Each year in television, one show stands out from the rest as the most critically acclaimed program of the year.

Since the turn of the new century, review aggregator Metacritic has compiled an annual list of the year's most well-received TV show seasons by assigning scores based on their composite critical reception.

We selected the top show from each year starting with 2000. The resulting list includes repeated appearances from contemporary classics like "Breaking Bad," "The Wire," and "Mad Men" for their most notable seasons.

Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead fan theory is surprisingly plausible

Check out the best TV show of every year since 2000, according to critics:

2000: "The Sopranos" (Season 2)

Critic score: 97/100

User score: 9.3/10

What critics said: "It's difficult to single out any particular aspect of the show: It's just plain brilliant." — Variety

2001: "The Office: UK" (Season 1)

Critic score: 98/100

User score: 8.6/10

What critics said: "It takes a little while to get into it (episode two clinched it for me), but once you get used to the accents and dry humor, you're hooked." — The Chicago Sun-Times

2002: "The Office: UK" (Season 2)

Critic score: 93/100

User score: 8.9/10

What critics said: "The pleasure to be taken from 'Office' isn't merely that of laughter — it's the pleasure of watching a piece of entertainment so perfectly made and so delicately acted." — Entertainment Weekly

2003: "The Office: UK" (Season 3)

Critic score: 98/100

User score: 8.2/10

What critics said: "Quite possibly the finest closing chapter ever for a TV series." — The San Francisco Chronicle

2004: "The Wire" (Season 3)

Critic score: 98/100

User score: 9.5/10

What critics said: "If you do that rare TV thing of actually paying close attention, HBO's complex, richly detailed crime drama will sweep you away like a fine novel." — The Detroit Free Press

2005: "Deadwood" (Season 2)

Ian McShane as Al Swearengen in HBO series ‘Deadwood’ (HBO

Critic score: 93/100

User score: 9.1/10

What critics said: "Magnificently profane and entirely engaging, 'Deadwood' remains one of TV's best character-driven dramas." — The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

2006: "The Wire" (Season 4)

Critic score: 98/100

User score: 9.5/10

What critics said: "Brilliant, scathing, sprawling, 'The Wire' has turned our indifference to urban decay into a TV achievement of the highest order." — USA Today

2007: "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (Season 6)

Critic score: 89/100

User score: 8.6/10

What critics said: "It has become one of the most reliably amusing comedies on TV, taking little annoyances, indignities, and offenses, and worrying at them until they bubble into fantastically overblown debacles." — Entertainment Weekly

2008: "The Wire" (Season 5)

Critic score: 89/100

User score: 9.2/10

What critics said: "Every single scene of 'The Wire' is meticulously scripted and dramatically riveting." — Salon

2009: "Mad Men" (Season 3)

Critic score: 87/100

User score: 8.8/10

What critics said: "It all makes for a rich, captivating series to look at. And listen to. Even, or especially, when it's not saying anything at all." — Time

2010: "Mad Men" (Season 4)

Critic score: 92/100

User score: 9.0/10

What critics said: "True-blue fans will swoon. Everything they — you — love about this classic is laid out, banquet-like, Sunday night — the fashions, style, elegance, writing, characters, precision, beauty and most of all, the humor." — Newsday

2011: "Breaking Bad" (Season 4)

Critic score: 96/100

User score: 9.5/10

What critics said: "'Breaking Bad' is unquestionably one of the greatest dramas in TV history." — The Hollywood Reporter

2012: "Breaking Bad" (Season 5)

Walter White isn't coming back (AMC)

Critic score: 99/100

User score: 9.7/10

What critics said: "The arc of this character — series creator Vince Gilligan's invention of Walter White as a sick soul — is, it's clear now, one of the great narratives in television history." — Entertainment Weekly

2013: "Enlightened" (Season 2)

Critic score: 95/100

User score: 7.6/10

What critics said: "The show's must-see second season is one of the best stories I've experienced in a long time." — The Huffington Post

2014: "Game of Thrones" (Season 4)

Critic score: 94/100

User score: 9.2/10

What critics said: "The acting is delightful, the visuals are sumptuous, the stories couldn't be more surprising." — The Wrap

2015: "Fargo" (Season 2)

Critic score: 96/100

User score: 9.3/10

What critics said: "The new season of 'Fargo' shows TV-making at its most impressive, with every single aspect — the writing, the acting, the directing, the cinematography, the music, the set design — spot on and in sync." — The Boston Globe

2016: "Rectify" (Season 4)

Critic score: 100/100

User score: 9.2/10

What critics said: "It allows us to know and care for these characters even when they try to hold us at arm's length, by embracing their truths in quiet moments that connect us to their loneliness, uncertainty, and ultimately their hope." — Collider

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