The New York Times has put together an impressive list of the Top 100 Shows of the 21st Century, and as with all lists of this nature it’s bound to stir up controversy, both due to what’s included and what’s left out.
The newspaper didn’t curate this list using its own critics. Rather, its data team at The Upshot sent ballots to hundreds of people in the TV business: Actors, showrunners, writers, craftspeople, executives and other industry figures. Each voter could submit up to 10 shows that they considered the best of the 21st century.
The eligibility rules were fairly broad. Shows could be in any language and virtually any format, including scripted series, reality TV shows, documentaries, talk shows and so forth. Even YouTube series.
Just two key restrictions were in place: First, the show had to contain multiple episodes (not just a pilot) and second, it had to debut on or after January 1, 2000.
We can chalk up poor taste to some of the results. Why is True Detective Season 1 #35, below shows like Lost (#22) , Girls (#13) and 30 Rock (#8)? It’s incredible that Game of Thrones made it to #6 after its spectacularly bad final two seasons, and almost as shocking to see the brief, two-season Fleabag at #5. That was a good show, great even, but #5 is much too high here (though it certainly explains why Phoebe Waller-Bridge has had such a meteoric rise).
Less surprising: Breaking Bad is in the #1 spot with The Wire in second place and Mad Men in #3. Succession takes #4. All of these are phenomenal TV shows and well-deserving of their top spots. More mystifying is the absence of shows like Dark, The Terror, Boardwalk Empire, The Expanse, Sons of Anarchy, Arcane and Mr. Robot, just to name a few. Avatar: The Last Airbender is conspicuously missing, as is Rome, Silicon Valley and What We Do In The Shadows.
Some shows that are quite new (and thus at least somewhat untested) made the list, including The Pitt, Baby Reindeer, and The Diplomat – all quality series, but then where is Hannibal? Where is Fargo?
And where is The Sopranos?
Quite possibly the greatest show of all time is missing from this list because of the list’s worst rule: To be considered, a show had to debut January 1, 2000 or later. That’s why The Gilmore Girls is on here (it came out in October, 2000) but not The Sopranos. This is a huge, unbelievably bizarre mistake on the part of the New York Times.
The Sopranos debuted on January 10, 1999 but the vast majority of its run took place in the 2000s. 73 of its 86 episodes aired after January 1, 2000. There is no way this could (or should) be considered a 20th century show. Almost the entire series aired between 2000 and 2007 (the finale dropped on June 10, 2007 – four days after my first child was born). It is the very definition of a 21st century show. It is the 21st century show: One show to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
A better rule would have allowed shows that premiered in 1999 so long as the majority of their episodes aired in the 21st century. It’s a bit more complicated, sure, but it also prevents shows that really were 90s shows (like The Simpsons) from entering the fray, while allowing The Sopranos , The West Wing, Futurama and a few others to be ranked alongside the rest.
We can debate the rest of the list, of course, though I haven’t seen every show on it and I’d rate some much higher and some much lower, but leaving The Sopranos off because of a bad rule just feels deeply wrong. You can check out the full list, which includes interviews with some of the voters, and read a summary of the list below:
What would you add to this list? What would you remove? What’s in the wrong place entirely? True Detective absolutely needs to be in the Top 10 or higher, and The Leftovers is oddly low. I was pleased to see Station Eleven on here, but I’d rank it higher. Barry is better than a good chunk of the stuff above it on this list as well . . . but it’s all subjective, I suppose.
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