1w ago

🏆100 Highest-Rated TV Shows (Based on Aggregated Data)

cross-post from: https://lemmy.world/post/32413125

👋 Hi everyone!
💡 A while ago I came across some post on reddit where someone ranked the top-50 TV shows using aggregated ratings from multiple sources — and I got really inspired. Hats off to the original for the inspiration and idea.
After hundreds of hours of data transfer, I expanded the idea into a list of 100 must-see TV shows (no animation/documentaries), based on data from 20+ rating platforms like IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, Letterboxd, TMDB, Kinopoisk, Douban, and more (full list below).
🌎 The goal was to create a ranking that’s as close to objective as possible by combining scores from diverse international platforms — to equally represent critics, casual viewers, and different cultural perspectives across many countries.
To ensure quality and avoid outliers, I only included shows with at least 25,000 IMDb ratings. I tried to make a list of series with a broader audience in mind, which is probably why older shows didn’t make the final top. They tend to get less attention and fewer ratings from modern viewers, though some definitely deserve an “Honorable Mention.”
(You’ll find the shows that almost made the cut listed at the bottom of the table.)*
I’ve thought about this a lot and eventually came to this conclusion: if I didn’t filter by popularity at all, the list might end up with a bunch of random series that got, say, 85 points from 100 people. Instead, I gave preference to shows that scored around 83 points but from 300+ people - a stronger consensus. But still series that scored 75 points from 10,000 people wouldn’t necessarily make the list just because of the volume
⚖️ To add some balance, I also included a popularity score as one of the metrics — but kept its weight relatively low (just 1 out of 25 metrics). This metric was only applied within the top-100 to give more popular series a slight edge in their final positioning, while still ensuring rating quality remained the primary factor. Even shows with below-average popularity scores (as low as 65 points) could still make the cut if their ratings were outstanding enough.
For any missing ratings — which happened when a show had no data on a specific site — I used the average rating of the top-140 shows on that platform. This ensured that underrated or lesser-known series weren’t unfairly penalized due to lack of data.
If you’re wondering why your favorite show didn’t make the list — 99% chance it’s because it scored lower across aggregated ratings or didn’t have enough ratings compared to top-100 shows. There’s a 1% chance I genuinely missed it somehow, but given how deep I went into this, that’s pretty unlikely.
Hope you’ll find this list interesting or maybe even discover a few new shows to watch. Would love to hear your thoughts!
📊** [Sources used]**
IMDb, IMDb Episodes Rating (W2WTV and Ratingraph), TMDB, Metacritic, Kinopoisk, Rotten Tomatoes, Serializd, JustWatch, Filmaffinity, Reelgood, Criticker, TasteDive, Taste.io, Simkl, Trakt, TV Time, Allocine, Filmweb, Myshows, Douban
🔎 Text version:

📜 Histogramma:
1986–1990: 2
1991–1995: 1
1995–2000: 2
2001–2005: 13
2006–2010: 13
2011–2015: 24
2016–2021: 30
2021–2025: 16
Honorable Mentions (Almost Made the Main List): Pride and Prejudice (1995), Line of Duty, Happy Valley, The Twilight Zone (1959), The Chosen, Fawlty Towers, The Bridge (2011), It's Okay to Not Be Okay, Mr Inbetween, The Knick, Peep Show, Deadwood, Olive Kitteridge, SKAM (2015), The Americans, This Is Going to Hurt, Wayne, Oz, Justified, Halt and Catch Fire.
⁉️ If anyone’s interested in what the ranking** would look like without any influence from popularity** (i.e. broader audience appeal), here’s the list. Let me know if you think it’s better - maybe I’ll make this the main one.
::: spoiler Click
Breaking Bad – 92.00
Chernobyl – 91.63
Band of Brothers – 90.92
The Wire – 90.75
The Sopranos – 90.33
Better Call Saul – 88.88
Game of Thrones – 88.42
Sherlock – 87.67
Fleabag – 87.67
Succession – 87.29
The Pitt – 87.29
Severance – 87.13
Fargo – 86.75
The Office (2005) – 86.58
Peaky Blinders – 86.58
When They See Us – 86.50
Mindhunter – 86.46
The Queen's Gambit – 86.21
Freaks and Geeks – 86.13
Dark – 86.08
Shōgun (2024) – 85.96
Narcos – 85.92
Pride and Prejudice – 85.83
Line of Duty – 85.79
Mare of Easttown – 85.71
House M.D. – 85.67
Atlanta – 85.63
Andor – 85.63
Happy Valley – 85.54
Firefly – 85.54
Twin Peaks – 85.50
The Penguin – 85.50
Stranger Things – 85.42
The Twilight Zone (1959) – 85.33
Ted Lasso – 85.29
Mad Men – 85.17
The Chosen – 85.17
The Last Kingdom – 85.13
Fawlty Towers – 85.13
Rome – 85.08
Downton Abbey – 85.04
The Shield – 85.00
Silicon Valley – 85.00
The Bridge – 85.00
Boardwalk Empire – 85.00
The Night Of – 85.00
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – 84.88
The Haunting of Hill House – 84.88
Big Little Lies – 84.79
It's Okay to Not Be Okay – 84.75
The Crown – 84.71
Mr Inbetween – 84.71
Six Feet Under – 84.67
The Knick – 84.63
Peep Show – 84.63
Daredevil – 84.58
Deadwood – 84.58
The Boys – 84.54
Olive Kitteridge – 84.54
SKAM – 84.54
The Americans – 84.50
Friends – 84.46
Broadchurch – 84.46
This Is Going to Hurt – 84.46
Wayne – 84.42
Heartstopper – 84.38
Unbelievable – 84.38
Oz – 84.38
This Is Us – 84.33
1883 – 84.33
Black Mirror – 84.29
Justified – 84.29
The Bear – 84.29
Battlestar Galactica (2004) – 84.25
Hannibal – 84.25
The Pacific – 84.25
What We Do in the Shadows – 84.21
True Detective – 84.17
Anne with an E – 84.17
The Expanse – 84.17
Parks and Recreation – 84.13
Friday Night Lights – 84.13
Dopesick – 84.13
Mr. Robot – 84.08
Brooklyn Nine-Nine – 84.08
Curb Your Enthusiasm – 84.08
Slow Horses – 83.96
Pose – 83.96
Fallout – 83.92
Black Bird – 83.92
Halt and Catch Fire – 83.92
Normal People – 83.88
Shameless (2011) – 83.75
Gomorrah – 83.67
The Mandalorian – 83.58
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia – 83.58
Sons of Anarchy – 83.58
The West Wing – 83.54
Community – 83.50
Louie – 83.50
:::
If you have a Reddit account, could you share this list there? I’ve been unfairly blocked in my every new account, so I can’t post it myself. I’d really appreciate it if more people could see this ranking! 👀

Movies @lemmy.world

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174 comments

Mobile users.

Silicon Valley beat scrubs and seinfeld. It wasn't bad, but Scrubs and Seinfeld were masterpieces of the sitcom genre. They had significant cultural impact and were what people were talking about the next day. Silicon Valley was pretty good. I occasionally remember that I watched it, or most of it, idk if I finished because it didn't leave that level of impact.
Wait, I just noticed it has Dexter above the Good Place. What the actual fuck. Like I was a fan when Dexter was airing (until the last season when I stopped a few episodes in), but it was pretty good. The Good Place was one of the most impactful and well made television shows I've ever watched. I laughed, I cried, I thought, I craved shrimp, and years later I still reference it because of how good it is.

How did Bojack horseman not make the list. I swear that show had amazing ratings. I would also personally place it very high on this list.
Edit: Oh I saw the comment that said animated shows are not included.
- Oh, no wonder NONE of the shows I watch are on the list. I mainly watch animated shows.

How does M * A * S * H not make the list?
- MAS*H ranked #137, but still not well-known enough - especially in post-Soviet countries and much of Asia - compared to the shows that actually made the final list. Unfortunately, not every 20th-century series has been fully appreciated by millennials and Gen Z the way it deserves to be, so yeah....

Yesterday this was posted as 100 shows you must watch before you die. Today they're 100 highest-rated shows. Tomorrow what - 100 shows people liked?
- sorry, I’ll update it tomorrow to: “100 Shows That Will Validate Your Taste and Make You Feel Seen.”
  
  Noice

And not a single one of my top favorite shows is on the list. Guess I should be proud

It would be interesting to see the ratings adjusted for age. Probably no great way to do that without skewing some other aspect but could be fun. Secretly I just want the data to skew so that TNG ends up on top.

The goal was to create a ranking that’s as close to objective as possible by combining scores from diverse international platforms — to equally represent critics, casual viewers, and different cultural perspectives across many countries.
100% of the show's titles are english language? I highly doubt the "diversity" of platforms.
- the point wasn’t that the list should include 100 shows in 100 different languages - it’s that the shows are watched by people from different countries, cultures, languages and etc. If a series is only popular in, say, one region like Asia and hasn’t gained broader international attention, then it probably wouldn’t be included in a list like this, thank you for opinion!

Kobra Kai being there means the list is bad and can be fully ignored. Even at position 100.
Edit: Scrubs is 99??? Even considering the non existing 9th season it should be much higher

I have watch 18 of these show and enough extract and random episode of 12 others to have a good enough sense of it and that list is bad.
Some recommandation are quite good. Some very bad. Most are about some decent show that was extremly popular when they got out.

My main feeling looking at this ranking gives is of a location, gender, and race bias in reviews and reviers. I can't really add sexuality to that because, really, there's not much media that takes it into account full stop.
Many of the favourites people are talking about in this thread have little appeal to others outside their own demographic. That's not a bad thing, but it does mean series like High Potential, Deadloch, or even classics like Fresh Prince, don't get a look in.
It's also ammunition for people who want to remove representation of women and minorities from popular culture.
- High Potential and Deadlock don't have anywhere near the average rating and amount of votes to get near a list like this.
  Also I would argue The Queen's Gambit, When They See Us, Shogun, Mrs Maisel, Anne With An E, Normal People, Maid, Unbelievable, Atlanta, This Is Us, Heartstopper, Mare of Easttown - all present on this list, are all exceptions to your claim as either being female-led, or having notable progressive themes and/or a heavily minority cast.
  
  Thank you for a well reasoned counter-argument, all very good points ... I specifically thought of the last couple of series I really enjoyed that had atypical representation (namely, non-neurotypical and Aboriginal lead roles) that specifically weren't on the list, but that I personally enjoyed far far more than most of those on the list in the part I did look through ... I didn't read the whole lot.
  To put it another way, women make up 52% of the world's population, but are not in lead roles of 52% of the series listed ... again, from the part I read.
  
  you said it before I could and said it better than I would’ve, thank you!
- Oh fuck yeah I didn't even notice Fresh Prince was missing…

The title is misleading. This is a list of the top 100 best rated shows. I wouldn't call Friends a show everybody must tee before they die. Also not one Star Trek made it here.
- i hate friends but it is 100% a show you must see before you die. its cultural impact is too vast
  
  I guess I'm going to live forever.
  
  Was it? It was just popular, that's all. It was just one of many, run of the mill sitcoms about a group of friends. Just like Seinfeld before it and How I Met Your Mother after. At least in my opinion.
- I wouldn't call Friends a show everybody must tee before they die. Also not one Star Trek made it here.
  And that is why we have opinions, I wouldn't have included Star Trek in a watch before to die list ;)
  
  In that case all I can say is: "Watch some Star Trek" :)
- DS9 would probably make the list if it were reviewed today. It's the most like prestige TV out of old Trek (at least the later seasons).
- sorry, I was going for a bit of a clickbait title 😅 btw, Star Trek: The Next Generation is the closest - it’s ranking at #183
  I hear you - and honestly, I didn’t expect the title to be that off-putting. It was meant as a fun nod to the classic ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ format, which is popular and widely used. I thought it would give the list a familiar and engaging vibe. That said, I get that it might come across as too definitive or clickbaity, especially since the list is based on aggregated ratings. So I’ve gone ahead and changed the title to better reflect the data-driven nature of the post. Thank you!
  
  Star Trek: The Next Generation is the closest - it’s ranking at #183 This list just lost all of its credibility. DS9 and Voyager are clearly better shows.

The Penguin is the #30 show you must see before you die? Holy recency bias, Batman!
- could the same be said about The Pitt or Adolescence too?
  
  Certainly, but I don't know how to tie those back to a Batman '66 reference.

The Good Place should be much higher. And Yellowstone should be MUCH lower. As in, not on this list at all.
- yeah, you might be right - Yellowstone probably made the list mostly because of its larger audience (though it still has solid ratings). Like I mentioned earlier, if I had included more niche shows, we would've lost around 15–25 series that currently sit in the #78–100 range (The Leftovers, Barry, Modern Family, Dexter, Vikings, The IT Crowd, Doctor Who, Fringe, The Newsroom, House of Cards, Suits, Maid, Orphan Black, Adolescence, Banshee, Person of Interest, The Good Place, Peacemaker, Scrubs, Cobra Kai, One Piece (2024), Yellowstone) and those have their own strengths too.
  we would've lost them because they’d be replaced by more high-rated niche picks - including some of the ones I mentioned in the honorable mentions. Then people would be asking, 'Where’s Dexter? Where’s The Leftovers?' and so on. yeah, it’s all subjective in the end, but I still tried to build something close to a data-driven top 100, thank you!
  
  As far as I understood it, the plot of Yellowstone was about a dude pissed off that native Americans were TaKiNg My FaMilYs LaNd!!!1 which is just hilarious. Maybe there is some self awareness in there which I didn't see but my first thought was "fuck this show, they really want me to side against the native Americans??"
- 80s is a perfect rating for the good place... That show is funny but it's not flawless.

Game of Thrones made me laugh but I understand why it's on the list....but Sherlock...? Everyone should see Sherlock before they die?
It's a fine show....but don't go out of your way for it. Kind of crazy it's anywhere near BB or The Wire
- I think the first two seasons of Sherlock puts it up as some of the best TV, but the last two seasons pulled it down as a whole.
  And while I keep seeing people taking justified shots at GoT, I'm not seeing the same for Dexter, which fell off sooner and had a worse ending.
  
  Lucifer was the only detective show that didn't feel tired, and worn out with the exception of Brooklyn 99, but that's because it was a comedy. Sherlock, high potential, NCIS: everywhere, CSI: pick one, it's all the same. Sherlock (every version) and high potential are especially bad because they spend the entire time insulting your intelligence for not picking up on the twist that they didn't bother to give you clues for. It's like a bad riddle that doesn't make any sense before, during or after, and then making fun of you for not "getting it" when it was entirely on them.
  
  I watched Sherlock went back it was live (or rather the day after, yarrr) and during an attempted rewatch of season 1 I wasn't enjoying that much, I realized I had some rose-tinted glasses on about it. It's definitely enjoyable but not "best show ever" material compared to most of the list!
  I missed the boat on Dexter but I i guess I now know why I stopped hearing about it
  
  Nah the show was crap from the jump. The very first episode is just as insulting to actual mystery fans as every other episode. Stephen Moffat should never be allowed control of a show.
  There's a two-hour teardown of Sherlock on hbomberguy's YouTube channel, which I find much more entertaining than actually watching the show.
  I didn't even realize Dexter was on this list -- the first season was pretty great but every season after that got so much worse lol
  
  I have seen your username many times and I finally just got it lol
- Oh, I'm glad I'm not that guy, meaning you lol. But seriously, I've tried Sherlock because of the scores in this kind of sites, and it's impossible to me. What's he supposed to be? Some kind of human supercomputer? It's so naive.
  
  I'm not gonna dunk on it too hard because I definitely found the deduction scenes to be really fun but... Yeah, human supercomputer.
  I'd be lying to say that Pete Holmes didn't influence me when I tried rewatching it
- I agree - I never rated Sherlock that highly either, and I’m also surprised it scores so well

Look, plenty of these are fun but not important viewing. But a few certainly are. If you haven't seen Chernobyl or Band of Brothers, go see them for the history lessons they are.
- absolutely - Band of Brothers is hands down the best war-related thing I’ve ever watched
- Yeah, this is interesting but it feels like more of a list of things lots of people have watched, rather than "best" shows.

Bonkers that curb your enthusiasm is so low on the list. And that's not the only bonkers aspect to the list... It's proof that popularity isn't a great metric.
- Seriously. While some shows might be amazing the first watch, shows like Curb can be enjoyed endlessly on repeat.
  
  Exactly. I've seen every episode multiple times now
- yeah, sadly no metric is perfect. I actually included a version of the list without the popularity factor, and Curb your enthusiasm ended up even lower there - a lot of niche shows took over the top spots. I did my best to strike a balance, and this is what I landed on
  
  Gotcha. I am more understanding about curb actually so maybe that's not the best example. Six feet under has a wider appeal and deserved SUCH a higher ranking than it got imo

Sherlock and Game of Thrones shouldn't even be on this list, much less top 10... GoT for it's absolutely abysmal ending (the whole last season is pretty shit), which basically ruins the rest of the show as well, and Sherlock because it's absolute dogshit. Seriously, it's like the opposite of what a mystery show is supposed to be; it actively gaslights viewers and makes fun of them for trying to solve the mysteries in the show, while not actually giving you the information you need. Watch hbomberguy's video on it for an exhaustive takedown, but tl;dr the show does not deserve your time or attention.
- The first 5 seasons of GoT more than makes up For the shitty ending. If we pretend 6-8 don’t exist, 1-5 are still well worth watching.
  
  I would draw the line between s3 and s4 personally.
  But I would never recommend the first three seasons to anyone knowing that the story goes where it goes. I would instead just recommend the books, because they're definitely better and the only downside is they don't end, but at this point that's preferable to the show. And at least the first three seasons are close enough to the book plots that you could watch them afterward as a faithful adaptation, whereas the latter seasons start taking too many liberties that either don't make sense given previous character development, or are clearly done to increase shock value and get people talking about the latest episode.
- Without touching GoT, I want to point out that lost is on this list as well.
- Second that for both of them.
  I'd argue you could say the first 4 seasons of GoT are must watch, 5 and 6 are decent, have some amazing plot points and some painful ones. You could definitely skip those 2, but I think I'd still say up to season 6 deserves to be in the top 100.
  Season 7 and 8 pulls it right the fuck out of there though. Devastatingly bad.
- Alright, let's make a Lemmy friends version!

I would throw out any series that isn't finished yet, those canceled before they got to finish and those finished but with a shitty ending (Game of Thrones, obviously).
- yeah, that actually makes sense. The Pitt is still gaining momentum, it’s already been really well received, but who knows what’ll happen next? by that logic, we should toss out True Detective and Fargo too - their seasons are hit or miss, kinda like Black Mirror episodes.
  
  True Detective lives on the praise of their first season and that's it. They've never reached that level again, and the last season was just a disgrace. There is another season that is okay, I guess, but you can just watch the first season and leave the rest alone.

That list is garbage if it has Game of Thrones above The Expanse and What We Do In The Shadows.
- What we do in the shadows was a masterpiece in the beginning. It should have ended after season 3 tho.

Watching some objectively bad shows makes you realize how braindead a lot of reviewers are. Especially with modern shows that have 40+ minute filler episodes that exist just because the streaming service wanted to stretch the season out to 10+ episodes.
There will be an episode that advances nothing except a cringey forced romance sideplot, and then all the imdb reviews will be like "5 stars, best thing I ever watched"
There are plenty of exceptions though! Breaking Bad was really good. Poker Face (not on the list, but it should be) is also good. Brooklyn 99 and Parks & Rec were good. WWDitS was good until right after the house flipping episode in season 3.
- Watching some objectively bad shows makes you realize how braindead a lot of reviewers are. Especially with modern shows that have 40+ minute filler episodes that exist just because the streaming service wanted to stretch the season out to 10+ episodes.
  I mean, this has always existed. TV shows were much more stuffed with filler during the episodic network era.
- yeah, some shows ratings just make you go "wait, really?"
- Ted Lasso was bad for this. The first season was great, but after that they didn't have enough story to fill all the episodes, so you get multiple episodes that add nothing to the story or don't move the plot in any way. Those aren't 40 minute episodes, they are 60 minutes.

How the heck did Game of Thrones as a series end up so high on the ranking?
- The show is really phenomenal for the first several seasons. Because of how averages work, the last season can only bring it down so much.
  Fun fact, I still to this day have not seen the last episode. I heard of the infamous final season being atrocious and thought it couldn't be that bad. My partner and I binged the entire series when it was all out. Loved it... Until the last season. Everything about the show had seemed so remarkably worse. The story, the dialogues, the cinematography, the sound design, the acting, the editing, the lighting, literally everything. Every aspect of a show that could be worse was worse.
  After watching the entire series, we simply were not even interested in watching the final episode.
  
  Watched it again and, really, the last three seasons are pretty bad, the last one is just atrocious. Fandom is real, they will upvote en masse and modify the scores because they simp Emilia Clarke or whatever, but no. Game of Thrones couldn't be compared to The Sopranos, as a complete TV series.
- I mean the first couple of seasons were pretty good
- This is average score. There are what, 7 seasons? The ratings mostly dunk for the last half of the last season.
  
  All of season 6 and 7 started really tanking though. Just surprised the average doesn’t seem to have been as strongly affected.
- yeah, the final season was a trainwreck, but the first four traight-up masterpieces. and honestly, 5-7 weren’t nearly as bad as people say - they were still solid, especially if you look at the ratings. They held up pretty well on the foundation the first four built. so yeah, maybe not the best like some people say, but still one of the best, it's hard to find anything on the same scale since
  
  Weird how people shit on GoT. Never before or since had a modern TV show been talked about so widely.
- There's a lot of shows that fall off hard in later seasons on this list.

There are so many bad shows in there that are overproduced American trash, and not even 'good trash'.

Better Call Saul AFTER Breaking Bad?? What is this chicanery???
Reasons BCS is superior to BB: 1.) no Skyler singing happy birthday scene 2.) see #1
Jokes aside BB is phenomenal don't get me wrong, but BCS goes so much deeper in character development, performances and world building. The top rated episode is rated as high as it is for a reason. I literally jumped in shock from it. I'll admit, when it was coming out up through the end of season 3, I felt it was a cash grab sequel and didn't vibe with it. I stopped watching for a few years until the hype around season 6 exploded online so I gave it another go and boy am I glad I did.
- Also, Saul is fundamentally likable in a way Walt isnt. He's a shitty person too, but he's a rapscallion with a heart of bronze, as you watch hoping he'll trade it up for gold but knowing that's not how this story goes.

Where is Bluey, OP?
- bluey deserves a whole list of its own, but this list doesn’t include animated shows

I don’t quite understand how Arrested Development isn’t on here since I’m pretty sure it was beloved by critics and fans alike, but I guess not enough. 🙁
- It probably would be off they didn't make any seasons after the first three.
- The last couple seasons might have affected things? Though Game of Thrones is still top ten so...
- yeah, it actually has pretty high ratings - it’s ranked at #180 with a score of 81.04

Great list! To be honest, I am surprised that The Expanse is so far down the list (59). I am going to check out the ones higher on the list that I have not watched yet. Thanks!
- I tried watching it, but stopped early... Maybe some day...
- thanks so much for the comment and the kind words!

There's a lot about this list I find silly, but nothing is sillier than recommending the live-action One Piece. Surely if the goal is to watch the best media, you'd want to watch the original anime, as opposed to the strange live-action remake? There's some serious recency bias prevalent throughout the list, but that has to be the most absurd example.
- I would actually be much more likely to get into a live action one, if I didn't know that the source was anime. I have tried to watch anime, different kinds, over decades because they were highly regarded, and I just can't. I don't know why but I can't do it. I don't like the style of the animation or the storytelling.
- The live action one piece was actually pretty good. Not really top 100 shows ever, but good.

Also not one Star Trek made it here.
Lmao I'm glad I got my answer so I don't have to bother asking. Does DS9 or TNG make the list when you don't filter for general audiences because these are some of the most iconic shows out there even ~30 years after they stopped airing

Not sure i need to watch 100 tv shows before i die.
- okay, maybe 30?

Yay! The IT Crowd made it!

Mr Robot is very good, would recommend

Narcos? Sorry but nah.
Is it interesting and a good recommendation? Yes
Can you live your TV life without having watching it? Most def

Is there a list of absolute train wrecks of TV shows as well? I think Tiger King might be up there on that list.
- not yet, but I’d definitely be curious to see it)

I’m constantly shadow banned on Reddit too!
I like the list, though I think it’s a shame animation is essentially cut out. I’d rank Pantheon, Arcane, Avatar well above, say, Person of Interest, as much as I like PoI.
- agree, Avatar TLA in my heart too, but it if I counted animation, but then anime would've taken over 30% the list maybe that’s actually a good idea - we could’ve ended up with the ultimate list of top-tier TV shows and animations.
  
  I don't see why it would be a problem for 30% of the list to be animation. That seems like a perfectly reasonable ratio. Maybe even a bit low honestly.

I need everyone to start watching the 1000+ EP of one piece. It made the list, ty.

I don't like any list that puts Cobra Kai at 100, while Peaky Blinders is way up at 13. Also, season 7 and 8 of GoT should have knocked it all the way off this list.
- s7 and s8 are nowhere near that bad
  
  You're being downvoted but you're right. They were bad, really bad. But not bad enough to knock it off a list like this. 6 seasons of some of the best TV in history and people want to forsake it all? Time traveling skips I actually totally get. Nobody wants to watch an entire season of John snow being bored on a boat. So some of the arguments against those 2 are petty. It's the characters abruptly changing their entire personality, and having bran be king was an eye-rolling ending and kind of a cowardly choice, almost a non-bending, which is disappointing, but certainly not worthy of the level of ire it receives.

Resisting the temptation to pile on, but a title change away from the cringey-redditbait-title into something like "100 most popular shows based on aggregated data" would: 1. more accurate 2. show the amount of effort put in and 3. emphasis that this is based on collected data and not a definitive list.
This is fantastic work but that cringe title and it's implications are really holding you back.
- I hear you - and honestly, I didn’t expect the title to be that off-putting. It was meant as a fun nod to the classic '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die' format, which is popular and widely used. I thought it would give the list a familiar and engaging vibe. That said, I get that it might come across as too definitive or clickbaity, especially since the list is based on aggregated ratings. So I’ve gone ahead and changed the title to better reflect the data-driven nature of the post. Thank you!
  
  Thank you, truly! For the changes but the effort! I usually love aggregated data and lists and see what is generally favored (and have fun disagreement) but having the title implying certainity in "must see" soured me being able to enjoy the data for what it is.
  Again, thank you! (cheek in tongue but Better Call Saul is a must watch for me if you're interested in the pinnacle of character-driven drama and greek myth-like self fulfilling prophecies)

How many hours of TV does the top 100 take to watch? I need to know what I'm committing myself to.
- 4,614 hours (and no, I didn’t use AI to help me)
  1 hour/day → 4,614 days (_{12.6 years)
  2 hours/day → 2,307 days (}6.3 years) 4 hours/day → 1,154 days (_{3.2 years)
  8 hours/day → 577 days (}1.6 years) 24/7 binge → 192 days (~6.4 months)
  
  Thank you!
  Did you have that math handy, or did you calculate it just for me? Regardless, thank you again!

Cobra Kai was bad

Thank you for sharing this here!
- no, thank you for the comment!

Some of these we have seen, some of them we want to but the vast majority we don't want to and thus think popularity of something is not a good metric of whether people should watch something.
We have watched tons of shows and movies, played lots of games etc, read lots of books and listened to lots of podcasts which were either universally slammed or complained a lot about by many people and we thoroughly enjoyed them.
Edit: Conversely we have seen/played/read/listened to some that were popular that we hated, even some on this list.
- that’s a fair point, but it’s not just about popularity here. I really tried to strike a balance. And you’re absolutely right: a lot of things resonate with people even if critics don’t love them. But if we do go by ratings, I honestly don’t know what a better system would be 🤔
  
  Easy and universal? Probably nothing.
  If people could take the time to watch, listen to, or read reviews from people with similar tastes, they trust, or just in general that could work.

This is way to heavy on drama and critically underates comedy. It also has a pretty strong recency bias throughout.
- so… are we all just drama addicts now?

I don't agree with a lot of these but that's how it usually goes. I'd change almost all of the top ten. Haunting of Hill House is so very good, and I'd rank Midnight Mass by the same team even higher.
- yeah, that’s fair - it’s all subjective after all. some of my favorite shows, I wish I could’ve ranked higher too… and then there are a few I didn’t even like that much somehow sitting way up there

This reminds me to get on Shogun, I've been meaning to start it.
And oof, it hurts me in my soul to see The Night Of that high up. I've rarely been so disappointed in a show.

I'm amazed Prime Suspect didn't make the list. I'd consider it to be top 3.
- ig it's good series, but sadly it doesn’t have enough data behind it because it’s just not that well-known

Andor is too low on the list.
The Mandalorian is far too high on the list.

Yeah, sure, you better watch The Last of Us instead of The X-files. Thanks for the effort, truly appreciated, but in these times critics are mostly mercenaries and showrunners are cheaters.
BTW, I didn't see any animated series in the list? Am I correct?
I'd revise the methodology of each score. For example, if you used the Tomatometer of Rotten Tomatoes, I think a better rating tool is the Trusted critics score, which averages critics' rates instead of an all or nothing ratio.
- yeah, you’re right - there weren’t any animated series in the list. I’m still not sure if they should be included, to be honest. If we add animation, so we need add anime, they’d probably dominate a lot of the top spots. On the other hand, excluding Japanese animation feels unfair too, so idk
  The X-Files is a great show, no doubt, but I think its average rating didn’t quite make the cut due to how inconsistent the episode quality was across the seasons
  as for Rotten Tomatoes that’s actually a solid point. Using the Trusted Critics score instead of the Tomatometer would probably give a more nuanced picture. It’s just a bit time-consuming to implement manually, but definitely worth considering.
  
  X-files suffered because it was basically 2 shows. A monster show and a conspiracy show. The overlap of people who liked both, is relatively small.
  
  You could do a version with and without animation

L O S T is 73? These numbers are total BS. Bare minimum top 20.

Would recommend Taxi over most of these

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