As we race to the end of 2021, it’s time for critics to unveil their year-end best-of lists. Judging by the lists of Variety's critics, it’s likely you missed some of the best TV of the year. Just three shows make both lists, so you have 17 excellent series to delve into. Here are the lists, with each critic’s favorite show listed first.
From Netflix to HBO Max, Hulu, Prime Video, and even Peacock, there’s something here for everyone to stream.
Caroline Framke's Top 10
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High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America
May 26, 2021Black food is American food. Chef and writer Stephen Satterfield traces the delicious, moving throughlines from Africa to Texas in this docuseries.
Framke describes her favorite show as “a gorgeous, wrenching series that recontextualizes how Black people have shaped American food throughout this country’s history.”
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The Underground Railroad
May 13, 2021Follow young Cora’s journey as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. After escaping her Georgia plantation for the rumored Underground Railroad, Cora discovers no mere metaphor, but an actual railroad full of engineers and conductors, and a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil.
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Succession
June 3, 2018Follow the lives of the Roy family as they contemplate their future once their aging father begins to step back from the media and entertainment conglomerate they control.
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Reservation Dogs
August 9, 2021Four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma steal, rob and save in order to get to the exotic, mysterious and faraway land of California.
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The Other Two
January 24, 2019A former professional dancer, Brooke, and her brother Cary, an aspiring actor, try to find their place in the world while wrestling with their feelings about their 13-year-old brother Chase’s sudden rise to internet fame.
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Hacks
May 13, 2021Explore a dark mentorship that forms between Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), a legendary Las Vegas comedian, and an entitled, outcast 25-year-old (Hannah Einbinder).
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Love Life
May 27, 2020A romantic comedy anthology series which follows a different protagonist each season on the journey from first love to last love, with each half-hour episode chronicling one of their relationships.
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Saved by the Bell
November 25, 2020When California governor Zack Morris gets into hot water for closing too many low-income high schools, he proposes they send the affected students to the highest performing schools in the state – including Bayside High. The influx of new students gives the over privileged Bayside kids a much needed and hilarious dose of reality.
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Yellowjackets
November 14, 2021This equal parts survival epic, psychological horror story and coming-of-age drama tells the saga of a team of wildly talented high school girls soccer players who become the (un)lucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the remote northern wilderness. The series chronicles their descent from a complicated but thriving team to savage clans, while also tracking the lives they’ve attempted to piece back together nearly 25 years later.
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Top Chef
March 8, 2006An American reality competition show in which chefs compete against each other in culinary challenges and are judged by a panel of professional chefs and other notables from the food and wine industry with one or more contestants eliminated in each episode.
Framke’s #10 pick was filmed entirely within a bubble to keep the contestants safe from COVID-19.
Daniel D'Addario's Top 10
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The Investigation
September 28, 2020Copenhagen Police’s Homicide unit, headed by Jens Møller, tries to solve the murder of Swedish journalist Kim Wall.
D’Addario writes about his top pick, “This series lies in wait to be discovered by a new audience. You will not regret having watched it.”
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Mare of Easttown
April 18, 2021A detective in a small Pennsylvania town (Kate Winslet) investigates a local murder while trying to keep her life from falling apart. The stellar cast features Jean Smart, David Denman, and Guy Pearce.
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Exterminate All the Brutes
April 7, 2021Hybrid docuseries offering an expansive exploration of the exploitative and genocidal aspects of European colonialism, from America to Africa, and its impact on society today.
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Philly D.A.
April 20, 2021A groundbreaking inside look at the long shot election and tumultuous first term of Larry Krasner, Philadelphia’s unapologetic District Attorney, and his experiment to upend the criminal justice system from the inside out.
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Pose
June 3, 2018A dance musical that explores the juxtaposition of several segments of 1980s life and society in New York: the ball culture world, the rise of the luxury Trump-era universe and the downtown social and literary scene.
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Watch the Sound with Mark Ronson
July 30, 2021Oscar and Grammy Award-winning producer and artist Mark Ronson explores the intersection of technology and musical innovation with his heroes and fellow hitmakers—including Paul McCartney, DJ Premier, Charli XCX, Dave Grohl, and Questlove.
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Framing Britney Spears
February 5, 2021Her rise was a global phenomenon. Her downfall was a cruel national sport. People close to Britney Spears and lawyers tied to her conservatorship now reassess her career as she battles her father in court over who should control her life.
