The year’s best TV
criticism of wealth and privilege,” said Justin Kirkland in Esquire. Connie Britton, Steve Zahn, and Jennifer Coolidge led a crack ensemble who played the insufferable guests at a posh Hawaiian resort. As their week in paradise unfolded, the show provided “a bit of cringe, a bit of irreverence,” even a murder. The finale, in its horrible unfairness, “makes a bigger point than if justice had actually been served.” HBO
The Underground Railroad
“On a purely technical level,” Barry Jenkins’ adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning 2016 novel “may be the most stunning thing ever made for American television,” said Alan Sepinwall in Rolling Stone. Whitehead imagined a slavery-era America in which an actual underground railroad provided potential escape to freedom, and Jenkins translated that vision into images “so beautiful and so horrifying that they will be seared into the memory of anyone who watches.” Amazon
WandaVision
“On paper, WandaVision sounds like the product of an over-caffeinated Marvel fan’s fever dream,” said Shirley Li in TheAtlantic.com. Wanda, a Marvel superhero who can bend reality, is living inside a 1950s sitcom alongside Vision, her android lover. As bewildering as the premise can initially be, it “allows for an emotionally rich excavation of its heroine’s psyche” in a show that “proves how much further Marvel’s storytelling can go.” Disney+
Only Murders in the Building True-crime obsessives will see themselves in this “perfectly absurd” comedy about three people with an unhealthy habit, said Lorraine Ali in the Los Angeles Times. Selena Gomez pairs with comedy geezers Steve Martin and Martin Short to play neighbors who respond to an untimely death in their Manhattan apartment building by creating a podcast about their hunt for murder clues. Armchair sleuths “deserve to be lampooned, especially when the outcome is this damn funny.” Hulu
Maid
“To watch Maid is to realize how seldom pop culture dares to tackle experiences as widely shared as low-wage work, domestic violence, being a half-step from homelessness, and caring for a family member with untreated mental illness,” said Inkoo Kang in The Washington
Post. Based on a best-selling memoir, this word-of-mouth hit series depicts those common struggles with great sensitivity while unspooling “an engrossing tale of a single mom’s self-rediscovery.” Star Margaret Qualley and her own mother, Andie MacDowell, contribute “career-high performances.” Netflix
Mare of Easttown
You could describe this one as a series about linked murders in a hardscrabble Pennsylvania town, said Shane Ryan in PasteMagazine.com. Really, though, it’s “about the heavy pain of being alive,” tracking a police detective played by Kate Winslet as she and the other working-class grinders around her accumulate burdens and sorrows but carry on anyway. The entire cast is strong and the mystery gripping, while Winslet delivers “all the brilliance you’d expect.” HBO
Ted Lasso
Jason Sudeikis’ hit comedy series endured serious backlash during Season 2, said Ben Travers in IndieWire.com. The can-do attitude that Sudeikis’ Kansas-bred Coach Lasso brought to the task of turning around an English soccer team was what had won the show so much love and so many awards. But “no one should want comedies this smart to stay in a stagnant bog of pure positivity, and Season 2 had the courage to examine the source of its coach’s constant cheer.” Though Ted Lasso darkened in 2021, it also grew, setting up richer rewards ahead. Apple TV+
The 20 sources used to establish our rankings include the sources cited above plus the Chicago Tribune, Complex.com, The New Yorker, TheRinger.com, Slant.com, Time, Vanity Fair.com, and Variety.