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Decade's top TV shows

Friday, December 11, 2009

1 of 11

'The Wire,' (2002-2008, HBO): The cops and robbers, politicians, educators, lawyers, union leaders and journalists who populated this HBO drama's inner-city Baltimore couldn't have hailed from a locale farther away from central casting. Complex and demanding, its characters filled with ambiguous and questionable motives and morals, "The Wire" was unlike any other cop show.

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(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

'The Wire,' (2002-2008, HBO): The cops and robbers, politicians, educators, lawyers, union leaders and journalists who populated this HBO drama's inner-city Baltimore couldn't have hailed from a locale farther away from central casting. Complex and demanding, its characters filled with ambiguous and questionable motives and morals, "The Wire" was unlike any other cop show.

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(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

'Survivor,' (2000-present, CBS): It's hard to overestimate the impact that this reality show has had on the television landscape. Based on a Swedish television series and introduced as a summer replacement series in 2000, "Survivor" became standard-issue water cooler fodder and allowed reality show god Mark Burnett the capital to re-create huge chunks of prime-time television in his own image.

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(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

'The Sopranos,' (1999-2007, HBO): Auteur David Chase's brutal, hilarious, dark and captivating saga of family politics and, ahem ... family politics in Jersey wasn't HBO's first original series, but, with its feature film quality writing, acting and production values, it set the standard by which all cable (and network) dramas would forever be compared, and it opened the door for the likes of "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad."

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(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

'Mad Men,' (2007-present, AMC): The spoiled, misogynistic child of Matthew Weiner (who cut his teeth as a writer on "The Sopranos"), AMC's ensemble period piece is an occasionally ponderous, slow-moving character study of surprisingly rich and numerous tones.

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(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

'Lost,' (2004-present, ABC): The plane crash. The smoke monster. The hatch. The Dharma Initiative. The Others. Never has a show so completely and continually confounded and upended the expectations and suppositions of its viewers.

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(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

'The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,' (1999-present, Comedy Central): Since Jon Stewart took over hosting duties from original host Craig Kilborn in 1999, "The Daily Show" has taken on a decidedly political bent. And as his political sway has grown, Stewart has finally become a bolder interviewer, asking tough questions of guests often appearing in hopes that some of the show's cool will rub off on them.

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(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' (2000-present, HBO): Larry David's HBO series belongs on this list just for the fact that it's the closest thing we've got to "Seinfeld."

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(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

'The Colbert Report', (2005-present, Comedy Central): Stephen Colbert does a better Bill O'Reilly than O'Reilly, and his faux conservative punditry allows him to speak truth to power in a decidedly devious fashion.

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(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

'Arrested Development,' (2003-2006, Fox): If shaky, one-camera shows such as "The Office" and "Modern Family" make you queasy, blame "Arrested Development" (2003-2006, Fox). If their cringe-inducing humor makes you laugh, well, you can thank Mitch Hurwitz's groundbreaking comedy for that, too.

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(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

'30 Rock,' (2006-present, NBC): Liz Lemon is no Mary Richards, but she retains Mary's pluck (and is just as groundbreaking) in a wacky ensemble comedy that skewers television, celebrity, politics, vanity, sex, class and race with hilarity and, often, insight.

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(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

'The West Wing,' (1999-2006, NBC): Before his own personal demons got the better of him, Aaron Sorkin's "The West Wing" was a critically lauded and popular ensemble drama that attempted to personalize politics for the masses.