The 27 Best New Shows of 2021

TV is in a weird place. While 2020 got us through the first 9+ months of the COVID-19 era with the plethora of TV shows that had been filmed prior to the pandemic (many of which were excellent brand new series), it's 2021 that's seen much of the content that was either conceived right before or during the pandemic. And luckily for those of us still at home, there have been quite a few captivating hits—with several more still to come.

There are a number of shows that we're expecting still that sound extremely exciting— star-studded thrillers/horror/mysteries, real-life dramas, and some seriously exciting blockbuster nerd stuff from our Marvel/Star Wars overlords at Disney. We may not know when some of these shows are coming out, but we can feel pretty good about the fact that TV continues to be in good hands.

There are always going to be shows that pop up out of nowhere and get us all to buy in. Who could've seen Ted Lasso coming last year? Or The Queen's Gambit? Hell, who saw The Tiger King becoming as unbelievably massive as it was for a few weeks? Yes, that kind of took some once-in-a-lifetime circumstances for that to happen, but, look, it's 2021. This year we got Squid Game as a legitimate sensation for a few months there.

What we know most about TV is that... we don't really know. A show we're really looking forward to can turn out to be not so great, and our favorite show can be one we had no idea was even coming out. But, luckily, we watch a lot of TV. So we can vouch on all of these for you.

So, without further ado, here are our 27 favorite new shows of 2021.