Let me start by saying that I am really fired up for this post. This is the third edition of the top 10 television series of the year and the enjoyment I get from writing it increases each time. Better yet, 2013 was a mammoth year in television. It may have been a little too good in some respects as I missed out on several shows due to the fact that there was too much content and not enough time for consumption. A small list of shows I feel may have been up for consideration for this list that I couldn’t get around to are “Orange is the New Black,” “Masters of Sex,” “Bob’s Burgers,” and “The Returned.” Missing out on these shows is unfortunate, but it didn’t make narrowing this list down to a top 10 a simple task. I watched most or all of 39 television series in 2013 and it’s not like I could afford to stay at home and watch TV all day. I do have a full-time job after all. But back to this year in television. There are more networks entering the field than ever before with Netflix, Hulu, and Sundance channel among others becoming destinations for new original programming. There is going to be more and more content available as we head to the future. Something I attempted to consider more this year was the degree of difficulty when it comes to the overall development of a series. For example there’s a lot more freedom in developing six episodes for a cable channel (fewer creative restrictions and smaller episode orders) than a show on network television (20+ episodes and tons of content restrictions). Putting together 20+ episodes of network television seems much tougher to do and often the quality suffers. In 2012 the top 10 was evenly divided between comedy and drama; the 2013 list, as you will see, is dominated by dramas. Lastly, the annual explanation of what “top” means. Instead of doing a “best” list which would take an objective look at everything or a “favorite” list which would look at things subjectively I attempt to combine the two and create one list that I refer to as “top.”

Now, let’s take a look back at the best television of 2013!

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