Critics Pick the Best TV Shows of the Last 25 Years
In celebration of Rotten Tomatoes’ 25th anniversary, we asked critics to submit their top films and TV shows released in the past 25 years.
The most popular television nominees include shows that continue to be part of the zeitgeist – Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Wire, and The Sopranos each remain gold standards for television dramas, for example. They are joined by buzzy fantasy staples like Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, and Watchmen. Workplace comedies on the list include legacy shows like The Office (which remains popular for re-watching) and more recent series like the darker BoJack Horseman and upbeat Ted Lasso.
Here’s how it worked: We sent out a survey to individually approved Tomatometer critics, asking them to choose (in no particular order) their top five movies and top five TV series released in the last 25 years. Then, we tallied their votes, and voila! We have our lists.
Be sure to check out the list of Critics’ Freshest Movie Picks from the Last 25 Years, too – you might be surprised by some of their nominations.
Archival curation for this feature was done by Rob Fowler.
#1
Synopsis: Mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher Walter White thinks his life can't get much worse. His salary barely makes ends meet,
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#2
Synopsis: Tony Soprano juggles the problems of his fractious family with those of a "Family" of a different sort - the
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#3
Synopsis: This series looks at the narcotics scene in Baltimore through the eyes of law enforcers as well as the drug
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#4
Synopsis: In 1960s New York, alpha male Don Draper struggles to stay on top of the heap in the high-pressure world
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#5
Synopsis: Although he has no plans to step aside as the head of Waystar Royco, the international media conglomerate controlled by
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#6
Synopsis: In a global cataclysm, "The Sudden Departure," 140 million people disappeared without a trace. Three years later, residents of Mapleton,
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#7
Synopsis: George R.R. Martin's best-selling book series "A Song of Ice and Fire" is brought to the screen as HBO sinks
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#8
Synopsis: In the 1990s, residents of quaint northwestern town Twin Peaks were stunned by the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer.
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#9
Synopsis: The survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 were 1,000 miles off course when they crashed on a lush, mysterious island. Each
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#10
Synopsis: Laced with irony and dark situational humor, the show approaches the subject of death through the eyes of the Fisher
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#11
Synopsis: A dry-witted woman, known only as Fleabag, has no filter as she navigates life and love in London while trying
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#12
Synopsis: An American football coach is hired to manage a British soccer team; what he lacks in knowledge, he makes up
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#13
Synopsis: He wasn't always Saul Goodman, ace attorney for chemist-turned-meth dealer Walter White. Six years before he begins to represent Albuquerque's
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#14
Synopsis: A humanoid horse, BoJack Horseman -- lost in a sea of self-loathing and booze -- decides it's time for a
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#15
Synopsis: "Seinfeld" co-creator Larry David plays a version of himself on the improvised series. He faces a constant barrage of life's
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#16
Synopsis: Two cousins work through the Atlanta music scene to better their lives and the lives of their families. Earn Marks
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#17
Synopsis: Mysteries unravel in a small Midwestern town in the 1980s, involving supernatural forces, secret experiments and one strange girl.
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#18
Synopsis: It's the late 1950s and Miriam "Midge" Maisel has everything she has ever wanted -- the perfect husband, two kids
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#19
Synopsis: This U.S. adaptation -- set at a paper company based in Scranton, Pa. -- has a similar documentary style to
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#20
Synopsis: Cutthroat presidential advisers get their personal lives hopelessly tangled up with professional duties as they try to conduct the business
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#21
Synopsis: Co-starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys,"The Americans" is a period drama about the complex marriage of two KGB spies posing
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#22
Synopsis: Leslie Knope, a midlevel bureaucrat in an Indiana Parks and Recreation Department, hopes to beautify her town (and boost her
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#23
Synopsis: Michael Bluth finds himself forced to stay in Orange County and run the family real estate business after his father,
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#24
Synopsis: Based on the celebrated graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the exciting and dark "Watchmen" takes place in
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#25
Synopsis: Brave men and women act heroically to mitigate catastrophic damage when the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant suffers a nuclear accident
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photo: © AMC / Courtesy Everett Collection
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