Josh’s Favorite TV Series of 2021: Part Four!
Thank you for reading my look back at my favorite TV series of 2022! Click here for part one, click here for part two, and click here for part three. And here now are my five favorite TV series of 2021…!
5. Mare of Easttown — I was not prepared for how much I’d love this series. I was immediately captivated by Kate Winslet’s performance. She brings such richness and nuance to her work as Mare. Mare is bad-tempered and stubborn and she drinks a lot and eats junk and I loved her all the more for all of that. Ms. Winslet is supported by an tremendous ensemble, led by Jean Smart as Mare’s mother Helen, in one of Ms. Smart’s two towering 2021 performances (the other being in Hacks). I was also bowled over by Evan Peters’ work as Mare’s young partner Detective Zabel; Julianne Nicholson’s compelling and heartbreaking work as Mare’s close friend Lori; David Denman (Roy from The Office!!) as Mare’s ex-husband Frank, and so many many more. I love that as much as Mare of Easttown is a character study of Mare, it’s also an exploration of Easttown itself, the entire small town in which Mare has lived all her life. I was captivated by the show’s central mysteries and moved by the humanity of all the stories, large and small, being told. And I was impressed that a show with subject-matter as heavy as this wasn’t a dreary slog! I loved this show for all of the good-natured humor woven throughout! That was a key element. (Click here for my full review.)
4. For All Mankind season two — Talk about a show that seems to be entirely off of the pop-culture radar… but you’re all missing out on one of the best and most interesting sci-fi dramas I’ve ever seen. For All Mankind depicts an alternate history in which the United States lost the “space race” with the Soviet Union, with the U.S.S.R. becoming the first nation to land a man on the moon in 1969. As an American who has always been very proud of this nation’s extraordinary accomplishments in the sixties with the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, this at first seemed like it would be a dystopian set-up. But one of the (many) great delights of this series is that the show has trended utopian. In fact, Ronald D. Moore (one of the three creators of the show, along with Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi), has described For All Mankind as “the road to Star Trek.” That idea really tickles my fancy!! I love thinking about the events of this series as what might have eventually led the way to Gene Roddenberry’s enduring utopian vision of the future. At the same time, this intense second season really turned the screws on all of the characters. I was particularly taken by the journey of Gordo Stevens (played by Michael Dorman), who crawls his way back from being a broken has-been. If you’re not watching this series, I exhort you to give it a try; you’ll be glad you did. (Click here for my full review.)
3. Ted Lasso season two — I thought the first season of Ted Lasso was a near-perfect TV creation. It immediately became one of my very favorite TV shows, not just of shows currently running, but of all time. That’s a tough act to follow, but I was delighted by this second season. It’s a little shaggier than the first season, a little messier, but for the most part that’s because the series chose to deepen and challenge its characters, something I was very happy to see. (My heart broke at the choices made by Nate the Great this season — that was a huge narrative swing and I can’t wait to see how it all resolves next season.) The show continues to be very funny and also emotionally rich, which is a rare combination. I adore Ted’s (and the series’) upbeat, life-affirming ethos. I want to particularly highlight episode five (“Rainbow”), the romantic comedy (“rom-communism”) parody/pastiche episode. I laughed so hard seeing the When Harry Met Sally homage with a Richmond couple in the stands… and was there a more joyous moment then when a hobbled Roy Kent made his way back onto the Richmond pitch in that episode?? Magnificent! (Click here for my full review.)
2. Pretend It’s a City — I am evangelical about this show. I thought for a long time that it’d be my favorite series of 2021 until the show you’ll see below came along at the end of the year. Basically, in this short documentary series, Martin Scorsese winds up his friend, the author Fran Lebowitz, on a variety of topics and then lets her go. The series is a salute to Ms. Lebowitz and her strong opinions on, well, everything. It’s also a wonderful love-letter to New York City and everyone crazy enough to live there (despite Ms. Lebowitz’s frequent complaints about her fellow New Yorkers). The series’ title comes from Ms. Lebowitz’s very funny exhortation to people who don’t pay attention when walking around the the streets of New York: they should “pretend it’s a city!!” and look where they’re going! The show is hilarious and fascinating and moving and I loved every second of it. I wish there was more!! (Click here for my full review.)
1. The Beatles: Get Back — Peter Jackson’s epic-in-length mini-series is a miracle, and a source of pure joy for a hard-core Beatles fan like myself. Mr. Jackson and editor Jabez Olssen have delved back into the footage filmed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg and his team for what would become the 1970 film Let it Be. But Mr. Jackson’s project reveals an entirely different take on this time-period. Whereas the original Let it Be film seemed to present a band at each other’s throats and on the verge of a breakup, Get Back paints an entirely different picture. Yes, we see some moments of disagreement and tension, but most of what we see is a joyous, laugh-filled collaboration. The film presents a fly-on-the wall look at the 21 days in January, 1969, in which the Beatles assembled to record a new record. Crazily, they decided to challenge themselves by writing and recording an entirely new record in only 2-3 short weeks, while being filmed the whole time. If that sounds like a project doomed to failure, it almost was. The material the Beatles worked on here remained mostly unreleased and unfinished until the Let it Be album was released in May, 1970 (though some of the songs also appeared on Abbey Road, released in September, 1969), and the live performance concert that was supposed to be the culmination of the project never materialized (though we did get the band’s famous rooftop performance atop their London studio). The reputation of these January 1969 recording sessions (begun in the cavernous Twickenham film studios and then moved to the Beatles’ Apple Studio) was that these tense sessions led directly to the Beatles’ breakup. But remember, the Beatles didn’t publicly announce their break-up until a year and a half later (mid-1970), and this delightful mini-series gives us a close look at how much fun these four still were having, playing and creating music together, at this point in early 1969. It is absolutely extraordinary to get this inside glimpse into how the Beatles went about their process of creating new songs. We really get to live with the Beatles over the course of Get Back’s nearly eight-hour run-time. I can’t describe how incredible it is to get to see them this way; to see the four Beatles both as real normal human beings and at the same time as artistic giants in the prime of their powers. Some people have complained about the eight-hour run-time, but I tell you, I could have watched eight hours more. (My full review is coming soon.)
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