Josh’s Favorite TV Series of 2021 — Part Three!
Click here for part one of my list of my favorite TV series of 2021, and click here for part two. And now, let’s enter my TOP TEN…
10. The Book of Boba Fett — We’re only two episodes in and already this show has given me so much joy that it’s landed on my top ten. It’s hard to express how happy it makes me to see Boba Fett finally being given the spotlight he deserves. I love this version of Boba, a humbled and beaten down but still absolutely badass wandering Ronin. It feels like this is a redemption story for Boba, but I don’t really have any idea yet where this show is going. I’m enjoying the series’ split narratives, as we follow Boba and fellow bounty-hunter Fennic Shand (played by the terrific Ming-Na Wen) as they attempt to take control of Jabba the Hutt’s criminal empire, as well as Boba’s experiences becoming a member of a Tusken Raider tribe after clawing his way out of the Sarlacc’s belly (his unfortunate and anticlimactic fate back in 1983’s Return of the Jedi). Temeura Morrison (who played Boba’s father Jango in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones) is making the most of his time in the spotlight here and he is wonderful to watch. As was the case with the previous two seasons of The Mandalorian, the series’ production values are extraordinary. And the show’s many loving nods to the minutia of Star Wars continuity (Tosche Station!! Black Krrsantan!!!!) fill me with joy. I can’t wait for what’s next.
9. Only Murders in the Building — This first season of Only Murders in the Building was a near-perfect concoction. This is a very funny show that is also a compelling drama and an engaging mystery, whose twists and turns were perfectly paced to carry us through this first ten-episode season. Steve Martin and Martin Short have been comedic collaborators for many decades, and it is tremendously joyous to me to see that not only are they continuing to work together on new material, but that they both still demonstrate such fierce comedic powers. Watching these two play off of one another is like watching two master musicians at work. Selena Gomez seamlessly meshes with their rhythms, bringing her unique energy and style to the show. The three very quickly become a magnificently synchronized trio, and the show is always at its best when the three of them are on screen together. This is not to discount the great work by Nathan Lane, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Jane Lynch, Amy Ryan, Tina Fey, James Caverly, and the rest of the show’s terrific ensemble. (Including Sting!) I can’t wait for season two!! (Click here for my full review.)
8. How To with John Wilson season 2 — How I love this joyously bizarre, beautiful documentary series! I wasn’t sure quite how filmmaker John Wilson could follow up his near-perfect first season, but I shouldn’t have doubted. He and his team have created six new short masterpieces. For those of you who haven’t yet seen this show: each episode purports to explore a different “how to” topic, but inevitably the joy of each episode is in the unexpected (and often deep and moving) digressions from that initial topic. The series is a love-letter to New York City, and also to our wonderfully weird fellow human beings. Each episode is funny and melancholy and weird and beautiful. (Click here for my review of season one; my review of the just-concluded season two will be coming soon.)
7. Loki — I found Loki to be an absolute delight, a gloriously weird and funny and surprising and emotional show that was a brilliant expansion of the MCU. It was a joy to see Tom Hiddleston’s Loki given this spotlight, and wow did Mr. Hiddleston make the most of it. I love the journey Loki goes on in these six episodes. It’s fun to see him challenged and put in his place — Mr. Hiddleston is fantastic at showing Loki getting his bluster punctured — while still remaining the slightly dangerous character he’s always been. I adored the new-to-the-MCU character of Mobius, played by Owen Wilson. I can’t believe Owen Wilson was the lead of an MCU show!! Mr. Wilson’s comedic timing was put to tremendous use here, and I was delighted by his amazing chemistry with Mr. Middleston. I was so, so happy to see the obscure comic book group the TVA — the Time Variance Authority — brought to life on screen. I loved the show’s retro look and I loved how this show blew open the concept of the multiverse within the MCU — something that Spider-Man: No Way Home would go on to make great use of. I really enjoyed the character of Sylvie (played by Sophia Di Martino), a wonderful match for Loki. And I also loved seeing the great Gugu Mbatha-Raw as TVA judge Ravonna Renslayer. I was particularly happy that, while I was somewhat let-down by the final episode of both WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the final episode of Loki was such an entertainingly delightful surprise — an almost episode-long conversation with a new character played brilliantly by Jonathan Majors (whose identity the show decided not to state outright but who comic book fans know is going to be an important Marvel villain who will apparently next be seen in Ant Man: Quantumania). I haven’t even mentioned Eugene Cordero, or Richard E. Grant as classic Loki, or alligator Loki, or any of the show’s many other fun and weird surprises. I’m so glad we’ll be getting a second season of this show! (Click here for my full review.)
6. Hawkeye — I debated long and hard whether Loki or Hawkeye was my favorite MCU show of 2021. Perhaps it’s a case of recency bias, but Hawkeye got the win by an inch. This show delivered everything I wanted. It was a great spotlight on Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye while also introducing a wonderful new character in Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop. It was a rollicking adventure story with emotional and physical stakes for the characters that was also a ton of fun. The series did a great job at exploring its characters and allowing them time to develop and grow (and some of the best moments in the show were when the characters were just sitting around and talking). There was some great action (how spectacular was that car chase with all the trick arrows in episode three??) and plenty of exciting connections to broader Marvel continuity. I loved seeing Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova again (reprising her role from Black Widow); I was so happy to see the terrific comic book character of Echo brought into the MCU (played well here by Alaqua Cox), and I was overjoyed to see Vincent D’Onofrio back as the Kingpin, reprising his role from the Netflix Daredevil series!!! It was fun to see a MCU project so directly adapt a specific comic book storyline (in this case, Matt Fraction & David Aja’s magnificent Hawkeye comic from 2012-15). I loved the “Bro” guys, I love Tony Dalton as Jack Duquesne, I loved Rogers: The Musical... I loved pretty much every minute of these six episodes. (Click here for my full review.)
I hope you’ll come back tomorrow for my TOP FIVE favorite TV series of 2021! And a big thank you to everyone who supports this site by using the Amazon links below.
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