#78 Small Screen Heroes
15/12/21 16:04
I’ve watched some great TV this year because I watch great TV every year - there’s lots of great TV out there and I have very square eyes. But it really has been an embarrassment of riches in 2021 – here are my top ten shows:
10) Bridgerton
Lovely dresses, magnificent blind casting (let’s ignore the bullshit retrospective reasoning behind it) and absolute filth. The wedding night scene between the Duke and Duchess of Hastings was eye-popping stuff. This was a show that didn’t take itself too seriously, just gunned for scurrilous entertainment, and as such it hit the jackpot. Georgette Wahey-er!
9) Unforgotten
The classiest crime drama on the block, Unforgotten’s fourth series kept up the high standard of knotty relationships, webs of deceit and good old-fashioned police procedural nit-picking. However, I’m still livid about what they did at the end of the run – Unforgotten? Unforgiven, more like! As one disgruntled tweeter put it: ‘Fuck you, ITV.’
8) The Pursuit of Love
This was a breath of fresh air just as I was becoming jaded by relentless grey dramas like Mare of Easttown. An unashamedly flippant, acerbic and stylish adaptation from Emily Mortimer, who also played The Bolter, who is the best character. TV-wise this was one of this year’s currants in the cake, and it featured Fleabag’s hot priest – what more could you want?
7) WandaVision
This audacious superhero series blew my mind with its crazy combination of classic sitcom homage, Marvel universe and meta mind games. It was unlike anything I’ve seen before – bold, ambitious and very, very weird.
6) It’s a Sin
We all sobbed through this tender, funny and brutal series that explored the emergence of the AIDS crisis in the 80s. Beautifully written and acted, it made the political wonderfully, powerfully personal. La!
5) Back to Life
I watched both series this year, and every episode just got better and better. Miri moves back in with her parents after serving 18 years in prison for murdering her best friend. The townsfolk aren’t too happy to see her back… Such an unusual idea, pretty sinister, and it’s a measure of writers Daisy Haggard and Laura Solon’s skill that they manage to make the show so warm and uplifting. The end of the second series was note-perfect.
4) Motherland
Yes, this is my life, so I was always going to love it, but I particularly adored the third series – Julia’s non-affair with her builder, Amanda’s mother turning out to be Joanna Lumley, the desperate smash ‘n’ grab of World Book Day dress-ups – in Julia’s case, necessity is the Motherland of invention. Everything about it was sublime, but particularly the outstanding use – and sign - of the word ‘vagina’ in the last episode. Brava!
3) Succession
My cup ranneth over in October when the third season started of this, my favourite ever TV show. It’s been an epic, intense experience. Everyone is so awful, it’s a car crash and the scenes are often so breakneck that I have to read the Guardian recap after to be sure of what I just watched. But the script is so tight, the characters so defined (and awful), the world such a hotbed of billionaire badness that every episode leaves you winded but wanting more. The Tuscan season finale was the best Christmas present I could have wished for – painful, poignant, cathartic.
2) Ghosts
It’s the best sitcom around, but it’s more than a sitcom – I want to coin a new genre for this warm, funny, clever, inventive and big series that tells us so much about life through a load of dead people. Honestly, I’m welling up just typing this. If you haven’t already, do yourself a favour and get Ghosts in your life, because they will enrich you immeasurably. And if they don’t, you’re dead to me.
1) Feel Good
Shoutout to Charlotte Ritchie, for appearing in both of my top two shows – she can really pick ‘em. Mae Martin has created a total gem that somehow feels like it went under the radar, but this odd, gorgeous, intently compassionate series was my find of the year. It’s a show about addiction and abuse, trauma, toxic relationships and denial, but for all that it’s full of kindness, tolerance and gentle, disconcerting humour. It felt good throughout, right to the final romantic photosynthesis chat. In the end, George and Mae learn to be the gardeners for each other’s bonsai trees and their own, and that’s a beautiful thing.
10) Bridgerton
Lovely dresses, magnificent blind casting (let’s ignore the bullshit retrospective reasoning behind it) and absolute filth. The wedding night scene between the Duke and Duchess of Hastings was eye-popping stuff. This was a show that didn’t take itself too seriously, just gunned for scurrilous entertainment, and as such it hit the jackpot. Georgette Wahey-er!
- 8 episodes, Netflix
9) Unforgotten
The classiest crime drama on the block, Unforgotten’s fourth series kept up the high standard of knotty relationships, webs of deceit and good old-fashioned police procedural nit-picking. However, I’m still livid about what they did at the end of the run – Unforgotten? Unforgiven, more like! As one disgruntled tweeter put it: ‘Fuck you, ITV.’
- 4 series, ITV
8) The Pursuit of Love
This was a breath of fresh air just as I was becoming jaded by relentless grey dramas like Mare of Easttown. An unashamedly flippant, acerbic and stylish adaptation from Emily Mortimer, who also played The Bolter, who is the best character. TV-wise this was one of this year’s currants in the cake, and it featured Fleabag’s hot priest – what more could you want?
- 3 episodes, BBC One
7) WandaVision
This audacious superhero series blew my mind with its crazy combination of classic sitcom homage, Marvel universe and meta mind games. It was unlike anything I’ve seen before – bold, ambitious and very, very weird.
- 9 episodes, Disney+
6) It’s a Sin
We all sobbed through this tender, funny and brutal series that explored the emergence of the AIDS crisis in the 80s. Beautifully written and acted, it made the political wonderfully, powerfully personal. La!
- 5 episodes, Channel 4
5) Back to Life
I watched both series this year, and every episode just got better and better. Miri moves back in with her parents after serving 18 years in prison for murdering her best friend. The townsfolk aren’t too happy to see her back… Such an unusual idea, pretty sinister, and it’s a measure of writers Daisy Haggard and Laura Solon’s skill that they manage to make the show so warm and uplifting. The end of the second series was note-perfect.
- 2 series, BBC One
4) Motherland
Yes, this is my life, so I was always going to love it, but I particularly adored the third series – Julia’s non-affair with her builder, Amanda’s mother turning out to be Joanna Lumley, the desperate smash ‘n’ grab of World Book Day dress-ups – in Julia’s case, necessity is the Motherland of invention. Everything about it was sublime, but particularly the outstanding use – and sign - of the word ‘vagina’ in the last episode. Brava!
- 3 series, BBC Two
3) Succession
My cup ranneth over in October when the third season started of this, my favourite ever TV show. It’s been an epic, intense experience. Everyone is so awful, it’s a car crash and the scenes are often so breakneck that I have to read the Guardian recap after to be sure of what I just watched. But the script is so tight, the characters so defined (and awful), the world such a hotbed of billionaire badness that every episode leaves you winded but wanting more. The Tuscan season finale was the best Christmas present I could have wished for – painful, poignant, cathartic.
- 3 series, HBO
2) Ghosts
It’s the best sitcom around, but it’s more than a sitcom – I want to coin a new genre for this warm, funny, clever, inventive and big series that tells us so much about life through a load of dead people. Honestly, I’m welling up just typing this. If you haven’t already, do yourself a favour and get Ghosts in your life, because they will enrich you immeasurably. And if they don’t, you’re dead to me.
- 3 series, BBC One
1) Feel Good
Shoutout to Charlotte Ritchie, for appearing in both of my top two shows – she can really pick ‘em. Mae Martin has created a total gem that somehow feels like it went under the radar, but this odd, gorgeous, intently compassionate series was my find of the year. It’s a show about addiction and abuse, trauma, toxic relationships and denial, but for all that it’s full of kindness, tolerance and gentle, disconcerting humour. It felt good throughout, right to the final romantic photosynthesis chat. In the end, George and Mae learn to be the gardeners for each other’s bonsai trees and their own, and that’s a beautiful thing.
- 2 series, Channel 4/Netflix
