50 TV shows of the 2000s
My personal choices of my favorite TV shows of the 2000s that began in 2000 (Futurama started in 1999 but restarted in 2010). Talk shows and reality shows are ineligible but I don't watch that many of the latter. The Colbert Report is included because he plays a character. Also, of note: My name isn't really Scott.
This is pulled from much of my TV writing, especially year-end Top 10 lists:
http://sophomorecritic.blogspot.com/2012/04/super-belated-top-10-tv-shows-of-2011.html
http://sophomorecritic.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-ten-shows-of-year.html
http://www.sophomorecritic.blogspot.com/2012/12/top-10-of-year-in-tv.html
http://sophomorecritic.blogspot.com/2009/12/top-ten-tv-shows-of-year.html
and I've attached a few links below where I've written extensively about the show if anyone's curious
This is pulled from much of my TV writing, especially year-end Top 10 lists:
http://sophomorecritic.blogspot.com/2012/04/super-belated-top-10-tv-shows-of-2011.html
http://sophomorecritic.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-ten-shows-of-year.html
http://www.sophomorecritic.blogspot.com/2012/12/top-10-of-year-in-tv.html
http://sophomorecritic.blogspot.com/2009/12/top-ten-tv-shows-of-year.html
and I've attached a few links below where I've written extensively about the show if anyone's curious
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- CreatorDavid E. KelleyStarsLoretta DevineAnthony HealdFyvush FinkelThe lives of 10 faculty members at a high school in Boston weave in and out of dealing with trouble-makers, having a personal life, and keeping sanity.One of my first TV obsessions, it was set at a high school drama where literally everything that has gone wrong in the history of public schools occurs every week or two. The show is quintessential David Kelly and is one of the few (perhaps only?) TV shows to give the procedural approach to school administration.
Also of note: The protagonist shares a name with the Canadian prime minister - CreatorBryan FullerStarsLee PaceAnna FrielChi McBrideA pastry chef with the power to bring dead people back to life solves murder mysteries with his resurrected childhood sweetheart, a cynical private investigator, and a lovesick waitress.Wonderfully whimsy with a great visual tone and a solid enough backstory for this world to make for great episode-to-episode mysteries. It also is great how the show has so many odd couples. Kristin Chenoweth deserved an Emmy as the stand-out of the ensemble.
- CreatorsChuck LorreBill PradyStarsJohnny GaleckiJim ParsonsKaley CuocoAspiring film actress Penny moves into a Pasadena apartment across the hall from brilliant, but socially awkward, physicists Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter and shows them how little they know about life outside of the lab.An unlikely comedy (how many TV studios would greenlight the fun hijinx of nuclear scientists?) with the modern-day charm of a cross-class romance (nerds and beauties being the two classes) and a couple initially unworkable characters (Howard and Raj) who've gotten better.
- CreatorsDavid GuarascioMoses PortStarsDan ByrdAdhir KalyanAmy PietzA young Muslim student from Pakistan is sent to live with a Christian family in Wisconsin as part of a foreign exchange program.Ranking high on the brilliant but cancelled list, Aliens in America was great cross-cultural hillarity, deadpan snark, and Midwestern sweetness
- CreatorsGreg DanielsRicky GervaisStephen MerchantStarsSteve CarellJenna FischerJohn KrasinskiA mockumentary on a group of typical office workers, where the workday consists of ego clashes, inappropriate behavior, tedium and romance.Through high times and low, The Office was pretty much the core of my viewing experiences and shaped how I viewed the medium entirely.
I wrote more about it here in a more personal essay:
http://www.sophomorecritic.blogspot.com/2013/05/good-bye-to-office-but-not-yet.html - CreatorsRicky GervaisStephen MerchantStarsRicky GervaisAshley JensenStephen MerchantAndy Millman is an actor with ambition and a script. Reduced to working as an extra with a useless agent, Andy's attempts to boost his career invariably end in failure and embarrassment.The British Office kickstarted nine seasons the American Office and was unique in changing the way we perceived TV but Extras is the one I remember more fondly today. Throughout two seasons, Andy Millman struggled with life on both sides of the fame equation. He was desperately lacking in it as an extra the first season and once he had it, found an even new set of troubles. A great satire on our need to be famous (as a substitute for achievement) and the ins-and-outs of that struggle.
- CreatorsJohn EnbomDan EtheridgePaul RuddStarsAdam ScottKen MarinoRyan HansenA group of actors move to Los Angeles to make it big, but end up working as caterers.Party Down centers around a ragtag band of dreamers in Los Angeles working on a catering team together to pay the bills but hoping for bigger things. The characters' varying degrees of disconnect from reality is contrasted with the very close proximity these people are to the people who nonchalantly live their lives. The show also manages to be edgy in bringing characters to the screen who aren't in love with their lives without being unnecessarily crude or depressing (a sin I find Weeds and Entourage guilty of).
- CreatorsBill LawrencePhil LordChristopher MillerStarsWill FortePhil LordMichael McDonaldA high school is populated by the clones of well-known historical figures.Short-lived but ridiculously clever cartoon for history buffs who felt that Gandhi, Cleopatra, Abe Lincoln, JFK, Joan of Arc and Ponce de Leon (in a very special episode) weren't hilarious enough. Great running gags and multi-layered jokes
- CreatorFelicia DayStarsFelicia DaySandeep ParikhJeff LewisThe lives inside and outside video games of the members of online guild the Knights of Good.An unabashed celebration of nerd culture and the banding together of six highly diverse misfits who initially never meant anything to each other beyond anonymous screen names to go on gaming quests with. Each season has succeeded in raising the stakes for the characters and developing them further. Felicia Day can play the violin, work a crowd at comic con, act, and is a talented writer as well. America's next great hyphenate in the making.
- CreatorTony BasgallopStarsDexter FletcherMartin MarquezMichael ObioraAt a posh urban hotel, the love lives and whims of its wealthy guests are attended to by hard-working staff who have their own troubles with love.Set at a four-star hotel in London, the show combines an enticing glimpse of the luxuries of the high life in the UK with an engaging look into the struggles of people in the service industry.
- CreatorPaul T. ScheuringStarsDominic PurcellWentworth MillerAmaury NolascoA structural engineer installs himself in a prison he helped design, in order to save his falsely accused brother from a death sentence by breaking themselves out from the inside.From around the age of Lost where serialized TV was just finding its footing, Prison Break was super-hooky, featured a cast with great chemistry, and was one of the first shows that dared you to think a couple steps ahead
- CreatorGregory Thomas GarciaStarsJason LeeEthan SupleeJaime PresslyA ne'er do well wins $100,000 in the lottery and decides to right all the wrongs from his past with his newfound realization!A sweet and inspiring show with memorable backwoods characters who are often smarter than they seem (although it can be hard to defend Randy at times). Greg Garcia, the creator, and show-runner, went to my high school, which might imply that I came from a place with backwoods characters rather than the Washington D.C. suburbs.
- CreatorsMike BarkerSeth MacFarlaneMatt WeitzmanStarsSeth MacFarlaneWendy SchaalScott GrimesThe escapades of Stan Smith, a conservative C.I.A. Agent dealing with family life, while keeping America safe.An under discussed animated entity, American Dad deserves mention for being consistently funny and inventive. Roger, that lovable extraterrestrial duex-es-machina, continues to lead the show in interesting directions signifying just how well the writer’s room has resisted the temptations to overextend his limitless personality. Unlike sister show, Family Guy, American Dad has distinctive characters which exist as more than just an excuse to get from point A to point B in the plot.
- CreatorScott SilveriStarsMatthew PerryLaura BenantiJulie WhitePressured by his boss to join a support group because he can't move forward after his wife's death, an irreverent sportscaster finds connection with the extremely varied members.Go On was also based on a disparate group of characters toughing out a big life challenge together (whether being relegated to community college or coping with loss) but it had a stronger emotional baseline. The ensemble was filled with a few characters that started out a bit over-the-top but the show made great strides at developing everyone to the point where the quirky ensemble interplay really drove the humor while the bittersweet plots were effectively emotional.
- CreatorMitchell HurwitzStarsJason BatemanMichael CeraPortia de RossiLevel-headed son Michael Bluth takes over family affairs after his father is imprisoned. But the rest of his spoiled, dysfunctional family are making his job unbearable.What can I say that hasn't already been said. Nearly every great thing written about this show is 100% true.
- CreatorTim KringStarsJack ColemanHayden PanettiereMilo VentimigliaCommon people discover that they have super powers. Their lives intertwine as a devastating event must be prevented.Disclaimer: I've only watched it to the beginning of season 3
I've rarely seen something so nerdy enter the mainstream as when Heroes was the show everyone was watching in 2007. Borrowing heavily from comic book conventions, Heroes was a grounded take on the superhero genre with a mix of playfully excitable, angtsy, and intense super hero characters bringing a nice level of diversity to a show that also doubles as an ensemble drama. - CreatorVictor FrescoStarsJay HarringtonPortia de RossiAndrea AndersIn an amoral science-based company, a manager tries to keep control of his scientists while being pressured by his shrewd boss.Issues with Jay Harrington as a lead, but not even a piece of cardboard in the lead could take away from the sharp writing and strong supporting cast. It's satire taken to levels of absurdity.
- CreatorsAndrew LenchewskiJohn P. RogersStarsMark FeuersteinPaulo CostanzoReshma ShettyAn unfairly discredited but brilliant ER doctor winds up working with his younger brother in the Hamptons as a concierge doctor to the uber-rich and ultra-elite.Episodic/procedural TV that really sticks out with a strong protagonist who could probably solve America's health care crisis if given the chance.
- CreatorAndy BreckmanStarsTony ShalhoubJason Gray-StanfordTed LevineAdrian Monk is a brilliant former San Francisco detective, who now consults the police as a private consultant while battling with an obsessive-compulsive disorder.The first of many lighthearted idiot savant (or some form of brilliant guy hampered by circumstances) procedurals over on USA, the show had great chemistry between Monk and the Sherrif (Ted Levine) and Natalie (Taylor Howard).
- StarsWill ArnettJason BatemanKristin ChenowethAbout the teachers at a slightly poor, non-distinguished school and their random day-to-day problems.The show from Mitch Hurwitz started out terribly, but really found its strides in its "second season" (technically, this was just the network burning off the remaining nine episodes of the first season). Whatever problems the show had, it had a great cast that never let the show down and created interesting characters out of the lines that were given to them. The basis of any good comedy is good characters and Sit Down Shut Up had that base so when the plots were clicking (as what happened more often in the season's second half) the show really came on fire. I also loved how unapologetic the show was about never involving the students into the picture.
- CreatorsRodrigo GarcíaHagai LeviNir BergmanStarsGabriel ByrneUzo AdubaDianne WiestA psychotherapist questions his abilities and gets help by reuniting with his old therapist, whom he has not seen for ten years.The cinematically minimalist series stars Gabriel Bryne as a therapist operating out of his apartment with multi-episode arcs as he skillfully peels back the layers of dysfunction of his patients' dysfunction. It's a show that proves that the sheer gravity of good performances (John Mahoney, child actor Aaron Shaw, Dianne Wiest, and Hope Davis) and captivating dialogue is all you need to make a show work.
- CreatorsJoe GaytonTony GaytonStarsAnson MountColm MeaneyRobin McLeavyThe Civil War is past, but former Confederate soldier Cullen Bohannon can't put it behind him. Fresh are the memories of the death of his wife, killed at the hands of Union soldiers, an act that sets him on a course of revenge.The show is beautifully shot but doesn’t do the glamor of the West any favors. The railroad camps and the life of backbreaking labor is so hellish that only marked men would go there. The show interestingly contrasts that with two Irish brothers who think they can get a slice of the American dream with their picture show, a preacher who wants to open up a church, a whore with scars from her time as an Indian princess and a newly widowed fair-haired maiden who was told by another character that, not being a whore or Indian, she doesn’t belong out there.
- CreatorsLaura DernMike WhiteStarsLaura DernDiane LaddSarah BurnsA self-destructive woman who has a spiritual awakening becomes determined to live an enlightened life, creating havoc at home and work.A highly engaging show in that it forced you to constantly reevaluate your sense of right and wrong with respect to its characters. Laura Dern is a highly capable lead and Mike White is perfect as the unwilling sidekick. Bonus points for giving Michaela Watkins a TV role.
- CreatorsAlex GansaHoward GordonStarsClaire DanesMandy PatinkinDamian LewisA bipolar CIA operative becomes convinced a prisoner of war has been turned by al-Qaeda and is planning to carry out a terrorist attack on American soil.Generally, dramas made about events that are pervasive in the news aren't things I'd like to watch as escape but Homeland is a rare exception where I'm entirely hooked by a show about something I'm already sick to death of hearing on the news about. The acting by Lewis, Danes, and Patankin is phenomenal, the characters are engaging, and the show keeps suspense going without seeming as though the cliffhangers are cheaply inserted. The show's "hook" is the insider look at CIA interrogations and terrorist watches but it branches into medicine, politics, and even throws in a Douglas Sirkian melodrama for good measure.
- CreatorsElwood ReidBjörn SteinMeredith StiehmStarsDemián BichirDiane KrugerThomas M. WrightTwo detectives work together to take down a serial killer operating on both sides of the Texas-Chihuahua border.A topical serial drama that unfolded perfectly in the first season as we became more intimate with the principle characters. A near-perfect example of serial drama done right.
