RETRO Recommends the Best of the Best: TV Shows, Vol. 3

In this Retro series, a longtime professional art critic and a former professor of digital culture ranks the best television programs of this century—from network to cable and web series to streaming.

{Note: Listings are alphabetical by category. While all these cultural artifacts are worthwhile, tastes can and will vary—so caveat lector, cave videntium, and caveat emptor. That said, if I listed a work here, you can rest assured that I do earnestly consider it to be badass and say so without any inducement whatsoever from any party. These opinions are mine and mine alone. Works that appear with a star (⭐) alongside are regarded as “the best of the best of the best.”}

Introduction

For years I was a professional reviewer of television shows, films, graphic novels, video games, poetry collections and more at Indiewire and The Huffington Post (now BuzzFeed).

Then I entered academia, where I began teaching courses on these and other genres and media. While none of this means my opinion is more valuable than anyone else’s, I mention my background—which you can read more about here—to give you a sense of where I’m coming from with the recommendations in this series, and moreover of the professional consideration behind them. I suspect that, if you try some of my picks out, you’ll start to get a good sense of my preferred aesthetics and poetics. And if these match yours, well, you might just find some new gems below.

Ground Rules: Television Shows

(1) Most shows have stronger and weaker seasons, but I have not included any shows with seasons I consider not worth watching at all. It’s one reason why The Simpsons is not listed here—because so many seasons of it are, sadly, disposable. Of course, it’s also fair to note that under this rule Sons of Anarchy, Billions, and The OA just barely make the lists below (and I mean barely) even as Prison Break, Heroes, Hanna, and The Last Man on Earth don’t make the list at all. And some shows are uneven at the episode level, like Da Ali G Show or Who Is America? or Little Britain or many other sketch comedies; these likewise do not appear here. I realize that this seems to penalize long-running shows, but I look at it this way: the purpose of lists like the ones below is to answer the question, “Would you recommend this show to someone?” If the answer is, “Yes, but only the first six seasons of twenty,” that seems to me far too conditional a reply to consider it an answer in the affirmative. By comparison, a program with four seasons, three of which are well worth watching and the fourth of which is good but not great is one you can recommend without further comment. I think we all know, in any case, that The Simpsons is a landmark program.

(2) This list will be updated over time. There are, needless to say, many programs I haven’t read or seen—the lists below make no claim of being exhaustive—so while of course you should quibble with any selection here (and/or suggest additional ones) in the comment section after the article, there’s a good chance that if something isn’t listed here and you desperately feel that it should be I just haven’t seen it or (far more commonly) seen enough of it to make a judgment yet.

(3) With a list like this one there has to be, and here there is, a temporal cutoff point. If there weren’t one, this list would become a fairly useless rant on (by way of analogy) which Atari 2600 video games would have been considered great approximately forty years ago. Indeed, if I even open this list up to the last century, it swells markedly, with the addition of acknowledged classics such as Seinfeld, Friends, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Freaks and Geeks, Quantum Leap, Frasier, Twin Peaks, and The Wonder Years among others far older like All in the Family and a whole new contingent of borderline calls like Cheers, Taxi, Family Ties, Golden Girls, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, NewsRadio, and Picket Fences. And of course the older a show is, the better the chance that events in the intervening years have made its selection problematic. Consider, for instance, The Cosby Show or (to a far lesser degree) Roseanne. I’m already torn about what to do with Louie; it’s a show that’s been universally reviewed as a work of genius—approaching “must-watch” status for anyone who’s learning how to innovate in television—and in watching it many years ago I always thought of it as a show capable of making its viewers into more empathetic, fully self-actualized people. But now that we know its titular star committed an unknown number of unprosecuted and now-past-their-statute-of-limitations acts that may have constituted misdemeanor sex crimes, with his victims always women on the disadvantaged end of a power differential with him, I think it’s preferable that I acknowledge the artistic value of Louie (which preceded the revelations about its odious creator by years) without actually recommending it. I don’t claim to be an expert on how professional critics should handle situations like this, but I’m certainly able to distinguish between acknowledging the value of a work and recommending that readers financially support its creator. Ultimately, the latter decision is going to be up to each reader on their own terms and for their own reasons.

(4) There are many artworks that you can enjoy without feeling comfortable putting them on lists like this. Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is an example. Heck, I was even briefly sucked into—I’m going to admit to something awful here—both Poldark and Outlander, though in my defense, so were many unfortunate souls. But as the primary goal of these lists is to distinguish transient pleasures from lasting value, my avowed guilty pleasures have almost entirely been avoided here.

(5) There are some artworks I have read or seen but still need time to decide about. Some examples include Modern Family and Eastbound & Down. This is distinct from works I’ve seen—and know many love—but that I know I’ll never be able to stomach, let alone recommend, for reasons relating to my own aesthetics. Examples include Glee, 24, How I Met Your Mother, Grey’s Anatomy, and most courtroom dramas and police procedurals (which feel preposterous to anyone who’s practiced criminal law).

Finally, I want to make particular note of a short list of popular shows that I’ve never seen at all but already expect I’ll be asked about. I figured I would cut off at the pass any questions about Empire, Weeds, Six Feet Under, or Supernatural, as I’ve simply never yet encountered them due to my other watching habits. There are limits to how much culture one can consume. While I’m sure some readers will doubt my choices, I hope we can agree that any survey of U.S. television culture will necessarily be incomplete.

Happy reading—and even more so, happy disagreeing! I invite your comments below!

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Television Shows

(🔷 = new to the list; ⭐ = the “best of the best” shows)

Animated and Puppetry

🔰 Archer ⭐
🔰 Bee and PuppyCat 🔷
🔰 Big Mouth
🔰 Bob’s Burgers ⭐
🔰 BoJack Horseman ⭐
🔰 The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance
🔰 Family Guy
🔰 Futurama
🔰 The Midnight Gospel
🔰 Rick & Morty ⭐
🔰 Solar Opposites
🔰 South Park ⭐

Comedy

🔰 30 Rock ⭐
🔰 Arrested Development
🔰 Avenue 5 🔷
🔰 Brooklyn Nine-Nine 🔷
🔰 Chapelle’s Show
🔰 The Colbert Report
🔰 Community ⭐
🔰 The Daily Show
🔰 Extras ⭐
🔰 Flight of the Conchords
🔰 I Think You Should Leave
🔰 Inside Amy Schumer
🔰 It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
🔰 John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch
🔰 Key & Peele ⭐
🔰 Letterkenny 🔷
🔰 The Mindy Project 🔷
🔰 The New Girl ⭐
🔰 The Office (UK)
🔰 The Office (US) ⭐
🔰 Parks & Recreation 🔷
🔰 Portlandia
🔰 The Rehearsal 🔷
🔰 Scrubs
🔰 Silicon Valley
🔰 Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
🔰 Veep ⭐
🔰 What We Do in the Shadows
🔰 Workaholics 🔷

Drama

🔰 Better Call Saul ⭐
🔰 Breaking Bad ⭐
🔰 Chernobyl 🔷
🔰 Downton Abbey
🔰 The End of the Fucking World
🔰 Fargo 🔷
🔰 The Good Wife
🔰 Halt and Catch Fire ⭐
🔰 Mad Men ⭐
🔰 The Plot Against America
🔰 The Queen’s Gambit 🔷
🔰 Ray Donovan 🔷
🔰 Rectify
🔰 Rescue Me
🔰 Sneaky Pete
🔰 Succession
🔰 This Is Us 🔷
🔰 Treme
🔰 The Wire ⭐

Dramedy

🔰 Atlanta ⭐
🔰 Barry 🔷
🔰 Bored to Death
🔰 The Chair
🔰 Friends From College
🔰 Girls
🔰 The Good Fight
🔰 The Good Place
🔰 The Great ⭐
🔰 High Maintenance ⭐
🔰 The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
🔰 Only Murders in the Building 🔷
🔰 Orange Is the New Black
🔰 Sex Education 🔷
🔰 Shoresy 🔷
🔰 UnReal

Dystopian

🔰 Black Mirror ⭐
🔰 The Handmaid’s Tale
🔰 The Leftovers ⭐
🔰 Lost ⭐
🔰 Mr. Robot

Experimental

🔰 How to with John Wilson

Fantasy

🔰 Angel
🔰 Buffy the Vampire Slayer
🔰 Game of Thrones ⭐
🔰 His Dark Materials
🔰 House of the Dragon ⭐ 🔷
🔰 Shadow and Bone
🔰 Wheel of Time
🔰 The Witcher

Horror

🔰 American Horror Story 🔷
🔰 Stranger Things ⭐
🔰 The Walking Dead
🔰 The Squid Game 🔷
🔰 True Blood (see also Pulp)

Mob

🔰 Boardwalk Empire
🔰 Justified ⭐
🔰 Peaky Blinders 🔷
🔰 The Sopranos

Mystery

🔰 Borgen
🔰 Mare of Easttown
🔰 The Killing
🔰 Lupin
🔰 Luther ⭐
🔰 Monk
🔰 Sherlock (2013) ⭐
🔰 True Detective
🔰 Veronica Mars ⭐

Political and Political Comedy

🔰 Alpha House
🔰 The Crown
🔰 House of Cards
🔰 The Newsroom 🔷
🔰 The West Wing ⭐

Pulp

🔰 Billions
🔰 Entourage 🔷
🔰 Cobra Kai
🔰 Sons of Anarchy
🔰 True Blood
🔰 You

Reality

🔰 LEGO Masters
🔰 Project Runway
🔰 Top Chef

Science Fiction

🔰 Battlestar Galactica (2003) ⭐
🔰 Dark
🔰 The Expanse
🔰 Firefly ⭐
🔰 For All Mankind
🔰 The Mandalorian
🔰 Russian Doll
🔰 Westworld

Sports

🔰 Ted Lasso

Superheroes

🔰 The Boys
🔰 Doom Patrol
🔰 Hawkeye
🔰 Moon Knight 🔷
🔰 The Punisher
🔰 WandaVision
🔰 Watchmen ⭐

Thriller

🔰 The Americans
🔰 Dexter
🔰 Homecoming
🔰 The OA
🔰 Ozark
🔰 You (see also Pulp)

War

🔰 Band of Brothers ⭐
🔰 Generation Kill
🔰 Rome
🔰 Vikings

Western

🔰 Deadwood ⭐
🔰 Hell on Wheels

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Missed the Cut

24
Adventure Time
American Gods
The Bad Batch
Da Ali G Show
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
Glee
Grey’s Anatomy
Hacks
Hanna
Heroes
How I Met Your Mother
Invincible
The Last Man on Earth
Little Britain
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Loki
Longmire
Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K.
Mythic Quest
Outlander
Poldark
Prison Break
See
Tiger King
Who Is America?

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Selected Planned Future Viewing

Arcane
Bosch
Foundation
The Last Kingdom
Lilyhammer
Reservation Dogs
SAS Rogue Heroes
Sweet Tooth
We Are Lady Parts
Y: The Last Man
Yellowjackets

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