Can’t argue too much with (most of) the top 5 but some truly baffling choices e.g. The Great British Bake Off considerably higher than The Bridge. Laughable! And Killing Eve at 30? Ridiculous.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/sep/16/100-best-tv-shows-of-the-21st-century
Diddley Farquar says
Missing: Fargo, Chernobyl, Stranger Things, Narcos. All top notch. The Night Manager was pretty good too, if stretching credibility.
dai says
I would definitely have Fargo in there (high up) and, yes, also Stranger Things.
Milkybarnick says
Whither Dexter? It had a couple of ropey series but when it was good, it was tremendous.
Moose the Mooche says
Worth it for the marvellous title sequence alone….and the sweary sister.
Gary says
I thought Years And Years (not mentioned) was one of the best things I’ve ever seen on TV.
Twang says
It was bloody depressing though, wasn’t it. We could only do one episode a night. Unbingeable. Also conformed to the BBC PC casting template which is always irritating.
Arthur Cowslip says
I proper loved it…. but i just felt MAYBE it went too far in the last episode. It started getting a bit silly and sci-fi. But most of it was really compelling up until then.
Ainsley says
I enjoyed it and really wanted to love it, but it just wasn’t subtle enough – sometimes you felt like Russel T Davies wanted to make ABSOLUTELY SURE you got his point.
Gatz says
That’s it. At heart it was a decent if unexciting family saga with HUGE ISSUES shoehorned in at every possible point, in a join-the-dots style. There were some wonderful performances, and some great bits. (I loved how the first episode ends with an atom bomb being detonated, and after the initial panic everyone gets on with other problems.) I also wasn’t persuaded by the final scene, where the publicising of interment camps is enough to turn the public against populism. I can’t be the only one who thinks a significant number would be cheering their existence.
Arthur Cowslip says
Good to see The Thick of It and The Office both high up. Two of the best sitcoms ever written.
Talking of sitcoms, is The IT Crowd in there? That’s great as well, but I didnt’ see it.
Gary says
So how do you know it’s great?
(Coat got.)
Arthur Cowslip says
…. Oh you’re hilarious. YOU should write a sitcom…..
duco01 says
1. I thought I was the only person in the world who’d seen and loved David Simon’s brilliant Show Me A Hero, but the fact that it makes no. 63 in the Guardian’s list suggests that I’m not.
2. Six Feet Under should’ve been a LOT higher than no. 64.
3. I’d have Better Call Saul a lot higher than no. 48.
4. Pity there was no room for the outstanding Season 1 of True Detective.
Neela says
1. Me too! Thought I was the only one. Feel the same way about The Deuce.
2. Heard this?
http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1046-patricia-clarkson
Arthur Cowslip says
Can someone please tell me…. is The Sopranos ACTUALLY worth watching? Or does it jump the shark, like just about every other long form drama I’ve ever tried to watch? I keep feeling as if I should give it a try to see what I’m missing, but I don’t want to waste my time. In general I much prefer films, where usually you have a director with tighter creative control and an incentive to tie everything up in a nice bundle with a decent ending, instead of extending it as far as they can before the view figures start to drop.
Gary says
I think it deserves its number 1 slot. I didn’t watch it till years after everyone else, was put off by the amount I had to get through and the fact that I generally prefer British telly to American, but once I started watching it I was hooked. Kept going to bed too late cos I wanted to watch one more episode. I think there was only one episode in the whole thing that I didn’t like, cos it was mostly a dream and I hate dream-based scenes (I resent the investment of time/interest/emotion in something that was never really part of the story).
Twang says
The dream stuff is weird but important.
Moose the Mooche says
It was excellent in Twin Peaks.
Tiggerlion says
I thought the whole of Twin Peaks was a dream sequence.
Neela says
Best drama ever. Yes. No discussion.*
(Other opinions are available, but they are wrong.)
* Maybe some discussion
count jim moriarty says
I was never able to get into The Sopranos at all. Same for The Wire – managed to get through the first season, but found it slow and uninvolving. Didn’t bother any further.
Neither of them can hold a candle to the wonderful Six Feet Under.
Twang says
I enjoyed the relaunch series of Six Feet and bought the box of the original but there’s too much eye rolling, gurning and “sexy” chat. Embarrassing.
Gatz says
There’s been a relaunch of Six Feet Under? We didn’t make through the last series tbh. It was just very, very odd. Like a totally new bunch of writers had been allowed to film there first attempt at SFU style script. Wonderful in the earlier series though.
And, whisper it, although we watched every episode I found The Wire a bit of a yawn for large stretches, including the whole, dull Carcetti storyline.
Twang says
The Wire was very patchy. Series 5 was rubbish.
6FE relaunch was a couple of years ago now.
Twang says
6FU of course…
Twang says
It’s utterly brilliant. Can’t recommend highly enough. I rewatch it every couple of years and always find new things. Deserves its reputation. No shark jumping!
Moose the Mooche says
“I wish the Lord would take me!”
Jorrox says
I’d put Six Feet Under just above The Wire which is just above The Sopranos.
Sitheref2409 says
Without a doubt.
Caveat: it won’t seem as groundbreaking now as it was then. I watched it with awe, from start to finish, as it seemed to redefine everything about TV that I knew.
It worked on SO many levels. You could take it at shallow surface value and just…watch it and follow the story. You could get sucked into the tensions between the different meanings of the word “family”. What is honor? And code?
You couldn’t challenge the acting at all. Everyone seemed perfectly inhabited. It was, and I argue, still is, jaw droppingly good. Persistence pays off.
That list, as others have said, is BS. Buffy is that low? Firefly doesn’t even make the list? GBBO – really?
Pinmonkey says
I am always envious of people who haven’t watched The Sopranos and are about to start because it is just so wonderful. James Gandolfini is perfect casting although it seems unfair to the other actors to single him out.
I see that the Sopranos in Conversation is touring UK arenas next year which really appealed to me. However, top tickets are £85 in Hull. That seems incredibly high. I’ll be interested to see how ticket sales go.
Lemonhope says
Unlike The Wire, which IMO doesn’t hold up that well today, [too slow – the first season could have been told in half as many episodes and where I could name five great scenes from the Sopranos right now off the top of my head, nothing from The Wire comes to mind – even when Omar appears for the first time during my recent re-watch, it lacked the power I had bestowed upon it] The Sopranos is worthy of every accolade it receives. Don’t be put off by the first episode [pilot] the tone of that episode is different from the rest of the series. I think the third season is when it really starts to soar, when Chase realised that he had the power he needed to tell the story he wanted to tell in his own way without ‘the suits’ interfering.
As for the dream episodes, they are, as has already been mentioned, important. I really disliked those episodes the first time around, but on second viewing they are some of my favourites.
Arthur Cowslip says
Thanks everyone. So “yes watch it” seems to be the general advice! I tried episode one last night. Pretty good. Good enough to continue anyway.
James Gandolfini is remarkable. It really seems to be the role he was built for.
Seems a bit too clever-clever at the moment maybe (the bits where the characters reference gangster films they like, a bit self referential) and I can’t quite work out what the point of it is yet (but early days, obviously). I’ll stick with it for a while anyway.
Ainsley says
Yes
Paul Wad says
Good to see It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia in there, although I’d have it higher, especially when I see that it, along with Life On Mars, Planet Earth, Spiral and The Shield are below Lost. What a waste of time watching Lost turned out to be. The first series was great, but it very quickly became a programme we watched, just to see how it ended, and that went well didn’t it!
Inside No.9 is also way lower than it should be, whilst Orange is the New Black would have justified its place if it had ended after series 2. And it’s a pretty good top 15, although I prefer the American Office (so far, as I’ve only watched the first 4 or 5 series) to the UK one and Better Called Saul to Breaking Bad.
My list would also have included The Haunting of Hill House (which was near perfect), What We Do in the Shadows (which I ended up liking more than the film, I could watch the ‘Vampire Council’ section all day long), Toast of London, Family Guy, Firefly, When They See Us, Daredevil, House of Cards (although it went a bit downhill after the first couple of series), Life (or most David Attenborough shows), Battlestar Galactica, Dexter, Hip Hop Evolution, Early Doors, Deutschland 83, No Direction Home, Spooks (although it was a bit silly), Underbelly,
Californication and Phoenix Nights.
Certainly if I did a list of my top 100 TV shows/mini-series of all time I reckon the amount of 21st century shows would far outweigh stuff from the 90s and before. There’s been so much good stuff made over the past 20 years.
dai says
No Direction Home isn’t really a TV show. I believe it had a (brief) cinematic release.
Kaisfatdad says
Your list is a cracker, Paul. I wlll be keeping an eye on which TV shows you recommend in future!
Rigid Digit says
Spooks was another of those “started well ,but just went on too long becoming a bit aimless and difficult”.
The Film does make up for the later series shortcomings though
Paul Wad says
What made us sit up and think this is something different was when they killed who we thought was supposed to be the main star a few episodes in. It then gave it an edge that other shows didn’t have, where you knew that their main character was never really in danger. Call it the James Bond factor, if you will! We knew that, on Spooks, nobody was really safe. The downside of Spooks was the woodenness (not sure if that’s a word, but it should be) of Matthew MacFadyen, and the fact that it could all get a bit preposterous quite frequently, but it was always a good watch, especially when Keeley Hawks was still in it.
Moose the Mooche says
Even Malcolm ended up in hot water. Crikey…
Rigid Digit says
Lisa Faulkner is now always referred to as “the actress with a deep fried head”
Lemonhope says
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia [or Sunny, as we refer to it here] is a cracking comedy – A bit like Seinfeld, but with all the warmth removed. New season [14] about to ‘drop’ next week. Lets hope it’s an improvement on the patchy 13th.
Californication might just be my all time favourite series, I re-watch it every year [currently on season 3]
Animated series in general don’t feature much [at all?] in the list, good shout for Family Guy, which when it was good was very good, I’d add ‘F Is For Family’, Bob’s Burgers & Adventure Time, but especially Rick & Morty which I think is something special.
And Spooks was great.
Paul Wad says
I haven’t managed to convince anybody to watch Sunny, no matter how much I go on about it (or wear my RIOT t-shirt!). I had to pick my moment with the wife, as the humour is far too nasty for her. I showed her the boat episode, but I don’t think we made it to the end before she decided it wasn’t for her. I nearly showed her the one where they have the baby. Don’t think we’d have made it far past the credits. But it’s ruddy brilliant. Every character is horrible in their own way, although you have to feel a little bit sorry for Rickety Cricket. And it’s the role Danny DeVito was born to play. The first series is very good, but once he came onboard it went to another level.
As for Californication, isn’t Hank Moody the person we all want to be? When in real life, we’re more Charlie Runkle.
I have to say though, that my favourite 21st century comedy show is Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry David is just fantastic. And brave, cos the way he plays ‘himself’ on the show must surely influence the way people expect him to behave when they first meet him, or the ones too stupid to realise he’s playing a character at least. It’s certainly my favourite TV comedy character since Rupert Rigsby.
Lemonhope says
I’ve had the same issue getting friends to try Sunny – even my friend who moved to Philadelphia gave up during the first episode!
On Monday, a friend who I’ve mentioned it to on at least three occasions messaged me to ask if I’ve ever watched it…
Maybe describing it as ‘full of horrible characters’ is putting people off.
This clip encapsulates the horribleness – although, is it really that horrible…?
johnw says
8 and a bit series in and Taskmaster is still delivering and the quality is consistently very high indeed. I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had made the top 20 but it’s nowhere!
Milkybarnick says
The first two episodes of the new series have been superb – hoping the rest of it is as good.
Rigid Digit says
Life On Mars at 99?
I’m not sure I want to read this list anymore
(Hang on, it’s a list – I MUST read it)
Rigid Digit says
Shameless – good when it started, but just went on (probably) 3 series too long
I must re-watch the Red Riding Trilogy – 10 years since it came out, I’ve only seen it once, but I recall it being particularly good
(tell me I’m wrong?)
Inbetweeners at 74 – is this like a TV Version of Nirvana’s Nevermind (ie it aint truly that great, but it has to be included somewhere for it’s sheer “of the moment” presence)?
Gary says
I thought Inbetweeners was embarrassingly shite. I imagine the initial production meeting as something like: “Kid number one just exaggerate and fib all the time, kid number two just act a bit thick all the time, kid number three you’re the nerdy one, and kid number four you can be the fairly normal one. And all of you use the word “bender” as much as possible -it’s hilarious.”
Styrofoam plates says
I was thinking this. I loved the Inbetweeners at the time but I think that might have largely been because it came out when I was 17 and was pretty much what my life was like at the time (whereas Skins, which is also on the list and ran concurrently, was what I wished my life was like).
Haven’t seen it since, but I think I’d still enjoy it for the nostalgia.
Moose the Mooche says
You’ve been 17 this century?
What the hell is going on round here!!
Styrofoam plates says
I have been 17 this century! And I have also never played a vinyl record. (Although I used to buy them to put on my wall when I just started university – I basically was an Inbetweeners character.)
Moose the Mooche says
At that age I’d be surprised if you’d even played a CD.
Styrofoam plates says
WELL I bought loads with my paper round money, but I don’t really remember listening to too many of them. I’d mostly just rip them to the computer then put them in a box.
Gary says
Styrofoam! You’re back! I always enjoy your yearly visits, if only cos your presence brings the average age of the AW way down. Nice to see you haven’t deserted us for pastures less senile.
Moose the Mooche says
Pastures Less Senile – a VDGG song title if ever I heard one.
Styrofoam plates says
I am! Always keen to keep up with the latest Taylor Swift chat.
Lemonhope says
Arf!
Rigid Digit says
The Office at Number 3, and NO Phoenix Nights – Peter Kay will be “pleased”.
There was a mediawank frenzy about a “televuisual Beatles & Stones” at the time – looks like Gervais won through
Moose the Mooche says
Oop, thanks – spared me the bother of reading this list. It’s worthless.
illuminatus says
Yeah, no Phoenix, and no Peter Serafinowicz show either, which annoys me HUGELY
Moose the Mooche says
No Phoenix – southerners and/or the middle class don’t get it.
David Kendal says
Are you sure you haven’t confused this with a thread about Brexit?
Moose the Mooche says
*sigh* Yes, no-one north of Watford voted Remain, we’re all fascists, it’s all our fault blah de blah…
Blue Boy says
Indeed. Because of course the 52% of people in the South East and South West who voted Leave were actually all refugees from the grim North
Paul Wad says
When we first watched Phoenix Nights I kept saying to my wife that these are exactly the kind of turns that I used to see when I went to the Working Men’s Club in Barnsley with my dad in the 80s. And then when I watched it with the commentary on, it turns out that Kay first met one of the turns when he was on the same bill as him in a Working Men’s Club in Barnsley!
Lemonhope says
The Office is number 6 – but should’ve been number 5, ahead of The Thick of It
count jim moriarty says
You silly, twisted boy…
Rigid Digit says
League Of Gentleman?
(or was that too early)
paulwright says
1999 to 2002 and the marvellous return.
My gripes: the good place should be top 10. And so should Community (well maybe not the gas leak year)
Black Type says
Buffy at 83? I rather think not.
And no mention of Mindhunter, which is outstanding.
Moose the Mooche says
Weren’t must of Buffy on in the 90s, anyway?
Black Type says
1997-2003.
Gatz says
Yeah, Buddy is in my top 10 and I wouldn’t even argue with it being number 1 (the duff series with Riley notwithstanding). Glad to see it in there though.
Gatz says
BuddyBuffyMike_H says
No Ideal?
No Uncle?
No Malcolm in the Middle?
No Farscape?
What is wrong with these people??
paulwright says
Another vote for Farscape. And Firefly.
bang em in bingham says
Still Game is brilliant…and Great Night Out…and of course Early Doors and the Canadian classic Corner Gas
Chrisf says
As mentioned above, the main omission seems to be Fargo – all three series have been superb.
Surprised that Sherlock and Wolf Hall were not higher. Sherlock was groundbreaking when it first came out (it got a bit full of itself in the last series though) and Wolf Hall is one of the best dramas in a long time.
Also surprise Inside No9 is so low.
rotherhithe hack says
Got it right with The Sopranos at the top of the list; but ridiculous that The Americans and Justified were so far down.
I’m sure some shows didn’t get near the top because the broadcasters shoved them into graveyard slots and/or on minor channels.
Lemonhope says
A few that should be higher –
Mighty Boosh [ridiculously low]
Broad City – Fresh Meat is higher!! [Fresh Meat is on the list!!!!!] WTF
Gavin and Stacey
Parks And Rec
Detectorists
Curb
30 Rock [which they hilariously describe as ‘Still badly underrated’ – Yeah, by you, putting it at number 13 you pricks!
As you can see, I likes a comedy…
dai says
30 Rock was 12 actually, which is pretty high. Curb is 14 I would hardly say that should be higher especially as you name 6 others. What would they replace in top 10?
Lemonhope says
Not suggesting they should all be in the top ten – just higher than they are.
Lemonhope says
Also surprised that Peaky Blinders isn’t on there. I’ve only just caught up having binge watched the whole lot over the last three weeks [my lovely wife watched them all as they were shown and has been suggesting to me that I should ‘give it a go, you’d like it’
I resisted because it was called Peaky Blinders. I mean, I know they were a real gang, but come on. As far as I can tell it’s well written, well acted [especially Cillian Murphy who despite not being physically large gives a performance of controlled menace worthy of a place at the table of great screen baddies] well filmed and at six episodes a season doesn’t outstay it’s welcome. I’d say it deserves a place on the list.
Locust says
Happy to see Freaks and Geeks in the list (should have been higher though). I just rewatched it this year after discovering that some kind soul had uploaded all of it on YouTube, and it was just as good as I remembered it. Also thankfully only got one season – ideally I prefer shows, no matter how great they are, to be no more than two seasons long.
Missing: Fringe, Oz, American Horror Story, Dexter. Hm…there seems to be a pattern to my taste when it comes to TV…
Pessoa says
Rome and Benidorm.
Gary says
Tirana and Palermo.
illuminatus says
Everybody talk about Pop Music!
Nick L says
Reading the list I found it interesting how a few shows I started to like more recently because my own kids did. I’m not saying they particularly deserved to be in the top regions of this chart but Inbetweeners and Gavin and Stacey definitely come into this category. Yes, we watched Inbetweeners as a family, when the youngest was about 14. I don’t know what that says about us as parents! It wasn’t classic TV but it raised some smiles and we had fun spotting a few locations where some of it was filmed. (Some outside scenes were shot in Sunbury, if you’re asking.)
Not really a fan of Peter Kay’s stand up stuff, or when he’s on chat shows, but it’s weird that Phoenix Nights isn’t in there.
Paul Wad says
He’s pretty unbearable as a stand up (“hey, anybody remember Spangles?”) or on chat shows (“hey Parky, do you remember Spangles?”) and most of the things he does really, but Phoenix Nights was brill. Car Share’s alright, but a bit too sentimental at times and too much of the “hey, do you remember the Goombay Dance Band?”. Although I’ve heard that he wasn’t the easiest bloke to work with. Daniel Kitson has swore he’ll never do television again after his experiences making Phoenix Nights
Gary says
He gets nary a mench in the top comedians list.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/sep/18/best-comedians-of-the-21st-century-comics-standup-comedy
Gatz says
I find that an eccentric list, but of course comedy is even more a matter of personal taste than other kinds of entertainment.
Rigid Digit says
Rufus Hound may not make it onto the Top 100 list, but he did say something amusing … once
“Peter Kay is not really a great stand up comedian. He’s just really good at remembering stuff”
Billybob Dylan says
Interesting that it’s almost a 50/50 split between UK and US TV. But I’m curious – how many of those American shows were shown on regular TV in the UK? Were many of them only available on cable/satellite? I’ve never heard of half the UK shows listed because I don’t have cable and the vast majority were never available on regular TV here. Thank goodness for Netflix and Prime Video. And BritBox.
Sitheref2409 says
Acorn TV is worth a punt as well.