Streaming might’ve ended the Golden Age of Television a few years ago, but there have still been plenty of television masterpieces in the past decade. We even gotaBreaking Badspinoffthat lived up to the original. FromAndortoArcanetoAtlanta,these are the greatest TV shows to come along in the last 10 years.
Better Things
Cast
Created by Pamela Adlon and Louis C.K, Better Things is a Black Comedy that was released in 2016 and ran for five seasons before ending in 2022. The series stars Mikey Madison, Hannah Alligood, and Pamela Adlon. The series revolves around a mother and her three feisty daughters.
Television as a medium has traditionally pushed mothers into the background and shied away from showing the harsh realities of motherhood. In 2016, Pamela Adlon came in to rectify that. Drawing on Adlon’s own experiences as a single mother,Better Thingsis a raw, honest portrayal of the rollercoaster of raising three daughters.
Better Thingstossed all the conventions of television out the window, and in doing so, reflected the beauty (and, occasionally, the ugliness) of real life much more authentically than most other shows on TV.
Better Thingstossed all the conventions of television out the window, and in doing so, reflected the beauty (and, occasionally, the ugliness) of real life much more authentically than most other shows on TV. It flits between laugh-out-loud hilarious and tears-in-your-eyes heartbreaking.Better Thingswon a much-deserved Peabody Award for shining a spotlight on an underrepresented but universally relatable experience.
Severance is a psychological thriller series featuring Adam Scott as Mark Scout, an employee at Lumon Industries who undergoes a “severance” procedure to separate his work and personal memories. However, as work and life personas mysteriously begin to collide, it quickly becomes clear that not all is as it seems. Created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle.
It’s getting harder and harder to maintain a healthy work-life balance, and Dan Erickson came up with the perfect dystopian extreme through which to satirize that struggle.Severancetakes place in a world where corporate employees can have their consciousness split between their work lives and their home lives, so they essentially become two separate people.
A great premise is one thing, but the execution has to do it justice. Thanks to Erickson’s keen sense of storytelling andBen Stiller’s sharp cinematic vision, the execution ofSeverancegoes above and beyond its premise. Every mindless corporate initiative has a ridiculous parallel in the twisted world ofSeverance;it’s as darkly funny as it is deeply depressing.
There’s been a lot of debate aboutThe Bear’s categorization at the Emmys, because the case could be made that it’s both a comedy and a drama.The Bearhas some hilarious moments, but it often flirts with tragedy. Christopher Storer has deftly captured the stress and chaos of a professional kitchen (and, with it, the stress and chaos of life in general).
The first two seasons ofThe Bearare two of the greatest seasons of television ever produced— there isn’t a single bad episode in either of them. The subsequent seasons have fallen short of that standard of perfection, with a slower pace and occasionally aimless storytelling, but it’s still a cut above most other shows on the air.
Atlanta
Atlanta is a TV series created by and starring Donald Glover as Earnest “Earn” Marks as he navigates life in the Georgia capital. Most of Earnest’s focus is on improving his and his daughter’s life. From attempting to make amends with his former girlfriend Vanessa (Zazie Beats) to helping his cousin Alfred “Paper Boi” Miles, Earnest does what he can. Atlanta tends to follow separate story arcs in an anthology-like approach in the later seasons with a surreal style.
The music industry is so bizarre and otherworldly that it often feels like a completely different dimension. Donald Glover took that notion and ran with it inhis delightfully surreal, sadly underrated satireAtlanta.Atlantastarted off with a typical TV premise about a down-on-his-luck college dropout trying to do right by his daughter while managing his cousin’s hip-hop career.
But as the series went on, it increasingly moved away from that conventional premise and ventured further and further outside the box.Atlantabecame renowned for its use of standalone bottle episodesthat didn’t feature anyone from the main cast and dabbled in other genres — it even had a horror episode,the notorious “Teddy Perkins.”
Succession
Succession is a Black Comedy and Satire television show created by Jesse Armstrong. It stars Hiam Abbass, Nicholas Braun, Brian Cox, and Kieran Culkin and follows the story of an aging conglomerate owner as he deals with his declining health and the sudden realization that one of his children will soon inherit his position and run his company.
Jesse Armstrong did the impossible withhis satirical HBO dramaSuccession. He introduced a bunch of one-percenters who are obscenely rich, deeply flawed, and actively destroying the world through capitalism, and he managed to make audiences fall in love with them. You’ll laugh at how evil the Roys are, but you’ll be surprised by how much you relate to them.
The series takes a lot of sharp digs at itswealthy characters, but what keeps you coming back is that it also empathizes with them. It looks into how they became the way they are, and shows that they’re all using various methods to mask a deep well of pain and sadness.
Arcane
Arcane is an animated series set in the League of Legends universe, debuting in 2021. It explores the conflict between the affluent city of Piltover and the oppressed undercity of Zaun. Central to the story are two sisters whose allegiance to opposing sides of a technological and ideological war strains their bond.
Over the past decade, the video game adaptation curse has been broken. Some of the best shows of the last 10 years, fromThe Last of UstoFallout, have been based on video game franchises. But they all pale in comparison toArcane,a beautifully crafted animated series set in the world ofLeague of Legends.
Arcanehas a 100% rating onRotten Tomatoes.
Arcanehas something for everyone; it rewards long-time fans of theLeague of Legendsfranchise, but it works just as well for audiences who have never even heard of it. The storytelling and characterization are rich, the voice acting (particularly by Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Purnell) is really powerful, and the animation is visually stunning.
Chernobyl
Chernobyl is a miniseries dramatizing the 1986 nuclear accident, highlighting the efforts of the individuals who worked tirelessly to mitigate its impact. Released in 2019, this historical depiction captures both the technical and human aspects of one of the most significant industrial disasters in history.
Craig Mazin was mostly known for writingHangoverandScary Moviesequels before doing a complete 180 with hisincredible HBO miniseriesChernobyl. This haunting five-episode series chronicles the fallout of the titular nuclear disaster.It opens with the explosion, and only gets more shocking and horrifying from there. It’s scarier than any full-blown horror show.
Chernobylisn’t the easiest show to watch — you have to see people die of radiation poisoning and you have to see soldiers gun down irradiated dogs — but it’s a powerful study of a real-life disaster.Above all, it’s about the quest for truthas intrepid scientists defy the ruthless Soviet government in a futile bid to prevent a cover-up.
Fleabag
Created by and starring Pheobe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag follows its titular main character through her life in modern-day London. After the death of her best friend and the imminent demise of their joint business venture, the show deals with Fleabag’s grief over the loss, her struggle to maintain the business, and her complicated relationships with her immediate family. The show is known for its use of the fourth-wall break and is based on Waller-Bridge’s award-winning one-woman show which debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2013.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge created the character of Fleabag for her acclaimed live show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. But she developed the character even further and turned her into a global icon with her TV adaptation.Fleabagis about a fourth-wall-breaking twentysomething woman trying to navigate a litany of personal and professional struggles in the modern world.
There’s no other show quite like Fleabag, because it could’ve only come from the mind of this specific creator. This is auteur-driven television at its very best.
It’s a hilariously frank, well-observed portrait of a modern woman, played spectacularly by Waller-Bridge. Fleabag is a classic antihero: she’s angry and cynical, but she’s also deeply vulnerable and endearing. There’s no othershow quite likeFleabag, becauseit could’ve only come from the mind of this specific creator. This is auteur-driven television at its very best.
Andor
Andor is a Star Wars prequel series set before the events of Rogue One, following Cassian Andor as he navigates a world of danger and deception. The series delves into his transformation into a pivotal figure in the struggle against the Galactic Empire.
Since Disney acquired Lucasfilm, itsStar Warsoutput has been very hit-and-miss. But all the misses were worth it for the bona fide masterpiece that isAndor. It feels reductive tocallAndorthe bestStar Warsshowever made, because it’s one of the greatest TV shows ever made, period.
It helps that creator Tony Gilroy had very little interest inStar Warsto begin with. He simply set out to tella powerful story about a revolutionaryrising through the ranks in the righteous fight against an evil dictatorship. He simply used George Lucas’ galaxy far, far away as a backdrop upon which to tell this tale of revolution.
Better Call Saul
Better Call Saul follows small-time lawyer Jimmy McGill as he navigates the legal world to make ends meet. The series, set six years before his encounter with Walter White, chronicles Jimmy’s evolution into Saul Goodman, with notable interactions alongside fixer Mike Ehrmantraut.
When aBreaking Badspinoff centered on Walter White’s lawyer was first announced, it seemed like a terrible idea. Saul Goodman was just a comic-relief character, and the benchmark his spinoff would be held to was arguably the greatest TV show of all time. But, against all odds,Better Call Saulmanaged to live up to (and maybe even surpass) its predecessor.
By digging into the backstory that led once-wayward young attorney Jimmy McGill to don the mask of a clown,Better Call Saulmade him every bit the devilishly complex, three-dimensional antihero that Walt was.Better Call Saulis a rare example of a series where each season is better than the last — it never hit a wrong note.
