Top 20 TV Shows of the Decade: #15 - #11

#15. HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER. By reading the concept, it sounds pretty weak and lame. But catching on a weekly basis? This show is brilliant: Take your standard weekly sitcom and add the serial nature of a "quest" which seems to be all the rage these days. A slightly more realistic version of “Friends”, I admit there’s probably some bias because the main cast of characters are of the same age as me so in terms of flashbacks and experiences, I get it. Still, featuring a Canadian is always a plus, and the contributions to popular culture have been outstanding: Awesomeness, Slap Bets, Suit Up, The Hot/Crazy Scale, Woo-Girls, Legen…wait for it…Dary. Also, without HIMYM the rest of us wouldn't be aware that Canadians are afraid of the dark.


#14. CRIMINAL MINDS. Any doubts about this show were squelched with the shocking 100th Episode 2 weeks ago. Can’t quite call it original – crime procedurals have been around since TV was invented. But the subject matter and methodology separate this from the flotsam and jetsam like CSI: Dumont, NCIS and Law and Order: Building Permits Bureau Enforcement. Can’t tell you how many times someone said to me “Did you see Criminal Minds last week? It gave me nightmares”. Side note after last night: It was pretty messed up that Gideon didn’t go to the funeral.

#13. DEADWOOD. Al Swearengen might have been the best anti-hero of the decade and the first two seasons were among the best of any HBO Show. But the lackluster directionless wind down of the show left a pretty sour taste. All that being said, it’s not easy to make a Western/Frontier interesting these days. As a culture we’ve kind of outgrown it. That didn’t stop Deadwood though. Probably responsible for the greatest quote of the decade: “Won’t You Let Me Go To Hell the way I want to?”


#12. CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM. There’s two questions about my likes and dislikes that I’ve heard hundreds of times. First is “How can you love Bill Clinton and hate Hillary Clinton?” The second: “How can you hate Seinfeld and love Curb Your Enthusiasm?” The answer to both is simple: Cause I do. I don’t think I laughed as hard at a television show ever as I did when LD’s obituary for Cheryl’s “Beloved Aunt” had a typo replacing the “A” with a “C”.


#11. SCRUBS. The show that just won’t die. 2 cancellations, a few extended hiatuses, and a network switch, yet it’s still kicking and is one of the longest running shows on television now. Some of the characters can be annoying at times, but the balance between severity and hilarity is perfectly stricken. With characters like Bob Kelso, Perry Cox, and of course, Jan I Tor, rarely does Scrubs swing and miss. Not since Webster were we so graciously taught a new life lesson on a weekly basis.