From Succession to Squid Game, here are CBC Entertainment's top show picks of 2021
CBC
CBC's entertainment reporters watched a lot of TV in 2021. As the pandemic continued, streaming giants and networks rolled out new shows to capture the attention of housebound audiences. To help you wade through the excess, here are some of their favourites.
Where to start with the many highlights of Succession? The cringe-inducing delights of Kendall crooning Billy Joel. Roman's accidental pic share with his dad. The continuing aspirations and humiliation of Shiv and what appears to be the surprising accession of Tom. As the Roy family attempted to head off an attack from Kendall's sudden burst of moral virtue, Season 3 continued to serve up moments of wonderful actors playing horrible people. How the Roy children rebound in Season 4 remains to be seen but we're looking forward to the coronation of Cousin Greg as Duke of Europe. —Eli Glasner
WATCH | The official trailer for Succession Season 3:
After seeing the end of everything from Kim's Convenience to Schitt's Creek, Baroness von Sketch Show to Cardinal and even Anne With an E, the future of Canadian TV's "golden age" looked like it was in peril. Luckily, Bilal Baig's off-kilter comedy Sort Of proved that there's still a wealth of untapped talent.
The story of self-discovery and self-doubt follows Baig's character Sabi — a gender-fluid, underemployed nanny — as they struggle to just get by. Equal parts funny and sad, Sort Of is great for fans of Fleabag, or anyone who wants to laugh along to a character study. —Jackson Weaver
WATCH | The official trailer for Sort Of:
What happens when Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez make podcast? You're left with a hilarious thriller about true crime addicts involved in an ongoing crime themselves. The 10-part mini-series on Disney+ follows three residents trying to solve the murder of a fellow resident in their chic Upper West Side apartment building. While it may seem like an odd trio, they are actually perfect for each other — feeding off each other's wittiness and anxieties. —Arti Patel
WATCH | The official trailer for Only Murders in the Building:
Academy Award winner Kate Winslet disappeared into her role as Mare, a detective hell-bent on solving the murder of a local girl in sleepy Easttown, Pa., where everybody knows everybody and their business. The seven-episode show is both harrowing in its difficult depiction of grief — Mare reckons with her son's suicide as she works a case disturbingly close to home — and hopeful in its ambitions for family and love. —Jenna Benchetrit
WATCH | The official trailer for Mare of Easttown:
At the end of Season 1, the Morning Show's co-anchors Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) and Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) blew the whistle on the fictional UBA network, exposing #MeToo complicity and coverups. Season 2 layers in the pandemic. Panicked media executives attempt to hold it all together as character insight deepens, the drama gets soapier and tension remains taut as disgraced former anchor Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) hides out in Lake Como. —Laura Thompson
WATCH | The official trailer for The Morning Show Season 2:
The Marvel Cinematic Universe pulled no punches when it released WandaVision. As the first miniseries made by the studio, it pulled from classic American sitcoms, Tom King's Eisner-winning comic series The Vision, and — perhaps most notably — The Twilight Zone to create an impressive and unsettling family drama. Excellent acting by stars Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany and Kathryn Hahn cemented its place as a top show of 2021 and even landed Hahn a (spoiler-heavy) spinoff series. —Jackson Weaver
WATCH | The official trailer for WandaVision:
