Year-in-Review: The best television programs of 2019... and the 2010s

The Americans / The Good Place / It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia / Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt / Mad Men

Welcome to the What's On Tonight & Pop Culture thread for your best television programs of the year and the best of the decade!

This is the first year so if this proves something of value to us, maybe it'll become an annual thing. Mainly, I wanted to see how migrating the conversation from being buried in a WOT thread could expand/extend such chatter.

Yeah, 2019 isn't quite finished, and I'm confident I'm not alone in being behind on several programs I'd rather not be. Hell, I'm still not caught up on the 2000s. Yet I think we've kept up with a fair amount of television programs for 2019, even with the continuous onslaught of new streaming services and programs, which will only grow next year.

The Arrowverse / Bob's Burgers / Schitt's Creek / Succession / The Walking Dead

Want some help? Can't quite decide on a list? Here are some lists to sample if that's your thing:

• The AV Club (ballots)
• The Guardian
• The New York Times (James Poniewozik)
• The New Yorker (Emily Nussbaum)
• Pop Culture Happy Hour
• Rolling Stone (Alan Sepinwall)
• Slate (Willa Paskin)
• Vox (Emily VanDerWerff)
• Vulture (Angelica Jade Bastién, Kathryn VanArendonk, Jen Chaney, Matt Zoller Seitz)
• The Washington Post (Hank Stuever)

If you want more, I suggest checking out this place.

The Big Bang Theory / Doctor Who / Game of Thrones / Saturday Night Live / Steven Universe

A decade ago, there was no streaming. House of Cards was three years away. Most early streaming shows were still in early development and most didn't have an outlet yet. To me, the 2010s marked the end of the third Television Golden Age and the ever-going Peak TV, where there are more viewing options than can be consumed by a single person... and quality is still all over the place. Traditional broadcast continues, live ratings sag, event programs and sports become king. Cable programming was revving up 10 years ago, now it is abundant.

The number of contenders to be in the best of the decade are most definitely in the thousands once you recall all the original nonfiction cable programs, limited series, and specials. It is a task not many outlets took on, judging by the few submissions for TV lists for the 2010s. Here are the highlights:

• The AV Club
• Consequence of Sound
• IndieWire
• Roger Ebert.com (Brian Tallerico, Allison Shoemaker)
• Rolling Stone (Alan Sepinwall)
• Time (Judy Berman)
• Vanity Fair (Sonia Saraiya)

Again, if you want more, check out this place. And if you want to dig deeper, you can find several more niche lists across the internet for stuff like best acting, best finales, best episodes, best moments, etc.

List one. List 100. Rank them. Alphabetize them. Whatever... What are your top television programs of 2019 (so far)? What are your best of the 2010s?