100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century
Based on the list by The New York Times.
100 shows
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1. Breaking Bad
Crime, Drama, Thriller
A chemistry teacher facing cancer starts cooking meth with a former student, and gradually becomes a ruthless drug kingpin.
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2. The Wire
Crime, Drama
A wide-angle portrait of Baltimore told through police, drug crews, schools, politics, the docks, and the media.
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3. Mad Men
Drama
Advertising executives in 1960s New York sell dreams while navigating ambition, identity, marriage, and a rapidly changing America.
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4. Succession
Drama, Family
The dysfunctional Roy family fights over control of a global media empire as its aging patriarch refuses to let go.
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5. Fleabag
Comedy, Drama
A sharp, self-destructive London woman speaks directly to the audience while dealing with grief, sex, family, and intimacy.
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6. Game of Thrones
Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Noble families battle for power across a brutal fantasy continent while an ancient supernatural threat grows in the north.
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7. Veep
Comedy
An ambitious U.S. vice president and her chaotic staff stumble through Washington politics, ego, incompetence, and constant crisis.
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8. 30 Rock
Comedy
A TV comedy writer tries to manage eccentric stars, network executives, and her own messy life behind the scenes of a sketch show.
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9. Curb Your Enthusiasm
Comedy
A fictionalized Larry David turns tiny social annoyances into spectacularly awkward conflicts through stubbornness and terrible judgment.
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10. Atlanta
Comedy, Drama, Music
Two cousins try to build a rap career in Atlanta while moving through money problems, race, fame, and surreal everyday life.
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11. The Office (U.S.)
Comedy
A mockumentary about employees at a mundane paper company, led by a painfully inappropriate but oddly lovable regional manager.
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12. Arrested Development
Comedy, Family
The one responsible member of a formerly rich family tries to hold everyone together after his father is arrested.
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13. Girls
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Four young women in New York stumble through work, relationships, money, friendship, and adulthood with uncomfortable honesty.
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14. Friday Night Lights
Drama, Sports
High-school football becomes the center of life in a small Texas town, following players, families, coaches, and community pressure.
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15. Six Feet Under
Comedy, Drama
A family running a Los Angeles funeral home confronts death every day while struggling with love, resentment, identity, and change.
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16. The Office (U.K.)
Comedy
The original mockumentary follows an ordinary British office ruled by David Brent, a boss desperate to be funny and popular.
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17. The Americans
Drama, Espionage
Two Soviet spies live as a married American couple near Washington, D.C., balancing dangerous missions with increasingly real family ties.
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18. I May Destroy You
Comedy, Drama
A young writer in London reconstructs what happened after a sexual assault and reexamines consent, friendship, memory, and identity.
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19. Chernobyl
Drama, History
A dramatization of the 1986 nuclear disaster, the people who tried to contain it, and the institutional failures behind the catastrophe.
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20. The Crown
Drama, History
A dramatized history of Queen Elizabeth II's reign, focusing on the monarchy, politics, duty, marriage, and public life.
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21. The White Lotus
Comedy, Drama
Wealthy guests and resort workers collide during luxurious vacations where privilege, resentment, sex, and money slowly turn poisonous.
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22. Lost
Adventure, Drama, Supernatural
Survivors of a plane crash are stranded on a mysterious island filled with strange science, hidden groups, and supernatural secrets.
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23. The Comeback
Comedy
A fading sitcom actress lets a reality-TV crew film her attempted comeback, exposing humiliation, vanity, and the cruelty of show business.
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24. Deadwood
Crime, Drama, Western
In a lawless 1870s mining town, settlers, criminals, businessmen, and politicians build a society through violence, negotiation, and greed.
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25. The Leftovers
Drama, Science fiction, Thriller
After 2% of humanity suddenly vanishes, the people left behind struggle with grief, faith, cults, and the need for meaning.
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26. Black Mirror
Drama, Science fiction, Thriller
Standalone stories explore how technology can amplify human obsession, cruelty, loneliness, status anxiety, and unexpected moral choices.
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27. Better Call Saul
Crime, Drama, Legal
A struggling lawyer slowly transforms into Saul Goodman while his relationships and moral compromises pull him toward the criminal world.
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28. Band of Brothers
Action, Drama, War
A miniseries following Easy Company from paratrooper training through major World War II campaigns in Europe.
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29. Key & Peele
Comedy
Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key perform fast, inventive sketches about race, masculinity, pop culture, language, and social behavior.
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30. Severance
Drama, Mystery, Science fiction
Office workers undergo a procedure that completely separates their work memories from their outside lives, creating two selves in one body.
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31. Survivor
Adventure, Reality
Contestants live in harsh conditions, compete in challenges, form alliances, and vote one another out for a cash prize.
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32. Andor
Espionage, Science fiction, Thriller
A reluctant thief becomes part of the growing rebellion against the Galactic Empire in a grounded Star Wars espionage drama.
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33. Enlightened
Comedy, Drama
After a public breakdown and spiritual retreat, a corporate employee returns determined to become a better person and change her company.
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34. Schitt's Creek
Comedy
A wealthy family loses everything and must rebuild its life in a tiny town they once bought as a joke.
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35. True Detective (Season 1)
Crime, Drama, Thriller
Two Louisiana detectives revisit a ritualistic murder investigation that consumed their lives over seventeen years.
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36. The Pitt
Drama, Medical
A real-time-style hospital drama follows doctors and nurses through one intense shift in a crowded Pittsburgh emergency department.
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37. Battlestar Galactica
Drama, Science fiction, War
Humanity's survivors flee robotic Cylons in a military fleet while searching for Earth and questioning identity, faith, and survival.
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38. Homeland
Drama, Espionage, Thriller
A brilliant but unstable CIA officer suspects a rescued American POW may have been turned by terrorists.
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39. Watchmen
Action, Drama, Science fiction
Decades after masked vigilantes changed history, a detective investigates a conspiracy involving racism, police, power, and inherited trauma.
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40. Adolescence
Crime, Drama
A family is shattered when a teenage boy is arrested for the murder of a classmate, forcing everyone to confront how it happened.
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41. Louie
Comedy, Drama
A fictionalized comedian navigates parenting, dating, embarrassment, and existential anxiety in loosely connected stories set in New York.
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42. Hacks
Comedy, Drama, Romance
A legendary Las Vegas comedian and a young writer form a prickly partnership that evolves into rivalry, mentorship, and genuine attachment.
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43. Peaky Blinders
Crime, Drama, History
In post-World War I Birmingham, gang leader Tommy Shelby expands his criminal empire while battling rivals, police, and his own trauma.
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44. BoJack Horseman
Animation, Comedy, Drama
A washed-up sitcom star who is also a horse tries to revive his career while repeatedly sabotaging himself and the people around him.
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45. Happy Valley
Crime, Drama
A tough police sergeant in northern England confronts violent crime while carrying deep personal grief connected to a dangerous local man.
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46. Broad City
Comedy
Two broke best friends in New York turn jobs, dating, drugs, and everyday disasters into chaotic adventures.
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47. Twin Peaks: The Return
Crime, Drama, Mystery, Supernatural
Twenty-five years after the original series, Dale Cooper's story resumes in a strange, dreamlike expansion of the Twin Peaks universe.
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48. House of Cards
Drama, Thriller
A ruthless Washington politician and his equally ambitious wife manipulate, betray, and scheme their way toward greater power.
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49. Normal People
Drama, Romance
Two Irish teenagers from different social backgrounds repeatedly come together and drift apart as they move from school into adulthood.
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50. Parks and Recreation
Comedy
An relentlessly optimistic local-government employee and her oddball colleagues try to improve their small Indiana town.
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51. The Good Place
Comedy, Fantasy, Supernatural
A woman wakes up in the afterlife and realizes she may not belong there, leading to a comic exploration of ethics and what makes people good.
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52. Downton Abbey
Drama, Family, Romance
An aristocratic English family and its servants face love, scandal, war, inheritance, and social change in the early 20th century.
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53. Stranger Things
Drama, Horror, Science fiction
Kids in a small 1980s town encounter secret experiments, psychic powers, and a terrifying parallel dimension after a boy disappears.
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54. The Bureau
Drama, Espionage
French intelligence officers manage undercover agents and long-term false identities, where professional secrecy corrodes private life.
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55. Insecure
Comedy, Drama
Two Black women in Los Angeles navigate friendship, work, dating, ambition, and self-doubt while trying to figure out adulthood.
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56. Nathan for You
Comedy, Reality
Nathan Fielder offers small businesses absurd, elaborate marketing schemes while keeping a perfectly straight face.
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57. I Think You Should Leave
Comedy
Short, aggressively awkward sketches push ordinary social situations into bizarre arguments, meltdowns, and unforgettable nonsense.
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58. Chappelle's Show
Comedy
Dave Chappelle uses sketches and stand-up to satirize race, celebrity, politics, media, and American culture.
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59. PEN15
Comedy
Two adult creators play their own awkward 13-year-old selves among real teenage actors in a painfully accurate middle-school comedy.
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60. Peep Show
Comedy
Two dysfunctional London flatmates narrate their selfish, anxious thoughts directly to the audience while repeatedly ruining their lives.
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61. RuPaul's Drag Race
Reality
Drag performers compete in fashion, acting, comedy, and performance challenges to become America's next drag superstar.
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62. Slow Horses
Drama, Espionage, Thriller
Disgraced MI5 agents dumped in a dead-end department keep stumbling into real conspiracies under their brilliant, filthy, insulting boss.
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63. The Thick of It
Comedy
British government ministers and staff scramble through scandals and policy disasters while terrifying spin doctor Malcolm Tucker attacks everyone.
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64. Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown
Documentary, Food, Travel
Anthony Bourdain travels beyond tourist routes to understand places through food, politics, history, and conversations with local people.
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65. Mare of Easttown
Crime, Drama, Mystery
A small-town Pennsylvania detective investigates a murder while her own family life and community relationships are falling apart.
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66. The Rehearsal
Comedy
Nathan Fielder helps people rehearse difficult real-life situations through increasingly elaborate simulations that blur planning and reality.
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67. The Handmaid's Tale
Drama, Science fiction
In a totalitarian America, fertile women are forced into reproductive servitude while one handmaid struggles to survive and resist.
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68. Ozark
Crime, Drama, Thriller
A financial adviser moves his family to the Ozarks to launder money for a cartel, pulling them deeper into violence and corruption.
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69. Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
Documentary, Food, Travel
Bourdain explores cities and countries through their food, bars, street life, and people, with a skeptical and personal point of view.
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70. The Shield
Crime, Drama
A corrupt but effective Los Angeles police unit fights criminals while committing crimes of its own and trying to avoid exposure.
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71. Beef (Season 1)
Comedy, Drama
A road-rage incident between two strangers escalates into an obsessive feud that wrecks both of their lives.
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72. Squid Game
Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Desperate people compete in deadly versions of children's games for an enormous cash prize while wealthy spectators watch.
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73. Barry
Comedy, Crime, Drama
A depressed hitman discovers acting in Los Angeles and desperately tries to leave murder behind, but his past keeps following him.
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74. The Bear
Comedy, Drama, Food
A gifted chef returns to Chicago to run his family's chaotic sandwich shop, where grief, ambition, and kitchen pressure collide.
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75. Ted Lasso
Comedy, Drama, Sports
An upbeat American football coach is hired to manage an English soccer club despite knowing almost nothing about the sport.
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76. Somebody Somewhere
Comedy, Drama
A woman back in her Kansas hometown after loss finds friendship, music, and a community of outsiders who help her reconnect with life.
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77. Modern Family
Comedy, Family
Three connected households navigate parenting, marriage, aging, and everyday chaos in a mockumentary-style family sitcom.
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78. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Comedy
Five deeply selfish friends run a terrible Philadelphia bar and turn every petty scheme into a moral and practical disaster.
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79. The Good Wife
Crime, Drama, Legal
After her politician husband is disgraced, a lawyer returns to work and rebuilds her professional and personal identity.
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80. How To with John Wilson
Comedy, Documentary
A shy New Yorker films ordinary city life while trying to explain simple tasks, wandering into funny, strange, unexpectedly moving human stories.
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81. The Queen's Gambit
Drama
An orphaned chess prodigy rises through the competitive chess world while struggling with addiction, loneliness, and pressure.
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82. Better Things
Comedy, Drama, Family
A working actress raises three daughters in Los Angeles while caring for family and trying to preserve a life of her own.
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83. Justified
Crime, Drama, Western
A quick-drawing U.S. Marshal returns to his Kentucky hometown and clashes with criminals who often share his history.
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84. Planet Earth
Documentary, Nature
A landmark wildlife documentary explores Earth's habitats with spectacular photography of animals, landscapes, and natural behavior.
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85. The Great British Baking Show
Food, Reality
Amateur bakers compete in a friendly tent through weekly cake, bread, pastry, and dessert challenges.
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86. Shogun
Adventure, Drama, History
In 1600 Japan, an English sailor becomes entangled in a powerful lord's political struggle and a complex cross-cultural relationship.
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87. Reservation Dogs
Comedy, Drama
Four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma dream of leaving for California while dealing with friendship, grief, family, and community.
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88. Dexter
Crime, Drama, Mystery
A Miami blood-spatter analyst secretly lives as a serial killer who targets other murderers while trying to appear normal.
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89. Baby Reindeer
Comedy, Drama
A struggling comedian's encounter with an obsessive woman becomes stalking, forcing him to confront trauma and his own complicated choices.
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90. Eastbound & Down
Comedy, Drama, Sports
A washed-up, arrogant baseball pitcher returns to his hometown and tries to reclaim the fame he believes he deserves.
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91. Catastrophe
Comedy, Romance
An American man and an Irish woman become a couple after an unexpected pregnancy, then discover how messy marriage and parenting can be.
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92. The Night Of
Crime, Drama, Legal
A New York student wakes after a night with a stranger to find her murdered, and the justice system closes around him.
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93. Station Eleven
Adventure, Drama, Science fiction
After a pandemic destroys civilization, survivors rebuild lives through art, memory, friendship, and a traveling Shakespeare troupe.
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94. The Diplomat
Drama, Thriller
A career diplomat unexpectedly becomes U.S. ambassador to Britain and must manage international crises, Washington politics, and a difficult marriage.
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95. House
Drama, Medical, Mystery
A brilliant, abrasive doctor solves baffling medical cases while battling addiction, authority, and his own isolation.
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96. Halt and Catch Fire
Drama
Engineers and entrepreneurs chase the personal-computer and internet revolutions of the 1980s and 1990s while repeatedly reinventing themselves.
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97. Community
Comedy
A fake lawyer enrolls at a chaotic community college and forms a study group that becomes an unconventional family.
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98. The OA
Drama, Mystery, Science fiction
A missing blind woman returns years later with her sight restored and tells a strange story involving captivity, near-death experiences, and other dimensions.
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99. Gilmore Girls
Comedy, Drama, Romance
A fast-talking single mother and her teenage daughter navigate love, school, family expectations, and life in a quirky Connecticut town.
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100. Scandal
Drama, Thriller
A Washington crisis manager fixes scandals for powerful clients while becoming entangled with the White House and its secrets.
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