These Are the 15 Absolute Best TV Shows Turning 10 in 2021

Two waitresses — one the daughter of a billionaire hitting hard times, the other raised in a working-class household — work together in a diner while trying to save up to open their own cupcake bakery. Although the show itself isn't necessarily a long-term classic, it's a solid comedy that ran for six years and gave Beth Behrs and Kat Dennings a chance to really shine in the spotlight.

NBC's fairytale-meets-crime procedural put a creative new spin on the genre. Focusing on a homicide detective who discovers he has the ability to see — and protect the world from — supernatural creatures, it sometimes gets bogged down in its own mythology. Still, it's a creative premise with a welcome dark spin on fairytales, rather than the kid-friendly adaptations we're used to.

The small but loyal fanbase of Teen Wolf deserves a toast for turning MTV's supernatural teen drama into a fandom icon. The story of a teenage werewolf and his friends defending their California town against other mythological creatures is pretty standard-issue fantasy fare, but the cast's charisma and the show's sharp, hilariously dark sense of humor helped elevate it to something worth remembering.

At one point, Revenge was one of the buzziest shows on TV. The twisty premise put a spin on The Count of Monte Cristo, following a young woman who ingratiates herself with a wealthy family in order to exact revenge on them for betraying her father yeas ago. It hasn't been talked as much in the years since it went off the air, but we give it points for how popular it was at its peak!

Person of Interest, a thriller about a piece of mass-surveillance software that can predict who will be involved in crimes, has the distinction of being very ahead of its time. What seemed like near science fiction in 2011 now reads like a bit of eerily contemporary dystopian horror. Its technology has aged a bit, but its five-season run proved that its characters and drama were worth talking about for a while.

Although later seasons went increasingly off the rails, the first season of Once Upon a Time was an unforgettable start to a show that quickly became a popular must watch. The initial premise was enough to get anyone interested: a woman is contacted by the son she gave up for adoption, only for him to tell her that he thinks an entire Maine town is actually filled with fairytale characters who have been cursed to forget who they really are. Without the convoluted plots of later seasons that marred its legacy, the first run of Once Upon a Time was refreshingly creative, as well as a fun Easter egg hunt for fans of fairytales, myths, and Disney movies.

This teen comedy is one of the most under-the-radar faves of the past decade, but it's the kind of show that still gets talked about with a lot of respect. Centered on a shy teen who forces herself to become more outgoing, it really does capture a lot of the messy drama and awkward moments of being a teenager, all without talking down to and about its teen characters.

Full disclosure: American Horror Story would probably rank higher on this list if its subsequent seasons didn't vary so widely in quality. Back in 2011, however, Ryan Murphy's ambitious horror experiment was a genuine risk: a full-fledged cable horror story about a suburban family who move into an old house that's haunted by more than just your average ghosts. It's genuinely twisty and genuinely scary, and its 10-season legacy is proof of just how much the risk paid off.

Suits is, in many ways, the last of its kind: the last remnant of USA's "Blue Skies" shows — those breezy but compelling dramedies with interesting characters that elevated them beyond their stock settings. The quirky premise of a lawyer with fake credentials joining a prestigious law firm made for great drama and comedy over eight seasons, with a truly excellent slow-burn romance that whole time. And, of course, it's the show that made Meghan Markle a star long before she became royal!

One of the defining sitcoms of the 2010s had to be New Girl, which started off with a slightly cutesy premise (over-the-top quirky schoolteacher moves in with three mismatched male roommates) but quickly evolved into a truly enjoyable ensemble comedy. There are a few dud seasons along the way when the show didn't seem like it quite knew where to go, but its heart was always in the right place. Plus, Nick and Jess managed to make their way into the pantheon of the all-time-great will-they-won't-they TV couples!

The sweetly funny fish-out-of-water story of a New York surgeon who winds up as a small-town doctor lives on as a cult favorite, especially for viewers looking for a grown-up drama that's not dark and depressing. Was Hart of Dixie the kind of show that wins awards? No, but its sweet-and-salty charm marked the end of an era on The CW, where cozy but snarky dramedies that would have been at home on The WB slowly gave way to endless superhero and sci-fi shows.

Like some of the other shows on this list, Homeland started off strong and faded along the way, but it's impossible to forget how the first season of the spy thriller took everyone by storm in 2011. When a CIA analyst with bipolar disorder raises concerns that a newly released, high-profile prisoner of war has been turned into a double agent and poses a real national security threat, she struggles to get anyone to take her seriously. The show's controversial take on American policy in the Middle East drew as much praise as it did criticism, but it started conversations nonetheless, living on as a time capsule of how we talked about the war on terror.

When it first arrived in 2011, this Fox animated comedy didn't make very big waves and debuted to middling reviews. In the years that followed, though, the story of a burger restaurant owner and his family improved rapidly until it became one of the most acclaimed comedies on the air. And it's still running, with a renewal currently extending out to season 13 at least!

We can't quite put this in the top spot, just based on how the sheer frustration with the final season basically vanished the show from pop culture following its series finale. Despite that controversy, however, it's impossible not to consider Game of Thrones the defining piece of TV of the last decade. The sprawling, dark fantasy about the many factions vying for power in an often violent kingdom broke new ground in fantasy and prestige TV. In the new age of streaming dominance, Game of Thrones is most likely the last true must-watch, inescapable phenomenon.

Ask a TV aficionado about the most underrated shows of the decade, and you will absolutely hear Happy Endings at or near the top of the list. A modern-day Friends-esque sitcom about six messy best friends whose group is shaken up when one of them leaves another at the altar, the show never broke through as a ratings juggernaut, but it's a memorable example of just how excellent a sitcom with a cast that just clicks can be.