The New York Times’ list of this century’s 100 best TV shows is enraging – even though two of my shows are on it

The thing about lists – the ranking kind, not the shopping kind – is that they’re based on the idea of conflating the objective (Mount Everest is higher than Ben Nevis, and that’s a fact) with the subjective (Emmerdale is not better than Coronation Street, you just like it more). 

This is particularly true when applied to popular culture: yes, at the top of the tree, you can argue that Apocalypse Now is a better film than Revenge Of The Nerds II: Nerds In Paradise because it’s better written, better directed, better acted and has a deeper cultural resonance: but what do you when someone comes along and says that Star Wars is better than both of them? You either agree to differ or, more fun, you enter into a senseless battle of words which never ends.

The latest pop culture list to delight and enrage the world is the New York Times’ list of the Top 100 TV shows of the 20^th century. This list, with its selection committee of 500 television professionals, was controversial even before it was launched, after the NYT decided to leave out any show that premiered in the 1990s, thus ruling out The Sopranos (January 1999 to June 2007) at one pedantic stroke. 

As a list, it has to be said, reluctantly, that it’s not particularly fight-picking. There are no stunt entries or intentional horrors: The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is inconspicuous by its absence, and there are no cage-fighting shows or particularly egregious sitcoms included by the voters to “make a point.” 

In fact, the list’s main fault is how boilerplate and conservative it is. The top three shows according to the 500 voters are, in reverse order, Mad Men, The Wire and Breaking Bad. 

You might as well rename this list “Dad’s DVD Collection”: an impression reinforced by the top ten appearances of Succession, Curb Your Enthusiasm and 30 Rock: even the comedy has “quality” stamped on it (You slightly long for something a bit rogue to turn up, like The Big Bang Theory or the vastly under-rated Roseanne spin-off The Conners). 

Only the appearances of Fleabag at number five and Atlanta at number 10 undermine the gift-set conventionality (that and of course Veep at seven, a show whose genius transcends all convention).

After that, the list is pretty much just that: a list. People can be and will be and are arguing the toss in an endless internet scrum – is Station Eleven better than House? Is Andor better than Hacks? Can The Crown really be better than Better Call Saul? (the answer to all of these questions is no) – and it’s fun, but it’s all kind of meaningless. 

Who cares if Broad City is at 46 while Bojack Horseman is at 44: you could reverse those two positions and it wouldn’t mean anything different. In a world where 100 shows exist that have high production standards and the least of which can be described as “pretty good” it’s hard to argue that, say, Nathan For You, is better or worse than Mare Of Easttown. 

Fun is to be had from looking for patterns: it’s nice to see the career of, for example, Jesse Armstrong mapped out in random bursts, from Peep Show (no. 60 with Sam Bain) and The Thick of It (no. 63, with lots of people), to Succession (no. 4). And there are other patterns: if you want to know what the world – aka “America” – thinks of the UK, just cast an eye over the British TV shows it approves of.  Downton Abbey, The Crown, The Great British Baking Show, and Planet Earth on one hand, and on the other, Black Mirror, Slow Horses, The Office and I May Destroy You.

Britain, by the way, is not just particularly well-represented as a non-American  TV-producing nation in this list, it’s the only non-American TV-producing nation in this list – apart from Korea, whose Squid Game is called upon to stand for the entire 21^st centurt output of Korea, Asia and the entire rest of the world. Which is pathetically parochial: no Call My Agent (France), no Dark (Germany), no Colin From Accounts (Australia). It’s hard to imagine any other country being so solipsistically bad at including other countries’ television output: but there it is. 

This is, in the end, a conservative survey with no interest in either controversy or even excitement – a survey which doesn’t even acknowledge the extraordinary fourth season of the thrillingly odd True Detective, which puts Downton Abbey above Stranger Things, and which places Twin Peaks: The Return, the most extraordinary, terrifying, funny, and radical television series of all time at number 47. And where, pray, is Adventure Time, the greatest animation of modern times? 

Unforgivable and, yes, enraging.

David Quantick wrote for Veep and The Thick Of It. His new novel The Hyena is available soon from Stars & Sabers.

The NYT’s list in full is below:

1. Breaking Bad (2008-2013)

2. The Wire (2002-2008)

3. Mad Men (2007-2015)

4. Succession (2018-2023)

5. Fleabag (2016-2019)

6. Game of Thrones (2011-2019)

7. Veep (2012-2019)

8. 30 Rock (2006-2013)

9. Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-2024)

10. Atlanta (2016-2022)

11. The Office (U.S.) (2005-2013)

12. Arrested Development (2003-2019)

13. Girls (2012-2017)

14. Friday Night Lights (2006-2011)

15. Six Feet Under (2001-2005)

16. The Office (U.K.) (2001-2003)

17. The Americans (2013-2018)

18. I May Destroy You (2020)

19. Chernobyl (2019)

20. The Crown (2016-2023)

21. The White Lotus (2021-present)

22. Lost (2004-2010)

23. The Comeback (2005-2026)

24. Deadwood (2004-2006)

25. The Leftovers (2014-2017)

26. Black Mirror (2011-present)

27. Better Call Saul (2015-2022)

28. Band of Brothers (2001)

29. Key & Peele (2012-2015)

30. Severance (2022-present)

31. Survivor (2000-present)

32. Andor (2022-2025)

33. Enlightened (2011-2013)

34. Schitt’s Creek (2015-2020)

35. True Detective (Season 1) (2014)

36. The Pitt (2025-present)

37. Battlestar Galactica (2005-2009)

38. Homeland (2011-2020)

39. Watchmen (2019)

40. Adolescence (2025)

41. Louie (2010-2015)

42. Hacks (2021-2026)

43. Peaky Blinders (2013-2022)

44. BoJack Horseman (2014-2020)

45. Happy Valley (2014-2023)

46. Broad City (2014-2019)

47. Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)

48. House of Cards (2013-2018)

49. Normal People (2020)

50. Parks and Recreation (2009-2015)

51. The Good Place (2016-2020)

52. Downton Abbey (2010-2015)

53. Stranger Things (2016-2025)

54. The Bureau (2015-2020)

55. Insecure (2016-2021)

56. Nathan for You (2013-2017)

57. I Think You Should Leave (2019-present)

58. Chappelle’s Show (2003-2006)

59. PEN15 (2019-2021)

60. Peep Show (2003-2015)

61. RuPaul’s Drag Race (2009-present)

62. Slow Horses (2022-present)

63. The Thick of It (2005-2012)

64. Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (2013-2018)

65. Mare of Easttown (2021)

66. The Rehearsal (2022-present)

67. The Handmaid’s Tale (2017-2025)

68. Ozark (2017-2022)

69. Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (2005-2012)

70. The Shield (2002-2008)

71. Beef (Season 1) (2023)

72. Squid Game (2021-2025)

73. Barry (2018-2023)

74. The Bear (2022-2026)

75. Ted Lasso (2020-present)

76. Somebody Somewhere (2022-2024)

77. Modern Family (2009-2020)

78. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005-present)

79. The Good Wife (2009-2016)

80. How To With John Wilson (2020-2023)

81. The Queen’s Gambit (2020)

82. Better Things (2016-2022)

83. Justified (2010-2015)

84. Planet Earth (2006)

85. The Great British Baking Show (2010-present)

86. Shogun (2024-present)

87. Reservation Dogs (2021-2023)

88. Dexter (2006-2013)

89. Baby Reindeer (2024)

90. Eastbound & Down (2009-2013)

91. Catastrophe (2015-2019)

92. The Night Of (2016)

93. Station Eleven (2021-2022)

94. The Diplomat (2023-present)

95. House (2004-2012)

96. Halt and Catch Fire (2014-2017)

97. Community (2009-2015)

98. The OA (2016-2019)

99. Gilmore Girls (2000-2007)

100. Scandal (2012-2018)