Thanks to the incredible quality of shows on both cable and streaming networks, there's no better time to get into television. People who grew up looking at film as the gold standard and television as a cheap limitation are wrong now, and were wrong twenty years ago. There were handfuls of amazing shows that came out during the early 2000's.
In a time where Marvel wasn't a household name yet and superhero fatigue wasn't a thing, the TV landscape looked drastically different. Some of the best shows were taken for granted by either networks or fans, but there are a lot of shows viewers could re-watch today and they'd be just as good now as they were back then.
10 Deadwood Is A Western Series About A South Dakota Town Being Annexed By The Dakota Territories
Deadwood was a major show coming from HBO during the early 2000s – the golden era for the HBO network. Though Deadwood was beloved at the time, these days the series gets lost between the popularity of The Wire and The Sopranos. A period piece set in the late 1800s, Deadwood is set around the city of Deadwood, right around the time it gets annexed by the Dakota Territories.
The meticulous study that went into making Deadwood allowed the creators to pull from various historical events of that era – including pulling in well-known people like Wild Bill Hickok. Deadwood ran for only three seasons before coming to an end in 2006.
9 Arrested Development Gave A Hilarious Glimpse Into The Lives Of A Rich Yet Dysfunctional Family
Arrested Development is part of how Fox got the legend for constantly canceling every good series. Admittedly, Arrested Development had low ratings but fans loved it enough to have it brought back over a decade later on Netflix. The story follows Michael Bluth and his family, who start out incredibly wealthy thanks to their father’s real estate empire. But when he’s thrown in jail for SEC violations, it’s left to Michael to try to keep the family together. There’s few sitcoms of the 2000’s era that can keep up with Arrested Development’s level of humor, which is how it was renewed for two more seasons years later.
8 Malcolm in the Middle Was One Of The Biggest Sitcoms Of Its Era
Aside from having the most memorable theme song of the 2000’s, Malcolm in the Middle also happens to be a great sitcom. Malcolm In The Middle resembles a more realistic version of Married With Children. Malcolm In The Middle shows a dysfunctional but loving family. The lead protagonist is Malcolm, who’s a middle child at home and an exceptionally gifted kid in school – who just wants to be treated as normal. Though Malcolm is the main character, none of the cast is forgotten, and fans get to see them all as they grow and develop into adults. If nothing else, Malcolm In The Middle deserves credit for introducing the world to Bryan Cranston.
7 Alias Featured Super-Spies And Double Agents Galore
Long before superheroes made Agents of Shield a viable show for ABC, the channel had a different set of super-spies in Alias. The story starred Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow, a young woman who works for the CIA as a double agent to bring down SD-6. SD-6 is the secret organization, part of the Alliance of Twelve, a criminal organization working against America.
Alias ran for five seasons – giving fans all the assassinations, spy action, and super-science nonsense they could ever want. For audiences looking for a break from the modern era of literal superheroes, Alias is there to provide a protagonist who saves the world with only skill and wit on her side.
6 Firefly Was A Beloved Cult Classic Sci-Fi Series
Firefly makes most sci-fi fans' list of shows to make a come-back. Firefly follows characters on the Firefly-class ship, the Serenity, including it’s lead protagonists Mal and the Washburnes. Mal and Zoe Washburne were originally members of the losing side of the Unification War, but now they spend most of their days smuggling to survive.
Firefly also has strong Outlaw Star vibes. Eventually the story is about River Tam, a young girl found by the crew of the Serenity who has special abilities. Though Firefly only ran for one season, it was beloved enough to get a film in 2005.
5 Girlfriends Had A Fervent Fanbase Who Loved The Series' Protagonists
Girlfriends started back in 2000 on UPN, a channel that would eventually become The CW during its eight year run. The series featured a group of young twenty-something women going through life together, from marriage to divorce. Shows like Girlfriends, particularly with a primarily black cast, weren’t nearly as common back then. So Girlfriends collected a fervent fanbase that still love it to this day. If there’s only one problem with Girlfriends, it’s that it never got a proper series finale thanks to a mix of problems including the Writer’s Strike and budgetary issues.
4 Scrubs Balanced Comedy And Drama For A Workplace Sitcom Unlike Anything Else
Scrubs was part of a handful of 2000s sitcoms that managed to make it out a rut the genre seemed to be stuck in. Scrubs follows a trio of young medical students as they develop at their first hospital, Sacred Heart. Scrubs work so well because it's more than a comedy. Scrubs manages to tug on the viewers' heartstrings by not shying away from the realities of working at a hospital, both professionally and personally.
Fans watched the characters put everything into their professional lives to let their personal lives suffer, while the characters weren't always the heroes. But this is also balanced with plenty of solid comedic moments, right down to all of JD's amazing dream sequences.
3 Dark Angel Saw James Cameron Work On A TV Series And Created A New Film Star
The series that put actress Jessica Alba on the map, Dark Angel took place in the far future of 2019. After a collection of terrorists activated an EMP that knocked out tech across America, the country is struggling to get back on its feet.
Meanwhile, Jessica Alba plays Max Guevara, a genetically engineered super soldier that’s on the run from the people who created her while searching for her fellow super-soldiers. Dark Angel ran for two seasons, maintaining high ratings in its first season but getting canceled for its high budget.
2 Veronica Mars Is Still A Great Teenage Detective Series
A teenaged mystery series has no business being this good. Another series that didn’t run for nearly as long as fans think it should have was Veronica Mars. Veronica is teenaged girl who works as a detective under her father. Veronica Mars kicks off with Veronica having to solve the mystery of who murdered her best friend, but along the way she winds up solving a variety of other cases in her small town of Neptune, California.
Veronica Mars garnered a small but loyal fanbase across its initial three years on television. Eventually, renewing for a film and later a fourth season courtesy of Hulu. While there are considerably more detective shows on TV now, there still aren’t many this smart.
1 The Wire Offers A Complex Glimpse At Urban Society
The Wire is one of the most complex looks at urban society that’s ever been produced. The series isn’t just about making the cops look heroic, or the criminals looking cool. The Wire is a hard, unflinching look at several areas of a single city -cops, the government, crime, the school system – everything that makes a city what it is. The Wire features some of the best and more complex characterization in history.
While The Wire wasn’t respected at the time, these days there are plenty who think of it as one of the best series ever written. The Wire has been picked apart and analyzed by countless fans and critics alike since it ended, each time people find something new to love about the series.