Favourite TV Shows of 2021

Favourite TV Shows of 2021

Now that I’ve recapped the movies I saw last year (link here if you missed it: https://cccmovies.blogspot.com/2022/01/) I thought I would do a recap of TV shows I watched as well, since everyone spent so much time at home for much of the year (myself included) and, like last year, there wasn’t an overabundance of new noteworthy movies.

 

January to March

I didn’t get into many newly released TV shows in 2021, but I did enjoy two relatively recent ones in particular during the first couple months of the year. After Life, starring Ricky Gervais, first hit Netflix in 2019, with a second season in 2020 and a final season released this January. It’s an enjoyable mix of wholesome storytelling, typically crass Gervais comedy, and emotional beats. The other show I found particularly enjoyable was Flea Bag on Amazon Prime. I think I saw the two short seasons of this show at just the right time, and identified with the character in some ways I didn’t expect to when I first started watching. Both these shows have half-hour episodes and short seasons, so it’s easy to binge them.

 

April to June

I had a busy year all the way through, but as the year went on I became busier and busier, which meant less time for TV shows. I finally got into What We Do in the Shadows, which I had been curious about but a little skeptical on, because the movie of the same name that the show was inspired by was one of my favourite movies of the entire previous decade (it’s set in the same universe as the movie where vampires and werewolves and other supernatural monsters are real, and filmed in the same mockumentary style too), so it had a lot to live up to. I finished the first season and very much enjoyed it. I had some pretty big laughs and I liked the expansion on the lore, but the second season didn’t grab me as much in the first couple of the episodes, and I have yet to finish watching it. I might go back to it at some point, though.

The other show from this part of the year that I watched and absolutely loved was Primal, an Adult Swim animated series by Genndy Tartakovsky (creator of the original Star Wars Clone Wars miniseries and many other great cartoons) about a caveman who allies himself with a T. rex in a vicious prehistoric fantasy world. This show felt like it was designed specifically for me. There is no dialogue, the violence is insanely brutal and gory, it’s action-packed, visually stunning, creative, and I can’t recommend it enough. I savored every episode of season one and can see myself watching it many more times over in the future. The first season is on blu ray and the second season will air this year.

I better talk about the Marvel TV shows on Disney+. I was a little late to the game with WandaVision, but as the fandom around it grew with each new episode released, I decided to give it a shot and see what the MCU had in store in this new era. I was burnt out after Avengers Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home, and not many of the upcoming movies or shows sounded particularly great, so I was ready to take a break, but as I trudged on through the pandemic, my craving for new movies and shows got too strong. WandaVision had me intrigued for most of the season, but it lost me by the end with the generic final confrontation.

Then there was The Falcon and the Winter Solider, and I watched that one as each episode was released weekly. I enjoyed it for the most part, but by the end, I felt like not a lot had happened, and it seems strange to me that you could probably skip watching it and not feel like you missed anything between Endgame and whatever the next MCU movie will be to feature the new Captain America. It was a good show for anyone who really cares about those characters, I guess.

Loki came along in June, and I was really into it. The exploration of the multiverse and alternate versions of the Loki character and branching timelines was a lot of fun, plus getting to see more from one of the best characters in the MCU who is usually a secondary character or villain in a lead role, alongside Owen Wilson? Loved it. Until…it built up to an epic finale, and didn’t have an ending. I would have loved to have known beforehand that Loki was the first season of a continuing series, but I didn’t. I thought it was a miniseries following the model set by WandaVision and Falcon and Winter Soldier. Instead, that last episode left me completely unsatisfied, frustrated, and annoyed. As a mid-season cliff hanger I might have accepted it, but as the leaving off point with nothing else following it in the near future? I guess I’ll watch the next season, but who knows how long the wait will be? I probably won’t care anymore by the time it comes out.

Later in the summer What If…? started, a series of animated one-off tales about alternate versions of MCU stories we already have seen and other imagined scenarios with familiar characters. I did not like it. I couldn’t get into it. Maybe I’m not a big enough MCU fan, but seeing remixes of characters and situations into these streamlined episodes with unappealing animation just bored me. I got to the third episode and just quit. As for Hawkeye, the last MCU series to come out in 2021, I didn’t watch it. I’m not a fan of the character, nothing in the trailers won me over, and I doubt it will have a lasting impact felt in future MCU films. I don’t feel like I missed out on much with that one.

 

July to September

I only have two noteworthy shows from this part of the year, one of which is an old one that’s still going, while the other was brand-new to North America, and something I had been waiting to see for a long time. I started watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which I had been intending to start for a long time, and while it wasn’t quite what I expected, I found it pretty enjoyable right from the beginning, and it only continued getting funnier. The characters are joyfully dumb, mean, and lowly. I took a break from it later in the year and have currently made my way through the first four seasons, but I don’t know how far I’ll keep watching it. With so many episodes still to go, I anticipate getting tired of it eventually and wanting to move on to a different comedy series, but the antics of “The Gang” have kept me entertained thus far. The other show I watched in the summer was Godzilla: Singular Point, an anime-style series about the King of the Monsters from the studio who originally created him (Toho). I won’t go into much detail on this one as I’ve already reviewed the first season (here’s the link: https://cccmovies.blogspot.com/2021/07/godzilla-singular-point-season-one.html) but it was definitely a disappointment, though still a fairly memorable part of my summer, just for that killer theme song alone.

 

October to December

I didn’t do it on purpose, but for the last few months of the year, I completely dropped off from watching any TV shows. Seriously: I only have two more to mention. I watched the first episode of the animated superhero series Invincible on Amazon Prime back in the summer, thought it was pretty cool, unique, violent, and enjoyable, but then I completely forgot to keep watching it, and it wasn’t until the fall that I watched a couple more episodes…then forgot to finish watching the rest. I didn’t have the later episodes of the season spoiled for me, so I might still try to complete it. The only other show I got into was the British sitcom The Inbetweeners, which is not a new show, but it was new to me, and multiple people had recommended it to me. I had some really good laughs with that one, and only have the third series left to watch, which I do plan on completing, because I want to watch the two movies that follow the show.

That’s it for TV in 2021! I’m not sure how many new shows I’ll get into this year, and I know I missed out on many that were highly talked about last year (almost gave Squid Game a shot but didn’t, still haven’t started The Witcher, don't care about Book of Boba Fett (plus I'm patiently waiting for that FX Alien series to begin production)), but I might just be lame and stick to watching some old shows over again.

Next time, I’ll be examining what movies I’m looking forward to in 2022. Stay tuned!