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.

3 of 23 photo by Ricardo Hubbs/Netflix

82 Maid (Netflix)

(#18) Margaret Qualley, Andie MacDowell (Qualley's real-life mother), Tracy Vilar, and Nick Robinson star in an adaptation of the best-selling memoir by Stephanie Land about her life as a single mother who escapes an abusive relationship only to find herself without money or a home. She then finds work as a housekeeper in an attempt to make ends meet. Molly Smith Metzler (Orange Is the New Black, Shameless) penned the adaptation, which is also produced by John Wells and Margot Robbie. It's Netflix's best-reviewed new English-language narrative series of 2021 (and all those qualifiers mean that we'll get to a few more Netflix shows in just a moment).

“There are many moments found within Netflix’s limited series 'Maid' where I just said, 'Wow.' It wasn’t strictly the moving performances from an all-around talented cast, nor was it the empathetic and complex relationships that develop and change over 10 episodes. It was the overall package, one that blossomed into a show that left me laughing as often as I was crying.” —Kristen Lopez, IndieWire

Watch it on Netflix (10 episodes)

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