TV.com's Top 30 Shows of the Past Five Years: The Runners-Up and Our Individual Staff Picks

Last week, we finished counting down our Top 30 TV Shows of the Half-Decade, a diverse list of series that just goes to show how much great television programming we have to choose from these days. And to cap off the festivities, we're back to present what many of you have been asking for: the individual Top 20 lists that we used to tabulate our collective Top 30. Below, you'll find our personal choices, along with a few words about some of the shows that we really, really wish would've made the final cut.

Editor's Note #1: Regardless of whether you participated in @MarlboroMagpi's TV.com reader version of the Top 30 TV Shows of the Half-Decade, you can still feel free to share your personal picks in the comments!

Editor's Note #2: For details on how we compiled our overall rankings, you can find a full description of our methodology here. Below, shows are in listed order from highest-ranked to lowest-ranked, where No. 1 is worth 20 points and No. 20 is worth 1 point.

CORY BARKER

1. Mad Men | 2. Breaking Bad | 3. The 2015 College Football Playoff | 4. 30 for 30 | 5. The Good Wife | 6. Happy Endings | 7. The Vampire Diaries | 8. Community | 9. Parks and Recreation | 10. Terriers | 11. Enlightened | 12. Veep | 13. Justified | 14. The Americans | 15. Top of the Lake | 16. Key & Peele | 17. Banshee | 18. Hannibal | 19. 30 Rock | 20. Homeland

SPOTLIGHT: Top of the Lake

Our top 30 features two stylish murder mysteries in Fargo and True Detective and yet somehow almost everyone forgot about the most stylish of them all, Jane Campion's Top of the Lake. The BBC Two/SundanceTV co-production might not have featured the same big and showy performances as those two dude-focused whodunits, but Elisabeth Moss, Peter Mullan, and the rest of the cast were fan-freaking-tastic just the same. Similarly, while Top of the Lake wasn't as concerned with conveying its coolness with tracking shots and shootouts, Campion's use of the New Zealand landscape produced some of the most beautiful and breathtaking visuals in recent TV history. If you skipped over this one the first time around, move it to the top of your queue right now.

SPOTLIGHT: Banshee

The action drama's tremendous third season was what solidified Banshee's inclusion on my list. The series has always produced some of the best fight choreography and violent action sequences on television, but the most recent 12 to 15 episodes were especially impressive in building moving character arcs and gut-wrenching moments with long-lasting narrative impact. Banshee is no longer just a fun little romp on Cinemax; it's one of TV's absolute best.

NICK CAMPBELL

1. Breaking Bad | 2. Mad Men | 3. Adventure Time | 4. 2010 World Cup: U.S. vs. Algeria | 5. Terriers | 6. Community | 7. The Daily Show | 8. Parenthood | 9. Archer | 10. Parks and Recreation | 11. Bob's Burgers | 12. Game of Thrones | 13. The Good Wife | 14. Friday Night Lights | 15. The Chicago Code | 16. Scandal | 17. Portlandia | 18. Broad City | 19. True Detective | 20. Lost

SPOTLIGHT: The Chicago Code

The 2010–2011 TV season was a rough one for Shawn Ryan, mostly thanks to Fox's subsidiaries. Terriers (be still, my heart) was taken too soon from FX, Lie to Me petered out (mercifully), and a promising semi-procedural starring Jason Clarke, Matt Lauria, and Jennifer Beals was wrested from me long before I was ready to let go. From Billy Corgan's opening theme to the show's cliffhangers full of corruption, I loved The Chicago Code, and once Fox axed it, I swore off the network for a good while as a result.

SPOTLIGHT: Lost

I liked the last season. I thought the ending was fine. I even liked the flash sideways. My only gripes were not knowing who the people in the outrigger were and the surprise magic in the penultimate episode. Otherwise, I was completely satisfied. Come at me, bro.

ANDY DAGLAS

1. Parks and Recreation | 2. Justified | 3. The Good Wife | 4. Archer | 5. Bob's Burgers | 6. Breaking Bad | 7. Spartacus | 8. The Legend of Korra | 9. Mad Men | 10. Happy Endings | 11. Community | 12. Gravity Falls | 13. Person of Interest | 14. Hart of Dixie | 15. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia | 16. Game of Thrones | 17. Hannibal | 18. Arrow | 19. Phineas and Ferb | 20. The Vampire Diaries

SPOTLIGHT: The Legend of Korra

Following in the footsteps of Avatar: The Last Airbender—one of the most artful and best-loved animated series in American TV history—is no small task. Yet The Legend of Korra more than measured up, expanding the Avatar universe in organic ways without ever seeming to trade on the success of its predecessor. And starting with the savvy, headstrong, fierce, compassionate, and heroic Korra (expertly voiced by Janet Varney), the show populated that world with a tremendous range of female characters—all of them people of color—to an extent scarcely even approached by most contemporary programs. Whether animated or live-action, TV in this decade and the decades to come badly needs more shows that look like The Legend of Korra.

SPOTLIGHT: Hart of Dixie

Despite mostly flying under the radar during its four seasons, Hart of Dixie is this half-decade's one true successor to Gilmore Girls for fans of wacky, small-town hijinks. It's an unabashed screwball comedy bustling with zany capers, eccentric locals, and a thoroughly charming ensemble led by Rachel Bilson, in the most underrated comedic performance on TV. What's not to love?

NOEL KIRKPATRICK

1. Adventure Time | 2. The Good Wife | 3. Hannibal | 4. 30 Rock | 5. Breaking Bad | 6. Justified | 7. The Colbert Report | 8. Enlightened | 9. Orange Is the New Black | 10. Scandal | 11. Rectify | 12. Rubicon | 13. Key & Peele | 14. Wimbledon 2012: Isner vs. Mahut | 15. Awake | 16. Gatchaman Crowds | 17. Bob's Burgers | 18. The Legend of Korra | 19. Community | 20. The Tatami Galaxy

SPOTLIGHT: The Colbert Report

My high placement of The Colbert Report is largely due to the show's hilarious, amazing, and, frankly, educational work during the 2011–2012 election cycle regarding the Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow super PAC. What a masterfully lampooning of the sad state of American politics!

SPOTLIGHT: Rubicon

I still mourn Rubicon's passing. A show about grief and paranoia in a post-9/11 United States (and then about just grief and paranoia), it transformed the "conspiracy thriller" into a "conspiracy meditation" that always stayed true to its roots: Even when Will won and unraveled the conspiracy, he still lost because the system cannot be stopped.

MARYANN SLEASMAN

1. Breaking Bad | 2. Mad Men | 3. True Detective | 4. Drunk History | 5. The Americans | 6. Louie | 7. Shameless | 8. Continuum | 9. The Office | 10. Archer | 11. Glee | 12. The Normal Heart | 13. Hannibal | 14. Downton Abbey | 15. Misfits | 16. The Flash | 17. New Girl | 18. American Horror Story: Murder House | 19. The Daily Show | 20. Community

SPOTLIGHT: Glee

Say what you will about the serious quality control issues that plagued Glee's later seasons, but in the early years after Fox's song-and-dance number originally tap danced its way into our cold, dead, gritty-cable-series-loving hearts, it was weird and wonderful. One of the most diverse casts on television brought obese characters, gay characters, and characters with every shade of epidermis under the sun to center stage in millions of living rooms. That's more than a little important.

SPOTLIGHT: New Girl

Okay, yes, I once totally side-eyed the concept of a Zooey Deschanel-fronted sitcom, but then New Girl took some very tired tropes and taught them new tricks with such classics as "Fluffer" and "Keaton" and "Cooler." Plus it gave us True American. While the series initially sounded awful on paper and certainly has its flaws (ugh, the first half of Season 3!), overall, it's actually ended up being pretty dang great.

TIM SURETTE

1. Breaking Bad | 2. Enlightened | 3. Game of Thrones | 4. The Americans | 5. Justified | 6. The Returned | 7. Fargo | 8. Black Mirror | 9. Louie | 10. Fringe | 11. Community | 12. Person of Interest | 13. Rectify | 14. Awake | 15. Homeland | 16. Manhattan | 17. Broad City | 18. True Detective | 19. Orange Is the New Black | 20. Bachelor in Paradise

SPOTLIGHT: The Returned

My fellow TV.com writers must be francophobes, because this supernatural French drama about the dead returning to life easily deserved a spot on fthe finale list. It may have only aired one eight-episode, mind-boggling first season so far, but that one season was one of the most captivating TV debuts I've ever seen. Moody, disturbing, and frickin' gorgeous, The Returned is the type of show that never leaves you. Victor!

SPOTLIGHT: Black Mirror

Brimming with satire so sharp that its teeth will cut all the way to the bone, Black Mirror offers a thoughtful, witty, and frightening look at society's relationship with technology in the form of a Twilight Zone-style anthology. Yes, there've only been seven episodes, but the show is the epitome of quality over quantity.

SPOTLIGHT: Fringe

Fox's sci-fi drama may have sputtered out toward the end, but the seasons that were eligible for this list include the back half of Season 2 and all of Season 3, when Fringe was firing on all cylinders with multiple universes and entangled romance. It's a damn travesty that it wasn't recognized here. I'm mad at everyone.

KAITLIN THOMAS

1. Breaking Bad | 2. Justified | 3. Hannibal | 4. The Americans | 5. Shameless | 6. Friday Night Lights | 7. Parks and Recreation | 8. Bob's Burgers | 9. The Good Wife | 10. Mad Men | 11. Veep | 12. Game of Thrones | 13. Rectify | 14. Community | 15. Orphan Black | 16. The Vampire Diaries | 17. Sherlock | 18. Jane the Virgin | 19. Terriers | 20. Rubicon

SPOTLIGHT: Sherlock

Sherlock isn't always perfect—please don't even get me started on "The Hounds of Baskerville"—but it's still one of my favorite shows to come out of the last five years. Maybe it's the shortened format of three episodes per season that makes it feel fresh. Maybe it's the focus on the unbelievably entertaining bromance between Sherlock and Watson (Sherlock's embarrassing but heartfelt toast at Watson's wedding was one for the ages). Or maybe I just really love that Sherlock is an unabashed jerk. Whatever it is, the show is a hoot and I can't wait for Season 4 to debut in approximately 2023.

SPOTLIGHT: Jane the Virgin

I was initially hesitant to include shows with only one season—or in Jane the Virgin's case, less than one season—on my list because I wanted to see proof that their success/quality wasn't a fluke (lookin' at you, True Detective!). But Jane the Virgin has been rock-solid since its debut and continues to impress me each and every week. Few TV series are so well-written over the course of their entire freshman seasons—Friday Night Lights and Veronica Mars the other recent-ish examples that I think qualify—and while Jane still has a handful of episodes left in its inaugural run, the show's record is already so strong that I'm feeling good about saving it a spot in my Top 20.

JEN TROLIO

1. Breaking Bad | 2. The Americans | 3. Mad Men | 4. Fargo | 5. 30 Rock | 6. Parks and Recreation | 7. Game of Thrones | 8. Justified | 9. Veep | 10. Community | 11. Archer | 12. Orange Is the New Black | 13. Broad City | 14. Terriers | 15. Happy Endings | 16. Louie | 17. Homeland | 18. The Office | 19. Portlandia | 20. Parenthood

SPOTLIGHT: Broad City

Oh, Abbi and Ilana and also Lincoln, how I love thee (especially you, Lincoln). We have very little in common, but you are so unique, funny, wacky, relatable, and special that I look forward to hanging out with you every single week. Ten-episode seasons never felt so short.

SPOTLIGHT: Suburgatory, Trophy Wife, Playing House, Silicon Valley, and so many other great/young/under-watched/canceled-too-soon comedies

Oh gosh, there were so many shows, specifically comedies, that I considered putting on my list, and in some cases I think I subconsciously discounted them due to their youth/newness, under-the-radar status, or short life spans. Shame on me! But that doesn't mean I love(d) them any less.