Here at The Pop Break, our staff follows a wide variety of television series spanning across genres, networks, and even formats.
In fact, the 2010s found the world of television exploding to new heights, with countless streaming services and a seemingly never ending parade of series launching or returning each week. Think of it this way: at the beginning of the decade, we didn’t know what it meant to “binge watch.” Now, we do it practically every weekend.
So, instead of ranking our favorite series, we decided to try and honor them all. Below, find a few of our choices for Best TV Shows of the Decade. The decade wouldn’t be the same without them.
Please Note: Our criteria for Best TV Shows of the Decade were as followed –
Any series chosen must have aired in the 2010s. Shows must have run for more than one season — so shows that concluded their run in 2010 or premiered in 2019 are excluded from this list. So, that’s why Watchmen and The Mandalorian are not on this list — although they would be. The exception to this rule is a series that was canceled after one season, or is a limited series.
Please note that the choices for Best TV Shows of the Decade are in alphabetical order, not in any sort of ranking order.
Photo Credit: Guy D’Alema/FX
Atlanta (FX – 2016-Present)
After his scene-stealing work on NBC’s Community, it was clear that Donald Glover would go on to do something great whether it be on the screen or under his musically moniker Childish Gambino. What we didn’t expect is for him to succeed at both at such a rapid pace. His music became a viral sensation with a powerful message about the state of our nation and he’s starred in some of the biggest movies of the past few years. However, the project most dear to him and the most breathtaking was his FX series Atlanta.
Glover stars as Earn Marks, a sometimes-homeless Atlanta native who soon sees a chance to become a music manager once his cousin, played by Brian Tyree Henry, starts to blow up in the local rap scene. This may be the basic premise, but the show is so much more than a simple underdog story. One episode is dedicated to a fictional news show similar to Charlie Rose complete with satirical commercials while another, the now iconic episode “Teddy Perkins,” is essentially a horror story.
Atlanta moves from hilarious absurdity to hard-hitting commentary about race and poverty in such a quick but seamless manner that viewers never really know what they’ll get whenever a new episode premiers. Will it be an episode about Drake’s house party? An episode detailing the difficulty of losing a mother and moving on? Or is it simply about trying to get a haircut? Whatever Glover decides to be the plot of the next episode when it returns next year, it is sure to just as enthralling and unpredictable as it’s already been.
-Tyler Zucker
