25 Most Spectacular Streaming and Cable TV Shows of the Decade

Great television has become so plentiful in the past decade that deciding what to watch next can sometimes feel overwhelming.

With cable channels like AMC and FX expanding their scripted offerings, and new streaming services popping up with every passing year, there are more compelling stories on TV than ever before. And with such a massive catalog, it’s also harder to decide which shows might be worth watching.

If you’re worried you might have missed something outstanding in the shuffle, take a look at this list of our favorite scripted cable and streaming shows of the decade (listed in no particular order).

1. American Vandal 

This true-crime mockumentary applies the rigorous investigative format of Making a Murderer to a fictional, but no less compelling, mystery: who drew the dicks?

Sure, American Vandal contains plenty of juvenile jokes, but its absurdist humor somehow translates into a moving portrait of the intense pressures of adolescence in the digital age. As one character puts it: “We’re not the worst generation; we’re just the most exposed.”

The show’s documentary style allows for moments of striking intimacy, which, coupled with acting performances that feel genuine and authentic, help elevate it beyond mere parody to something much deeper and more sophisticated.

American Vandal asks its audience to consider our own biases, to reflect on who we’re instinctually willing to sympathize with and who we’d rather disbelieve.

2. Rectify

Rectify is the story of Daniel Holden, a man released from death row after serving nineteen years in prison for a murder he may or may not have committed.

There’s plenty of drama inherent in the show’s Southern Gothic storytelling, but what makes Rectify special is its quiet, meditative focus on how a reprieve from certain death impacts Daniel’s psyche.

The show tackles the consequences and aftermath of trauma with stunning tenderness, reveling in the way that ordinary things become beautiful to someone experiencing a second chance at life.

3. Sweet/Vicious 

In this scripted MTV show from Jennifer Kayton Robinson, a sorority girl and a pot-dealing hacker team up to bring vigilante justice to their campus’ rapists and abusers. It’s a clever update on a classic odd-couple superhero story, one that’s empowering, funny, but also serious about its subject matter.

Despite its cancelation after one season, Sweet/Vicious makes our Best of the Decade list because it’s hard to imagine a show more relevant and necessary in an era of reckoning with rape culture. Art that gives women a voice to express their rage and exercise their own agency is more crucial now than ever.

R.I.P., Sweet/Vicious — gone but not forgotten.

4. Orphan Black

Nearly one hundred percent of why Orphan Black deserves a spot on this list is because of Tatiana Maslany’s performances as ten (!) different characters.

Maslany plays five of the show’s main characters (and five other less prominent clones) so brilliantly and uniquely that you forget you’re watching one actor on screen in so many multi-character scenes.

Very few shows and actors could pull this off without appearing gag-like, and Orphan Black‘s 68 awards (23 of which went to Maslany, alone) highlight this feat.

5. Atlanta

Starring, written, and produced by the supremely talented Donald Glover, Atlanta is a half-hour dramedy about a Princeton University drop-out and aspiring talent manager who can’t seem to catch a break.

Atlanta is a surreal love letter to the strange, tragic, beautiful contradictions of life in Atlanta’s black community. It finds humor in situations that should be too serious to laugh at and leverages the acting talents of its four leads (Glover, Brian Tyree Henry, Lakeith Stanfield, and Zazie Beetz) to bring life to a show unlike any other on television.

6. Fleabag

Having created the outstanding cat-and-mouse drama Killing Eve and co-written a forthcoming James Bond film, it’s safe to say that Phoebe Waller-Bridge is having herself a bit of a moment.

But her best work of the decade is Fleabag, a two-season series about a sex-obsessed disaster trying to survive a flood of guilt and grief in the wake of her best friend’s death.

Fleabag is witty, funny, and painfully direct about the trials and tribulations of personhood, and whether she’s winking at the camera, breaking the fourth wall with a clever aside, or bravely meeting the gaze of another of the show’s brilliant actors, Phoebe Waller-Bridge gives a performance for the ages.

7. Mad Men 

No best-of list would be complete without Mad Men, which ended its seven-season run in 2015. With beautiful cinematography and costuming, a talented cast, and an unhurried pace that lets its characters evolve organically across a decade’s worth of story, Mad Men is the consummate prestige drama.  

Mad Men is about a man who seemingly wants to change, to become someone better and more worthy of the good life he has earned through underhanded, self-destructive tactics — but it’s also a tragic meditation on how the more things change in American life, the more they stay the same. 

There are plenty of characters to root for besides Don; in fact, it could be argued that Mad Men is really Peggy Olsen’s story. Her rise through the ranks of Sterling Cooper, along with the growth of her own confidence, is a marvel to behold.

8. Black Mirror

Black Mirror takes our anxieties about the speed and direction of technological development and channels them into an anthology show full of nightmare fuel.

The episodes can be so unsettling that it’s hard to watch more than one in a row, but they’re also finely crafted stories that reflect the evolving nature of our world, and our fears about where it’s headed.

Not every episode is quite so grim and haunting, though. Two of the biggest standouts include Season 4 Episode 1, “USS Callister,” a Star Trek parody starring Friday Night Lights alum Jesse Plemons, and Season 3 Episode 4, “San Junipero,” a love story that features one of the show’s only truly happy endings.

But whether frightening or charming, Black Mirror has a knack for getting under its audience’s skin in a way that’ll stick with you years after viewing an episode.

9. The Americans

A tense thriller about Russian spies living as a married couple in the American suburbs, The Americans captures the acute anxiety of being both and neither: American and Russian, a true believer and nervous skeptic, in love but constantly aware that the marriage itself is a ruse.

For six tense, subtle seasons, The Americans spins those anxieties into a story about family, loyalty, and trust, and how one decides which of those things are worth sacrificing your own identity for.

It’s also worth noting that, as the show’s two leads, Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell developed so much chemistry that they literally had a child together in real life. I mean, how can you beat that casting?

10. Veep

This HBO comedy, about a hapless vice president and her woefully inadequate staff, is a viciously witty satire of American politics.

Selina Meyer is always one wrong step away from a scandal of her own creation, and if her pinball policies and lack of appropriate reverence for the job makes you feel conflicted about the character, that’s probably the point.

It will be fascinating to see how this show ages through the current and future presidencies, but in the meantime there’s no arguing with Veep‘s dominance.

11. Halt and Catch Fire

After a slow first season that sometimes felt too derivative of Mad Men, this AMC period drama about the tech industry of the ’80s pivoted into a truly original celebration of collaboration, reinvention, and human connection.

Halt and Catch Fire is a love letter to people who try things in spite of the risk of failure.

It’s about how there is nothing more bravely and beautifully human than sharing your passion with other people, despite knowing that you might get your heart or your ego bruised for doing so.

Most of all, it’s about how success means nothing unless it’s shared — how there is no better, more meaningful, more transformative investment we can make than the effort we put into caring for one another.

With beautiful writing and a stellar cast that includes Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies), Mackenzie Davis (Black Mirror), Kerry Bishé (Narcos), and Scoot McNairy (Godless), Halt and Catch Fire is the best show you’ve never heard of. It’s absolutely not to be missed!

12. Shameless

The longest-running scripted show on Showtime is an ensemble drama about a dysfunctional, impoverished family living in Chicago’s South Side.

The sheer number of characters gives Shameless plenty of story and emotional to play with, much of it concerned with the impossible and often absurd choices that members of the Gallagher family make to ensure their survival. It’s a show about struggle, with all of the gross and earnest weirdness that entails.

And while Shameless has also had some complications behind the scenes (namely, a pay dispute that prompted Emmy Rossum’s departure after the show’s ninth season), its longevity and propulsive storytelling make it one of the decade’s biggest standouts.

13. Schitt’s Creek

This Canadian family comedy became a runaway hit in the United States, making it the first show from Pop TV to earn a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

Full of screwball humor and unafraid to take its characters to task, Schitt’s Creek manages to be lighthearted, sincere, and laugh-out-loud hysterical all at once. It’s also a show about learning to accept loss and process life’s biggest changes, examining a range of coping mechanisms and creating a highly relatable roadmap for grief.

14. Orange is the New Black

Orange is the New Black wasn’t the first Netflix original series to premiere, but it was the first to demonstrate the kind of cultural sensation that could be created, literally overnight, by a TV show whose entire season dropped at once.

Conceived at the end of an era obsessed with the anti-hero and American masculinity, Orange is the New Black was born from a desire to explore the lives of women whose stories are rarely told. In 2013, the diversity of its cast, which includes many out queer actresses, and actresses of color, was unprecedented.

And while the writing quality becomes a bit of a roller coaster in later seasons, the show also maintains a wealth of richly conceived characters and memorable performances.

End-to-end, Orange is the New Black might not be the best show of the decade, but a case could be made that its influence on the TV landscape has been the most far-reaching and consequential.

15. Bates Motel

Bates Motel definitely deserves its place on any Best of the Decade lists.

It takes one of the most iconic horror films (Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho) and pumps it full of meaty backstory, family dysfunction, and intriguing sub-plots all while keeping the all-important suspense that the Master of Suspense himself could appreciate.

Vera Farmiga’s Norma Bates is a femme fatale and a loving mother wrapped up in a complicated but charming character. She is the shining light in the darkness of the subject matter.

Freddie Highmore gives “Psycho” Norman so much depth and nuance. Their chemistry together as this warped mother-son duo is unique and the heart of this disturbing drama.

16. Breaking Bad

When it comes to the most compelling anti-heroes on television, Breaking Bad‘s Walter White is at the top of the list. And while the show is full of memorable characters, Breaking Bad‘s devotion to the craft of storytelling is what makes it a landmark series.

The show is novelistic in its approach, mapping a character journey that takes some surprising turns but is also grounded by a sense of tragic inevitability. It’s a model of television writing that will likely inspire an entire generation of creators, and rightfully so.

17. The Leftovers

After Lost received heavy criticism for failing to provide enough answers to its deeper mysteries, Damon Lindelof’s follow-up project explicitly asserts that life’s biggest enigmas — death, tragedy, and plain bad luck — have no discernible answers.

If 2% of the world’s population suddenly disappeared, how would those left behind cope with the burden of unexplainable loss? How do they imagine, let alone create, a way of moving forward?

The Leftovers is a deeply philosophical and spiritual examination of characters struggling with those questions.

At times, the stories spinning out of that struggle become deeply grim and unsettling, but there’s also an undercurrent of optimism to The Leftovers, perhaps born from the perverse comfort of knowing that none of us really have a clue what we’re doing.

Featuring stand-out performances from Justin Theroux and Carrie Coon, The Leftovers is a singular work of art that should go down as one of the best shows ever created.

18. Pose

This glittering, defiant series from producer Ryan Murphy about drag ball culture in the ’80s is a triumph in every sense of the word.

As a show primarily about queer and trans people of color seeking refuge in the joy of their own creativity, it’s a rare story that focuses not on the misery that results from marginalization, but on the resilience of a community determined to thrive.

Pose assembles the largest cast of trans characters (played by trans actresses!) ever featured on TV. Equally important to the authenticity of its storytelling are the voices of trans women in the writers’ room, including Janet Mock and Our Lady J.

Ten years ago, a show like Pose seemed impossible. Now it feels like an indication of where television is headed — toward more stories created by and for underrepresented communities, which is a change that’s both long overdue and beautiful to behold.

19. One Day at a Time

One Day At a Time is the best argument for the possibility of reboots to surpass the appeal of the original.

This hilarious, heartfelt sitcom about a Cuban-American family derives much of its humor from the cultural dissonance between generations, making it the perfect show for families to watch together. Plus, its handling of timely political topics makes it one of the most important TV shows you can watch right now.

Living legend Rita Moreno is perfect as the family matriarch, Lydia, and Justina Machado turns in an underrated and layered performance as Penelope, a mother figuring out how to live her own adult life while keeping her family together.

One Day at a Time is a truly soul-healing show, and we can’t wait to see more of the Alvarez family on Pop TV in 2020!

20. Stranger Things

The Duffer Brothers’ ode to the pop culture of the ’80s took the internet by storm, becoming an overnight sensation for Netflix upon the release of its first season.

Eerie, atmospheric, and endearingly charming, its influences include works by Spielberg, John Carpenter, and Stephen King. But Stranger Things also paves its own way by making us care deeply about its characters.

We loved Eleven from the moment she steps on screen. We were anxiously caught up in the search for Will Byers and sat on the edge of our seats watching a group of scrappy small-town kids take on The Mind Flayer.

Stranger Things is poised to make some big changes in its fourth season by expanding its story beyond Hawkins, Indiana, and out into the world at large. It’s gotten progressively less scary each season, and might be running out of story to tell, but with a show this visually lush and effortlessly enjoyable, we’ll be riding the train until the wheels fall.

21. Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones struggles a bit in its final seasons after the writers run out of material from A Song of Ice and Fire to drawn from, but it also set an impossibly high bar of success for future cable dramas to aspire to.

The show is at its best when leaning on the depth of its characters, using their actions to subvert common tropes and audience expectations.

In the era of Peak TV, Game of Thrones may be the last broadly appealing, culturally unifying water cooler show we see for a while. And if nothing else, it brought fantasy television into the mainstream and made swords and dragons cool again — for that reason alone, we’ll always be indebted to it.

22. Sense8

Sense8, Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s epic saga about eight psychically connected strangers, filmed in twenty different cities over the course of its two seasons and final movie.

The scale of the show is huge, but its appeal lies in the intimacy of its storytelling — the character interactions are surreal, sensual, and earnest, speaking to a heartfelt desire for connection that transcends geography and identity.

Seemingly a victim of its own ambition (and a massive budget that Netflix couldn’t sustain), Sense8 still feels like it was taken from us too soon.

23. GLOW

From Orange is the New Black creator Jenji Kohan, GLOW shares its predecessor’s dedication to exploring the interior lives of women.

In this case, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling take to the ring every night to inhabit offensive caricatures of themselves.

The show is about both the pain of inhabiting a stereotype and the freedom found through parody — as the wrestlers discover their agency in the ring, they’re empowered to play either with or against the audience’s perception of them.

What makes GLOW great is that each character’s personal storyline is also complex, fragile, funny, and compelling.

The fractured friendship between Ruth (Alison Brie) and Debbie (Betty Gilpin) is at the show’s emotional core. The way they dance around each other, in the ring and out of it, is uncomfortable and moving to behold.

24. American Crime Story

Each season of this anthology series from producer Ryan Murphy tackles a different notorious crime in American history, using the circumstances surrounding it to examine the broader attitudes and obsessions that drive American culture.

It’s a powerhouse of a show, propelled by brilliant acting from some of televisions brightest stars, including Sarah Paulson and Sterling K. Brown. The show’s first season, The People V. OJ Simpson, won nine Emmy awards, and The Assassination of Giovanni Versace won three more.

We can’t wait to see what the show does with its third series, which will focus on the Clinton presidential scandal and be produced by Monica Lewinsky.

25. Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Fans of Amy Sherman Palladino’s signature, rapid-fire dialogue will recognize (and delight) in the way her voice shines through The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Charming, energetic, and visually gorgeous, the show eschews the conventional wisdom that prestige TV must be dour and cynical in order to grab our attention.

It’s a celebration of Midge, who finds her independence through comedy, and it’s also a rebuttal to anyone who believes female comics can’t be funny — an argument that we’re somehow still having the year 2019. 

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Which cable and streaming shows were your favorites of the decade? Sound off in the comments below!

*Additional contributions by Kaitlin Willow and Erin Allen.

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