The best shows of the 2000s

Off the top of my head, here's my list in alphabetical order:

Arrested Development
Battlestar Galactica
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Gilmore Girls
Lost
The Office
30 Rock
Veronica Mars

 

Finally someone says it.

 

Yo Gabba Gabba
Pancake Mountain

 

I'd be interested to see what non-fiction shows people would consider the best of this decade, because there are a few great ones out there, although not as many as the original drama/comedy that have already been mentioned.

My nominations would be:

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (Travel)
Top Gear (BBC America)
High Stakes Poker (GSN)

All three of these are cannot miss for me.

 

Rescue Me was mentioned in the first five posts.

 

Seriously. A show that has been on for the entire decade and is about to enter its 12th or 13th (!) season is eligible for this discussion.
Maybe that's why no one has mentioned Law & Order yet. Yeah, the show was better in the mid- to late-90s. But the way it's always reinvented itself with casting changes (especially the latest one) is nothing short of remarkable. The slew of spin-offs also inspired a trend this decade (see CSI and NCIS). Maybe it wasn't THE best show, but aspects of it need to be in the discussion.

 

I wouldn't call them the "best shows" but I think "Survivorman" and "Man vs. Wild" deserve some props.

 

I found Morgan Spurlock's "30 Days" to be pretty interesting. Some shows were better than others, but he did a good job of being pretty fair to both sides. The episode of Spurlock coal mining was especially good.

 

I still haven't watched The Wire, The Sheild and I just started Mad Men, so those are out.

1) The Sopranos
2) Lost
3) Gilmore Girls -- the biggest crime in Emmy history is that Lauren Graham was never nominated
4) Arrested Development
5) The West Wing
6) Curb
7) The Office

 

I am pleaseantly surprised to see the love for How I Met Your Mother. Sure, it is too silly sometimes, but it is easily my favorite sitcom in a long time.

The West Wing tops my list overall, with Battlestar Galactica second (the ending still kinda bugs me). Not much else is close to those two for me.

 

Agreed. Replace Buff with "Rescue Me" and we've got a consensus.

 

I think that can be chalked up in large part thanks to the explosion of cable's presence in the last 10 years. There are more channels than ever, and cable in general (and especially the bigger channels like USA, FX, TNT and TBS) is a much more viable place to launch new series. The result is more new stuff, and while you're still going to have a ton of clunkers, by sheer volume alone you improve the odds for more good shows breaking out.