# Best TV show of the decade? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 17, 2019, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972 "2019-12-17T01:06:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/1 "2019-12-17T01:06:09Z")
Decade being 2010-2019. [Here is Alan Sepinwall’s list.](https://www.yearendlists.com/2019/12/alan-sepinwall-50-best-tv-shows-of-the-2010s) I think to be fair, the vast majority of the episodes should have aired in this decade. If you love LOST, please realize almost all of it aired in the previous decade. My list would include the following shows: **Game of Thrones** - yes, the ending was tough, but for me, the final 3 episodes were the only drop off. I kept with it longer than some. Still, it does hurt that the ending was rushed and felt put together incompetently. \*\*Gravity Falls \*\* **Outlander** - why does this show get so little love from critics and awards? **Hannibal** **Westworld** \*\*The Leftovers \*\*- just watching the finale again(watched it all when aired). It really is an amazing and touching show. **The Expanse** \*\* Black Mirror \*\*- less great lately, but those first two series were great \*\*Twin Peaks - the Return \*\*- what a mess, but when it hits big, still one of the best shows. Episode 8 might be the best episode of TV this decade. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/2 "2019-12-17T01:14:52Z")
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Full stop. Close the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/3 "2019-12-17T01:26:50Z")
Halt and Catch Fire Justified Sons of Anarchy Longmire ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/4 "2019-12-17T01:30:48Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > \*\*Gravity Falls > \*\* I loved that show! ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/5 "2019-12-17T01:59:26Z")
Here’s a few I’ve loved: Taskmaster Community The Good Place Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Blunt Talk Moone Boy Detectorists Person Of Interest 19-2 Unforgotten Daredevil Jessica Jones ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/6 "2019-12-17T02:15:04Z")
Community So many of the best episodes ever. Stranger Things: Perfection Good Omens: So well done The Good Place: This show is brilliant & funny. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Last Week Tonight with John Oliver ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/7 "2019-12-17T02:20:24Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Taskmaster Thank you for mentioning Taskmaster. I can not imagine life without laughing with this show. Some of the funniest moments I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/8 "2019-12-17T02:36:31Z")
\*The Good Place Community Black Mirror Rick and Morty Bojack Horseman Sex Education Top of the Lake Sherlock Misfits \* ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/9 "2019-12-17T02:47:21Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Thank you for mentioning Taskmaster. I can not imagine life without laughing with this show. Some of the funniest moments I’ve ever seen. I discovered it when it was about on series 4, after YouTuber Tom Scott listed it as one of his favourite shows, and I had no idea of its existence. I couldn’t imagine how it could be such a big deal, until I instantly fell in love with it after sourcing the first episode. Spectacularly simple idea, with cunningly crafted tasks, and, most importantly, perfectly cast hosts and contestants. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/10 "2019-12-17T02:55:09Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I discovered it when it was about on series 4, after YouTuber Tom Scott listed it as one of his favourite shows, and I had no idea of its existence. I couldn’t imagine how it could be such a big deal, until I instantly fell in love with it after sourcing the first episode. Spectacularly simple idea, with cunningly crafted tasks, and, most importantly, perfectly cast hosts and contestants. The season with Rhod Gilbert as a contestant might be the funniest comedy panel show type thing you will ever see. Honestly, it’s too much laughing for me sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/11 "2019-12-17T04:09:42Z")
Tie: _Nova_ and _Frontline_ ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/12 "2019-12-17T04:13:37Z")
I don’t watch sitcoms much, so I decided to make a Top Twelve list for dramas. Ranked. 1. Halt and Catch Fire 2. Luther 3. Game of Thrones 4. Succession 5. Better Call Saul 6. Treme 7. The Night Of 8. The Expanse 9. The Americans 10. The Leftovers 11. Breaking Bad\* 12. Patriot I doubt many would agree with my number one, but I think _Patriot_ is one of the most unusual, funny, unique, moving and just flat out entertaining shows I’ve ever seen. Writer/director Steve Conrad and lead actor Michael Dorman should have won a bunch of awards for this collaboration. 10/10, will watch again. - Using the criteria in the OP, 42 of the 62 episodes aired this decade. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/13 "2019-12-17T04:28:24Z")
I can’t really vote for “best,” but in terms of what TV shows have actually held my interest long enough that I was able to watch through their run, there’s only a handful that have succeeded for me this decade: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Barry, and Archer. I’m not sure there’s really any other series that was able to hold my attention. I did enjoy It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but most of the seasons I loved the most were last decade, and I haven’t even bothered to watch the last two or three, as I feel they just ran out of gas. I was also really getting into Good Girls Revolt, but they canceled it after one season so, oh well. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/14 "2019-12-17T05:18:13Z")
My list certainly isn’t going to me definitive, since I don’t have anywhere near enough time to watch All The Shows (I’ve never seen Game of Thrones, for example, so I have no opinion of it). But that’s true of all of us, so, of the shows I have watched here’s my top 10. 1. Chernobyl, albeit a mini series and not a full multi season series. 2. Boardwalk Empire 3. Stranger Things 4. Fargo, albeit more a series of mini series than one series 5. Bates Motel – A rather underrated show I thought was really good, especially the last two seasons. 6. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt 7. Orange is the New Black. It may have faltered a bit in its later seasons, but it picked back up in the last one and overall one of my favorite snows of the decade 8. Marvelous Mrs. Maisel 9. Better Call Saul 10. The Americans – the one show in recent memory I always looked forward to seeing the next episode. The top three are definitely in order with The Americans as my all time favorite. The rest are pretty much in no particular order other than the order in which I thought of them. Honorable mention to Breaking Bad and Mad Men, although it’s debatable whether they’re of this decade or the previous one, so I didn’t include them in the actual list. The majority of the episodes of both series aired this decade, but the first few seasons aired the previous one, so I don’t know how were defining “vast majority”. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/15 "2019-12-17T05:55:04Z")
First two Fargos The Rookie Good Omens The Good Place, esp the first season Sherlock. My wife loves Outlander. Westworld has promise but got too dark and senseless. I hated the Leftovers After Netflix fucked us over with their DVD set for Stranger things, they get no love from me. Taskmaster looks interesting, does it play in the uSA? Incidentally if anyone watched “The Rook” the book is far better and quite different. Oh and _the Blacklist_ almost made the list ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/16 "2019-12-17T06:36:22Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Taskmaster looks interesting, does it play in the uSA? They have just started putting it [officially on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRWvNQVqAeWIhX6kj_lqISiBeMMdxLfFa) for international viewing. Limited episodes, maybe for a limited time, and thus far only season 2, but that shouldn’t be an obstacle. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/17 "2019-12-17T07:20:41Z")
The Walking Dead. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/18 "2019-12-17T07:21:50Z")
Hannibal The Exorcist Galavant Ken Burns’s Viet Nam War miniseries ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/19 "2019-12-17T07:31:06Z")
_Mad Men_ ran from 2007 to 2015, so I guess that falls in the “majority of episodes aired in this decade” category. Arguably it fails the “\*\*vast \*\*majority” criterion. Anyway, in my opinion, that show outruns any of those previously mentioned in this thread. > [@kitap](#): > > …Galavant… Another sentimental favorite! ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972/20 "2019-12-17T08:02:49Z")
I’m not sure network television and premium cable should be judged in the same category. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-show-of-the-decade/844972.md?page=2)