"Ja'mie: Private School Girl" (2013), one season
Metacritic score: 40
"It's a painfully obvious shtick, so camp and arch it's impossible to enjoy the joke." — TV Guide
70. "Real Time with Bill Maher" (2003-present), 15 seasons
Average Metacritic score: 43
"Why would HBO, cable's most innovative network ... think it's a good idea to let Bill Maher bring the skeleton of his canceled ABC show, 'Politically Incorrect,' and stuff it into the tattered corpse of 'Dennis Miller Live'?" — Entertainment Weekly
69. "Lucky Louie" (2006), one season
Metacritic score: 47
"A show so vile, it makes you think the company's arrogant It's Not TV — It's HBO slogan isn't a brag — it's a threat." — USA Today
68. "John from Cincinnati" (2007), one season
Metacritic score: 50
"Watching HBO's surfing drama 'John From Cincinnati' is like sitting through a bad play at a tiny experimental theater. ... In short, if Gary Busey were a TV series, he would be 'John From Cincinnati.'" — The Boston Globe
67. "Angry Boys" (2011), one season
Metacritic score: 50
It "leaves only the flashes of comedic brilliance, and even they don't light up the sky very often." — The Wall Street Journal
66. "Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons" (2016), one season
Metacritic score: 51
"His interview style is an effective one — opinionated without being overbearing, with just enough smugness to give some of his questions a provocative edge." — Yahoo
65. "Sex and the City" (1998-2004), six seasons
Metacritic score: 52
"Parker's irresistible charm keeps us on Carrie's side even as the character's act grows old." — People
64. "The Brink" (2015), one season
Metacritic score: 52
"The show operates at a tone of constant hysteria, which, as justified as that may be, begins to feel exhausting." — Variety
63. "Vice Principals" (2016), one season
Metacritic score: 56
"There isn't much that can pass for comedy here, but there's plenty of compelling viciousness and two powerful performances." — The Wall Street Journal
62. "Hello Ladies" (2013), one season
Metacritic score: 58
"We've seen this show before, in fresher settings, with stronger comic structure — from, in fact, the same creators: [Stephen] Merchant and American 'Office' writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky." — Newsday
61. "Tell Me You Love Me" (2007), one season
Metacritic score: 58
"Unfortunately, it is difficult to stay interested in what happens to any of these characters because most of them are so absurdly unlikable." — Los Angeles Times
60. "How to Make It in America" (2010-11), two seasons
Metacritic score: 59
"As a portrait of struggling Manhattanites, 'How to Make It' effectively homes in on that hope-filled effervescence historically associated with the idealized American dream." — Slant Magazine
59. "Unscripted" (2005), one season
Metacritic score: 60
"A faux documentary on actors who are not famous but who are struggling to be isn't inherently interesting to non-actors ... 'Unscripted' isn't a complete flop. It's just rare that HBO fails like this." — The San Francisco Chronicle
58. "Divorce" (2016) one season
Metacritic score: 60
"The laugh-out-loud viciousness of the opening, which involves both a gun and vomit, is clearly the work of series creator Sharon Horgan, who also co-writes and stars in Amazon's brilliant 'Catastrophe.' But 'Divorce' isn't always as biting as it is in those moments, leading to a solidly acted but somewhat mundane exploration of a breakup." — The AV Club
57. "Carnivale" (2003-05), two seasons
Average Metacritic score: 61
"A bloated mess ... 'Carnivale' is a little too full of itself. Believing that it has a fascinating story to tell with all the complex themes you could imagine, the series nevertheless fails the first test of television: Move forward." — SFGate
56. "The Newsroom" (2012-14), three seasons
Average Metacritic score: 61.7
"The series is kind of a mess ... but one you can't really look away from." — SFGate
55. "Doll & Em" (2014-15, two seasons)
Metacritic score: 63
"Despite its refreshing commitment to realism, 'Doll & Em' is ultimately too relaxed and meandering for its own good. There are times when you may wish it had embraced the occasional cliches with more gusto." — Vulture
54. "Da Ali G Show" (2003-04), two seasons
Average Metacritic score: 63
"It's a nice gimmick, actually. Too bad the results seem so childishly undeveloped." — SFGate
53. "Ballers" (2015-16), two seasons
Average Metacritic score: 64
"[Dwayne] Johnson himself is the best part of 'Ballers,' a charismatic, mostly responsive force that is our window to the precarious world of retirement from football. His perspective on the life of the partying ball player is one of nostalgia. But in the absence of forward momentum, the camera turns to looking for shock value anywhere it can." — Salon
52. "Bored to Death" (2009-11), three seasons
Metacritic score: 64
"'Bored' sometimes lags and drags, as if it took a few tokes, too. But when it's funny — and 'Bored' certainly can be — it's a winner." — Newsday
51. "Life's Too Short" (2011 and 2013), one season
Metacritic score: 64
"Measured against the yardstick of their own lofty standards, the show comes up a little short." — Variety
50. "The Comeback" (2005 and 2014), two seasons
Average Metacritic score: 64.5
"It would all be terribly sad it if it weren't so incredibly funny." — TV Guide Magazine
49. "Hung" (2009-11), three seasons
Average Metacritic score: 65.5
"I feel that there's a really good dark comedy about the decline of the American dream struggling to emerge from the often-forced plots." — Time
48. "Entourage" (2004-11), eight seasons
Average Metacritic score: 66.8
"The show is vulgar, adolescent, and sexist — and seems proud of it." — The Baltimore Sun
47. "Vice" (2013-16), four seasons
Metacritic score: 67
"'Vice' tries to go where other news, documentary, and magazine shows do not. That's okay, though it does at times overstate its pioneering prowess." — New York Daily News
46. "Summer Heights High" (2007), one season
Metacritic score: 67
"A funny/sad 'Office'-style mockumentary depicting a year in the life of an Australian public high school, this wildly talented writer-star loves making you squirm (à la [Ricky] Gervais) while submerging himself inside the skin of characters so diverse (à la [Tracey] Ullman) you can hardly believe it's the same guy." — TV Guide
45. "True Blood" (2008-14), seven seasons
Average Metacritic score: 68
"It's creepy, steamy and funny at times, and it's also a muddle, a comic murder mystery that is a little too enthralled with its own exoticism." — The New York Times
44. "The Young Pope" (2017), one-season miniseries
Metacritic score: 68
"'The Young Pope' is TV's equivalent of a dorm-room poster of Bob Marley blowing smoke or the Lenny Bruce mugshot: a depleted symbol of a radical reaction to society that finally most clearly represents the status quo." — Collider
43. "Rome" (2005-07), two seasons
Average Metacritic score: 69.5
"'Rome' is most entertaining when it laces its wild, ancient antics with winks of the pedestrian." — Entertainment Weekly
41. "Oz" (1997-2003), six seasons
Metacritic score: 70
"'Oz' is flat-out the most violent and graphically sexual series on TV. By contrast, it makes ABC's 'NYPD Blue' look and sound like dancing Barney." — LA Times
42. "Vinyl" (2016), one season
Metacritic score: 71
"'Vinyl' will leave you dancing to the music, but may leave you wondering why you should care." — New York Post
40. "The Leftovers" (2014-15), two seasons
Average Metacritic score: 72.5
"None of this would work without compelling characters. Fortunately, 'The Leftovers' has bunches of them." — The AV Club
39. "Crashing" (2017), one season
Metacritic score: 73
"There is a lot of talk — practical and philosophical — about comedy, and 'Crashing' is very good with the details of low-level nightlife. But what most makes the show entertaining are Pete's episodic adventures with characters who will help form him, challenge him and wake him from his self-satisfied sleep into a better sort of happiness." — LA Times
38. "Westworld" (2017), one season
Metacritic score: 74
"It's the kind of trippy conceptual project that would be unbearable if it weren't so elegantly made. So far, it works, mostly — not because it's perfect but because it gets under your skin." — The New Yorker
37. "True Detective" (2014-15), two seasons
Average Metacritic score: 74
"It's an okay cop drama, to be sure, but it's definitely a cop drama you have seen many, many times before." — Vox
36. "Family Tree" (2013), one season
Metacritic score: 74
"A quirky and hilarious gem." — The Hollywood Reporter
35. "Aril$$" (1996-2002), seven seasons
Metacritic score: 74
"A pallid imitation of 'The Larry Sanders Show,' the series works best when its real-life guests are funny." — People
34. "Big Little Lies" (2017), one-season miniseries
Metacritic score: 75
"Just when you worry the show is a pageant of ugly cliches about female rivalry, it gives you a poignant, nuanced scene to deepen the whole." — Entertainment Weekly
33. "Six Feet Under" (2001-05), five seasons
Metacritic score: 74
"This challenging show offers the viewer nary a morsel of TV comfort food. But uncommonly good writing and acting are satisfying too." — People
32. "Flight of the Conchords" (2007-09), two seasons
Average Metacritic score: 74
"There are no big sociopolitical statements here, no guerilla-style confrontations, no scenes of squirmy awkwardness, no multilayered pop culture references. It's just a very smart, very funny show." — Entertainment Weekly
31. "Looking" (2014-15), two seasons
Average Metacritic score: 75
"'Looking' doesn't make the mistake of arguing that gay men are just like straight women, or straight men, or gay women, or even each other. Instead it tells the story of three guys who are friends in a strangely wonderful and difficult time and what that looks like. To them." — LA Times
30. "Luck" (2011-12), one season
Metacritic score: 75
"The parts that do work possess the doom-laden yet strangely optimistic romanticism of [David] Milch's best work." — The Huffington Post
29. "Big Love" (2006-11), five seasons
Average Metacritic score: 75
"A very original, extremely well-acted and complexly written drama." — SFGate
28. "Togetherness" (2015-16), two seasons
Average Metacritic score: 76
"It's a slower-paced, smaller-scale show about the sad reality of sticking it out in Hollywood into middle age. It also veers into weirder territory that would feel impossible outside California. But thanks to the chemistry between [Amanda] Peet and [Steve] Zissis, it's endlessly engrossing." — Entertainment Weekly
27. "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" (2014-present), four seasons
Metacritic score: 76
"Oliver is terrific at mining humor from the most popular topics of the day, that is, the idiocy of the media and politicians. He's funny when he's knocking our intelligence." — The Denver Post
26. "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst" (2014), one-season docuseries
Metacritic score: 76
"'The Jinx' is wickedly entertaining: funny, morbid, and sad, at once exploitative and high-minded, a moral lasagna of questionable aesthetic choices (including reconstructions of ghastly events) and riveting interviews (of Durst, but also of other eccentrics, like his chain-smoking-hot second wife)." — The New Yorker
25. "John Adams" (2008), one-season miniseries
Metacritic score: 78
"Both the book and the miniseries sketch admirably human portraits of historical figures such as Adams, Jefferson and Franklin." — Chicago Tribune
24. "Eastbound & Down" (2009-13), four seasons
Average Metacritic score: 78.3
"'Eastbound & Down' holds together so well that it's worth looking past the ugly for the solid performances and the charcoal-black humor beneath." — The New Yorker
23. "Girls" (2012-17), six seasons
Average Metacritic score: 79
"It definitely has a voice, and it's a great one: witty and wise and warm and not exactly like anything you've heard before." — Uproxx
22. "In Treatment" (2008-10), three seasons
Average Metacritic score: 79.3
"The acting is brilliant, the problems are relatable, and the truths Dr. Weston is chasing are profound. On the other hand, 'In Treatment' is the epitome of American self-indulgence, both for the actors and the characters they're playing." — Chicago Sun-Times
21. "Dream On" (1990-96), six seasons
Metacritic score: 80
"This is a rare TV union where cast, writers, and directors appear to be of a single comedic mind; the humorous results speak for themselves." — LA Times
20. "Getting On" (2013-15), three seasons
Average Metacritic score: 81
"It's a dark and astonishing gem of a show, with a bravely skillful cast juggling the petty obsessions of the workplace with Much Bigger Issues." — LA Times
19. "High Maintenance" (2016), one season
Metacritic score: 81
"'High Maintenance' stands out, not just because it's on the front end of what is apparently a reefer TV trend, but because it's so precisely made and has such an ambling, open heart." — Vulture
18. "Boardwalk Empire" (2010-14), five seasons
Average Metacritic score: 81.2
"Like a good whiskey, it's rough and smooth in all the right ways. By a few episodes in, you'll want to order it by the case." — Time
17. "Veep" (2012-16), five seasons
Average Metacritic score: 82.2
"The series reserves its most blistering humor for the universal narcissism on display, always distracting from the real work at hand." — Slant Magazine
16. "Treme" (2010-13), four seasons
Average Metacritic score: 82.3
"From scene to scene, 'Treme' is novelistic in the best sense — a long, complex, involving story that takes a while to settle into, but that you can't put down and don't want to end." — Salon
15. "Insecure" (2016), one season
Metacritic score: 84
"It's a smart and often funny look at young people looking for love and professional satisfaction in Los Angeles, which is about as common a genre as TV has to offer these days. But taken in the totality of the TV landscape, Rae's voice is one that wasn't being heard and that voice is what makes 'Insecure' stand out, not necessarily as better than the Emmy winners or critical favorites in the field, but as gratifyingly distinguishable." — The Hollywood Reporter
14. "Enlightened" (2011-13), two seasons
Average Metacritic score: 84.5
"A black comedy working many shades of gray, 'Enlightened' is about dark mornings of the soul and the fool's-golden glow of the new convert, and it measures the weight of the world with an eccentric scale." — Slate
13. "Extras" (2005-07), two seasons
Average Metacritic score: 84.5
"The most original and brilliant show on television." — The New Republic
12. "Show Me a Hero" (2015), one-season miniseries
Metacritic score: 85
"It's like a procedural drama, about the drama of procedure — it isn't ever dry. There are some superbly mounted, loud, crowded big scenes — [David] Simon is a great orchestrator of chaos — but there is an intensity to the quieter, more private moments as well. I wouldn't trade it for a bushel barrel of tortured detectives or all the kings and queens in Westeros." — LA Times
11. "Deadwood" (2004-06), three seasons
Average Metacritic score: 86
"To call 'Deadwood' great television doesn't begin to do it justice." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer
10. "Band of Brothers" (2001), one-season miniseries
Metacritic score: 86
"It doesn't even look like a TV miniseries — it's more like 10 theatrical films that do an amazing job re-creating battles." — Deseret News
9. "Mr. Show with Bob and David" (1995-99), four seasons
Metacritic score: 86
"Manages to be outrageous and innovative at the same time." — New York Daily News
8. "The Pacific" (2010), one-season miniseries
Metacritic score: 86
"Certain moments may verge on cliche (and once in a while, the dialogue is a little corny), but overall, 'The Pacific' is crafted and acted with such loving devotion that it's hard to find fault with its sincerity and sentimental forays." — Chicago Tribune
7. "Game of Thrones" (2011-16), six seasons
Average Metacritic score: 86.5
"The show beautifully depicts a massive game of musical chairs, a world at war with doom ever present just across the border." — The Boston Globe
6. "Silicon Valley" (2014-16), three seasons
Average Metacritic score: 86.7
"Silicon Valley is a comedy, certainly, and a very funny one, but it doesn't spend all its time reminding you of the fact." — LA Times
5. "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (2000-11), eight seasons
Average Metacritic score: 86.9
"An insanely funny romp thanks to its unique storytelling technique and an inspired performance by the star." — Chicago Tribune
4. "The Night Of" (2016), one-season miniseries
Metacritic score: 90
"As complicated and layered as life itself, 'The Night Of' is an instant classic." — TV Insider
3. "The Wire" (2002-08), five seasons
Average Metacritic score: 91.8
"It slowly develops into an engrossing look at the methodical nature of police work and the limits of individualism." — Time
2. "The Sopranos" (1999-2007), six seasons
Average Metacritic score: 94.5
"Combining dark comedy and psychological drama, the show achieves a fresh tone to match its irresistibly winning concept." — The New York Times
1. "The Larry Sanders Show" (1992-98), six seasons
Average Metacritic score: 95
"Razor-edged satire of late-night talk TV from people with an ear for truth and a taste for blood." — St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• Don't insult other visitors. Offensive comments will be deleted without warning.
• Comments are accepted in English only.
• No swearing words in comments, otherwise such comments will be censored.
• Your nickname and avatar are randomly selected. If you don't post comments for 7 days, they both are reset.
• To choose another avatar, click the ‘Random avatar’ link.
