The 20 Best New TV Shows of 2021

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – December 28, 2021

Above are the highest-scoring first-year TV series (including limited series) debuting in the United States between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021. Shows are ranked by Metascore (an average of grades from top professional critics on a 0-100 scale) prior to rounding based on scores as of December 24, 2021, and any programs with fewer than 7 reviews are excluded. One-off TV specials and made-for TV movies are ranked separately at the end of the gallery.

11 of 23 photo by Library of Congress/Courtesy HBO

83 Exterminate All the Brutes (HBO)

(#10) This four-part HBO documentary series from acclaimed filmmaker Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) spans centuries to examine the impacts of European colonialism on today's society and its legacies of exploitation and genocide. Brutes is inspired by the book of the same name by Sven Lindqvist as well as the writing of authors Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Michel-Rolph Trouillot, and mixes documentary footage with dramatized scenes (some of which are animated) enacted by a cast led by Josh Hartnett.

“From a pure filmmaking perspective, Exterminate All the Brutes may be unparalleled among TV docuseries; the closest I can think of is the complexity and contextualization evident in the 2016 Oscar-winning 10-part series O.J.: Made in America. Peck doesn’t rely on tired visual tropes or techniques that would make it easy to just put on the show in the background while you’re doing something else. He demands our attention with wit, craft, and well-placed anger.” —Alissa Wilkinson, Vox

Watch it on HBO Max (4 episodes)

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