Best TV Shows and Streaming Series of 2021 - 25 to 1
Taking over our living rooms in 2021 were movie-sized superheroes, hilarious comedies, exceptional animation, insightful documentaries, thrilling dramas, and a whole host of shows we're still dying to watch. When it comes to TV and streaming, there really has been something spectacular for everyone in 2021.
Please enjoy Part One - 25 to 1 of our Best TV Shows and Streaming Series of 2021.
In case you missed it, head here for Part Two - 50 to 26 of our Best TV Shows and Streaming Series of 2021.
1. Girls5eva Season 1
Girls5Eva always feels too short because you’re laughing at everything packed into the episodes. If you grew up following the teen music scene during the new millennium you’ll find everything you loved (and a bunch of stuff you missed) in the series. It’s a loving tribute to the music we loved — and the themes we’ve hopefully moved away from.
Read more here.
2. Squid Game Season 1
Netflix’s Squid Game takes the kids-fight-to-the-death thriller to new places. The hit Korean series is bloody and intense, but it makes the characters count. Director/Writer Hwang Dong-hyuk and his team take immense care with all of the players, laying out how they’re stuck in a horrible system, and just trying to make it through, at any cost. Squid Game is exciting, and startling, and tense, but that care is what really makes it worth watching.
Find out more.
3. What We Do In The Shadows Season 3
What We Do in the Shadows is a comedy, and not only that, it's one of the best shows on television. Season 3 continues to be hilarious and advance character development, but does all of this while unifying this group even tighter as a tremendous ensemble. By bringing new power and new responsibilities to these characters, What We Do in the Shadows brings new blood and an exciting future to one of television’s great comedies.
Read full review.
4. WandaVision Season 1
Before WandaVision, the last time we saw Vision (Paul Bettany) was when Thanos ripped the Infinity Stone out of his head and killed him in Avengers: Infinity War. The last time we saw Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) was in Avengers: Endgame, when she used her magical abilities to remind Thanos of just how damn powerful she is.
Compare that to WandaVision, in which Vision accidentally swallows gum in one episode, which screws up his robot machinery, which then threatens to derail his performance at a big charity talent show with Wanda. It works, and the reason it works is because—as absurd as it is, even for this unusual couple—we know who Wanda and Vis are.
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5. Solar Opposites Season 2
Solar Opposites is a show that rarely takes its time. Watching things escalate from tiny misunderstandings to disasters threatening to destroy a city or reconstitute the fabric of timespace is this show’s sweet spot.
Read more here.
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6. Loki Season 1
There’s a lot of great stuff here: helter-skelter multiverse play, time travel shenanigans, an interdimensional bromance between Hiddleston and Wilson, both of whom are clearly having a blast. The rest of the supporting cast struggles to keep up with Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Mobius (Owen Wilson), and there are a million ways its time-travel whodunnit plot could go south. There are long stretches of Loki’s first two episodes where we just get to see Wilson and Hiddleston sit down and talk — about fate, about the purpose of what they do — and both actors make for generous, affable scene partners. But based on this season, Loki has the chance to be the best Marvel series.
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7. Wellington Paranormal Season 3
“Our work is 50 per cent deduction, 50 per cent negotiation…” Officer O’Leary assures the couple, before Officer Minogue chimes in with, “and 20 per cent perspiration”, as they inspect what initially appears to be a pool of blood. “Ah, anyone who loses that amount of...tomato sauce,” Minogue says after orally taking a sample, “won’t be happy.”
Keeping the performances and production sharp, the show has re-emerged with plenty of energy. However, it’s the sharp writing, brilliant observations and deliberately cheap production values that continue to provide the winning formula that drives the New Zealand Documentary Board's outstanding comedy.
8. Kevin Can Fuck Himself Season 1
A brilliant concept meets sharp execution in AMC’s ‘Kevin Can Fuck Himself’. Less of the homage to the sitcom seen in ‘WandaVision’ and more of radical deconstruction, ‘Kevin…’ offers a fantastic platform to Annie Murphy after her Emmy-winning work on ‘Schitt’s Creek.’ Murphy playfully riffs on the role of the put-upon sitcom wife, feeling most alike CBS characters like the ones played by Leah Remini on ‘The King of Queens’ or Patricia Heaton on ‘Everybody Loves Raymond.’
On those shows and so many of their imitators, the wife character often had to put up with stereotypical stupid husbands who ignored them only to have their mistakes washed away with a laugh track. Valerie Armstrong’s smart show imagines one of those wives breaking free of the sitcom structure in a show that’s half-sitcom and half something much darker.
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9. Marvel's M.O.D.O.K. Season 1
If you’re a fan of Adult Swim-esque humor and have always wondered what that might look like in the Marvel Universe, “M.O.D.O.K.” is going to make you laugh and maybe make you feel sympathy for a megalomaniacal C-list supervillain.
Find out more.
10. Miracle Workers Season 3
Miracle Workers, the anthology series based in part on Simon Rich’s What In God’s Name, has always made a game of deploying its stakes. Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail has strong traces of its predecessors, including a life-threatening conundrum and some occasionally misguided group efforts. New showrunners Dan Mirk and Robert Padnick, who worked on previous seasons of Miracle Workers, as well Man Seeking Woman, shake up the previous dynamics.
Find out more.
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11. Disenchantment Season 3
Matt Groening has been knocking adult animation out of the park for decades and more specifically redefining it. Disenchantment Part 3 is wholeheartedly different than the other entries in the series, in a good way.
Read full review.
12. For Heaven's Sake Season 1
Creators and stars Mike Mildon and Jackson Rowe are, by general profession, comedians, but what they’re doing in For Heaven’s Sake isn’t comedy. Mildon’s family has an unresolved tragedy deep in its past. Back in the winter of 1934, Harold Heaven, Mike’s great-great-great uncle, grabbed his rifle in the dead of night, opened the door of his Haliburton County, Ontario, cottage, walked out the door without closing it and was never seen again.
It may be spoiler-y to say that For Heaven's Sake becomes a different show as it goes along. But since the show it becomes is a good one, I don't think anybody will care.
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13. Invincible Season 1
Invincible will have you sucked in by the end of the first episode with great action set pieces, but will really hook you in with the human elements. Rest assured, this is so much more than just another superhero cartoon. No, this is humor, mystery, drama, romance and science fiction, all rolled up into one absolutely addictive treat.
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14. Birdgirl Season 1
If you were a fan of Harvey Birdman, Birdgirl will be a satisfying return to the nutty world of Sebben & Sebben. With Paget Brewster carrying the comedic load, there’s a good story arc to follow, as well.
Read more here.
15. Hacks Season 1
For all its gut-punch humor, ‘’Hacks’’ is dead serious about how show business treats women. You might be laughing too hard to hear it, but there’s a low frequency scream running just beneath the comedy. This show makes a rich contribution to the buddy comedy tradition, never superficial or skin deep and always very, very funny.
Read full review.
Sea Shell is available worldwide as a free download on the App Store and the Play Store.
Download it today.
16. Sweet Tooth Season 1
Sweet Tooth is a series worth your time and emotional energy. The creative team has lovingly rendered a fully realized world, utilizing subtle, practical visual effects, gorgeous cinematic landscapes, stellar writing and beautiful performances across the board. Together it makes for one of the best adaptations in recent memory.
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17. Archer Season 12
The joy of Jessica Walter's final season of Archer proves in every moment that Malory Archer is the show’s underrated anchor character. Season 12 maintains Archer’s recently restored momentum throughout, and Walter is central to that. She's also irreplaceable, and that factor lends these exceptional episodes a slight sting.
Find out more.
18. The Underground Railroad Season 1
An epic that’s beautifully and sensitively composed in all aspects, The Underground Railroad is a powerful, often difficult adaptation that prioritises its characters’ personhood, refusing to leave them simply as victims of a thematic point.
The show’s avoidance of sensationalising this era extends to its casting, which avoids spectacle and the magnetism of stardom for the majority of the white characters. This leaves the spotlight on Mbedu’s riveting performance as Cora. Her constant transformation is performed with such emotional acuity, her psychology constantly clear without being overstated.
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19. Tiny World Season 2
Apple TV’s Tiny World returns for another season, packed full of entertaining stories, big animal triumphs and more tiny creatures. With a diverse range of biomes and a familiar tone and vibe to season 1, Apple TV’s quirky docu-series continues to fire on all cylinders. The quirky tone is reflected with Paul Rudd’s returning narration, and it’s clear Tiny World is designed for kids and adults alike.
Read full review.
20. Centaurworld Season 1
The show meshes silly humour and serious ideas, with impressive results. The clever use of stylistic animation differences, as well as the unique approach to music for an animated show, makes it worth a watch.
Read full review.
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21. Resident Alien Season 1
This excellent sci-fi series, which cleverly blends comedy and drama with a murder mystery, is a blast. “Resident Alien” is laugh-out-loud funny, full of heart-felt moments and, much like Harry (Alan Tudyk) himself, surprisingly sincere. Harry’s uncommon personality make him a fascinating character to watch. He’s odd, unintentionally funny, emotionally vacant and intellectually condescending. But he’s also curious and thoughtful.
Read more here.
22. Reservation Dogs Season 1
“Reservation Dogs” is a near-perfect study of dispossession. It’s a mood piece, and a sweet one, a collection of intertwined and poetic portraiture that focusses not solely on the central cast.
“Reservation Dogs” was shot entirely in the Muscogee Nation, and a strong sense of regionality dictates every detail in its compositions. Viewers are brought to the place, not to a facsimile of the place—that would never do, given that land, and who can claim ownership of it, is a central preoccupation.
23. Devil May Care Season 1
Devil May Care’s humor is edgy, but warm-hearted. We get a lot of gross-out jokes, as well as some truly biting satire, and some of the best moments of the series are visual gags. Every single scene is packed with interesting backdrops that tell a compelling story.
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24. Ted Lasso Season 2
Keep on believing in "Ted Lasso" because its second season is richer and sweeter than the first. It improves upon everything that was wonderful about season one by relieving Coach Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) of his self-assigned role as his team's main wisdom-broker, peacemaker and positivity beacon, allowing other characters to carry those sparklers for him.
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25. Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2
Lower Decks season 2 remains a highly enjoyable way to "engage" with the Star Trek universe. The comedy is still fast-paced and largely broad enough to work pretty well, and there are several non-reference-based gags that had me cracking up.
Read more here.
Sea Shell is available worldwide as a free download on the App Store and the Play Store.
Download it today.
Head here for Part Two - 50 to 26 of our Best TV Shows and Streaming Series of 2021.