- The New York Times released a list of the best TV shows of the 21st century, with Breaking Bad taking the top spot over The Sopranos.
- The Sopranos, despite its widespread acclaim, was deemed ineligible for the ranking due to its 1999 premiere date.
- The list was compiled based on votes from actors, creators, and TV lovers, featuring modern classics like Girls, Friday Night Lights, and Chappelle’s Show.
The Sopranos, now nearly 20 years removed from the premiere of its endlessly debated finale, stands alone among the TV landscape.
For some time now, the HBO juggernaut, created by David Chase, has been widely praised as the greatest TV series of all time. Its influence is readily apparent to this day, as is its sustaining cultural cachet. Still, the series debuted back in 1999, making it ineligible for a discourse-spurring ranking of the best shows of the 21st century from The New York Times.
The list, available in full here, is topped by Vince Gilligan‘s Breaking Bad, which premiered in 2008, less than a year after The Sopranos closed up shop. The Wire, Mad Men, Succession, Fleabag, Game of Thrones, Veep, 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Atlanta round out the top 10.
In a move presumably designed to get ahead of anyone who might immediately comment “But what about The Sopranos?” without actually reading the list or noticing its focus on the 21st century, the Times tucked in a friendly reminder of the show’s premiere date when unveiling the full ranking.
The publication also ran a separate piece from TV critic James Poniewozik, who reiterated this reminder while underscoring the fact that the overarching spirit of The Sopranos, despite the series technically being ineligible for this particular ranking, can be found in numerous titles among the 100 selected.
The list was compiled based on votes from hundreds of “actors, creators, and TV lovers,” per the Times. There are numerous modern classics to be found—Girls, Friday Night Lights, Chappelle’s Show, and True Detectivejoin the ones cited above—and several noteworthy appearances from more recent series. The Bearand Beef, for example, both made the cut.
As for the possibility of a Sopranos-related title landing on such a list in the future, you might as well stop believing. David Chase revisited the world of The Sopranos with the 2021 film The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to the series. He does not seem interested, however, in extending the franchise any further.
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