Are These The Best TV Series Of 2021?

Curb Your Enthusiasm 

Larry David hasn’t changed a bit as we enter Curb Your Enthusiasm’s 11th season and we love it. The HBO series is comforting in that you know pretty much exactly what you’re going to get; a disgruntled protagonist griping about the small things in life. While things tend to get out of hand pretty quickly, the show’s relatable more often than a lot of viewers would like to admit. For a series to run as long as Curb has – across more than two decades – is pretty impressive. 

Love Life

Love Life first dropped into our lives in May last year - a turbulent time when many of us were considering what intimacy and connection would look like going forward. Season one, filmed before the pandemic, presented a hopeful perspective on the messy intricacies of human relationships. A year on, however, it’s hard to maintain this optimism. Season two draws heavily from the events of 2020, touching on lockdowns, the Black Lives Matter protests and ongoing COVID precautions. Lead William Harper-Jackson brilliantly grapples with what it means to be an African-American man dating in New York in a post-pandemic world, ultimately arriving at a universal truth - despite the events of the past year, romantic relationships are as complex as ever to navigate.

- Georgia Griffiths

Mare Of Easttown

Sometimes the ending of a story is so good that people don’t know quite what to do with themselves afterwards. The conclusion is so compassionate and wise that it feels inarguable. This happened with Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You last year, and it happened again this year with Mare of Easttown – both shows exploring the intersectional effects of trauma on individuals within specific communities. Sure, there’s always going to be lingering questions about how realistic certain narrative turns feel in a detective-led crime story – but a supremely satisfying ending overshadows these minor quibbles. Plus, it was hard to imagine something better than being able to turn on the television and see Kate Winslet light up the screen, giving a career-highlight performance, week after week.

- Roshan Clerke

Money Heist

Álex Pina, the creator of Money Heist, aka Spanish crime thriller La Casa de Papel, is a genius. Few shows manage to outsmart their audience as much as Money Heist does and it pulls no punches as it nears its epic finale. The final season of the beloved show sees The Professor (Álvaro Morte), who will no doubt go down in history as one of the greatest characters of all time, and the rest of the gang in the midst of the biggest heist in history as they continue their efforts to rob the Bank of Spain. Money Heist is a show that always delivers; it’s comforting to know you can turn it on and you don’t have to worry about being let down. Its final episodes are exactly what fans could have hoped for.

Ozark

After Breaking Bad finished up in 2013, many people wanted something to fill the almighty void left by the conclusion of that show’s illustrious and addictive five-season run, and while Ozark and BB are unquestionably two very different and distinct beasts, the former is the only show that has come close to fitting the bill. To this writer’s knowledge anyway. There are certainly similarities; 40-50-year-old ‘everyman’ father drags his family into all manner of skin-crawling danger and drama when he gets involved in the wrong scene, a scene awash with cartels, drug lords, hitmen and all manner of other shady and violent characters and situations. Of course, the way the drama plays out in each differs profoundly, and Ozark is infinitely far from being some sort of carbon-copy attempt to cash in on the tremendous success of the Walter White and Jesse Pinkman saga, and must be experienced and enjoyed in its own right. Season three was the lead-up to what is apparently the fourth and final instalment, the climax of everything, and to say it finished on a shocking cliffhanger is an understatement. How it all resolves in 2022 will be something to behold, and something to savour.

- Rod Whitfield

Search Party

What began as a search for a missing person has gradually evolved over four seasons into a more existential, and hugely entertaining, search for identity. You could say that the show has made a party out of this search, but that would definitely be too corny and you should never say this aloud. Instead, tell your friends about the journey of the four friends who are at the heart of this story, and their quests to discover if they truly possess any trace of authentic goodness or integrity inside of them. The program’s showrunners lead this gang of superficially self-conscious millennials down hilarious rabbit holes of narcissism, identity crises, and delusions of grandeur as they chase their own tails – or ‘tales’, you might be tempted to say, but definitely do not dare to utter this aloud, either. After a truly wild season of antic character arcs, things are only going to get stranger from here.

- Roshan Clerke

Sex Education

Season three of Netflix’s powerhouse comedy Sex Education is easily the most compelling and excitingly diverse of the show - and one of the most overall inclusive shows in modern TV history. As the program gradually shifts from the focus on protagonist Otis to its broad cavalcade of incredible characters, so too does the series begin to examine some of the more sidelined areas of gender and sexuality to give them their much-deserved attention. The introduction of non-binary characters (headed up by the sensational Dua Saleh as Cal) leads the charge with simple clarity and brilliant hilarity, while Jemima Kirke of Girls fame shakes up the entire high school as contentious new principal Hope Haddon. A triumph for the series and a hell of a cliffhanger for season four.

- Joe Dolan

Squid Game

Much of the best TV coming out at the moment is either from the Nordic nations or from Southern and Eastern Asia. Originating from South Korea, this landmark series was released on Netflix this year to massive hype, and one look tells you that this is one of those rare, although far from unheard of, instances when that hype is justified. It is a brilliant allegorical tale told ridiculously well, and makes some major statements about our world and society in telling that tale, about greed and unfettered capitalism, about the pervasive illusion known as ‘class’, about inequality and the way we treat each other as human beings. It can also be enjoyed on the level of simply being a great yarn, a dark, intense piece of streaming TV genius. Multi-layered, multi-faceted and damn entertaining, Squid Game is a winner.

- Rod Whitfield

Succession

Whether or not you’re a fan of Succession, there’s a pretty good chance you heard about the show at some point in 2021. Its third season was described by The Guardian as “sheer sinister perfection” and gave it five stars! For the uninitiated, the series kicks off when the CEO of one of the world's largest media and entertainment conglomerates, Logan Roy (played by Brian Cox), considers retirement and how that impacts his four grown children and their own personal agendas, with power, politics and (a lot) of money coming into play.

Ted Lasso

Ted Lasso was probably the most heart-warming, uplifting and inspirational show of the year, and it’s not surprising given the man behind the wheel, Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence. Jason Sudeikis returns as the lovable Ted Lasso, an American college football coach tasked with turning around a failing English soccer team. Season two’s character development is next-level and that damn finale cliff-hanger is preparing fans for an epic season three, so we’ll probably be revisiting this Apple+ series on next year’s best of list.