2021 In Review: Not the Best TV/Streaming Series of the Year

 

This is the second in a series of posts looking back on the past year in film and television

For the last eight years, I've been publishing my list of the year's best films under the self-deprecating moniker of "NOT the year's best films." This year, I've decided to qualify my list of the best television/streaming programming in the same cautionary way.

Frankly, I don't know how it's is possible for ANY one writer to definitively name the best television/streaming experiences of a given year, because it can't be possible for any single person to actually SEE enough of them to make that determination.  With the ever-proliferating amount of programming available through the airwaves and in cyberspace, how can any individual person cram it all in within the space of 365 days?  

My tastes ran counter to audience and critical perceptions in many cases. I tried, but could not get on board with Mare of Easttown, The Great, The Other Two or Dickinson, to name but a few. I never got around to SO many other popular shows or series that friends recommended; the unseen series include, but are not limited to: Squid Game, Yellowstone, Insecure, Call the Midwife... the list goes on and on...

As always, there are some eccentric choices here, and some you may not have heard of, but I hope I can convince you to seek some of them out.  There are a few honorable mentions - and dishonorable mentions as well - following this list.

In reverse order of preference:

10. The United States of Al (CBS)

In which an Afghan man, Al, moves to Columbus, Ohio to live with the family of a combat veteran he befriended while serving as interpreter for the US Marines.  It's asking a lot for a standard American sitcom to provide laughs within story lines about PTSD and the many controversies surrounding the US occupation of (and ill-timed exit from) Afghanistan. I'm continually surprised at how deftly and delicately this show handles the required shifts in tone.  Adhir Kalyan's Al has an appealing sweetness that thankfully stops short of outright naivete.  The humor is gentle, goofy and seldom brilliant, but the show's ability to balance difficult subject matter with earned laughs is something to cherish.

9. Women Make Film (Turner Classic Movies/Criterion Channel)

The structure of this documentary series is as unpredictable and iconoclastic as its creator, the film critic and scholar, Mark Cousins. Subtitled "A New Road Movie through Cinema," it includes a number of actresses (among them Tilda Swinton, Jane Fonda, Debra Winger and Thandie Newton) who are shown driving various vehicles down deserted roads while providing introductory narration to clips from the work of probably every woman who ever sat in a director's chair (183 directors in all). It's an almost 15-hour journey, loosely organized into 42 sections (with titles like "Tone," "Believability," "Meet Cute," "Bodies," and "Song and Dance") and it's best enjoyed over gradually over several days. A binge would probably be the cinematic equivalent of eating yourself into a coma.  In all honesty, it's probably a bit too much for casual film fans. But serious cinephiles will gobble it up, and then go looking for the full versions of all the featured films.

8. Pretend It's a City (Netflix)

I recall getting my hands on Fran Lebowitz's  first book, Metropolitan Life when I was around 18; she was acerbic and sophisticated in a way I desperately wanted to be, but secretly knew I never could. Lebowitz isn't to everyone's taste, but - like her good friend Martin Scorsese, who produced this series - I still find her curmudgeonly commentary to be absolutely hilarious.  Here she lets loose on everything and everyone, although her main subject is how New York City has changed for the worse since she first escaped there from her New Jersey hometown in the early 1970s. Lebowitz, who no longer writes, tells great stories from a bygone era that she seems to miss even more than she lets on. I think you must have spent significant time in NYC to fully appreciate this series. (I haven't; I've made 7 short trips there in the last 18 years, but had no experience of the city prior to 2004.) Nevertheless, I enjoyed her cranky commentary, especially her disdain for people who don't look where they're walking (an experience which is not unique to her city.)  If Fran's humor is your kind of humor, this a very enjoyable way to spend about 3 hours.

7. The Kominsky Method, Season 3 (Netflix)

The final season of Chuck Lorre's buddy comedy is down by one buddy, opening with the funeral of Alan Arkin's character - after which his client/best friend (Michael Douglas) learns that he is the executor of Arkin's estate. The season arc shows him dealing with Arkin's greedy offspring and enjoying an unexpected career resurgence. But the greatest joy of these final episodes is the appearance of Kathleen Turner, Douglas' frequent 80s co-star, as the ex-wife who comes back into his life. Turner and Douglas have such enjoyable chemistry whether sparring or surrendering their defenses to become friends. Seeing these two actors together again adds a bittersweet layer of nostalgia that makes this last season seem even better than it probably is.

6. Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (CNN/HBO Max)

How many of us made it through some of the coldest, darkest days of the pandemic lockdown by vicariously traipsing though Italy and a delectable series of culinary adventures with the impeccable,  urbane Stanley Tucci as our guide?  (And how many of us winced a little when he took off his mask to get up close with cheesemakers and chefs to taste their wares? ) I'm sure I'm not the only one who created a post-COVID bucket list after watching this; mine is topped by that pasta with fried zucchini  that Tucci learned how to make from a chef on the Amalfi coast. Food porn and travel porn at their absolute best.

5. Hacks (HBO Max)

Generational clash comedy, smartly written and played. The brilliantly funny Jean Smart plays a Joan Rivers-esque comedienne whose Vegas career is winding down; a deadpan millennial (comic Hannah Einbinder) is called in to help her write new material.  They clash - repeatedly - but find their way to a productive and cooperative partnership over the course of ten episodes. This story arc may sound predictable, but a synopsis doesn't account for the delights of their chemistry, the unexpected complications in the deployment of Smart's backstory, or the surprising layers and subtlety of Einbinder's work. The women's performances ultimately fit together like (for want of a better cliché) a hand in a custom-made glove. HBO has ordered a second season; I'm looking eagerly forward to it.

4. The Handmaid's Tale, Season 4 (Hulu)

The Handmaid's Tale began, back in 2017, as a brilliant, visually stunning adaptation of Margaret Atwood's chilling dystopian novel. It then proceeded to lose credibility and strain its audience's patience over the next two seasons, losing sight of Atwood's carefully plotted logic and devolving into recurring torture porn. (Also Elizabeth Moss' June got away with a stunning series of crimes, but inexplicably evaded punishment every time.) Frankly, this season opens in the same sensationalistic mode, but quickly finds it footing when June finally gets over the border to Canada and starts processing her grief and trauma along with prior escapees. This season delves into the realities of post-traumatic stress with unflinching authenticity; June is unable to connect with her husband and undone by even a trip to the supermarket.(In a memorable scene, she stops transfixed in the potato chip aisle, unable to even comprehend the variety of chip flavors she has to choose from. After years of living on adrenaline while fighting for her daughters and her own life, it’s the mundane tasks of regular daily life that prove impossible.)  The season winds up in a bloody but satisfyingly cathartic finale. Hulu has purchased the rights to Atwood's own sequel, The Testaments; it remains to be seen if that novel will be incorporated into the final season of The Handmaid's Tale or becomes its own series. Either way, the seeds of that sequel's plot have been cleverly sown in this season.

3. The White Lotus (HBO Max)

Director Mike White has worked steadily to perfect his specialty - cringe comedies that spoof  the privileged classes  - through his earlier HBO series Enlightenment and the films Beatriz at Dinner and Brad's Status. This is his wildest and most barbed satire yet. The interactions between the moneyed guests at a posh Hawaiian resort and its overworked, underappreciated staff are often painfully funny, but sometimes just painful. There's a skillfully delivered blend of outrageous hijinks and honest heartbreak throughout. Standout performers are Murray Bartlett (the guest services manager who progresses from smooth, professional calm to a manic, drug-addled revenge seeker over the course of six episodes) and Jennifer Coolidge as a pathologically needy guest.

2. Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)

I love Steve Martin and Martin Short individually, but together they can be a little too precious. (I'm not a fan of their self-indulgent, two-man traveling stage show, which I've actually seen live). So I'm happy to report that this Hulu series exceedingly surpassed all my expectations. Short, Martin, and Selena Gomez (their unlikely, but effectively deadpan co-star) are all residents of a New York apartment building in which a murder occurs. They form an unlikely alliance to solve the crime, and Short creates a true crime podcast based on their investigations. That both Short's and Martin's character are washed-up, struggling showbiz types adds some poignancy and wistful humor to their storylines, as does Martin's tentative romance with a musician played by Amy Ryan. I could tell you so much more, but I think it's best to go into this show cold. Let me assure you, you will be dazzled by 75-year-old Steve Martin's still impressive physical comedy skills in the final episode.  

1. Ted Lasso (Apple)

This summary is the toughest of all to write, because what else is there to say about this most delightful of series that hasn't already been said? I came late to Ted Lasso, only getting to Season One around the time that Season Two was starting, but I greedily binged it all and felt sad when there was no more left to watch.  The genius of Ted Lasso is not just the infectious optimism of its title character, but that it evolves into a surprisingly complex and nuanced story without ever losing that optimistic spirit. Characters who you'd expect to be difficult or villainous prove to be sweethearts, while at least one character who seems harmless becomes a villain. Back in the days when my Jason Sudeikis fandom was limited to an appreciation for his hilariously inaccurate Joe Biden impersonation on SNL, I'd never have guessed he had a show like this in him.  Shout outs as well to Hannah Waddington and Juno Temple as the series' highly unlikely but highly enjoyable gal pals.

Honorable Mention:  These shows narrowly missed inclusion on this list:

Physical (Apple)

Dopesick (Hulu)

Hemingway (PBS), 

Maid (Netflix)

The Shrink Next Door (Apple)

Landscapers (HBO Max)

DIShonorable Mention:

The Morning Show, season 2 (Apple) - Good actors struggling, mostly unsuccessfully, to make the insane scripts believable. This is the Aaron Sorkin-iest show that wasn't actually made by Aaron Sorkin, with lots of angry face-offs and rapid-fire, super-intense dialogue delivered at the highest possible emotional pitch. Unfortunately it's more Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip than The West Wing - the stakes are rarely high enough to justify the intensity.

Nine Perfect Strangers (Hulu) - Best summed up by a commenter on Vulture's recap of the penultimate episode: "I feel duped by this dreadful mess of a shitshow."  Another example of good actors trying desperately to make sense of a nonsensical script. (It apparently takes giant liberties with the source material; they don't work.) The final episode almost managed to pull off a satisfying conclusion, but it was a classic example of too little, too late. 

And Just Like That (HBO Max) - The first season is still in progress, as of this writing, but it's unlikely to get much better. Carrie, it's time to surrender the stilettos - you're 55 with a bad hip, for God's sake! And we all miss Samantha, right?  Even so, I was kind of digging the (probably unintended) dark comedy of Big's minimalist chic funeral, including the very minimalist eulogies. The brief resurgence of Carrie's friend, Susan Sharon, to remind us "what a prick" he was gave us the only laugh-out-loud moment of the series so far.