Giancarlo Esposito Votes for FX’s Shōgun

Television creators, showrunners, and actors have weighed in on the definitive small-screen masterworks of the modern era. The New York Times’s The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century rolled out its selections starting September 21, revealing 20 titles each day across a five-day period. Curated through votes from hundreds of industry professionals, the extensive list spans prestige dramas, gritty westerns, historical epics, and groundbreaking comedies currently streaming across platforms like Disney+ and Hulu.

Giancarlo Esposito and the Top Picks for Shōgun

Among the more than 500 voters participating in the project was actor Giancarlo Esposito, known for his portrayal of Gus Fring in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. When asked to vote on the best television series released since January 1, 2000, Esposito selected FX’s Shōgun as one of his personal top 10 choices.

An original adaptation of James Clavell’s novel, FX’s Shōgun is set in Japan in the year 1600 at the dawn of a century-defining civil war. Lord Yoshii Toranaga fights for his life as his enemies on the Council of Regents unite against him. When a mysterious European ship is marooned in a nearby fishing village, its English pilot, John Blackthorne, arrives bearing secrets that could help Toranaga tip the scales of power and devastate the influence of the pilot’s own enemies, Jesuit priests and Portuguese merchants. Their fates become inextricably tied to their translator, Toda Mariko, a mysterious Christian noblewoman navigating a fraught political landscape.

Ranked Hits Spanning Westerns, Comedies, and Medical Dramas

As the countdown reached selections 100 through 81, several acclaimed FX and network series claimed their spots on the roster. Marshal Raylan Givens at the explosive center of western-style gun-slinging as he confronts murder, drugs, bank heists, mobsters, and his own tumultuous past under the creation of Graham Yost and based on Elmore Leonard’s crime novella Fire in the Hole,.

Further down the initial tier, FX’s Better Things secured the 82nd ranking. The series centers on Sam Fox, played by Pamela Adlon, a single working actor raising three daughters—Max, Frankie, and Duke—in Los Angeles while looking after her mother, Phil, across the street. Right beside it, FX’s Reservation Dogs took the 87th position. Created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, the half-hour comedy follows four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma and stands as a breakthrough in Indigenous representation both in front of and behind the camera.

Rounding out the early reveals at the 95th position, House features Hugh Laurie as the brilliant, acerbic, and unconventional infectious disease specialist Dr. Gregory House, who relies on a cane and brutal honesty while solving complex medical puzzles.

Streaming Availability and the Five-Day Rollout

The rollouts provide viewers a chance to revisit or discover critical darlings across digital platforms. While the complete list encompasses selections chosen by hundreds of entertainment insiders, streaming services like Hulu host a significant portion of the featured titles. Viewers can track the remainder of the daily rollouts to see which television milestones claim the higher tiers of The New York Times’s The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century.