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The Greatest TV. Show of the Decade

N

Nowhere Man

Commodore
So, a comercial came out for a new reality show on the History channel. One tag line for the show was,"greatest show of the decade." It got me thinking, what is the greatest show or shows of the decade, in your opinion. Obviously it can't really be the History channel show because it comes in at the tail end of this decade. So, lets get the top ten or top five no more than that. The show must exist between the years 200-2010. Ok, i'll give my list in no particular order.

Survivor
BSG
Dirty Jobs
The Daily Show
The Colbert Report
Family Guy
South Park
Chapelle Show
Enterprise
Smallville
 
In my opinion the quality of television has taken a precipitous drop in quality this decade--shows are nowhere as good as they were in the 80s or 90s--Hollywood is perfectly fine resurrecting old shows or recycling stories we've all seen a thousand times, they've substituted flashy FX and ADHD pacing for more measured storytelling that is entertaining and involving, they give us too many storylines and too many characters as plot devices rather than a modest ensemble of characters we can come to care for in a few well developed storylines.

The only shows I really have consistently enjoyed between 2000-2010:

Enterprise's uneven season 3 Xindi arc and the more consistent season 4
BSG S1 and the first half of season 2
LOST Season 1, 3, 4 and 5
Supernatural S1 and S4
Dead Zone the early seasons
Heroes S1

So LOST in my opinion is the best--it actually could be surprising, it was compelling, it was well structured from a narrative point of view, it was exciting and had new ideas to offer up. It ended poorly but it was the best of the bunch.

Other than that the rest were either mediocre, crap or pretentious bores-Smallville, Surface, Invasion, The Nine, Criminal Minds, Haven, Caprica, Eureka, CSI, L&O, The Gates, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Nikita, etc etc. Then there are the shows which were birthed in earlier decades that have just become awful when once upon a time they weren't--i.e. MTV's Real World or NBC's Days of Our Lives which gave us wildly entertaining over-the-top stories such as Marlena's possession or Carly's buried alive thread turned into unwatchable garbage and should have been canned 10 years ago.

That's not even considering the non-entertainment side of things. CNN used to be a great cable news channel with solid anchors like Judy Woodruff, Bernie Shaw, Lou Waters, Natalie Allen, Aaron Brown but now we get the likes of Rick Sanchez, Anderson Cooper and poor feeble Larry King.
 
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Battlestar Galactica
The Wire
The Sopranos
Red Riding (three-part miniseries)
Heroes S1
Carnivale
Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes (perhaps only season 3 for AtA)
Firefly
Oz (started in the 90s but was mostly a 00s show)

And a seperate list for cartoons:

Kim Possible
Teen Titans
Avatar: The Last Airbender
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Oban Star Racers
Fillmore

I'm an animation geek, sue me.
 
My picks...

Dexter
Lost
Life on Mars\Ashes to Ashes
Battlestar Galactica
Futurama (began in '99, but its best years were 2000 through 2003)
Firefly
Arrested Development
 
Mad Men
Breaking Bad
Smallville (yes smallville)

The only ones that have started within the 2000-2010 timeframe that I actually like. I included Smallville because although its not even in my top five fav shows I had to have more than 2.:lol: There just has not been that many good tv shows to come down the pike in the last 10 years.(at least not for us older viewers, Im sure younger ones think they have witnessed some of the best shows ever.:lol: ) I find myself watching more and more old tv shows the older I get. I used to like LOST and nuBSG but both had very bad last seasons so they are forever marred for me and I will not ever revisit them.
 
I went with shows that premiered anywhere from 2000 to 2009, otherwise I would've included The West Wing.


  1. The Wire
  2. The Shield
  3. Battlestar Galactica
  4. Mad Men
  5. Lost
  6. Veronica Mars
  7. Deadwood
  8. Firefly
  9. Life
  10. Sons of Anarchy
 
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My top ten...

Lost
Survivor
Arrested Development
Dead Like Me
The Office
24
Big Bang Theory
The Colbert Report
Threshold (even though no one agreed with me)
Big Brother

I would have to say that the most influential shows from my list were Lost and Survivor (hey, both island shows!). Lost because it gave the serialized drama a whole new meaning and Survivor because it introduced reality television to primetime in what felt like an epic and sophisticated beginning to a new genre. Of course there have been a plethora of shitty reality shows since then, but Survivor really changed the way we think about television and even today the show is going strong and exhibits the best qualities of the genre.
 
startrekwatcher said:
In my opinion the quality of television has taken a precipitous drop in quality this decade--shows are nowhere as good as they were in the 80s or 90s--Hollywood is perfectly fine resurrecting old shows or recycling stories we've all seen a thousand times, they've substituted flashy FX and ADHD pacing for more measured storytelling that is entertaining and involving, they give us too many storylines and too many characters as plot devices rather than a modest ensemble of characters we can come to care for in a few well developed storylines.

The only shows I really have consistently enjoyed between 2000-2010:

Enterprise's uneven season 3 Xindi arc and the more consistent season 4
BSG S1 and the first half of season 2
LOST Season 1, 3, 4 and 5
Supernatural S1 and S4
Dead Zone the early seasons
Heroes S1

So LOST in my opinion is the best--it actually could be surprising, it was compelling, it was well structured from a narrative point of view, it was exciting and had new ideas to offer up. It ended poorly but it was the best of the bunch.

Other than that the rest were either mediocre, crap or pretentious bores-Smallville, Surface, Invasion, The Nine, Criminal Minds, Haven, Caprica, Eureka, CSI, L&O, The Gates, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Nikita, etc etc. Then there are the shows which were birthed in earlier decades that have just become awful when once upon a time they weren't--i.e. MTV's Real World or NBC's Days of Our Lives which gave us wildly entertaining over-the-top stories such as Marlena's possession or Carly's buried alive thread turned into unwatchable garbage and should have been canned 10 years ago.

That's not even considering the non-entertainment side of things. CNN used to be a great cable news channel with solid anchors like Judy Woodruff, Bernie Shaw, Lou Waters, Natalie Allen, Aaron Brown but now we get the likes of Rick Sanchez, Anderson Cooper and poor feeble Larry King.
Click to expand...

I could add CSI to my list. The original one also, KOTH and Futurama. I agree there were better shows in the 80s and 90s, but i'm just saying if you had to pick.
 
My list, sans diatribe.

1. Lost
2. Dexter
3. Farscape
4. Battlestar Galactica
5. How I Met Your Mother
6. CSI
7. Weeds
8. Curb Your Enthusiasm
9. NCIS
10. Criminal Minds
 
Well, it was specified in the OP here that the show should *exist* between 2000 and 2010, not that it should premiere in that time frame...

1. West Wing
2. BSG - especially season 1 and the first half of season 2
3. Criminal Minds
4. 24
5. 1st season of Heroes
 
HunterB5446 said:
It got me thinking, what is the greatest show or shows of the decade, in your opinion.
Click to expand...

In no particular order:

US:
The Wire
Lost
Battlestar Galactica
The Shield
Mythbusters

UK:
Doctor Who
Life On Mars/Ashes To Ashes
Black Books
Top Gear

I haven't seen enough of Deadwood or Sons Of Anarchy yet to know whether they'd qualify, and I haven't seen any of 24 yet (Have the first two seasons on the shelf, though.)
 
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Firefly - kind of like an actual firefly, it shined bright very briefly and then was gone (thanks to Fox).
Mythbusters - science, splosions, and Kari Byron - what's NOT to like?
How I Met Your Mother - legen... wait for it... dary
Curb Your Enthusiasm - Seinfeld on steroids
The Office - most of it anyway.
 
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The Wire
The Office (original)
Arrested Development
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Deadwood
The Colbert Report
 
Off the top of my head in no particular order...

Life on Mars
Ashes to Ashes
Doctor Who
Dexter
Mad Men
Lost
Battlestar Galactica
Supernatural

and I'm gonna throw these in there even though they've only had a series each so far

Mifits
Psychoville
 
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