As the wide world of film shook and shuttered, trying to get its feet back under it while navigating the constant challenge of the pandemic, television entered a new golden age. The silver screen may have faded but the small screen burned brighter than ever. Last year, I listed my 25 favorite television series of the year and while many greats remain amongst my favorite, the amount of new amazing series in 2021 was blistering. Rather than diving in again on why something was a favorite in 2021, I mostly focused on newer shows, limited series, and series that made a triumphant return in 2021. So while I love comedies like What We Do in the Shadows (brilliant, still), Curb Your Enthusiasm (incredible, again), Ted Lasso (which proved slightly more dour in its second season, though hopeful and kind to its core), and Pen15 (creative and cringe as ever), they won’t appear on this list because I already said my piece on them last year.

There were some new shows that didn’t quite make the cut for this best of list including The Mosquito Coast, which flashed equal measure of promise and disappointment – and ultimately left off on an intriguing footnote that should send season two in the right direction. Y The Last Man had an interesting run, deviating too much from the source material in many fans’ estimations, before it was unceremoniously dumped alongside all plans for future seasons – sad. Reservation Dogs flashed lots of potential though didn’t have enough meat to warrant inclusion here – though I remain very curious to see how they expand upon the premise of season one going forward.

Only Murders in the Building had its ups (Steve Martin, Martin Short) and downs (the perpetually unamused Selena Gomez) and ultimately went exactly where any true crime at-home detective with half a brain assumed it was going. I also checked out Marvel’s small screen blockbusters Wandavision, Falcon and the Winter Solider, and Loki, as well as Disney’s occasionally rippin’ second season of The Mandolorian but their cookie cutter nature kept me at arm’s length.

But here were the best of the best that television had to offer in 2021…

14. MAID 

Margaret Qualley plays Alex in Maid, Netflix’s empathetic drama about the complicated, often hazy, ways that domestic abuse manifests. In Alex’s case, she’s not quick to believe that what has happened (her alcoholic boyfriend going all Limp Biscuit and breaking shit in their mobile home) is indeed abuse, believing herself an imposter at the women’s shelter where she and her daughter have holed up. Somewhat loosely adapted from Stephanie Land’s bestselling tell-all, Maid reveals the challenge those with no support system face as Alex tries to bootstrap her way out of a bad  situation, only to find other hurdles standing in her path. Maid suffers from depicting Alex as a bit of a Poverty Saint but nonetheless benefits from its humanist approach to telling a specific story about disenfranchised women. Qualley is never anything short of fantastic. 

13. DOPESICK

This sprawling ensemble drama from Hulu about the explosion of the opioid epidemic in America boosts an all-star cast (Michael Keaton, Rosario Dawson, Kaitlin Devers, Peter Skarsgard) and calculated writing. Designed in part to incense the viewer, this kinda-fictionalized recounting of the Sackler family’s manipulative machinations to turn Oxycondin into a blockbuster drug follows a host of characters across multiple time periods as their lives intersect with Oxy in some way or another. The result is often devastating, always infuriating, and clearly expertly made, leading to a conclusively damning portrait of greed and abuse of power at the top level of industry and government. With Dopesick, prepare to be mad. 

12. PHYSICAL

Rose Bryn delivers a massive performance as a self-loathing housewife turned exercise guru in Apple TV+’s underrated series Physical. The 80s-set dark comedy may fool you with its bright sets and colorful fitness outfits, for a venomous interior lies poised to strike. The series is narrated by Bryn’s venomous inner monologue, quick to call her fat, disgusting, or any number of soul-numbing insults any time she looks at food longingly. She turns to mall aerobics as an escape and finds the only thing that cures her inner emptiness. Soon after, Sheila begins leading classes. She sneakily hides her eating disorder, and her budding success as a fitness instructor, in order to play dutiful wife and mother. But as her clueless, activist husband begins a mayoral candidacy, it becomes more and more difficult to conceal all parts of herself. In addition to just being a well-constructed comedy of errors, Physical shines a light on the abject horrors of eating disorders and Bryne had never shined brighter in the role.

11. YELLOWJACKETS

A team of high school soccer state champs hop on a private jet to national’s but go down somewhere in the Ontario wilderness is Showtime’s addictive mashup Yellowjackets. Starring an excellent, predominantly-female cast that includes Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci and Melanie Lynskey, Yellowjackets strikes an impressive tonal balance of survivalism, supernaturalism, and housewifery, blending horror and suburbia in impressive measure. Though unfinished as of writing, Yellowjackets jumps back and forth between two time periods, skipping between the team’s crash and attempt at survival 25 years prior and present day where the mystery of what exactly occurred out in those woods haunts them to this day. It’s scary good.

10. SQUID GAME

The year’s most popular worldwide sensation came in rather unexpected form with Netflix’s Squid Game, an ultra-violent South Korean satire about capitalism and morality where death was always on the line. Squid Game became a pop phenomenon in a way that few modern shows have by tapping into an angsty global zeitgeist rattled by both a pandemic and the economic fallout that favored the already rich. Filled with memorable moments, strong characters, and childish games with deadly consequences, Squid Game didn’t quite stick the landing but its impact will continue to be felt far and wide. 

9. DAVE

I kind of broke my own rule by including Dave on this list but Rapper Lil Dicky’s semi-autobiographical FX comedy truly found its voice in its second season and became one of the best series on television. The critically-acclaimed second season focused on the eponymous character’s crippling insecurities and his fraying relationships as he accumulates more and more buzz. That Dave Byrd so pointedly turned the series’ criticism upon himself, his obsession with his image, and his ballooning ego made for some really poignant character work and narrative introspection. That Dave is often compared and contracted with Danny Glover’s Atlanta speaks to how much the show has grown in both voice and prestige in only its second go round, though the similarities end with “FX rapper vanity projects”. Dave is an asshole this season, almost irremediably so, and Byrd leans into the idiosyrancies that make him both distasteful and oh-so-real. In addition, the supporting cast was afforded the chance to grow into complex characters in their own right. Count me all aboard the hype train eager to see where it all goes next.

8. HACKS

Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky’s HBO Max comedy-drama was just one wrung in Jean Smart’s electrifying television resurgence of the past few years but no series showcased her talents more expertly. This sharply written comedy circles career comedienne Deborah Vance (Smart), whose tired routine has earned her financial success in perpetuity. But her shtick is old, safe, boring. When Vance is ejected from her primetime slot at the casino she headlines, she links up with entitled 25-year-old comedy Ava (Hannah Einbinder) – desperate for money, a job. Their plan: stage a comeback by tackling the difficult subjects of a career spent secretly battling chauvinism, sexism. Their partnership is precarious, stormy, all piss and vinegar, but they both need each other. Their toxic mother-daughter surrogate relationship is the foundation that cements the dark, smartly-written comedy and well-drawn character drama of Hacks together. There’s no gamble here, it’s all win-win.

7. IT’S A SIN

No piece of film or television has tackled the onset of the AIDS epidemic with more humanity than It’s a Sin. Despite difficult subject matter, this British series from creator Russell T Davies – which played on HBO Max – gave life to those stricken by AIDS, doubly so as they looked death squarely in the face and chose to live regardless. Davies approaches the material with vibrancy and joy, giving depth and shade to his spirited cast of well-performed young characters. Respectful and deeply empathetic, It’s a Sin looked past the usual representation of sickly gay men at the end of their lives to focus on what made those lives worth living in the first place. A story that’s powerful and human to its core, one about screaming in defiance at the top of your lungs, It’s a Sin dares to look beyond tragedy to find true compassion. It’s a sin if you missed it.

6. THE WHITE LOTUS

Inspired by his time spent on Ponderosa (the “jury’s villa”) following his Survivor exit, showrunner Mike White aimed his sights on white privledge, particularly the forms it manifests as during vacation, and sniped with dead-on accuracy. The White Lotus is a pitch-black comedy about people who take their place in life for granted and takes various avenues to explore how people in the top-earning bracket so often use the service industry as their own personal stepping stones/whipping boys, whether that be for therapeutic purposes, petty revenge, self-actualization, or temporary romances. White’s show moves with great tact, wrangling a pulpy whodunnit murder into its cringy proceedings to give the show even more lurid appeals. The breathy theme song and title card sequence are almost as memorable as Murray Bartlett’s breakthrough performance as a boutique hotel manager at his wit’s end.

5. MARE OF EASTTOWN

A decade ago, it might be unimaginable that two-time Oscar winner and Hollywood A-lister Kate Winslet would be heading up a hardboiled HBO detective show but it’s impossible to imagine anyone else as the character now. Winslet offered one of the year’s finest performances as the sometimes morally-compromised PA cop, piecing together new and old investigations while dealing with her own bevy of personal problems. But it was the backdrop that made Mare of Easttown pop; the distinctive small-town Pennsylvania setting (and accompanying Hoosier accents), the well-drawn small town drama, the friendships, feuds, and relationships that complicated the whole thing. Brad Inglesby proved a master of slow-burn mystery molding, delivering a prestige detective show that resulted in deserved watercooler chatter.

4. THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

It is almost remarkable that a creation like The Underground Railroad could exist at all. That it is so unblinkingly bold and beautifully shot speaks to a hardiness, a pureness of artistry that often only exists within the most striking corners of arthouse cinema. And yet, Amazon essentially gave Moonlight director Barry Jenkins free range to adapt Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning exactly to his liking. He adapts the hell out of it. Jenkins brings along his yearning eye, his ability to coax the camera to see right into his character’s souls, to adapt Colson’s magical realism story about a runaway slave making her way north. From the subject matter, The Underground Railroad can prove a difficult watch but Jenkins finds the beauty beneath it; a ray of hope hidden in fields of hopelessness; the delicate camaraderie of the abused and the forsaken; the transportive power of images. It’s a stunning piece of hard-wrought arthouse on the small screen.

3. MIDNIGHT MASS

Horror auteur Mike Flanagan is no stranger to long-form storytelling, delivering two knock-out Netflix series in The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor. But he may have created his most masterful masterpiece with his third outing, the philosophical and nightmarish Midnight Mass. Flanagan takes his time unspooling this story of a lonely ex-con who returns to the windswept island community he swore off years ago but the viewer’s patience is rewarded and then some. The North Star of Midnight Mass is Flanagan’s writing, especially when his usual suspect ensemble is delivering on this level. The show’s MVP, Hamish Linklater gives an absolutely towering performance as Father Pruitt. Flanagan pens monologues that unpack faith, secularism, morality, and regret with such human precision that it becomes simply electrifying to behold. There are some classic monster tropes lurking under the surface but Flanagan is most interested in the human element, indulging viewer’s curiosities and their intelligence to create a moody, thoughtful horror drama that engages the mind and the soul.

2. SUCCESSION

HBO’s most recent Best Drama series champ came roaring back to life in its excellent third season. Jesse Armstrong’s acidic family drama about ultra-wealthy man-babies and their withholding Daddy didn’t rest on its laurels, going full boar on the floor down a rabbit hole of familial backstabbing and interpersonal implosions – whether that be Kendall’s precipitous anti-Waystar-Royco campaign, Roman’s problematic flirtation with the elder Gerri, Greg suing Greenpeace, or Tom and Shiv’s knotted, toxic romance. This season of Succession gave us new power dynamics and rivalries, Armstrong unfurling a series of nuanced – and always horrifyingly funny – character arcs that smuggled in Godfather-levels of deception and betrayal. The cast – Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook, Nicholas Braun, Matthew McFayden – has rarely been better and Armstrong gave each the opportunity to shine brighter than ever this season.

1. FOR ALL MANKIND

In the stunning second season of the Apple TV+ space exploration drama, all the cards were on the table. From the jaw-dropping first minutes of episode one to the emotionally-gutting final moments, For All Mankind fired on all cylinders the whole way through, bringing blockbuster-caliber production value to its increasingly intricate alt-history of the USA vs. Russian Cold War on the Moon. Jumping ten years forward after its very strong first season, For All Mankind blasts to a whole other level this second go round, spinning a complex narrative web of outer-space adventure, ground-level politics, and the ensuing tendrils of alternative history all tethered to a web of expertly-written characters; characters who the viewer invests a hell of a lot in emotionally, making their triumphants and their failures all that much more impactful.  I nominate Gordo for Best TV Hero of 2021.

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