Best TV Shows of 2021… So Far

Meredith Scardino’s tribute to aging girl groups starts off in the 30 Rock a million jokes a minute mold, but quickly evolves into something more heartfelt and reflective… While not forgetting to also inject a million jokes a minute. Starring the sneakily hilarious Sara Bareilles, Busy Phillips, Renée Elise Goldsberry, and a riotous turn from Paula Pell, Girls5eva is an infectious earworm that will stick with you long after you finish watching. Or, at the very least, you’ll never get “Four Stars” out of your head. — Alex Zalben

Stream Girls5eva on Peacock

We can all admit Below Deck Sailing Yacht did not have such smooth sailing for Season 1. But in Season 2, the Bravo series course corrected in the direction of “Super Fun.” Captain Glenn is a gem unlike any other, Chief Stew Daisy is a star, and Engineer Colin is…well he’s really hot but he also seems like a good guy too. A rarity in the Below Deck world, but I’ll take it! Also rare: the very first Below Deck Baby conceived during the show that came with even more drama than could ever be packed into a season of this Bravo series. It swayed from side to side, but the winds are very much in this show’s sails now.  — Lea Palmieri

Where to watch Below Deck Sailing Yacht

Based on the comic books of the same name, even with the stellar voice cast (Steven Yeun, Sandra Oh and JK Simmons, to name a few), Invincible could have been just another hyper-violent animated show joining the pack. Instead, the Prime Video adaptation stands up there with fellow hit The Boys in skewering superhero tropes while digging deep into the character’s emotional states and providing moments of real thought and poignancy. And after the epic twists in the final two episodes of Season 1, thankfully Amazon has picked up the show for two more seasons. Bring ’em on. — Alex Zalben

Stream Invincible on Prime Video

The latest season of Cobra Kai saw the series’ journey from YouTube TV to Netflix, opening up to a wider audience of Karate Kid fans and newbies alike. The show ramped up the thrills in its latest season, which picked up right after the enormous fight at the end of Season 2. With the Valley in shambles, all bets are off — Robby is missing, Daniel and Johnny take a road trip, and Tory practices “no mercy” to the absolute extreme. Cobra Kai continues to raise the stakes, balancing shocking battles with an honest look at family, leading up to what looks to be an epic Season 4 fracas.  — Fletcher Peters

Stream Cobra Kai on Netflix

I’m no longer interested in hearing that a show is “good,” I simply want to know if you had fun watching it. And reader, I really enjoyed watching Ginny & Georgia. The Netflix series has its problems, but keeping me hooked was not one of them. I found the cast and characters to be charismatic and funny and was not expecting so many reveals to keep me invested. I liked watching it, I liked talking about it, and I like knowing there’s more on the way.  — Lea Palmieri

Stream Ginny & Georgia on Netflix

John Hyams’ and Karl Schaefer’s Black Summer is a disorienting, gripping and devastating saga of zombie horror. Season 2 is set during the first winter of the apocalypse as our hardened heroes Rose (Jaime King), Sun (Christine Lee), Spears (Justin Chu Cary) and Anna, Rose’s daughter (Zoe Marlett), struggle to survive in a world dominated by the undead. Even scarier than the fast-moving, insanely strong zombies, however, are their fellow survivors who are merciless, well-armed, well-trained and will kill or double-cross anyone to get what they need. Tightly edited, deftly directed and told through non-linear, tense vignettes of terror, Black Summer Season 2 will leave audiences  gasping for air. — Karen Kemmerle

Stream Black Summer on Netflix

Circle, open chat. The Circle got super cut-throat in its sophomore season at Netflix, resulting in a thrilling saga of catfishing, feuding, and an endearing new Circle familia: the Cardashians (yes, spelled incorrectly). New twists were thrown into the game, like when two blocked players were forced to catfish together as one competitor. Shockingly enough, a couple of catfish made it to the finale, and one even snagged the grand prize. Oh, and NSYNC’s Lance Bass showed up — kind of?  — Fletcher Peters

Stream The Circle on Netflix

For All Mankind‘s second season was a tour de force of TV storytelling. From the ever-expanding world of a NASA free to take the lead on space exploration to the myriad of perfectly plotted character arcs, the Apple TV+ series delivered on all cylinders. However, what most fans will note is that the For All Mankind Season 2 finale was one of the most thrilling episodes of TV in years. From the Soviets’ hostile takeover of the moon base to Gordo and Tracy’s bittersweet team up, For All Mankind‘s second season will stick in your soul. — Meghan O’Keefe

Stream For All Mankind on Apple TV+

AMC’s genre-bending Kevin Can F**k Himself is television at its best. The dark comedy follows the secret life of a sitcom wife (the always sensational Annie Murphy) by blending the emotional elements of a single-cam prestige drama with the over-the-top silliness of a traditional multi-camera sitcom. A compelling mix of humor and intrigue, Kevin Can F**k Himself is our new Sunday night obsession. — Josh Sorokach

Where to watch Kevin Can F**k Himself

Netflix’s Shadow & Bone is one of the most loving and lavish adaptations of a YA fantasy world to date. The series follows young Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), a lowly cartographer who discovers she has the mythic power to save her people from a cursed landscape called the Shadow Fold. While Alina struggles to embrace her new role, she’s also dealing with a target on her back. Shadow & Bone drops viewers into a dense fantasy world, but its biggest charms come from its incredible ensemble cast. Sure, we’re rooting for Alina, but we’re also kvelling over the likes of Kaz, Inej, Jesper, and Milo, the goat. Thank the saints Netflix is giving us Season 2. — Meghan O’Keefe

Stream Shadow & Bone on Netflix

Between Ryan Murphy’s Netflix output and a whole slate of historical docuseries, queer history is finally being told and celebrated in pop culture. But in the fabulously crowded subgenre, HBO Max’s It’s a Sin stands apart. While based in a whole lot of hard, horrifying truths, this series from Russell T. Davies uses the power of storytelling to make the AIDS crisis feel terrifyingly real and personal. Every performer, so perfectly cast, pulls you in close and leaves you begging fate to give them a happy ending. But It’s a Sin, fictional though it may be, softens no edges. It’s a gay history as horror story—and that’s what makes it feel like the most honest show of the year. — Brett White

Stream It's a Sin on HBO Max

Dickinson is like a beating heart put directly on screen, full of breathtaking moments that pulsate with the raw power of Emily Dickinson’s staggering talent. It’s also, and this is important to emphasize, laugh out loud funny. The uncategorizable series stars Hailee Steinfeld as the titular role (s/o to Lady Bird), and in Season 2 took viewers on a roller-coaster ride that tackled 21st Century fame through a 19th Century lens, was a sexual thriller involving Emily and her true love Sue (Ella Hunt), and even found time to stick Toby Huss in a hole. With a stellar cast, mind-bending trips into Emily’s fantasy world, and a tone that deftly jumps from comedy to drama in the same scene, Dickinson is like nothing else on TV. — Alex Zalben

Stream Dickinson on Apple TV+

Adapted from acclaimed author Paul Theroux’s 1981 novel, Apple TV+’s The Mosquito Coast is a riveting and layered drama centered on the Fox family and their brilliant, charismatic, megalomaniac patriarch, Allie (Justin Theroux, Paul’s nephew) who is also hunted fugitive. When the government finally locates the family’s hiding place in California, Allie takes his wife, Margot (Melissa George), and their two teenaged children on a dangerous odyssey across the Mexican border, running afoul of a bloodthirsty cartel along the way. With dazzling photography, mesmerizing performances, and scenes of shocking cruelty, The Mosquito Coast, with its breakneck pace, provides a thrilling and brutal portrait of a family whose members are  at war with the outside world and each other. — Karen Kemmerle

Stream The Mosquito Coast on Apple TV+

Made for Love blends comedy, drama, a touch of sci-fi, and a dash of romance to create one of the most original and creative shows on television this year. The series stars Cristin Milioti as the wife of a self-absorbed billionaire tech mogul (Billy Magnussen) who implants her with a chip that allows him to read her thoughts without her consent. Using the darkest of dark humor, Made for Love tells the story of a woman trying to find independence after years of control. — Greta Bjornson

Stream Made for Love on HBO Max

There’s always more than meets the eye when it comes to Freeform’s kidnapping saga. Cruel Summer starts with the disappearance of Kate Wallis (Olivia Holt), the rich and popular queen bee of a small Texas town. Yet as Kate battles with Jeanette (Chiara Aurelia), it expands to become a far more complex story. Cruel Summer deftly explores the horrors of grooming and the desperate evil that accompanies internalized misogyny, all set against a loving ode to the ’90s. It’s rare for a show’s twists to feel unexpected yet inevitable. Yet that’s the balance Bert V. Royal and Tia Napolitano’s series accomplishes again and again. — Kayla Cobb

Where to watch Cruel Summer

There’s nothing better than a romantic comedy made by someone who knows and loves the genre, and Starstruck co-writers Rose Matafeo and Alice Snedden clearly get it. A twist on a classic, Notting Hill, Matafeo stars as a 20-something New Zealand woman living in London who realizes the guy she picked up on New Year’s Eve (Nikesh Patel) is a super famous movie star. The chemistry is hot, the jokes are hilarious, and the tropes are heart-achingly perfect. It’s a must-watch for rom-com lovers. The first season is just six 20-minute episodes—the perfect length for a binge—and thank god Season 2 is already on the way. — Anna Menta

Stream Starstruck on HBO Max

HBO’s dark, twisty thriller may have starred a Pennsylvania-bound Kate Winslet as the eponymous Mare, showing off her Rolling Rock guzzling and flannel-wearing skills, but it’s the tremendous effort from the full ensemble cast which will keep you coming back until the mysterious death in Easttown is revealed. Jean Smart shines (per usual) as Mare’s hysterically dry, curmudgeon of a mother and we wouldn’t want to get caught in Fay’s (Kate Arrington) furious glare as she watches her husband pulled in for questioning. A fully engrossing limited series which will have you guessing until the very end. — Tobey Grumet

Stream Mare of Easttown on HBO Max

Once again Rob McElhenney, Megan Ganz, and Charlie Day have delivered one of the funniest and most insightful deep dives into the workplace. Mythic Quest takes your deepest and most secretive career insecurities and examines them to their fullest extent. Paranoid that you’re a terrible leader? That you actually have no direction? What about that the colleagues you idolize don’t respect you? It’s all there in one of the funniest and best cast shows on television. That’s especially true of this season, which revolves around Poppy’s (played by the excellent Charlotte Nicdao) transition from disgruntled worker to lost boss. No show better understands the inconsistent intricacies of the human condition than Mythic Quest. — Kayla Cobb

Stream Mythic Quest on Apple TV+

WandaVision wasn’t expected to be such a moment—but if the last year has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. This incredibly surreal adventure was not only Marvel Studios’ first foray into the half-hour sitcom, it’s also the most painfully resonant meditation on grief and trauma that we’ve seen on TV in a while! Those two vibes don’t sound like they’d assemble well, but through a bit of chaos magic and a whole lot of unyielding commitment on the part of the cast and crew, WandaVision triumphed. The series was a love letter to television history, it elevated Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany’s overlooked movie heroes into instant icons, and gave us the song of the summer, back in February. — Brett White

Stream WandaVision on Disney+

Don’t you dare sleep on the comedic brilliance of Hacks. Created by Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello, and Jen Statsky, the trenchant HBO Max series deftly explores the unique mentorship/friendship between a legendary Las Vegas comedian (Jean Smart) and a recently-canceled 25-year-old writer (Hannah Einbinder). A unique mix of brilliant observational humor and relatable hilarity, Hacks is the type of show you’ll watch and then immediately want to tell all your friends about. Thankfully, the series has already been renewed for a second season. — Josh Sorokach

Stream Hacks on HBO Max