The 18 Best TV Series of the 2010s
The decade streaming took over and prestige cable refused to go quietly. Network sitcoms, animated nihilism and one very large fantasy show all belong on the same shelf.
1Breaking BadAMC's chemistry-teacher tragedy finished in 2013 with what many critics called a perfect final season.
2Better Call SaulThe Breaking Bad prequel that overtook its parent show in many critics' estimation.
3ChernobylHBO's 2019 miniseries about the 1986 reactor disaster and the cost of official lies.
4FargoNoah Hawley's FX anthology, which took the Coen brothers' film and gave each season its own decade.
5Game of ThronesHBO's fantasy epic ran from 2011 to 2019 and became the decade's only true weekly appointment television.
6Mad MenMatthew Weiner's advertising drama closed out its seven-season run in 2015.
7FleabagPhoebe Waller-Bridge's two-season comedy turned direct address into a plot device.
8The AmericansFX's Cold War marriage drama about two KGB officers raising a family in suburban Washington.
9Stranger ThingsNetflix's 1980s pastiche became the platform's first genuine global phenomenon in 2016.
10AtlantaDonald Glover's FX series, part rap comedy, part surrealist anthology.
11Bojack HorsemanNetflix's animated Hollywood satire that turned into one of the decade's bleakest character studies.
12The LeftoversDamon Lindelof's HBO drama about the two percent who vanished and the ninety-eight who stayed.
13Parks and RecreationNBC's small-town government sitcom, which found its voice in season two and never lost it.
14SherlockThe BBC's modern-dress Conan Doyle, which made global stars of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.
15The CrownNetflix's decade-by-decade account of Elizabeth II's reign, recast every two seasons.
16SuccessionHBO's media-dynasty comedy of manners, which premiered in 2018 and defined the years after.
17Rick and MortyAdult Swim's nihilist science-fiction cartoon, the decade's most quoted animated series.
18Black MirrorCharlie Brooker's technology anthology, which moved from Channel 4 to Netflix mid-decade.
Comments
Ten years, eighteen titles, and the drama that shaped nearly all of them ended in 2007 and cannot enter: https://youpick.best/articles/breaking-bad-vs-the-sopranos-ranked https://youpick.best/articles/game-of-thrones-ranked-many-ways
A network comedy about small-town bureaucracy, standing next to Breaking Bad, Chernobyl and The Leftovers: https://youpick.best/articles/the-office-vs-parks-and-rec-ranked
One entry here held a weekly audience from 2011 to 2019. Another got watched in a single weekend. The decade sorted fifteen ways: https://youpick.best/articles/stranger-things-ranked-many-ways
