That prescience—that, and the pitch-perfect performances from Fey, Baldwin, Jane Krakowski, Tracy Morgan, Jack McBrayer, and others—would be enough to guarantee it a spot. But “30 Rock” is, at its heart, the story of the weird friendships we form at work: oddly intimate, unknowable to outsiders, and often, though we pretend otherwise, ephemeral. These things end, but like the show itself, they sure are good while they last. (Allison Shoemaker)

15. “When They See Us” (Netflix)

There is no tougher watch on this list than Ava DuVernay’s stunning mini-series about The Central Park Five, a group of boys wrongly accused, abused, and convicted of a crime they didn’t commit. But that’s one of the reasons it’s so remarkable. This story should be tough. Any number of filmmakers might have softened the edges of police abuse of children, but DuVernay and her team of writers and creators know that to soften this story is to diminish its power. We need to feel this pain. We need to feel this outrage. We need to feel this injustice. For DuVernay, the act of seeing can’t be done in the half-hearted, melodramatic way we so often see in TV movies and mini-series—it must be done with raw, unapologetic humanity and empathy. And her entire team understands this fearless approach, never hiding behind the acting tics that so often define the “true story” mini-series. They all jump in with both feet, giving some of the most unbridled performances of their careers. We “look” at more and more things with each passing generation from the phone screens in our pockets to TVs on seemingly every wall in our homes. This masterpiece asks us to truly “see.” (Brian Tallerico)



14. “Enlightened” (HBO)

If I had to name the best television performance of the ‘10s, I might pick Laura Dern’s work in Mike White’s (too) short-lived HBO comedy, which ran from 2011 to 2013 before HBO pulled the plug after only 18 episodes. But, oh, what Dern accomplishes in those 9 hours. Dern plays Amy Jellicoe, a woman who tries to put her life back together at the age of 40 after it all falls apart in a brutal, public meltdown. After a mental breakdown at work, she goes to a treatment facility and comes back to Los Angeles as a holistic, positive “agent of change,” whatever the hell that means. The people who knew the aggressive, ladder-climbing Amy don’t buy it, and Amy sometimes has trouble convincing even herself. “Enlightened” becomes a fascinating study of trying to live a better life in a world that’s not exactly getting better along with you. The second season is a perfect season of television, a great novel in half-hour series form that only could have been done by HBO. Yes, they canceled it cruelly early but the fact something this nuanced and complex existed at all should make someone at the company feel more enlightened than the competition. (Brian Tallerico)

13. “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” (The CW)

It’s impossible to pick a definitive “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” song. For one thing, anyone attempting such a task is spoiled for choice: In its four seasons on The CW, creators Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna, as well as Bloom’s fellow songwriters Adam Schlesinger and Jack Dolgen, created well over 100 original songs, some savage pop parodies, some affecting ballads, and many that were some combination of those and countless other things. (The fact that this accomplishment is not more widely known is the most perplexing aspect of the show’s still under-the-radar status.) For another, the story of Rebecca Bunch (Bloom) was always many shows in one, a feminist satire that tripled as a gentle dramedy about identity and mental health and a genre-bending musical, one that could switch gears from rom-com to psychosexual thriller, from legal comedy to surreal meta-textual commentary on the nature of storytelling itself.