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"In 2013, Digital Spy has embraced all that UK and US television has had to offer - from the very best of comedy and drama, to the merely middling, to the absolute stinkers. But now it&amp;#039;s time to celebrate only the finest cuts - it&amp;#039;s our top TV shows of the year, starting with 25-21. 25. Bates Motel  Norman Bates: The Teen Years sounds like a guaranteed disaster, right? So just how was A&amp;amp;E&amp;#039;s Bates Motel - which got a UK outing on Universal - so damn good? Once you&amp;#039;d got over the culture shock - lurid horror and gloss replacing the black-and-white chills of Alfred Hitchcock&amp;#039;s Psycho - there was so much to love about this show, one of 2013&amp;#039;s most underrated new drama series. Freddie Highmore - once the cutesy child star of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Finding Neverland - is a memorably creepy Norman, with more than a hint of Anthony Perkins in his performance, but Oscar nominee Vera Farmiga stole the show as his domineering mother Norma, breathing life into cinema&amp;#039;s most famous corpse. 24. Happy Endings  Oh, Happy Endings, how we miss you! We couldn&amp;#039;t resist slipping the dearly departed ABC comedy into our Top 25, because we&amp;#039;re still feeling sad about its cancellation. Sure, we were all pleased to see Coach back on New Girl, but we can&amp;#039;t quite stop missing Brad (and the rest). Happy Endings is one of those shows that reliably made us laugh every week, and that had such a good ensemble we couldn&amp;#039;t pick a favourite character. We even thought there was a chance another network could pick it up and keep one of the funniest shows on television going, but it wasn&amp;#039;t to be. So goodbye Jane, Alex, Brad, Dave, Penny and Max. We&amp;#039;ll miss you. 23. The Americans  We had high hopes for The Americans. Matthew Rhys, Keri Russell and Margo Martindale? What a cast! Luckily, the show lived up to our expectations, with a thoroughly entertaining and often nail-bitingly tense look at Russian spies in America during the Cold War. While there were plenty of intense character moments - from the struggles in Elizabeth and Philip&amp;#039;s marriage to the discord of their children growing up in the culture they&amp;#039;re fighting - there were also entertaining chase scenes with great soundtracks (hey, Fleetwood Mac and Phil Collins), shock shootings, and good old-fashioned spy fun. Plus, we couldn&amp;#039;t help but feel for desperate, tragic heroine Martha. Be nicer to her next season, okay Phil? 22. The Wrong Mans  Gavin &amp;amp; Stacey&amp;#039;s Smithy and Deano entering the world of espionage, gangsters and town planning. On paper, James Corden and Matthew Baynton&amp;#039;s series sounded like it could be a giant turkey. In reality, it was the funniest new British TV show of 2013 that ended up creating its own totally new genre. Crime-com? Action-com? We&amp;#039;re not entirely sure what we&amp;#039;re supposed to call it, but we totally fell in love with Berkshire County Council duo Sam and Phil and their hapless antics. The end of episode hooks made the show as addictive as the major budget US cable shows that inspired its writers and it somehow managed to tread the line between humour and tension flawlessly. Series two can&amp;#039;t come soon enough. 21. The Returned  Mesmerising, enchanting, hypnotic, ultra creepy, bonkers, beautiful, disturbing, head-spinning drama. The Returned was all these things and many more. If you&amp;#039;d told us at the start of the year that we&amp;#039;d fall in love with a French supernatural zombie drama, we&amp;#039;d have looked at you with bemusement, but we were utterly bowled over by this cult masterpiece. We&amp;#039;d be lying if we said we totally understood what was going on all of the time, but that was part of the show&amp;#039;s charm and appeal. It was utterly original and like nothing else on TV this year. Throw in one of the most powerful TV soundtracks of all time, courtesy of Scotland&amp;#039;s Mogwai, and you&amp;#039;ve got a brilliant formula. As an aside, we also became addicted to saying &amp;quot;le Lake Pub&amp;quot; in French accents. Digital Spy&amp;#039;s Best TV Shows of 2013: 20-16 Digital Spy&amp;#039;s Best TV Shows of 2013: 15-11 Digital Spy&amp;#039;s Best TV Shows of 2013: 10-6 Digital Spy&amp;#039;s Best TV Shows of 2013: 5-1 Which TV shows were your favourite in 2013? Which series deserves our no.1 spot? Share your thoughts below! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/news/a537021/digital-spys-best-tv-shows-of-2013-25-21/>