Vacation Robo-Post: I Love the '00s Week, Best Drama

Well, I can only come up with two dramas that I've ever loved: The X-Files (ended in 2002) and Lost.

In no particular order:
- Battlestar Galactica
- The Wire
- Band of Brothers
- Lost
- Six Feet Under

My Top 5 Best Dramas of the 00's:

*FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
*LOST
*SIX FEET UNDER
*DAMAGES
*THE SOPRANOS
*BIG LOVE
Runner-Up: ROME (because it ended way too early after only 2 seasons and the timeline was heavily rushed in the 2nd just to finish up that period of history. I would have preferred a much slower burn and longer time for events to develop. What they accomplished though was brilliant.

To me, these represent the best acted, written, most emotional, real human dramas that have come along in this decade. It was much easier then say the 80's or 90's because unfortunately most of this decade's television is about at the level of dog turd so each of these shows are truly intelligent, quality programming.

I could go with The Wire seasons 1-5 as the five best dramatic series of the decade, but to bring a little more variety:
-The Wire
-The Sopranos
-Deadwood
-Battlestar Galactica
-Lost

Considered, but rejected: The West Wing (the non-Sorkin seasons), Mad Men (If all that cigarette smoke coalesced into a smoke monster, it might replace Lost.)

In no particular Order
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-Battlestar Gallactica
-Lost
-The Sopranos
-Breaking Bad
-The Wire

Ouch. Only five? Then we start to get into the iffy questions of peak episodes vs. average quality (do the vast catalog of bad X-Files episodes cancel out the few spectacular ones, like Clyde Bruckman), and length vs. importance - can short (or new) series like Mad Men, Rome, & Breaking Bad really compete with The Sopranos? Add in that most people either have unnecessary nostalgia for old series (such as Buffy) or forget anything made more than two years ago, and I suspect these lists will be very different.
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So, if forced:
Lost
The Shield
The Sopranos
The Wire
Deadwood

For obvious reasons:
The Wire
Battlestar Galactica
Lost
The Shield
30 Rock

Runner Ups
Mad Men - Needs one more great year to make the final cut.
Soprano's - I know it'll make the official list, but I still think it's overhyped at this point.
Deadwood - Do you think Milch or HBO wishes they would have done another year or two out of this instead of ditching it for John From Cincinnati?
Friday Night Lights - Might have made the final list but that murder plot from season 2 is always going to be a black mark on it's permanent record. BTW, are we all just pretending that never happened now because I don't think it was mentioned once in season 3? It's best that way, really....

Gotta go with the following:
- The Wire
- Lost
- West Wing (the bulk of the series was post 2000)
- Sopranos
- Friday Night Lights
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In the "it's really hard to leave these out category: Battlestar Galactica (it's a tie with all of the above, save The Wire and Lost which are in their own universe of awesomeness), Veronica Mars, Buffy, and Band of Brothers (although its really more of a mini-series, so it should be in its own category).
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Also deserving some mention: Six Feet Under (although it was painful to watch for me, starting with the kidnapping and forced drug use of Michael C. Hall's character), Boston Legal (ended up being way too goofy, and I still can't help but hold a grudge at Spader winning Emmys at the expense of Kyle Chandler), and House.

I have no explanation as to why I read a headline and post that clearly said best DRAMA and then put 30 Rock on the list. I think I'm having a stroke...
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So Mad Men benefits from my brain cramp and moves up a slot on my top five. I'm sure they're very proud.

My list isn't gonna be very unique.
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-The Sopranos (duh)
-Lost (proof that popularity and quality aren't mutually exclusive)
-Friday Night Lights (dips into melodrama, but it's brilliant moments and its heart win a spot)
-The Shield (pretty much for its unflinching nerve)
-Mad Men (such a cold fish, but I can't deny its fierce intelligence)
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Honorable Mention: Battlestar Galactica, Six Feet Under, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dexter
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Disclaimer: I have not seen The Wire, Deadwood, or Breaking Bad, which I hear are great.

Lost
Mad Men
Friday Night Lights
BSG
and just because you mentioned it: Buffy
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No HBO for me, so I can't really attest to The Sopranos or The Wire, although I'm willing to believe that they deserve to be ranked in the top 5 as well. I can also imagine a case being made for CSI (original flavor) and ER (ah sweet nostalgia).

Hi, first time commenter. Had to comment because I've long held the view that the telly of the last ten years is unmatched. Great blog by the way. Top 5 in order of greatness-
The Sopranos
The Wire
Mad Men
Deadwood
They rolled out, I'm finding the last one difficult...probably BSG but if this season of in treatment is as good as the last that could change.
I bet James' top five (no particular order) is-
Sopranos
The Wire
Lost
Buffy
maybe the shield or BSG. could be wrong, haven't been reading the blog for that long.

Limiting it to 5 is proving to be tough.

1. The Shield
2. The Wire
3. Sopranos

Are all locks for the top 3 (I am surprised are not including The Shield)

From there it gets tricky. Lost has some great stuff, but there is a chance the last season sours the whole series for me (this is why BSG is not on my list). Buffy was a fine show, but the best season (2) was predecade. Similar with The West Wing, though, I really liked later season 6 and most of 7.

Hmmm.

4. Deadwood
5. Gilmore Girls

Thats right, Gilmore Girls.

I'm gonna change the tenor of this conversation ever-so-slightly and just note that in all the lists so far, the majority of the shows were not on network TV. (Except Chaddogg, but I sorta consider FNL a hybrid.) Curiouser and curiouser...

@Matt -- definitely interesting on the non-network tenor of these lists, and proof (no doubt) of James' critique that while networks may be dying, it doesn't mean television as a whole is.
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@Ashman -- West Wing only had 10 episodes (the first 10 of the series) air in the 1990s (if you accept, as I do, the somewhat contrarian view that the 2000s started on January 1, 2000, rather than January 1, 2001). That leaves episode highlights like "In the Shadow of Two Gun Men," "Noel," "Two Cathedrals," "Let Bartlett Be Bartlett," and many others as 2000s era West Wing episodes....I'd find it hard pressed not to include it on a top 5 list.
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@profdante -- I think you're dead right on CSI being included on the list....I just can't find room for it on mine. I'd actually bump Sopranos out of the ones I've listed (too many listless seasons/episodes), but that means I'm still putting CSI on the list and leaving off Sopranos, BSG, and others out of the Top 5.....so CSI stays off, but joins the "should be listed, but couldn't bump anyone" list. And @Ashman -- I'd categorize Gilmore Girls as a comedy, but if you count it as a drama, consider it one that I would add to the "just missed it" list as well.

1) The Wire (Perhaps the best show of all time)
2) Lost
3) Deadwood (agreed with others: HBO and Milch were stupid to give up . . . giving Ian McShane a role he can sink his teeth into should be a national priority. Get on it, Obama!)
4) Battlestar Galactica
5) West Wing

West Wing
Lost
The Wire
Firefly (limited episodes be damned)
Sopranos (the great ones made up for Chaddogg's acknowledged slow ones)
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As much as I love Buffy, the comedic moments were the parts I treasured most, so I'll have to slot that one under comedy later.

no particular order...

West Wing
Lost
Jekyll (BBC)
Sopranos
Friday Night Lights

almost made it - Party of Five's last episodes were in the spring of '00, but it was the 1st few seasons (in the 90s) that were awesome. The last seasons were too forced.

The two that easily spring to mind are FNL and West Wing. I think I'd have to add Mad Men, Big Love, and Six Feet Under to round out the five...
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But only because I'm counting Gilmore Girls as a comedy.

@ Ashman. Can't put GG in my top five list and I think we are going into Comedy or Dramedy territory here, BUT your instincts are dead on. GG was one of the best written shows of the late nineties/early zeroes. Lorelai, Rory, Luke and the whole Stars Hollow gang are one of the best ensembles in TV history. And Sherman/Palladino really gave Sorkin a run for his money in the fast talking/witty banter writer category. Ashman, people have no idea just how good this show was.

@ James/Cylon-James. Can we do a Most Underappreciated TV Shows list? Let me start off by nominating Gilmore Girls and Le Femme Nikita.

@joe - You bring up a really good point, mentioning dramadies. When they're done well, I think it's the perfect kind of show. Although, when you get into comedies doing "serious" episodes, it gets blurry. I'd be hard pressed to classify Scrubs as a dramady since it rarely lets a serious beat go by without a throwaway joke (or commercial break) to lessen the tension. But the vast, vast majority of their episodes have very "serious" moments, arcs, etc. Eh, what the hell, I'll lump it in.
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Chuck and The Office are my two other top dramadies. Yes, I consider Office a dramady.

(Disclaimer: I never could get into Gilmore Girls, but episodes I've seen, I did enjoy. So it's provisionally on my list.)

The four that have to be on the list:

Lost
Sopranos
The Wire
BSG

That fifth spot is open. Confession, I've never actually seen the Sopranos, and I have no intentions of ever doing so, but you cannot deny the awesome power and significance of the show.

I defer to Chaddogg's superior recall. For some reason I had West Wing first coming onto the air in like 97. Though I question his parameters for "decade" I concede the point and hereby amend my list to include The West Wing. In doing so, I remove Deadwood. This fits in nicely with my other thoughts about not including incomplete shows. While cancelled and never to be heard from again, Deadwood never really got its full shake.
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As for Gilmore Girls being more of a comedy then a drama. Eh. I guess. It was an hour long show where most if not all of the episodes featured non-comic major plots and or characters. It may be a more light hearted drama then the Sopranos, but I stand it by it.
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profdante raises an interesting point about CSI, and tangentially, I am surprised no one has brought up 24. Personally, I discounted CSI for the same reason as I did Boston Legal (a show I profoundly adore). The procedural/courtroom drama really came into full bore during/before the 90s. CSI and Legal are great takes on old tropes, but they lack a sense of "I've never seen anything quite like this".

The Wire
Deadwood
Breaking Bad
Mad Men
Lost/West Wing

@Ashman -- wow, can't believe I left off 24. That show should get some SERIOUS consideration for the best-of-2000s list, even if its formula devolved a bit into parody of itself in these late seasons.....season 1 is still one of the greatest seasons any show has ever had...
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Speaking of, there is a GREAT question: best single season of a show (splitting it into comedy and drama categories)? I'll go with Friday Night Lights Season 1 for drama, although its REALLY hard to do so when you could pick The Wire Season 4. Call it a tie.