Movies & TV

28th Mar 2024

Five years on, were these really the best TV shows of the 2010s?

JOE

Looking back, with some distance behind the 2010s, Fleabag and Better Call Saul may have been hard done by.

Back on December 31st, 2019 – when times were simpler – we published a list of the best TV shows of the 2010s.

‘The last 10 years,’ Paul Moore wrote, ‘have seen a seismic shift in how we consume TV content due to the advent of online streaming services like Netflix and Amazon, but one constant remains; quality. The past decade has seen some extraordinary TV shows – literally the biggest one of all time in terms of scale, budget and narrative – but which of them make the grade when it comes to the best 20 since 2010?’

As Paul pointed out at the time ‘this is just one person’s opinion – reaction is both inevitable and welcome’. Below, you will find that Top 20 with some honourable mentions (with added suggestions from Pat McCarry and Simon Kelly) at the end. Hopefully, we will have covered most bases.

Let the games begin…

20) Love/Hate

Plot: Examining the organised crime scene in Dublin and revolving around Darren, who wants to stay out of trouble but ends up returning to his old habits and his old gang.

Deserves its place because: It’s almost 10 years since Stuart Carolan’s drama debuted and, almost instantly, it became a topic of conversation in every place of work and a cultural institution. That’s rare. What’s even rarer is that it’s an Irish production that gripped the nation.

Aside from representing the best in Irish TV and boasting some terrific writing, the calibre of talent that worked on the show – both on-screen and behind the camera – is superb.

It helped elevate the directorial careers of Anthony Byrne and David Caffrey (Peaky Blinders) and as for the cast, it was a calling card for the likes of Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Charlie Murphy, Barry Keoghan, Brian Gleeson, Killian Scott, Peter Coonan, Ruth Negga, Laurence Kinlan and more.

Special praise for Vaughan-Lawlor’s terrifying performance as Nidge. An iconic character in Irish pop-culture. Coola boola, indeed.

19) Fleabag

Plot: A comedy series adapted from the award-winning play about a young woman trying to cope with life in London whilst coming to terms with a recent tragedy.

Deserves its place because: There’s an unflinching honesty in the way that Phoebe Waller-Bridge writes as the titular character atempts to steal, manipulate and cheat her way through life.From its innovative approach to breaking the fourth wall to the indelible performances of its cast, the comedy is a wonderful examination of grief, family and love. All this without mentioning Andrew Scott in Season 2.

18) Brooklyn Nine-Nine

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Plot: Jake Peralta, an immature but talented NYPD detective in Brooklyn’s 99th Precinct, comes into immediate conflict with his new commanding officer, the serious and stern Captain Ray Holt.

Deserves its place because: Consistently funny and on-point when it comes to social commentary and storylines; you could argue there isn’t a single character in the show not deserving of their own spinoff.

It’s one of the finest ensemble comedies around and you get a real sense that each actor is having an absolute blast on set. Sitting down to watch an episode – old or new – is like meeting up with your mates after a tough day.

It’s a comedy bound to age extremely well.

17) Mad Men

Plot: A drama about one of New York’s most prestigious ad agencies at the beginning of the 1960s, focusing on one of the firm’s most mysterious but extremely talented ad executives, Donald Draper.

Deserves its place because: By the time 2010 came around, the show had already built up, tore down and deconstructed its main character, Don Draper.

Matthew Weiner was very clever from Season 4 onwards, however, as he started to give more focus to the fiery Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), the debauched dinosaur Roger Sterling (John Slattery) and the enigmatic Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks).

It was brave but it worked. A testament to the wonderful supporting character that the show created.

16) The Americans

Plot: At the height of the Cold War, two Russian agents pose as an average American couple with two children, all while carrying out tasks required of them by the KGB on a near-daily basis and living across the street from an FBI agent.

Deserves its place because: It never loses sight of its main characters. The set design was extremely immersive and special praise should go to Keri Russell, who delivers arguably the most complex and nuanced female performance of the decade.

Aside from that, its writing, directing, music choices…. and wigs were spot on.

The best show of the decade that nobody in Ireland really watched that closely? There’s a case to be made.

15) The Crown

Plot: Follows the political rivalries and romance of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign and the events that shaped the second half of the 20th century.

Deserves its place because: We 100% understand the reservations some viewers may have towards Peter Morgan’s drama. For those that haven’t seen it, terms like ‘snobby, ‘privileged’ and ‘period drama’ might come to mind. We get that.

Trust us, by about three episodes, you’ll be hooked because while you might know who these people are, you don’t really *know* them.

The dynamic between Claire Foy and Matt Smith in the first two seasons is excellent and the production values are exceptional throughout.

Season 3 represented a bit of a dip but watching The Crown is a real joy because any pre-existing attitude that you may have to the subject material instantly vanishes. That’s a sign of quality.

14) True Detective

Plot: Seasonal anthology series in which police investigations unearth the personal and professional secrets of those involved, both within and outside the law.

Deserves its place because: It’s so goddamn maddeningly-inconsistent, but that doesn’t mean that Nic Pizzolatto’s series doesn’t deserve inclusion here. If the show ended after Season 1, you could argue the case for it to top this list.

Trust me, I’m absolutely torn about where this show should rank because it goes from sublime to ridiculous.

Seriously, the first season featuring Detectives Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) is one of the greatest seasons of TV ever made. If the show ended there, it would be in the conversation for the greatest TV show of all time.

Season 2 was awful in comparison, but the indomitable Mahershala Ali was a big factor in getting the drama back on track in Season 3.

Incredible, awful and very good. The jury is out for a potential fourth season.

13) Atlanta

Plot: Based in Atlanta, Earn and his cousin Alfred try to make their way in the world through the rap scene. Along the way they come face to face with social and economic issues touching on race, relationships, poverty, status and parenthood.

Deserves its place because: It’s the best thing that Donald Glover has done this decade and that’s saying an awful lot. It’s also a wonderful take on the absurdity of the entertainment business and a sharper-than-sharp examination of race relations in the US.

12) Line Of Duty

Plot: DS Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) is transferred to the Anti-Corruption Unit 12 (AC-12) run by Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) and partners with DI Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) to investigate possible corruption in the police force in this BBC police drama created by Jed Mercurio.

Deserves its place because: It’s that rare beast, a show that has consistently improved with every passing season while rewarding the viewer for their levels of investment.

Each season is the equivalent of a great page-turner with a central mystery to uncover. Jed Mercurio is an excellent writer, but the show lives and dies by the three central characters. Luckily for us, they’re all great, but special praise should go to Dunbar’s performance as Ted Hastings, one of the best characters of the decade.

11) Better Call Saul

Plot: Ex-con artist Jimmy McGill turns into a small-time attorney and goes through a series of trials and tragedies as he transforms into his alter ego Saul Goodman, a morally challenged criminal lawyer.

Deserves its place because: Sheer balls. Seriously, it took massive cojones to swiftly move on from one of – if not the – greatest drama of the last decade and tell a new story, while still referencing certain characters, lines and events in Breaking Bad.

What has made Better Call Saul is not Saul Goodman. It’s Chuck McGill with his electromagnetic hypersensitivity and space blanket, Kim Wexler with her desperate attempts at being moral while loving Jimmy and Pryce with his pimpin’ hum-vee, baseball cards and goofy politeness.

The criminals are ridiculous, the callbacks are on-point and the fact that we know how it ends makes it even more interesting.

Whisper it, but there are moments when it’s better than Breaking Bad.

10) Peaky Blinders

Plot: A notorious gang in 1919 Birmingham, England, is led by the fierce Tommy Shelby, a crime boss set on moving up in the world no matter the cost.

Deserves its place because: There’s nothing new in Steven Knight’s drama you haven’t seen before. Essentially, it’s a mashup of the gangster and western genres but what’s extremely clever about it is the setting.

By focusing on a working class family from Birmingham in between the two World Wars, it feels fresh and it’s all anchored by an intelligent and steely performance from Cillian Murphy.

That being said, Steven Knight really needs to stop the ‘they’re dead, no wait…” trick as Season 6 approaches.

It’s popular everywhere because it appeals to everyone.

Gangsters, guns, violence, sharp suits, slick cinematography, and an array of interesting characters that are played by excellent actors.

In terms of cultural impact, Steven Knight’s show is seismic.

9) Rick and Morty

Plot: Madcap animated series that follows the exploits of a super scientist and his not-so-bright grandson.

Deserves its place because: There are more ideas in a single episode of Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland’s animation than entire seasons of other shows. Yes, it’s hilarious, whip smart, incredibly pop-culture savvy and inventive, but there’s a real heart to the show and it has the ability to hit you with a gut-punch from nowhere.

Case in point, The Ricklantis Mixup or the heartbreaking finale to Auto-Erotic Assimilation. Without really trying, the best comedies have a knack of making you care about the characters. When Rick and Morty goes for the hearts and minds of the show’s viewers, they nail it.

Not bad for a show with a fixation on monsters that look like giant testicles, eh?

8) Master Of None

Plot: The personal and professional life of Dev, a 30-year-old actor in New York.

Deserves its place because: Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang’s comedy could be the most perceptive and poignant take on what it’s like to be in your late 20s and early 30s. It’s very much of its time, but there’s something old-school about Dev’s moral outlook on love, life and living in the 21st century.

As well as that, the standalone episodes, Thanksgiving, New York, I Love You and Parents are sensational in their own right.

Honest without being preachy, tender without being soppy, funny without being crass. It’s a gem.

7) Mindhunter

Plot: Set in the late 1970s, two FBI agents are tasked with interviewing serial killers to solve open cases.

Deserves its place because: If this decade could be summed up by one TV trend – a reductive point but indulge us – it’s the surge of interest in the serial killer/true crime genre.

Yes, the David Fincher-crafted series puts the killers front and centre, but it is a credit to the show’s creators, stars, and writers that the three main characters, Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Dr. Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), are never overshadowed.

In fact, in Season 2, you could argue that McCallany’s performance was up there with Cameron Britton’s wonderful turn as Edmund Kemper.

Mindhunter understands our dark minds better than we’ll ever do.

6) Parks and Recreation

Plot: The absurd antics of an Indiana town’s public officials as they pursue sundry projects to make their city a better place.

Deserves its place because: There isn’t a single character in Pawnee that you wouldn’t want to hang out with – well, maybe Jerry – and like all great comedies, you really get emotionally invested in Parks and Rec.

It’s absurd, upbeat and unflinchingly optimistic in how it views he world. The perfect antidote to the dour political climate that we find ourselves in.

As good as the show is, the moments when Ron Swanson and Leslie Knope ‘get real’ and share heart-to-hearts elevates the comedy onto a different level. You could make a case to say those scenes are the best representation of platonic love on TV in recent memory.

5) It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

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Plot: Five friends with big egos and slightly arrogant attitudes are the proprietors of an Irish pub in Philadelphia.

Deserves its place because: It’s undoubtedly the best comedy of the decade. Over the last decade alone, we were treated to… the implication, Lethal Weapon 5 and 6, Mac Day, CharDee MacDennis, rum ham and so much more.

While the quality of the most recent seasons may have diminished, there’s still nothing that comes close to the Always Sunny gang in terms of depravity, balls and very smartly, progressive values.

The fact that it’s yet to win an Emmy or Golden Globe is a travesty, or pure snobbery.

4) Succession

Plot: A deeply-dysfunctional American family fight for control of a global media empire. When Logan Roy (Brian Cox) announces his plans to step back from running the family’s multi-national entertainment company, a feud over who will be have control causes tension among his four children.

Deserves its place because: If Shakespeare was writing TV in 2019, he’d be working on Succession. You know, with far more ‘fuck offs’ and withering putdowns included for good measure.

There isn’t a line of dialogue in Jesse Armstrong’s drama unworthy of praise and it’s credit to the cast that spending time with such unlikable people has never been better.

A show about awful people saying awful things for their own selfishly-awful reasons. It’s exceptional.

3) Breaking Bad

Plot: Drama focused on a mid-life crisis gone bad for a high school chemistry teacher who becomes a drug dealer after he discovers that he has lung cancer.

Deserves its place because: Seasons 3-5 of Vince Gilligan’s show arrived in this decade as we saw the rise of Heisenberg, the slow death of Walter White’s morality, the introduction of Gus Fring, flies, boxcutters, ricin and *that* telephone call.

Season 5 may feel disjointed in comparison to the finale of Season 4 but there’s no denying that Breaking Bad went out with one hell of a bang.

Bryan Cranston’s performance in the episode Ozymandias. The finest piece of acting this decade.

2) Game Of Thrones

Plot: Christ, where to begin? We’ll keep it simple and say that the show revolves around royal houses battling for power and the Iron Throne.

Deserves its place because: Let’s address the elephant in the room first. Season 8 was awful in comparison to what came before it. Still, what came before it changed TV and was – for this author’s money – the best show of its time… then Season 8 happened.

Ask yourself this, when was the last time you were as excited about a film being released as you were about a new episode of Game of Thrones?

Forget Star Wars, Netflix and the MCU, Game of Thrones was the pop-culture event of the decade.

This author has written tens of thousands of words on the show, but one image summarises just how brilliant Game of Thrones was at its peak.

Goosebumps, proper goosebumps.

You’re entitled to still feel angry about how the show ended, just don’t forget came before it.

1) Chernobyl

Plot: Soviet nuclear physicist Valery Legasov (Jared Harris), Soviet Deputy Prime Minister Boris Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgård) and Soviet nuclear physicist Ulana Khomyuk (Emily Watson) are some of the people who worked to stop radioactive material from spreading further during the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

Deserves its place because: There were only five episodes. There are no “major” stars. There’s the fact it premiered when HBO’s other massive property, Game of Thrones, was just ending and still getting all of the column inches. There’s the massive problem that comes with adapting historical events. There’s the risk of being insensitive to those that died and the survivors. There’s a massive story to tell and there’s also the problem of making something that leans too heavily towards melodrama and misery.

There are so many reasons why Craig Mazin’s drama should not have worked, and yet, it did. It worked spectacularly.

In just five episodes, Chernobyl managed to be a horror film, a courtroom saga, a tearjerker, an incredibly-humane drama, an indictment of the political ruling classes, a rallying cry, and a triumph of the human spirit.

The three central performances from Harris, Skarsgård and Watson are all award-winning in their own right, and there’s a no-frills approach to the directing by Johan Renck.

It’s just an incredibly nuanced piece of work that combines classic traits like a great script, sharp directing, wonderful acting and more.

Simply put, Chernobyl just reflects what it means to be a human during the most inhumane times.

Honourable mentions to all of the following: The Good Place, Barry, Watchmen, Mr Robot, Derry Girls, Veep, Catastrophe, The Jinx, Bojack Horseman, Big Mouth, Halt and Catch Fire, The Leftovers, Narcos, Fargo, Daredevil.

Other shows that we could not leave out: Nathan For You, Suits (yep, we did it!), Review, The OA, House of Cards, and Schitt’s Creek.

Fans of The Leftovers, we hear you! If we were allowed one trade on this Top 20, we would swap that show in, and take out Rick & Morty.