The 25 best TV shows of the 2010s

In just two seasons, Donald Glover’s “Atlanta” has managed to be poignant, breathtaking, thrilling, surreal, honest, terrifying and ultimately, actually funny. That last part is especially important in an era of half-hour prestige comedies that more often than not forget to be comedies. In all of “Atlanta’s” depiction of struggling and grinding to go out from the bottom, it never loses sight of the fact that it has to be funny.

With two stellar seasons under its belt so far — “The People v. O.J. Simpson” and “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” — “American Crime Story” seemingly never should’ve been as good as it is. After all, it’s executive produced by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, and the title initially evokes thoughts of the quite messy “American Horror Story.” But unlike most Murphy (and Falchuk) joints, “American Crime Story” is just stellar, completely throughout, even if you’re not a fan of true crime.

“The Americans” is another one of those critically acclaimed shows that somehow missed out on all the awards recognition it (especially Keri Russell) so rightfully deserved. Luckily, awards don’t dictate a series' legacy. The Cold War era spy series was beloved by critics, with Vox’s Emily VanDerWerff calling the final season “one of the best...ever made.”

While "Breaking Bad” can’t be eligible here, its spinoff prequel can. When “Better Call Saul” was first announced, it was the type of thing where it didn’t quite make sense how it would work. Would it be a flat-out comedy spinoff of “Breaking Bad”? Wouldn’t that kind of be a slap in the face? Instead, it ended up being neither of those things and has maintained complete critical acclaim in its own right.

At this point, Netflix’s “Black Mirror” has somewhat become a parody of itself, but one can’t deny the sheer amount of brilliant episodes the series has created, which outweigh the series’ worst. While the joke has been that “Black Mirror” is all about depressing viewers and shaming them for using technology , there’s really a “Black Mirror” episode for every occasion, emotion and mood, from “San Junipero” to “White Bear” to “White Christmas” to the now prescient “The Waldo Moment.”

If you’re not sure what to expect out of the show — which was the exact case when it first started — “BoJack Horseman” is kind of hard to get into in the first half of the first season. It’s not exactly going for laugh out loud jokes — it’s dry — and the rules and tone of its world aren’t all that into focus. But once it clicks, “BoJack Horseman” hits you like a ton of bricks. Comedically, yes — especially if you’re the type of person who actually pays attention to the screen, which the show pays off handsomely — but also very much emotionally, as the series is about trauma, depression, addiction and all those other things you want in a comedy about a famous anthropomorphic horse.

Originally born from the wreckage of the infamous writers strike, the one-time WB.com web series — alongside shows like Josh Schwartz’s little known-but-charming “Rockville, CA” and the forgotten-and-unfortunately-titled-for-Google-purposes “Sorority Fever” from McG — “Childrens Hospital” was 86 episodes of the healing power of laughter. Also the healing power of absolutely no continuity, along with a staggering amount of continuity, Brazil, lady doctor voiceovers, “The State” and “Stella” alums, “Party Down” alums, “What Happens in Vegas” alums, and, of course, “Ballers’” Rob Corddry.

Sure, “Community” had the gas leak season, but other than that? Pretty perfect. There was a density in the comedy madness of “Community” that made it special — along with the cast, of course — which was, for better or worse, the singular vision of one Dan Harmon. Time will tell if “Community” will ever get “and a movie,” but as it stands, the series actually had a pretty perfect ending on the now-defunct Yahoo! Screen, even if it was really difficult to watch it there.

A series with this title shouldn’t have even been half as good as it was, but “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” knew what it was doing every step of the way. You see, it was actually a lot more nuanced than its title — and its constantly underrated network — would suggest. And the songs are still extremely catchy.

One of the best television series of the decade is an anthology based off a Coen brothers movie from 1996. And it’s not even run by the Coen brothers themselves, instead created and run by Noah Hawley, who had previously created “The Unusuals” and then developed “My Generation” for ABC. Since its premiere, “Fargo” has featured stellar performances from a murderers’ row of actors for each season, most notably Kirsten Dunst in Season 2. We’re still waiting for her Emmy for that one.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge created a perfect television show with "Fleabag." It’s, of course, more obvious with Season 2, the season of the "Hot Priest" (Andrew Scott), but as a whole, “Fleabag” is a completely perfect series. May it never be continued or remade.

While the mystery behind the alleged real-life feud between “The Good Wife” stars Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi will probably never be revealed — even though it affected a lot of the show and its legacy — it doesn’t actually undo how good “The Good Wife” was. Like “Mad Men,” “The Good Wife” was a drama that somehow fundamentally understood comedy better than a lot of actual comedies but also knew how to make emotional payoffs just that — moments that paid off. And its spinoff, “The Good Fight,” is currently one of the best shows on television too, in a far less restricted way, due to the power of CBS All Access.

A series that at first seemed like AMC’s attempt at making “‘Mad Men’... but in the ‘80s” — and honestly, maybe that was the truth on AMC’s part — ended up being one of the most staggering stories about friendship and creation in the past decade. And it did so while being set in another decade entirely. "Halt and Catch Fire" was underseen and perhaps critically (particularly come awards season) ignored. But to everyone who paid attention, it was a special show about people who simply wanted to create something special.

NBC was never a good fit for “Hannibal,” yet somehow it was able to last on the Peacock for three seasons. Seriously, NBC seemed to have accidentally aired an arthouse horror series that would’ve been much better suited for cable; even creator and showrunner Bryan Fuller went on the record as saying, of the show, “We are not making television. We are making a pretentious art film from the 80s.” And it was truly beautiful.

In a post-“Friends” world, there have been many hangout sitcoms that have tried to replicate the same chemistry and, let’s face it, ratings success. “Happy Endings” never achieved that success, but the chemistry between its cast remains one of a kind. Also, as far as the ratio of jokes per minute, no sitcom — on network or otherwise, really — has been able to touch “Happy Endings” since it went off the air.

Like “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” “Jane the Virgin” transcended its status as a “CW show” by redefining just what that means and how good that can actually be. Also like “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” a show with the title “Jane the Virgin” really shouldn’t have worked. But like something out of a telenovela, the series never failed to entertain and never failed to make audience laugh or cry. With a stellar ensemble cast led by Gina Rodriguez, “Jane the Virgin” also never lacked in heart, which is a lot harder to get right than you’d think.

There was a sketch comedy renaissance from 2011-2013, with “Portlandia,” “Comedy Bang! Bang!,” “Key & Peele,” “Kroll Show” and “Inside Amy Schumer.” Those last three were all Comedy Central sketch shows, but the one that came first of those three was “Key & Peele,” the sketch show that really brought forth how cinematic weekly sketch comedy could be, in a variety of ways. “Key & Peele” was switching up genres and cinematography with every sketch while also creating multiple viral sketches per episode. The further we get away from “Key & Peele” — and the more Jordan Peele’s career as a director grows — the existence of the show only becomes more and more surreal.

Based on the Tom Perotta novel of the same name and starring Justin Theroux and the incomparable Carrie Coon (also of "Fargo" fame), “The Leftovers” was set in a world where 2 percent of the world’s population disappeared in the “Sudden Departure.” In its first season, “The Leftovers” was mostly considered by critics a good show, albeit depressing. By its third and final season, it was considered one of the greatest shows of all time. Rolling Stone’s Sean T. Collins wrote that “The Leftovers” “started as [a] self-serious show about grief — and ended its third season as one of TV’s greatest 21st-century dramas.” An impressive task for any show but especially a show that “only” had 28 episodes.

When promos for “Mr. Robot” first began, they gave off a specific message for USA Network: characters no longer welcome. “Psych” had ended, and the cable network’s identity was in flux. But no one would’ve predicted its next move to be a series that debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival, and chances are no one could’ve predicted what “Mr. Robot” would’ve become, in general. USA Network still can’t decide if it wants to be a high-brow cable network or if it just wants to be TNT 2.0, but that hasn’t changed “Mr. Robot’s” impact on it.

After "Happy Endings," "New Girl" is the other hangout sitcom that was able to truly function fully in a post-”Friends” world. The common denominator? Damon Wayans Jr.! Well, that’s not the only common denominator. Excellent chemistry among the cast — which was especially integral in early episodes, before the series fine-tuned Jess as a character and Zooey Deschanel as a comedic actress — sharp characterization, great jokes and of course, heart. Of course, the characters on “New Girl” were better people than the characters on “Happy Endings,” but that wasn’t exactly a tall hurdle to clear.

What started off as seemingly "your typical CBS procedural" — complete with a double dose of man pain — slowly but surely revealed itself to be a parable about artificial intelligence and redemption. And it did so while breaking the whole NSA spying on Americans thing before that actually was revealed. (Also, like “Halt and Catch Fire,” it too realized that the true secret to its success was a focus on its female characters. In this case, in addition to Taraji P. Henson’s Joss Carter, it was in the form of Amy Acker’s Root, introduced at the end of Season 1, and Sarah Shahi’s Shaw, introduced over two-thirds of the way into Season 2.) Creator Jonathan Nolan has gotten plenty of critical acclaim and recognition for “Westworld,” but “Westworld” is also the result of having a cable network allow its writers to execute their singular creative vision from the get-go. “Person of Interest” was Nolan essentially pulling a bait and switch with CBS, and while the network and its intended viewership may have not appreciated that, the television world was much better for it.

Quiet — both comfortably and uncomfortably so — and reflective, “Rectify” told the story of Daniel Holden (Aden Young), a man who was imprisoned as a teenager for the murder of his girlfriend, only to be released from death row 19 years later as a result of DNA evidence. The series followed Daniel as he readjusted to the new status quo of life in his hometown, with his family, and after all that he experienced in prison. As Matt Zoller Seitz wrote at the end of 2016, “There has never been a TV drama like Rectify ...  and there may never be another.”

First of all, “Southland” is an exception to the 2009 rule — as it premiered midseason on NBC in 2009 — because it was actually canceled after its first season (after being renewed for a second and even scheduled to premiere) and then it was picked up by TNT for its four subsequent seasons, where it was allowed to be the show it was always meant to be (albeit for a much lower budget): a show not on network TV. (Sorry, NBC. You have a lot of other wins on this list.) In all the talk of how great Regina King is — and it is rightly deserved, as "The Leftovers" and pretty much everything else has also proved — “Southland” tends to get lost in the shuffle  despite the fact that it gave us phenomenal performances from not just her but also from Michael Cudlitz and Lucy Liu, just before ”Elementary.”

“Steven Universe” is basically on the opposite end of the spectrum as “BoJack Horseman,” but that doesn’t make it any less special. Both tackle the hardest parts of humanity, but “Steven Universe” was always about the light: inner light, the light at the end of the tunnel, the general antithesis of darkness while still also tackling serious issues of loss and grief and trauma. Of course, it’s a “kids” show where “BoJack Horseman” is definitely one for adults; but “Steven Universe” proves that just because a show is originally made for a specific demographic, that doesn’t mean it has to lower itself.

Like "30 Rock," it became clearer with time that "Veep" was basically a comedic documentary about the world it was poking fun at. But that didn't make all of the profane and vulgar insults fall flat nor did Julia Louis-Dreyfuss' performance as Selina Meyer fall flat. WIthout "Veep," there would be no Richard Splett. Think about that.