Apples to Apples: Ranking 21st-Century TV the Fair Way

One list of 100 is the wrong question

The New York Times ranked the 100 best TV shows of the 21st century in a single list. Survivor sits at 31, three spots below Band of Brothers. The Great British Baking Show lands at 85, a few places from Shogun. That isn’t a ranking of quality. It’s a ranking of apples, oranges, and a reality competition.

Television isn’t one art form. A 22-episode network sitcom season, an 8-episode prestige drama, a 10-hour miniseries and a docuseries all face different constraints. Judging them on one scale rewards whatever the ranker happens to like most, and it hides the real comparisons that matter.

The single list also breaks down on its own terms. Breaking Bad is No. 1, and Better Call Saul is No. 27. You can prefer either one; I prefer Saul. But a 26-spot gap between two feels hard to justify. And The Americans at No. 17? There aren’t three better dramas this century, let alone sixteen.

So here’s my version: same era, separated by kind, scored on a 10-point scale.

The ground rules

• Like competes with like. Dramas, comedies, animated shows, anthologies, limited series and docuseries each get their own ranking.
• Classic sitcoms stand apart. Network-style sitcoms ran 20-plus episodes a year for years. That’s a different job than an 8-episode cable season, so they get their own list.
• A miniseries isn’t a series. A limited series can be exceptional, but it never has to sustain a story, survive cast changes or stick a landing years later. It’s ranked against other limited series.
• Anthologies are one show. Fargo, True Detective and the rest are judged on their whole run, not their best season. You can’t count True Detective’s first season and ignore the rest.
• The whole run counts. A great first season doesn’t carry a weak finish (House of Cards). A short run gets a small ding (Rome), and one-season shows are flagged as early grades.
• No reality or travel shows. Survivor, Drag Race, Bake Off and Bourdain are a different form entirely. They’d need their own list.
• Consistency over taste. Rank Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul first, but they belong next to each other.

Ties are listed together. A few shows straddle categories: The Bear and Shameless compete here as comedies, which is where the Emmys put them, and Orange Is the New Black as a drama.

Drama series

The Americans is the best drama of the century, and Better Call Saul is right behind it. Breaking Bad still makes the top ten, just not the top spot.

Rank	Show	Score	Notes
1	The Americans	10	The benchmark.
2	Better Call Saul	9.9	Better than the show it spun off from.
3	Game of Thrones	9.8
4	Mad Men	9.79
5	The Wire	9.75
6	Succession	9.6
T7	Deadwood	9.5
T7	Rome	9.5	Dinged slightly for a short run.
9	Breaking Bad	9.3
10	Halt and Catch Fire	9.2	Three very good seasons; season 4 is superb.
11	Pluribus	9.1	One season so far.
T12	Billions	9.0
T12	Boardwalk Empire	9.0
T12	Lost	9.0	Excellent for broadcast TV; nits to pick with the last season.
T12	Ozark	9.0
T12	Severance	9.0
T12	The Pitt	9.0	Two excellent seasons.
18	Six Feet Under	8.95
T19	Industry	8.9
T19	The Man in the High Castle	8.9	Beautifully shot; didn’t stick the landing.
21	Mindhunter	8.8
T22	Homeland	8.7	Its best is as good as anything; uneven overall.
T22	Slow Horses	8.7
T22	The Crown	8.7
T22	The Newsroom	8.7
T26	Andor	8.6
T26	Broadchurch	8.6
T26	House of the Dragon	8.6
T29	Furious	8.5	One season so far; Hulu renewed it for a second.
T29	House of Cards	8.5	Season 1 is a 9.5; the later run pulls it down.
T31	Big Love	8.3
T31	The Diplomat	8.3
33	Counterpart	8.2
T34	Downton Abbey	8.0
T34	The Mandalorian	8.0
T34	Narcos	8.0
T37	The Lincoln Lawyer	7.9
T37	The Old Man	7.9
T37	Orange Is the New Black	7.9	Started as a comedy at the Emmys, then moved to drama.
T37	Paradise	7.9
T41	Ray Donovan	7.3
T41	Your Friends and Neighbors	7.3
43	Sons of Anarchy	7.2

 

Comedy series

Veep and Silicon Valley share the top spot, with Curb a hair behind. Fleabag, No. 5 on the Times list, lands mid-pack here.

Rank	Show	Score	Notes
T1	Silicon Valley	9.5
T1	Veep	9.5
3	Curb Your Enthusiasm	9.45
4	You’re the Worst	9.25
5	Hacks	9.1
6	The Bear	9.0	Plays like a drama, competes as a comedy.
7	Barry	8.6
8	Ted Lasso	8.3
9	Shrinking	8.2
10	The Righteous Gemstones	8.1
T11	Fleabag	8.0
T11	Shameless	8.0	Moved from drama to comedy at the Emmys mid-run.
13	The Kominsky Method	7.6
T14	The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel	7.3
T14	Russian Doll	7.3
16	Nurse Jackie	7.25
T17	Eastbound & Down	7.2
T17	Girls	7.2
19	The Chair Company	7.0	One season so far.

Sitcoms and sketch

These shows did a different job: long seasons, year after year, mostly on network TV. Scrubs and The Good Place tie for the top.

Rank	Show	Score	Notes
T1	The Good Place	9.25
T1	Scrubs	9.25
3	Schitt’s Creek	9.0
T4	Arrested Development	8.5
T4	Happy Endings	8.5
T4	The Office (U.S.)	8.5
7	The Office (U.K.)	8.4
T8	30 Rock	8.3
T8	Key & Peele	8.3	Sketch
T8	Parks and Recreation	8.3
11	Chappelle’s Show	8.25	Sketch
12	Community	8.2
13	How I Met Your Mother	8.1

Animated series

BoJack Horseman leads a short list.

Rank	Show	Score
1	BoJack Horseman	9.0
2	Rick & Morty	8.8
3	Big Mouth	7.0

Anthologies

Fargo is the best anthology because it’s the most consistent. Judged on its whole run, True Detective falls to a tie for second; the Times only ranked its first season.

Rank	Show	Score	Notes
1	Fargo	9.0
T2	True Detective	8.75	Season 1 carries it.
T2	The White Lotus	8.75
4	Black Mirror	8.5
5	Big Little Lies	7.9	Built as a limited series, then given a second season.

Limited series

John Adams and Band of Brothers tie at 9.9, as high as anything outside The Americans. That’s the point of a separate list: a miniseries can reach the top without ever having to sustain itself.

Rank	Show	Score	Notes
T1	Band of Brothers	9.9
T1	John Adams	9.9
T3	Chernobyl	8.9
T3	The Pacific	8.9
5	Task	8.75
T6	Adolescence	8.6
T6	Godless	8.6
T6	The Queen’s Gambit	8.6
T9	The Beast in Me	8.5
T9	Mare of Easttown	8.5
11	Dopesick	8.4
12	Death by Lightning	8.3
13	The Night Of	8.1
T14	The Dropout	8.0
T14	The Penguin	8.0
T16	Sharp Objects	7.5
T16	The Undoing	7.5

Docuseries

True crime dominates, and Making a Murderer edges out the others.

Rank	Show	Score
1	Making a Murderer	8.6
2	The Staircase (documentary)	8.5
3	The Jinx	8.4

If you insist on one list: the combined 100

Every ranking starts with taste. I scored each show on how much I love it, and that part is personal: put Breaking Bad over Better Call Saul and I won’t argue. Then the same rules moved every show up or down, so run length and form count the same way for all of them.

The final list drops the scores. Taste sets the starting order, and the rules decide the rank. The Americans still finishes first, and Better Call Saul second. The rules:

• Limited series and docuseries rank as if they scored a quarter point lower. They can be as good as anything, but seven seasons of Mad Men beat one season of John Adams.
• When scores are equal, a show with three or more seasons beats a one- or two-season show.
• After that, drama beats comedy, and then the longer run wins.
• No ties. The three lowest are cut: Big Mouth and The Chair Company at 7.0, and Eastbound & Down at 7.2, which loses its tiebreak to Girls.

Here’s how far the rules moved some shows from where taste alone put them.

Show	By taste alone	Final rank	What moved it
Mad Men	6	4	Moves up as the limited series step back
The Wire	7	5	Moves up as the limited series step back
Band of Brothers	T2	6	Limited series
John Adams	T2	7	Limited series
Rome	T9	12	Two seasons; loses ties to longer runs
Billions	T21	21	Seven seasons win the tie at its score
Severance	T21	29	Two seasons; loses ties to longer runs
Task	T38	54	Limited series
Making a Murderer	T45	59	Docuseries
Mare of Easttown	T53	67	Limited series
Fleabag	T79	82	Two seasons; loses ties to longer runs
The Night Of	T76	88	Limited series

The full list:

Rank	Show	Category
1	The Americans	Drama
2	Better Call Saul	Drama
3	Game of Thrones	Drama
4	Mad Men	Drama
5	The Wire	Drama
6	Band of Brothers	Limited
7	John Adams	Limited
8	Succession	Drama
9	Deadwood	Drama
10	Veep	Comedy
11	Silicon Valley	Comedy
12	Rome	Drama
13	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Comedy
14	Breaking Bad	Drama
15	Scrubs	Sitcom
16	You’re the Worst	Comedy
17	The Good Place	Sitcom
18	Halt and Catch Fire	Drama
19	Hacks	Comedy
20	Pluribus	Drama
21	Billions	Drama
22	Lost	Drama
23	Boardwalk Empire	Drama
24	Fargo	Anthology
25	Ozark	Drama
26	Schitt’s Creek	Sitcom
27	BoJack Horseman	Animated
28	The Bear	Comedy
29	Severance	Drama
30	The Pitt	Drama
31	Six Feet Under	Drama
32	The Man in the High Castle	Drama
33	Industry	Drama
34	Rick & Morty	Animated
35	Mindhunter	Drama
36	True Detective	Anthology
37	The White Lotus	Anthology
38	Homeland	Drama
39	The Crown	Drama
40	Slow Horses	Drama
41	The Newsroom	Drama
42	The Pacific	Limited
43	Chernobyl	Limited
44	House of the Dragon	Drama
45	Broadchurch	Drama
46	Barry	Comedy
47	Andor	Drama
48	Black Mirror	Anthology
49	House of Cards	Drama
50	The Office (U.S.)	Sitcom
51	Arrested Development	Sitcom
52	Happy Endings	Sitcom
53	Furious	Drama
54	Task	Limited
55	The Office (U.K.)	Sitcom
56	The Queen’s Gambit	Limited
57	Godless	Limited
58	Adolescence	Limited
59	Making a Murderer	Docuseries
60	Big Love	Drama
61	The Diplomat	Drama
62	30 Rock	Sitcom
63	Parks and Recreation	Sitcom
64	Key & Peele	Sketch
65	Ted Lasso	Comedy
66	Chappelle’s Show	Sketch
67	Mare of Easttown	Limited
68	The Beast in Me	Limited
69	The Staircase	Docuseries
70	Community	Sitcom
71	Shrinking	Comedy
72	Counterpart	Drama
73	Dopesick	Limited
74	The Jinx	Docuseries
75	How I Met Your Mother	Sitcom
76	The Righteous Gemstones	Comedy
77	Death by Lightning	Limited
78	Downton Abbey	Drama
79	Narcos	Drama
80	The Mandalorian	Drama
81	Shameless	Comedy
82	Fleabag	Comedy
83	Orange Is the New Black	Drama
84	The Lincoln Lawyer	Drama
85	Paradise	Drama
86	The Old Man	Drama
87	Big Little Lies	Anthology
88	The Night Of	Limited
89	The Dropout	Limited
90	The Penguin	Limited
91	The Kominsky Method	Comedy
92	Ray Donovan	Drama
93	The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel	Comedy
94	Your Friends and Neighbors	Drama
95	Russian Doll	Comedy
96	Nurse Jackie	Comedy
97	Sharp Objects	Limited
98	The Undoing	Limited
99	Sons of Anarchy	Drama
100	Girls	Comedy

What the categories reveal

Split by kind, the rankings make more sense. Veep at 9.5 doesn’t have to beat The Wire, and Band of Brothers doesn’t have to outlast Mad Men. Each one only has to beat its peers.

A few acclaimed shows are missing here because I haven’t seen enough to judge: The Leftovers, Mr. Robot, Friday Night Lights, I May Destroy You, The Comeback, Peaky Blinders, Justified, Reservation Dogs, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Battlestar Galactica and The Shield.