NEW YORK — “Breaking Bad,” the American drama about a chemistry teacher who turns to manufacturing methamphetamine, has been ranked the best television series of the 21st century in a poll of more than 500 industry figures conducted by The New York Times.
The newspaper asked actors, showrunners, craftspeople, executives and others in the television business to name up to 10 of the best series that premiered on or after Jan. 1, 2000. It received 516 ballots. Voters included actors Elisabeth Moss, Bryan Cranston and Colman Domingo; novelist Stephen King; and YouTube chief executive Neal Mohan. The Times combined the vote counts with the results of head-to-head matchups, in which voters picked between pairs of randomly selected shows, to produce a ranked list of 100.
Series in any language and format were eligible, including reality, documentary, and talk programs. The 2000 cutoff left out “The Sopranos,” which premiered in 1999.
“Breaking Bad” ran on AMC from 2008 to 2013, with Mr. Cranston as Walter White, a teacher with terminal cancer, and Aaron Paul as his former student and partner in the drug trade. In a video interview released with the list, the show’s creator, Vince Gilligan, said that given the current state of the United States, he would rather viewers see antihero dramas as warnings than as something to aspire to.
“The Wire,” HBO’s series about drugs, policing, labor and city politics in Baltimore, placed second. The British actor and writer Brett Goldstein told the Times, “‘The Wire’ is how I understand the world.”
The rest of the top 10 were “Mad Men,” “Succession,” “Fleabag,” “Game of Thrones,” “Veep,” “30 Rock,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Atlanta.” HBO had more shows on the list than any other network.
Asian productions and performers
Two series from or set in East Asia made the ranking. “Squid Game,” the South Korean thriller created by Hwang Dong-hyuk and starring Lee Jung-jae, placed 72nd. The Times called it the most popular show Netflix has ever carried. “Shogun,” an American production set in 17th-century Japan and performed mostly in Japanese, placed 86th. Starring Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai, it won 18 Emmy Awards in a single year, a record for a drama.
“Beef,” a dark comedy created by Lee Sung Jin about a road-rage feud between two Asian American business owners played by Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, was ranked 71st.
No series from India, Sri Lanka, or elsewhere in South Asia appears on the list. Indian productions have won recognition abroad in recent years; “Delhi Crime,” about the investigation into the 2012 gang rape of a young woman in the Indian capital, won the International Emmy for best drama series in 2020.
Several performers and voters of South Asian descent do figure in the ranking. Riz Ahmed, the British actor of Pakistani heritage, won an Emmy for his role as a Pakistani American student accused of murder in “The Night Of,” which placed 92nd. Himesh Patel, a British actor of Indian descent, starred in “Station Eleven,” ranked 93rd, and also cast a ballot. Mindy Kaling, whose father is Tamil, was cited by the Times as one of the careers launched by the American “Office,” ranked 11th. Padma Lakshmi, the Chennai-born host of “Top Chef,” gave comments to the Times on “Severance,” “The White Lotus” and Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown.”
Politics and conflict on screen
A number of the ranked shows deal with state power and political violence. “Chernobyl,” the 2019 series about the 1986 nuclear disaster in present-day Ukraine, placed 19th; the Times noted that the catastrophe could have been prevented. “Andor,” a “Star Wars” spinoff that follows the organization of an armed rebellion against an authoritarian government, placed 32nd. “Band of Brothers,” the 2001 World War II series produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, was 28th.
Bourdain’s two travel series both made the list. “Parts Unknown,” ranked 64th, used food as a way into political subjects in countries including Congo and Iran.
The ranking follows similar Times projects naming the best books and films of the century. The online presentation included Disney+ sponsorship, but The Times said Disney+ had no input into the selection of titles, their rankings or other editorial decisions.
