The 20 Best New TV Shows of 2021 So Far
Which newcomers on the small screen have impressed reviewers the most during the first half of the year? Above, find the highest-scoring first-year TV shows (including limited series and specials) debuting between January 1, 2021 and June 30, 2021. Only shows with at least 7 reviews from professional critics are included.
An HBO Europe original series (available here through HBO Max), the five-episode, Swedish-language Beartown is based on a novel by Fredrik Backman and centers on a struggling factory town that is pinning its hopes on its local junior ice hockey team that has just hired a former NHL star as its new coach. But Mighty Ducks, this is not. Instead of an uplifting, feel-good underdog story, the bleak Beartown depicts a violent crime and its many repercussions.
“Icy and enraged, it’s a sobering portrait of tragedy wrought from not only toxic masculinity, but from the equally noxious—and potentially more deadly—systems that nurture, amplify, and protect it.” —Nick Schager, The Daily Beast