The Continuing Mission of Television
Usually around New Year's Day I post rankings of the movies I saw during the year. I don't feel like I saw enough movies in 2021 to make a meaningful list. As some things finally get released in Japan maybe I'll catch up enough this month to make a decent list by the end of January. But I did watch a lot of TV shows in 2021 so I thought I'd do a ranking of those. For 2020 I made a combined TV and movie list on the grounds that TV shows are becoming more like movies anyway. That may be true but I've come to feel over the past year that they are still two distinctive media. TV is more dialogue focused, often less refined (in some cases, clearly rushed) while feature films are, generally speaking, a more sensory experience. From the way people complain about TV shows when the cinematography is too dark, you can see people still expect something different from TV compared to feature films.
This list includes seasons of shows that concluded in 2021. So The Book of Boba Fett and The Expanse Season Six would be included on the 2022 list, not this one.
11. Cowboy Bebop, Season One
This has become one of the most notorious stinkers in streaming history. I took no pleasure in watching it crash and burn--I really wanted it to be good. But the classic Space Opera/Western/Noir anime was sadly put into the hands of people who thought it was a Real Housewives spin-off.
Cowboy Bebop is available on Netflix.
10. Doctor Who, Season Thirty-Nine/Series 13
Even for Chris Chibnall, this was messy and bad, and, from what I've heard since, it's definitely not all his fault this time. They were in the middle of production when they found out they weren't going to be able to make as many episodes as they thought they were. So it felt especially crammed and jumbled because he was forced to do a lot of condensing. But with the exception of "Village of the Angels", I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have liked the Flux plot if it were more fleshed out.
The New Year's Special falls under 2022 and so I'm not factoring it in for this ranking but I want to add a few things to the review I wrote yesterday. I have since writing it been very, very surprised to see a number of people were entertained by an episode I was sure would be universally hated. I wrote a long entry yesterday and I didn't even bring up everything I didn't like about the episode because I thought I was beating a dead horse. I didn't mention how Nick storing his ex-girlfriend's things didn't make sense (why don't you just call or text and say, "Hey, I've got your shoes, you want them?"). If what he's saying is true, then this supposedly shy fellow who spent years not being able to vocalise his crush on Sarah has had dozens of girlfriends in the meantime. But the fact that Yaz and the Doctor both clearly take his word for it when he says he's just keeping these things safe for his exes was ridiculous. Particularly if Chibnall had any interest in establishing Yaz as a cop.
I've since yesterday discovered a lot of people have been shipping Yaz and the Doctor for a while. For me, Yaz's confession of love came way out of left field. I'm not saying it's impossible for someone to imperceptibly harbour romantic or sexual attraction for another person. But it would have been a lot more satisfying with some kind of build up. And it would have made sense of the fact that Dan evidently thought it was achingly obvious. As it is, it looks like desperate fan pandering. But desperate as it is, it actually seems to have worked, at least for now.
I've been looking for reviews to see if I can find one that gives me some perspective as to why people actually liked "Eve of the Daleks". I found this one pretty illuminating. The reviewer, Ivy Hanover, says a lot of things I agree with, especially the fact that the Daleks were better in the Ninth Doctor era. She also doesn't like the relationship between Sarah and Nick. But she really liked that "Thasmin" (The Doctor/Yasmin) being confirmed. She includes a clip of herself getting very emotional about it. And then, strangely, she confesses that she'd never shipped the two characters herself, and had not noticed any particular build up for a relationship between the two. Hanover speaks from the beginning of the video about how happy she is as a lesbian to see this kind of representation and yet in the latter half of the video she says she's mainly happy for other people. This seemed very strange to me. Here she is, a Doctor Who fan and a lesbian who became very emotional about the representation of a lesbian relationship on Doctor Who--but her feelings are mainly what she describes as empathy for other fans. And then I think I finally understood a lot of the positive reaction. This whole "representation" phenomenon has made fiction more like professional sports. I guess it's not too different from Twilight fans being on "Team Jacob" or "Team" whatever the other guy's name was. This is one of the reasons I never liked sports and I guess this is one of the reasons I can't join the party on this kind of thing now. Mainly it makes me lament that this is increasingly what fans value in fiction as opposed to genuinely thoughtful and emotionally resonant stories.
It's clearer to me because I've been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer lately. Is Doctor/Yaz really more groundbreaking than Willow/Tara? At least Willow and Tara had buildup and they seemed attracted to each other. I joked about Howard Stern's 1995 appearance on Jay Leno but if you watch that clip you'll hear Stern referencing the prevalence of lesbian kisses on television at the time. In 1995. And, yes, you can say two women kissing isn't a relationship or even necessarily really lesbian. But is a woman implying she has feelings with no buildup and no kiss better?
Joss Whedon and Ellen DeGeneres have both been "cancelled" which makes me wonder if in the collective imagination of internet progressives the things they did, in a way, didn't actually happen. Or, yes, there is that history, but it's off to the side, in a dark corner, while another, cleaner history is being written on top of it.
Doctor Who is available on the BBC's iPlayer.
9. Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Season One
Most of the Disney+ MCU shows are uneven and this one had the most bad episodes. But I give it points for Wyatt Russell's performance. Every scene with him was captivating and successfully played off the underlying tension of the story.
Falcon and the Winter Soldier is available on Disney+.
8. Masters of the Universe: Revelation
Yeah, it's bad, but not as bad as people say it is. I really like the way the first episode was written and how it steadily ratcheted up tension. But it does become The Teela Show and this new Teela is badly written, badly drawn, and badly performed.
Masters of the Universe: Revelation is available on Netflix.
7. Loki, Season One
This one started out kind of strong. The performances by Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson are definitely the highlights and scenes they have together are terrific. But the best part of the series is watching Loki react to footage of his own death. Just with his face, Hiddleston brings reality to the series that sadly sinks beneath mediocrity by about the halfway point. The writers' feeble grasp of Loki's character and a shift in focus to an uninteresting female Loki variant were coupled with a lousy plot that arbitrarily went in all different directions from episode to episode.
Loki is available on Disney+.
6. WandaVision, Season One
I admire the boldness of the concept as much as I don't like sitcoms. But it's not for my dislike of sitcoms that I can't rank this series higher--the writing once again becomes messier and messier as the show progresses. The notorious "boner" joke isn't just messy, it feels like genuine spite from the writers directed at the viewers. But, while the camp humour of Agatha Harkness doesn't fit well with the normal MCU tone, it was fun in its own right. Making Wanda herself into an anti-heroine was nice--I'm glad the show didn't try to condone her actions. Or if it did, it came off so weakly that it's interesting instead of bad. And I can always appreciate a Vertigo reference.
WandaVision is available on Disney+.
5. Hawkeye, Season One
This is the most consistent of the MCU Disney+ series. It's not a masterpiece and there are no big, Earth-shattering moments. But it's a cosy little six part Christmas serial and Hailee Steinfeld is brilliant as Kate Bishop. Her chemistry with Jeremy Renner really works, too.
Hawkeye is available on Disney+.
4. Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Season One
There are a lot of episodes I really didn't like but there was enough that I did like that I can say I liked it as a whole. Omega may be yet another Mary Sue but I can dig a Mary Sue if she's sweet and charming. Episodes written by Matt Michnovetz showed her to be fallible and capable of fear and anxiety resembling a real child, too.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch is available on Disney+.
3. Star Wars: Visions, Season One
This was a real mixed bag but it was also a bold idea. The visuals in some of the episodes represent some of the best to come out of Star Wars since Disney bought it. The Elder and Lop and Ocho also had strong stories to support the visuals.
Star Wars: Visions is available on Disney+.
2. Only Murders in the Building, Season One
Maybe not the best murder mystery ever written but as a comedy it's another sweet, low key indulgence. Steve Martin and Martin Short comfortably slip into perfectly tailored roles and Selena Gomez presents a cute but gruff counterpoint.
Only Murders in the Building is available on Hulu or, in some countries, on Disney+.
1. The Expanse, Season Five
The final episode is oddly abrupt and tonally weird due to the forced departure of Cas Anvar. But the episodes leading up to it are some of the finest of this justifiably beloved series. Alex's attempt to readjust to life on Mars is nicely paired with Bobbie's story and the story about politics and economy on the red planet. Meanwhile, Amos and Clarissa, bonding as two killers alone in suddenly ravaged Earth wilderness, is also wonderful.
The Expanse is available on Amazon Prime.