The 40 most popular 2000s drama TV shows, ranked. Click any show for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


The Mentalist
2008 · US
Patrick Jane, a former celebrity psychic medium, uses his razor sharp skills of observation and expertise at "reading" people to solve serious crimes with the California Bureau of Investigation.


The Vampire Diaries
2009 · US
The story of two vampire brothers obsessed with the same girl, who bears a striking resemblance to the beautiful but ruthless vampire they knew and loved in 1864.


Monk
2002 · US
Adrian Monk was once a rising star with the San Francisco Police Department, legendary for using unconventional means to solve the department's most baffling cases. But after the tragic (and still unsolved) murder of his wife Trudy, he developed an extreme case of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Now working as a private consultant, Monk continues to investigate cases in the most unconventional ways.


House
2004 · US
Dr. Gregory House, a drug-addicted, unconventional, misanthropic medical genius, leads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey.


Supernatural
2005 · US
When they were boys, Sam and Dean Winchester lost their mother to a mysterious and demonic supernatural force. Subsequently, their father raised them to be soldiers. He taught them about the paranormal evil that lives in the dark corners and on the back roads of America ... and he taught them how to kill it. Now, the Winchester brothers crisscross the country in their '67 Chevy Impala, battling every kind of supernatural threat they encounter along the way.


Criminal Minds
2005 · US
An elite team of FBI profilers analyze the country's most twisted criminal minds, anticipating their next moves before they strike again. The Behavioral Analysis Unit's most experienced agent is David Rossi, a founding member of the BAU who returns to help the team solve new cases.


Grey's Anatomy
2005 · US
Follows the personal and professional lives of a group of doctors at Seattle's Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.


Doctor Who
2005 · UK
The Doctor is a Time Lord: a 900 year old alien with 2 hearts, part of a gifted civilization who mastered time travel. The Doctor saves planets for a living—more of a hobby actually, and the Doctor's very, very good at it.


The Guardian
2001 · US
Nick Fallin is a hotshot lawyer working at his father's ultrasuccessful Pittsburgh law firm. Unfortunately, the high life has gotten the best of Nick. Arrested for drug use, he's sentenced to do 1,500 hours of community service, somehow to be squeezed into his 24/7 cutthroat world of mergers, acquisitions and board meetings. Reluctantly, he's now The Guardian - a part-time child advocate at Legal Aid Services, where one case after another is an eye-opening instance of kids caught up in difficult circumstances.


Girlfriends
2000 · US
A friend group of black women face life's tests and triumphs together. From dating to divorce, and friends to family to relationships, Joan, Maya, Lynn and Toni support each other despite their differing backgrounds.


Medium
2005 · US
Allison Dubois works in the District Attorney’s office using her natural intuition about people and her ability to communicate with the dead to help to solve crimes. Her dreams often give her clues to the whereabouts of missing people.


NCIS
2003 · US
From murder and espionage to terrorism and stolen submarines, a team of special agents investigates any crime that has any connection to Navy and Marine Corps personnel, regardless of rank or position.


Wakfu
2008 · FR
Follow Yugo and his friends Amalia, Evangelyne, Tristepin, Ruel and Az as they try to rescue the world of Wakfu from destruction.


Sturm der Liebe
2005 · DE
These are the stories of relationships taking place in the fictional five-star hotel Fürstenhof, located in Feldkirchen-Westerham near Rosenheim with the plot revolving around members of the family room area, the hotel owners, and employees.


CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
2000 · US
A Las Vegas team of forensic investigators are trained to solve criminal cases by scouring the crime scene, collecting irrefutable evidence and finding the missing pieces that solve the mystery.


Bones
2005 · US
Dr. Temperance Brennan and her colleagues at the Jeffersonian's Medico-Legal Lab assist Special Agent Seeley Booth with murder investigations when the remains are so badly decomposed, burned or destroyed that the standard identification methods are useless.


Smallville
2001 · US
The origins of the world’s greatest hero–from Krypton refugee Kal-el’s arrival on Earth through his tumultuous teen years to Clark Kent’s final steps toward embracing his destiny as the Man of Steel.


Breaking Bad
2008 · US
Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher, is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of only two years left to live. He becomes filled with a sense of fearlessness and an unrelenting desire to secure his family's financial future at any cost as he enters the dangerous world of drugs and crime.


Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi
2000 · IN
A mother-in-law's struggle to put up with her three bahu's. The three bahu's have grown up sons. The bahu's sons start to get involved with having girlfriends and the bahu's try and break their relationships up.


Dexter
2006 · US
Dexter Morgan, a blood spatter pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police also leads a secret life as a serial killer, hunting down criminals who have slipped through the cracks of justice.


Desperate Housewives
2004 · US
Looking down on her friends and family isn't a way of life for Mary Alice Young... it's a way of death. One day, in her perfect house, in the loveliest of suburbs, Mary Alice ended it all. Now she's taking us into the lives of her family, friends and neighbors, commenting from her elevated P.O.V.


CSI: Miami
2002 · US
The show follows Crime Scene Investigators working for the Miami-Dade Police Department as they use physical evidence, similar to their Las Vegas counterparts, to solve grisly murders. The series mixes deduction, gritty subject matter, and character-driven drama in the same vein as the original series in the CSI franchise, except that the Miami CSIs are cops first, scientists second.


Lost
2004 · US
Stripped of everything, the survivors of a horrific plane crash must work together to stay alive. But the island holds many secrets.


CentoVetrine
2001 · IT
The series tells the stories of some of the characters who work or are related to an imaginary shopping center Centovetrine, located in the center of Turin. There are many stories of love and passion, but also struggles for power and dynastic quarrels in the telefilm.


NCIS: Los Angeles
2009 · US
The exploits of the Los Angeles–based Office of Special Projects (OSP), an elite division of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service that specializes in undercover assignments.


Strawberries with Sugar
2003 · PT
Across several generations, groups of young Portuguese people navigate school life and summer holidays while dealing with friendships, first loves, rivalries, family conflicts and decisions that shape their future. Each season introduces new protagonists, schools and challenges, exploring themes related to adolescence, identity, responsibility and belonging. Sport, music, dance and other forms of expression accompany their journeys of growing up, marked by dreams, choices and ever-changing relationships.


24
2001 · US
Counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer fights the bad guys of the world, a day at a time. With each week's episode unfolding in real-time, "24" covers a single day in the life of Bauer each season.


Castle
2009 · US
After a serial killer imitates the plots of his novels, successful mystery novelist Richard "Rick" Castle receives permission from the Mayor of New York City to tag along with an NYPD homicide investigation team for research purposes.


Sítio do Picapau Amarelo
2001 · BR
At the farm, imagination knows no bounds. Emília, Pedrinho, Narizinho, and Visconde embark on adventures through fantastic worlds and stories where anything can happen.


Plus belle la vie
2004 · FR
The daily lives of the inhabitants of "le Mistral", an imaginary neighbourhood in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, where wealthy families cross paths with the less than rich.


One Tree Hill
2003 · US
In Tree Hill, North Carolina two half brothers share a last name and nothing else. Brooding, blue-collar Lucas is a talented street-side basketball player, but his skills are appreciated only by his friends at the river court. Popular, affluent Nathan basks in the hero-worship of the town, as the star of his high school team. And both boys are the son of former college ball player Dan Scott whose long ago choice to abandon Lucas and his mother Karen, will haunt him long into his life with wife Deb and their son Nathan.


Prison Break
2005 · US
Due to a political conspiracy, an innocent man is sent to death row and his only hope is his brother, who makes it his mission to deliberately get himself sent to the same prison in order to break the both of them out, from the inside out.


Nonstop
2000 · KR
Nonstop is a South Korean slice-of-life sitcom that broadcast its first season in 2000 on MBC. It continued with 5 more seasons. The series was popular for its cast of teen idols, many who debuted through the show..


AIBOU: Tokyo Detective Duo
2002 · JP
Detective Ukyo Sugishita confronts crime on the basis of his own convictions. He has a partner that works for him in the Special Task Unit. For the first 7 seasons, Ukyo’s first partner is Kaoru Kameyama. He is a good-natured, hot-tempered, straightforward and somewhat scattered detective. Beginning in Season 8, Takeru Kanbe replaces Kameyama. Contrary to his predecessor, Takeru is a lanky, cool, conceited and confident detective. From Season 11 to Season 13, Ukyo’s partner is a young detective Toru Kai. Toru is a son of Deputy Director-General of The National Police Agency. But he became a detective by his own effort. And starting with Season 14, Ukyo’s current partner is Wataru Kaburagi, an elite bureaucrat who came to the Metropolitan Police Department on temporary assignment. As the first partner without any career of a police officer, he will face challenging cases together with Ukyo.


Rote Rosen
2006 · DE
Rote Rosen is a German telenovela produced by Studio Hamburg Serienwerft Lüneburg and broadcast by Das Erste since November 6, 2006. The show is a complex telenovela, who tells one love story every season about women in their forties.


The Good Wife
2009 · US
Alicia Florrick boldly assumes full responsibility for her family and re-enters the workforce after her husband's very public sex and political corruption scandal lands him in jail.


Gilmore Girls
2000 · US
Set in the charming town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut, the series follows the captivating lives of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, a mother/daughter pair who have a relationship most people only dream of.


Law & Order: Criminal Intent
2001 · US
The third installment of the “Law & Order” franchise takes viewers deep into the minds of its criminals while following the intense psychological approaches the Major Case Squad uses to solve its crimes.


Mayday
2003 · CA
Major real-life air disasters are depicted in this series. Each episode features a detailed dramatized reconstruction of the incident based on cockpit voice recorders and air traffic control transcripts, as well as eyewitnesses recounts and interviews with aviation experts.


Heroes
2006 · US
Common people discover that they have super powers. Their lives intertwine as a devastating event must be prevented.
The 2000s were cable television's breakthrough — HBO and its imitators proved that serialized, morally complicated drama could be the most ambitious storytelling around.
Television drama is where the medium made its case as film's equal, from the cable era's antihero epics to the current streaming wave. Long-form gives character change room to actually happen.