BestActress

More of our best of the decade coverage, which started on Tuesday. You can read the other posts at the link above. Here, we talk about the best dramatic actresses of the decade.

Television has always been good to the ladies. Actresses have flourished in dramatic series, and in the past decade, we've seen some amazing performances. There have been lawyers, cops, a U.S. president, nurses, doctors, judges, mothers, daughters and even a real housewife from New Jersey whose husband was in the waste disposal business.

Many of these women have already been honored with Emmys and Golden Globes... and now they get the recognition of TV Squad.

Here, then, without further vamping, the best dramatic actresses of the past ten years:

TV is often considered a medium that's especially friendly to women, both in the audience and in front of the camera. (Certainly more so than the movies, which have been all but abandoned to teenage boys.)

This year, however, there didn't seem to be as many strong roles for women on TV's comedy and drama series. The Golden Globe TV races in the Best Actress categories are especially tight this year, and few newcomers will be jockeying with veterans for the five nominations in each category that will be announced on Dec. 15.