The Top 20 are here!
Dear Watchers,And then there were 20. This morning, we revealed the final batch of our 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century list, based on the votes of more than 500 actors, writers, showrunners, executives and other TV professionals. Take a look at the Top 20 here. How are we feeling? Let us know, please, in the comments section, as thousands have already done. (Please don’t riot, as several have threatened to do.) And don’t forget to vote for your own favorites. We’ll publish the results of that reader poll next week. I don’t mean to brag, but six of my own Top 10 are in the industry’s Top 10 here, so the results seem about right to me. Or maybe my tastes are just very conventional. Here’s what I really think: We’ll all have our missing favorites. (No “Baskets”?) But there is widespread consensus, extending well beyond the opinions of our voters, that the top shows in this list are excellent shows in every sense. Is there any world in which “Mad Men” or “The Wire” wouldn’t land near the top? The only question about “Breaking Bad” was “where,” not “whether.” Intangible but nonnegotiable
If that logic seems circular, it probably is. But consider the mix of the Top 20: We have drama and comedy. Realism and fantasy. Ensembles and auteurs, Yanks and Brits, new and old, streaming and cable … I won’t attempt to analyze the selections in too much depth here, but it skims the cream from a pretty wide, rich pail. (I leave the deeper analysis to James Poniewozik, our chief TV critic, who in a wide-ranging essay digests the full list better than I can.) There isn’t a single series in this final batch that wants for ambition and execution, for artistry and gut-level appeal. That last element, the gut appeal, is intangible but nonnegotiable, I think. The long-form nature of the medium, and the fact that we experience it mostly in our homes, often with loved ones, can make for particularly intimate, lasting connections with our favorite shows and characters. We left it up to voters to decide what “best” meant to them. I think for most, it meant not only picking shows they admired. It meant picking shows they loved. Here are some of the people who made the best shows talking about the shows they love best: I almost find “30 Rock” painful to watch. It’s so brilliant in its density of jokes, right? Writing a sitcom pound for pound might be the hardest form to write because when it’s working well, it requires so much attention to every single word. Every line, every half a line, can either be a setup, should be a setup or is a joke. — Jesse Armstrong, creator, “Succession” The idea of nothing, to a certain extent, is taken to the 10th power, or the 100th power, on [“Curb Your Enthusiasm.”] Because that idea existed on “Seinfeld,” of course. But on “Curb,” these small conflicts that are usually nothing, obviously, are exaggerated and put under a microscope and made larger. — Julia Louis-Dreyfus, actor and comedian, “Veep” I’ve actually seen “Mad Men” four times from start to finish, and I think if I put all that time together, it’s weeks of my life, and not a single minute regretted. — Richard Gadd, creator, “Baby Reindeer” “The Wire” asks a lot of you. It demands a lot, and it deserves that from you. I can’t think of a condensed viewing experience that was more rewarding. Like, reading “War and Peace” isn’t easy and takes a lot of your time and a lot of attention. And ultimately when you finish reading “War and Peace,” you’re damn glad you finished reading “War and Peace.” I kind of felt the same way about “The Wire,” which on the upside I think takes less time than reading “War and Peace.” — D.B. Weiss, co-creator, “Game of Thrones” It’s been a pleasure taking over the newsletter this week to help roll out the 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century. We hope you enjoy it and find plenty to keep arguing about. One last reminder to vote for your own Top 10. And don’t forget to save the TV shows you want to watch. You can find them anytime in the You tab of The Times app. Happy watching! Tell us what you thinkWhat surprised you about our 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century? What didn’t? We want to hear from you now that the list has been published in full. Click here to leave a comment; Times editors, critics and reporters will continue to join in the conversation.
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Watching: The Top 20 are here!
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