The Best of the Best TV Shows, Vol. 5

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.

ABOVE: A still image from the Netflix streaming Western Godless.

{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 fantastic and say so …