★★★★★ 0/5

My Top 5 for 2021

2 Australian and 3 international dramas top my picks for the best in 2021.

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Every year I offer up my Top 5 new shows for the year, hopefully in time for your summer bingeing.

2021 was a good year for content which is just as well given those long, arduous lockdowns.

A colleague once remarked that a lot of TV “sits in the middle,” a sentiment I concur with, meaning most TV is very well made, neither woeful nor ground-breaking. I only dished out two 5 star reviews this year, but there were plenty that nudged very close.

In Australian drama ABC had a killer year, with Sunday night dramas delivering stand-out new shows.  Commercial broadcasters were pretty disappointing, especially Nine and 10, although Seven brought us a very comforting outback drama. SBS did well with their limited drama budget.

But TV isn’t all about Drama, with Factual content remaining high at public broadcasters. There was even one reunion show which reset the way such shows should be addressed.

My list is in no particular order, but it is confined to shows that were new in 2021.

Wakefield (ABC)
I am so grateful I stuck with Wakefield. If I’m honest I was undecided after the first episode…. not that it wasn’t well-performed, nor striking in its style and landscapes. But I just couldn’t work out what the hell psych nurse Nik (Rudi Dharmalingam) wanted. Yet as Wakefield unravelled over its 8 episodes it was clear that Nik had history that is weighing heavily on his mind. Kristen Dunphy’s script never took the safe nor linear path in seeking to portray mental health, often rebounding on itself in some post-Rashomon circle. The whole series was like a jigsaw of mystery, emotion, sanity for the viewer to navigate. Directors Jocelyn Moorhouse & Kim Mordant even injected song & dance into this bold work, with Dharmalingam forced to perfect tap dancing for his role. The collision of ideas and visuals was sometimes exquisite and the crescendo is deeply affecting, visually striking, superbly performed. Wakefield is one of the finest and most original local dramas produced in years.

Landscapers (Stan)
The 4 part UK drama is based on incidents of 2014 when husband and wife Susan and Christopher Edwards (Olivia Colman and David Thewlis), were arrested over the discovery of two dead bodies in the backyard of their former home. It was a secret they had kept for 15 years. Driving the investigation are bickering cops, DC Emma Lancing (Kate O’Flynn) and DC Paul Wilkie (Samuel Anderson), adding to the dark humour of this tale by writer Ed Sinclair. They are acting on a tip-off but know they have to build a solid case especially if they are to extradite the couple from France. Colman and Thewlis are quite magnificent in their roles as a devoted, suburban couple who could very well be monsters within. Later episodes contain stunning, tour de force scenes which will surely elicit award nominations. Yet director Will Sharpe also brings superb imagination and stylistic choices to the work. Not just playing with time, it blurs the lines between Hollywood / Britain, naturalistic / unconventional, colour / black & white and even the process of filmmaking itself.

Mare of Easttown (Foxtel / Binge)
Mare is Detective Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet), whose recent case around the disappearance of a teenage girl is a thorn in her side. But Mare has a lot going on in her life, including the impending wedding of her ex-husband Frank (David Denman), the health of her grandchild and a looming custody battle, and a belligerent mother (Jean Smart) making home life worse than it already is. Thankfully she meets visiting novelist Richard (Guy Pearce) one night at a bar who sees beyond her abrasive personality (aka he’s just horny) and the two have casual sex -with him keen to reconnect. All of that is upended when a friend of Mare’s teen daughter Siobhan (Angourie Rice) winds up dead in a river, but Mare will be further challenged by an out-of-town Detective Colin Zabel (Evan Peters). It’s all a slow burn, without a great deal of sunshine, but with Winslet in charge you’re always on solid ground. And where it goes is both thrilling and surprising.

It’s a Sin (Stan)

When Russell T. Davies sets his sights on a passionate new story, you’d better hold on. His miniseries on the HIV / AIDS epidemic of Britain in the 1980s unleashes a kaleidoscope of ideas, characters, youth, sex and politics which is timely to revisit during our current crises. Olly Alexander is magnetic as the horny, anarchic young Ritchie, while Keeley Hawes has never been better in an unforgiving role as his mother. Along with cameos from Neil Patrick Harris and Stephen Fry, there’s an irresistible, hedonistic soundtrack fused with fear and Thatcherism. Get out the tissues, it is not without deeply moving moments.

The Newsreader (ABC)
Michael Lucas’ 6 part essay on the inner workings of a fictional News at 6 newsroom is part workplace drama and part news events time capsule. But they mingle together deliciously. Careers rise and fall around the Challenger Disaster, Halley’s Comet, Lindy Chamberlain, Russell St. bombing, AIDS crisis and Chernobyl -all of them in 1986. Like Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom real-world events are the backdrop to the characters’ arcs, but this time they centre around a torrid relationship between rising reporter Dale Jennings (Sam Reid) and ambitious news anchor Helen Norville (Anna Torv). William McInnes is sensational as the bullying boss and it was particularly pleasing to see Marg Downey allowed to show her dramatic subtlety as the woman behind the TV star. All of Lucas’ references to Ray Martin, Harry M. Miller, 60 Minutes and chequebook journalism demonstrate insight into a ferocious era, but one brimming in misogyny, racism and homophobia. These make the ride brilliantly entertaining and scary all at the same time.

Runners-Up (in no particular order):

Allen v Farrow (Foxtel / Binge)
Back to Nature (ABC)
Bump (Stan)
Don’t Look Up (Netflix)
The End (Foxtel / Binge)
Exposed: Ghost Train Fire (ABC)
Fires (ABC)
Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra (ABC)
Friends: The Reunion (Foxtel / Binge)
Hacks (Stan)
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? (Foxtel / Binge)
Kevin Can F*** Himself (Amazon Prime Video)
Nitram (Stan)
Only Murders in the Building (Disney+)
Oslo (Foxtel / Binge)
RFDS (Seven)
Schmigadoon! (Apple TV+)
The Serpent (Netflix)
Squid Game (Netflix)
Strong Female Lead (SBS)
Tick Tick Boom (Netflix)
Time (Foxtel / Binge)
Tina (Foxtel / Binge)
The Unusual Suspects (SBS)
Veneno (ABC)
Vigil (Foxtel / Binge)

28 Responses

  1. David, Thank-you for mentioning and recommending (in this and another post), the fantastic Spanish series ‘Veneno’ on ABC.
    Only two eps in on iView and I’m loving this exceptional and powerful show!
    You said to Thank-you later but sorry, I couldn’t wait! Now back to watching it!!

  2. I think it’s a travesty that The End hasn’t been picked up for a second season on Foxtel/Binge. One of the greatest, confronting series seen in years.

  3. wow, so many great shows, yet so little time, but realizing i could fit in more quality tv if i stopped watching reality shows, and i only watch Big Brother & I’m a Celebrity! How on earth would anyone have time to watch anything else if they also took on Survivor, Masterchef, the Block, et al, actually how would they have time to sleep, eat & shower?!

    thanks for the runners up list, there’s a few there i had not heard of which i’ll probably watch eg Landscapes.

  4. My top 10
    10) You 9) The Landscapers 8) Evil 7) It’s a Sin 6) Wentworth 5) The Flight Attendant 4) Mare of Eastown 3) The Pembrokeshire Murders 2) Lost in Space 1) Five Bedrooms

  5. Such an awesome year for TV. The 30 best first year shows for me:
    1. WandaVision 2. Invincible 3. The Sex Lives Of College Girls 4. Hawkeye 5. Squid Game 6. Industry 7. It’s A Sin 8. The Newsreader 9. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier 10. Mare Of Easttown 11. Tribes Of Europa 12. One Of Us Is Lying 13. Hacks 14. My Name 15. The White Lotus 16. Chucky 17. Fires 18. The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers 19. Sweet Tooth 20. Physical 21. Maid 22. The End 23. Kevin Can F*** Himself 24. Gossip Girl 25. Loki 26. Mr. Corman 27. The Wheel Of Time 28. Heels 29. Bump 30. Young Royals

  6. Agree with Wakefield being the TV show of the year. I picked the ending after episode 5, but I stuck with it and I just let myself be taken for the ride — I’m not ashamed to admit this — cried as the denouement played out. 7 weeks of tightening the screws and then that? Beautiful. I’m pretty sure I haven’t been moved by a TV series like that. It’s a series that will stay with me for a while yet. I’m very torn though. I *want* to know what happens next. But another series seems intrusive.

    The Newsreader was excellent as well. Hoping for S2 there also, even if 2022 is a fallow year for the series.

    I’m halfway through Vigil as we speak. Enjoying it a lot. Not liking the claustrophobia at all! Although I did make the mistake of starting it *spoilers* midway through S8 of Endeavour. Two *very different* characters from Shaun Evans. I’ll watch Landscapers next.

    1. I picked the ending of Wakefield by the end of episode 2. The had told us during the promos that Nik was going to go mad, and by then they had flashbacked to enough reasons. He was clearly culpable for his younger brothers death, even if they made it look like he led him into a flood to drown, and that was covered up and repressed (Coroner S1). He descended into musical madness when it all came to the surface (like The Singing Detective), Kareena stayed by his bedside and saw him out of his catatonia, so there was the hope of rebirth. The rest was all just reinforcing the main themes.

  7. Vigil was fun, even though the main plot was lifted from NCIS #16.17 Silent Service.
    RFDS made good use of its location, and I liked The Newsreader’s use of history.

    The only other new show I watched was The Mare Of Easttown, though I skipped most of it and just laughed the appalling bad writing and plotting. I finally got around to ploughing through Fringe, which also featured Anna Torv, and it took up a lot of my viewing time.

  9. Agree about Wakefield – absolutely exceptional and resonates long after watching each episode.
    Loved Rudi Dharmalingam as Nik. He is perfect in the role.
    Definitely my Number 1 local drama for the year.
    The Newsreader was also brilliant – all the cast were excellent but agree that Marg Downey and William McInnes were standouts.

  10. Yes ABC drama really delivered this year, not only with the new shows but returning ones too. Their other content like new comedy were also excellent. Hopefully they can replicate this for next year!

  11. Wakefield was compelling viewing; brilliantly made, excellent acting performances with some great guest casting. Not the most uplifting of shows (although there were aspects which were) but brave subject to take on.

  12. Very good list David and as for the winners and runners up on this list I only watched Friends: The Reunion which is very good to watch and I only watched clips of this show on YouTube which is better or nothing and it was filled with very good drama and action and that show was Squid Game.

  13. Wandavision and Loki (Disney +) and Foundation (Apple TV+) were my top 3 outstanding this year, imaginative, strong narrative and cutting edge creative. 4 Corners (ABC) had a solid year with the highlight the FOX investigation. Most Disappointed of the year was Kevin Smith’s He-Man reboot (Netflix)

  14. Here are a few of mine that I enjoyed .
    Superman & Lois ~ Binge
    Kung Fu ~ Binge
    The Flight Attendant ~ Binge
    Loki ~ Disney+
    The One ~ Netflix
    I Hate Suzie ~ Stan
    Your Honor – Stan
    The Undoing ~ Binge
    The Queen’s Gambit ~ Netflix

  15. I agree. Wakefield was truly amazing. Great list of runners up. Gee, I wish I’d held of posting my entry for the TVT Awards! Cannot believe how many great programs I completely forgot.

  19. Appreciate your list David. It reminds us of what to watch if we haven’t viewed it yet. Definitely a few on this list I haven’t watched yet so over summer it’s an excuse to view them 📺

  22. Truly amazing Top 5 David. I haven’t seen Wakefield (although I plan on it as Mum loved it too) and I’m just two eps into Landscapers (which is a ripper!), but the other three feature in my faves of the year too. Will you do a seperate post for readers Top shows or shall we post here?

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