I have ranked the top 68 television shows of the '00s, and will be presenting them, one-by-one, starting with 68 and working down. The rankings are more or less based on the show's popularity, it's cult status, it's critical acclaim, and my personal liking of it, with a heavy dose of arbitrariness added in. If a show was a big enough phenomena, I'll keep it on the list - but if I don't like it, I may drop it some spots. One other caveat - these are primetime shows (I apologize if I put a cable show that wasn't, I thought they were all primetime shows - the main point of this is just that no talk shows, no Colbert and Daily show that would be on otherwise).

21. Curb Your Enthusiasm

HBO shows are popping up all over this list, and HBO's signature comedy (well one of two - this and Sex and the City - but this is more of a comedy with a capital C - it's about the laughs and nothing but) is one of those shows that is all about the laughs (see earlier parenthesis) - like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, it's not interested in you really investing in the characters, or feeling any pathos in the story or plot. It's essentially Seinfeld in Los Angeles, but without the straight man to point out how absolutely insane either Larry is being, saying what the viewer is thinking (Larry's wife, Sheryl, sort of gets that role to an extent, surely but her role is so thoroughly dominated by Larry, where Jerry's is at the least equal to the rest of the Seinfeld characters). It's slightly inferior to Seinfeld because of this, but it's mostly more of the same, and gets the laughs that a show like that needs to succeed (Entourage, ostensibly a comedy isn't very funny but makes up for it with a serial more or less interesting plot).

An interesting game (if one can call it that) I play when watching episodes is trying to pick in each situation that comes up whether Larry is right and everyone else is insane (example: the rule of the dry cleaners - in one episode, Larry loses his jersey in the dry cleaner's - another customer gets it by accident - and everyone (including guest star Senator Barbara Boxer) claims it's part of the great rule of the dry cleaner's - sometimes you win, sometimes you lose) or Larry is wrong (example: Larry gets into a fight with a bunch of children when he pays them for some lemonade and then tries to demand his money back when the lemonade stinks). It's honestly about half and half.

Praise should certainly be generously given to the supporting characters - Jeff Garland as Larry's agent is great, as well as numerous recurring guests such as Richard Lewis and Ted Dansen (part of the great Ted Dansen revival along with Damages and Bored to Death, a topic for another day), but the show is really about Larry himself (some people absolutely love Susie Essman as Jeff's wife who curses constantly and kicks Larry out of her house almost every other episode for some reason, but she, for the most part, doesn't do it for me - it's just too much, even by Curb standards). Larry has his share of catchphrases - "prett-ay good" (you really have to hear it to understand how he says it, "Let me ask you something" generally preceding a particularly inane question, and his long-form stare (go to 42 seconds for the stare, and keep watching to hear the "prett-ay good.").

The guest stars are too numerous to name and each season has a loose plotline, the best of which may be the seventh season in which Larry arranges a Seinfeld reunion, all as a ploy to get his ex-wife back, which allows the possibility of having a Seinfeld reunion, without ever having to have one officially (George struck it rich with the iToilet - a mobile phone application letting you know where the nearest free toilet was, but lost all his money to Bernie Madoff).

I would be remiss to mention the strangest random fact about Curb Your Enthusiasm which is incidental to the show itself, but fascinating - a man was cleared of a murder charge because he was caught in the outtakes for a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode (the one where Larry picks up a prostitute to take the HOV lane to the game) at Dodger Stadium. So Curb has contributed to society.

It took me way to long to watch this show for someone who loves Seinfeld, and yes, it's not going to blow your mind - it's exactly what you expect, but it's funny, and you can't ask that much more from something.