The 100 Greatest TV Series of the 21st Century is a list compiled in October 2021 by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), as part of their annual critics' poll, chosen by a voting poll of 206 television experts (critics, journalists, academics and industry figures) from 43 countries.[1]
Statistics
It was compiled by collating the top ten series submitted by the experts who were asked to list the best series that began airing since the year 2000. Television programmes that began in the 20th century but continued airing in the 21st century were not eligible for inclusion (e.g. Doctor Who, SpongeBob SquarePants, South Park, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Sopranos). The third season of Twin Peaks (subtitled "The Return") is eligible due to it being commissioned as a stand-alone miniseries as opposed to a revival of the original series.[2] Breaking Bad (#3) and The Good Wife (#33) are the only programmes to also have spin-off series place on the list, with Better Call Saul (#23) and The Good Fight (#47), respectively. Only 7 programmes did not fall under the scripted live action genre; four animated shows — BoJack Horseman (#11), Avatar: The Last Airbender (#61), Rick and Morty (#76) and Steven Universe (#99) — and three non-fiction shows — the reality competition series RuPaul's Drag Race (#67) plus the non-fiction docuseries Planet Earth (#73) and the Academy Award-winning O.J.: Made in America (#81).[3] Damon Lindelof is the creator with the most shows on the list with three; The Leftovers (#7); Lost (#19) and Watchmen (#26).[4]
Process
BBC Culture asked 206 television experts from around the world to rank the ten television programs produced in the twenty-first century that they considered the greatest.[5][6] Participants were permitted to choose from titles released between January 2000 to July 2021 (when all responses were collected). Each program listed in these responses was then given points based on their ranking. If a program was ranked first in a critic's list, that program would get ten points, whereas the one ranked in tenth place would get one point. The list features three ties: Downton Abbey and Band of Brothers for the 36th-place ranking; The Good Place and Pose for the 62nd-place ranking and Narcos and Normal People for the 84th-place ranking.
A total of 206 critics from 43 countries participated in the poll, with the largest number (52) from the United Kingdom, followed by 29 from the United States. Out of the 206, 104 are men, 100 are women, and two are non-binary.[7]
Top 100
Rank | Name of television series | Creator(s) | Year of premiere | Year of latest episode | Network | Country |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | The Wire | David Simon | 2002 | 2008 | HBO | United States |
2. | Mad Men | Matthew Weiner | 2007 | 2015 | AMC | United States |
3. | Breaking Bad | Vince Gilligan | 2008 | 2013 | AMC | United States |
4. | Fleabag | Phoebe Waller-Bridge | 2016 | 2019 | BBC Three (S1) BBC One (S2) |
United Kingdom |
5. | Game of Thrones | David Benioff and D.B. Weiss | 2011 | 2019 | HBO | United States |
6. | I May Destroy You | Michaela Coel | 2020 | 2020 | BBC One | United Kingdom |
7. | The Leftovers | Damon Lindelof | 2014 | 2017 | HBO | United States |
8. | The Americans | Joe Weisberg | 2013 | 2018 | FX | United States |
9. | The Office (UK) | Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant | 2001 | 2003 | BBC Two (S1-S2) BBC One (specials) |
United Kingdom |
10. | Succession | Jesse Armstrong | 2018 | 2023 | HBO | United States |
11. | BoJack Horseman | Raphael Bob-Waksberg | 2014 | 2020 | Netflix | United States |
12. | Six Feet Under | Alan Ball | 2001 | 2005 | HBO | United States |
13. | Twin Peaks: The Return | David Lynch | 2017 | 2017 | Showtime | United States |
14. | Atlanta | Donald Glover | 2016 | 2022 | FX | United States |
15. | Chernobyl | Craig Mazin | 2019 | 2019 | Sky Atlantic (UK) HBO (US) |
United Kingdom United States |
16. | The Crown | Peter Morgan | 2016 | 2023 | Netflix | United Kingdom |
17. | 30 Rock | Tina Fey | 2006 | 2013 | NBC | United States |
18. | Deadwood | David Milch | 2004 | 2006 | HBO | United States |
19. | Lost | Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof | 2004 | 2010 | ABC | United States |
20. | The Thick of It | Armando Iannucci | 2005 | 2012 | BBC Four (S1-S2) BBC Two (S3-S4) |
United Kingdom |
21. | Curb Your Enthusiasm | Larry David | 2000 | present | HBO | United States |
22. | Black Mirror | Charlie Brooker | 2011 | present[8] | Channel 4 (S1-S2) Netflix (S3-S6) |
United Kingdom |
23. | Better Call Saul | Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould | 2015 | 2022 | AMC | United States |
24. | Veep | Armando Iannucci | 2012 | 2019 | HBO | United States |
25. | Sherlock | Steven Moffat | 2010 | 2017 | BBC One | United Kingdom |
26. | Watchmen | Damon Lindelof | 2019 | 2019 | HBO | United States |
27. | Line of Duty | Jed Mercurio | 2012 | 2021 | BBC Two (S1-S3) BBC One (S4-S6) |
United Kingdom |
28. | Friday Night Lights | Peter Berg | 2006 | 2011 | NBC The 101 Network |
United States |
29. | Parks and Recreation | Greg Daniels and Michael Schur | 2009 | 2015 | NBC | United States |
30. | Girls | Lena Dunham | 2012 | 2017 | HBO | United States |
31 | True Detective | Nic Pizzolatto | 2014 | present | HBO | United States |
32 | Arrested Development | Mitchell Hurwitz | 2003 | 2019 | FOX (S1-S3) Netflix (S4-S5) |
United States |
33. | The Good Wife | Robert King and Michelle King | 2009 | 2016 | CBS | United States |
34. | The Bridge | Hans Rosenfeldt | 2011 | 2018 | SVT1 (Sweden) DR1 (Denmark) |
Sweden Denmark |
35. | Fargo | Noah Hawley | 2014 | present | FX | United States |
36. | Downton Abbey | Julian Fellowes | 2010 | 2015 | ITV | United Kingdom |
Band of Brothers | Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg | 2001 | 2001 | HBO | United States | |
38. | The Handmaid's Tale | Bruce Miller | 2017 | present | Hulu | United States |
39. | The Office (US) | Greg Daniels | 2005 | 2013 | NBC | United States |
40. | Borgen | Adam Price, Jeppe Gjervig Gram and Tobias Lindholm | 2010 | 2022 | DR1 | Denmark |
41. | Schitt's Creek | Dan Levy | 2015 | 2020 | CBC | Canada |
42. | Peep Show | Andrew O' Connor, Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain | 2003 | 2015 | Channel 4 | United Kingdom |
43. | La casa de papel | Álex Pina | 2017 | 2021 | Antena 3 (S1) Netflix (S2-S3) |
Spain |
44. | Community | Dan Harmon | 2009 | 2015 | NBC (S1-S5) Yahoo Screen (S6) |
United States |
45. | The Good Fight | Robert King and Michelle King | 2017 | 2022 | CBS All Access (S1-S4) Paramount+ (S5-) |
United States |
46. | Homeland | Howard Gordon and Alex Ganza | 2011 | 2020 | Showtime | United States |
47. | Grey's Anatomy | Shonda Rhimes | 2005 | present | ABC | United States |
48. | Inside No. 9 | Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton | 2014 | present | BBC Two | United Kingdom |
49. | The Bureau | Éric Rochant | 2015 | 2020 | Canal+ | France |
50. | Halt and Catch Fire | Christopher Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers | 2014 | 2017 | AMC | United States |
51. | Small Axe | Steve McQueen | 2020 | 2020 | BBC One | United Kingdom |
52. | This is England '86, '88 and '90 | Shane Meadows | 2010 | 2015 | Channel 4 | United Kingdom |
53. | Call My Agent! | Fanny Herrero | 2015 | present | France 2 | France |
54. | Happy Valley | Sally Wainwright | 2014 | 2023 | BBC One | United Kingdom |
55. | The Shield | Shawn Ryan | 2002 | 2008 | FX | United States |
56. | The Big Bang Theory | Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady | 2007 | 2019 | CBS | United States |
57. | The Young Pope | Paolo Sorrentino | 2016 | 2016 | Canal+ HBO Sky Atlantic |
Italy |
58. | Dark | Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese | 2017 | 2020 | Netflix | Germany |
59. | The Underground Railroad | Barry Jenkins | 2021 | 2021 | Prime Video | United States |
60. | House of Cards | Beau Willimon | 2013 | 2018 | Netflix | United States |
61. | Avatar: The Last Airbender | Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko | 2005 | 2008 | Nickelodeon | United States |
62. | The Good Place | Michael Schur | 2016 | 2020 | NBC | United States |
Pose | Ryan Murphy Brad Falchuk Steven Canals |
2018 | 2021 | FX | United States | |
64. | Detectorists | Mackenzie Crook | 2014 | 2017 | BBC Four | United Kingdom |
65. | Orange is the New Black | Jenji Kohan | 2013 | 2019 | Netflix | United States |
66. | Mare of Easttown | Brad Ingelsby | 2021 | 2021 | HBO | United States |
67. | RuPaul's Drag Race | RuPaul Charles | 2009 | present | LOGO (s1-s8) VH1 (s9-14) MTV (S15-present) |
United States |
68. | Stranger Things | The Duffer Brothers | 2016 | present | Netflix | United States |
69. | 24 | Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran | 2001 | 2010 | FOX | United States |
70. | Battlestar Galactica | Ronald D. Moore | 2004 | 2009 | Sci-Fi | United States |
71. | Enlightened | Mike White | 2011 | 2013 | HBO | United States |
72. | Gilmore Girls | Amy Sherman-Palladino | 2000 | 2007 | The WB/The CW | United States |
73. | Planet Earth | —[lower-alpha 1] | 2006 | 2006 | BBC One | United Kingdom |
74. | Utopia (UK) | Dennis Kelly | 2013 | 2014 | Channel 4 | United Kingdom |
75 | Babylon Berlin | Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries and Henk Handloegten | 2017 | present | Sky One Das Erste |
Germany |
76. | Rick and Morty | Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon | 2013 | present | Adult Swim | United States |
77. | American Crime Story | Various[lower-alpha 2] | 2016 | present | FX | United States |
78. | The Killing | Søren Sveistrup | 2007 | 2012 | DR1 | Denmark |
79. | Mindhunter | Joe Penhall | 2017 | 2019 | Netflix | United States |
80. | House | David Shore | 2004 | 2012 | FOX | United States |
81. | OJ: Made in America | Ezra Edelman | 2016 | 2016 | ESPN (as part of 30 for 30) | United States |
82. | Big Little Lies | David E. Kelley | 2017 | 2019 | HBO | United States |
83. | Insecure | Issa Rae | 2016 | 2021 | HBO | United States |
84. | Normal People | — | 2020 | 2020 | BBC Three, RTÉ One and Hulu | Ireland |
Narcos | Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro | 2015 | 2017 | Netflix | United States Colombia | |
86. | How I Met Your Mother | Carter Bays and Craig Thomas | 2005 | 2014 | CBS | United States |
87. | The Comeback | Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King | 2005 | 2014 | HBO | United States |
88. | The OA | Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij | 2016 | 2019 | Netflix | United States |
89. | Dexter | James Manos, Jr. | 2006 | 2013 | Showtime | United States |
90. | It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia | Rob McElhenney | 2005 | present | FX FXX |
United States |
91. | Westworld | Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy | 2016 | 2022 | HBO | United States |
92. | Show Me a Hero | — | 2015 | 2015 | HBO | United States |
93. | Treme | David Simon and Eric Overmyer | 2010 | 2013 | HBO | United States |
94. | Louie | Louie C.K. | 2010 | 2015 | FX | United States |
95. | Luther | Neil Cross | 2010 | 2019 | BBC One | United Kingdom |
96. | Catastrophe | Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan | 2015 | 2019 | Channel 4 | United Kingdom |
97. | Hannibal | Bryan Fuller | 2013 | 2015 | NBC | United States |
98. | Crazy Ex-Girlfriend | Rachel Bloom | 2015 | 2019 | The CW | United States |
99. | Steven Universe | Rebecca Sugar | 2013 | 2020 | Cartoon Network | United States |
100. | The Queen's Gambit | Scott Frank and Allan Scott | 2020 | 2020 | Netflix | United States |
Notes
- ↑ Planet Earth did not have a credited creator. Alastair Fothergill was series producer.
- ↑ Each season is developed by a different showrunner. Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (The People vs O.J. Simpson), Tom Rob Smith (The Assassination of Gianni Versace) and Sarah Burgess (Impeachment), respectively
References
- ↑ "The 100 greatest TV series of the 21st Century". BBC Culture. 18 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
- ↑ "The 100 greatest TV series of the 21st Century: Who Voted?". BBC Culture. 18 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
- ↑ 100 Greatest TV Series of the 21st Century Revealed|Digital Trends
- ↑ BBC Culture Names 'The Wire' the Best Series of the 21st Century - IndieWire
- ↑ Why The Wire is the greatest TV series of the 21st Century - BBC Culture
- ↑ Game of Thrones, Money Heist, Breaking Bad among BBC’s top 100 tv series of 21st century|Financial Express
- ↑ BBC reveals best TV shows of the 21st century including Succession and Game of Thrones|Denbighshire Free Press
- ↑ ‘Black Mirror’ Renewed for Season 7 - Variety