As we close out year two of the pandemic, some of us have gotten the jab (more of us should) and braved outside once again. However, there still are plenty of reasons to stay inside to get some great entertainment and storytelling for us by way of watching what’s new on TV as once again television has been in rare form in delivering some great enjoyment. Fellow Punch Drunk writer Jen is giving you her list of the Top 25 TV Shows of 2021, but I wanted to also focus on what’s streaming. When streaming started it was considered a silly idea and Netflix was the only player in town. Nowadays, throw a rock and you’ll discover a new streaming service to watch some great TV on. With so many new streaming services, they also have been delivering brand new TV shows full of great content for 2021.
Before we dig into the great ones, there are a few honorable mentions that need to be notified as they were also awesome: Y: The Last Man, the adaptation of Brian K Vaughn’s epic graphic novel in which all men have mysteriously died (except one man and his pet monkey) and now women inherit the earth. While the show was interesting and good (especially after incorporating LGBTQ into the source materials), FX opted to cancel it anyway. Star Wars: Visions was very interesting by incorporating anime into the world of Star Wars for a bunch of non-cannon stories done by some of anime’s best directors. The first episode alone is classic as it blended true samurai action into the world of Star Wars. Apple TV’s Invasion was a fun globe-trotting adventure that showcases how many people across the world deal with an alien invasion. It took a while to see the aliens, but they were creepy! Finally, The Book of Boba Fett. The only reason it’s not on my list is that the show started literally yesterday and we’ve also been given the pilot episode (which was awesome). These are a few new streaming TV shows that managed to be entertaining and engaging and worthy of some praise, even if they aren’t the best of the best.
Here are the 10 best new streaming shows that premiered in 2021….
10. Masters of the Universe: Revelation (Netflix)
9. Shadow and Bone (Netflix)
8. Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Disney Plus)
7. Chucky (Peacock)
6. Marvel’s Hit Monkey (Hulu)
Marvel teaming up with Hulu proved to be somewhat of a dud as most of their planned shows never made it past development hell, but Hit Monkey managed to premiere on the Disney-owned streamer and because it wasn’t Disney Plus, allowed for some more mature content to be shown. It follows a monkey who befriends a soon-to-die hitman after a failed assassination attempt and almost too quickly learns how to kill with the quickness. The show is violent and entertaining as hell. Because it’s based on an obscure Marvel character we know little of, it allows Hit Monkey’s creators to pretty much do whatever they want with it, and boy was it entertaining!
5. Invincible (Amazon Prime)
4. The MCU Shows: WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, What If?, and Hawkeye (Disney Plus)
WandaVision was incredible and it’s no surprise that it had multiple Emmy nominations as we got to see Wanda (who is moving ever so close to her “Scarlett Witch” villain persona) and Vision live in Westview and the mystery that unfolded there.
In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson finally gets his chance to shine. Not only does he rightfully earn the mantle of “Captain America” by the end, but the show finally portrays how realistic it would be to be a black superhero. You can help save the universe, but not get a loan to fix your family boat (psst: because he’s black). Bucky is awesome as he’s finally coming to terms with his PTSD after being a mind-controlled killer for a half-century. And we cannot forget John Walker: the Joffrey-like version of Captain America.
Loki was just a giant bunch of fun that showcases once again by Tom Hiddleston is the only MCU villain not to be killed off. Even when he’s killed, they have to introduce the concept of “variants” so we can have him come back and remain in the MCU. The introduction of the TVA and He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors is gonna CRUSH it as Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) only expands what’s possible in the MCU.
Expanding on the idea of a multiverse, What If? literally asks the question and gives you very unique one-off stories. What if Peggy Carter got the super-soldier serum? What if T’Challa was kidnapped instead of Peter Quill (the whole episode was a love letter to Chadwick Boseman)? What if the Avengers all were murdered? What if Doctor Strange went crazy trying to save his love? Countless other stories consisted of the first season of What If? As someone who collected the What if? comics as a kid, this show was completely in my wheelhouse. With it being animated (while using as much of the voice cast as their movie counterparts) it allowed a whole lot of cool stuff to be explored and shown.
Hawkeye (everyone’s least favorite Avenger) finally got his chance to shine. While the Hawkeye show was more street-level and down to earth than we are used to, that’s a good thing. Sometimes the stakes should just be the recovery of a uniform and a watch and not saving the universe every single time. The introduction of Kate Bishop is also pleasant as it’s clear the MCU will be making a Young Avengers movie as each of the Disney Plus shows featured a member of that team. I dare you not to sing “I Can Do This All Day” after watching the show. And we got Wilson Fisk in the MCU!!!
3. Foundation (Apple TV Plus)
Honorable Mention: Ted Lasso (Apple TV Plus)
I didn’t get on the Ted Lasso train until this year and my god this show is just the giant hug that we needed during the pandemic. Based on a cheesy promo for NBC Sports a little while back, Apple TV Plus decided to make a full-fledged TV show surrounding an American football coach hired to become a soccer coach in the UK. His qualifications: just overwhelming positivity. He doesn’t know a thing about soccer, he just knows how people work and wants the best in everyone. This show literally makes you want to be a better person in real life. That’s the transformative power of a show like Ted Lasso. It’s no surprise that it cleaned up in the Emmys this year. The show was just incredible!
2. Squid Game (Netflix)
I resisted watching it at first as too many people on my timeline were blowing it up. I kept thinking “it can’t be that good, can it?” By the end of the first episode, I realize that I was in for a treat. This is a sick, twisted, and incredulously violent TV show where desperate people play childhood games to the death for a shot at money to better themselves. Each episode was just bananas and kept you glued to it. Squid Game literally took the world on by storm. Each episode built on the previous one and there were countless “oh shit” moments, too many to count. While we in the movie/tv critic world know how great South Korean cinema is, now (thanks to Netflix) the whole world knows as Squid Game was just a big ball of dark, sick, twisted fun. If Netflix is smart, we’ll be getting season after season of this going forward.
1. Sweet Tooth (Netflix)