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The most influential tv shows of the past decade

From Breaking Bad to Stranger Things, the series released between 2010 and 2019 have radically changed the TV

The most influential tv shows of the past decade From Breaking Bad to Stranger Things, the series released between 2010 and 2019 have radically changed the TV

Last decade has seen the definitive consecration of the television as an entertainment medium capable of competing with the cinema not only for stories, but also with ever high budgets. No more rigid schedules, but space for content available at any time thanks to the arrival of Netflix and his brothers, bearers of a totally new narrative freedom. The television series has become a direct reflection of his society, but at the same time capable to influence it through stories and characters increasingly models of style and life. Among the best known and other niche products, the last ten years have radically changed the TV.

Euphoria

After making her name in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Zendaya leads the cast of the teenage series par excellence. If the generation of the Brit culture had Skins, the current one has Euphoria. With an eye to street aesthetics, the series created by Sam Levinson and produced by HBO tells the life of a group of teenagers among anxieties, vices and virtues. Few filters and a lot of reality for a product that leave its mark despite only eight episodes to the credit.

 

Rick and Morty

Last decade has also been that of the definitive affirmation of cartoons as something capable of going beyond children's entertainment. The Simpsons and Family Guy were the forerunners of a new generation of animated products capable of combining adult themes with a simple form like that of a cartoon, thus earning an unprecedented narrative freedom. Adventure Time, Bojack Horseman, Steven Universe but above all Rick and Morty, the series created by Dan Harmon (former father of Community) and Justin Roiland, has became in a few years one of the reference points in modern culture. If in Italy Tha Supreme used its style to create his avatar, overseas Kanye West did more, meeting the two creators and winning the screenplay for an episode of next season.

 

Game of Thrones

The advent of Netflix has inevitably raised the bar for television productions, which are increasingly closer to the cinema in terms of staging and economic availability. Before Reed Hastings decided to bring the small screen to our computers, HBO had decided to bet on a perfect product for flopping. Begun as a generic television fantasy, Game of Thrones soon turned into a mass phenomenon capable of crossing categories, becoming cinema with battles and scenes worthy of Hollywood and then fashion, with the now well-established collaboration launched with adidas.

 

Stranger Things

If you were to ask someone to name a Netflix series the most common answer would probably be Stranger Things. The series created by the Duffer Brothers has become a mass phenomenon capable of going beyond serial boundaries and invading the pop culture of everyday life, bringing back the 80s by force of gadgets and quotes. Even though Stranger Things heavily refers to the past (Stand by Me and The Goonies for example), it has managed to become an example of an era that has not lived, influencing products such as the two chapters of It and the next Ghostbusters. The crazy rise of Millie Bobby Brown and the many capsules made for fast fashion brands are just two of the proofs of the frenzy born behind one of the phenomena of the last part of the decade.

 

Gomorrah

Although Italy has always played a marginal role in the world of TV series, with the advent of Gomorrah the trend has changed. Born in the footsteps of Matteo Garrone's film, the series produced by Sky, Cattleya and Fandango has managed to break away from both the world of cinema and the world of paper written by Roberto Saviano, becoming an entity in itself, a container of Neapolitan influences and culture that have helped to revive the city. Sold in 170 countries and with the success of L'Immortale, Gomorrah is the most important Italian television product of the last ten years.

 

Key and Peele

Before Get Out and before Us there was Key and Peele, the sketch comedy with which Jordan Peele and Kegan Michael Key told the story of America's society between racism and social drift. Wrapped in a thick film-like sheen and close relative of products such as the Chappelle's Show, Key and Peele gains even more importance after the success and social relevance of Jordan Peele's directorial work, which in his two features has taken up some of the themes seen in this comedy.

 

Breaking Bad

Talking about Breaking Bad means digging into the heart of the collective television culture, arriving at the series that after Lost managed to replicate once again the incredible process of transformation that makes a niche product into a mass phenomenon. Praised, mentioned and recently brought back to life with the mediocre El Camino, the series of Vince Gilligan has gone beyond the first ten years of the new millennium, reaching its highest peak in the decade that is about to end.

 

Atlanta

Who wouldn't want to be Donald Glover? Actor, author and musician, with Atlanta Glover described the African-American community of the homonymous city through a series of characters always poised between the absurd and the real. Described by Glover himself as "Twin Peaks with rappers" despite a small number of episodes the series has earned a rightful place in the best television products of the decade.

 

The Leftovers

If this decade has seen the definitive rise of the TV series as a pop product, Damon Lindelof has probably represented its most ferocious nemesis. Much more than Lost, The Leftovers represented the definitive consecration of Lindelof's talent, capable from time to time of raising the stakes, preferring reflection to the search for answers. Themes such as mourning and life are combined with a visual symbolism never forced, representing the highest example of auteur TV in the last ten years.

 

Black Mirror

No series has recounted the last decade as Black Mirror, capable of making itself as critical as parody of modern times. From the glories of Channel 4 to the less happy move to Netflix, Charlie Brooker has managed to build a book of dystopian history that can tell the story of our society like few others.