Dec

5 Best Television Shows of the Decade

By: Bobby Finstock on 12/31/09 @ 7:55 am

We continue to trend of me giving you my unsolicited opinion on what you should like and what you shouldn’t like from over the last decade. Before we dive in I should give one show some props.

Honorable Mention- Jersey Shore

The show would have made the list if they didn’t pussy out and actually showed Snooki getting punched in the face. But alas MTV didn’t and now it has fallen to honorable mention.

5) Lost- I watched Lost since the first episode and feel like I have some sort of commitment to see it all the way through. Personally I think this show is like a really difficult girlfriend. There are times when you want to strangle it or shove it down a flight of stairs (Season 3) in a drunken rampage and there are other times you want to cover it in chocolate syrup before making sweet love to it. The hope is that the sweet love part of it outweighs the burning desire to commit spousal abuse. So far the sweet love has won out. (Note: This is the only network show to make the list… )

4) The Shield- This was one of those shows that I got into late. I have a commitment issue (shocker) with TV shows. There are only so many shows I can commit to at any one time, if I get past that number of shows I feel like I am watching too much television and hate myself. The Shield as always on the outside looking in, then I picked it up in it’s fourth season and went back and watched everything. In a medium that has played to cop show angle to death this to me has become the ultimate example of an awesome police show.

It also is a great study in creating characters that at times have no redeemable qualities yet you still have some sort of emotional investment in them. Oh and it led to my most embarrassing international incident of the decade.

3) Curb Your Enthusiasm- I thought about putting Arrested Development here but after this last season of Curb I had to say that I made the switch. At times vulgar, totally demented, and tied into the best show ever, Seinfeld, I can’t get enough of it. Plus it gave me my new favorite joke.

2) The Daily Show- I don’t think this show gets enough credit at how influential and powerful it actually is. This show has made SNL almost totally irrelevant, it exploded the careers of Colbert (Colbert Report), Carell (The Office), and a slew of other people spreading their wings into sitcoms and movies.

Also it is just consistently good. With the amount of episodes they churn out in a year they continually have high quality episodes. Maybe Jay Leno can take some notes? (I hope they cancel his horribly fucking show.)

1) The Wire- This is simply the best show that has ever been on television. I’ve tried to convert every single person I know into a fan, anyone that has watched a few episodes gets hooked. Admittedly it isn’t the easiest show to absorb and get into but when you do it simply will destroy your world.

I’ve never had a show made me think about the structure of government, police, the drug trade, the press, and the education system all while entertaining men, making me laugh, making me cry, and teaching me about the drug trade… I think I could even run a corner at this point.

What are some of your favorite shows of the decade?