For me, this list is a lark. 

 

While I've been counting down the Top 31 TV Shows of the Decade, my movie-centric colleagues Gregory Ellwood and Drew McWeeny handled the big screen, with Greg offering his Top 25 of The Aughts and Drew doing an exhaustive Top 50. Let's just say that HitFix has already done an extra job of covering the best of the decade in movies, with or without me.

 

My only pause in my Top 31 (approaching No. 2 tomorrow!) was to count down the Top 20 TV Shows of 2009. At a certain point, listing has become as central to my December routine as caffeinating and showering and more essential than shaving and watering my struggling tree. And since I also have been known to write about movies on this blog, it only seemed natural that I whip out a Best of the Decade list for movies as well.

 

I started with 10, but that didn't work. I was leaving out too many. I got down to 20 comfortably, but I was still leaving out a few movies that I *really* wanted to mention. From there I pushed to 30 and, at the urging of a Twitter follower, went that extra step to 31, just for symmetry. I'm not going to do these as a one-per-day affair with entries approaching 2500 words as I get near the top. Been there, doing that. I'm breaking these out as three blog posts. Simple enough.

 

Unlike TV, where my list is The *Best* 31 Shows Of The Decade Which Aren't "The Shield," I'm not playing this out as having any sort of Best of the Decade definitiveness. It's not quite a "favorites" list, because I've given some thought to craft and importance beyond just pure rewatchability.  Mostly, I'm sticking my blog's name in from of the list so you know that these are probably the 31 movies I liked the most from the past decade. Secretly, do I think they're the best? Probably. But this isn't like my TV list, where if you disagree with my No. 1, I'm going to surreptitiously  sneak over to your house and cut the cable lines, because you're not worthy of television service. If you aren't happy here? This is my list, but feel very free to share your opinions.

 

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Of all of the shows at the top of this list, I know that "Mad Men" is the one that's most likely to make me look foolish in five or 10 years.

 

No, nothing is ever going to happen to the show's first 39 episodes to make them any less satisfying. The carefully plotted arcs of each of three seasons won't be unravelled. Carefully preserved on Blu-ray discs, the show's tremendous superficial qualities won't be impacted no matter what happens to "Mad Men" as it continues its run into the next decade. 

 

But there's something to be said for knowing how the full series played out. "Deadwood," "The Sopranos" and "Arrested Development," the three shows I placed in a block with "Mad Men," are set in amber and I've rewatched enough of all three shows to know that they aren't going to look any worse in the near future. 

 

As for the other active shows in my Top 10, "American Idol" is unlikely to have a twist ending in which we wonder whether or not Bikini Girl whacked Kara DioGuardi (though if that happened, it might be worth a retroactive raise for the FOX competition show). It's almost built into the "Lost" DNA that the ending is going to be monumentally awesome for some fans and monumentally disappointing for others. And the legacy of "Friday Night Lights" is secure, since the writers have already hit a nadir with Season Two and crawled out of it. Even if Killer Landry strikes again, it probably won't impact my love for seasons one, three and half-of-four. 

 

But "Mad Men" is a work-in-progress and anything could happen from here. Sure, it was a bluff when Lionsgate faked in the direction of finding a new showrunner to replace a negotiating Matthew Weiner after Season Two, but maybe next time it won't be? Or maybe Weiner will take a leap too far next season and seeing Don Draper and Joan navigating the Summer of Love will be less satisfying than we might imagine? Expectations can be a crushing thing and "Mad Men" has completed a three-season run near the top of TV's drama heap. Who knows?

 

All I do know is that with "Shut the Door, Have a Seat," Weiner and company ended their third season with an zippy, twist-filled finale that would have marked a satisfying series finale and definitely caps off one of the strongest creative spurts of the decade. 

 

That's enough to place AMC's "Mad Men" at No. 3 on my list of TV's Best of the Decade.

 

[You know the drill by now... More after the break.]

While I never gave any serious consideration to placing it in my Top 31, I think that a quick tip-of-the-hat is owed to "Malcolm in the Middle," which premiered on FOX in January of 2000.

 

Although it wasn't the first show to attempt to translate the aesthetic and comic rhythms of an animated series to live action, "Malcolm in the Middle" was perhaps the decade's most successful variation on that theme, running on FOX for a whopping 151 episodes. In substance and structure, "Malcolm in the Middle" was a traditional family sitcom, but its pacing, zany excess and the characters' proclivities towards incorrect decision-making had more in common with the freedom of animation. And certainly "Malcolm in the Middle" benefited from its proximity to FOX's successful cartoon entries, since even I'm a bit astounded that it made it past 150 episodes. [Was *anybody* still watching "Malcolm in the Middle" by Season Seven? Anybody? I watched for three or four seasons and checked in every once-in-a-while after that. That neither Jane Kaczmarek nor Bryan Cranston won even a single Emmy for the series is yet another black mark.]

 

"Malcolm in the Middle" (and "The Bernie Mac Show," which also deserves mention) was a trailblazer for the single-camera aesthetic that FOX emphasized in live-action comedy throughout the decade. Beyond "Malcolm" and "Bernie," you'd be hard-pressed to find many popular successes in that group, though I've now mentioned the names of the honorable failures (things like "Greg the Bunny," "Kitchen Confidential," "The Loop" and "Method and Red") in several entries. 

 

Without a doubt, the best of the shows following in the wake of "Malcolm in the Middle" was Mitch Hurwitz's "Arrested Development," a boundary-bending, joke-spewing, wildly meta dysfunctional family comedy. 

 

The finest sitcom of the Aughts, "Arrested Development" ranks at No. 4 on my list of TV's Best of the Decade.

 

[More after the break...]

In this increasingly epic 31-part Best of the Decade series, I've referred to litmus tests for different shows, where you can judge the fan based on their reaction to certain arcs or episodes. Generally, with a litmus test episode, there probably isn't a right or wrong answer, but if meet somebody, you can check their test and know how compatible y'all happen to be.

 

For the decade, there was no bigger television litmus test episode than the finale of David Chase's HBO mob drama "The Sopranos." The finale, titled "Made in America" aired on June 10, 2007 and people were up in arms. Generally, the critical reaction was positive and respectful, but the fans were a good deal less generous. 

 

Obviously this article on "The Sopranos," No. 5 on my list of TV's Best of the Decade, will talk about the end of the hulking colossus of a drama, so be warned. 

 

Also be warned that although, as with all litmus test episodes, there may not be a right or wrong answer, if you hate the finale of "The Sopranos," our friendship may be strained.

 

What would be worse, though, is if you were one of the people who felt there was a conclusive ending to the series. The fastest way to earn my critical enmity is to try telling me that Tony Sopranos absolutely got whacked at the end of the series. 

 

Anyway, "The Sopranos" is No. 5. More after the break...

When "Deadwood" first premiered in 2004, I remember that it sent critics and reporters flocking to experts on late 19th Century frontier life, trying to prove that the show's expletive-laden dialogue was inaccurate and anachronistic. The pursuit, while endearing and intellectually driven, could only get part of the story. No, the residences of the actual historical community of Deadwood probably didn't swear in quite the same way David Milch's HBO characters were swearing (i.e. with impunity, but also a modern flair), but so what? Nobody in the history of the world, regardless of their time or their location, has ever talked the way the characters on "Deadwood" talked, so why quibble over a few stray "cocksuckers"?

 

Although it only aired for three seasons, "Deadwood" put what may be the punctuation mark on one of television's most venerable genres. After watching "Deadwood," is it honestly possible to go back and watch "Bonanza"  or "Gunsmoke" or even "Have Gun - Will Travel" as anything other than quaint curios?  And what would one gain from trying to make another Western for at least a respectful period? I think we should be ready to go back to the frontier again by 2015, but even then, whichever showrunner attempts the task had better have a very clear purpose.

 

Coming in at No. 6 on my list of TV's Best of the Decade, and very possibly deserving of a Top Five slot (no arguments here) is HBO's "Deadwood."

 

More after the break...

I wrote my first "American Idol" recap for Zap2it in February of 2003, reporting on the performances by the second semifinal ground of the show's second season. That semifinal group included Hadas Shalev, Jacob John Smalley and a couple other singers doomed to only be remembered by "American Idol" obsessives. Then again, the top three performers that night were Kimberley Locke, Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard, who would go on to spend a lot of time on America's television sets that spring. 

 

That was before everybody and their cat was recapping "American Idol" and it was one of my first bylined stories at Zap2it. Since that time, I've recapped the show dedicatedly and compulsively. I missed the finale of Season Five (Taylor Hicks over Katharine McPhee) because I was the "Cars" press junket in Charlotte and I missed some random audition episodes last season, because I was in Sundance and forgot that Utah is on Mountain Time. And yes, I can remember the individual episodes I've failed to recap.  

 

If I were to stop and think about the total number of words I've written about "American Idol," the prose dedicated to raving about Fantasia Barrino, mocking Kevin Covais or pondering Haley Scarnato's love of short-shorts, it might make me hide in a corner and sob a little. If I were to tabulate the total number of times I've used "Dunkleman" as a punchline, attempted to parse the empty words of Randy Jackson or tried to guess which medications (and how much of them) were keeping Paula Abdul going, I might burn a little doll of Simon Fuller in effigy. If I were to total amount of time wasted transcribing the homophobic banter between Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest, rolling my eyes watching cheesy Ford commercials, reminding myself how to spell "Fievel Mousekewitz" whenever a singer butchered "Somewhere Out There," I might be inclined to dust off those long-dormant law school applications.

 

But I love "American Idol," too. If I didn't, I couldn't do what I do. If I didn't get a rush out of that first time hearing an Adam Lambert shatter glass or that first glimpse of a Katharine McPhee in the spotlight, the five months of twice or thrice weekly recaps would be an annual blogging Trail of Tears. As grateful as I am when "American Idol" ends every season, I'm just as excited when it comes back every January. 

 

Millions upon millions of people agree, making "American Idol" unquestionably the most popular show of the decade. 

 

"American Idol" is No. 7 on my list of TV's Best of the Decade, but this isn't going to be some sort of argumentum ad populum piece of rhetoric, where I try convincing you that because "Idol" is TV's most watched show, it's a paragon of one aspect of what could be called "best." But it might be close to that.

 

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