While theater closures have put movies on the sideline, streaming TV has stepped up to the plate this past year to keep audiences entertained throughout the pandemic that still grips us. This is not a complete ranking, but merely a list of the shows (that I’ve seen) that are worth mentioning that came out last year.
Star Wars: Visions
This year has been light on Star Wars content. However, we were graced with two animated projects, the Clone Wars spinoff, The Bad Batch, and a non-canon anthology anime, Visions. For years they have been independent ideas tossed for a Star Wars anime and now Disney Plus has made it official, hiring 13 regarded Japanese studios to conduct their own short stories in the Star Wars universe. They all have their own style from different Japanese genres including Kurosawa, One Punch Man, and even Astro Boy. While none of them is official canon, they are well placed in a timeline where they can conceivably work in the Star Wars galaxy.
There is a possibility that one or two of them could split into their own series, if that happens, I hope it’s the episode with the rediscovery of lightsabers.
Click here to see our episode rankings for Star Wars: Visions
The South Park Covid Specials
Because of current events, South Park has not been producing full seasons since 2019, however that has not stopped Trey and Matt from making several 1-hour specials focusing on the Pandemic, or the Pandemic special that Randy meta calls it to describe his weed.
In 2021 we were given 3 more specials titled Vaccination, Post Covid, and Return of Covid. The Vaccination episode gave a faint sense of hope as there’s no more President Garrison/Trump (at least at the moment) and mocks all the Q-nuts and their conspiracies. However, it acknowledges that life as we know it may never be the same again. This was certainly reflected with the boys whose friendship had taken a toll-like all of us. The episode ends with Stan Kyle and Cartman deciding to break up their friendship while sharing Kenny like a divorced couple.
The latter 2 specials took the extraordinary step by jumping forward 30 years depicting the boys in their adult forms. Here we see how the future has become more commodified with big tech firms ruling everything, Alexa’s have sentient holograms and all Restraints are labeled, plus. From Cryptocurrency to Oculus, every conceivable future this show exploited to the “max”. These specials need to be seen as they give us desperately needed laughs, but also some cold hard reality that America has come to grips with.
Wanda Vision
This is the most creative of the MCU Disney Plus content. At first, it looks like a lame knock-off of what is the most forgettable couples in this series. It wasn’t clear whether this is a spoof or canon. It turns out that the truth is somewhere in between. With each episode satirizing a certain sitcom decade Of course the big twist is that this whole illusion is created by Wanda as a coping mechanism for her loss of Vision.
It is amazing the level of work by the filmmakers to simulate the feel of each genre from the Dick Van Dyke show to Malcolm in the middle. It is also a nice touch for the aspect ratio to change the different points of view from Wanda’s world, and the real world outside her bubble.
Squid Games
It is a very odd Title, but imagine if Hunger Games combined with childhood play-time, That’s what Squid Games is in a nutshell. However, this has given a large cast of fascinating and flawed characters who are in this with the slight hope that their depts are cleaned. All the characters are compelling in the twist and turn how this whole game system operates is downright chilling needless to say I won’t be playing red light green light any time soon.
Mare of Easttown
Set in a small town in Delaware, this series follows a detective investigating the disappearance of 2 girls a year apart from one another. The whole series is essentially a long SVU story but in a good way. It is highly grounded in reality and doesn’t fall for a government conspiracy or supernatural forces like these other mystery shows. There is so much plot (good plot) you can eat it and it’s easy to follow.
All this is also fantastically acted by Kate Winslet who’s character Mare Sheehan struggles with grief with the loss of her son and a split family. Often Mare detached herself from her partners as a coping mechanism. Things get extremely complicated for her as the trail keeps dashing back and forth to longtime friends and family members. It is a mystery thriller that doesn’t waste its time and will have you glued to your seat all the way through.
Invincible
This is perhaps one of the most brutal pieces of superhero media I’ve seen essentially the animated version of The Boys combined with the style of the Superman and Batman animated series. The biggest part of this was Omni-man (JK Simmons) who’s both a brutal antagonist and a complex loving father to our hero, someone who loves his family but motived by the future conquest of earth. Killing off the main superhero team in the 1st episode, knowing it was him makes for a great mystery as to why his actions and how our protagonist finds out what kind of person Omni-man is.
The show is exceptionally brutal, taking all powers of superman into account and applying real-life physics. The fact that it is animated allows it to go even further with its violence. This entire train sequence says it all.
