The Best of the 00's - Danny's Best TV of the Decade!

Alright. Here it is. The beginning of my BEST OF THE DECADE series. Stay tuned for further entries in the coming days, but to start, here is my list of ...



THE BEST TELEVISION OF THE 00's:

- In many ways, this is both the easiest list for me to write, and the most difficult. It's easy because, while I can fiddle with the exact order of shows on this list, I didn't have to think too much about the shows that would comprise it. For a couple of years now, here on the blog, I've talked endlessly about my favorite TV shows, so a lot of the shows that will be covered here are old hat for me to write about. Others, I caught after the fact on DVD, and may not have ever covered regularly in the blog. But that has been the state of TV in the 00's - there's been an embarassment of riches, and it's impossible for even the most hardcore TV watcher to keep up with everything as it airs. And that brings me to why this list also proved difficult to write - I talk about this every year in my Best Of the Year posts, but the same holds true when looking at the entire decade: I'm only one man and can only watch so much. In fact, it's only in recent years - thanks to DVR, digital downloads, and DVD's - that I've been able to check out as much quality material as I have. HBO series I've had to catch up on post-air and on a case by case basis. Sometimes, I've gotten lucky, like when I studied in England in college and was first exposed to great stuff like The Office and Ali G. On the other hand, I also went through a couple years at Boston University in which my roommates and I relied on antenna signals for all our TV needs, since cable was outlawed in the BU dorms (yep, akin to cruel and unusual punishment, I know). What it boils down to is this: I've seen a lot of great TV, but I haven't seen everything. I haven't seen The Sopranos, or The Wire, or Dexter, or Mad Men. I missed out on the whole Buffy thing, and yeah, I realize that that in and of itself practically invalidates this list for some of you (I'll catch up one of these days, I promise!). But for now, here are the shows that excited me, that inspired me, that pushed me from humble college student to film and television major to would-be Hollywood bigshot. Some of them started in the 90's, but remain, nonetheless, defining shows of the decade. Others only recently debuted, and have shown a ton of promise in a relatively short span of time. These are my top shows of the decade (scripted only, for those keeping track) and I hope you enjoy the list.



DANNY'S TOP TV SHOWS OF THE 00's:



1. 24

- When I think of the show that was *the* must-watch show of this decade, I think of 24, a show that blasted onto the scene in 2001 and changed the face of television forever. The show was action-packed, heavily-serialized, and tailor-made for the emerging world of TV on DVD. It was a show that reflected the nonstop, 24/7, constantly-connected lifestyle of the 00's, not to mention our emerging fears of domestic terrorism. When the show debuted, America was sorely in need of a hero who could kick ass and take names while defending our country, and we got that hero, albeit a fictional one, in Jack Bauer. Most importantly, 24 was and is the one show that, as a fan, you *cannot miss*. It's the show you gather together to watch and call your friends to talk about. It's a show that defied the conventions of network TV, becoming darker, more brutal, and more intense than any show before it. So here's to 24, the best show of the 00's. And certainly, the one with the most (dammit all) gravitas.


2. Freaks and Geeks

- This instant-classic series debuted in 1999, but the majority of its episodes aired in 2000 - and what's more, its influence was absolutely enormous throughout the decade. This little show that could kickstarted what would become the Judd Apatow comedy machine, launching the careers of Apatow, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jason Segal, and many others. At the end of the day though, it was simply a phenomenal show. No other series, ever, has presented a funnier, more memorable, or more awkwardly funny look at teen life. Whether you were a freak, a geek, or none of the above in high school, the characters on this show were so well-drawn, so real, that you could always, somehow, relate to them as they navigated through a perilous teenage wasteland. Freaks and Geeks lasted only one season, which is a shame, but the upside is that we never had to watch these characters graduate or grow up. Preserved in amber (or just the best-selling DVD box set), the freaks and the geeks will always be there to remind us that for most of us, no, high school was not the best years of our lives.


3. The Office (UK)

- When I first saw the original, British version of The Office, I was continually surprised, with each new episode, at just how invested I had become in the lives of these sadsack cubicle-dwellers. The Office is absolutely hilarious - one of the funniest and most quotable shows ever - but it's also a surprisingly epic journey. The Office plays quite the trick on us - it lulls us into thinking of David Brent as just a goofball, a loser, a jerk. And yet, somehow, we start to root for the guy, along with his office-mates. It's brilliant writing from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and a one-of-a-kind performance from Gervais. The Office was a comedy that dared to be naturalistic, dark, awkward, and authentic. Taken as a standalone work, the British Office is a bonafide comedy masterpiece.



4. Lost

- Lost premiered with one of the most captivating pilot episodes of all-time, and it was clear from Episode 1 that this was no ordinary show. 24 got the ball rolling in terms of movie-like, serialized TV dramas, but Lost ushered in the age of the TV franchise. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it was Lost that cemented the mid-00's as a new golden age of television, because Lost burst onto the scene and declared that the biggest and best, the most cinematic and most innovative storytelling was, in fact, on primetime television. Lost was and is a show for the digital age - it played on-air, online, on DVD and blu-ray. It went viral. It became a multimedia franchise, launching books and websites and merchandise. Finally, Lost was damn good TV - *the* water-cooler show of the decade. It was smart sci-fi, filled with great characters and intriguing concepts. It kept us guessing, and inspired all manner of speculation about its endlessly trippy storylines. The final season of Lost awaits in January, but its place in TV history is already cemented.



5. Malcolm in the Middle

- Perhaps one of the great, underrated shows of the last ten years, Malcolm paved the way for quirky, single-camera sitcoms like Arrested Development and Modern Family. It was also just a great, brilliantly-written, and oftentimes hilarious show. FOX's ever-rotating primetime schedule in the early part of the decade often hurt Malcolm's visibility, and eventually its ratings. But as its profile dimmed, it was all-too-easy to forget just how critically-acclaimed and revolutionary Malcolm was when it debuted in 2000. And it was easy to overlook the fact that, as the years went by, the show's quality never really dipped. It was a remarkably consistent show, really, really funny year in and year out. The show's humor could be random, surreal, and sometimes over-the-top, but the relationships between the core family members were some of the most honest and realistic on TV.



6. Futurama

- Futurama debuted in the late 90's at a time when The Simpsons was finally starting to drop in quality, and fans were eager for a show to come along and claim the title of animated comedy king. Futurama quickly displayed the kind of sharp writing, quotable humor, and great characters that made The Simpsons a classic, and it wasn't long before it surpassed its predecessor, becoming *the* must-watch gem of FOX's fabled Sunday night lineup. It's funny though, FOX's inept scheduling basically killed Futurama, so the show didn't really get the love it deserved until after its cancellation, when it became one of the first shows to find a huge audience on DVD. In fact, the show became such a huge home-video hit that there were constant rumors of a revival, which eventually resulted in a series of new direct-to-DVD films and still-ongoing talk of new episodes. Regardless of how and when one first saw it though, there's no denying that Futurama's mix of humor, heart, sci-fi satire, and kickass animation made it an all-time classic series.



7. Curb Your Enthusiasm

- Seinfeld was at or near the top of the heap in terms of TV comedies of the 90's - no question. And Curb Your Enthusiasm, as Seinfeld's older, more curmudgeonly, R-rated, just-as-neurotic cousin from LA, now stands as one of the very best comedies of the 00's. Larry David, simply by projecting his unique brand of observational Jewish humor onto the screen, has crafted a modern comedy classic - a show that still stands as one of the flat-out funniest and most talked-about on TV. Like Seinfeld, Curb is endlessly rewatchable, and the joy in watching it comes mostly from the little moments that make the show so hilarious. The interactions between Larry and his motley crew of just-barely-friends-and-family. Larry's constant stubborness, and the constant battles he picks over his many grievances, small and large, with social convention and the universe at large. Larry vocalizes the everyday anger and frustration we all feel towards the seeming ineptitude of our fellow man, and for that, we love him.



8. Arrested Development

- Arrested Development stands as one of the funniest TV shows ever made. For me, it was probably the show that once and for all killed the viability of the traditional sitcom. Because after watching a show as layered, smart, and self-referential as AD, there was no going back to canned laugh tracks and stale one-liners. AD was simply brilliant comedy, not because it addressed any great issues or tackled any pressing politics, but because it was simply great at bringing the funny. The characters were awesome. The cast was top-notch, with spot-on comedic timing. The writing was sharp and the jokes payed off. Few shows have been so packed with so many hilarious moments. I mean, come on!



9. The Office (US)

- I've talked about this on more than one occasion, but it still amazes me how the American version of The Office transformed itself from a pale imitation of the original into one of the great comedies of this decade. Somehow, everything began to click, and the ultra-talented ensemble of actors created characters that were uniquely hilarious, and some of TV's most fun to follow week in and week out. I see The Office as a show that's constantly had to fight to maintain its creative vision. You can practically see the network execs cringing whenever the show gets too dark or too awkward. And yet, The Office has managed to pull back whenever things threaten to get too schmaltzy. At the same time, I love that the more realistic storylines are balanced out by the sheer insanity of characters like Dwight. It's a potent combo, and the formula has made the show the most consistently funny network series of the last few years.



10. Veronica Mars

- One of the most unique shows of the decade, Veronica Mars combined high school drama with film-noir mystery to make for a smart, sophisticated, and ultra-stylish series. With a talented cast, featuring a star-making turn from Kristen Bell as the titular lead, VM was a show that couldn't be pigeonholed, but that usually won over anyone brave enough to give it a try. There was just so much about the show to like - the fact that it had a smart, cool, and badass female lead, the complex mysteries that kept you guessing throughout the season, the film-noir aesthetics, and yeah, even the impossibly catchy theme song. Veronica Mars is one of those shows that almost makes you sad about the state of TV. It was lucky to premiere at a time when all the networks were taking chances on out-of-the-box, high-concept dramas. Only a few years later, so much of that quality TV has been wiped away in favor of cheaper and more disposable crap. So here's to Veronica Mars, a cult-classic that was one of the true gems of TV's 00's heyday.



THE NEXT BEST:



11. King of the Hill

- Never flashy, never the center of attention, KOTH was simply a consistently entertaining, often unexpectedly heart-filled series that was also one of TV's longest-running. The show premiered at the end of the 90's, but it was also the rare show that kept getting better as the years went on, arguably reaching its creative peak several years into its run. It was a sad day indeed earlier this year when Hank Hill and company said their final "yep's" and rode off into the animated sunset.



12. Gilmore Girls

- I became a fan of GG a couple of years into its acclaimed run, and it was a show that really surprised me. I didn't think I'd ever grow to love Gilmore Girls - the very idea seemed ridiculous. And yet, it turned out there was room for both Jack Bauer and Lorelai and Rory Gilmore in my TV viewing. The fact is, Gilmore Girls is one of the best-written shows ever, with bouncy and vibrant dialogue that is just plain fun to follow. It was also, very often, a hilarious show, with a huge cast of quirky characters that fleshed out the world of Stars Hollow. Not only that, it was smart, sometimes emotional, and told one of TV's best coming-of-age stories.



13. 30 Rock

- Another season or two of awesomeness, and 30 Rock could end up higher on this list. As it stands, 30 Rock started as a show that nobody thought would last, and ended up as one of the funniest and most critically-acclaimed comedies of the decade. At its best, 30 Rock has the same kind of clever, outlandish, and satirical humor of The Simpsons in its prime. You can talk about the great performances from Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, and the rest, but really, 30 Rock works because it isn't afraid to be random, weird, and just plain insane.



14. Flight of the Conchords

- This was a show that I discovered on DVD and which, almost instantly, became one of my favorites. The awkward interactions and random conversations between band members Brett and Jermaine, and their manager, Murray, absolutely cracks me up. If the show was just a standard comedy featuring these characters, it'd still be on the short list. But FOTC combines its unique brand of humor with original musical numbers that are themselves memorably hilarious. The Conchords rock, plain and simple.



15. Prison Break

- Okay, here's where the hipsters reading this post snub their noses at me and declare "worst list ever." (if they haven't already). To them I say: grow a pair. If you like your TV action-packed and gloriously pulpy, then Prison Break rocked your world in the 00's. What started as a sort of companion piece to 24 quickly blossomed into a great show in its own right, with some of the coolest heroes and most vile villains on TV. When it was firing on all cylinders, PB and the weekly adventures of Michael Scofield were downright intense, and the lineup of great character actors who contributed to the show's iconic rogues gallery made the adventure that much more compelling and fun.



16. Da Ali G Show

- Ali G, Borat, and Bruno absolutely blew me away when I first discovered them. Shocking, hilarious, and downright wrong are some of the words that come to mind. Yeah, Da Ali G Show was a comedic revelation, and a revolution in shock-tactic TV that went on to explode onto movie screens and into pop culture. But Da Ali G Show is where it all began, and from day one it was obvious that Sacha Baron Cohen was a twisted and brilliant comedic mind who was doing a whole new kind of TV that mixed reality and scripted comedy to achieve hilarious results. Cohen's early work with Borat and co. remains some of his funniest and most provocative material of his career.



17. Eastbound & Down

- If anything, we've seen a tidal wave of fresh comedic voices in the 00's, and some of the best new talent to come along has been the creative and very funny minds behind Eastbound & Down - a dark, twisted, and absolutely hilarious show that aired this past year on HBO. Jody Hill and Ben Best, the creative team behind The Foot Fist Way and Observe and Report wrote the entirety of the series, and the show shares the same offbeat sensibilities as those films. Like The Office, it's an awkwardly funny, yet dark and surprisingly epic story - about a washed-up, disgraced baseball player who has deluded himself into thinking that he's going to get one more run in the majors. Danny McBride, a frequent collaborator of Hill and Best, is awesome in the lead role as Kenny Powers. So far, only several episodes of this series have been produced, but to its credit, I already consider it one of the funniest shows ever aired.


18. Extras

- It was inevitably going to be hard for Ricky Gervais' second act in television to live up to his brilliant debut with The Office, but Gervais nearly pulls it off with Extras. Extras is a great show in its own right, but it's also a fitting companion piece to The Office - there is that same sensibility at play in which awkward humor combines with real pathos and great characters to create comedy that also has moments of real dramatic weight. Extras is also notable for its string of high profile guest stars, including many serious actors - from Ian McKellan to Patrick Stewart - who gamely mocked themselves and created many memorably funny moments in the process. Extras wasn't quite the home-run that The Office was, but it's right up there with the best shows of the last several years, and it cemented Ricky Gervais as one of the biggest breakout talents of the decade.


19. Pushing Daisies

- Pushing Daisies was another one of those shows that you almost knew from the get-go - it was too good for TV. Maybe not earlier in the decade, but PD debuted during the Writer's Strike-shortened season in which a number of shows got cut short and lost large chunks of their audience in the process. The series never really recovered in the ratings, and it ended up as a costly and low-rated show at a time when TV was becoming more and more about creating content on the cheap. But man, PD was such a vibrant, well-written, well-acted show that was virtually overflowing with imagination. The story of a young piemaker who with a touch could bring the dead back to life was a joy to watch week in and week out. The facts are these: Pushing Daisies was among the most unique and entertaining shows of the decade.


20. Andy Richter Controls The Universe

- Yet another series foiled by FOX's terrible scheduling and promotion, Andy Richter was nonetheless a great comedy that was the precursor of sorts to out-of-the-box sitcoms like Arrested Development. The show combined an authentic-feeling look at an imaginative guy trapped in a boring workplace with a wacky sense of humor that manifested itself via Andy's oddball daydreams. Andy Richter himself got the short end of the stick many times throughout the 00's, with a string of TV vehicles that were either awful (Quintuplets) or poorly promoted (Andy Barker, P.I.). But ARCTU is Richter's best-ever TV work, and it embodies the sense of earnest yet madcap humor that he and Conan O'Brien are known for. When a DVD of the series was *finally* released this past year, it solidified the show's legacy as a true cult-classic comedy of the 00's.


21. Undeclared

- Hot off the heels of Freaks and Geeks, Judd Apatow went on to create Undeclared, an extension of many of F&G's themes and sensibilities, except transplanted from high school to college dorms. The show was more of a traditional sitcom than Freaks, but it was really funny and witty in its own right. In fact, I got a particular kick out of the show as it aired while I was a sophomore in college, so many of the characters' issues felt pretty familiar to my friends and I. Undeclared is another testament to Apatow's ability to capture the humor in everyman characters - his protagonists feel real because they are everyday geeks, not glamorized Hollywood types. Unfortunately, Undeclared is also another example (ugh!) of the inability of FOX to properly program or promote any of its great comedies throughout most of the 00's. Like Freaks and Geeks, this was another Apatow show that ended too soon.


22. The OC

- Here's another pick that some may question, but think back to when this show first debuted, and consider just how huge it was at the time. The OC was *the* buzzed-about show during its first season, and that was no fluke. The show was simply a great prime time soap, with classic characters and numerous twists that kept you glued to the TV set. I also think that The OC was a game changer, in that it acknowledged some of its goofiness with a self-referential sense of humor that went hand-in-hand with all the melodrama. Thanks to the show's talented creator, Josh Schwartz (who went on to do Chuck and Gossip Girl), The OC could have real heart, but it also knew when not to take itself too seriously. And personally, I love the fact that The OC created Seth Cohen - a character who basically broke the mold for teen soaps. He was an awkward, funny, and unabashadly geeky nice Jewish boy who was also inexplicably kind of cool. Geeky Jewish guys everywhere are forever in this show's debt.


23. Stella

- The State stands as one of the funniest TV shows ever made, and it was always going to be hard for its alumni to live up to the legacy of the now-legendary sketch comedy series. However, in the years since The State ended, Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black, and David Wain have had a pretty successful run as Stella - an all-Jewish trio of absurdist comedians who gained their own cult following for their uniquely hilarious live shows. Stella's oddball humor came to TV with a short-lived but pretty awesome Comedy Central series that contained some of the weirdest and most random humor I've ever seen. It was unique to say the least, but man, nobody does this kind of stuff like Michael, Michael, and David. In the 00's, there was a lot of great comedy that was ultimately reality-based. But when it comes to pure, off-the-wall zaniness, Stella is king.


24. Chuck

- I remember reading the pilot script for Chuck a couple of years ago, and thinking to myself: "finally!". Here was a show that didn't conform to any of the standard genre trappings of your typical TV show. It felt fresh, it felt new, it felt like something actually written by and for people from my generation. I immediately loved Chuck's unique sensibilities - its mix of action and humor and serialized drama. But it took a while for me to really love Chuck. Somewhere in its second season though, Chuck went from being a pretty good, enjoyable show to a must-watch series that was downright kickass. The show had heart, it had soul, it had humor, it had geeky-cool references a-plenty. There's a good reason why people love Chuck, and it's a great example of a new-generation show that is converting fans well outside the usual demos. Throw out your Nielsen ratings when it comes to Chuck. This is a show that is watched online, on game consoles, on iPods, in college dorms and in cubicles via Hulu. Why? Because Chuck is one of the few shows that reaches out and grabs the younger generation, the ones who've given up on TV in favor of videogames and Facebook. To that I say: awesome.


25. Fringe

- Something strange happened to me last year. I realized that it wasn't 24 or Lost that I was rabidly anticipating every week. Sure, I was still into those shows, but for a period of several weeks, the one show that kicked my ass on a consistent basis was Fringe. JJ Abram's post-Lost TV series, Fringe only mildly impressed me at first. It felt like X-Files lite, and that is a stigma that the show has continued to struggle with to some extent. And yet ... during the latter half of Season 1, Fringe went nuts. It morphed into a freakazoid sci-fi serial about invading armies from alternate dimensions, and, zap-bang, I was hooked. The absorbing plotlines combined with increasingly stellar acting (John Noble in particular is amazing as the mentally-unstable Dr. Walter Bishop) made for can't-miss TV. If Fringe can recapture some of that same Season 1 magic in 2010, it stands to build on its already-impressive legacy.

OTHER FAVORITES:

- The Mighty Boosh
- Aliens In America
- Swingtown
- Gossip Girl
- Jack & Bobby

GREAT TALK SHOWS:

- Late Night With Conan O'Brien
- The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
- The Colbert Report
- Inside the NBA


SPECIAL MENTIONS:

a.) The X-Files

- The X-Files will forever be associated with great TV of the 90's, but I would argue that the show continued to be one of the best series on TV into the 00's. Season 7 had some classic episodes, even if there was an overabundance of cheesiness and self-referential humor by this point in the show's run. That said, Season 8 of the X-Files got darker and more serious, and was often flat-out great. Robert Patrick emerged as a great new character in the X-Files universe, and Mulder's extended absence paved the way for David Duchovny's dramatic return towards the end of the season, leading to some classic episodes pairing Doggett and Mulder. I absolutely love the Season 8 finale - it would have made for an incredible series-ender, and is an all-time classic episode in my book. The show ended up continuing into a ninth season, however, one which was a pretty mixed bag. Despite that, it's hard to deny that for the early part of the 00's, The X-Files was still some of the most intense, imaginative, and captivating drama on television.

b.) Smallville

- Smallville is a tough one. As a whole, it's had more downs than ups, and it's sometimes been a tough task to remain a faithful viewer through the good times and the bad. Still, some of my favorite TV moments of the 00's happened on Smallville, and there have been times when the show has come close to achieving greatness. I want to acknowledge that, but I also can't muster as much enthusiasm for the show as I'd like to. Given all the crappy plotlines and unending cliches we've had to wade through to get to the good stuff, Smallville is lucky to have one of the all-time classic superhero stories on which to fall back and draw inspiration from.

c.) Justice League Unlimited

- It was tough to figure out where this one would fit in on the list, so given that it was an animated, non-primetime series, I'll give it a special mention instead. The fact is though that JLU was the culmination of one of the greatest animated adaptations in TV history - that being Paul Dini and Bruce Timm's animated DC Universe, a world that began with Batman: The Animated Series in the 90's, and continued on in numerous incarnations into the 00's. JLU told epic animated superhero stories that had a real adult edge to them. There were a number of great episodes in the series run, and some episodes that beautifully wrapped up storylines and continuity that had been building since Batman debuted more than a decade earlier. With top-notch voice talents like Kevin Conroy contributing to the series, JLU was top-quality work all the way - classic superhero storytelling done right.


THE UP-AND-COMERS:

- There are a couple of series that could very well have made the list if given more time to blossom and grow. The obvious one to mention here is MODERN FAMILY. If it continues to improve and bring the laughs, MF has a chance to be one of the greats. Another candidate is GLEE. The show has been a rollercoaster ride so far, but there is so much raw energy to the show, and it's so unique, that it too has a chance at greatness. The final new show I'll mention is PARKS & RECREATION. The show faltered in its first season, but has made a miraculous recovery in Season 2, now approaching the level of quality of mainstays like The Office and 30 Rock. We'll see if Parks can really advance to that next level of comedy cannon.


And there you have it, my best of the 00's list for television. Stay tuned for the next installment in the BEST OF THE DECADE series, coming soon.