So last week The Hollywood Reporter came up with their Top 10 TV series of the Decade. And I was really underwhelmed by the list. Most of these are good shows. I surprised that they were bold and picked five shows from cable networks, rather than kowtowing to the broadcast networks. The public doesn’t care what network the show is on and executives need to wake up to that fact. At any rate here is THR’s list:
Modern Family, on the edge of greatness-- still its only one season
1. Sopranos
2. West Wing
3. Curb Your Enthusiasm
4. The Shield
5.. Damages
6. Mad Men
7. 30 Rock
8. 24
9. Lost
10. Modern Family
I like Modern Family, but its way too soon to put it in a “Best of” ranking that spans 2000 t0 2009. And then considering how low key the final two seasons of The Sopraons were, I’d put take it and West Wing out and put Deadwood and Battlestar Galactica in the mix.
I’d swap out Curb Your Enthusiasm for Extras. 24 and Dexter are kinda the same show (since the main character does the same thing each season), with Dexter being more believable. So then I sent this to Holly Comesoftly and her reaction was her Top Ten in no particular order…
Six Feet Under (Best Finale of a show EVER)
Deadwood
Mad Men
30 Rock
Doctor Who (it’s just fun)
Stargate (because statistically it accounted for 40% of all new shows in the last decade)
Rescue Me
Arrested Development
House (you may say that it’s the same show over and over again but how would you know that if you didn’t watch it every week)
Flavor of Love
And then Holly came to her senses requesting that Family Guy replace Flavor of Love. So now I’m looking at her list and thinking it could still be better. I’m tossing out Stargate and Arrested Development.
Flavor Flav, I think Holly was high when she made her first list
The inclusion of Doctor Who is warranted. I have to admit I came to Doctor Who rather late. I had seen the Fourth Doctor Tom Baker in reruns as a kid on PBS. But was really lost since my idea of aliens was rooted in the Star Wars/ Star Trek vein, not scarf wearing Brits that look like English professors.
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Then came Torchwood. All the of clues to Jack Harkness’ origins were scattered about in Doctor Who episodes, so I began to watch and enjoy. I love the melding of modern CGI with the kitsch factor of keeping the Daleks and Cyberman in their original budget sci-fi look– and on top of that sticking Shakespeare trained actors in the mix.
The 10th Doctor, David Tennant
Over the Christmas/ New Year’s holiday BBC America broadcast the swan song for David Tennant. A big end of the universe disaster is averted once again on Christmas Day (
I think for the fifth time). At any rate David has turned in the Tardis and we got a glimpse of Matt Smith during the
fiery regeneration scene. Hmmm.
Matt Smith, The New Doctor
The new guy looks a little bit young and a little cartoony. There’s the bow tie and the jawline reminiscent of Jay Leno. That and watching a Doctor who is a good deal younger than I am is a little weird.
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I suppose the saving grace is that Steven Moffat is coming in as the head writer and executive producer on this fifth season of Doctor Who. He was involved in the show’s revival and wrote a number of episodes. In addition he did pen two great shows the original Coupling and the drama Jekyll. So we know that the stories will be good. Just have to get used to the new guy I suppose.
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Ok that was a long digression from the topic, but after considering everything I think I’ve come up with JSA’s definitive top 10 television series of the past decade.
Our Show of the Decade
1. Deadwood
2. Family Guy
3. Six Feet Under
4. Coupling
5. Rescue Me
6. Ashes to Ashes
7. House
8. Doctor Who
9. Mad Men
10. 30 Rock
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Agree? Disagree? That why we’re here. Let us know what you’d change or tell us that we’re brilliant.
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I must be reading this list wrong…surely you didn’t put Family Guy on a list of “top 10 tv shows of the last decade” but threw out Arrested Development early on?
And no mention of The Wire, the best TV show ever made?
Well yes its crass and of questionable social value but Family Guy survived cancellation on FOX. The same can’t be said for Arrested Development. If it was a top 20 list then it would have easily made it. I don’t have any real negative feeling about it, I just thought that Holly would fight for it– instead she went for Life on Mars UK.
As for The Wire… again space didn’t permit. But I do think David Simon is brilliant. His book was the basis for one of my ALL time favorite shows Homicide: Life on The Street.
Why must you always top me? I think you should have put a disclaimer on Coupling. Clearly you mean the British version. As for Ashes, it should be split with Life on Mars.
Well of course I mean the British version of Coupling, since the American version only lasted 10 episodes and was awful. However Colin Ferguson did recover from that and end up on Eureka. And Jay Harrington is on your fav Better Off Ted.
I thought about making a split with Life on Mars and Ashes To Ashes since the creators view them as a continuous show, but decided against it. I considered characters in the same role in different series and came up with four precedents telling me to keep the shows as seperate, (1) Det. John Munch from Homicide: Life on the Street to Law & Order: SVU, (2) Dr. Frasier Crane from Cheers to Frasier, and (3) Lou Grant from The Mary Tyler Moore Show to Lou Grant, (4) Jack Harkness from Doctor Who to Torchwood. That and I think that Ashes to Ashes is the better of the two shows.
Curb Your Enthusiasm is a good show but nothing extraordinary. There are so many more comedy shows better than it.
What about ROME? Surely it’s up there with the likes of Deadwood etc.!!?