2021 best new TV shows to watch, stream, obsess about

Television production was massively disrupted in 2021, but there’s still been a ton of great TV — and there are lots more television shows to get excited about as 2021 rolls into 2022.

Succession season 3 throws us back into TV’s most vicious and delicious family feud, on HBO Oct. 17.

Another Marvel episodic adventure sees Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye recruiting new sidekick Hailee Steinfeld.

Netflix returns to the world of big cats and outlandish crime to find out whether Joe Exotic is thriving in captivity.

John Cho leads the cast of hotly tipped anime adaptation Cowboy Bebop.

Eleven and the gang are back for a fourth season on Netflix as the ’80s-tastic fantasy show turns the Cold War upside down.

Netflix’s fantasy hit returns in 2021 for another round of which Witcher is which.

In a realm that’s simultaneously Earth’s past and future, women warriors protect the Dragon Reborn to battle the Dark One. The latest show aiming to be the next Game of Thrones is The Wheel of Time, starring Rosamund Pike and based on Robert Jordan’s long-running series of fantasy novels.

The continuation of Donald Glover’s swaggering and genre-hopping story of an up-and-coming rapper and his entourage.

The final season of the award-winning crime saga wraps up in suitably intense style sometime this year.

No release date has been announced, but production is well under way for Netflix’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s iconic comic The Sandman.

The fifth and final season of Insecure brings Issa Rae’s smart and heartfelt comedy-drama to a close.

Lord Anthony Bridgerton will “dominate” season 2 of Netflix’s period romp, coming in 2021 or possibly early 2022. 

Emily is an influencer en francais in season 2 of Netflix’s frothy comedy Emily in Paris, arriving Dec. 22.

Wandering performers tackle a pandemic-riddled dystopia in HBO’s adaptation of Emily St. John Mandel’s 2014 novel. Mackenzie Davis stars.

What might have been in the MCU in this multiverse-spanning series of different versions of Marvel’s stories.

Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon added their voices to the #MeToo movement in the acclaimed first season of Apple’s topical drama about the TV industry. Season 2 streams this year.

An American journalist (Ansel Elgort) and a Tokyo detective (Ken Watanabe) fight crime in Japan in the ’90s. It’s from Michael Mann, though it’s got nothing to do with classic pastel-colored TV series Miami Vice (pictured).

An anime adaptation of a crooked comic from hitmaking writer Mark Millar, coming to Netflix Nov. 25.

Chernobyl star Jared Harris leads this heavyweight adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s science fiction masterwork on Apple TV Plus. Laura Birn, pictured, also stars. 

Sitcoms are in the firing line in Kevin Can F**k Himself, a weird and bold drama starring Schitt’s Creek’s Annie Murphy.

For Walking Dead fans, Y The Last Man is another comic-based apocalypse. This time it’s the just men who are wiped out — all except one (and his monkey).

A young priest stirs things up on a remote island. Mike Flanagan, the creator behind The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor brings more chills to Netflix. 

Steve Martin and Martin Short are true-crime fans caught up in an actual honest-to-goodness murder mystery in this comedy, with the help of Selena Gomez.

Created and directed by Barry Jenkins, The Underground Railroad is a fantasy set in the era of slavery, based on the 2016 novel by Colson Whitehead.

The Lady and the Dale is an HBO documentary about the bizarre true story of Liz Carmichael, who promised a revolutionary new car for the 1970s — until the wheels came off her schemes…

Firefly’s Alan Tudyk is a visitor from another planet who gets caught up in a small-town murder in this extraterrestrial comedy based on a comic.

Snoopy returns in a new show streaming on Apple TV Plus for the 70th anniversary of iconic cartoon Peanuts.

Queen Latifah takes over from Denzel Washington and Edward Woodward as a score-settling superspy. 

This Silence of the Lambs sequel series reveals life after Hannibal Lecter for the dogged agent, played by Jodie Foster in the 1991 movie. Australian actor Rebecca Breeds, from Pretty Little Liars and Home and Away, dons the FBI windbreaker.

You’ve seen the photo, now see the sitcom: It’s the life of a young Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in comedy form.

Soleil Moon Frye is ’80s heroine Punky Brewster again, all grown up and a single mom for this reboot on NBC’s streaming service, Peacock.

The man of steel meets his match as Superman and Lois Lane get into more adventures in the CW Arrowverse.

Anthony Mackie takes flight as the Falcon alongside Sebastian Stan as the Winter Soldier in this next episodic spinoff from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Shadow and Bone is a new fantasy series, based on the young-adult novels by Leigh Bardugo, set in a world of perpetual darkness haunted by flesh-eating monsters.

Tom Hiddleston is mischievous god Loki in another Marvel series streaming on Disney Plus.

Animated series The Bad Batch follows on from Star Wars: Clone Wars, building on the success of Disney Plus hit The Mandalorian.

Long-running superhero comic Invincible, from the creator of the original Walking Dead comic, comes alive in a wildly imaginative superpowered sci-fi Amazon animated series. 

MacGruber is back in action. Will Forte’s Saturday Night Live character already spawned a cult comedy, and now NBC’s Peacock is streaming him all over the place.

Jeff Bridges is a grizzled former spy who keeps getting pulled back into the shady world of espionage and action. 

You know the rules, and now you’re going to learn Gizmo’s origin in HBO’s animated prequel to ’80s classic Gremlins.

Joss Whedon’s latest is a genre-bending tale of Victorian women with supernatural powers. Laura Donnelly (pictured) and Olivia Williams star.

The latest series of Ryan Murphy’s juicy American Crime Story anthology tackles the Bill Clinton impeachment. Clive Owen stars as President Clinton, with Beanie Feldstein as Monica Lewinsky and Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp.

Writer Russell T. Davies (Doctor Who and A Very English Scandal) explores the impact of the HIV and AIDS epidemic on 1980s society in this drama starring Olly Alexander from the band Years & Years. It’s a Sin aired on Channel 4 in January in the UK. 

Civil rights movement activist Mamie Till-Mobley campaigned for change after the lynching of her 14-year-old son Emmett Till in 1955. Broadway star Adrienne Warren plays Till-Mobley in this ABC limited series.

Nicole Kidman in a drama based on a mystery novel? The producers behind Big Little Lies and The Undoing adapt Liane Moriarty’s book for Hulu. Regina Hall, Melissa McCarthy, Samara Weaving and Michael Shannon are the other strangers who may prove to be less than perfect.

Beautiful teens plot and scheme in this reboot coming to HBO Max, featuring Kristen Bell and a whole new cast. XOXO!

An ensemble cast gathers at a swanky hotel  in HBO’s mystery The White Lotus. 

Thrills and chills with a severe case of catfishing in Clickbait.