UPDATE: The list is complete. No surprise, “Breaking Bad” tops it. “The Wire is #2, followed by “Mad Men,” “Succession” and “Fleabag,” with “Game of Thrones,” “Veep,” “30 Rock,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Atlanta” rounding out the top 10. Notice the omissions, the shows that failed to crack the top 100: “Mr. Robot, “Fargo,” “Mindhunter,” “Hannibal,” “Justified,” and “Malcolm in the Middle.”
EARLIER: Much as it did with film, The New York Times has conducted a massive poll of more than 500 "stars, showrunners and other TV insiders," including critics, to come up with "The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century."
The list will be released in batches of 20, starting today and ending Friday, when the top shows are revealed. The main contenders will no doubt be "The Wire," "Mad Men," "Breaking Bad," "Succession" and "The Leftovers."
"The Sopranos," which would get my vote, isn't eligible. The Times asked voters to name the 10 best series that premiered since Jan. 1, 2000. "The Sopranos" premiered in January 1999, so it doesn't qualify, which is lame, since the show ran from 1999 to 2007.
1. Breaking Bad
2. The Wire
3. Mad Men
4. Succession
5. Fleabag
6. Game of Thrones
7. Veep
8. 30 Rock
9. Curb Your Enthusiasm
10. Atlanta
11. The Office (U.S.)
12. Arrested Development
13. Girls
14. Friday Night Lights
15. Six Feet Under
16. The Office (U.K.)
17. The Americans
18. I May Destroy You
19. Chernobyl
20. The Crown21. The White Lotus
22. Lost
23. The Comeback
24. Deadwood
25. The Leftovers
26. Black Mirror
27. Better Call Saul
28. Band of Brothers
29. Key & Peele
30. Severance
31. Survivor
32. Andor
33. Enlightened
34. Schitts Creek
35. True Detective (season 1)
36. The Pitt
37. Battlestar Galactica
38. Homeland
39. Watchmen
40. Adolesence41. Louie
42. Hacks
43. Peaky Blinders
44. BoJack Horseman
45. Happy Valley
46. Broad City
47. Twin Peaks: The Return
48. House of Cards
49. Normal People
50. Parks and Recreation
51. The Good Place
52. Downton Abbey
53. Stranger Things
54. The Bureau
55. Insecure
56. Nathan for You
57. I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson
58. Chappelle's Show
59. PEN15
60. Peep Show61 - RuPaul's Drag Race
62 - Slow Horses
63 - The Thick of It Philadelphia
64 - Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown
65 - Mare of Easttown
66 - The Rehearsal
67 - The Handmaid's Tale
68 - Ozark
69 - Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
70 - The Shield
71 - Beef
72 - Squid Game
73 - Barry
74 - The Bear
75 - Ted Lasso
76 - Somebody Somewhere
77 - Modern Family
78 - It's Always Sunny In
79 - The Good Wife
80 - How To With John Wilson81 - The Queens Gambit
82 - Better Things
83 - Justified
84 - Planet Earth
85 - The Great British Baking Show
86 - Shogun
87 - Reservation Dogs
88 - Dexter
89 - Baby Reindeer
90 - Eastbound & Down
91 - Catastrophe92 - The Night Of
93 - Station Eleven
94 - The Diplomat
95 - House
96 - Halt and Catch Fire
97 - Community
98 - The OA
99 - Gilmore Girls
100 - Scandal
"Sopranos" creator David Chase has said that in the age of streaming, the Golden Age is over. He treated the show's 25th anniversary more like a "funeral" for sophisticated TV, calling the Golden Age a "25-year blip" that won't be repeated.
This was a time when the line between TV and cinema blurred, and even auteurs like David Fincher, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Steven Soderbergh and Spike Lee brought personal projects to television.
The Golden Age gave us impossible moral dilemmas and characters we loved even when they did terrible things. Tony Soprano, Walter White, Don Draper. None of those shows ever told us how to judge these men. They trusted us to figure that out ourselves, and that was half the fun of watching.
Most of what I see on TV now does the opposite. It tells you who to root for, who to hate and exactly how you're supposed to feel about all of it. It's shallow, and much of it galls flat. Of course, there are still exceptions every year, but the barrage of nonstop greatness the small screen gave us during the first two decades of the 21st century is long gone.
After this weekend, when “Artificial” and “Behemoth!” screen at NYFF, there won’t be many Oscar contenders left unseen. In fact, by my count, there are just two: ‘Cliff Booth,’ and “Dune: Part Three.”