I always thought Top 10 lists were the cheap way to fill space at the end of the year, when new product slows to a trickle and you still have to write about something. The Jan-Dec. designation is pretty much meaningless for television. But its fall to spring season is meaningless too. New shows are starting all the time and dropping quickly out of sight.
Today, the growth in online “news” stories are those that pointlessly enumerate something and then trick you into clicking and clicking, which is the point of their existance. I’m a crank about such things.
But when the people over at HitFix.com asked me to take part in their critics poll I had to relent. I knew first most of the critics first of all. And we pretty much agreed with what we liked the best. With a couple of exceptions.
I’m surprised, looking at it, how it has only one comedy on it (“Parks and Rec”). I was taken by some of the trance-inducing new procedurals that didn’t look like police shows — “The Bridge,” “Top of the Lake”and “Rectify.” I’m all in on the Netflix revolution because of “House of Cards,” though I like “Orange is the New Black” as well (but not enough to put in the Top 10).
There’s a tendency for critics as well as audiences to tear down the shows they’ve built up or at least take for granted great shows that have been around. But I’m still on board for “Homeland” and “Mad Men.” And I thought “Boardwalk Empire” is so well put together and consistently underrated.
Of the critical darlings I didn’t take to as much was “The Americans,” in part because I didn’t buy its Boris and Natasha in Arlington conceit. Mostly I was glad there was a separate Best New Shows list in which to honor other worthy newcomers.
But unlike other critics who thought it was a year with dozens of choices for best show, I found 10 to be just about right. When asked.
Here was my list of Top 10 TV Shows of 2013.
- “Breaking Bad
- “The Bridge”
- “Top of the Lake”
- “Rectify”
- “House of Cards”
- “Homeland”
- “Boardwalk Empire”
- “Game of Thrones”
- “Parks and Recreation”
- “Mad Men”
Best New Shows of 2013
- “The Bridge”
- “Top of the Lake”
- “House of Cards”
- “Rectify”
- “Orange is the New Black”
- “Masters of Sex”
- “The Returned”
- “Hello Ladies”
- “Broadchurch”
- “Getting On”
See what other critics chose here.