Small Council: Let’s talk about the 2010s in entertainment

We’re closing out a decade in film, TV and other. What moments will you always remember? Which do you wish you could forget? Was this a decade to cherish or burn? Where have we been and where are we going? Get ready to free-associate…now!

Image: Game of Thrones/HBO

DAN: 2019 was a year of endings. Obviously, Game of Thrones was the one we were most concerned with around here, but look at all the other big franchises that closed out. 2019 marked the end of both the Star Wars sequel trilogy (or “the Skywalker Saga,” if you wanna go with the marketing term Disney invented to sell people on The Rise of Skywalker) and Marvel’s Infinity Saga, which nominally began with Iron Man all the way back in 2008. On the TV side, shows like The Big Bang Theory, Gotham, Jane the Virgin, Orange Is The New Black, Mr. Robot and Veep all came to an end. Plus Arrow, BoJack Horseman, The Good Place, Modern Family, Supernatural and Vikings all kicked off their final seasons in 2019, so I’m counting them as finishing this year and you can’t stop me.

But 2019 also reminded us that, as Watchmen put it, nothing ever ends. These days, they barely take a rest. We may not see Star Wars on the big screen for a while, but there are three TV series in the works, including The Mandalorian (which is the best thing to bear the Star Wars name since the original movie; convince me otherwise). Marvel’s nowhere near done making movies, of course, HBO has ordered a Game of Thrones prequel straight to series, and so on. Looking back, the 2010s were the decade when the never-ending super-franchise really took off, and I don’t think we’re close to seeing the end of it.

But man, it was a good decade for entertainment, wasn’t it? Game of Thrones sits at the center of it, something new under the sun that will be influencing TV for years to come. We’re only now seeing the first shows to really take cues from it, like The Witcher and His Dark Materials, but I don’t think either of those is up to the task of surpassing or even equalling their progenitor. If studios spend the rest of the decade trying (looking at you, Amazon), I’ll consider it time well spent.

Beyond that, this was probably the best decade for TV since…well, ever. Everyone is sure to have their favorites, but I spent a lot of the past 10 years falling in love with shows like Game of Thrones (obviously), Parks and Recreation, Breaking Bad, The Good Place, Veep and BoJack Horseman, and I know there are lots of great shows I didn’t even have time to watch. (I’m coming for you, The Americans.) Also I watched an alarming amount of RuPaul’s Drag Race. And even though the streaming wars are now threatening to overwhelm us with options, I liked how they allowed shows that might not otherwise have found an audience to flourish. Who knows if a monster hit like Stranger Things would have seen the light of day if a disrupter like Netflix wasn’t looking for a way to distinguish itself?

The 2010s will be a hard act to follow. Can the 2020s top them? They have their mission.

RICHARD: Yes, Game of Thrones is gone, but its legacy lives on in prequel form, as Dan notes above. The 2010s were full to bursting with TV show goodness as the golden age of television flowed over and through us. Witnessing the critical and financial success of HBO’s auteur-driven The Sopranos (premiered 1999), the studio bigwigs and cable upstarts finally realized that handing control over to creative minds could reap huge benefits, and in the 2000s we got great stuff like Six Feet Under and Breaking Bad (premiered 2008).

Of course, Thrones (2011-2019) essentially covered the entire decade, and you know I’m prepared to say it was one of the best TV shows of its time, and of all time. But there were certainly a lot of great programs generated in the last 10 years (some still churning away). Just to name a few: The Leftovers, The Americans, Gravity Falls, Atlanta, Stranger Things, Watchmen and Chernobyl. I’ll also add two more that straddle the decades but were generated mostly in the 2010s, which are Breaking Bad and Mad Men.

If I’m going to highlight the show that affected me most profoundly outside of Thrones, I’d have to go with HBO’s The Leftovers (2014-2017). Always inscrutable and weird, the show wove flawed characters into an unlikely worldwide tragedy and somehow always found a way to dig deep into the agonies and joys of what it means to be human. The Leftovers was the kind of story you couldn’t overthink — not everything was going to be explained and you had to accept that. You had to throw yourself into the narrative river and let the current carry you where it might. If you did, the rewards were both intense and bizarrely fulfilling.

I have high hopes for the entertainment landscape of the 2020s. Sure, we’ll get our share of misfiring duds, but all we need is a handful of great shows to make our viewing obsessions worth it.

ARIBA: How is it possible that we are about to close out another decade?! The last 10 years have seemed to fly by, and brought with them many memorable moments in film and television. I mean, Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar — does it get better than that?

The 2010s were a pivotal time for TV, with the influx of streaming services changing the game. For so long, Netflix was the only giant playing in the arena, but at long last, that’s no longer the case. Between Disney+, Amazon, Apple TV+ and the services to come, the streaming wars are just beginning.

And while this decade has given us a lot to celebrate, it’s also broken our hearts one too many times. Why do I say this? Well, we’ve had to say goodbye to some of the best television shows ever: The Office, Parks and Recreation, Game of Thrones, The Big Bang Theory, Mr. Robot, Breaking Bad, and oh, so many more. Not to mention, this decade rounded out and completed not only the Skywalker saga, but also the 23-film Infinity Saga over at Marvel.

However, even though we’ve had to say goodbye a bit too much over the decade, the steady stream of amazing content continues. HBO’s Watchmen is a great new recent show. Or what about NBC’s critically-acclaimed (and amazing) drama, This Is Us? It seems like we might never rid ourselves of quality content from here on out, and I have zero complaints about that.

I think it’s no exaggeration to say that the 2010s has been the best decade ever of television, or at least the best in a very long time. There was one hit after another, and some of these shows and films will go down in history as the best in the medium There’s just no competition!

I think the 2020s have a tremendous task ahead of them trying to clear the very high bar set by the 2010s, and I have high hopes it will happen. More and more, I’m looking to streaming services to blow our minds. Who else is excited about Disney+’s Marvel shows? I know I am! Loki, WandaVision, What/If, Ms. Marvel…this next decade has got to be epic.

Come on 2020s, you got this!

DANIEL: Looking back on the 2010s, I can’t help but be struck by the feeling that this is going to be remembered as the decade when genre entertainment took over the world. Most of Marvel’s Avengers saga happened, as did Game of Thrones, the rebirth of Star Wars and any number of others. And while a lot of those epic stories did see their ends, even more are just now starting to take off. The decade might coming to close, but its legacy is just beginning to come into focus.

I spent a lot of the past 10 years glorying in how many awesome adult fantasy, sci-fi, and historical fiction shows crashed the television landscape. Game of Thrones, of course, consumed a lot of my viewing…but Black Sails stole the crown as my favorite show of all time. The Expanse took me on an emotional roller-coaster as it exceeded all expectations (best sci-fi show since the Battlestar Galactica remake!), was canceled, and then saved by Amazon just in time to close out the decade with the crew of the Rocinante. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance absolutely floored me as well. It didn’t reinvent any age-old genre tropes, but man was it stunning to behold and brilliantly executed. And from total left-field, Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has also been a ton of fun, and one of my favorite non-genre shows.

But there were some heartbreaks during these past 10 journeys around the sun. The freshest of those is Netflix’s adaptation of The Witcher, which succeeded in so many ways but ultimately let me down with some of its choices (R.I.P. Yen). Dexter‘s final season, as well, left me mourning for days gone by and Trinity Killers lost. And Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom was a soul-crusher.

But mostly, I’ll be looking back on this generation of entertainment as the best ever to-date. It’ll be real hard for the 2020s to surpass it…but I’m hopeful that they’re up to the task. With Amazon’s Wheel of Time and Lord of the Rings shows looming, more seasons on the way for The Mandalorian, His Dark Materials, The Witcher (I do still have hope!), The Expanse, Outlander and Westworld, and Marvel’s Phase Four just kicking off, there are no shortage of chances for new stories to come along and blow us away. It’s a great reminder that in the race for the next Game of Thrones, the true winners are the fans!

ASHLEY: Winter is here, and thus the end of an amazing, record-breaking decade of film and television. What can I say that hasn’t already been mentioned by those above? I can try!

You did well, 2010s. I think this has been the best decade of television to date. It gave us the greatest TV show ever in Game of Thrones, as well as the second greatest show with Breaking Bad. We witnessed the rapid rise of streaming services (I’m looking at you, Netflix) which gave us faster and cheaper access to new stories and worlds, all just a few clicks away! It’s not just Netflix either, Amazon Prime and so many others proved fantastic competitors, and with Disney+ and Apple TV+ recently launching, the future of streaming services looks ever brighter.

There were so many incredible shows that began in the 2010s. Aside from the two I’ve already mentioned (which are in a league of their own), my favourites were Vikings, Stranger Things and HBO’s Watchmen. The Mandalorian is amazing too! As Dan said, The Mandalorian is the best thing to bear the Star Wars name since the original movie, something I completely agree with.

Let us not forget The Walking Dead, which has been at our side since Episode One aired way back in October 2010. Back then I’m sure nobody would’ve believed that a zombie drama could survive an entire decade, never mind grow a fandom large enough to allow us two spinoff shows and a planned trilogy of movies.

If Game of Thrones ruled almost an entire decade of television, then there’s no doubt which franchise ruled the big screen. Yes, I’m talking about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This was the decade of the superhero just as much as it was the decade of Westeros, with Stark most definitely being the biggest surname in pop culture!

As we move onwards into the 2020s, we bring with us the legacy of a previous decade of groundbreaking, record-breaking film and TV that served us well. It can only get better from here, right? Game of Thrones might have ended, but House of the Dragon is coming, and has Qyburn once said, Sometimes before we can usher in the new, the old must be put to rest. 

AMANDA: It feels right that the decade is coming to an end with many of the stories that helped define it. This year saw the end of Marvel’s Infinity Saga, the final installment of The Skywalker Saga, and, most notably for this site, the final season of Game of Thrones (and that’s not to mention all of the television series Dan listed above — so many endings). Fans of genre entertainment said farewell to many of our favorites in 2019, but that just means we’ve had 10 great years of entertainment. And I can’t help but feel hopeful heading into the next decade.

In terms of entertainment, I think we’ve got plenty to look forward to during the 2020s. After all, they’ve got the past 10 years of television series and films to piggyback off of. And if the beginnings of series like His Dark Materials, The Mandalorian, and The Witcher are anything to judge by, I’d say fans of genre entertainment are in for many pleasant surprises over the next 10 years. (I mean, the 2020s basically started with Baby Yoda, so that’s a promising sign … right?) And it’s not just the series currently on TV that are exciting to think about. We’re getting a Lord of the Rings prequel series, a Wheel of Time adaptation, more Marvel and Star Wars content — and eventually, we’re even returning to Westeros in House of the Dragon.

It’s thanks to the past decade of Game of Thrones — and the many other successful long-form series that have aired in the 2010s — that these creations have been made possible. And if a game-changing series like Game of Thrones is just the beginning, I can’t wait to see where the fantasy genre (and genre entertainment in general) journeys over the next decade.

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