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Fans Pick the Best TV Shows of the Last 25 Years

In celebration of Rotten Tomatoes’ 25th anniversary, we asked our fans to submit their top TV shows released in the past 25 years, and boy did they deliver! Sure the usual suspects made it to the top — iconic series like Breaking BadThe Sopranos, and The Office — but we also had some surprising results. Fan-favorite sci-fi thriller series Dark managed to crack the Top 10, while The Big Bang Theory beat out other sitcoms like Ted Lasso, Parks and Recreation, and How I Met Your Mother.

Be sure to check out the list of the Critics Pick the Best TV Series of the Last 25 Years, too – you might be surprised by some of their choices. And check out what fans picked for their Best Movies of the Last 25 Years.

Breaking Bad (2008)
96%

#1
Synopsis: Mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher Walter White thinks his life can't get much worse. His salary barely makes ends meet,... [More]

Game of Thrones (2011)
89%

#2
Synopsis: George R.R. Martin's best-selling book series "A Song of Ice and Fire" is brought to the screen as HBO sinks... [More]
Directed By: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss

The Sopranos (1999)
92%

#3
Synopsis: Tony Soprano juggles the problems of his fractious family with those of a "Family" of a different sort - the... [More]

The Office (2005)
81%

#4
Synopsis: This U.S. adaptation -- set at a paper company based in Scranton, Pa. -- has a similar documentary style to... [More]

Stranger Things (2016)
92%

#5
Synopsis: Mysteries unravel in a small Midwestern town in the 1980s, involving supernatural forces, secret experiments and one strange girl.... [More]

Better Call Saul (2015)
98%

#6
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... [More]

The Wire (2002)
94%

#7
Synopsis: This series looks at the narcotics scene in Baltimore through the eyes of law enforcers as well as the drug... [More]

Succession (2018)
95%

#8
Synopsis: Although he has no plans to step aside as the head of Waystar Royco, the international media conglomerate controlled by... [More]

Lost (2004)
86%

#9
Synopsis: The survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 were 1,000 miles off course when they crashed on a lush, mysterious island. Each... [More]

Dark (2017)
95%

#10
Synopsis: When two children go missing in a small German town, its sinful past is exposed along with the double lives... [More]

Chernobyl (2019)
95%

#11
Synopsis: Brave men and women act heroically to mitigate catastrophic damage when the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant suffers a nuclear accident... [More]

The Big Bang Theory (2007)
81%

#12
Synopsis: Mensa-fied best friends and roommates Leonard and Sheldon, physicists who work at the California Institute of Technology, may be able... [More]

Ted Lasso (2020)
90%

#13
Synopsis: An American football coach is hired to manage a British soccer team; what he lacks in knowledge, he makes up... [More]

Mad Men (2007)
94%

#14
Synopsis: In 1960s New York, alpha male Don Draper struggles to stay on top of the heap in the high-pressure world... [More]

#15
Synopsis: Leslie Knope, a midlevel bureaucrat in an Indiana Parks and Recreation Department, hopes to beautify her town (and boost her... [More]

#16
Synopsis: The world is divided into four nations -- the Water Tribe, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation and and the... [More]

Peaky Blinders (2013)
93%

#17
Synopsis: Britain is a mixture of despair and hedonism in 1919 in the aftermath of the Great War. Returning soldiers, newly... [More]

The Last of Us (2023)
96%

#18
Synopsis: Joel and Ellie must survive ruthless killers and monsters on a trek across America after an outbreak.... [More]

The Boys (2019)
93%

#19
Synopsis: Superheroes are often as popular as celebrities, as influential as politicians, and sometimes even as revered as gods. But that's... [More]

Band of Brothers (2001)
97%

#20
Synopsis: This series, originally broadcast on HBO, tells the story of Easy Company, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, U.S.... [More]
Directed By: Phil Alden Robinson

The Mandalorian (2019)
90%

#21
Synopsis: After the fall of the Galactic Empire, a lone gunfighter makes his way through the outer reaches of the lawless... [More]

The Walking Dead (2010)
79%

#22
Synopsis: Based on the comic book series written by Robert Kirkman, this gritty drama portrays life in the months and years... [More]

#23
Synopsis: Ted has fallen in love. It all started when his best friend, Marshall, drops the bombshell that he plans to... [More]

The Bear (2022)
99%

#24
Synopsis: A young chef from the fine dining world comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop after a... [More]

Sherlock (2010)
78%

#25
Synopsis: In this contemporary version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective stories, Dr. John Watson is a war vet just home... [More]
Directed By: Paul McGuigan