Sling 10 Year Anniversary: The Best Show and Movie From Every Year of the Decade

In honor of Sling’s 10 year anniversary, we made a list featuring the best show and movie from each year we’ve been streaming.

In marriages, the 10 year anniversary is known as the “Tin Anniversary” because tin symbolizes that the union is strong, stable, and flexible. If we’re honest, those words could also describe Sling TV, which is celebrating a 10th anniversary of our own. With over 22 billion hours streamed on Sling since we launched in February of 2015, many of the best shows and movies of the past decade have been available with our service.

Which got us thinking: What are the best movies and shows from every year since we launched? To help quantify such a highly subjective exercise, we turned to Metacritic, which normalizes ratings along a 0 to 100 scale (Metacritic differs from Rotten Tomatoes in that its numbers are a reflection of the strength of reviews, rather than the percentage of overall critical approval). With this in mind, here’s a look at some of the best shows and movies from every year over the past decade, all of which you can stream right now with Sling: Just look for the “Celebrate 10 Years With Sling TV” collection in the app. To take advantage of 10 year anniversary offers and free previews on Sling, follow this link, or click the link below to subscribe today!

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Best Show and Movie of 2015

Show: Mad Men

Metacritic score: 86

Available on: AMC+

The second half of the seventh and final season of Mad Men was released in April of 2015, bringing the saga of Don Draper (an iconic Jon Hamm) and the ad team at Sterling Cooper to a conclusion much more satisfying than the decade of the ‘60s itself.

Movie: Spotlight

Metacritic score: 93

Available on: Starz

An in-depth look at the power and importance of local journalism (a topic even more relevant today than 10 years ago), this ensemble drama about the Catholic Church scandal in Boston – which features Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, and Mark Ruffalo among many others – won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

Best Show and Movie of 2016

Show: OJ Simpson: Made in America

Metacritic score: 96

Available on: ESPN

Considering it somehow won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, OJ Simpson: Made in America could be described as the best show AND movie of 2016. But rather than binging all 467 minutes in one sitting, we’d recommend breaking it up into the five part series available with ESPN on-demand. Simply put, it’s one of the best documentaries ever made, recounting in detail not only OJ’s harrowing murder trial but the larger social context for its result and the specific circumstances that turned Simpson into such a singular figure in American culture.

Movie: Moonlight

Metacritic score: 99
Available on: Cinemax

The single highest-rated film or show on our list, Best Picture winner Moonlight is an incredibly powerful coming-of-age (and coming out) drama that helped launch the careers of Oscar-winning supporting actor Mahershala Ali, director Berry Jenkins, and even its distributor A24, which has since become synonymous with high quality independent film.

Best Show and Movie of 2017

Show: Brockmire

Metacritic score: 83

Available on: AMC+

After a lengthy career as a character actor (including on The Simpsons, where he voices Moe, Chief Quimby and others), Hank Azaria finally got a leading role in this hilarious, profane comedy about an MLB broadcaster who’s sent down to the minor leagues following an in-booth meltdown. The four-season series follows his gradual redemption, culminating in a final season that tackles some of the biggest issues in the world, without ever losing its bite.

Movie: Lady Bird

Metacritic score: 93

Available on: HBO/ Max

Six years before she broke Barbie out of the box, writer/ director Greta Gerwig announced herself as a major talent with this semi-autobiographical teen comedy about self-discovery in early ‘00s Sacramento. It also features great performances from Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet, who she’d reteam with two years later in the excellent, original adaptation of Little Women.

Best Show and Movie of 2018

Show: Barry

Metacritic score: 88

Available on: HBO/ Max

In his first major TV role after leaving Saturday Night Live, co-creator and star Bill Hader plays the title character, a hitman trying (and failing) to go straight as he pursues an acting career. The first season earned Emmys for Hader and co-star Henry Winkler – hilarious as his self-absorbed acting coach – and its unique tone whips between hilarious Hollywood satire and Breaking Bad-levels of suspense.

Movie: The Death of Stalin

Metacritic score: 88

Available on: IFC Film Unlimited

Speaking of jarring juxtapositions, The Death of Stalin is a straight-up farce about a horrifying and deadly chapter in Soviet history. It’s a concept that could only succeed under the incisive hand of Veep creator Armando Iannucci, one of the great modern political satirists. As the blundering but ruthless Nikita Khrushchev, Steve Buscemi is a standout among the ensemble.

Best Show and Movie of 2019

Show: Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal

Metacritic score: 91

Available on: Adult Swim

Just your average story about a caveman and his dinosaur. We kid, of course: Nothing about this animated series from Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky is average. Yes, it’s a raw and violent show, but it’s also surprisingly tender, even tragic at times. What’s all the more exceptional is that the story in its first season unfolds entirely without dialog. Not since WALL-E has an animated project been able to convey so much while saying so little.

Movie: Ford v Ferrari

Metacritic score: 81

Available on: FXM

Director James Mangold has made a number of excellent films, including this year’s Oscar-nominated Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. But 2019’s Ford v Ferrari might be his best. With amazing turns from Matt Damon and especially Christian Bale, the movie takes the time-tested snobs vs. slobs formula, puts it in the engine of a classic car, and revs it all the way up. Ford v Ferrari is charming and exhilarating in equal measure.

Best Show and Movie of 2020

Show: How To With John Wilson

Metacritic score: 90

Available on: HBO/ Max

If it’s not clear by now, originality will earn you a lot of points on this list and the HBO series How To With John Wilson is unlike anything else on television. A comedic documentary told entirely from the point of view of John Wilson’s camera (and featuring a ton of clever visual puns), each episode unfolds as a detailed look at a specific aspect of living in New York City, from making small talk with strangers to putting up scaffolding. However, in the course of these seemingly benign investigations, Wilson uncovers stories that are both astonishing – you will never in a million years guess where the episode “How to Cover Your Furniture” winds up – as well as poignant, especially the season finale "How To Cook the Perfect Risotto," which is one the best TV episodes dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Movie: David Byrne’s American Utopia

Metacritic score: 93

Available on: HBO/ Max

Practically an EGOT unto itself – it won two Emmys and a Tony, and was nominated for a Grammy – Spike Lee’s filmed adaptation of David Byrne’s acclaimed Broadway show makes a strong case for the former Talking Heads frontman as the GOAT of concert films (see also: Stop Making Sense). Come for the timeless songs, stay for the incredible production design and choreography.

Best Show and Movie of 2021

Show: The White Lotus (Season 1)

Metacritic score: 82

Available on: HBO/ Max

We’re just days away from the premiere of the highly-anticipated third season of The White Lotus, but with all of the show’s subsequent acclaim, it will never be able to recapture the word-of-mouth success that launched its first season. Writer-director Mike White has always been somewhat of an acquired taste, but by injecting his dramedic sensibility into an ensemble cast and murder-mystery framework (a device that itself was something of a red herring), he reached a new career apex and launched a franchise that feels like it could continue indefinitely.

Movie: The Father

Metacritic score: 88

Available on: Starz

We can’t lie: The Father is a tough watch, especially if you’ve dealt with a family member suffering from dementia. But at the risk of sounding crass, it’s also an ingenious film, because it puts the viewer in the headspace of those suffering from the tragic condition. In one of the most shocking Oscar upsets in recent years, Anthony Hopkins won the Academy Award for Best Actor over Chadwick Bozeman’s final role in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

Best Show and Movie of 2022

Show: Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire

Metacritic score: 83

Available on: AMC+

AMC spent a pretty penny outbidding competitors to acquire the rights to the works of the late gothic-horror novelist Anne Rice, but their adaptation of Interview With the Vampire proves her estate signed with the right programmer. Ironically, some of the best things about the show are the smart changes they made to Rice’s source material, from shifting the timeline of the story to recasting Louis (an outstanding Jacob Anderson) as a Black man. Still, the novel’s core remains: it’s a vivid look at codependency that also happens to be one of the best vampire shows of the decade.

Movie: The Banshees of Inisherin

Metacritic score: 87

Available on: FXM

There are a lot of movies about the beginnings of unlikely friendships – the “buddy comedy” is really an entire genre – but very few about the end of them. That is one of the many things that makes The Banshees of Inisherin such an original and unexpected delight. Like his previous film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, writer/ director Martin McDonagh takes his story in unpredictable and shocking directions while conveying something powerful and honest about the human condition.

Best Show and Movie of 2023

Show: Colin From Accounts

Metacritic score: 85

Available on: Paramount+ with SHOWTIME

Part of the fun of putting together lists like this is finding something new and unexpected, and the Australian import Colin From Accounts is certainly that. Created by and starring husband and wife team Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer, the show is a quirky romcom about a pair of messy people in which the meet-cute is a dog getting hit by a car. The series has been a hit down under, where a third season is expected to premiere later this year.

Movie: Past Lives

Metacritic score: 94

Available on: Paramount+ with SHOWTIME

What if? It’s a question we all ask ourselves at some point or another, often in relation to romance and relationships. Celine Song’s exceptional debut film explores this idea closely, as childhood friends Greta Lee and Teo Yoo reconnect decades after she moves away from South Korea. In addition to the beautiful performances and cinematography, what makes Past Lives so affecting is that it doesn’t offer any definitive conclusions to the mysterious and ambiguous matters of the heart.

Best Show and Movie of 2024

Show: Fantasmas

Metacritic score: 84

Available on: HBO/ Max

Facial expressions based on colors. Steve Buscemi portraying the letter “Q”. An extended interlude about a love affair between Paul Dano and a puppet alien. These are just a few of the surreal sequences in the first episode of writer/director/ star Julio Torres’ dreamlike and hilarious Fantasmas. The former Saturday Night Live writer throws viewers into the deep end of the pool, never elaborating on the bizarre world his characters inhabit. But when the jokes land as well as they do here, no explanation is needed.

Movie: I Saw the TV Glow

Metacritic score: 86

Available: HBO/ Max

David Lynch once said that “life is very, very complicated, and so films should be allowed to be too.” It’s no surprise, then, that writer-director Jane Schoenbrun – one of this decade’s most promising disciples of Lynch – took on the daunting task of capturing the essence of some of their most delicate and confusing life experiences in one utterly compelling, complex and surreal movie. The story of two teenagers and their deep and increasingly confounding connection to a television show from their youth, I Saw the TV Glow is many things: an introspective and profoundly melancholic portrait of crushing loneliness; an allegory of the trans experience and self-identity; a poignant thesis on the fallacies of nostalgia; and a showcase for the burgeoning acting career of Fred Durst. But one thing that I Saw the TV Glow is not, is simple. Much like life itself, Schoenbrun’s film is an incredibly complicated, challenging and at-times, terrifying experience to navigate. But also like life, those experiences can often be the most rewarding. How lucky we are to have this film from a visionary director truly hitting their stride. The legacy of David Lynch is alive and well. - Andy Wallace