The Best TV Series of 2021 Winner

The world of television offered an embarrassment of riches in 2021. Whether it was a shocking twist or an unbelievable cameo, there was always a show that had us talking. With the year coming to a close, we've rounded up the best of the best shows 2021 had to offer.

Our winner for the Best TV Series of 2021 is...

Squid Game

Squid Game was one of the year's biggest pop-culture surprises for one simple reason: It's genuinely freakin' amazing. From the first terrifying game of "Red Light, Green Light" to the twist ending, it was near impossible not to be completely glued to Squid Game's harrowing story from start to finish, even when it was extremely hard to watch. Sure, the premise itself is gripping, but the talented cast made every inevitable loss hit devastatingly hard (I'll never look at marbles the same way again). Meanwhile, the crisp editing, deceptively pastel-coated set design, and poignant social commentary brought it all to the next level. It took creator Hwang Dong-hyuk a decade to bring the story to life, but it's a sensation that was well worth the wait. -Alex Stedman

For more, check out IGN's Squid Game review.

These are our nominees for the Best TV Series of 2021...

The Best TV Series of 2021

Arcane

Movies and TV shows based on video games don’t exactly have the best track record in terms of quality, but Arcane is so incredibly good even outside of the context of its League of Legends roots you’d be forgiven for forgetting it was based on a video game at all. It’s impressive on just about every metric you could measure it by: Its animations and art design are unique and gorgeous, its storytelling is engaging and perfectly paced, its writing and voice work are top-notch, and its music and sound design play a big part in elevating all of those already impressive elements. Arcane is undoubtedly one of the best video game adaptations ever made and easily one of the best animated shows to come out in recent years – but it’s also just one of the best shows generally as well, no genre qualifications needed. -Tom Marks

For more, check out IGN's Arcane review.

Loki

Loki may very well be the best MCU content to drop in 2021. It adds even more fascinating layers to an already compelling villain, pitting Loki against multiple incarnations of himself in the process. MCU newcomers like Owen Wilson's Mr. Mobius and Sophia Di Martino's Sylvie make excellent foils for the trickster god, and the show's quirky sense of style and humor further set it apart from the superhero pack. And thanks to that explosive final episode, it's clear Loki is playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of the MCU. -Jesse Schedeen

For more, check out IGN's Loki review.

Midnight Mass

Mike Flanagan has settled into a distinct groove in recent years, his work regularly using the propulsive nature of horror to power quieter themes of family, grief, and belief. Midnight Mass is the filmmaker’s clearest, best expression of that style yet, a tale of ancient horror creeping through a religious community not through violence (at least, not at first), but misguided hope. By turns deeply unsettling and starkly beautiful, Midnight Mass manages to feel both wildly personal to Flanagan and worryingly applicable to our cultural milieu – all while keeping the messy genre thrills you might be expecting right in the center of the screen. -Joe Skrebels

For more, check out IGN's Midnight Mass review.

Only Murders in the Building

Only Murders in the Building paired master comedians Steve Martin and Martin Short with a star over 40 years their junior, Selena Gomez, for a gripping and mirthful meta-mystery about three lonely true crime fans who bond over a dead body in their historic New York apartment complex. As the reclusive actor, washed-up theater director, and moody art student create their own podcast about possible foul play, the puzzle only grows more deranged and complex while the characters break through their shells and become a lovable trio of misfits. -Matt Fowler

For more, check out IGN's Only Murders in the Building review.

Squid Game

For more, check out IGN's Squid Game review.

Succession

HBO’s cranky, crunchy one-percenter dramedy about diabolically dysfunctional billionaires returned with a mighty roar this year as a high-on-his-own-fumes Kendall Roy attempted to, once again, topple his megalomaniac father, Logan, in a bid to oust pops as the acting CEO of Waystar Royco. With a brigade of boobs hovering around, wary of choosing sides for fearing of picking the wrong team, including his siblings Roman and Siobhan, Kendall is in an all-or-nothing Oedipal war with his ferocious father, keeping Succession as one of the most captivating displays of ugliness and ego in TV history. A wicked must-watch. -Matt Fowler

For more, check out IGN's Succession review.

Ted Lasso

Whether you caught on to the magic of Ted Lasso with its original debut, or fell into the series while in quarantine like much of the rest of the world, there’s no denying the warmth of the show. Few stories can successfully shift viewers from belly laughs to uncontrollable tears on a dime, but Ted Lasso seems to do so with ease. The series doesn’t rest on its laurels in Season 2, either. The heart of the show remains while it gently asks its audience to grow along with it. Don’t worry — there will be biscuits along the way. -Amelia Emberwing

For more, check out IGN's Ted Lasso review.

WandaVision

WandaVision kicked off the year 2021 and came out absolutely swinging. Its black-and-white season opener set the stage for a new kind of superhero series, and as we journeyed through multiple eras of TV genres, from Dick Van Dyke to I Love Lucy and beyond, it was clear that there was more than meets the eye with Wanda and Vision's perfect life. As SWORD investigates the truth behind the "hex," Wanda soon learns she's hiding from her own grief. Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany's performances are mesmerizing and heartbreaking, and showed us that superheroes can be powerful, even in their grief. -Lauren Gallaway

For more, check out IGN's WandaVision review.

What We Do in the Shadows

After two incredible seasons of What We Do in the Shadows mined the blood-sucking mockumentary format for all it’s worth, the challenge for a third season was always going to be finding new places to go. But with the vampires taking a new leadership role in the Vampiric Council, the show evolved from their regularly hilarious twists on vampire tropes into an equally hilarious character study of a group of immortals. Pairing Nadja and Nandor as co-leaders of the council while Laszlo and Colin Robinson explore the vampiric library looking to explain Colin’s energy vampirism, What We Do in the Shadows became a much more dramatically serialized story than its first two seasons. Whoever your favorite character on the show is, because frankly that choice is a coin flip week-to-week, Season 3 gave them legitimately interesting character growth and left them with a surprising new direction heading into Season 4. -Clint Gage

For more, check out IGN's What We Do in the Shadows review.

The White Lotus

Fancy hotels in exotic locales can make for beautiful and serene escapism. That is at least until you start to see the same entitled tourists every single day, push comes to shove, and things start to get messy. It’s hard to compartmentalize HBO’s The White Lotus in a single genre. This series about disparate groups of divergent travelers staying at an elegant resort flips from dark comedy to drama to full-on tragedy so frequently that it can’t really be pinned down. In fact, by the time you board the flight out on the season finale, you might even feel a bit unresolved, desperately wanting more. But hey, that’s the sign of a great vacation. -Brian Altano

For more, check out IGN's The White Lotus review.