My Top Ten TV Shows of the Decade

10. Entourage (HBO)

HBO’s hit comedy about the day-to-day life of a movie star has become one of those consistent, comfortable comedies whose characters feel like old friends to revisit each season.

9. Corner Gas (CTV)

Though many have not heard of this show, being a Canadian-made comedy about a town in Saskatchewan, it is a wonderfully fresh and funny show with a cast of great comic characters.

8. Planet Earth (BBC)

There has never been a nature show as well-crafted and as visually spectacular as this. It is the ultimate epic when it comes to informational programming, exploring the vast reaches of our home called Earth like no one has done before.

7. 24 (FOX)

24 was a fresh, new concept that worked. But setting the show in real-time was just the hook; it was the intensity of Jack Bauer and the everything-on-the-line tension which made this show a hit. Sure it could feel very contrived at times, but it always delivers gripping and sometimes shocking moments.

6. Battlestar Galactica (SCI-FI)

Who would have thought that the remake of a cheesy old Sci-Fi show would have any effect on the TV landscape at all? Well, Battlestar Galactica did by delivering great characters, deep themes, and strong emotions. This was a sci-fi show which took itself seriously, and therefore was able to get audiences to as well, creating a wonderful television space saga.

5. The Office (NBC)

What? They’re going to try to remake another British TV show? It’ll never work. Oh wait a minute… The American vision of the hilarious show The Office was able to take the brilliance of the original and really make it its own, giving minor characters their own niche and playing up the emotional development of the characters. And let’s face it; Steve Carrell is downright amazing.

4. Band of Brothers (HBO)

This ten-episode series told the tale of Easy Company in the Second World War, documenting its march across Nazi-occupied Europe. The battle scenes were incredible and the detail in which the war was depicted was stunning. We grew to care for each of the characters, who start out as almost faceless soldiers but become dear friends by the end. A spectacular feat of television story-telling.

3. The Office (BBC)

Yes, the American Office has gone on to six seasons of success and one of the most popular shows of the decade, but the original still remains the better of the two. The sarcasm and wit of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Marchant’s comedy is unsurpassed. David Brent is simply one of the greatest characters in the television pantheon, and practically every moment of the show’s short run is comedic gold.

2. Lost (ABC)

Lost is everything I want in a TV show; an exotic location, a serial storyline, unexplained mysteries and complex entanglements, and deep and well-defined characters. Everything comes together so well in this show, you keep thinking they have to drop the ball at some point, but they never do. This is simply one of the greatest shows television has ever offered.

1. The West Wing (NBC)

The West Wing is perhaps the best TV has to offer (other than the early seasons of The Simpsons). It is witty, dramatic, well-acted, well-directed, and written like no other show has ever been written. It is genius on almost every level. The show has made style changes through its seven years, moving from a more light-hearted dream vision of the White House, to a more dramatic and tense tone later on during a tough presidential election. I simply cannot get enough of The West Wing.