1. The Wire
2. Mad Men
3. Breaking Bad
4. Fleabag
5. Game of Thrones
6. I May Destroy You
7. The Leftovers
8. The Americans
9. The Office (UK)
10. Succession
11. BoJack Horseman
12. Six Feet Under
13. Twin Peaks: The Return
14. Atlanta
15. Chernobyl
16. The Crown
17. 30 Rock
18. Deadwood
19. Lost
20. The Thick of It
21. Curb Your Enthusiasm
22. Black Mirror
23. Better Call Saul
24. Veep
25. Sherlock
26. Watchmen
27. Line of Duty
28. Friday Night Lights
29. Parks and Recreation
30. Girls
31. True Detective
32. Arrested Development
33. The Good Wife
34. The Bridge
35. Fargo
36= Downton Abbey
36= Band of Brothers
38. The Handmaid’s Tale
39. The Office (US)
40. Borgen
41. Schitt’s Creek
42. Peep Show
43. Money Heist
44. Community
45. The Good Fight
46. Homeland
47. Grey’s Anatomy
48. Inside No 9
49. The Bureau
50. Halt and Catch Fire
51. Small Axe
52. This is England 86, 88 and 90
53. Call My Agent!
54. Happy Valley
55. The Shield
56. The Big Bang Theory
57. The Young Pope
58. Dark
59. The Underground Railroad
60. House of Cards
61. Avatar: The Last Airbender
62= The Good Place
62= Pose
64. Detectorists
65. Orange is the New Black
66. Mare of Easttown
67. RuPaul’s Drag Race
68. Stranger Things
69. 24
70. Battlestar Galactica
71. Enlightened
72. Gilmore Girls
73. Planet Earth
74. Utopia (UK)
75. Babylon Berlin
76. Rick and Morty
77. American Crime Story
78. The Killing (Denmark)
79. Mindhunter
80. House
81. OJ: Made in America
82. Big Little Lies
83. Insecure
84= Normal People
84= Narcos
86. How I Met Your Mother
87. The Comeback
88. The OA
89. Dexter
90. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
91. Westworld
92. Show Me a Hero
93. Treme
94. Louie
95. Luther
96. Catastrophe
97. Hannibal
98. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
99. Steven Universe
100. The Queen’s Gambit
The inexplicable omission of the Sopranos makes the whole thing a bit of a joke, I’m(ns)ho (and yes I know the show started in 1999)
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20211015-the-100-greatest-tv-series-of-the-21st-century
Of the ones I know I have no real argument with that selection, nor can I think of any obvious omissions off the top of my head. If I’m honest though, I saw every episode of The Wire but often found it a bit of a chore.
Series 5 is a schlep, the newsroom doesn’t have the sheer urgency of the other settings and McNulty’s character arc becomes a bit of a joke.
With the highest foreign language show The Bridge at 34 and no Spiral, Gomorrah or Deutschland 83/86/89 (to name but three), the list is also woefully myopic when it comes to non-English speaking shows
Seems we had the same thought! But Le Bureau is at number 49
Cheers, PW, corrected my post
“Le Bureau”? Is that that Ill- fated French remake of Ricky Gervais’ sitcom using the cast of ‘Allo ‘Allo..?
Improbably, it’s a French documentary about what Pete Williams got up to after he left Dexy’s.
Indeed, The Killing (esp series 1) would make my top ten. A complete game-changer of a series.
Yes and The Bridge would be in my top 5 at least
Follow the Money, while we’re in Denmark, wipes the floor with a lot of ^those shows.
‘The Killing’ way down at #78 is a bit of a strange one.
Re “The Killing”. Conversation with my wife:
Me: Im surprised “The Killing ” isnt higher of the list
Wife: I dont remember that one
Me: You know – Danish police thingy
Wife: Nope
Me: Great knitwear
Wife: Oh – that one.
No Spiral! Putain! MERDE!
No Montalbano – *YELLS AT TOP OF HIS VOICE FLAPPING HIS ARMS ABOUT*
I think they are only including shows that premiered this century, so by starting in 1999 The Sopranos is ruled out.
They are a bit light on foreign series. For example, the bonkers Spanish ladies’ prison series Vis a Vis (Locked Up) is far better than Orange is the New Black, which started well but lost its way. And it’s disappointing that they haven’t found room for what I reckon is the best horror series ever, The Haunting of Hill House. It is absolutely fantastic.
Given how badly they fell off after their initial wow factor wore off, it’s arguable if shows like Lost or True Detective should be on the list at all
I struggled through the last few series of Lost, wishing it would end, and when it did end it left me feeling like I had wasted umpteen hours of my life.
I gave up about half-way through the second series when it became apparent that the people writing the show had less idea of what was going on than I did. I’m not charmed by your borderline incompetence fellas, you’re not a C86 band.
The West Wing misses the cut too, despite six seasons after 2000.
I was similarly wondering why no Freaks and Geeks, but that started late ’99 too…
Pretty good list. Sopranos obviously doesn’t qualify, probably too early for recent stuff like The Squid Game to be considered
Mare of Eastown is on there, and that’s not long out. I think they just have something against foreign shows.
Agreed. While the first series of Money Heist was brilliant, the law of diminishing returns quickly set in
Couple of omissions that immediately spring to mind are Unforgotten and Broadchurch.
Thought 1st series (season?) of Broadchurch was good (until last episode), other ones not so good
I’ve only seen three of the top 10 in their entirety (Wire, Fleabag, IMDY) and I’ve never heard of two of them (Leftovers, Americans). Seven of the Top 20. Is this normal?
You haven’t even heard of the 21-part docudrama about Simon le Bon which sits at no. 73?
No room for the Danger Mouse reboot?
There are a lot of shows on that list that started brightly before going completely to pot, which is very much the story of a lot of contemporary TV shows.
Personally, I’d give more credit to the ones that never outstayed their welcome, and consequently Band of Brothers would be much higher, while Sherlock wouldn’t make the list at all.
Sherlock quickly became abysmal
….isn’t that a VDGG number? I’m not an expert…
Any list that puts Ru Paul’s Drag Race ahead of The Queen’s Gambit is obviously suspect.
Agreed Mike. Shocked to see TQG so low on the list
Having had a proper look, some of these feel like glaring omissions to me:
The Defiant Ones
Umbrella academy
Motherland
Loki
Last chance U
Back to Life
The Night Of
The Last Dance
The last of those would be a top 10 pick in my neck of the woods.
Oh yes, “the Night Of” is an absolute gem.
And also David Simon’s “Show Me a Hero”.
Hmmm … I hadn’t noticed that “Show Me A Hero” is actually holding down the coveted number 92 spot on the original list.
No Wandavision, either, which I rate as highly as any TV I’ve seen in ages. Defiant Ones is a great shout.
Probably because it’s the Beeb, I feel like the list is a bit snooty about the streaming services.
HBO gets the big thumbs up, as ever, but what’s Stranger Things doing all the way down there? That show is a monster.
Re the lowly placing of Stranger Things: maybe the chart is upside down.
Very, very good.
Saw this yesterday and the omission of Life On Mars stood out for me. One of my favourites. Strange, it being a lauded BBC production as well. I liked Ashes To Ashes as well though I know there’s many that didn’t. Bittersweet to see The OA make the list but at a relatively low position.
I’ve seen three of the top ten. BB, Fleabag and The Office. Just about to start Season three of The Leftovers and I will go back to finish The Americans at some stage.
I really enjoyed the first season of the OA. It was all over the road, but it was so pleasingly barmy that it could only be considered to be a Very Good Thing, and the finale was outstanding.
They lost me at season 2 with the octopus though.
Yeah, same thing with Chernobyl
I almost abandoned ship at that point Bingo, but I was glad I stuck with it for another crazy mind-bending finale.
I guess the Beeb’s failure to celebrate Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes means we won’t be getting I’m Afraid Of Americans – where the sidekick no-one liked in the first two wakes up in the middle of 90s “Cool Britannia” wearing only a cocaine dusted Union Jack towel..
Life on Mars very good
Ashes to ashes appalling
Slight qualification, first series of Ashes was pretty good, but they then ran out of ideas
AtA tainted LoM for a lot of people, which is probably why it’s not on this list.
And where’s Life On Mars? Ozark? State of Play? The Deuce? When They See Us? What We Docin the Shadows? The vampire council scene from the first series alone should have put that one in.
Several more of the David Attenborough shows belong in there.
Of recent series, The North Water was terrific, as was Time. And from overseas ai particularly liked Marianne, Kingdom, Box 21 and Braquo.
As echoed above, I’m shocked that there wasn’t a place for Spiral. Or Broadchurch.
And I know they probably wouldn’t have got anywhere near that top 100, but I really enjoyed Phoenix Nights, Black Summer, Justified, Psychoville, Peep Show, Sex Education, Californication, Skins, Ghosts, Motherhood, Gangs of London, Ted Lasso, Hip-Hop Evolution, Toast of London, Animal Kingdom, Stath Lets Flats, Underbelly, Spooks, Firefly…Crikey, there’s been a lot of great TV!
Peep Show is on the list, although it should obviously feature much higher up..
‘Ideal’ is not in there. Not really surprised but nevertheless..
I agree about ‘the Deuce’. One rarely reads anything about it nowadays. It seems to be largely forgotten. But I thought it was staggeringly good from start to finish – David Simon’s second greatest achievement. And that’s saying a lot!
Yes Ozark is excellent.
Feel free to point out where I’ve missed it, but where the hell is Killing Eve?
On average to be in the top 100 it would need to be one of the top 5 shows in a particular year, probably not good enough. 1st series was ok, but, for me, went rapidly downhill after that.
@dai but this list isn’t based on your reactions, is it?
Nor yours. You are surprised it isn’t in there, I am not because I thought it turned into crap. Maybe others did too.
The critics’ response was similar to yours I believe.
I seem to have drifted into some weird alternate universe. But whatever.
Pretty straight forward isn’t it?
@allium-sativum who were you replying to?
I thought so at the time and got told off here but for me it was a very long, plot free beautifully shot waste of time. We gave gave up after wasting hours on season 2.
No Spiral? Mon Dieu!
I refer the right honourable gentleman to the shrug-and-jutting-chin I gave some moments ago.
“Bof”
Mrs Brown’s Boys?
Grey’s Anatomy? What? Have you seen that shit?
Cookie cutter cliche emoting and overacting. Everyone nobs each other at some point. Everyone ends up in a cocktail bar at midnight after a 12 hour shift looking immaculate and articulate.
Glossy, empty bollocks.
‘Everyone nobs each other at some point’
Based on the last A&E department I worked in, it’s just about the only thing they got right.
The End Of The Fucking World, You and Russian Doll would make my list. Fargo also great.
Russian Doll is a massive oversight. That show was fantastic.
It feels like years now Netflix has been telling me a season two is on the way. (Although I’m not sure I even want a season two – I agree with your comment further up… the best shows don’t outstay their welcome).
yeah, I loved it, but I felt one series was enough for it to do it wanted to do. Hard to see a second one not dimishining it, unless they do the anthology thing and start a completely different story
I know it’s a pointless exercise to point out glaring omissions but no love for 2012 or W1A? Maybe the Beeb being too even-handed. They should blow their own trumpet sometimes. You guys in the UK are very lucky to have such an organisation.
We’ve got Fleabag, I May Destroy a and the Office all quite undeservedly in the top 10. Quite enough own-trumpet blowage going on there.
You, not a.
Original Office was a masterpiece and groundbreaking at the time, maybe a re-watch may show multiple weaknesses being judged from a clearer view of Gervais’ personality. I liked Fleabag a Lot, but maybe a tad overrated. Don’t know other one.
Derry Girls, the Inbetweeners, Outnumbered, Worst Week of my Life, Detectorists, Alan Partridge….?
Comedy shows that haven’t hit big in the US, so who cares?
I was thinking it was due to the comedy factor but Big Bang Theory, 30 Rock, Fleabag, Schitts Creek, Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm are all there. I guess the list must be for an international audience then.
Detectorists is in there at no 64
Oops – sorry.
I know it’s subjective but I’ve never understood why Partridge is so popular, or The Office for that matter.
Me too.
how about the brilliant This Country
Striking thing for me about the list is how many series there are that I’ve started out enjoying but couldn’t be bothered/forgot to finish. Wire, Madmen, Game of Thrones to start with. And that’s just the top 5. Long, long, long.
I expect that’s much the same as how Bingo and MC Escher feel about lists of albums (good in parts, but I wouldn’t eat a whole one etc). I’d take a scalpel to this list (“True Detective Series One Only”, “Community series 1-3 is in the top 30”, “Dexter has to stop at series 4” and so on). Moose is probably right: they’re going to totally f*uck Chernobyl when they do series two..
Chernobyl the prequel maybe? Or Chernobyl the urban explorers?
Interesting too that what started out as one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen for the first few series, Modern Family, which then stopped being funny at all loses out due to its long decline. But not as good as How I Met Your Mother? Don’t think so.
Chernobyl would fall off if it tried a second run out.
Chernobyl II: Two Heads Are Better Than One
The one thing always missing from this sort of list are unscripted shows. How can a list that tries to represent TV culture omit shows like Big Brother? …and for all the excellent comedy series on the list, Taskmaster is the only British one that I would consider unmissable.
Bob and Joy enjoy Dallas.
How is that not in there.
More of a Debbie Does Dallas man meself, UW
No Modern Family?
Mad Men should be number 1. The Wire tailed off badly in later seasons.
This ^
Mad Men should be Number 1 in this list
It is the GOAT – even better than The Sopranos
Mmm. For me the Sops is the GOAT but MM is def number 2. I think the test is whether you rewatch it, multiple times, pick favourite episodes to watch again…
In Comedy, Derry Girls and Sophie Willan’s Alma is Not Normal are wonderful.
And in drama, two words – Jimmy McGovern. I finally caught up with Time this week and it’s superb. And Broken, with Sean Bean as an inner city Catholic priest is absolutely magnificent.
There speaks a man after my own heart. Jimmy McGovern’s Accused is also well worth hunting down on Amazon Prime
I honestly think he may be the greatest tv dramatist around right now with a massive body of work from ‘Cracker’ through to ‘Accused’, as you say; that extraordinary Hillsborough drama, and more. He has the social conscience and concern of Ken Loach but with more of a heart and a recognition of the good people in the system as well as the bad. And he has the ‘State of the nation’ chops of a David Hare, exploring the great institutions of the law, the church, prison etc, but from the point of view of those who they are there to serve, and those working in them on the front line, rather than those who are running them.
I sat down to watch the first episode of ‘Time’ a couple of nights ago and ended up watching all three in one hit. Utterly compelling and moving and I can’t get it out of my head. He doesn’t go for the obvious ‘prison warders are all sadistic bastards and prison governers are self interested bureaucrats’ schtick – instead, as with ‘Broken’, he shows decent people doing their best within a failing system. And he leavens it with small quiet moments which are uplifting and give hope amidst the misery. Apparently he had ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ in mind when he wrote the end of ‘Broken’, and its none the worse for that.
And it is no coincidence that his scripts get such wonderful performances from the actors. Sean Bean has never been better than in these last two dramas, and Stephen Graham is equally magnificent in ‘Time’.
David Hare is absolutely crap. Most of what he’s done in the last couple of decades is amateurishly written and only saved by the unexplainable patronage of big names like Bill Nighy. Moral indignation does not necessarily produce great art. And don’t get me started on Stephen Poliakoff – whose kids has he got tied up in his basement?
I’ve a lot of time for McGovern though, he’s the real deal, even if a bit old fashioned now. There’s never in my lifetime been a cancel-everything, appointment-TV drama series like the first two series of Cracker.
I remember enjoying one Poliakoff tv drama in the early 80s (Caught on a Train), but his more recent stuff has been unwatchable, as has that of Hare. In the theatre though, Hare’s trilogy of plays back in the early 90s about the church, politics (John Thaw as, essentially, Neil Kinnock) and law were pretty good as I remember. But both of them are a literary drama critic’s idea of a televlsion dramatist and therefore usually no bloody good in that medium at all.
Your last sentence = oh yes.
“Don’t they know who I am?”
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/oct/24/david-hare-furious-bbc-rejection-of-covid-play
Hilarious. ‘’In drama, it’s now just crime series and police series – and it won’t take on anything like this.” Michaela Coel, Jimmy McGovern, Mike Bartlett, Sally Wainwright, Abi Morgan, clearly you are not worthy and don’t count….
Hare’s last few series have been pants
People like him have been saying that for the last 30 years – even while their own useless work gets bankrolled over and over again.
Also: any “political” content in Hare’s work is always the soft left comforting itself in a metropolitan echo chamber. Which is a sentence so crap it could be from one of his dramas.
Re Stephen Graham, a major omission from the list is The Virtues, the C4 series he did with Shane Meadows. I can’t think of a show that’s depicted PTSD as well as this, and the age-old trope of revenge has rarely been so properly drilled down (it’s not a Statham fillum)
Oh yes, great shout. It was fantastic
The other glaring omission in terms of UK series (and it is way better than half the US shows on the list, too) is Our Friends in the North
Not a 21st century show though.
Nope. 1996. Which, I hate to tell you, is a long time ago.
Before I was born, probably. (Or after. I can’t remember which.)
Doh! Living in the past as usual
Re: “the Virtues” = superb
Listen to Barry Blue on this point.
Two of my recent favourites are Dark, a German time travel (sort of) series that will have you scratching your head, and Kingdom, which is a historical drama from Korea that has exquisite costumes and sets, making for a sumptuous recreation of the Joseon period, only it improves on actual history by chucking ravenous zombies all over the place. It’s quite brilliant and was the highlight of my lockdown viewing by a mile last year.
Even more recently, Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass did a great job of transferring the early Stephen King vibe to the small screen, until the last ten minutes when it crashed and burned most spectacularly. I thought his previous and mostly excellent Haunting Of Hill House also fluffed the ending a bit, but nowhere near as catastrophically as this.
Dark was magnificent but anyone starting it from scratch would be advised to print off sheets about the various members of the main families as there are something like 30 main characters, several of whom come back in two or three temporal forms
Absolutely. I loved the first series but then couldn’t remember what the he’ll was going on by the time series 2 came around.
Small Axe (at 51) is a strange choice; a collection of only five based-on-fact Black British dramas, some very good (the one about the trial of the Mangrove Nine was excellent) but others not so much. It’s a bit like selecting Play For Today as your best programme.
I’d say The Thick of It should be higher. One of my contenders for best TV show of all time.
I don’t really get the fuss about Fleabag. I watched it and it was all right, but hardly earth-shaking. I feel as if I’m missing something. (As a (lapsed) catholic as well, I got annoyed at a lot of the things they got wrong with the priest in that second series. It felt like they hadn’t really done any research on what a priest actually does).
Stop getting the priest wrong!!
Seems like they did some research on what a hot priest nearly does though.
But she did that talking to the audience thing, which was so innovative. When it was first done in ancient Greece.
In all seriousness, one bit I LOVED in the second series was where the priest noticed her talking to the camera, and kept asking her who she was talking to. Or at least I thought I loved it…. I thought it was going to be some interesting development which would take the show off into some weird postmodern tangent. But they did absolutely nothing with this and it was of no consequence to the plot in the end.
[SPOILER ALERT]
Always thought she was talking to her dead friend that she had betrayed
I heard 3 women in their 30s discussing Handmaid’s Tale at work this week. They were genuinely shit scared by it, literally not able to sleep. “What if it actually happened?”. Me pointing out, Afghanistan, lowering reproduction rates and asking what if Trump had got a second term didn’t seem to ease their anxiety. It was a remarkable series and Elisabeth Moss’s eyes are burned into the depths of my soul. Blessed be the fruit…
I actually couldn’t finish it, not because it was bad but because it was so bleak I couldn’t hack it.
There’s a pattern with Elizabeth Moss, isn’t there?
When I heard she was in The Invisible Man film I thought, I think we can safely assume that’s The Extremely Misogynist Invisible Man.
@moose-the-mooche
Big hit in the Invisible Man community apparently. They certainly seemed to be occupying every seat in the cinema the time I foolishly went to see it with Mrs JG.
Wife: Do you want to come and see the new Elizabeth Moss film?
Husband: No, I hated myself earlier, thanks…
It took nearly $150m against a $7m budget. Great movie.
She can do no wrong in my eyes. Each part of Handmaids Tale took an issue in everyday life and magnified it a zillion times. Religious fanaticism, racism, homphobia, mysogyny, man’s abuse of their physical superiority, women’s desire for reproduction and the lengths they’ll go to should their body clock demand what their bodies can’t give them. Its extraordinary. Perhaps these are issues she deems worthy of her time. I haven’t read the book but perhaps I should.
I knwo it’s tough for Aussie tv to get much international love, often with good reason.
But Jack Irish and the Mystery Road collection are some of the best tv I’ve watched in years. I’m a huge Peter Temple fan, and loved the JI books, but Guy Pearce and Aaron Pedersen absolutely nail the roles. If that bag of shite Grey’s Anatomy makes the list THAT high, those two should at the very least be in the top 100
@Sitheref2409
Starring the splendid Richard Roxborough as its perma-fucked up lawyer anti-hero, Rake was another excellent Aussie series.
Like the splendid Wilfred, Rake got ruined when US TV came knocking and pandered to viewer sensibilities by hoovering out all the rough edges that made both Aussie original shows so wonderfully quirky.
First few series of Underbelly and Wentworth were also pretty good.
And don’t get me started on the magnificently monickered Lucky Grills as Bluey – a post-pub highlight of early 70s UK TV. Well it was either that or the static, and, let’s face it, often both.
I’m thinking about getting onto Wentworth. Just after I finish City Homicide which was an excellent procedural.
Wentworth is really good. Superb acting and highly polished overall. Storylines test the credibility-o-meter somewhat but in this case it doesn’t really matter.
I enjoyed Watchmen way more than Westworld. Then again, I enjoy Endeavour more than almost everything on this list.
Orphan Black is worthy of a place but was never popular widely enough.
Yes, a terrific show. Given the effortless way she segued between six (maybe more) characters, surprised Tatiana Maslany hasn’t gone on to be a huge star (well at least not yet).
Isn’t she in one of the upcoming Marvel films? She-Hulk I think
Line Of Duty – rofl.
Must be a silly list.
@junglejim
Agree.
like Lost, LOD started out well but dragged on to the point where Mercurio would dream up implausible twists or refer back to ancient plot points to keep the show going.
Taut and focused, JM’s NHS drama Bodies from the mid-2000s is a million times better.
I notice that The Shield is on the list. I’ve been watching this on Amazon Prime over the last few months and am gripped. I’m upto series 6 now and how people watched this in real time waiting between series I’ll never know. Anyway in the UK at least it looks to have moved over to IMDB TV which I think is Amazon’s free offering so it should be available for anyone to watch. Annoying if you were watching through Prime as there are now adverts but if you didn’t have Prime it’s now available for nothing. I think this is the channel that the new Bosch spin off will be on when it comes out.
@NE1
Vic and the boys used to be on All4 – not sure if they still are.
Great ending to the series, too?
Poor old Michael C’s career didn’t really go anywhere after the show ended while the magnificently monickered Walton Goggins went from strength
To strength – Justified and Righteous Gemstones are both brilliant and the latter is very, very funny to boot
@Jaygee
Working my way towards the ending (just wrapping up season 6) it’s been high quality all the way through so far so good to know they finish it well, there’s too many shows that don’t know how to end things or simply run too long.
Re:Michael C I’ve recently seen an episode where Vic has a ‘moment’ in a hospital waiting room that looked suspiciously like an audition for The Thing in Fantastic 4 or a nod to him having got that role. I can’t remember seeing him in much else but what a character Vic is. IMDB tells me that he’s a drummer which I can totally see, I suspect those drums stay hit.
Loved WG in Justified which was another fantastic show and will have to give Righteous Gemstones a look, thanks.
If the vote was for the greatest single season of any series, the season of The Shield with Forest Whitaker would probably be my pick, cos it’s absolutely fantastic and elevated an already great show to new heights.
I should preface this by saying that I’m not much of a TV watcher; I prefer listening to music. My wife likes TV though, so I often end up seeing stuff just to keep her company. Anyway, here’s a few thoughts on what I have seen, and what has really engaged me to keep watching.
It seems to me that many of these dramas are very dark in tone. I’m a bit of an optimist and tend to believe that most people are basically okay. Yes, I know I’m running a bit counter to the Zeitgeist here, but that’s just my experience and observation really. For example I’ve known police men and women, prison warders and teenage recidivists who are are all pretty decent people at heart. I think that Breaking Bad stands out to me as a series that convincingly shows the possibility that wrong doers can be both morally astute and likeable people. It was also riveting from start to finish. That last sentence says a lot. Serial drama of all kinds has a tendency to decline: Lost and Game of Thrones being prime examples. The law of diminishing returns is an unavoidable law of both fiction and life.
I only got to see a random episode Of Detectorists because the cat was sat on my lap and I channel hopped. I quite liked it but I didn’t really know why: it was slight in content and not really LOL funny, but there was something there, and nothing to object to. Anyway, when shopping for Christmas presents for Pauline I bought the box set and we watched it. We loved it. I now understand why. It is sunny and heart warming. It has a real feel good factor. It is an antidote to doom and gloom and the writing, direction and acting is impeccable. Also, don’t miss out the Christmas Special which is easy to miss on the DVD menus.
So, those are my two favourite series of this century. I did enjoy Flea Bag: the first episode of Series Two is a bitter sweet masterpiece. One series I haven’t seen mentioned here is Jordscott. Series one is quite brilliant, then it isn’t quite as great. Swedish supernatural drama: check it out.
1. Yes, McKenzie Crook did such a brilliant job with “Detectorists”. Beautifully written and acted. And seemingly not derivative of lots of other series.
2. the name of the Swedish series you mention is Jordskott (with a ‘k’)
Thanks for correcting my spelling @duco01 .
I forgot to mention Twin Peaks: The Return. I found this both deeply absorbing and puzzling in equal measure. Brilliantly entertaining though. Watched it 3 times now and I think I finally just about understand what was going on at the end. I also watched the extras on the BluRay. Lynch becomes increasingly stressed as the shooting progresses; it’s clear he lacked enough time to quite get the vision in his head onto the screen. There are some flaws and unfinished threads but brilliant nonetheless.
Given your tendency to lean into the positive, @artery I suspect you’ll like Ted Lasso, on Apple TV. Well worth a free month’s subs and cancellation.
Noted @BarryBlue. Thanks.
A few personal favourites that I would have liked to be included in this list.
INPO.
In a land of plenty (possibly my favourite ever TV series).
Phoenix nights
The long firm
Priest (Sean Bean)