The New York Times' list of the Greatest TV Shows of the 21st Century has only been live for a few days, but it has already stirred up plenty of discussion. While obvious favorites like Breaking Bad and Succession made the top 10, readers have taken issue with certain exclusions. Some audiences noted the inconsistent guidelines for eligibility, while others looked at the selective treatment of anthology shows, where only Season 1 of True Detective and Beef were selected while the entirety of Black Mirror secured a place.
The NYT's list also didn't distinguish between a show at its peak and one that subsequently went off the rails, which is presumably how Game of Thrones ended up in the top 10 despite its famously controversial final seasons. Of course, the NYT was faced with a tall task: Any attempt to narrow down more than two decades of television into a single 100-show ranking is inevitably going to be difficult, though the omissions are sometimes just as interesting as the inclusions. Some TV shows were clearly snubbed, and others were perhaps too obscure to have been seriously considered. In any case, here are 11 series that deserve a place on the list.
Review is hardly a mainstream show, but the NYT's list included many Nathan Fielder projects, as well as I Think You Should Leave and How To With John Wilson, which suggests that there could easily have been room for Andy Daly's virtuoso character-based comedy. The premise is simple: audiences send in various challenges for host Forrest MacNeil (Daly) to experience, after which he provides a review. The subjects range from simple experiences, like eating 15 pancakes and going to prom, to increasingly dangerous ideas, like joining a cult, being buried alive, and committing murder.
What begins as a parody of consumer-review television gradually becomes something far stranger. The joke isn't simply that Forrest is willing to do ridiculous things for his job; it is that he takes the show completely seriously, even as his increasingly destructive commitment to the show wrecks his life. At its most abstract, Review could be painfully funny.
The episode built around the phrase "There All Is Aching" turns an apparently meaningless challenge into one of the show's strangest and most introspective stories, while the cult and perfect-body episodes descend into absolute chaos. Through it all, Andy Daly is incredible. He fully embodies the polite, diffident, and endlessly game Forrest, which makes him one of television's great comic characters: simultaneously pathetic, arrogant, earnest, deluded, and occasionally heartbreaking. He's up there with Alan Partridge and Nathan Fielder as one of television's great comic creations.
If the New York Times is able to pick and choose individual seasons, so can readers. The first season of The Terror is a gripping, prestige thriller based on the doomed Franklin expedition, and it follows the crews of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror as they become trapped in Arctic ice while searching for the Northwest Passage. As food runs out, temperatures plummet, and morale collapses, the expedition becomes increasingly desperate, as a mysterious monster begins picking off crewmembers one by one.
What makes The Terror so effective is that the supernatural element never overwhelms the historical drama. The monster is frightening precisely because it is only one of many threats facing the men trapped in the ice, not least of which is the danger from within. A stellar cast including Jared Harris, Ciarán Hinds, Tobias Menzies, Paul Ready, and Adam Nagaitis provides some of the most nuanced, gripping, and layered performances in recent television.
Harris's Captain Crozier is particularly compelling, while Ready is perpetually endearing as the mild-mannered surgeon's assistant, Mr Goodsir. There are individual sequences that remain astonishing years later, from Crozier's speech announcing his intention to go cold turkey to the terrifying encounter between the creature and Mr. Blanky (Ian Hart). It's a historical drama, survival thriller, horror, and character study all at once. If we're allowed to pick individual seasons, The Terror Season 1 absolutely deserves a place on this list.
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