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.

15 of 23 photo by Courtesy of Apple Corps Ltd.

85 The Beatles: Get Back (Disney+)

(#6) Peter Jackson's revelatory three-part miniseries pulls the curtain back on the creative process like few documentaries have ever done before. Borrowing techniques he used for his WWI documentary They Shall Not Grow Old, the Lord of the Rings director spent the better part of the past three years editing and restoring footage from over 60 hours of film shot by Michael Lindsay-Hogg during 1969 as the Beatles spent a few weeks in two different studios to write and rehearse 14 new songs that would eventually end up on the band's final albums, Abbey Road and Let It Be. (Lindsay-Hogg's 1970 film Let It Be also used a much smaller portion of the same footage.) Spanning nearly eight hours, the results not only look and sound like they were filmed in the present day, but they reveal new details about the Fab Four's relationships and recording process that will be new to even die-hard fans. And the series concludes with the Beatles' legendary final concert performed from the rooftop of their London headquarters, shown in its entirety for the first time in history.

“The result is bliss for Beatles fans. Take all the films and interviews with the Beatles and put them off to the side. This is the most informative and illuminating record of what these men were like and of the nature of their interaction.” —Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Watch it on Disney+ (3 episodes)

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