, giving a whole new set of options to the show. It still goes for the cringe humor of it’s British heritage (more on that in a bit), but it has also relied on a deeper emotional depth for its cast of characters, providing more than just laughs to a great show.(M)

12. Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica had giant “Stay Away” signs posted all over it – like the fact that it was remake, appearing on a channel not exactly known for quality original productions. But Ronald D. Moore and David Eick beat the odds and made a show that, during some of our most turbulent years, directly engaged the political situation with more sophistaction than any other show on TV (inlcuding cable news or, for that matter, most films). While Moore didn’t quite stick the landing, he still made an immensely thoughtful show, packed with characters who transcended their pulpy roots to become genuinely fascinating and empathy-enducing figures. (J)

11. Veronica Mars
The first season of Veronica Mars is an intricately plotted masterpiece that serves as compelling evidence of what television is capable of on a storytelling level, balancing a tightly-wound mystery that would give Sam Spade pause with a fascinating depiction of class warfare in a California high school. While the next two seasons didn’t quite live up to that first one, they were still excellent and all three gave us a chance to see the brilliant work Kristen Bell did in the title role. Balancing a world-weary, sardonic edge with a measure of innocence and idealism, Bell played the most realistic teenager to appear on television since Sunnydale High School’s destruction. (J)

10. Breaking Bad
When it started, Breaking Bad‘s premise sounded awfully familar. But, over the course of two brief seasons, it morphed into a pitch black look at male anxiety, drug trade in the Southwest, and one man’s transformation from an upstanding chemistry teacher into a monster. Giving one of the best performances of the decade, Bryan Cranston guides that transformation by showing that those traits had always existed inside Walter White, it just took something like cancer to bring them out. There have been many antiheroes on TV this decade, but none started seeming as docile only to become as horrifying (in such a convincing way) as Walter. (J)

9. 30 Rock
When 30 Rock debuted, no one had any doubt that Aaron Sorkin’s dramedy Studio 60, also about a sketch comedy show, would be much better. Now, in it’s fourth season, 30 Rock has had 3 more seasons and Emmy’s for Best Comedy than it’s former counterpart. A zainy show that combines the in jokes of Arrested Development with the absurd parts of the The Simpsons, Tina Fey’s show is a weekly laugh fest, even when it’s not at its best. 30 Rock stands out from other sitcoms for it’s joke first, plot later structure. Above all, 30 Rock has proved it’s okay to pander comedy to smart people, and has become a show that doesn’t take its viewer for granted. (M)

8. Curb Your Enthusiasm
No one, not even Larry David, acts like “Larry David,” the main character of Curb Your Enthusiasm. But part of the fun of the show is picturing what it would be like if, just once, you could verbally abuse the people who take too many samples or eat a couple of your shrimp after taking the wrong takeout box. Free of the conventions and restraints imposed by Seinfeld, Larry David was able to run wild and make a show that is so painfully, terrifyingly awkward that you can’t help but laugh. (J)

7. The Daily Show/The Colbert Report
Sticking out from the other shows on this list and forever being tied together, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report were perhaps the most important shows for late night TV since Johnny Carson. Taking aim at not only politicians, but the media and hypocrisies everywhere, both shows became more and more important as the second half of the decade went on. In the 2008 election, both Daily Show host Jon Stewart and the Stephen Colbert took Republican candidate John McCain to task for his remarks about the economy, and the media followed suit. Both shows stood at the intersection between comedy and politics while managing to play both sides. How long they can last remains to be seen, but in the 2000s, they were incredible. (M)

6. Mad Men
There was a recent study that watching TV shows regularly and following the characters has the same effect on your brain as forming actual friendships. While I don’t know this for sure, I suspect that vast majority of participants in the study were Mad Men viewers. Sure the show’s period trappings are beautifully realized, and the central concept of an ad man who is so committed to his craft of building consumerist fantasies that he has sold himself on his lies is compelling and rich, but its Mad Men‘s characters and the humanity with which it treats them that makes it so hypnotically compelling. Mad Men is a collection of little moments that build a larger picture of alienation, depression, and things we do to try to fight them off. (J)

5. Lost
No other show has ever captured the curiosity of its fans while demanding so much attention as Lost. A combination of mystery, adventure, and sci-fi, Lost was a cultural phenomenon upon its arrival, and those that have stuck around have been treated to a show that has grown strongly over time, making its mythology deeper and deeper. Many imitators have tried to steal Lost‘s formula, but to no avail. When the show returns this spring for it’s final season, one of the great TV mysteries will come to its conclusion, but our fascination with it may never end. (M)

4. The Wire
What’s left to be said about The Wire, David Simon’s depressingly realistic portrayal of how the system rewards sloth, greed, and inaction? There are no good or bad guys in The Wire, just people trying to do what they can to get by. Simon’s multi-layered, intellectually taxing storytelling takes a while to acclimate to, but before you realize, you’re sucked into a world spiraling further and further towards bleak, bureaucratic dystopia; and then you turn off the show and realize you were already living in it. (J)

3. The Office (UK)
Before there was Michael Scott, there was David Brent and his band of weary office workers who were perpetually terrorized by the antics of their boss. The original version of The Office really brought together the cringe comedy of Larry David with Sam and Diane, while at the same time presenting the dull drums of the workplace. David Brent is right up there with Ralph Cramden, Lucy, and Archie Bunker in the TV comedy hall of fame. His very presence on screen will make you cringe. Without The Office, who knows what would have happened to sitcoms in the 2000s. (M)

2. The West Wing
While Aaron Sorkin was at the helm, The West Wing Was a show unequaled in quality. Before Sorkin left the show following the fourth season, the show was as much a human drama as it was a political one, thanks in large part to the quality of a cast that made their characters impossible to dislike. Perhaps the most overlooked part of the Sorkin Years was that the show was often hilarious, breaking the seriousness up, and really making for four seasons without a bad episode. When the show changed hands for its final three seasons, it suffered at first, and improved towards the end, but seasons 1-4 remain some of the best television you’ll ever see. (M)

1. Arrested Development
Without a doubt the best comedy of the decade, and possibly ever, Arrested Development is a masterpiece of comic writing and execution. Whether you’re watching an episode for the first time or the tenth time, you’ll always laugh as the jokes pile up. With countless running gags and jokes (Franklin, “Her?”, Mr. F) that continued to pay off as the show went on, Arrested Development is a show that rewarded its small, loyal fan base, and easily won over more after its cancellation. If  you haven’t met the Bluths yet, you have no idea what you’re missing. (M)

There are few shows, let alone comedies, that are still as impactful the 80th time you watch them as they were the first. But Arrested Development actually gets better with repeat viewings, allowing you to fully drink in the world that Mitch Hurwitz created. The vividly realized, slightly askew universe of Arrested Development most closely resembles a real-life Springfield, with grotesquely wealthy privilege replacing middle-class ennui, but Arrested Development succeeds by packing it with characters who have beating hearts underneath their cartoonish exterior. Under appreciated in its time, Arrested Development’s cancellation had one positive: it guaranteed that the show’s run ended without a single bad episode. (J)