How the Times Built It, and the Top 10
Breaking Bad at number one is the correct answer, and I say that as someone who expected to be annoyed. The New York Times has ranked the 100 best TV shows of the 21st century, and Vince Gilligan’s Albuquerque tragedy sits on top, ahead of The Wire and Mad Men. No dead weight, and an ending that landed. Very few dramas on this list can claim both, and the two right behind it are the only ones with a real argument.
The list was fully out by September 25, when Forbes and Men’s Journal were both picking it apart. A Reddit thread titled “We compiled The New York Times 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century. Ask us anything!” is now rising on r/television, so the argument is not cooling off. Gilligan, meanwhile, is headed back to Albuquerque for Pluribus season 2, presumably unbothered.
This was a poll that Newser puts the electorate at more than 500 actors, showrunners, critics and others. Forbes reports that ballots went to people across the TV business, that each voter could name up to 10 shows, and that anything with multiple episodes in any language or format was fair game, reality and documentary included. That matters when you read the results, because a top-10 ballot rewards the shows everybody respects over the shows a smaller group adores.
After Breaking Bad, The Wire and Mad Men, the top 10 runs Succession, Fleabag, Game of Thrones, Veep, 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Atlanta. Newser and Men’s Journal report the same order. Half of those 10 are comedies, which I love, and which is rarer than it should be on lists like this. My one real objection is Game of Thrones at number six. Its peak belongs there. Its last two seasons do not, and a ranking of the best TV shows of the 21st century should weigh the whole run.
The Placements That Made Me Do a Double Take
I am working from the full ranking as No Film School reproduced it, and it has some wild neighbors. Better Call Saul lands at 27, a full 26 spots below the show it grew out of. I would put those two much closer together, because the prequel is the more patient and more heartbreaking piece of writing. Survivor is at 31, one spot above Andor, a sentence I never expected to type.
The Pitt at 36 is the recency pick of the bunch. It became HBO’s biggest original series and it is terrific, but it sits above Battlestar Galactica at 37 and Watchmen at 39. That feels like enthusiasm talking. On the other end, The Bear at 74 and Ted Lasso at 75 look low to me for two shows that felt unavoidable not long ago. Genre fans did fine overall, with Lost at 22, Severance at 30 and Stranger Things at 53.
What Got Left Off, and One Rule I Would Change
The loudest absence is The Sopranos, and it was never in the running. Forbes reports that eligible shows had to debut on or after January 1, 2000, and Tony Soprano arrived on January 10, 1999, even though 73 of the 86 episodes aired after the cutoff. Forbes called the rule “deeply wrong,” and I am on that side. A list of the best TV shows of the 21st century without the series that built the template for half of it reads like a technicality winning an argument.
The rest are checkable against the list as reported. Men’s Journal counts Abbott Elementary, Grey’s Anatomy, Yellowstone, Suits, Monk and Snowfall among the missing. From the No Film School rundown, I also see no Fargo, no Hannibal, no Mr. Robot, no The Last of Us and no The Walking Dead. Those last few are opinion territory, and mine is that Hannibal was as visually daring as television gets and deserved a slot over at least a dozen comfortable picks. A voter pool this industry-heavy was always going to favor prestige over cult.
Still, any ranking of the best TV shows of the 21st century that finds room for The OA at 98 has a pulse. It also placed that one a spot above Gilmore Girls, so expect letters.
