If you have five years, four months, and $1,138 to spare, you might be able stream every one of The New York Times‘ top 100 TV shows of the 21st century.
As you’d expect from any authoritative listicle, The Times‘ plaudits have prompted plenty of debate about the honorees and snubs. It’s also a reminder of how much great TV already exists, and how much time you could spend watching critically acclaimed shows from the past instead of trying to keep up with the present.
With that in mind, and with a little data-sorting help from AI, I set out to determine the most efficient ways to stream them all. Here is what I found:
What’s available where
To determine where each show is available to stream, I relied on data from JustWatch and developer tools from The Movie Database (TMDB), which let you slice and dice the data in different ways.
Let’s start with just a list of the top 100 shows and where you can stream them.
An interactive, sortable version of this chart is available here →
| # | Show | Streaming service | Free options |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Breaking Bad | Netflix | — |
| 2 | The Wire | HBO Max | — |
| 3 | Mad Men | HBO Max, AMC+ | Plex (Season 1) |
| 4 | Succession | HBO Max | — |
| 5 | Fleabag | Prime Video | — |
| 6 | Game of Thrones | HBO Max | — |
| 7 | Veep | HBO Max | — |
| 8 | 30 Rock | Hulu, Peacock | — |
| 9 | Curb Your Enthusiasm | HBO Max | — |
| 10 | Atlanta | Hulu | — |
| 11 | The Office (U.S.) | Peacock | — |
| 12 | Arrested Development | Netflix | — |
| 13 | Girls | HBO Max | — |
| 14 | Friday Night Lights | Prime Video, Paramount+ | — |
| 15 | Six Feet Under | HBO Max | — |
| 16 | The Office (U.K.) | HBO Max, Hulu, Peacock, BritBox | Hoopla |
| 17 | The Americans | Hulu | — |
| 18 | I May Destroy You | HBO Max | — |
| 19 | Chernobyl | HBO Max | — |
| 20 | The Crown | Netflix | — |
| 21 | The White Lotus | HBO Max | — |
| 22 | Lost | Hulu | — |
| 23 | The Comeback | HBO Max | — |
| 24 | Deadwood | HBO Max | — |
| 25 | The Leftovers | HBO Max | — |
| 26 | Black Mirror | Netflix | — |
| 27 | Better Call Saul | Netflix | — |
| 28 | Band of Brothers | HBO Max | — |
| 29 | Key & Peele | Paramount+ | Hoopla (Seasons 1-2), Pluto TV (Seasons 1-2) |
| 30 | Severance | Apple TV | — |
| 31 | Survivor | Paramount+, Hulu (Seasons 1, 12, 15, 40-42) | Pluto TV (Seasons 25-26, 31), Tubi (Season 1) |
| 32 | Andor | Disney+ | — |
| 33 | Enlightened | HBO Max | — |
| 34 | Schitt’s Creek | HBO Max, Hulu | — |
| 35 | True Detective (Season 1) | HBO Max | — |
| 36 | The Pitt | HBO Max | — |
| 37 | Battlestar Galactica | Paramount+ | Pluto TV |
| 38 | Homeland | Netflix, Hulu | — |
| 39 | Watchmen | HBO Max | — |
| 40 | Adolescence | Netflix | — |
| 41 | Louie | Direct purchase (ad-free) | Direct purchase |
| 42 | Hacks | HBO Max | — |
| 43 | Peaky Blinders | Netflix | — |
| 44 | BoJack Horseman | Netflix | — |
| 45 | Happy Valley | BritBox | Hoopla |
| 46 | Broad City | Hulu, Paramount+ | — |
| 47 | Twin Peaks: The Return | Paramount+ | Pluto TV |
| 48 | House of Cards | Netflix | — |
| 49 | Normal People | Hulu | — |
| 50 | Parks and Recreation | Peacock | — |
| 51 | The Good Place | Hulu, Prime Video, Peacock | — |
| 52 | Downton Abbey | Prime Video, Peacock, BritBox, PBS Passport | — |
| 53 | Stranger Things | Netflix | — |
| 54 | The Bureau | Paramount+, AMC+ (Season 4) | — |
| 55 | Insecure | HBO Max | — |
| 56 | Nathan for You | HBO Max, Paramount+ | Pluto TV (Seasons 1-2), Hoopla (Season 2) |
| 57 | I Think You Should Leave | Netflix | — |
| 58 | Chappelle’s Show | Paramount+ (Seasons 1-2) | Hoopla, Tubi (Seasons 1-2) |
| 59 | PEN15 | Hulu | — |
| 60 | Peep Show | Hulu, BritBox, Prime Video (Seasons 2-3) | Plex, Pluto TV, Roku Channel, Tubi, Prime Video (Seasons 4-9) |
| 61 | RuPaul’s Drag Race | Paramount+ | Pluto TV (Seasons 1-15) |
| 62 | Slow Horses | Apple TV | — |
| 63 | The Thick of It | BritBox, Peacock (Seasons 1, 3-4) | — |
| 64 | Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown | HBO Max | Plex (Seasons 1-2, 4-10), Roku Channel (Seasons 1, 4-8), Pluto TV (Seasons 1-5) |
| 65 | Mare of Easttown | HBO Max | — |
| 66 | The Rehearsal | HBO Max | — |
| 67 | The Handmaid’s Tale | Hulu | — |
| 68 | Ozark | Netflix | — |
| 69 | Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations | HBO Max, Discovery+, Hulu (Seasons 1-2, 5, 7), Disney+ (Seasons 1-2, 5, 7) | Roku Channel, Pluto TV (Seasons 1-6, 8) |
| 70 | The Shield | Hulu, Prime Video | — |
| 71 | Beef (Season 1) | Netflix | — |
| 72 | Squid Game | Netflix | — |
| 73 | Barry | HBO Max | — |
| 74 | The Bear | Hulu, Disney+ | — |
| 75 | Ted Lasso | Apple TV | — |
| 76 | Somebody Somewhere | HBO Max | — |
| 77 | Modern Family | Hulu, Peacock | — |
| 78 | It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia | Hulu | — |
| 79 | The Good Wife | Paramount+ | Roku Channel |
| 80 | How To With John Wilson | HBO Max | — |
| 81 | The Queen’s Gambit | Netflix | — |
| 82 | Better Things | Hulu | — |
| 83 | Justified | Hulu | — |
| 84 | Planet Earth | HBO Max, Discovery+ | — |
| 85 | The Great British Baking Show | Netflix (Seasons 5-7) | Roku Channel |
| 86 | Shogun | Hulu | — |
| 87 | Reservation Dogs | Hulu | — |
| 88 | Dexter | Paramount+ | Roku Channel (Season 1) |
| 89 | Baby Reindeer | Netflix | — |
| 90 | Eastbound & Down | HBO Max | — |
| 91 | Catastrophe | Prime Video | — |
| 92 | The Night Of | HBO Max | — |
| 93 | Station Eleven | HBO Max | — |
| 94 | The Diplomat | Netflix | — |
| 95 | House | Hulu, Prime Video | — |
| 96 | Halt and Catch Fire | AMC+ | Roku Channel (Season 1) |
| 97 | Community | Hulu, Peacock | — |
| 98 | The OA | Netflix | — |
| 99 | Gilmore Girls | Hulu, Prime Video | — |
| 100 | Scandal | Netflix, Hulu | — |
The cost to stream everything
Jared Newman / Foundry
To figure out the total cost to watch all these shows, we first need to sum up how many are on each streaming service:
| Service or bundle | Shows | Ad-supported | Ad-free |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disney+ and Hulu bundle | 26 | $13/mo | $21.99/mo |
| HBO Max | 35 | $11/mo | $18.49/mo |
| Netflix | 20 | $9/mo | $20/mo |
| Paramount+ | 11 | $9/mo | $14/mo |
| Peacock | 8 | $13/mo | $20/mo |
| Apple TV | 3 | $15/mo | $15/mo |
| Prime Video | 8 | $9/mo | $14/mo |
| BritBox | 5 | $11/mo (ad-free) | $11/mo |
| AMC+ | 2 | $8/mo | $11/mo |
| Roku Channel | 4 | $0/mo | $0/mo (w/ ads) |
| Hoopla | 3 | $0/mo (ad-free) | $0/mo |
| Louie | 1 | $30 (ad-free) | $30 |
| Total | 99/100 | $98/mo + $30 | $144.49/mo + $30 |
Should you pay upwards of $98 per month for access to all these shows? Of course not, because there aren’t enough hours in a day to watch even a tiny fraction of what’s available. If you really wanted to work your way through the list, you’d want to space out the subscriptions based on how much viewing time you’d realistically need.
To figure that out, we’ll calculate how many hours of New York Times-approved, 21st-century TV each service has to offer, based on data from JustWatch. To factor in time spent watching commercials on ad-supported services, we’ll use August 2026 data from Ampere (via Business Insider). We’ll assume Roku Channel and Tubi have similar ad loads, since data for the former is not available:
| Service | Estimated hrs. (w/ ads) | Hrs. (ad-free) |
|---|---|---|
| Disney+ / Hulu Duo | 1,549 | 1,337 |
| Paramount+ | 1,370 | 1,164 |
| HBO Max | 922 | 863 |
| Netflix | 594 | 570 |
| Peacock | 144 | 133 |
| Apple TV | 78 | 78 |
| Prime Video | 61 | 59 |
| Roku Channel | 56 | 56 (w/ ads) |
| AMC+ | 25 | 23 |
| BritBox | 18 | 18 (ad-free) |
| Hoopla | 1 | 1 |
| Louie | 22 | 22 |
| Total | 4,842 | 4,325 |
Given that the average American watches 2.5 hours of TV per day, here’s what it would cost to get through each service’s critically acclaimed catalog, one show at a time:
| Option | Ad-supported (est.) | Ad-free |
|---|---|---|
| Disney+ / Hulu Duo | $273 for 21 months | $396 for 18 months |
| Paramount+ | $171 for 19 months | $224 for 16 months |
| HBO Max | $143 for 13 months | $222 for 12 months |
| Netflix | $72 for 8 months | $160 for 8 months |
| Peacock | $26 for 2 months | $40 for 2 months |
| Apple TV | $30 for 2 months | $30 for 2 months |
| Prime Video | $9 for 1 month | $14 for 1 month |
| Roku Channel | $0 for 1 month | $0 for 1 month |
| AMC+ | $8 for 1 month | $11 for 1 month |
| BritBox | $11 for 1 month | $11 for 1 month |
| Hoopla | $0 for 1 month | $0 for 1 month |
| Louie | $30 for 1 month | $30 for 1 month |
| Total | $773 for 71 months | $1,138 for 64 months |
Note that you can combine Disney’s services with HBO Max, and Peacock with Apple TV for additional savings. I’ve counted them separately here because it’s cheaper that way if you’re just plowing through each show one at a time.
Of course, these calculations will change drastically based on how much TV you tend to watch per day:
- At one hour per day ad-free, it’ll take 12 years and 4 months and will cost $2,654 to watch all 100 shows. With ads, it’ll take 13 years and 10 months at a cost of $1,770.
- At four hours per day ad-free, it’ll take 3 years and 7 months and will cost $751 to watch all 100 shows. With ads, it’ll take 3 years and 11 months at a cost of cost $509.
- Got eight hours to watch TV every day? It’ll take 2 years and 2 months and will cost $437 to watch all the shows without ads, or 2 years and 4 months at a cost of $302 with ads.
You might also want to exclude shows you don’t care about or ones you’ve watched already. Here’s a little tool for calculating the cost and time commitment based on your own habits.
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