The Times published a list of the best TV shows of the 21st century. The first controversy was leaving off The Sopranos because it first aired in 1999. Still, it was a decent list, but also clearly a list designed to piss you off a little by leaving off your favorite show or by taking somewhat obscure show like the British version of The Office or Atlanta and placing in the top-15.
They then asked their readers to come up with their own rankings and honestly, it's just a much better list.
For instance, Better Call Saul vaults up 21 spots to number 6. Andor jumps up 10 spots to number 22 (still too low). What's more, they added animated shows like Avatar and Bob's Burgers. They added sci-fi shows like Dark. I do think a little bit of recency bias informed the reader's poll as a classic sitcom like 30 Rock dropped too far and shows like Widow's Bay and Pluribus - who haven't shown that they can stick the landing - are on there. Still they are great shows so far.
I think it obviously shows the disconnect between the more critical and artistic based perspectives from the mass perspectives - though, hey, it's still the Times' readers, but it also shows that great TV is popular.
It's also interesting to me that this Golden Age of TV comes along at a time when we are increasingly staying home and maybe can't sit still for a 2 1/2 hour movie.
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