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Top 100 shows of the 21st century according to the British Broadcasting Corp

posted 3 years ago by joej2923 (3026)
50 replies | jump to latest

The top three are among my favorites. I would have dropped game of thrones out of the top 25 after the lackluster final season. I think the US version of the Office surpassed the short UK version even though it faded without Michael Scott. I loved the Americans so I'm glad to see it in the top ten.

I believe that shows should have to be at least two seasons to be on the list since some shows really tank after a great first season. Pose and RuPaul's Drag Race are freak shows about men in skirts that lack broad appeal. Watchmen and The Underground Railroad are both woke propaganda that will quickly be forgotten.

I would have liked to have seen Ozark, Peaky Blinders, Boardwalk Empire, Justified and Longmire on the list. These lists are so subjective and different genres are not comparable.

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20211015-the-100-greatest-tv-series-of-the-21st-century

My top ten shows off this list:
1. The Wire
2. Breaking Bad
3. Downton Abbey
4. Game of Thrones
5. Mad Men
6. Better Caul Saul
7. House of Cards
8. Stranger Things
9. The Americans
10. The Office (US)

[–] actionkamen (23176) 3 years ago

The Queen's Gambit is WAY TOO LOW!

[–] Carrot (1704) 3 years ago

Having never seen RuPaul's Drag Race I can't comment on its quality, but it raises the question, why is it the only reality type program on the list? Why not Penn & Teller: Bullshit?

[–] Quasimodo (16388) 3 years ago

1. The Wire (2002-2008) - A high quality show no doubt.
2. Mad Men (2007-2015) - I watched an episode or two and it didn't interest me. Advertising ?
3. Breaking Bad (2008-2013) - Another high quality show.
4. Fleabag (2016-2019) - Never seen it.
5. Game of Thrones (2011-2019) - Deliberately ruined by an unbelievable act of bastardry.
6. I May Destroy You (2020) - Never seen it, but I'm more than familiar with the sentiment.
7. The Leftovers (2014-2017) - Never seen it. Catchy title though.
8. The Americans (2013-2018) - Never seen it.
9. The Office (UK) (2001-2003) - Clever show but I'm not a fan of this kind of cringe "humour".
10. Succession (2018-) - Never seen it.

36. Downton Abbey tied with Band of Brothers ? In what universe ?

68. Stranger Things two places higher than Battlestar Galactica ?

100. The Queen's Gambit at 100 ? You cannot be serious !?

Notable absences

Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989-2013)
Foyle's War (2002-15)
How We Built Britain (2007)
In Treatment (2008-10)
Once and Again (1999-2002)
ROME (2005 & 07)
The Sopranos (1999-2007)
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008-09)
The Tudors (2007-10)
Wolf Hall (2015)

PS: It would have been interesting if the BBC had flagged shows on that list that were produced by the BBC. As in how many were there ?

PPS: I suspect the rabid Firefly (2002-03) fans will be forming a lynch mob after being left off the list entirely.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 3 years ago

4. Fleabag (2016-2019) - Never seen it.
6. I May Destroy You (2020) - Never seen it, but I'm more than familiar with the sentiment.

From wiki:
"Fleabag is a British comedy-drama television series created and written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, based on her one-woman show "
"I May Destroy You is a British drama television series [...] The series is set in London with a predominantly Black British cast. "

They're both inclusivity quota shows, one for females and the other one for blacks. They're at #4 at #6. Not as bad as I expected, which was seeing the first couple of inclusivity quota shows in the top3.

[–] moviechatterer (15643) 3 years ago

same , ive only seen 2 of the top 10

This is just a random list of shit .
Its not even good for picking out some ones that might be good to watch

and yes , where tf is Firelfly??? : )

[–] joej2923 (3026) 3 years ago

Mad Men was cool since it was a nostalgic view of 1960's high-powered Madison Avenue marketing firms. The Americans was another nostalgic view of the 80's cold war when a Soviet married couple works as spies in the US while pretending to be a typical American family. I'm a big Downton Abbey fan so I think it should have been higher. This is a list of 21st century shows so they didn't count shows that started before the year 2000.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 3 years ago

Downton Abbey deserves #1.

Game of Thrones would deserve #4 provided we only consider the seasons before running out of RR Martin source material. Taken as a whole, I'm sorry, but there's no way is #4.

And BG deserves to be in the top 10.

[–] moviechatterer (15643) 3 years ago

That is just a pure list of random .
God knows how the compiled it .

Its hard to say what the shittest ones in the so called top 100 are becasue i havent seen a lot of them
but
"Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008)"
that sounds like some crap. anyone seen it?
(hmm , scored 9.3 tho)

{edit}
here's how they compiled it - via so called critics

. In total, 460 different series were voted for by 206 TV experts – critics, journalists, academics and industry figures – who came from 43 countries, from Albania to Uruguay. Of these voters, 100 were women, 104 were men, and two were non-binary. Each voter listed their 10 favourite TV series of the 21st Century, which we scored and ranked to produce the top 100 listed below.

[–] joej2923 (3026) 3 years ago

It's interesting to see how they arrived at their numbers. I find it hard to believe the RuPaul's Drag Race made it onto someone's top ten list...yikes. I suspect some voters would pick a show for political/ideological reasons but I hope people would try to be somewhat objective. 206 voters is a pretty good sample but I wonder if a more accurate list would have been created with a top 25 from each voter. It gets hard to count votes so a top ten makes compiling the list easier. It also gets murky when voters are from developing nations since they may have a different outlook on life and limited access to television programming. I'm sure the Avatar cartoon is good if it's like the live-action movie.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 3 years ago

I started to watch Avatar, got bored. Don't get me wrong. It's not bad. Probably it's the only decent Burrito Anime made in US. But it's not that good.

Western media tries to push it constantly, though, since Anime has been wiping out western animation last years.

[–] huwdj (4566) 3 years ago

Interesting. I've only watched about 12 of them and most of those was just a few seasons - not the whole series. Clearly I've got some catching up to do.

[–] joej2923 (3026) 3 years ago

I think I've watched thirteen of these shows completely and I've watched a few episodes of thirty or so of the shows. I watched four episodes of Dexter before getting weirded out and I watched a couple episodes of Schitt's Creek but the family was too neurotic.

[–] ArnoStrine (57) 3 years ago

Small Wonder should've been #1

[–] huwdj (4566) 3 years ago

I enjoyed Dexter, Utopia was the series I found too disturbing to keep watching. Of the ones unseen only The Queen's Gambit is interesting to me - I guess I'm just not in synch with the zeitgeist.

[–] Stratego (30511) 3 years ago

Don't like any of those. Well, maybe Band of Brothers was okayish.

[–] Keelai (34864) 3 years ago

Their Top 100 list is not impressive. Plenty of mediocrity and shows which jumped the shark.

[–] Thaisticks (3037) 3 years ago

If the longest-running show in TV history (scripted prime-time) does not even make their "top 100," they're all a bunch of pretentious twits.