Best Episodes of 2021
Sure it’s “technically” 2022 when this article is coming out, but in many ways, isn’t it still 2020? So in that perspective, this is early.
This is the fun thing we do every year on the site where I crowdsource my friends to write about an episode of TV they loved that year. So what did TV look like this year? A year where some shows were held over from pre-pandemic and others had to be made in bizarre circumstances? Let’s begin with one of the strangest shows in years…
30 Coins — “Cobwebs”
(Season One, Episode 1)
By Katherine Lakin
In terms of experiences watching television shows, I truly can’t compare the 30 Coins pilot to anything else. Looking back on the night where Austin (our illustrious organizer/editor) texted me to ask if I wanted to watch “this batshit crazy Spanish horror show” honestly feels like a fever dream. This is a show that starts out completely insane, and every time you think “okay that has to be it, it has to calm down now” instead it does another, totally new insane thing. I beg of you, read no further if you have not seen this episode of television, because there will be spoilers, and if there was ever a show you should go into blind, it’s this one.
The first ten minutes alone have to be the wildest ride a television show has ever taken me on. We open on an unkillable man calmly walking into a bank, shooting everyone he encounters, and retrieving a pocket watch, of all things. He walks outside and gets into a car where there’s a priest waiting for him. A priest who reaches around the man’s neck and rips off a necklace, immediately killing him. He then takes the watch, opens it up, and what’s waiting innocently inside? A silver coin.
Bam – opening credits. If you have seen the show, you know the… experience that entails. Shot after graphic shot of overwhelmingly intense acting, editing, and music, that finally made it obvious what this show is about. God, of course. Because this bloody, dramatic, almost comic book-esque credit sequence is about the crucifixion of Jesus, and Judas dying for his betrayal, bag of 30 silver coins at his feet.
As if all of this so far hasn’t been enough, our next scene is: a cow giving birth to a human baby. I don’t really think I need to say anything more about that.
The rest of the episode continues similarly. Ratcheting up the intensity with nearly every scene. There are spider babies, knitting needle murders, bullets drenched in holy water, dolls that can control monsters. It’s an hour and a half of nonstop action that makes it impossible to look away.
This all easily could have come across cheesy, like a low budget b-movie. Instead, the 30 Coins pilot is a surrealist horror extravaganza. For all that it is an episode of constantly raising stakes, it never feels like one-upmanship. The choices feel purposeful, and our core cast believable. Amidst all of the insanity, there’s still time to learn about Paco’s indecision, Vergara’s guilt, Elena’s grief, Merche’s ambition.
It’s a wonderfully crafted episode on its own, that only gets better when viewed in conjunction with the rest of the (still batshit) season.
Katherine’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) The Beatles: Get Back, “Part 3: Days 17-22”
2) 30 Coins, “Cobwebs”
3) Succession, “Chiantishire”
4) The Beatles: Get Back, “Part 2: Days 8-16”
5) The Beatles: Get Back, “Part 1: Days 1-7”
6) Squid Game, “Gganbu”
7) Brooklyn Nine-Nine, “The Good Ones”
8) What We Do in the Shadows, “The Cloak of Duplication”
9) You, “W.O.M.B.”
10) Rick and Morty, “Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort”
All Elite Wrestling: Rampage “#2 — The First Dance”
(Season One, Episode 2)
By Jason James
At the end of a scripted television show or a movie, credits roll. In those credits, you can see the name of most characters who appeared in that show or movie, followed by the actor’s real name. But there’s no credit roll after an episode of a pro wrestling show. And in many cases you may never hear or see the real name of a performer on the show at all.
Phil Brooks was born in Chicago and started pro wrestling in the late ‘90s. Since the beginning of his career, pro wrestling fans know him best as the character called CM Punk. He’s kept the same name and same character from wrestling in independent promotions, to becoming a champion in the world’s largest wrestling promotion–WWE–in 2011. When in WWE, Punk’s character frequently criticized WWE’s actual management decisions and failure to promote his character properly (with the tacit approval of Vince McMahon).
And for Punk–like most other successful wrestlers–stepping out of the ring doesn’t mean he stops performing as the character. A fan that runs into Punk on the street will probably call him by his ring name, rather than calling him Phil. When Vince McMahon fired Punk on his wedding day in 2014, that fed into the enmity that he and his fans have against WWE.
Sick of pro wrestling, Punk then tried to do a few matches in UFC. Of course, for those legitimate mixed martial arts fights, he continued to be billed under the name CM Punk, walk to the ring using his familiar entrance music (“Cult of Personality” by Living Color), and referred to by the announcers by the name CM Punk.
On August 20, 2021, CM Punk showed up on a televised pro wrestling show for the first time since 2014. Even though he wasn’t announced to appear, the company that was running the show that night–All Elite Wrestling–sold out the United Center in Chicago merely by hinting that CM Punk would appear.
A successful pro wrestler can uniquely bind performer and character into one entity in a way that cannot be duplicated in any other form of entertainment. Phil Brooks has played the character of CM Punk for nearly 25 years running, and no writer, director, or promoter has been able to dictate what it means to play “CM Punk.” This type of storytelling is what makes professional wrestling compelling.
Punk is one example of the literally thousands of individuals constantly living their own characters 24/7 in wrestling rings around the world. Each of these people contributes to the world-wide narrative that is the story of pro wrestling, and each does it in their own particular way. No other story that exists, particularly in the world of film and television, has a structure that remotely resembles this amazing collaborative work, and moments like the return of CM Punk on August 20 are not possible in any other medium.
Jason’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) Komi Can’t Communicate, “It’s Just Obon, et al”
2) Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, “Episode 16: At a Confessional”
3) All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite, “Grand Slam”
4) Star Trek: Lower Decks, “First First Contact”
5) Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, “Stone Free / Prisoner FE40536: Jolyne Cujoh”
6) Laid-Back Camp, “What Are You Buying with Your Temp Job Money?”
7) Demon Slayer, “Sound Hashira Tengen Uzui”
8) Beastars, “A Busted Electric Fan”
9) My Hero Academia, “My Villain Academia”
10) Cells at Work! Code Black, “Forefront, Gonococci, and Conflict”
The Beatles: Get Back — “Part 3: Days 17-22”
(Season One, Episode 3)
By Evan Culbertson
Everyone knows how this story ends. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a hell of a story.
The first episode of The Beatles: Get Back, Peter Jackson’s 8-hour saga of The Beatles’ January 1969 rehearsal sessions ends ominously – with George having formally quit the band; the second with a foreshadowing statement that the band has decided to stage their culminating concert in four days’ time. And while those two episodes features many of Get Back’s best moments (Paul pulling “Get Back” out of thin air, the band seeming to spontaneously burst into the Third Man theme, the chaos of Michael Lindsay-Hogg wanting to haul them off to Tunisia where they can perform by torchlight, Billy Preston as the puzzle piece they didn’t realize they needed), it’s the third and final episode that really pulls the whole magic trick together.
Anyone inclined to watch 8 hours of 50-year-old studio footage over the Thanksgiving holiday knows a thing or two about the Beatles. You have to, in fact – one of Get Back’s greatest strengths is its trust in its audience – you know what you’re here to see, and by golly, Peter Jackson’s gonna give it to you. So when the series ends just as the original Let It Be film did all those years ago – with the immortal rooftop concert – it’s not as though it’s a surprise. It’s like the fastball that everyone in the park knows is coming but is so good the batter can’t make contact. As a viewer, you anticipate the rooftop concert, and then you see it, and it’s just as emotional and incredible as you always hoped it would be. You see the catharsis in real time: a final public moment of genuine joy amidst four men whose friendships have been strained beyond their limit over the previous few weeks (and years). The band’s first live performance in three years, their last ever, and you get to soak it in along with them. It’s magic.
For me, though, the apex of Get Back is less grandiose: a series of text intertitles that punctuate the performances, each of which somehow delighted and astounded me anew. The first comes early, in the haywire first ten minutes of the episode, with 6-year-old Heather (soon to be McCartney) running around and howling into the mic, John improvising nonsense lyrics about a cat named “Babaji,” Paul fiddling around on drums; a jam session that completely devolves into chaos… and then somehow, it becomes familiar. Much like Paul’s earlier conjuring of “Get Back,” the messing-around we’ve become accustomed to over the previous six hours transforms into something suddenly recognizable. Then the text appears –
Part of this performance is on the album “Let It Be”.
– and we realize what we’re seeing and hearing isn’t just historical ephemera, the greatest band of all time having fun in the studio. It is, in fact, the actual take that turned into the 50-second “Dig It” on the album. Almost a full hour of the episode is similar shenanigans – they try to lay down some tracks for a bit, but it all devolves into more buffoonery and somewhat productive jam sessions. At one point, Lindsay-Hogg quips that the film itself is Sartre’s No Exit, and at another, George Martin says they’ll “do it again, and again, and again” – here, amidst re-assembled footage of them trying to record “Get Back,” we see that intertitle again, showing us the take where they finally get it right.
Despite George’s misgivings, they go on the roof, and we witness, in all its glory, the culmination of the Beatles’ career as performers. This is, of course, shown alongside footage of onlookers enjoying the unexpected show, as well as the police trying to shut the whole thing down (in split screen, occasionally with footage from as many as six cameras at once). So when Peter Jackson silently interjects again, during the bridge of “I’ve Got A Feeling” –
This performance appears on the album “Let It Be”.
– it actually sneaks up on you. The song, which we’ve heard so many times over the course of the 8 hours (and which we’ll hear once more before the lads leave the roof) is momentarily overshadowed a bit by the narrative excitement of the bobbys coming to wrap up the fun. The sensory experience is so rich that we takefor granted, once again, that we’re witnessing the performance of “I’ve Got A Feeling.” The canonized album version that will go down in history, that my mother listened to, that I grew up listening to, that my children will listen to. Here they are, wrapped in coats on a rooftop in January in the middle of London, putting to tape an indelible piece of their legacy as the greatest to ever do it.
Jackson reveals that the “One After 909” and “Dig A Pony” we see on the roof are the album cuts, as well – his craft is less coy but no less remarkable. Again, it’s that fastball that we can’t help but swing away at, whizzing past us. Even rewatching it, I can’t help but smile every time. But of course, everyone knows how this ends – they play the songs they can for a bit before and being ushered off the roof for disturbing the peace. It’s remarkable that we have this footage in the first place, but it’s been pieced together masterfully – comprehensive for us obsessives with enough narrative to keep you invested despite knowing exactly what’s coming.
The band agrees to reconvene the next day to finish up, and the credits begin to roll, as we hear snippets of them in their purest form: just some lovable lads from Liverpool riffing, jamming, and playing any song other than what they’re supposed to. Then, suddenly, the credits stop, John and Paul joke about saying “goodnight,” and they finally do what they came here to do: record “Two of Us.” It’s no surprise, of course, that one more time –
This performance appears on the album “Let It Be”.
– even buried here, amidst the credits, Peter Jackson lets us take a peek into a piece of real history. They nail it, of course, and soon after (credits still rolling) begin a wonderful performance of “Let It Be.” “Ah, yes,” we think, “what a beautiful way to cap this off, sending us home with the studio performance of such a beautiful song” – but it’s a swerve! The song falls apart, they start goofing off, blowing raspberries, and bantering in fake German. Paul begins to play “Let It Be” again – with John, a prankster to his very bones, caught on camera, mockingly lip-syncing along to the first verse – and then suddenly, with seconds left before Disney+ starts autoplaying some Marvel trailer or IP reboot –
This performance appears on the album “Let It Be”.
——
Sure, Get Back is a bit of an amorphous experiment (not really TV, not really a film, not really documentary, not just a concert movie) and I have my misgivings about some of the final result – it’s not a proper restoration, per se, and visually, it looks awful at points, with audio haphazardly applied to unrelated footage. I would have preferred the grainy blown-up 16mm footage be shown at the maximum possible fidelity without DNR (sorry, Smooth Ringo!). I’ve accepted and embraced it because it doesn’t represent the past, it instead reconstitutes it into something new. And sure, that’s jargon to justify Jackson’s meddling, but it’s a unique object that frankly, I’m just overjoyed to be able to witness. The magic captured here is almost beyond words at times. I might just be a sentimental Beatlemaniac, and these small moments of wonder might not speak to you in the same way, but Get Back was a project made specifically for sentimental Beatlemaniacs like me. I cherish it. They passed the audition, indeed.
Evan’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) Hawkeye, “Ronin”
2) The Beatles: Get Back, “Part 3: Days 17-22”
3) Succession, “All The Bells Say”
4) You, “So I Married an Axe Murderer”
5) All Elite Wrestling: Rampage, “#2 — The First Dance”
6) Only Murders in the Building, “The Boy from 6B”
7) Midnight Mass, “Book V: Gospels”
8) What We Do in the Shadows, “The Wellness Center”
9) Masterchef, “Legends: Dominique Crenn – The Wall”
10) Dark Side of the Ring, “The Plane Ride from Hell”
Chucky — “Cape Queer”
(Season One, Episode 6)
By Sam Tilmans
It was 1994. I was five. My mom’s friend’s oldest daughter was babysitting me and her little sister. Somehow, Child’s Play 2 was put on the television that night, and for years later, I was terrified of Chucky, the killer doll. Even years later, as a teenager, I once panicked in a Spencer’s Gifts when I saw a life-sized Chucky doll at the front of the store.
Yet, a television show about Chucky is one of my favorite shows this year. I’m sure my past selves, and my mom, if she’s reading this, would be incredibly surprised – probably as surprised as our show’s protagonist, Jake Wheeler, finding out that Chucky has a genderfluid kid in the second episode of the show. It’s called growth!
Isolated from my friends and family in 2020, I watched the entirety of the Child’s Play/Chucky franchise for the first time and found out that it ruled. Fortunately, one does not need to have seen the movies to watch the show, as there are flashbacks and past incidents are explained, but seriously, the movies are fun as hell. Unlike so many horror franchises/slashers, it doesn’t feel stale, and that remains true with the television show.
Bless Don Mancini. He has created not only a strange, fun horror franchise, but also a show that is suspenseful, hilarious, sweet, beautiful, and lovingly queer. I appreciate the use of practical effects and puppetry, and of course, there are some creative kills. I’d say the only predictability to Chucky’s victims is that anyone over the age of six is fair game; how and when they will be dispatched is anyone’s guess, and that led to several surprises over the season, particularly during the show’s sixth episode, “Cape Queer.”
The series has a lot of moving parts, both trying to pull in legacy characters from the movies and introducing new characters and whatever grand scheme Chucky is trying to pull off. In the previous episode, it reintroduced Tiffany Valentine, Chucky’s wild card girlfriend, whose soul possesses the body of actress Jennifer Tilly, played by the always incredible Jennifer Tilly. She’s mostly comedic relief in this episode, save for when she reveals to Nica Pierce that she knows of Nica’s attempted deception, then she’s sinister.
As for Nica, the young paraplegic woman who has a part of Chucky’s soul in her, she’s sometimes herself, sometimes Chucky, but always portrayed compellingly by Fiona Dourif. I particularly enjoy Fiona Dourif in the episode “Cape Queer,” as she has a lot to do: she swaggers around as Chucky in Nica’s body, drinking beer, wisecracking, and killing; as Nica, she pretends she’s still Chucky in an attempt to fool Tiffany; and again, she swaggers around under prosthetic makeup as a young Charles Lee Ray (Chucky), becoming the image of her father, Brad Dourif, from over three decades ago for flashbacks.
In “Cape Queer,” we get a reintroduction of Andy Barclay and Kyle, who have not been together on-screen since Child’s Play 2. The episode does a lot of filling in of their past and hints at what has happened over the course of thirty-one years. What I found particularly interesting, though, is their behavior in their opening scene, which reflects their personalities even though decades have passed: Andy is anxious, awkward, urgently trying to accomplish their task, while Kyle takes the lead as his older foster sister, cool and calm as she rolls with their census taker ruse, which culminates in a Pulp Fiction-style disposal of a Chucky doll.
While this show is named for Chucky, and the show is ultimately about him, most of “Cape Queer” focuses on the lives he has destroyed in various manners. He is skillful at killing and/or emotionally devastating those who cross his path; he may have not killed Andy Barclay, but he did kill his childhood, and continues to haunt him and Kyle well into adulthood, as we see here. The young teens in this show share Andy Barclay’s pain – Chucky may not kill them, but he terrorizes them, kills important adults in their lives, and attempts to manipulate them into killing with him. Chucky does exactly what he does best in this episode, though he mostly lurks like the shark in Jaws, setting up his game in the shadows, coming out to destroy when it’s prime time to do it. It doesn’t always work, as when he attempts to talk Lexy into killing Jake, but he knows how to improvise when things take a turn.
And oh, how things turn in this episode. Bree Wheeler, aunt of the series’ protagonist, Jake, finally reveals to her husband, Logan, and her son, Junior, that she has cancer. The Wheelers have not necessarily been a kind family, but once Bree reveals her secret, they are softer to each other and there are a lot of tears and hugs. Later, Bree and Junior have a sweet moment in their car talking about therapy, and there’s hope of their relationship growing stronger. It’s a heartfelt moment. which is then destroyed shortly after when Chucky defenestrates Bree, staging it as a suicide. He may have saved her the pain of having to reveal to her family she wasn’t going to continue cancer treatment after all and dying a slow death, but he robs Bree and her family of being able to say goodbye on their terms, and it’s BRUTAL. It’s so brutal for Junior (and us) to see his mom after she has landed on their car, her body contorted, bloodied face shoved through the broken windshield in front of him. Junior’s not a great person, but in that moment, one genuinely feels sorry for him.
There is a balm for the horror of Bree’s death in another sweet interaction between a mother and her son with Devon Evans, friend and romantic interest of Jake Wheeler, and his mom, Detective Kim Evans. She intuits that Devon has feelings for Jake, and as it turns out, she’s cool with that now that she no longer suspects Jake of being a serial killer. The fact that her son has feelings for another boy doesn’t bother her at all. This moment is a big deal, but here it feels so simple, and it has the best results. The acceptance and love in Detective Evans’s response is something most queer people want when they have this interaction with their loved ones, though is not guaranteed in reality; Jake certainly didn’t get the acceptance of his father, Lucas, and was teased by his cousin Junior for being gay. But here, there is joy.
Later, when Devon tells Jake about this moment, they are so happy, even as they are waiting anxiously for Chucky to appear in their trap. They are the face of first love, of new love, of hope. It’s so wonderful, which again, makes it all so heartbreaking when Chucky attacks Detective Evans and she tumbles down the stairs of the Wheeler home, breaking her neck in front of Devon.
Two teenage boys and their loving mothers and touching moments before worlds are ripped apart. That’s what “Cape Queer” promises, along with familiar faces to the Child’s Play/Chucky franchise and several excellent references to, well, Cape Fear.
Chucky, admittedly, is not for all tastes, but there’s nothing else like it on television right now. It’s cinema, it’s camp, it’s a puzzle where each episode is an incredible piece, with compelling characters, great gags, and beauty amongst the bloodshed. I never expected a show about a supernaturally possessed killer doll to have such emotional resonance, but it does, and “Cape Queer” proves it. The world is full of surprises, however sweet or awful they may be, and Chucky is full of them, too.
Sam’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) Chucky, “Cape Queer”
2) Yellowjackets, “Bear Down”
3) Yellowjackets, “Blood Hive”
4) Chucky, “Just Let Go”
5) Chucky, “Give Me Something Good to Eat”
6) Yellowjackets, “F Sharp”
7) The Great North, “Avocado Barter Adventure”
8) What We Do in the Shadows, “The Wellness Center”
9) What We Do in the Shadows, “The Casino”
10) Creepshow, “Model Kid / Public Television of the Dead”
Sam’s Honorable Mentions
—Behind the Monsters, “Michael Myers”; “Chucky”; “Freddy Kruger”; “Jason Voorhees”
—Bob’s Burgers, “An Incon-Wheelie-ent Truth”; “Some Kind of Fender Benderful”; “Die Card, or Card Trying”; “Lost in Bedslation”
—The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula, “Killer Clowns”; “Ghostship Glamour”
—Chucky, “Death By Misadventure”
—The Great North, “Good Beef Hunting Adventure”; “Skidmark Holmes Adventure”; “Sexi Moose Adventure”
—How To with John Wilson, “How to Appreciate Wine”; “How to Find a Spot”
—It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “2020: A Year in Review”; “The Gang Goes to Ireland”; “The Gang’s Still in Ireland”
—Kevin Can F**k Himself, “Live Free or Die”; “The Grand Victorian”; “Living the Dream”
—Tuca and Bertie, “Bird Mechanics”; “The Dance”
—What We Do in the Shadows, “The Siren”; “The Prisoner”; “Gail”
—Yellowjackets, “Pilot”
Dickinson — “Grief is a Mouse”
(Season Three, Episode 9)
By Rachael Clark
I discovered Dickinson just earlier this year. This is one of the shows I became obsessed with in the first five minutes of the first episode (very rare). The show is a take on the life of the great American poet, Emily Dickinson, and her family during her early 20s. This half hour comedy is so unique from any other show I have watched recently. Emily is an outspoken woman who refuses to get married, all she wants to do is to write poems. She also happens to be in love with her best friend growing up, Sue. As the viewer, we get to see her go into her mind and see what she sees. One of my favorites is when she gets in a black carriage in a beautiful red dress and talks to the death (played hilariously by Wiz Khalifa). It’s a stunning way to describe how she saw her poetry come to life.
With this episode being the second the last episode, it feels like they made this the fun, feel-good, thank-you-for-watching-this-show episode for the fans. This whole season has been revolved around the civil war and Emily trying to keep her dysfunctional family together. Along with that, Sue and Emily have had a lot of angst (A LOT); Sue wants all of Emily, but Emily is hesitant because she doesn’t know how to show her feelings and knows it would tear her family farther apart.
Anyways, I digress.
This episode starts with Emily summoning her siblings, Austin and Lavinia, to a “sibling summit.” She makes amends with her brother, telling him he was right all along about their dad. (The dad is a hot mess and I hate him.) The siblings promise to treat each other with respect and freedom (that is not common for women of this time period). It is funny and sentimental, they end in a group hug, the first sign during this episode that the show is coming to a sweet close. Next, Emily heads off to her mom, the other Emily Dickinson, played by the wonderful Jane Krakowski. Mother Dickinson was the epitome of the perfect housewife, but after the loss of her sister she became grief stricken and has taken to lying in bed for the past week. So, it is up to Emily to come and cheer her up and make her feel better. She does this beautifully by telling her mom to talk about her sister. Also, a mouse shows up and the mom thinks it’s the ghost of Aunt Lavinia because she loved mice. Mother Dickinson “talks” to the mouse believing it is her sister letting everything out. It was cathartic for her and helps her get back on her feet.
Next, we see Emily hurry off to Austin and Sue’s house. Emily is desperate to talk to Sue but sees there is a little party going on. Emily and Austin’s old friend, George, is going off to war. He got the draft card a couple days ago and needs to report. Emily corners Sue saying they need time alone together tonight but for now she will party with George and the others. The Dickinson party scenes are always a blast to watch. You see people dressed up in 1860’s dress attire with modern music playing. It is so playful; you can feel the joy come across the screen. Everyone is having a fantastic time. The party slows down and comes to Lavinia talking about her art piece where she stares at a dying sheep (old Bessie) thinking of her dead ex-boyfriends from the war. (I LOVE Lavinia). Then we learn that Sue sent one of Emily’s poems to be published in the newspaper anonymously. She thought her poetry was so strong that the world needed to hear it during the civil war. Everyone is begging Emily to read it, which she has always refused in the past, but this time is different. She softly responds, “I’ll do it, I’ll do it for all of you. But mostly, for Sue.” She gets up and recites the poem beautifully.
For our last scene, we go to Emily and Sue in bed (post coital). This whole season they have sort of been at odds. Most of it had to do with Emily really coming to terms with her feelings for Sue and expressing them. Earlier in the season, Emily confides in her sister that she finds it easier to be in love when writing poems (being in her head) than in the real world. She is obsessed with writing poems, it’s all she cares about. During this affectionate moment between the two comes one of the sweetest lines of the whole series. When the camera closes in on them in bed Emily says to Sue, “This…..this is better than any poem.” The rest of the scene is very sweet and tastefully done of them together in bed. I think what made it so intimate is that there was no music; just one of Emily’s poems being recited (see below). This was a lovely way to show their relationship for the end of the series.
I’m sad this brilliant show has come to an end, it’s bittersweet yet poetic you might say. Only 30 episodes long this show has captured a fun, distinctive way to showcase a brilliant poet whose poems were not even published until after her death. You got to go into her head and explore her thoughts and feelings, a woman way ahead of her time…. “The only Dickinson that people talked about 100 years later.”
All the Letters I Can Write
All the letters I can write
Are not fair as this—
Syllables of Velvet—
Sentences of Plush,
Depths of Ruby, undrained,
Hid, Lip, for Thee—
Play it were a Humming Bird—
And just sipped—me—
Rachael’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) For All Mankind, “The Gray”
2) Dickinson, “Grief is a Mouse”
3) Midnight Mass, “Book VII: Revelations”
4) What We Do in the Shadows, “A Farewell”
5) Brooklyn Nine-Nine, “Last Day: Part 2”
6) Mare of Easttown, “Sacrament”
7) Dickinson, “The Future Never Spoke”
8) Loki, “For All Time. Always.”
9) WandaVision, “The Series Finale”
10) Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, “Afghanistan”
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier — “The Whole World is Watching”
(Season One, Episode 4)
By Alex Manzo
I found The Falcon and the Winter Solider interesting because it focused so heavily on the “real world” fallout from an event like The Blip. The MCU hasn’t shied away from showing the consequences of superheroes actions, and this series digs into that even further.
Throughout its run, I enjoyed the backstory and motivations behind the season’s antagonist, Karli Morgenthau. I’m a big fan of nuanced characters, and Karli is exactly that.
We can’t overlook the significance of a formidable “villain” in the MCU being a young woman of color from an underprivileged background. Some folks might scoff at importance of representation, but to me that is what made this series really great. Not just Anthony Mackie becoming Black Captain America (which is important in its own right), but the nuance of Morgenthau, and the white All-American John Walker descending from “hero” to villain.
This episode to me is where all that nuance comes to a head. Sam’s 1:1 with Karli to try and talk her down puts a lens on how her and the Flag-Smashers are “villains with a point”. They aren’t about supremacy or evil…they’re trying to stand for the opposite.
This is also the episode where John Walker takes the super-soldier serum only to brutally murder a Flag-Smasher following the death of his partner. The entire episode paints a portrait of how even those with the right intentions can stray into evil.
Alex’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) WandaVision, “Previously On”
2) Squid Game, “Gganbu”
3) Loki, “The Nexus Event”
4) Squid Game, “Red Light, Green Light”
5) WandaVision, “The Series Finale”
6) WandaVision, “We Interrupt this Program”
7) Ted Lasso, “Inverting the Pyramid of Success”
8) The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, “The Whole World is Watching”
9) Only Murders in the Building, “Open and Shut”
10) WandaVision, “On a Very Special Episode”
For All Mankind — “The Grey”
(Season Two, Episode 10)
By Austin Lugar
I remember when Election Day finally ended at the end of the week. There was a global sigh of relief that Joe Biden had indisputably won. This is the future liberals dreamed of. Voting reform, D.C. statehood, reasonable parental leave, DACA permeance, Supreme Court reform, legalization of marijuana, federal abortion security. After four years of what we assumed was an endless nightmare, we could finally wake up.
And yet.
For All Mankind is an alternate history show where the USSR landed on the moon a few weeks before Apollo 11 did. From this moment, ripples quickly spread. For example, Ted Kennedy does not go to Chappaquiddick Island because he is leading a NASA oversight committee wanting to know how we were beat. Instead of his political career being destroyed, he becomes the President.
Since the US did not land on the moon first, we declared the space race was not actually over. The goalposts kept moving. The USSR had the first woman in space, so Nixon quickly decreed women need to join the astronaut program. It was no longer about first to the moon, but now it’s first to find water. Or the first to build a settlement. Or the first to revolutionize the shuttle.
Season One moved at a steady pace as they went from 1969 to 1974. In Season Two, it is now 1983. Season One showed a recognizable United States, but Season Two feels very new. Electric cars are commercial decades ahead of time; video technology is advanced; the Jamestown moon settlement not only exists but is thriving; a woman is a NASA director – something that has still not happened yet in our world.
The Season Two finale, “The Grey,” is a television masterpiece for a number of reasons. It is the culmination of an incredible season where every plotline organically led to an explosive conclusion where somehow every single character is in mortal danger. The only character you feel certain isn’t going to die in the finale is, somehow, the one with terminal cancer.
(I’m not going to summarize what happens. Go watch it! After the 19 previous episodes. I’m about to spoil a big thing in it.)
The finale emotionally affected me in a number of ways. The biggest, obviously, has to be the death of Gordo and Tracy. Throughout the season, Gordo is trying to mentally recover from the mental collapse he on the moon. As I watched Ed push his friend to get back into the suit and Gordo performs exposure therapy, I kept getting really nervous that this was a bad idea. Was Ed being a good friend who knows how to help his friend or is he pushing him too hard?
Tracy also went on her psychological journey as she became the biggest celebrity in the space program. She is frequently on Carson and her marriages is written up in all of the gossip magazines. When she returns to Jamestown, she is humbled and reminds herself why this has been her lifelong passion.
During the finale, Jamestown is under attack and Gordo and Tracy are hidden in an old part of the base. In addition to needing to save their colleagues and not get shot, they discover the base’s nuclear reactor is going to explode. This is ONE of the plotlines in this episode.
The show gets its Apollo 13 moment where they have to figure out what supplies they have in their hideaway room to figure out how they can go outside and race to switch some tubes and get back inside…without a spacesuit. Besides not wanting to go boom, they are fighting for the future. If the reactor goes off, the moon will be uninhabitable for hundreds of years. It will halt all scientific advancement in space and on Earth. Gordo and Tracy do the impossible and save the world, but die in the process.
In the show, science is bipartisan. While science could lead to negative creations – Guns in space! – normally it is to lead to a greater world. Dany wants to make the handshake in the episode so it can be shown a black woman can lead a mission, but also to encourage peace. Sally Ride wants to keep the moon as a rock that can be for everyone, not just who has the bigger missiles. Ed and Tracy want to see how their flying machines can become faster and faster, forever moving technology to new heights .
They want the world to better for those who will come after them. Not just a little bit better, but incredible. At times For All Mankind feels like a utopia. (It’s not because remember when I said “guns in space”?) But in comparison, our timeline can feel like a dystopia. I want a higher bar for our leaders beyond “not an insane fascist.”
The episode ends with a look up in the sky as the camera races through the cosmos. As a tease for what’s to come, we see someone step foot on Mars. And the year is 1995. We are in 2022. Imagine what we could do.
Austin’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) For All Mankind, “The Grey”
2) 30 Coins, “Cobwebs”
3) It’s a Sin, “Episode 6”
4) Succession, “Too Much Birthday”
5) Dickinson, “Split the lark”
6) Squid Game, “Gganbu”
7) Maid, “Dollar Store”
8) Evil, “E is for Elevator”
9) The White Lotus, “The Lotus-Eaters”
10) Hacks, “There is No Line”
Austin’s Runner-Ups
The Big Leap, “I Want You Back”
Blindspotting, “Bride or Die”
Call My Agent, “Sigourney”
Dave, “Ad Man”
David Makes Man, “Hurston”
Dead Pixels, “Healthy Balance”
Dickinson, “I’m Nobody! Who are you?”; “This is my letter to the World”; “This was a Poet -“
The Expanse, “Nemesis Games”
Evil, “B is for Brain”; “C is for Cannibal”
The Good Fight, “And the Détente Had an End…”
The Great British Bake-Off, “Patisserie Week”
Hacks, “New Eyes”
How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast), “Everybody gets a second chance”
Inside No. 9, “Simon Says”
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “Dee is Replaced by a Monkey”
Mythic Quest, “Backstory!”
Never Have I Ever, “…begged for forgiveness”
The Other Two, “Chase Gets Baptized”
Philly D.A., “You’re the Man Now”
Rick and Morty, “Mort Dinner Rick Andre”; “Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort”
Search Party, “The Shadows”
Sex Education, “Episode 1”
South Side, “The Election”
Squid Game, “Red Light, Green Light”
Station Eleven, “Wheel of Fire”
Succession, “Chiantishire”; “All the Bells Say”
Superstore, “Essential”
Survivor, “One Thing Left To Do…Win”
Ted Lasso, “Goodbye Earl”; “Headspace”
Ten Year Old Tom, “The Bassoon Incident / Ice Cream Money”
We Are Lady Parts, “Sparta”
The White Lotus, “Departures”
Yellowjackets, “Pilot”
Game Changer — “Sam Says”
(Season Four, Episode 1)
By Josh West
It’s that time again. Austin has finessed his friends to do his work for him. The man who thinks he is too good to watch quality shows like Too Hot To Handle Season Two, The Big Bang Theory season 36, or Transformers: Bumblebee Gets An Oil Change. Austin probably also thinks he’s too good to watch TV shows that don’t air on television! Which is why this year, just to spite him, my pick is a show that isn’t on a major streaming platform. The show I am talking about is Game Changer. So, let’s begin and the only way to begin is by beginning.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: I have seen the first few episodes of Too Hot to Handle Season Two. I continue to debate whether to finish the season. The rules just don’t make any sense.]
Game Changer is a game show on Dropout.tv. It’s a smaller streaming service comprised of improv based skits, various game shows, and a plethora of dungeon and dragons campaigns. Dropout is run by CH Media, the people who also make College Humor content, so you might recognize some familiar faces if you have seen any CH Originals on YouTube.
One of the best episodes of Game Changer was the first episode of Season Four: “Sam Says.” The trick to Game Changer is that the contestants, most of whom are people with an improv background, come onto the show not knowing what game they will be playing and the must figure out the rules as they play. Sam Says is just a take on Simon Says, but with host Sam Reich’s name instead. The real fun of this show is the contestants. For this episode the first contestant is Brennan Lee Mulligan. Brennan is the dungeon master for most of the D&D shows on Dropout. He is great at impressions, improv, and is VERY competitive. The second contestant is Brennan’s fiancee, Isabella Rowland. Izzy is not as involved with Dropout as the other contestants but she has made several appearances and was even a player character in a campaign called The Seven. You never know what is going to come out of her mouth. Our last contestant is Lou Wilson. Lou has been a player character for many different D&D campaigns on Dropout and has been a contestant on Game Changer many times.
In this episode, the three contestants start at 25 points and lose points every time they mess up at “Sam Says.” What really makes this episode so great is the mixture of Brennan trying to “rule lawyer” his way out of losing points, Lou trying to keep his cool with a loose air horn floating around set, and Izzy unleashing buttholes on the world! One of my favorite parts is when Sam’s instructions are, “Say something we will have to bleep” and all of the contestants go with saying a curse word, or multiple curse words in Lou’s case. Before the round is over, Brennan realizes that since Dropout is a paid subscription service and the content on the platform is uncensored, curse words don’t need to be bleeped. I won’t ruin how they win that round, but all three contestants find a way to do what Sam says and it is fantastic. Other notable segments in this episode are “Sam says upset a producer,” “Sam says propose a visual effect,” “Sam says don’t flinch,” and “Sam says make an accurate prediction about the rest of the episode.”
Josh’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, “One World, One People”
2) The Sex Lives of College Girls, “Parents Weekend”
3) DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, “wvrdr_error_100 oest-of-th3-gs.gid30n not found”
4) Hawkeye, “Ronin”
5) Superman & Lois, “Holding the Wrench”
6) Game Changer, “Sam Says”
7) What If…?, “What If…the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?”
8) Loki, “Journey Into Mystery”
9) Game Changer, “Noise Boys”
10) DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, “Meat: The Legends”
Hacks, “1.69 Million”
(Season One, Episode 8)
By Sarah Staudt
(Spoilers for the whole season)
“Yeah, funny guy. Funny guy…So let me tell you all what’s going on here. He’s pretending to flirt with me. So I have two choices. I can, y’know, shoot him down and not play along, but then I’m a bad sport, and not funny, and a cold bitch etc etc, etc. and if I do that’s awkward, it’s going to be hard to win you back. Or, I do play along, which of course is easier, and then I’m sexualizing myself on his terms. That guy, wearing a pleather hoodie!
“So then my whole set becomes entirely about a stranger, who I find disgusting. Gosh, no matter how long you’re away, you come back and there’s always a Drew who’s gonna talk about your tits. Death, taxes, and this fucking guy…What would it take to get you to just stop?“
Deborah Vance, Hacks’ Joan Rivers-inspired fictional paragon of comedy, gives this speech at a small comedy club decades after she got her first gig there, after the owner of the club heckles her with jokes about roofies. She then calls Drew up to the stage, and offers him 1.69 million to give up his entire comedy career and never set foot in a comedy club again. “I can’t get rid of all of them, ladies” she says. “But I can get rid of one!” The offer of money is funny and biting – but it’s the speech itself that that gets her audience hanging on her every word.
Then, she walks to the parking lot, sees her sister (who stole her husband years before), who is asking for five minutes of her time to reconcile, and instead, Deborah almost runs her over with her car, shouting “never forgive, never forget, baby!” So we’re dealing with a complicated lady.
Hacks, fundamentally, is about what women owe to each other. We in finally in a generation where our legends in comedy, drama, politics, and many other fields are finally not all straight white men. But to get there, those same legends have often had to tear through a thicket of abuse and humiliation. By doing so, they’ve started to pave the way for some of us to come along the road behind them with a slightly less thorny thicket.
What do we owe them? And what do they owe us? Ava, the second lead of the show, is a young out of work comedy writer who is repulsed by the idea of working for Deborah, an aging insult comic, a staple of the Vegas comedy circuit with a nightly show and lots of jokes about plastic surgery and buffet food. Her major claim to fame is that she burned down her ex-husband’s house after he cheated on her with Deborah’s sister – something that turns out to not even be true. Ava and Deborah hate each other. Ava is entitled and disdainful, and Deborah is just plain crazy, an abusive boss who forces Ava to go track down an antique pepper shaker in the Vegas desert, mocks her appearance and life choices, and is just generally unpleasant. Over time, though, they forge a friendship, and Ava helps Deborah write a new set – one about her life, the things that were hard, and the things she overcame.
If Hacks were only about Ava learning to appreciate the reasons Deborah is the way she is, and find some gratitude for the work that she did that allows Ava to have the career she is trying to have, it would be a fine show covering relatively well-trod ground – very Devil Wears Prada.
But it’s much, much, better than that, because it’s also about what Deborah owes to Ava. And the answer the show gives is not a traditional story about the need for mentorship or imparting wisdom to a younger generation. Deborah doesn’t owe Ava any of that. Ava’s doing basically fine in her career, though she’s in a lull – and Ava wouldn’t take it even if it was offered.
Instead, the show says, we owe each other our real stories. Our true selves. As we fight for success and fulfillment, women are forced to wear masks – and it’s very easy to eventually forget we’re even wearing them. We become these lesser versions of ourselves, these cliches. Over time, they can protect us from some of the pain that is inflicted on us by all of the attacks that come our way because of our identity. Deborah is surrounded by an entire staff she has hand-picked to help her avoid anything that might remind her of her real feelings. She has a literal basement full of her real story, every tape and set she ever did – and she never looks at it. She’s chosen to lean in to the bitch boss persona – because it’s much easier than talking about her real life.
But as the show goes on, we start to hear about the hard things– about Deborah raising a toddler while on the road as a stand-up comedian, of being constantly harassed and belittled and minimized. But it’s never a sob story, because Ava and Deborah are funny – their job is to be funny, and they are talented and damn good at their jobs. And even the hardest parts of life can be funny – our true selves are better material than any persona could ever give us. And sometimes, they have real power – like the power to use 40 years of built up outrage and righteous indignation to finally put an asshole harasser in his place. And as Deborah, with Ava’s help, starts to take off her mask, the world around her finally gets to see the power of who she really is. And everyone benefits from that truth. By the end of the season, we’ll see Deborah traveling to New York for Ava’s father’s funeral, see Ava opening up about her lonely childhood and why she is doing comedy…a million things that are just good for these characters, good for human beings. My favorite episode of the show is actually the follow-up to this one, “Interview”, where we start to see Ava’s reaction to what happens in this episode. But this one is the turning point for these characters, and the best example of the powerful story Hacks is telling about how we owe each other our true selves.
Sarah’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) Succession, “Too Much Birthday”
2) Hacks, “Interview”
3) The White Lotus, “The Lotus-Eaters”
4) For All Mankind, “The Grey”
5) Midnight Mass, “Book VII: Revelations”
6) Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, “Home”
7) Evil, “E is for Elevator”
8) Survivor, “There’s Gonna Be Blood”
9) We Are Lady Parts, “Sparta”
10) The Wheel of Time, “Shadow’s Waiting”
How To with John Wilson, “How to Invest in Real Estate”
(Season Two, Episode 1)
By Keith Jackson
I first learned about How To through John Wilson’s appearance on Conan O’Brien’s podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend. The way they described the series when talking about it, and Wilson’s tone of voice recalled a series I loved, Nathan For You. Lo and behold, at the end of the first episode I notice the vanity card for Nathan Fielder’s Blow Out Productions, and it is just so fitting. The show (and, specifically, S2E1) has that same air of awkwardness, and Wilson’s stilted narration carries with it that similar characterization as Nathan’s in Nathan For You, but in a way that doesn’t at all feel like a retread.
The writing and editing of this show (and, in this case, S2E1) are what sets it apart. The timing of specifically curated shots from around New York City and elsewhere to Wilson’s voice over depicts these wonderful metaphoric ideas that are so cleverly done – sometimes “haha” clever, sometimes “grimace emoji” clever. And the direction each episode takes, such as in S2E1, is akin to the best Simpsons episodes, where each turn in the story makes sense moment-to-moment but at the end you think back, “how did this episode about splitting a check at a restaurant end up at a referee meeting?”, or, “why is an episode about making risotto so foreboding?”.
It’s hilarious, cringey but in a fun way, kind of existentially baffling(?), uncomfortable at times, even a little depressing, and yet can also be oddly uplifting. It’s a lot. Also S2E1 is great and I didn’t just watch it after writing those first two paragraphs to make this count for this year (but also, what are “years” anymore?).
Keith’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) The Great British Bake-Off, “Patisserie Week”
2) I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, “They said that to me at a dinner.”
3) I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, “They have a cake shop there Susan where the cakes just look stunning.”
4) Hawkeye, “Echoes”
5) Mare of Easttown, “Illusions”
6) WandaVision, “We Interrupt This Program”
7) Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, “COVID-19 vaccine and vaccine hesistancy”
8) How To with John Wilson, “How to Invest in Real Estate”
9) Dug Days, “Puppies”
10) Star Wars: Visions, “The Elder”
Lucifer, “Bloody Celestial Karaoke Jam”
(Season Five, Episode 10)
By Pedro Aubry
Of course, it’s under 28 hours from the New Year, weeks after the deadline for this article, and I’m finally getting around to writing this article. I don’t even know if I’ll finish it in time. I’m actually supposed to be writing about The Grand Tour today but going on a limb and assume Lucifer is still not taken and I think it would be a shame if I let its musical episode just fade into history.
For anyone unfamiliar, Lucifer is a FOX/Netflix original series which began in 2016 based on characters created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg for various DC comics (e.g. The Sandman); it follows the titular Lucifer Morningstar in present-day Los Angeles as he teams up with the lovely Detective Chloe Decker and they solve crimes (all while looking very dashing in his guy-liner, with his very posh accent, and his lovely singing voice, which we’ll get back to later). It’s broadly a procedural, with the usual cast of LAPD folks, some other celestials including Lucy’s brother Amenadiel, and his ever-helpful therapist, and as the show develops you have your standard mix of layers including the mystery (usually murder) of the week, the season arc often with a Big Bad, and the series arc usually revolving around Lucifer’s identity and other celestial stuff. What’s great is the show seems to get more and more self-aware, never quite breaking that fourth wall but definitely telling the audience they know they’re in a police procedural, and I think it adds something because you really can’t take it that seriously. Enter the musical episode and the topic of the day, “Bloody Celestial Karaoke Jam.”
As any show that’s not too serious and yet takes itself seriously enough to mean anything, it has to have a musical episode. It’s known as a happy accident that Tom Ellis (who plays Lucifer) is an excellent singer, and throughout the series they give him plenty of opportunities to grace us with his musical gift. So when the musical episode started, I was generally alright with it, but also I couldn’t help to think, “Is this really necessary? Does every show really need one of these?” The answer, to the former at least, is yes, yes it is. They made it organically part of the story, everyone breaking out in song and dance, and it made as much sense as it needed to. We get to see our other non-Lucifer friends joining in the song and dance for once. The choice of music is on point, and generally it was a very enjoyable time.
I won’t say much more to avoid spoiling some larger series arcs, but I was so genuinely tickled by this I had to let the world know. I don’t even know if this is my favorite episode of the year – I’m still a few episodes out from the finale – but considering that I only threw the show on to try something in 4K and ended up sticking with it so long, I’d say give it a shot if you’re looking for a decent background show that doesn’t require a lot of investment.
Pedro’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) For All Mankind, “The Gray”
2) For All Mankind, “Triage”
3) For All Mankind, “And Here’s To You”
4) Lucifer, “Bloody Celestial Karaoke Jam”
5) Squid Game, “Gganbu”
6) The Grand Tour, “Carnage a Trois”
7) Calls, “Pedro Across the Street”
8) The Stand, “The Stand”
9) The Stand, “The Circle Closes”
10) It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “The Gang Replaces Dee With a Monkey”
Move to Heaven, “Episode 5”
(Season One, Episode 5)
By Claudia Johnson
There are a plethora of stories in different mediums about death. Some focus on the physical and mental pain regarding one’s final moments, others focus on the fear associated with the unknown of the afterlife and quite a few focus on the emotional impact for those left behind. A show that takes a unique approach to this topic is Move to Heaven. The 10 episode South Korean drama follows the Move to Heaven trauma cleaners as they clean up the remnants of a deceased’s life. Each episode focuses on a different person whose life is reduced to what can fit in a box. The overarching storyline follows Geu-Ru, a young man with Aspergers, who at one time worked with his father but upon his father’s death his uncle, Sang-Gu, appears and is now his guardian. Both work together, along with Geu-Ru’s friend and neighbor Na-Mu, to assemble the life story of the dead while working through their own losses, traumas and regrets in life.
I must say I enjoyed every episode, so it was difficult for me to choose one to focus on. Just as I thought an episode would be good to profile, I would think of a scene in a different episode and thought it should be included as well. But the episode that is top of mind is “Episode 5”. This magnificent episode centered on a topic that is not normally seen in K-Dramas. The trio are called to clean out the room of Jung Soo Hyun, a doctor who was killed by a man when saving the life of a nurse. This man is heralded as a hero, but when cleaning the man’s room everything seems sterile and his parents detached. Among the remnants the team discovers a letter the doctor was going to deliver to his loved one, which is destroyed by Soo Hyun’s father. The episode follows the trio in their pursuit to identify the man’s love through what was left behind, so they can deliver the life box. Through flashbacks the show paints a more complete picture of a life taken too soon, a relationship seen as taboo, the pressure from family that don’t approve of the relationship and the heartbreak of not following one’s desires until your time is up.
It was a reminder that there is such a thing as too late. That being successful and doing everything in a way that family or society deems acceptable can still leave a person hollow. That living for tomorrow is not a guarantee for anyone. We can die at any moment, so what is left of the hopes of the dead?
Move to Heaven is an emotionally tugging show that focuses on many topics including regret, familial bonds, LGBTQ+, deported Korean American adoptees, suicide, developmental disorder, mourning and that doesn’t cover all of it. Though there are emotionally heavy topics in every episode there is also comedy and the beauty and fun of life shown throughout. A reminder that though death and sadness are an enviable guarantee of life, we also have joyful moments.
If you are looking for a well written and thoughtful show or if you are discovering foreign media I highly recommend Move to Heaven. Please take the time to read the subtitles and not switch it to an English dub. Also, the series is inspired by the essay book “Things That are Left Behind” by Kim Sae-Byeol, a trauma cleaner.
Claudia’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) Move to Heaven, “Episode 8”
2) Bad Buddy, “Episode 5”
3) Arcane, “The Boy Saviour”
4) Attack on Titan, “Declaration of War”
5) Happiness, “Episode 11”
6) Squid Game, “VIPs”
7) Clickbait, “The Answer”
8) Tokyo Revengers, “Once Upon a Time”
9) Papa & Daddy, “Family Portrait”
10) Word of Honor, “Episode 34”
Only Murders in the Building, “The Boy in 6B”
(Season One, Episode 7)
By Andrew J. Rostan
By the seventh episode of Only Murders in the Building, the viewer could think they have a grip on Teddy Dimas (the wonderful Nathan Lane), the delicatessen magnate who keeps getting enticed by Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) into investing in his often disastrous enterprises. Teddy’s just another of the fun, eccentric, but one-dimensional figures at the Arconia where his fellow tenants Oliver, Charles, and Mabel are investigating a murder and since it’s 2021, making a podcast about the adventure. Teddy’s grown son Theo (James Caverly) is even less than one-dimensional; he’s a nonentity, glimpsed at random without a single line of dialogue.
All of the above is why it’s so jarring when, after over three hours focused on our hapless but indefatigable trio of leads, “The Boy From 6B” begins with a flashback to Theo as a boy, crawling under a coffee table while Teddy blissfully listens to the original cast recording of Carousel. Moreover, the episode’s sound has gone out.
Theo is deaf.
Teddy, who knows ASL quite well, expresses a wish his son could hear this beauty, and he tries. He puts high-quality headphones on Theo and starts Rodgers and Hammerstein’s masterpiece “Soliloquy,” a song sung by a man envisioning his unborn child. Of course, Theo can’t hear it. And Teddy presses the headphones so tight that the boy scrunches and tears up in pain, unable to even hear his father sing the lyrics…
Like a tree he’ll grow with his head held high and his feet planted firm on the ground.
And you won’t see nobody dare to try to toss him or boss him around
No pot-bellied, baggy-eyed bully will toss him around!
Teddy finally sees his child’s agony. He stops. Eyes full of a welling mixture of desperation, love, and guilt, he embraces Theo, repeating “I’m sorry.”
Those watching the show hear nothing.
It’s one of the most arresting, heart-stopping moments of TV I’ve ever seen.
For the rest of the episode, nothing will be heard as the story unfolds through Theo’s eyes, both as he’s watching the “detectives” make a potential breakthrough in their case and in flashbacks to ten years earlier, when he and Teddy team up on an adventure of their own. It’s one which sees Teddy sometimes be a pot-bellied, baggy-eyed bully tossing his son around, but it’s also a scheme in which the two lonely men rely on and protect each other. But at the same time, Theo also finds an unexpected new acquaintance, feels the pangs of a major crush, and accidentally sets in motion events that affect the grand narrative of the entire show.
It’s a lot to take in, and it would be a startling achievement on a pure surface level alone. Cherien Dabis’s direction of “The Boy From 6B” is pristine and clever, balancing out the seriousness of the tale with moments of levity and plausible reasons to show the other characters not making noise (particularly a sequence with a Scrabble game), and James Caverly makes the entire episode work with a performance so empathetic that even when Theo commits a misdeed, we feel for him and strive to understand more about him.
However, it is the thematic drive of the episode and how it fits into the show’s overall narrative that push a great half-hour of television into the stratosphere. Writers Stephen Markley and Ben Philippe, working within the frame created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman, draw out how for the show so far, everyone else has been framed through the perspective of Charles, Mabel, and Oliver as suspects, sources of help, obstacles, and potential love interests, never as people who have lives outside of their construction. “The Boy From 6B,” in shifting this perspective, does more than serve as a stark reminder that other human beings are not mere characters in the stories we tell ourselves, the dramas we create…it observed the three protagonists themselves by making the story not about them, and sharply demonstrates how they are trying to sublimate unwanted, undesired feelings of longing and loneliness into their investigation, and in doing so only make those feelings grow to a point where they, as happened with Theo, might hit a fever-pitched point of no return. That the program ultimately ends with the mystery solved and our heroes in different, more self-aware states than they were when it began, states where the lives they envisioned for themselves are closer to reality, feels more satisfying given these events.
If the best of modern episodic television is based around serialized narrative, then you could hardly ask for a better individual episode of anything in its stylistic daring and smart, emotional construction. This is the model to strive for, even if it seems as hard as writing a song as great as peak Rodgers and Hammerstein.
(And on a final note, praise should be given to Short, Martin, and Selena Gomez, who never made a bad move all season and in this one handle the silent acting with aplomb.)
Andrew’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) Ted Lasso, “No Weddings and a Funeral”
2) Only Murders in the Building, “The Boy in 6B”
3) Loki, “The Nexus Event”
4) WandaVision, “Previously On”
5) I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, “Everyone just needs to be more in the moment.”
6) Top Chef: Portland, “Stumptown, U.S.A.”
7) Mythic Quest, “TBD”
8) Ted Lasso, “Headspace”
9) Only Murders in the Building, “Fan Fiction”
10) Loki, “For All Time. Always.”
The Other Two, “Chase Gets Baptized”
(Season Two, Episode 5)
By Mike Gospel
Have you ever seen Mad Men? Holy smokes, that show is incredible. 2021 was a huge year for television for me. Specifically because it’s the year in which I finally “discovered” Mad Men and watched it all the way through. And I may be the first to say this, but by god, that show is very good. But my year of discovering television shows from years past didn’t end with Mad Men. 2021 also brought me the discovery of HGTV’s Rock the Block, HBO’s How To with John Wilson, and a continuation of my 2020 obsession, Survivor. But my favorite “discovery” of this year happened at the perfect time–right before its second season was released on HBO Max. And that show is The Other Two.
If you’re not in the know, The Other Two is a comedy series that follows the two older siblings of the latest “Justin Bieber-type” pop star, ChaseDreams (Case Walker). The midwestern kid is flung into stardom overnight, and we follow “the other two” siblings, Brooke and Cary Dubek (played expertly by Heléne York and Drew Tarver) and their day-to-day struggles trying to “make it” in New York City as millennials. Filling out the rest of the family is Chase’s manager Streeter and the kids’ mother Pat, played respectively by Wet Hot American Summer icons and modern comedy legends Ken Marino and Molly Shannon. Season One premiered on Comedy Central in 2019, and its second season premiered earlier this year, on HBO.
I first became aware of the show through the many comedy podcasts I listen to. Co-star Drew Tarver is a regular on Comedy Bang Bang and is part of the unparalleled improv group Big Grande and their truly, artfully, perfectly hilarious podcast Teacher’s Lounge (I do improv comedy in Chicago and am a bit of an improv nerd, if you couldn’t tell). So I was intrigued and wanted to watch the show but “just never got around to it.” Then, when HBO released its new season, I saw that the first season was also included, so what a perfect opportunity to start binge-watching!
It was probably only two or three minutes into the first episode when I experienced the same excitement I felt back in high school when I discovered Arrested Development. The “Goldilocks” feeling that this show was “just right” for me. Maybe even that it’s the perfect show for my whole Millennial generation. It’s sharp, satirical, heartfelt, zany, and they are never “punching down.” To quote another improv-ism, the show’s writers are always using the “top of their intelligence” to produce a unique TV experience. To all the show’s writers, and especially its creators Chris Kelly and Sara Schneider (both alumni of SNL): Thank you for making such a perfect TV show.
Ok, enough jibber-jabber. On to the episode I’ve selected to highlight from 2021: “Chase Gets Baptized.”
The story of Season Two shows Chase’s life as a famous singer–which includes exactly zero actual singing. He spends his time simply “being famous.” Brooke has since become his co-manager alongside Streeter, and the two insist that Chase forward his career by being baptized into a church whose members are influencers, actors, and Hollywood elite. The “church” is called Christsong and is situated in and around the rooftop pool at the Soho House. Everyone is beautiful, drinking cocktails, hitting a beach ball that says “Pray” on it, and a live band is playing a dance-pop song whose chorus repeats “Jesus fucking slays.”
This setup alone is enough to make this my favorite episode of the year, and the episode is also something of a “bottle episode” taking place almost entirely at this single church event and after-party. Except for one quick joke, Molly Shannon is sadly absent, because Pat has now become the number 1 daytime TV host a la Ellen or Oprah and is busy as hell. But the rest of the gang is all together throughout the whole episode.
Chase is eventually baptized in the swimming pool by a tattooed douchebag “pastor” named Jax Dag, and is welcomed to the VIP after-party. Naturally, the titular “other two” and Streeter also want to attend the after-party and have been swept up into the lavish lifestyle at the trendy “church,” so they volunteer to get baptized as well. This unlocks the situations that drive the rest of the episode’s plot. Each character has their own mini-journey at the after-party, where they all begin to reckon with what being a member of the church would actually require them to do. Brooke and Cary find out the church is both anti-woman and anti-gay, but because they want to continue living the sweet life, Brooke seeks out “permission” from other women that it’s ok to be part of a misogynistic church if it makes her happy. And Cary (who is gay) does the same–by going on Grindr to find other gay men at the Soho House to ask them if they think it’s ok to be part of an anti-gay church in order to forward his acting career.
They’re all very funny threads, but boy oh boy, does Ken Marino shine. After encountering Jax Dag, he feels a rivalry with him, and any time he appears on screen, he has added new hand-drawn Sharpie tattoos to his chest and arms, in an attempt to mimic the gross pastor. He’s being the Ken-Marinoiest Ken Marino character you’ve ever seen. 2021 was also the year I discovered his excellent Bachelor parody show, Burning Love, and this episode allows him to do his “pathetic asshole but somehow lovable teddy bear” thing he did so well as Mark Orlando in Burning Love (or really as any character in his oeuvre). But I’ve already spoiled plenty, so I’ll stop that and just let you watch the damn show.
Although, to spoil just a little bit more… The family getting baptized serves as a conduit for three different jokes that I’d classify as “fun background details.” Similar to the recurring joke in BoJack Horseman where anytime a banner is made for an event, it is printed with errors or miscommunications (“Happy Birthday Diane And Use A Pretty Font”).
1. As a fun throw-away joke in Season 1, we find out Streeter’s last name is Peters, and in his baptism scene, we hear Jax Dag say his full name: Streeter Peter Peters.
2. Throughout the remainder of the episode, the four people who were baptized have frizzy hair and the exact same cowlick from having been submerged in pool water.
3. Promised a relaxing trip to Mykonos with her new hot model girlfriends (one of whom is named Seinfeld), Brooke googles “Mykonos how look,” as another in a series of jokes revolving around web search syntax. My favorite of these is probably from Season One when Brooke desires a change in career and searches “Interior designer how become.”
Of course the actual plot and dialogue of the show are insanely funny and rewarding, but it’s these little payoffs that make this show feel truly special to me. They’re indicators of the care and commitment of the show’s creative team. The writers walk the tightrope between creating wacky situations like this insane church baptism while also centering other episodes around loss or family or the pressure of fame, yet every episode is a hilarious half hour of entertainment. And the actors perform everything with such commitment; whether they’re delivering a quick offhanded joke or tearfully saying their dad froze to death on the roof of their house.
The season ends in a very fun place with lots of opportunities for new story arcs in the future, and excitingly, Season Three has been announced! My hope is that the audience will continue to grow so they can keep making the show, and HBO seems like a perfect place for that to happen. I’m very optimistic for the show’s continued success, and for the opportunity to keep recommending it to people when they ask, “Hey–you do comedy. What is the funniest TV show that I should watch?” The Other Two gets a perfect 10/10 100% A+ from me.
And finally, because I have 11 shows in my top 10 for the year, I’ll leave out The Other Two from the list since I just rambled on and on about it. Which affords me the delightful opportunity to title my list:
Mike’s Other Ten That Aren’t The Other Two
1) Squid Game, “Gganbu”
2) Survivor, “Baby with a Machine Gun”
3) WandaVision, “Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience”
4) The White Lotus, “Departures”
5) Mare of Easttown, “Sacrament”
6) Ted Lasso, “Man City”
7) Hacks, “I Think She Will”
8) pen15, “Home”
9) I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, “Everyone just needs to be more in the moment.”
10) Schmigadoon!, “Schmigadoon!”
Rutherford Falls, “Terry Thomas”
(Season One, Episode 4)
By Molly Raker
This show appeared out of nowhere for me on Peacock. I didn’t know about it until all the episodes dropped on Peacock and I got served a banner on Roku. (Thanks Roku!) I am so glad I discovered it and I hope if you haven’t seen it already you get Peacock for $5 for one month to watch all the episodes. There is a Season Two coming so catch up.
This season had wonderful and powerful episodes but my favorite was “Terry Thomas”, where the it focuses more on my favorite character Terry Thomas, if you couldn’t guess, played by Michael Greyeyes. We discovered more on his life and how he got to his values today, all while being interviewed for a podcast where his values are questioned as being contradictory. Terry gives an inspiring speech (watch it here) on his discovering of how power is a zero sum game. This show grounds itself in the Indigenous people of a small town and contrast it with a character on whose “family” discovered this town, which I just love to see.
My favorite is the end of the episode where you think Terry may have lost, but pulls a fast one to take on a multiple million-dollar corporation. There isn’t a character in Rutherford Falls that I am not interested in which usually happens in some 30-minute comedies, so that keeps me wanting more.
Molly’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) Rutherford Falls, “Terry Thomas”
2) Hacks, “New Eyes”
3) Loki, “Journey Into Mystery”
4) Brooklyn Nine-Nine, “PB & J”
5) Only Murders in the Building, “The Boy from 6B”
6) Succession, “All the Bells Say”
7) Ted Lasso, “Carol of Bells”
8) Insecure, “Chillin’, Okay?!”
9) Never Have I Ever, “…begged for forgiveness”
10) The Sex Lives of College Girls, “Parents Weekend”
Honorable Mention to Ben Barnes in “Show Me Who You Are” episode of Shadow and Bone, he absolutely crushed that role but just overall the episodes I couldn’t include in my top 10. Gotta love the GOAT.
Shadow and Bone, “No Mourners”
(Season One, Episode 8)
By Sara Rust
Have you ever watched a knock off version of a popular series? A cartoon version of Sabrina the Teenage Witch? The Dollar Store version of Thumbelina? That’s what the Netflix series Shadow and Bone is for anyone who’s read the Grishaverse book series by Leigh Bardugo.
They’ve bastardized the books by combining five books’ worth of characters who never met, into a TV show. That being said, the TV show is 10x better than the books in many ways. The first three books of the series are important but not terribly action packed. The TV show makes up for that by combining all of the action into eight episodes. I chose this episode because it tied up loose ends and has amazing special effects. The diverse cast of characters travel into the ‘Fold’ a dark, mysterious land full of monsters.
Most people don’t live through a trip through the Fold, but this team has Sankta Alina, the Sun Summoner. She’s gone there to destroy the Fold but General Kirigin has other plans. Where Alina can summon light, he can summon darkness. His plan to control Alina goes awry, her friends help her defeat him (or so they think) and they all continue on to prepare for their journeys back to their respective countries. The only problem is that the General isn’t dead and he isn’t happy. It’s a great end to the season and a wonderful setup to the second season that’s due to be released in 2022. What more can you ask for in a tv show then Ben Barnes, and a world full of magic?
Sara’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) Ted Lasso, “Carol of the Bells”
2) Saturday Night Live, “Jason Sudeikis”
3) The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, “Highway to Vail”
4) And Just Like That, “Hello, It’s Me”
5) Brooklyn Nine-Nine, “The Take Back”
6) Shadow and Bone, “Show Me Who You Are”
7) Superstore, “All Sales Final”
8) You, “Into the Woods”
9) The Great British Bake-Off, “Free Form Week”
10) The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, “New Year, Old Grudges”
Squid Game, “Red Light, Green Light”
(Season One, Episode 1)
By Ari Meixner
What is there to say about Squid Game that *the discourse* hasn’t already beaten to death? Even in my “I deleted Twitter in 2016” ivory tower, I couldn’t escape the memes, hot takes, think pieces, and big-budget YouTube recreations by the likes of Mr. Beast and James Charles. Yet, Squid Game hooked me in a way that no other TV show did this year.
There is so much to discuss when it comes to Squid Game: the way the Netflix reports streaming numbers; an anticapitalist Korean drama being the most talked-about show of the year; how to consume international media as an American; the show’s relationship to race, gender, and sexuality in international context….but as a Libra, I will stick to what I know best and what truly stuck with me about this show; how damn good the whole thing looked.
In my opinion, one of the things that made Squid Game immediately so iconic was the stunning use of imagery. Think about the dizzying, candy-colored, M.C. Escher stairs, the green numbered track jackets getting more worn as the show moved forward, the mysterious guards with digital shapes, and, of course, the elaborate stadiums created for each of the deadly games contestants were set to play. However, no visual set-piece was nearly as iconic as the giant little-girl-robot-turned-machine-gun from, “Red Light Green Light.” In fact, she was so iconic, that I saw not one, not two, but three drag queens dress as her in their Halloween shows.
You might be horrified that my analysis of an overtly political human horror story created out of Hwang Dong-hyuk’s own personal tragedy in the shadow of the 2008 financial crisis can be summed up as, “holy shit this show looks iconic.” However, after two years of living through our phones, watching in horror as images of mass death, state-fueled violence, national conspiracy theories, and political coups zip through our social media feeds, the images
I was once told by my high school history teacher that one of the reasons why so many Americans protested the Vietnam War was because it was the first American war to be shown on television. In the ten years since, I have not fact-checked that and admittedly, the Vietnam War is not something I know a whole lot about, but it feels true. Similarly, the pandemic has stripped away the blinders many Americans were wearing and we can now watch the horrifying effects of capitalism in our society happening in front of our eyes in real time. Squid Game is not just a phenomenon because of the engrossing plot or masterful acting or scores of people trying to figure out what in the hell the real-life Squid Game is, but because it provides us with curated images that reflect the chaos and despair that Americans are feeling on a day-to-day basis.
Ari’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) I Think I Should Leave with Tim Robinson, “I need a wet paper towel”
2) Ted Lasso, “Beard After Hours”
3) Superstore, “All Sales Final”
4) Squid Game, “Gganbu”
5) Bob’s Burgers, “Driving Big Dummy”
6) WandaVision, “Now in Color”
7) Ted Lasso, “Carol of the Bells”
8) The Great British Bake-Off, “Patisserie Week”
9) Loki, “The Nexus Event”
10) Love Island, “Episode 39”
11) Taste the Nation, “Happy Challah Days”
Star Trek: Lower Decks, “Wej Duj”
(Season Two, Episode 9)
By Robbie Mehling
Kirk and Spock in the Original Series. Picard and Riker in Next Generation. Janeway in Voyager. Sisko in Deep Space Nine. Throughout almost every iteration of Star Trek since its premiere in 1966, the show has focused on the bridge crew as the main drivers of its shows – the valiant captain, the brave first officer, and the commendable senior officers of the ship. Yet, despite ships consisting of hundreds, if not thousands of crew, and set in a Federation that is governed by a system of equality – dare, I say, a socialist future – non-senior crew are hardly mentioned except in one off episodes where they are put into situations which allow our main characters to come in and save the day.
Star Trek: The Next Generation had an episode, “Lower Decks”, in its seventh season that focused on some junior crewmen and this was done again somewhat in Voyager, Season Six, “Good Shepherd”. Star Trek: Lower Decks, the series, takes this idea and expands upon it, not just giving us an episode of junior crewmen, but a main cast of them through two seasons of the show with a third on the way. Not to say the senior officers aren’t present or even don’t play a role but the show introduces us to Bradward Boimler, Mariner Beckett, Sam Rutherford, and D’Vana Tendi as our main cast- ensigns all.
In Season Two, Episode 9 of Star Trek Lower Decks, “Wej Duj” our intrepid crew of the USS Cerritos have some downtime while in warp but soon find themselves once again find themselves entangled with a Pakled warship, which has been a running plot line throughout the second season. What makes this episode special, however, is not only do we get to continue to follow our main cast of lower deckers on the federation starship, we get a chance to explore to the lower decks of a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, a Vulcan science vessel, the Pakled ship “Pakled,” and Borg Cube 90182. It’s neat and truly a key ethos of Star Trek to see the difference in cultures in these civilizations and how they compare to each other. The logic and lack of emotions of the Vulcans, The bloodlust of the Klingons. And while these scenes work so well on their own, the potential is set for these crews to be expanded upon further.
Fun fact: “Wej Duj” is Klingon for “three ships.”
As a whole, Star Trek: Lower Decks occupies an interesting place in the pantheon of Trek shows, a straight-up comedy that laughs at aspects of the franchise and yet also serves as a love letter to all that has come before it. Like any new “meta” show, references abound and yet, prior deep knowledge of over 50 years of programming is in no way required. It’s frankly just a unique and interesting show that does what no Star Trek has attempted before and I can’t recommend it enough.
A show about the junior crew, the low person on the ship, the worker. Lower Deckers of the Federation unite. We have nothing to lose but our chains.
Robbie’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) For All Mankind, “The Gray”
2) Star Trek: Lower Decks, “Wej Duj”
3) Ted Lasso, “Inverting the Pyramid of Success”
4) For All Mankind, “Triage”
5) Loki, “The Nexus Event”
6) Star Trek: Prodigy, “Terror Firma”
7) Midnight Mass, “Book VI: Acts of the Apostles”
8) Doctor Who, “War of the Sontarans”
9) Foundation, “The Emperor’s Peace”
10) Superstore, “All Sales Final”
Succession, “Chiantishire”
(Season Three, Episode 8)
By Erin Oechsel
“Sometimes I think, should I maybe listen to the things you say directly in my face when we’re at our most intimate?”
The heartbreakingly helpless words of the one and only Tom Wambsgans. It was difficult to pick just one episode in this masterclass of a season. The writing and the acting raised the bar on an already superb dramedy. The highlights for me were Tom & Shiv’s toxic relationship as well as Kendall and Logan’s. Both had me hanging on every word.
“I’m better than you. You’re, you know, I hate to say this because I love you, but you’re kind of evil.”
At the beginning of the Kendall/Logan dinner scene, the love and respect Logan has for his child comes through in his eyes. Logan remains unflinchingly fixed on his broken son who unknowingly has at last proven himself worthy. Ultimately, Logan cannot stomach giving in to sentiment. He reminds Kendall of all the ‘shit’ he has cleaned up for him over the years as well as reminding him of the darkest moment of his life. The image of Kendall floating alone in the pool is a powerful metaphor. Kendall, one of the wealthiest men in the world, surrounded by his two children at a stunning villa in Italy, cannot connect to any of it. He has been drowning in grief, guilt and loneliness ever since his tragic accident.
This season was incredible. It was difficult to pick one episode, but this one set the stage for the epic finale.
Erin’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) Bo Burnham, “Inside”
2) Sex Education, “Episode 8”
3) Hacks, “1.69 Million”
4) Ted Lasso, “No Weddings and a Funeral”
5) I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, “They said that to me at a dinner”
6) What We Do in the Shadows, “The Prisoner”
7) Succession, “Chiantishire”
8) Sex, Love & Goop, “Would you do that?”
9) Grace & Frankie, “The Circumcision”
10) WandaVision, “Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience”
WandaVision, “Previously On”
(Season One, Episode 8)
By Victoria Leachman
Let’s begin this review with a hot take: the Marvel Cinematic Universe is overpopulated. I know. I sound like a full-on Thanos, but hear me out. With the rapid introduction of so many characters over the course of 10 years (something like 40 superheroes were in the final battle of Endgame alone), over half of them have taken a backseat in terms of character development. It’s hard to care about a character that’s just there to help fight the battle and make confused faces when the fully established heroes make the jokes and come up with the solutions.
To remedy this, Marvel and Disney have ushered in a new era – the 6+ episode television arc. With this new form of storytelling (new in terms of the MCU, that is), intriguing yet underbaked characters finally get their due. It was a huge risk to break the first glass bottle on the Good Ship WandaVision. Wanda Maximoff and The Vision were two characters that were, frankly, kind of dull. She was moody (for good reason), he was bland. But by the end of the series, I can honestly say that Wanda is a Top 5 favorite character and Vision is giving heavyweights like Thor and Peter Parker a run for their money in the charm department.
*SPOILERS AHEAD* In the penultimate episode, “Previously On,” we get a peek behind the curtain that Wanda has shakily but vehemently maintained. Up to this point, Wanda has had all the elements of a (literal) sitcom wife: a supportive and loving husband, precocious twin boys with their own supernatural gifts, and a bestie in her neighbor Agnes. Only we learn at the top of the episode that Agnes is really Agatha Harkness, a fellow witch out to absorb the powers Wanda has yet to fully harness within herself. Agatha proceeds to take Wanda on a stroll down Traumatic Memory Lane. We now understand why her life these last few days has been playing out like a variety of classic sitcoms: growing up in Sokovia, she and her family learned English by watching DVDs from Dick Van Dyke to Malcolm in the Middle.
The night her parents were killed in a bombing. Her heartache in the immediate aftermath of the Ultron battle. Finding comfort in Vision’s friendship. S.W.O.R.D. agents dismantling the love of her life’s body after she returned from the Blip. Wanda has survived so much tragedy, it’s no wonder she does what she does next: in a state of overwhelming grief, Wanda inadvertently creates the Hex. Up until now, it seemed that someone else had done this to her, but alas, that’s not the case. In addition to this revelation comes an arguably bigger one, one that Agatha astutely points out: the Mind Stone – the link between Wanda and Vision, the energy that seemingly created the both of them – isn’t actually the source of Wanda’s powers, it only enhanced what had always been there. Wanda’s life wasn’t actually saved by a bomb malfunction when she was a girl; she willed the bomb not to detonate in the first place.
By episode’s end, her alias is finally–officially–established in the MCU. She is the Scarlet Witch, a sorceress with the immense ability to manipulate reality. For a character who was just kind of there in the movies, Marvel (and the incredible Elizabeth Olsen) couldn’t have done a better job illustrating why this character is a force to be reckoned with. In terms of pure storytelling, the show as a whole is one of the most clever and refreshing series I’ve watched all year, and certainly one of the most memorable installments in the MCU. I can’t wait to see where Wanda’s story goes from here.
Victoria’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) Bo Burnham, “Inside”
2) WandaVision, “On a Very Special Episode…”
3) Only Murders in the Building, “Twist”
4) Ted Lasso, “Rainbow”
5) WandaVision, “We Interrupt This Program”
6) Mare of Easttown, “Illusions”
7) Ted Lasso, “Man City”
8) Maid, “Sky Blue”
9) Only Murders in the Building, “The Boy from 6B”
10) Hawkeye, “Echoes”
The White Lotus, “Arrivals”
(Season One, Episode 1)
By Dennis Sullivan
So let’s get the first thing out of the way. At face value, there isn’t anything about this show that should appeal to me or likely most viewers. Rich people at a resort dealing with the supposed drama of going on a vacation? Ugh. But I’m really glad I gave it a chance because wow, it became one of my absolute favorite shows in many years. It was part Agatha Christie mystery, part cringe comedy, part family drama, and part a dissection of how relationships can create a butterfly effect across a populace. A large endeavor for a show that only needed six episodes to tell its story, but man, what a ride. In my opinion, a large part of this success is derived from the opening episode.
In the opening scene of the show, we learn two things: someone has died and they are very likely in the box we see getting carried off an airplane. We know one person that didn’t die (Shane), and then roll the opening credits. We don’t know what actually transpired, but the music of the opening credits alone suggests something amiss. But what exactly did go down?
Rewind one week. Everyone is arriving (very much alive) to the White Lotus, a vacation spot where everyone says they want to relax, but really can’t seem to do so. The episode jumps back and forth between Lani (a very pregnant staffer trying to hide it so she doesn’t get fired), the Mossbachers (a wealthy family checking in with two children and their daughter’s friend), Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge nailing the caricature she’s portraying), Belinda (a spa worker with bigger goals in life), Armond (the resort manager who isn’t getting paid enough for this shit), and finally Shane and his newlywed bride Rachel on her honeymoon. Red flags, any one?
Despite the ominous foreshadowing, the show is downright hilarious and finely straddles the line between drama and comedy. Even better is that all the characters seem familiar in a way. Some are nearly a trope, but still somehow remain very real. Creator Mike White does an exceptional job of establishing each character’s motivations quickly and building upon them with each scene and episode.
Dennis’ Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) Ted Lasso, “Inverting the Pyramid of Success”
2) The White Lotus, “The Lotus-Eaters”
3) Superstore, “All Sales Final”
4) How To with John Wilson, “How to Find a Spot”
5) WandaVision, “All-New Halloween Spooktacular!”
6) The Good Fight, “And the Clerk Had a Firm…”
7) What We Do in the Shadows, “The Wellness Center”
8) Squid Game, “A Fair World”
9) Loki, “For All Times. Always.”
10) Only Murders in the Building, “Double Time”
Word of Honor, “Episode 10”
(Season One, Episode 10)
By Tara Olivero
Let me set the scene: it’s my week off in March, and I am dog-sitting for family friends who have a giant projector wall in their basement, so I have to decide what to watch on the Big Screen. After some deliberation, I start this new drama that I have seen a minor bit of buzz about on Twitter, called Shan He Ling (山河令), or the English title: Word of Honor. Roughly nine or ten hours later, I’ve binged the first fourteen episodes and have to wait in immense desperation for the next episode to come out. One day later, the next episode does come out (I am still dog-sitting) and I realize I have to wait for the subtitles (@ the Viki team of volunteer subtitlers, you are the unsung heroes of my 2021).
Desperate to know what happens next, I cave and watch a shitty-resolution version on YouTube that has no English subtitles, and simply try to guess what is going on. Does it work? Not really, but it does satisfy me on a basic plot-action level. Then I watch the subtitled episode the next day before having to repeat the agonizing cycle for the next set of episodes.
When I tell you this drama had a chokehold on me, I am not kidding. I have seen the entire series at least four times since March. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so attached to fictional television characters. It is as though this drama was tailored to my very specific interests. A friend (who I strong-armed into watching the series with me, after my full second viewing) described this as “made for, and about, dramatic theatre kids.” And it is true. Immensely morally grey, queer protagonists? Political intrigue and backstabbing balanced with the found family trope? Epic martial arts battles in incredibly detailed historical costumes and wigs, but with absolutely terrible special effects? Word of Honor has it all!
If you’ve never watched a wuxia drama (this is a specific type of historical Chinese drama that is based on specific martial arts tropes), it doesn’t even matter. Watch this show and you’ll quickly pick up on most of the standards of the genre.
ANYWAY— skipping forward to my actual discussion of the episode itself.
The main plot of the show is: there’s a bunch of martial arts sects in the jianghu (the martial arts world), five of which hold the majority alliance and the most power. Behind the scenes, the main sect leaders are all concerned with this “glazed armor,” or these five pieces of glazed glass that, when combined together, will supposedly open an armory full of the world’s most prized martial arts techniques and secrets. Everyone wants the glazed armor, because the armory equals power. Outside of the jianghu (in the non-martial arts realm), Prince Jin also wants to get his hands on the glazed armor. And so does the Master of Ghost Valley, the sect full of “evil” criminals and the big-bads of the jianghu— all of whom essentially cosplay at being ghosts and demons, because as I mentioned, they are all dramatic theatre kids.
Wen Kexing, one of our two protagonists, gets his hands on one of the pieces of glazed armor and (unbeknownst to other main protagonist Zhou Zishu) orders a bajillion copies made of the glass, which he then secretly scatters throughout the city. Why would he do such a thing??? He has no sect ties and is only an independent wanderer. Up until this point, Wen Kexing’s mostly just been mild-mannered Mr. Nice Poetry and Constant Flattery, and an immense, unceasing annoyance to Zhou Zishu.
Wen Kexing seems amused by the chaos caused by the fake glazed armor, but it’s only in “Episode 10” when truly innocent lives are caught in the cross-fire that he sees, “Oh, my actions have consequences— and I do not like these consequences?” Zhou Zishu expresses his disappointment, the pair break up dramatically, and then— to confuse things even more— we finally get solid confirmation that (surprise!) Wen Kexing is actually the infamous Ghost Valley Master, in one of the most visually stunning scenes of the show. I’m talking: dutch angles. I’m talking: dramatic backlighting. I’m talking: striking red-and-green color scheme. I’m talking: murder that’s equal parts scary and sexy. We find out that Wen Kexing’s nickname is “Lunatic Wen,” and apparently for good reason.
This scene in particular, especially juxtaposed against what had looked to be genuine remorse and regret earlier in the episode, only brings up more questions about what Wen Kexing’s real aim is. Because clearly he’s embedded himself within layers and layers of lies, but for what?? If you watch the whole drama, you’ll find out. OH, you’ll find out. If you have ten free minutes, I encourage you to watch the final scene of Episode 10, at least to get a taste of the dramatic aesthetic of this show— it’s here, on YouTube:
In conclusion, “Episode 10” is a bomb-ass episode even though it doesn’t have any of the flashy martial arts fights that some of the other episodes have, but it does have a lot of delicious monologues and building of tension and suspense that sets up moral conflicts key to the rest of the show.
Every character in this show is a Shakespearean protagonist in their own mind, and none so more than Wen Kexing. I love him?? I love him. That’s all.
Tara’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) Word of Honor, “Episode 10”
2) Word of Honor, “Episode 33”
3) Couple of Mirrors, “When the Gunshots Sounded”
4) Squid Game, “Red Light, Green Light”
5) Shadow and Bone, “The Making at the Heart of the World”
6) Ted Lasso, “Carol of the Bells”
7) WandaVision, “All-New Halloween Spook-tacular!”
8) Heaven’s Official Blessing, “Daily Life at the Puqi Temple”
9) Ted Lasso, “Do the Right-est Thing”
10) Squid Game, “Gganbu”
Honorable mentions: I’m sure What We Do in the Shadows would have made my list if I’d had time to watch it this year, which I did not. Big Brother probably also should have made the list because this season was goooood, but alas.
You, “What is Love?”
(Season Three, Episode 10)
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Ryan seemed to forget the assignment of “Best Episodes of 2021” and managed to write a shit-post about a season he didn’t like. In his defense, he has only done this nine previous times.]
By Ryan Lugar
“And it did all the things we designed it to do
Now look at you, oh
Look at you, you, you
Unstoppable, watchable”
-Bo Burnham, Welcome to the Internet, probably singing about You Season Three
Caution: If you haven’t seen You Season Three then read cautiously because I will spoil the entire season. On the other hand, if you have no desire to endure 10 episodes of horrible television then read on because there will be (there will be?!?!) a Season Four.
Ugh, where to even begin. I’m a man who, hand up, really enjoyed Seasons One and Two. The acting was solid, the story was good and original, and as a viewer you were sucked in. It was two great seasons of binge television. Dare I say…better binging than any of the Stranger Things seasons, boom roasted Stranger Things. I bet you didn’t expect Stranger Things to catch a stray bullet, but it fits the theme of You Season Three…when in doubt, go for the kill.
The biggest red flag of this season should have been the writing. The show had over ten writers for ten episodes of television, with each episode being written by two writers, and zero pairs of writers doing more than one episode. So continuity is immediately out the window. That small piece of information or cliffhanger that has you coming back for more…doesn’t matter at all because it will not get readdressed.
Oh, and four different directors. Awesome. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Incredibly normal TV thing.]
You know a show has gone off the deep end when as a viewer you being to side with the psychopath stalker in regards to what is and isn’t “good”. Joe (psycho stalker) and his wife Love have moved into the suburbs to start fresh, yippee! They do this for no reason…besides killing Love’s brother and Love nearly being killed by Joe and her life only being spared because she was pregnant…so they’re solid as a rock.
You Season Three follows a simple code. If you are not Joe or Love, you’re either having sex with the main characters or being murdered by them. Every single one. That’s not suspenseful, it’s just stupid.
Joe and Love now live in a boujee neighborhood surrounded by influencers and tech moguls, but don’t you worry, every single person is a moron.
Joe, like clockwork, gets romantically involved with the attractive next door neighbor who is married to a tech mogul. Love, like clockwork, murders her. This is Episode 1.
Guess what? The tech mogul, who has access to every single video camera in the neighbor, can’t crack the case. Not only that, but his access to EVERY SINGLE VIDEO CAMERA is rarely addressed and he’s merely in the background.
However, somehow in this mess of a television season, two stars were formed. Sherry and Cary Conrad, played by Shalita Grant and Travis Van Winkle. Sherry is an insufferable “momfluencer” and Cary is a wealthy founder of a supplement company aka a doucebag. Together…they are the power couple of the town. One thing (swinger foursome) leads to another (attempted murder and kidnapping) and Sherry and Cary find themselves trapped inside of Joe’s infamous prison box. This is when You Season Three shines. While Joe is off having an affair with his librarian coworker, and Love is off having an affair with the son of the widowed tech mogul, Sherry and Cary are trapped together. Their time in the box would have been the best season of the Real World.
Sherry and Cary are at each other’s throats the whole time while also being as politically correct as they could possibly be with each other, and the hilarity of the situation is comedic genius. The longer they are trapped together, the more intense their self-run couple’s therapy gets. They have a color system to let the other know how they’re feeling, and they each shoot the other.
If you plan to watch this season, just skip to Episode 8 and enjoy the chaos that is Sherry and Cary. Not convinced (I don’t blame you)? Then know that by the end of the season Sherry and Cary host a TedTalk about their experience in the box.
Overall, You dropped the ball this season.
In true Netflix fashion, they’ve committed to Season 4 because Netflix knows people will watch absolutely anything. Shoutout Tiger King, boom roasted Tiger King.
Ryan’s Top 10 Episodes of 2021
1) Bo Burnham, “Inside”
2) Hard Knocks in Season, “Episode 6”
3) Hard Knocks in Season, “Episode 2”
4) Hard Knocks in Season, “Episode 1”
5) The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, “Truth”
6) Survivor, “One Last Thing to Do…Win”
7) WandaVision, “On a Very Special Episode…”
8) The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, “The Star-Spangled Man”
9) Survivor, “A New Era”
10) Hard Knocks in Season, “Episode 7”
The Group’s Top 10 List
Using a simple point system where a person’s #1 pick gets 10 points, #2 gets 9 and so on, here are the Top 10 Episodes of 2021.
1) For All Mankind, “The Gray”
2) Squid Game, “Gganbu”
3) Bo Burnham, “Inside”
4) Ted Lasso, “Carol of Bells”
5) Loki, “The Nexus Event”
6) Only Murders in the Building, “The Boy in 6B”
7) Ted Lasso, “Inverting the Pyramid of Success”
8) Superstore, “All Sales Final”
9) The Beatles: Get Back, “Part 3: Days 17-22”
10) The White Lotus, “The Lotus-Eaters”
· 170 different episodes were on a Top 10 list
· 95 different shows were on a Top 10 list
· 48 shows on a Top 10 list premiered in 2021
· 3 of the 3 episodes of The Beatles: Get Back were on a Top 10 list
· 7 of the 9 episodes of WandaVision were on a Top 10 list
· 8 of the 12 episodes of Ted Lasso were on a Top 10 list
· 4 of the 6 episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier were on a Top 10 list
· 4 of the 6 episodes of I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson were on a Top 10 list
· 5 of the 10 episodes of Hacks were on a Top 10 list
· 3 of the 6 episodes of Loki were on a Top 10 list
· 5 of the 10 episodes of Only Murders in the Building were on a Top 10 list
· 5 of the 10 episodes of What We Do in the Shadows were on a Top 10 list
· 19 of the shows on a Top 10 list aired on Netflix
· 12 of the shows on a Top 10 list aired on HBO Max
· 9 of the shows on a Top 10 list originally aired on network broadcast channel
· 8 of the shows on a Top 10 list aired on Apple TV+
· 7 of the shows on a Top 10 list aired on Disney+
· 5 of the shows on a Top 10 list aired on Paramount+