No. 91 – “The Good Place”
Premiere Date: September 19, 2016 (4 seasons)
NBC
One of two Mike Schur creations to make the overall list (you’ll easily guess the second one), “The Good Place” was the rare network comedy that focused on the complex subject of – gasp – morality. Eleanor (Kristen Bell), a deceased pharmaceutical rep, initially believes she has been brought to “The Good Place” (sort of heaven, sort of not) by mistake. She eventually discovers that a demon, Michael (Ted Danson), has sent her and three others to a disguised part of “The Bad Place” in something of a grand experiment. As the. series progresses, Eleanor, Jason (Manny Jacinto), Tahani Al-Jamil (Jameela Jamil), and Chidi (William Jackson Harper) discover whether their virtue can change and grow or if they are always destined to end up in “The Bad Place.” The fact that Schur convinced NBC to greenlight a program on the air knee deep in philosophy and ethical behavior is still incredible. The fact that it was so entertaining and refreshing in an era of snarky single-camera comedies was even more remarkable. We still can’t believe it even existed at all.
No. 90 – “The Comeback”
Premiere Date: June 5, 2005 (2 seasons)
HBO
In the early era of reality television, before social media, before Facebook, Michael Patrick King and Lisa Kudrow saw something. They saw a mechanism where the C-listers, the almost “stars,” could desperately find a new way to their desired 15 minutes of fame. They threw a grenade into this powderkeg of Hollywood narcissism, one of the most unforgettable creations in the history of television, Valerie Cherish (Kudrow). Decidedly not an actor’s actor (Kudrow has stated Valerie “is not an artist”), Cherish has been looking to return to the paparazzi heights of her hit sitcom that ended a decade prior. She gets on a new show by agreeing to have her “comeback” covered in an all-access reality series. Over two seasons (the second set nine years later), Cherish sees her personal life upended again and again in hopes of career glory. Can she find love and win a coveted Emmy without humiliating herself in the process? Filled with a ton of deep-cut inside television industry jokes, “The Comeback” is 21 episodes of surprisingly grounded moments dipped in a vat of hilarious cringe that’s just waiting for Gen Z to rediscover it.
No. 89 – “Mindhunter”
Premiere Date: October 13, 2017 (2 seasons)
Netflix
Filmmaker David Fincher never met a serial killer story he didn’t love. Despite many attempts at TV (“Videosyncrazy,” “Utopia”) and a brief directorial stint getting “House Of Cards,” launched (though he did exec produce throughout), “Mindhunter” was Fincher’s first full-blown series as director and de facto showrunner. Lasting only two seasons—expensive to produce an not enough eyeballs to justify the cost—while “Seven,” and “Zodiac,” certainly featured crime procedural elements, “Mindhunter” took the idea to another level followed the founding of the Behavioral Science Unit in the FBI that led to the original of criminal profiling. Holt McCallany played a hardened by-the-book veteran FBI agent, and Jonathan Groff played a much younger, more naive, driven and ambitious agent, playing up the idea of psychological mind hunters. Anna Torv co-starred alongside Hannah Gross, Cotter Smith and directors on the super engrossing series, including Andrew Dominik (“Blonde”)and Carl Franklin (“One False Move”). – Rodrigo Perez
No. 88 – “The Bear”
Premiere Date: June 23, 2002 (3 seasons)
FX
Christopher Storer’s breakout is, at times, the most intense dramedy ever released on television or streaming. Through fast-paced cutting and potent performances, Storer brought the inherent tension and exhilaration of working at a restaurant to life like no one before him. The show turned “Yes, chef!” into a pop culture slang and the aforementioned Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri into household names. The second season features one of the best stand-alone episodes of any program this decade, the 66-minute “Fishes,” which featured an absolute guttural turn from Jamie Lee Curtis as Carmy’s alcoholic mother, Donna. By the end of season two, with Carmy (White) about to launch his new restaurant, Storer appeared on a narrative roll. Then season three dropped, and it felt like the show began spinning in circles a bit. There’s at least one more season to go, arriving later this month, so it’s possible that 25 years from now, history and perspective will propel the FX standout even higher on this list. But it’s not quite there yet.
No. 87 – “Justified”
Premiere Date: March 16, 2010 (6 seasons)
FX
A contemporary Western set in Kentucky, Graham Yost’s “Justified” centers on a marshal (Timothy Olyphant, quite familiar with this sort of role), sent back to Harlan County, where he was raised and thought he’d escaped for good. As he deals with the exploits of multiple crime families and numerous romantic flings, he has all corners of his past catching up with him season after season. Yost’s celebrated dialogue, some fantastic gunfights, Olyphant’s charismatic performance, and some wonderful co-stars (hello Walton Goggins) made this an unconventional hit with audiences and critics alike. It’s a narrative scenario often imitated by other showrunners, but never duplicated.
No. 86 – “Bojack Horseman”
Premiere Date: August 24, 2014 (6 seasons)
Netflix
One of the first original Netflix series is still one of its best. Set in a world where humans and animals co-exist, the title character (voiced by Will Arnett) is a depressed actor still living off the residuals of his 1990s sitcom in his Hollywoo Hills home (the “d” was stolen). Teaming up with a ghostwriter, Diane (Alison Brie), he begins writing a tell-all autobiography he hopes will lead to a career comeback. The show took political correctness seriously, tackling sexual assault, the #MeToo era, and the hypocrisy of gun rights, among other issues. Full of Hollywood references, the show took some very dark turns. Bojack wasn’t always easy to root for, but series creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg and his talented writers’ room always found a way to make these 2-D animated characters feel painfully real.
No. 85 – “The Real Housewives” (Franchise)
Premiere Date: March 21, 2006 (Real Housewives of Orange County)
Bravo
You may snicker at its inclusion, but since its inception, the “Real Housewives” franchise has been one of the most influential programs in American pop culture. Usually centered on 6-8 upper-middle-class women in a particular city (some wealthier than others), their social dynamics play out like a real-life soap opera, touching on every possible social issue you can imagine. Over 11 individual franchises so far, the women have dealt with sexual assault, substance abuse, parental loss, and racism. The show has even made the news with two cast members convicted and jailed for financial crimes. Aspiration viewing for many, the show has also transformed some of its cast members into household names, spurred numerous parodies on stage, screen, and television, and changed how the larger world views communities in Atlanta, Orange County, Salt Lake City, and Virginia (some for better, some for worse). For all the justified critiques of the series, and there are many, and moments have clearly been manipulated by producers (as with most reality programs), the show continues to chronicle the lives of successful women rarely seen on the big or small screen. They have even launched a fashion line or two.
No. 84 – “Ozark”
Premiere Date: July 21, 2017 (4 seasons)
Netflix
At first, this Netflix series felt like middling drama cast through a knock-off David Fincher lens. And while eyebrows remained raised aesthetically, Bill Dubuque, Mark Williams, and Jason Bateman’s opus proved to be much more than that. When Marty (Bateman) screws up a money laundring scheme for a mexican cartel, he drags his family from Chicago to the Ozarks of Missouri in hopes of pulling of a better scheme to make ammends. As the months and years go by, his family becomes dangerously sucked into his exploits, as the local con artists and criminals weave their way into the mix. Bateman, who helmed the nine episodes overall, and returning directors Alik Sakharov, Andrew Bernstein, and Amanda Marsalis, kept the tension high and the emotions on a fever’s breath. Beyond Laura Linney’s stellar work as Marty’s often frusted but complicit wife, Wendy, the series was a spectacular showcase for Julia Garner as Ruth, a local girl attempting to escape her poor economic upbringing by any means necessary. At times, Garner’s performance was as good or better than any work by any other actor in any other medium that year. Peppered with great cliffhangers, “Ozark” was also smart enough not to overstay its welcome, letting its story unfold over a tight but fulfilling four seasons.
