The Best TV Shows of the 2000s

In television, one program stands out from the rest as the year’s most critically acclaimed.

Metacritic, a review aggregator, has been compiling an annual list of the year’s most well-received TV show seasons since the turn of the century by assigning scores based on their composite critical reception.

Starting in 2000, we picked the best show from each year, including the best show so far in 2017.Modern classics like “Breaking Bad,” “The Wire,” and “Mad Men” all made multiple appearances on the list for their most memorable seasons.

According to critics, check out the best television show each year since 2000:

2000: “The Second Season of The Sopranos: What Critics Thought:It’s difficult to pick a favorite part of the show:It is simply brilliant.”2001’s Variety: “The Post:UK” (Season 1) What were the critics saying? It takes some time to get into it (episode two sealed the deal for me), but once you get used to the accents and the dry humor, you’ll be hooked.The 2002 Chicago Sun-Times:The Post:UK” (Season 2)

What pundits said:

“”Office” not only makes you laugh, but it also makes you happy to watch a piece of entertainment that is so well made and so delicately performed.”2003’s Entertainment Weekly:The Post:UK” (Season 3) What were the criticisms?Possibly the greatest television series finale ever.”2004’s San Francisco Chronicle:The Wire” (Season 3): “The Wire”HBO’s complex, richly detailed crime drama will sweep you away like a fine novel if you do that rare TV thing of paying close attention.2005, Detroit Free Press: Criticism for “Deadwood” (Season 2):”Deadwood” is still one of the best character-driven dramas on television, despite its profanity and complete engagement.2006’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:” The Wire,” Season 4, Critics’ Comments:” The Wire” has transformed our indifference to urban decay into a television achievement of the highest order. It is brilliant, scathing, and sprawling. USA Today The best television shows of the 2000s went far beyond Breaking Bad and Gossip Girl.In point of fact, what many people refer to as the “Golden Age” of television culminated in the early aughts.

With their groundbreaking storytelling, complex characters, and cinematic style, shows like The Sopranos and Sex and the City changed television forever in the late 1990s and early 2000s.Reality TV was growing at the same time that HBO was producing prestige shows. In 2000, CBS’s Survivor became a cultural moment that opened up new avenues for the genre, and MTV evolved from The Real World in the 1990s to Laguna Beach and The Hills in the early 2000s.

Shows became more prestigious over the course of the decade, with AMC launching Mad Men in 2007 and Breaking Bad in 2008.However, despite the fact that television was becoming somewhat more serious, there were still, of course, lighthearted, fun sitcoms like Girlfriends and Reba, as well as teen dramas like One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl. The best television shows of the 2000s, specifically those that premiered in 2000 and ran until 2010, are basically a delightful mix of comedies, soapy teen dramas, prestige dramas, reality shows, and comedy.

The Office, 30 Rock, and the shows that have already been rebooted (Dexter, Gossip Girl, and Sex and the City) show that there were some truly exceptional shows that aired in the decade. Survivor, Grey’s Anatomy, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia are just a few of the most successful shows from that time period that continue to air today. You’ll find a great show here if you want to catch up before a hit comes back, find out what all the fuss was about, revisit disturbing Y2K fashion, or revisit a nostalgic old favorite.

It became the show that finally established that television could compete with movies and ruled the Emmy Awards and dinner party conversations every year it was on. When mild-mannered chemistry teacher Walt (Bryan Cranston) learns that he has cancer, he teams up with former student Jesse (Aaron Paul) to make and sell crystal meth. In his quest for money, security, and power, Walt transforms into a violent, and some would even say evil, man. This is near the top of every list of the greatest television shows ever. Better Call Saul, a successful spinoff, was even born from it.

The multi-camera sitcom with the longest run in television history was more than just a ratings powerhouse; it was also a clever series about finding community when you think no one else understands you. The show, which was made even more popular by the addition of Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik as Bernadette and Amy, focused hilariously on the ups and downs of friendships, relationships, and finding one’s place in one’s career on a daily basis. Big Bang is a cable show that airs all the time, but if you haven’t seen it yet, start with the first episode on HBO Max and watch the all-star cast—Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Kunal Nayyar, Simon Helberg, Rauch, and Bialik—do a masterful job of acting for 279 episodes.