Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century

by Chuck Klosterman

I Will Choose Free Will (Canadian Reader’s Note: This Is Not About Rush) Though some may disagree (and I’m sure some will, because some always do), there doesn’t seem to be much debate over what have been the four best television shows of the past ten years. It feels like an easy puzzle to solve, particularly since it’s become increasingly difficult to write about the state of TV (or even the state of popular culture) without tangentially mentioning one of the following four programs—The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men, and/or Breaking Bad. The four fit together so nicely: two from HBO that are defunct, two from AMC that are still ongoing, and all of which use nonlinear narratives with only minor experimentation. There have been bushels of quality television during the past decade, but these four shows have been the