Even before 2021 began, we could tell it would be an unusual year for television. With the pandemic receding, then resurging and receding again, Hollywood moved in fits and starts, and TV production lagged behind the rate of the last few cycles. Few network shows produced a full 22 episodes during the new season, and some anticipated returns were pushed off a year or longer. The first half of the calendar year was dominated by reality shows and docuseries, both easier to produce these days (or any days) than scripted programs.
Nevertheless, there were still a few hundred scripted shows airing in 2021, and even a few dozen that were actually worth watching. Harrowing dramas and hilarious comedies, returning favorites and bright new surprises. The great shows arrived, even if we had to wait a bit longer between one and the next.
More than any year before, 2021 showed the dominating power of streaming services. Though cable networks like HBO and FX continued to produce reliably strong television, most of the year’s buzziest shows originated on streaming sites like Netflix and Disney Plus. (My Top 10 this year includes six streaming shows – with each one from a different service.)
Picking ten great shows was a bit more difficult than in prior years, especially since a number of potential highlights – at the time I’m writing this – received late premieres and have not yet concluded their seasons. But I’ve done my best to curate a selection of shows that smoothed out this bumpy year and gave us hope for continued improvements going forward.
Here were the best TV shows of 2021.
10. Impeachment: American Crime Story
Coming several years after the second anthology, FX’s third ACS installment got off to a rocky start. In tracking the events leading up to Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment, several castmembers seemed ready to teeter over into SNL-level parody at any moment. But as the story progressed, it gradually turned into a captivating character study – not of Clinton, but the many women who drove the story around him (and faced visceral media backlash in the bargain). Sarah Paulson unearthed the fascinating inner workings of Linda Tripp, while Annaleigh Ashford displayed the contradictory complexities of Paula Jones (even as the writers didn’t always know how to fit her into the story). And Beanie Feldstein held it altogether as Monica Lewinsky, turning one of Washington DC’s most enduring punchlines into a three-dimensional young woman who inadvertently set off the biggest political scandal of the ’90s. Uneven in spots, but an impressive accomplishment – Feldstein’s emotional turn in “Man Handled” is one of the highlights of the year.
9. Invincible
A good year for animation (one of the few TV genres that was not noticeably hindered by outside events) reached its peak with this well-written and highly engaging superhero series. Adapted from Robert Kirkman’s popular comic book series (and unlike The Walking Dead, generally adherent to the source material), Invincible unfolded the lively tale of Mark, the teenage son of a superhero who begins exhibiting powers of his own. Part action, part high school drama, with several mysteries unspooling over the course of the season, the series takes its time building characters and stories while giving viewers much to enjoy each week. Each episode also boasts terrific action, and while the extreme level of violence – surpassing even Amazon’s fellow superhero series The Boys in terms of blood and gore – can be tough to take, it lends dramatic and traumatic weight to several key sequences. In an uneven year for new superhero productions, Invincible proved more than capable of saving the day.
8. Mare of Easttown
HBO’s latest small-town mystery series bore the musky scent of a dog-eared paperback novel, as Detective Mare Sheehan (an outstanding Kate Winslet) investigated the murder of a teenage girl in suburban Pennsylvania. Taut and tense, with an excellent sense of individuality (boosted by immersive visual work from director Craig Zobel and cinematographer Ben Richardson), this was a series that rewarded patience with shocking action and several disturbing twists. More broadly, it displayed the superiority of the weekly episode model over the full-season release favored by many streaming services – by parceling out the episodes one at a time, HBO allowed for the buzz to build and the ratings to improve each week. (The finale impressively scored more than twice the viewership numbers of the premiere.) Though it contained its share of slow spots, Mare wound up as riveting as many of the page-turning thrillers it aspired to emulate.
7. WandaVision
Following the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home in July 2019, the MCU was forced into an eighteen-month hiatus. But it at last made its return in January of this year with WandaVision – and what a return it was. Disney Plus’ first Marvel show displayed the benefits of episodic television, and worked as a delightful history of TV in general. Exploring the evolution of family sitcoms through the decades – from the black-and-white domesticity of the 1950s to the mockumentary format of the 2010s – the series was a loving tribute to a tentpole TV genre, and a fun romp through the ages for sitcom and Marvel fans alike. The series was less successful when it switched to traditional MCU fare, particularly in its unspectacular action climax (not to mention an all-too-tidy resolution for Wanda). But in a year when the Marvel Cinematic Universe was often criticized for relying on garden-variety formula, WandaVision showed how to take its characters and stories in new directions while still retaining the charm that made the franchise so popular in the first place. And it threw in a catchy villain-reveal song in the bargain.
6. The White Lotus
Good political satire is rare in modern television, as most attempts to portray modern culture wars in a comedic light come off as cheap and shortsighted. (Hello again, The Good Fight!) That’s what makes The White Lotus so unique – it is a sociocultural satire that is both clever and funny, capturing 2021 sensibilities and mining them for all their uncomfortable worth. Set at a Hawaiian resort, following several guests across a week of vacation, the series features no shortage of narcissistic characters, but knows exactly how and when to rub them against one another and generate the maximum level of sparks. Certainly uncomfortable to watch in spots, but made palatable thanks to a standout cast and a string of meaty scripts. As he did with Enlightened, writer-director Mike White utilizes the satirical tone to explore several potent themes – wealth, race, privilege, wokeness – and wraps it all in a whip-smart and highly entertaining comedy.
5. Only Murders in the Building
Few comedic duos have endured as long or as well as Steve Martin and Martin Short, and Only Murders in the Building showcases them at the top of their game. Paired with a young Selena Gomez (who acquits herself nicely alongside the two veterans), the men play a couple of New Yorkers whose residential apartment becomes the site of a grisly murder. They start a podcast investigating the death, uncovering multiple secrets as they probe the matter further. A carefully constructed mystery, with top-notch stunt casting in supporting roles (Tina Fey, Nathan Lane, and Jane Lynch all lend their talents) and a perfect balance between silly comedy and warm human drama. Martin and fellow cocreator John Hoffman poke fun at the tropes of crime storytelling while producing a great crime story of their own, and build their tale to a highly satisfying conclusion. (Or semi-conclusion, as the show has already been greenlit for Season Two.)
4. Maid
Debuting in the shadow of Netflix’s much buzzier Squid Game, Maid didn’t have much cultural cache unless you were familiar with the Stephanie Land memoir on which it was based. But though it lacked any violent reenactments of popular children’s games, it proved to be the more nuanced and heartbreaking exploration of class and The System. The story followed Alex, a young woman who escapes an abusive relationship along with her toddler, and struggles to live paycheck-to-paycheck as a housemaid. Though generally understated in its look at domestic abuse, Maid was a remarkably effective miniseries, tracking Alex’s struggles and rewarding patient viewers with her occasional triumphs. Margaret Qualley gave one of the year’s most moving performances as a young woman who would do anything for her daughter, and her real-life mom Andie MacDowell did similarly admirable work as Alex’s own conflicted mother. As with many Netflix dramas, Maid dragged in the middle of its ten-hour stretch, but it ended on a high note, and stands as one of the year’s most accomplished TV runs.
3. What We Do in the Shadows
At a certain point, this starts to sound like a broken record, but it remains an enduring truism: What We Do in the Shadows is the funniest show on television, mining endless jokes from its “vampires in modern-day New York” premise and providing more laughs per minute than any other series in recent memory. And it continues to improve in this respect with each season, as the castmembers continue to mesh, both with each other and the note-perfect writing. Season Three provides some of the biggest laughs yet, with episodes like “The Cloak of Duplication” (showcasing Kayvan Novak’s versatility in emulating his fellow stars), “The Casino” (comedy about gambling and The Big Bang Theory), and “The Wellness Center” (which kicks off a late-season arc about Nandor’s internal vampire vs. human conflict). There are deeper and more complicated sitcoms on TV – including the pair I’ve reserved for the top two spots on the list – but What We Do In the Shadows proves that comedy can be silly without being dumb. All it takes is some fun writing, a game cast, and the occasional Barenaked Ladies needle drop.
2. Hacks
A razor-edged deconstruction of the stand-up comedy world, as told through the eyes of aging female comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and the young millennial she hires to write her material. Hacks is a veritable comic two-hander, with the veteran Smart (in one of her greatest roles) nicely complemented by newcomer Hannah Einbinder, and watching the two women get on each others’ nerves – before eventually, reluctantly, learning to respect each other – is one of the year’s great little joys. But beyond its dynamic character interactions, Hacks explores rich themes about the state of modern showbiz, ranging from sexism to the generation gap to the effects of social media. (It is perhaps the only TV series of 2021 to treat cancel culture in a manner that doesn’t feel forced or out of tune.) Much like Vance herself, Hacks doesn’t pull its punches, yielding plenty of funny moments as well as more than a few discomforting ones. A clever comedic series that blends the best aspects of BoJack Horseman and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel into an identity of its own.
1. Mythic Quest
In its first season, Mythic Quest fashioned itself as a very funny workplace comedy, dealing with the quirky staff at an MMORPG hub. Season Two kept the setting and format, but dialed back the focus on the video game itself (even eschewing a subtitle like the first season’s Raven’s Banquet) and put more emphasis on the characters, mixing and matching their relationships in unexpected and impactful ways. Virtual mastermind Ian (Rob McElhenney) gained more layers as the show unearthed the man-child within, while Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao) grew more intimated by the burden of her co-leadership role. Season Two featured a three-episode midseason stretch (“Please Sign Here,” “Backstory!” and “Peter”) that was about as perfect a little run as any show this year, which deepened and dramatized the characters without losing any of the sardonic wit that made them so funny to begin with. In a year we spent trying to figure out the best way to navigate and recover from what came before, Mythic Quest is a humbling (and occasionally haunting) reminder that most of us are simply making up their plans on the fly, with the best ideas emerging less from careful thought than sudden spontaneity – and that this is not always a bad thing. It’s a sweet, acerbic, and still very funny series that stands as the best show of 2021.
Honorable Mentions
Arcane, The Great, Hawkeye, How To with John Wilson, Inside Job, MODOK, Schmigadoon, The Simpsons, Solar Opposites, Squid Game
Tune in next week as we round out the year with the Top 10 Films of 2021.
Critically Touched 