When everything shut down last March, there were still enough finished seasons of TV backlogged to provide for a pretty solid list for 2020. But despite valiant efforts to move forward with covid-friendly shoots and the like, 2021 was a little more threadbare. As such my list of the best TV is limited to a mere five series. Apologies to runner-ups Pen15, For All Mankind, The White Lotus, and the usual slate of FX comedies. Additional apologies to Station Eleven, which sounds great enough to probably make the list but a) is a bit much right now and b) just came out like yesterday. I also have a couple more streaming things to watch over the next month so who knows this list might grow over time. Time is a construct.
#5 - Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
Something something about the best satire also being a good example of the thing its satirizing. The first season of Only Murders wasn't quite as incisive as its spiritual forebear American Vandal, but don't worry there's plenty of fertile ground when it comes to skewering one of our country's foremost pathologies. It helps that the show focuses on the more common medium for modern true crime (podcasts instead of TV shows), and updates its targets appropriately (superfans, corporations that monetize the rot, and bored rich people with nothing to do). And if that doesn't do it for you, the show was still a fine excuse for old friends Steve Martin and Martin Short to hang out and goof around for our shared benefit. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go have some dips for dinner.
#4 - I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (Netflix)
#3 - How To with John Wilson (HBO)
I'm grouping the second seasons of America's favorite comedy programs together because I quickly realized I was about to write the same exact thing about both of them. The debut seasons of each were equal parts clever, hilarious, and at times, poignant and moving. But both leaned into that last part (ITYSL especially) a little bit more this year, and did so to great affect. To be clear, it's enough to just be funny. These shows would be great if they were mere trifles that make me laugh. But when you can resonate at a deeper level and have the material to do so, why wouldn't you?
#2 - Reservation Dogs (Hulu)
Yes, a show by and about Native Americans is itself noteworthy and something that should be appreciated/celebrated. But that alone is not enough to propel Reservation Dogs to this spot. Rather, it's that the show managed to immediately find such a specific and unique voice. Specific in that it stays true to the story of a rural minority community with its own traditions and history, and unique in that it manages the mostly unprecedented aim of being a goofball comedy with little to no pretension. It's also a shining example of how the influence of The Leftovers has made a subset of TV storytelling more fulfilling — the episodic focus on different members of the ensemble paradoxically makes for a more compelling holistic universe.
#1 - Squid Game (Netflix)
An absolute masterclass in both world-building and conveying an aura of impending doom. It's like they made the whole show out of that episode of Game of Thrones right before the (disappointing) battle with the white walkers. Even though you know the central characters have the plot armor to survive the first several "games," there's a sense of palpable, unspectacular, and unavoidable death that other, more purposefully dour series couldn't dream of achieving.
One thing I want to remark on is the discourse about whether Squid Game was or was not a piece of anti-capitalist art. While this is a fine thing to debate, I think the debate itself misses the mark to some degree. My personal philosophy is that every piece of narrative fiction whose story takes place in a capitalist political economy is anti-capitalist if you're pre-disposed to that way of thinking. All-timers like The Wire and The Sopranos are much less explicitly anti-capitalist but still can (and should) be read in that light. And to take the converse, it's not hard to imagine some Chicago school freak watching Squid Game and attributing all of the ills depicted to "human nature" or something of the sort. I definitely think it's easy and "correct" to say that the text of Squid Game indicts capitalism as a system that produces only avarice and death, but treating that as a necessary condition for enjoying (or "getting") the show is a bridge too far for my tastes. At its core, Squid Game weaves a story that distills the horrors of the world into a sleek thriller — where you take it from there is up to you.
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