I posted a list of my top 100 albums of 2010-2019 back in November, and I knew I wanted to do more 2010s lists throughout 2020. Here in March, though, in the middle of the global coronavirus crisis, it feels like maybe I'm looking back nostalgically already at what feels like the last halfway normal time in our lives. I think this list looks pretty different from my 2000-2009 list, even with a handful of the same shows, because TV changed a lot in the last 10 years, creatively and as a business -- 14% of the list is Netflix, which didn't even start showing original series until 2013. In any event, everyone's at home and looking for TV recommendations, so maybe you'll listen to the guy who was already watching way too much TV.

1. Terriers (FX, 2010)
One of the reasons ranking TV series is harder than, say, albums or films, is a much larger degree of variation between how much material is being evaluated. How do I weigh a show with 13 episodes against shows that had dozens if not hundreds of episodes? As much as I would've loved more seasons of Terriers, though, I'm happy with the story we got -- as perfect and self-contained a 'one season wonder' as anything since Freaks & Geeks, a sunny beachside neo-noir with endless quips and plot twists courtesy of Ocean's Eleven screenwriter Ted Griffin. There's a 5-minute stretch in the third episode of Terriers where you realize how deeply fucked up the 3 main characters are, and then you continue to root for them for the next 10 episodes. I've been happily revisiting Terriers since it and other old FX shows started streaming on Hulu recently, and I might love it more now than I did 9 and a half years ago.

2. Bob's Burgers (FOX, 2011-present)
H. Jon Benjamin and Loren Bouchard have been making me laugh for 25 years, from Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist to Home Movies. But I never necessarily expected their dry sense of humor to thrive on primetime network TV, running for hundreds of episodes with the kind of show that inspires Halloween costumes every year. But Bob's Burgers has been remarkable consistent for 9 seasons and counting, still at the top of its game even at a point where The Simpsons had started to show signs of strain. In the process of making this list, I added together all the year-end TV lists I did from 2010 to 2019, and while there were some shows I praised year after year that I decided not to place so highly here, I felt pretty good about Bob's Burgers coming out at #1 in that tabulation.

3. Hannibal (NBC, 2013-2015)
Bryan Fuller is one of the most brilliant cinematic level creative talents who works exclusively in television, but he frustratingly rarely gets to work on a show for very long: Pushing Daisies got 2 seasons, Wonderfalls only got one, and Fuller left Dead Like Me and American Gods amidst creative differences. So even though I would've loved for Hannibal to go on longer, and potentially get to do its version of the Silence Of The Lambs story, I'm pretty grateful that Fuller got to make 3 incredible seasons of it, one of the weirdest, goriest and most immersive and indulgently artsy shows to ever air on a network that breaks for commercials every 10 minutes.

4. Justified (FX, 2010-2015)
TV dramas have rarely ended on a high note. But as the artistic prestige of television has risen, so have expectations for series finales, with the ambiguity of The Sopranos finale and the hapless nonsense of the Lost finale creating the climate for a full-blown national anxiety attack about the Game Of Thrones finale. There's debate to be had about what show had the best ending (some people will say Breaking Bad, and they're wrong, it was stupid), but for my money, it was absolutely Justified. A show that seemed to be building to a violent showdown through its whole 6-season run found an elegant and satisfying way to close the book on all its characters, and it rose my overall opinion of a show that I'd somewhat taken for granted as a guilty pleasure that peaked in the 2nd season but was, in retrospect, remarkably consistent.

5. Russian Doll (Netflix, 2019-present)
What an absolute delight this show has been, how great it was to see Natasha Lyonne resurrect herself from a pretty dark period and create something that so perfectly distills her unique screen presence and personality into a hilarious and kind of poignant time loop story with enough twists and turns to not just be an awkward child of Groundhog Day. I have no idea if they can make a show like this work for more than one season, but there's nothing I'm anticipating more on TV right now than the second season of Russian Doll.



























6. The Venture Bros. (Cartoon Network, 2003-present)
Few animated series have ever packed more into every minute than The Venture Bros., sight gags and dialogue dense with references overlapping each other so rapidly that I have to watch each episode at least 2 or 3 times to catch some of the best jokes. Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer have started making shorter and more sporadic seasons of The Venture Bros. in the show's second decade, sometimes going almost 3 years without a new episode. But their dedication to quality control, and finding new ways to wring laughs out of an expanding satirical mythology, makes every season worth the wait.

7. Community (NBC/Yahoo! Screen, 2009-2015)
The only reason Community lasted for six seasons is because there was a throwaway gag in the second season about a fan of a low rated show expecting it to last for "six seasons and a movie." If the line was "five seasons and a movie," Community would have never staggered into a 6th season on Yahoo Screen! without 3 of the 7 members of the show's original study group (although the last season was still pretty good thanks to Keith David and Paget Brewster). But that kind of illustrates how far Community always went in its dedication to a good joke, the way each episode became a playground for a different genre or concept, something Dan Harmon had spent years preparing for by making dozens of 'pilot episodes' for Channel 101 and Acceptable.TV.

8. Barry (HBO, 2018-present)
Bill Hader was a 25-year-old production assistant and aspiring filmmaker when he took his first improv class, and he ended up on Saturday Night Live less than three years later. Barry is kind of a bizarro fantasy where Hader plays a hitman who gets the acting bug from an improv class, but can't leave his violent dayjob behind, and it's become proof that Hader was really a gifted filmmaker who got his shot at making something hilarious and dark like this because he also just happened to be one of the most gifted impressionists SNL had ever hired.

9. 30 Rock (NBC, 2006-2013)
30 Rock straddles two decades almost perfectly evenly -- 66 episodes in the 2000's, 72 episodes in the 2010s -- but the second half of the show's run was equal to, if not better, than the first half, which took a season or two to reach its top speed of jokes per minute. Even the weird live episodes were great, they just never fell off.

10. Fleabag (Amazon, 2016-2019)
I think I'm in the minority that liked Fleabag's first season more than the second -- the poignant moments of grief hit admidst the fast-talking comedy were more memorable to me than the whole hot priest thing. But both seasons were just a delight, the announcement of Phoebe Waller-Bridge as a major new voice in comedy, I can't wait to see what she does next.

















11. American Vandal (Netflix, 2017-2018)
Mockumentaries have been one of the most fertile genres of comedy since This Is Spinal Tap, but I feel like they lost their way a little bit in the past decade, when people just started doing straight sitcoms like Modern Family and Parks & Recreation that had no real idea of what ostensible documentary was being filmed, it was just the aesthetic of handheld cameras and people breaking the fourth wall. But the rise of true crime docs gave American Vandal a set of tropes to satirize, and it did so hilariously.

12. Documentary Now! (IFC, 2015-present)
Documentary Now! took the mockumentary concept to a new extreme, with each episode parodying a different famous documentary. It feels like Seth Meyers, Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, and John Mulaney all freed themselves up to make these incredibly detailed satires of films that, for the most part, would never be considered pop culture enough to be Saturday Night Live sketches during their time at SNL.

13. Happy Endings (ABC, 2011-2013)
When Happy Endings debuted, a sitcom about 3 guys and 3 gals that opens with one of the gals leaving her fiancee at the altar, I feared the worst kind of fourth generation Friends knockoff. And then it turned out to be one of the funniest shows on TV, with great cast chemistry and its own odd, unique rhythm of dialogue that felt like a group of weirdos sharing all their inside jokes with you.

14. Succession (HBO, 2018-present)
Although Succession creator wrote an unproduced screenplay about the Murdoch family that doubtless provided some of the foundation for Logan Roy and his dysfunctional media dynasty, it's really for the better that he created fictional creators instead of joining executive producer Adam McKay's Rich Asshole Cinematic Universe. Succession is far funnier than reality, but shot more handsomely like a drama than the similarly ruthless Veep, and I'd rather laugh at Alan Ruck as Connor Roy running for president than the rich morons we had running for president in real life this year. The creative license of characters that merely parallel real life has given one of the best casts on TV in recent memory the freedom to breathe life into this horrible, entertaining family.

15. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW, 2015-2019)
Uniting music with scripted television is a challenging balancing act, and most of the success stories have been shows that use already written pop songs like Glee. But Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which presented catchy, memorable original songs alongside sharp dialogue and impressively three dimensional characters for four seasons, was a herculean achievement in both TV production and songwriting.

















16. The Magicians (Syfy, 2015-2020)
The Magicians is airing its final episode next week, and the news that this would be the final season only broke earlier this month. So I've been watching the 2020 episodes with a bittersweet feeling, and thinking more and more that it was one of the best shows of the 2010s -- the snarkier thought that crossed my mind is that it's the show people thought Buffy The Vampire Slayer was. Summer Bishil as Margo Hanson is maybe my favorite character on TV right now, both for her endless supply of quotable quips and for her interesting, well written relationships as Eliot's best friend and Josh's hookup-turned-girlfriend. Lev Grossman's novels provided the setting and the characters, but it feels like The Magicians' showrunners have really built the show around the strengths of its cast.

17. Santa Clarita Diet (Netflix, 2017-2019)
Between Justified and Santa Clarita Diet, Timothy Olyphant may be my personal MVP of 2010s television. Victor Fresco has always created odd, funny sitcoms that didn't last long on broadcast networks like Better Off Ted and Andy Richter Controls The Universe, and Santa Clarita Diet was both more weird and high concept than those shows and had a bigger heart. And while many were disappointed that Netflix canceled Santa Clarita Diet after 3 seasons, I think it's important to remember that a bloody sitcom about an undead mom probably would've gone off the air much faster before the streaming era.

18. The Young Pope (HBO, 2017)
The cliche that a season of prestige TV is really a "ten hour movie" has been rightfully ridiculed many times by people that understand that episodic television is a great medium that doesn't need to be constantly compared to feature films. But if I was to call anything here a ten hour movie, it would be Italian filmmaker Paulo Sorrentino's first venture into television. The cinematography, the score, the poetic sense of the surreal, I think The Young Pope and its 2020 sequel series The New Pope are one of the few times outside Twin Peaks that the "not like other TV shows" hype was really justified.

19. The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix, 2015-2019)
Tina Fey's weird, scrappy follow-up to 30 Rock was built on an unusual foundation -- who thought a sitcom based on the women in Ariel Castro's basement was a good idea, really? But The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt has such a great deranged energy to it thanks to the core trio of Ellie Kemper and  Titus Burgess and Carol Kane that it felt like essential viewing to me just like 30 Rock had been.

20. The Amazing World Of Gumball (Cartoon Network, 2011-present)
There are 4 Cartoon Network shows on this list, but 3 of them aired on the channel's nighttime 'adult swim' programming block. The Amazing World Of Gumball, however, airs in the daytime, and my kids sometimes watch it after school. Cartoon Network has some really good shows for kids, but Gumball, my god, it's just brilliant, its odd mixed media animation style and densely clever writing are as ahead of the curve as any Adult Swim show.



























21. Schitt's Creek (Pop TV, 2015-2020)
I kind of slept on Schitt's Creek at first -- I watched some of the first season, but when some episodes weren't available to watch on demand at the time, I kind of fell off track and stopped watching it. And then, it became a word-of-mouth Emmy-nominated hit, something I didn't think was even really possible for a show on Pop TV. So now I'm catching up on Netflix and kind of kicking myself that I didn't keep up with it before. Television thrives on fish-out-of-water stories, and Schitt's Creek is a classic 'miserable urbanite living in the sticks' show in the tradition of Green Acres and Northern Exposure, with comedy legends Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara very justifiably sharing their spotlight with Levy's son and co-creator, Dan Levy, the breakout star of the show.

22. Atlanta (FX, 2016-present)
As I sit here writing this, I'm listening to the terrible new Childish Gambino album and thinking about my observation years ago that Donald Glover consistently makes great television but mediocre music. Atlanta is, of course, ostensibly a show about southern rap and misadventures in the music industry, but that's really just the window dressing for a show that's been whatever it wants to be from episode to episode, held together largely by incredible, career-launching performances by Bryan Tyree Henry and Lakeith Stanfield.

23. Speechless (ABC, 2016-2019)
In a decade when the old-fashioned family sitcom kind of lost its place in the pop culture firmament, just barely held in place by Modern Family, it's been a procession of other, better ABC shows that have really kept the genre alive -- Black-ish, Fresh Off The Boat, and the short-lived Suburgatory and The Real O'Neals. The best of all of them, however, was Speechless, a show about a family of five whose eldest child is a high schooler with cerebral palsy, that handled difficult conversations about disability sensitively while still being incredibly funny and frank about the daily realities that every family must face. Minnie Driver as Maya DiMeo was one of the funniest and most completely realized matriarchs I've ever seen on television, a mom who fights hard for her son to get the same opportunities as everyone else, but can also be a little self-righteous and isn't always right. Few cancellations have ever pissed me off more than Speechless going off the air after three seasons last year.

24. BrainDead (CBS, 2016)
Another great 'one season wonder' that was simply too strange to last long on TV's most staid and traditional network, BrainDead was a classic weird summer show. As they neared the end of their highly acclaimed legal drama The Good Wife, Robert and Michelle King used their clout to get a show about extraterrestrial insects eating the brains of Washington, D.C. politicians on the air on CBS primetime. It's as smart and insightful about politics and the law as the Kings' other shows, but it's also a bizarre sci-fi satire about aliens that love listening to The Cars.

25. True Detective (HBO, 2014-present)
This show would probably be higher on the list if it was only one for one amazing season -- although season 2 was a little better than its dire reputation suggested and season 3 was solid. But Nic Pizzolatto's pretentions and ambitions really found an ideal outlet in that first season, with the greatest performance of Matthew McConaughey's career and one of a career's worth of perfect straight-talking sidekick performances from Wood Harrelson.


















26. Mindhunter (Netflix, 2017-2019)
27. Party Down (Starz, 2009-2010)
28. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (FOX/NBC, 2013-present)
29. Grace And Frankie (Netflix, 2015-present)
30. Bored To Death (HBO, 2009-2011)
31. The Good Place (NBC, 2016-2020)
32. Billions (Showtime, 2016-present)
33. Veep (HBO, 2012-2019)
34. Billy On The Street (Fuse/TruTV, 2011-2017)
35. UnREAL (Lifetime/Hulu, 2015-2018)
36. Better Things (FX, 2016-present)
37. Selfie (ABC, 2014)
38. Lodge 49 (AMC, 2018-2019)
39. Watchmen (HBO, 2019)
40. The Leftovers (HBO, 2014-2017)
41. Rick And Morty (Cartoon Network, 2013-present)
42. Halt And Catch Fire (AMC, 2014-2017)
43. Breaking Bad (AMC, 2008-2013)
44. Twin Peaks: The Return (Showtime, 2017)
45. The Night Of (HBO, 2016)
46. Homecoming (Amazon, 2018-present)
47. New Girl (FOX, 2011-2018)
48. Don't Trust The B---- In Apartment 23 (ABC, 2012-2013)
49. Black-ish (ABC, 2014-present)
50. Killing Eve (BBC America, 2018-present)
51. Broad City (Comedy Central, 2014-2019)
52. Childrens Hospital (Cartoon Network, 2010-2016
53. Workin' Moms (Netflix, 2019-present)
54. Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central, 2013-2016)
55. How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 2005-2014)
56. Pitch (FOX, 2016)
57. Future Man (Hulu, 2017-2020)
58. Lady Dynamite (Netflix, 2016-2017)
59. Jessica Jones (Netflix, 2015-2019)
60. Men Of A Certain Age (TNT, 2009-2011)
61. Better Off Ted (ABC, 2009-2010)
62. Masters Of Sex (Showtime, 2013-2016)
63. Superstore (NBC, 2015-present)
64. Mom (CBS, 2013-present)
65. Suits (USA, 2011-2019)
66. Watchmen (HBO, 2019)
67. American Princess (Lifetime, 2019)
68. The Exorcist (FOX, 2016-2017)
69. Sorry For Your Loss (Facebook Watch, 2018-2019)
70. Westworld (HBO, 2016-present)
71. Downward Dog (ABC, 2017)
72. Brockmire (IFC, 2017-2020)
73. Sons Of Anarchy (FX, 2008-2014)
74. Difficult People (Hulu, 2015-2017)
75. iZombie (The CW, 2015-2019)
76. Big Little Lies (HBO, 2017-2019)
77. Fresh Off The Boat (ABC, 2013-2020)
78. Preacher (AMC, 2016-2019)
79. Episodes (Showtime, 2011-2017)
80. Hung (HBO, 2009-2011)
81. GLOW (Netflix, 2017-2020)
82. Pose (FX, 2018-present)
83. Key & Peele (Comedy Central, 2012-2015)
84. Jett (Cinemax, 2019-present)
85. Veronica Mars (Hulu, 2019)
86. Los Espookys (HBO, 2019-present)
87. Suburgatory (ABC, 2011-2014)
88. The Grinder (FOX, 2015-2016)
89. True Blood (HBO, 2008-2014)
90. Dietland (AMC, 2018)
91. Bullet In The Face (IFC, 2012)
92. Channel Zero (Syfy, 2016-2018)
93. You (Lifetime/Netflix, 2018-present)
94. Diablero (Netflix, 2018-present)
95. The Mindy Project (FOX/Hulu, 2012-2017)
96. Castlevania (Netflix, 2017-present)
97. The Affair (Showtime, 2014-2019)
98. Parenthood (NBC, 2010-2015)
99. Love (Netflix, 2016-2018)
100. Treme (HBO, 2010-2013)

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 26, 2020 at 1:08 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.