The Greatest TV. Show of the Decade

[Admiral2]

24
Battlestar Galactica
Stargate SG-1
X-Files
Law And Order
Enterprise (First Season)

 

[RandyS]

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--

Agreed.

That said, the shows I enjoyed this past decade were:

Smallville
Enterprise (not the best of the Star Treks, but it's still connected to Trek)
Firefly

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I don't think overall TV is any better or worse, there's just a hell of a lot more to sift through to find the good shows. Who knows how many channels in the US making original content? At least 15 I can think of in the UK, without counting what's made elsewhere. Some of the highest quality TV ever made has been made over the last decade, also a load of shit. So unless you know what shows you're looking for you might just spot the shit and be convinced that is the entire output of TV.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Wow, I'm stunned that (unless I missed it) nobody nominated House.

 

[startrekwatcher]

Wow, I'm stunned that (unless I missed it) nobody nominated House.

I can't stand it--it exemplifies this decade's fascination with unlikeable asshole angsty characters. Plus it is cut from the same cloth as other predictably boring procedural plots of the week. No thanks.

 

[Nardpuncher]

Wow, I'm stunned that (unless I missed it) nobody nominated House.

I can't stand it--it exemplifies this decade's fascination with unlikeable asshole angsty characters. Plus it is cut from the same cloth as other predictably boring procedural plots of the week. No thanks.

And another thing is that people that take to this character like to think that they're sort of like Mr. House. I've noticed a few psoters that have used or have a House avatar now may at times act more like House than is necessary.

 

[startrekwatcher]

I don't think overall TV is any better or worse, there's just a hell of a lot more to sift through to find the good shows. Who knows how many channels in the US making original content? At least 15 I can think of in the UK, without counting what's made elsewhere. Some of the highest quality TV ever made has been made over the last decade, also a load of shit. So unless you know what shows you're looking for you might just spot the shit and be convinced that is the entire output of TV.

I honestly have to say tv/films are actually really worse than the 80s and 90s. They rarely even try that's why so many shows get canned so quickly these days because even the networks deep down inside know that it is crap but they can't have dead air.

I watched a lot of shows in the 80s and 90s and the shows were more consistent--you didn't have one great season then several really bad ones.

And shows these days are far too derivative--not just recycling from shows from 10 or 20 years ago but they ape heavily from their contemporaries. I first noticed this with ENT's first two seasons where they just stole story ideas we had seen on other Trek shows and ENT didn't do it any better. Fringe does it as well in its attempt to be an X-Files clone. In the 80s and 90s I could watch several shows and each of them were offering up their own new storylines.

Also this decade has drifted towards complex storytelling but most shows do it badly and it ends up as a convoluted mess rather than a brilliantly complex narrative. They cram far too many plots into the show and the episodes themselves leading to very little time or development being allowed on either the plot or the characters--and for me as a result I can't really bond with the character I just see them as plot devices and a lot of things that would have been dramatized onscreen are left up to the viewer to conjure up.

Then there has been the backlash to a lack of character deaths in earlier decades by 00 shows where they have gone so far in the other direction by killing off tons of characters--which I guess can be okay but the net effect is that character deaths rarely these days carry the shock or emotional impact as they once did. BSG got really bad about this in its last few seasons.

Another trait I can't stand about shows in the 00s is the overly pretentious air about a lot of them(BSG, Caprica, Mad Men). Instead of being thoughtful entertainment they come across as more of a dull academic exercise--to me they try too hard to convince the viewers that they are watching high art that is extremely "deep".

Maybe they'll be a swing back to more quality entertainment but I'm not holding out much hope.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Lost would've been my number one but not with its finale.

I'll say Dexter.

Those are my two definite picks, but I'm not sure Dexter is going to hang onto what made it great long enough to match Lost's six great seasons, so I'm giving the top slot to Lost.

Those are also my favorite two TV shows ever, so I can't buy the notion that TV has gone terribly wrong.

 

[DevilEyes]

Started in 2000s:

Lost
Six Feet Under
Battlestar Galactica
Night & Day (this is a very obscure UK show that few people have heard about, but is one of my all-time favorites)
The Office (UK)
The Shield
Deadwood
Arrested Development
Life on Mars
Doctor Who (well maybe not exactly started in that decade, but you know what I mean...)
Mad Men
Rome
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Began in 1990s but still going in 2000s:

The Sopranos
Oz
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
South Park
Futurama

Note: I haven't seen The Wire yet, but I've been meaning to, I've seen very little of Firefly and Dexter, and not all of Angel, so I'm withholding judgment.

 

[Vasquez Rocks]

Freaks and Geeks (Episodes were airing up until the summer of 2000)
Supernatural
The X-Files
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Firefly
Entourage
Chappelle's Show
Undeclared
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
The Office
Curb Your Enthusiasm

 

[sidious618]

I think it's only fair to say it's the best show of the decade if it ended in the decade and took place mostly in the decade. So my top ten list is as follows:

1) The Shield- for my money the best show ever.
2) LOST- the best scifi/fantasy/speculative show ever.
5) The Sopranos
4) Battlestar Galactica
5) The Wire
6) Carnivale
7) In Treatment- it hasn't ended but judging by the ratings this season will be its last so I'm putting it on here.
8) The West Wing
9) Scrubs
10) The UK Office

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I don't think overall TV is any better or worse, there's just a hell of a lot more to sift through to find the good shows. Who knows how many channels in the US making original content? At least 15 I can think of in the UK, without counting what's made elsewhere. Some of the highest quality TV ever made has been made over the last decade, also a load of shit. So unless you know what shows you're looking for you might just spot the shit and be convinced that is the entire output of TV.

I honestly have to say tv/films are actually really worse than the 80s and 90s. They rarely even try that's why so many shows get canned so quickly these days because even the networks deep down inside know that it is crap but they can't have dead air.

I watched a lot of shows in the 80s and 90s and the shows were more consistent--you didn't have one great season then several really bad ones.

And shows these days are far too derivative--not just recycling from shows from 10 or 20 years ago but they ape heavily from their contemporaries. I first noticed this with ENT's first two seasons where they just stole story ideas we had seen on other Trek shows and ENT didn't do it any better. Fringe does it as well in its attempt to be an X-Files clone. In the 80s and 90s I could watch several shows and each of them were offering up their own new storylines.

Also this decade has drifted towards complex storytelling but most shows do it badly and it ends up as a convoluted mess rather than a brilliantly complex narrative. They cram far too many plots into the show and the episodes themselves leading to very little time or development being allowed on either the plot or the characters--and for me as a result I can't really bond with the character I just see them as plot devices and a lot of things that would have been dramatized onscreen are left up to the viewer to conjure up.

Then there has been the backlash to a lack of character deaths in earlier decades by 00 shows where they have gone so far in the other direction by killing off tons of characters--which I guess can be okay but the net effect is that character deaths rarely these days carry the shock or emotional impact as they once did. BSG got really bad about this in its last few seasons.

Another trait I can't stand about shows in the 00s is the overly pretentious air about a lot of them(BSG, Caprica, Mad Men). Instead of being thoughtful entertainment they come across as more of a dull academic exercise--to me they try too hard to convince the viewers that they are watching high art that is extremely "deep".

Maybe they'll be a swing back to more quality entertainment but I'm not holding out much hope.

I'd disagree with you. There was a lot of rubbish in the 80s and 90s too. You say they were consistent but just look at Star Trek and the oft quoted "it needs 3 seasons to get going". You generally hear people say the first 2 seasons of TNG were rubbish, 3rd better 4 was it's height and after that it declined again. DS9 first 2 seasons were mediocre like they didn't know what they were doing. Voyager was all over the place all series long.

The X-Files while I love it was also all over the place, some brilliant episodes, some rubbish ones. A lot of older shows seem laughable in their inconsistent characters from week to week, no growth, constant reset.

There are gems out there that stand out whatever the decade, there are others you'd rather forget and often do. You also have to think in the 80s output was limited to 3 networks and syndication for the most part. How many shows they would have produced back them compared to now means the hit miss rate may be the same but you have it spread across 40 channels as opposed to 4. There's just more of everything.

HBO make a lot of brilliant shows, as do Showtime. There are newer cable channels making some good shows too AMC and Starz are just breaking in, FX too. USA and Syfy have some decent shows.

I think there's a big rose tinted nostalgia for older shows because you didn't notice it back then the way you do now. There wasn't the internet to report on every little story, or where you get people obsessing about every tiny little problem in a show until it seems it ruined the entire show. Or where people would say screw it I won't watch it on TV I'll just download it later.

 

[Orcus]

Supernatural

 

[startrekwatcher]

I think there's a big rose tinted nostalgia for older shows because you didn't notice it back then the way you do now.

Actually I rewatch a lot of these shows right now--I'm not just relying on nostalgic memories from waaaay back when I first watched them but I'm re-evaluating them with years and years of exposure to a lot of shows since I first watched them--and they are still better even put under my more critical jaded eye compared to contemporary shows. In fact, the whole recycled issue I bring up is due to these modern shows' storylines reminding me of an 80 or 90 series' storyline and then I remember how much better it was done on the 80/90 show.

We'll have to agree to disagree--to me this decade has been pretty much wall-to-wall mediocre entertainment. Even when the 70s/80s/90s had shallow mediocre tv shows is had a charm to it that is absent from a 00 counterpart i.e. V, Hercules, Xena etc.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I think there's a big rose tinted nostalgia for older shows because you didn't notice it back then the way you do now.

Actually I rewatch a lot of these shows right now--I'm not just relying on nostalgic memories from waaaay back when I first watched them but I'm re-evaluating them with years and years of exposure to a lot of shows since I first watched them--and they are still better even put under my more critical jaded eye compared to contemporary shows. In fact, the whole recycled issue I bring up is due to these modern shows' storylines reminding me of an 80 or 90 series' storyline and then I remember how much better it was done on the 80/90 show.

We'll have to agree to disagree--to me this decade has been pretty much wall-to-wall mediocre entertainment. Even when the 70s/80s/90s had shallow mediocre tv shows is had a charm to it that is absent from a 00 counterpart i.e. V, Hercules, Xena etc.

I still think nostalgia plays it's part. There are many shows I love because I saw them when I was young and even older I think they're good despite their flaws. Though I suppose this is all a matter of personal taste and there's no point arguing about it.

 

[startrekwatcher]

Of course nostalgia plays a part of it--but it can't make you turn a blind eye to crap. And if nostalgia could cure a series with weak writing why has pretty much none of the remakes that have brought in some of the original cast of characters done well.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Of course nostalgia plays a part of it--but it can't make you turn a blind eye to crap. And if nostalgia could cure a series with weak writing why has pretty much none of the remakes that have brought in some of the original cast of characters done well.

Remakes rarely capture the spirit of the original, so unless they're vastly different so you have a hard time comparing them then you always compare and find you don't enjoy it like you did the original. In my experience anyway.

 

[Jack Bauer]

Lost (my pick for best. The other's aren't in any order at all)
BSG
24
CSI
NCIS
The Sopranos
Dexter
Supernatural
Alias
Burn Notice
Fringe

 

[Chris_Johnston]

• LOST
• BSG
• Firefly
• Day Break
• Terminator: TSCC
• SG•U
• Supernatural
• EUReKA
• NCIS
• Burn Notice
• Covert Affairs
• Nikita
• Dollhouse

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Like PsychoPere, I only included shows that premiered from 2000-2009, otherwise I would've included Farscape, The West Wing, Oz and Futurama.

1. Doctor Who
2. Lost
3. The Wire
4. Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes
5. Sherlock
   
6. House
   
7. Life
8. Firefly
9. Eureka
10. The Shield