Best of the 00s (or So I Hear): 10 Shows I Assume I'll Watch Eventually

If you haven't gleaned as much so far, I watch a lot of television. Even so, there are a lot of critically acclaimed and cult-popular shows that I never quite got to this decade. Here are ten shows from the past ten years that I hope to watch sometime in the next ten:

1. The Wire (2002-2008)

Every bit of acclaim that The Wire gets for being one of television's greatest series makes me feel increasingly fraudulent as a television fan for not having watched it. It was going to be my next great Netflix undertaking this summer, after I finished Six Feet Under, but then my dad was all, "You know, to truly appreciate The Wire, you really should watch a few seasons of Homicide first." After gaping at him for a few minutes (Watch Homicide first ?!? Doesn't he know I have academic work I'm supposed to be doing?) I put The Wire on the backburner. It's probably the first show I'll tackle come 2010.

2. The Sopranos (1999-2007)

The Sopranos is sort of in the same category as The Wire, but the show permeated pop culture to such an extent that actually taking the step to watch it feels less vital. It comes up frequently enough in discussion of former Sopranos writer Matthew Weiner's Mad Men, though, that only sticking to what floated up in the zeitgeist feels insufficient.

3. Firefly (2002-2003)

I never felt compelled to be a Whedonite until I started watching Dollhouse last year. That show has been imperfect, but its highs have been insanely good - upon completion of the unbelievably good DVD-only Season One finale "Epitaph One," I said to myself, "You know, maybe I really should watch Firefly." The one-season run of Firefly is often cited as emblematic of Fox's mid-decade quick-cancellation fever, but even a few episodes made the people who love it total fanatics.

4. Deadwood (2004-2006)

My interest in Deadwood was piqued by two post-Deadwood shows featuring former stars of the Wild West revamp - Kings, which starred Ian McShane, and Swingtown, which starred Molly Parker. Plus, there's a lot of inventive cursing, which I can always get behind.

5. 24 (2001-present)

I don't really want to watch 24, but I feel like I should. The whole "he-man, America - Fuck, Yeah!" thing has never really appealed to me in a casual TV-watching sense, but as an American Studies student, I can't avoid the impact it's had as the post-9/11 show (at least on broadcast networks). It'll happen eventually, but Jack Bauer might have to drag me there kicking and screaming.

6. Breaking Bad (2008-present)

AMC's success with Mad Men has, by most accounts, been continued with Breaking Bad. The fact that Bryan Cranston has beat out Jon Hamm and the rest of the dramatic actor cohort twice at the Emmys, which are not exactly a bastion of forward thinking, convinced me that I will eventually give Breaking Bad a try.

7. Sons of Anarchy (2008-present)

I started watching SoA when it premiered last year, but it got lost in the shuffle of the new fall TV schedule and apparently I never quite got to the point where the show saw a dramatic uptick in quality. Also, Charlie Hunnam doing an American accent invariably reminds me of the one Undeclared episode where Lloyd does a hilariously bad James Van Der Beek in Varsity Blues impersonation (I wish I could find this clip on YouTube, but searches were sadly unsuccessful.) However, I can't ignore the crazy love the show's been getting during the second season this fall, and, I won't lie, I was thrilled when they beat Jay Leno in the ratings.

8. The Shield (2002-2008)

The Shield is sort of third behind The Wire and The Sopranos - if you read a lot of television criticism from the past decade, it's impossible to avoid. Like Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston, the acclaim around Michael Chiklis' performance in The Shield makes the show undeniably intriguing.

9. Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-present)

Part of me wonders if Larry David isn't too misanthropic for me. Generally speaking, I'm a big fan of cynicism and dark humor, but watching a bunch of Woody Allen movies for a class a few years ago made me realize that there is some humor that is just too bleak for me. I'll probably give Curb a chance, but I might not watch more than a few seasons.

10. Carnivale (2003-2005)/Rome (2005-2007)

Okay, this is two shows. But they essentially represent the same thing: HBO shows that only aired for a few seasons, beloved by their audiences, that I missed due to non-access to their network.