Josh’s Favorite TV Series of 2021 — Part One!
Hello and welcome to the start of my look back at all of my favorite movies, TV shows, and comic books/graphic novels of 2021! We’ll start today with a look at my favorite TV series of 2021!
Let’s begin with one 2020 series that I didn’t watch until the middle of this year:
The Queen’s Gambit — This riveting seven-episode mini-series (written and directed by Scott Frank, based on Walter Tevis’s 1983 novel) tells the story of Chess prodigy Beth Harmon, following her from age eight into her twenties. Anya Taylor-Joy plays Beth, and she is tremendous in the role. I’ve enjoyed Ms. Taylor-Joy’s work before this, mostly in genre movies like Split or The New Mutants. But this is a stunning leap forward; it’s a star-making performance that is one of those perfect matches between character and performer that come along every now and then. The Queen’s Gambit is a near-perfect example of the type of prestige TV miniseries that has replaced the mid-budget adult drama movie. I’m so glad I caught up to this show. (Click here for my full review.) (Image credit: CHARLIE GRAY/NETFLIX © 2020.)
And now, here are my favorite TV series of 2021!
20. Jupiter’s Legacy — What if the children of the world’s greatest superheroes were spoiled jerks? That’s the question posed by this adaptation of the comic book series by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely. The show told two parallel stories: in the thirties, after the stock market crash, a group of friends embark on an adventure to a mysterious island that results with their gaining super-powers. In the near-future, we see that this first generation of heroes have grown old and out of touch, at least in the opinion of their arrogant and narcissistic (and also super-powered) children. A super-powered generation clash is a cool idea for a story, and I enjoyed this first season (even though I think they made some missteps that resulted in the show’s not quite capturing the magic of the original comic book series). Sadly, the show was cancelled after only the first few episodes were released, meaning that what was structured as a multi-season superhero epic is now an unfinished and unsatisfying one-and-done failure. It’s a shame, because the seeds were here for a great television series. (Click here for my full review.)
19. Disenchantment season 3 — Although this show seems to be flying under the pop-culture radar, I’m continuing to enjoy Disenchantment, overseen by Matt Groening and Josh Weinstein. Disenchantment is an adventure comedy series set in a fantasy world. The series focuses on Bean, the tough, smart, hard-living princess of Dreamland, voiced by Abbi Jacobson. Bean’s two closest friends are a demon Luci (Eric Andre) and an Elf named Elfo (Nat Faxon). Over the course of the three seasons so far, I’ve quite enjoyed the rich, weird fantasy world that has been developed on the show! This series isn’t on the level of The Simpsons or Futurama (the former a pop-culture juggernaut and the latter an overlooked comedic masterpiece), but it’s a great deal of fun and I recommend it. (Click here for my full review.)
18. Curb Your Enthusiasm season 11 — Yes, I freely capitulate that the best days of Curb Your Enthusiasm seem to be in the past. I miss the precision comedic timing of the show at its best, when all of the storylines would beautifully weave together by the end of each episode. The show is much shaggier now and less consistent. And the main storyline this season (in which a burglar dies in Larry’s pool, which results in Larry’s getting blackmailed by the dead burglar’s brother to cast his unable-to-act daughter in Larry’s new TV show) didn’t work for me at all. But Larry’s stealing shoes from a Holocaust museum was an all-time great/horrifying premise that floored me. And there were so many other very funny moments this season, including but by no means limited to: Albert Brooks’ fake funeral; Leon and his many Mary Fergusons; Larry’s offense when a woman prefers to bring her leftover steak home for her dog rather than sharing it with him; Jeff’s pretending to have cancer so people will take his advice; Larry’s quest to find a laundromat willing to clean the robe of a white supremacist; Larry’s misappropriation of the Japanese sushi chefs’ “irasshaimase” greeting; Stan the prop master being tortured by a full-of-himself actor; and the fantastic and very funny involvement of Alexander Vindman in the finale. And I haven’t even mentioned Larry and Seth Rogen’s all-time great scene in which they argue about Larry’s opinions on which sexes should do which types of jobs and whether either one of them is an everyman. (Watch it here at 2:15 in the video — so funny!) (My full review will be coming soon.)
17. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier — In hindsight, this was the weakest of the live-action Marvel TV shows on Disney+ this year, but I still enjoyed it a lot! I loved this buddy-adventure movie vibe of the show, and it was great fun to see Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson (the Falcon) and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes (the Winter Soldier) get this time in the spotlight. I loved following Sam’s journey to inherit the role of Captain America, and I was surprised and impressed by the degree to which this series explored the complexities of the idea of a black man’s becoming Captain America. No previous MCU project has come anywhere close to digging into such real world issues. I was delighted to see John Walker — the twisted version of Captain America — brought into the MCU (and played so wonderfully by Wyatt Russell). I loved that they brought back Daniel Brühl as Helmut Zemo (the villain from Captain America: Civil War) and allowed him to be so much fun; and I was also happy to see Emily VanCamp back as Sharon Carter (from Captain America: The Winter Soldier) as well as Florence Kasumba as Ayo from the Dora Milaje (from Black Panther). I loved Carl Lumbly’s performance as Isaiah Bradley; I was so happy to hear the name “Madripoor” spoken onscreen in an MCU project; and I was delighted by the introduction of Julia Louis-Dreyfus into the fold. If the series had a stronger final episode (and better action after that first-episode showstopper) (and fewer scenes taking place in hallways or deserted alleyways) it’d be higher on this list. (Click here for my full review.)
16. The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek — I had a lot of fun watching this ten-episode documentary series which explored the vast history of Star Trek! The series is overseen by Brian Volk-Weiss, the creator of the documentary series The Toys That Made Us and The Movies That Made Us. There wasn’t too much new information for an uber-fan like me, but it was fun to go on the ride of this journey through the franchise’s long history. The ten-episode length allowed the series to shine a spotlight on areas of the Trek franchise that often don’t usually get much mainstream attention. I was pleased that each of the Berman-era Trek shows received their own spotlight episode, including Next Gen, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. I was delighted that the usually-ignored Star Trek: The Animated Series got its own spotlight episode, and I loved that the aborted Star Trek: Phase II TV project from the seventies (which eventually morphed into the first Trek movie, 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture) also go a spotlight! I hope this series will continue! (Click here for my full review.)
I hope you’ll come back tomorrow for numbers 15-11!
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