“The Mosquito Coast” (Apple TV+)
Many critics wrote off Apple TV+’s best drama of 2021 by drawing comparisons between it and other sagas of troublesome white dudes like “Breaking Bad,” and that’s fair. There have been a few too many stories like “The Mosquito Coast” for it to feel completely original. Still, it does seem odd to completely dismiss the craft of this show, whether it’s the taut direction, gorgeous cinematography, or solid performances, particularly the one from Justin Theroux, the nephew of Paul Theroux, author of the book on which this is based. Theroux plays Allie Cox, a man on the run with his family before the first episode, forced to travel through Mexico, a journey that they barely survive. It’s more of a prologue to fans of the Peter Weir/Harrison Ford movie; remember, it’s an imperfect show overall with enough individual perfect qualities to make it worth a look.
“Painting with John” (HBO)
John Lurie rules. The musician and star of early Jim Jarmusch films made a follow-up of sorts to his cult hit “Fishing with John” in this tender and unpredictable 6-part series that premiered on HBO back in January. Legitimately artistic in ways that television still isn’t often allowed to be, “Painting with John” finds Lurie dabbling in watercolor art each episode while telling stories and waxing poetic about his life. It’s that simple. And yet Lurie’s trains of thought never really travel down traditional paths. It becomes a meditation on the unpredictability of life, how a brushstroke or a simple decision can change an entire picture. Lurie is engaging, funny, and smart in ways that make one want to sit with him and have a drink. Or maybe paint. Bob Ross could never.
“Sweet Tooth” (Netflix)
The best new Netflix show of 2021 (just edging the clever “Lupin”) is this charming and entertaining adaptation of Jeff Lemire’s comic series from the great Jim Mickle (“We Are What We Are”). Unexpectedly timely, “Sweet Tooth” imagines a world destroyed by a pandemic that also happened to introduce hybrids to the evolutionary chain, children who are half-animal and half-human. One such boy named Gus (Christian Convery) ends up cut off from society by his father (Will Forte) until tragedy forces him out into the dangerous world, accompanied by a gentle giant named Tommy (Nonso Anozie) and a young warrior named Bear (Stefania LaVie Owen). Smart and engaging, “Sweet Tooth” never succumbs to the typical Netflix bloat, zipping through eight episodes in a way that leaves viewers satisfied and counting the days until season two. It has the energy of ’80s Amblin when kids’ adventure films were allowed to be a little scary, unpredictable, and unforgettable.
“The Underground Railroad” (Amazon Prime Video)
The TV event of 2021 has been Barry Jenkins’s adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead, reshaped here into one of the most ambitious and moving programs in television history. Thuso Mbedu plays Cora Randall, an escaped slave from Georgia who travels the country on a literal Underground Railroad, complete with conductors and tracks, while Joel Edgerton’s vicious slave trader tracks her. Jenkins and his incredible team, including regular collaborators like composer Nicholas Britell and cinematographer James Laxton, turn Cora’s journey into a dreamlike vision of one of the darkest chapters in American history, and yet they also avoid generalizations or exploitation. It’s a deeply empathetic and humanist piece that asks nothing more than for viewers to bear witness to our own history, to question not only what happened but how it shaped this country and every single one of us.
“WandaVision” (Disney+)
This year, there will be much impolite discussion on Twitter and other social watering holes as to the best of the Disney+/Marvel shows. Yes, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and “Loki” have their charms and would have likely made extended versions of this list. Still, the most complete and accomplished of the three right now remains the first, the clever and even sometimes moving “WandaVision.” Too often dismissed by critics who don’t look past its sitcom-mocking premise, “WandaVision” is fundamentally about the kind of unimaginable grief that reshapes the world around you. Sure, not all of its ideas come together, especially in the finale, but no one can deny the caliber of the work done here by stars Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen. One too rarely gets to point to performance in the MCU, but these two are simply phenomenal, connecting believably as a couple while also carving out their own distinct arcs and characters. With all the high concepts going on in the MCU shows on Disney+, it’s the two super-people at the core of “WandaVision” that made it so memorable.
“We Are Lady Parts” (Peacock)
Nida Manzoor created this wonderful British import about a punk rock band in London that consists entirely of young Muslim women. Anjana Vasan leads the ensemble as the new guitarist for Lady Parts, but the writers get an incredible amount of character depth from the entire cast over only six short episodes. Sarah Kameela Impey, Juliette Motamed, Faith Omole, Lucie Shorthouse—they’re all great. And it’s not just that these young characters feel completely genuine, but that viewers come to really root for them in such a small amount of time. There’s an empathy to the writing and acting here that’s infectious. One can tell that Manzoor cares very deeply about every single one of them, and it’s difficult not to feel exactly the same way.
“Ziwe” (Showtime)
You know you’ve got something special when you’ve generated a political controversy by your third episode. That was the case for Showtime’s new late-night weekly talk show “Ziwe,” starring and created by Ziwe Fumudoh as a spin-off from her popular YouTube and Instagram interview series, “Baited with Ziwe.” Going professionally just as Ziwe, the 29-year-old writer and comedian revels in making her (often white) guests uncomfortable with often blunt questions on the subject of race. The show also features skits and original music, but those interviews have made it a stand out. In episode 3, Ziwe interviews New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang and, much to her delight, he stumbled over one question after another. Including “softball” questions on who his favorite hip-hop artist and his favorite subway stop (What New Yorker ever answers “Times Square?” Yang did!). It was an uncomfortable 7 minutes demonstrating that the one-time presidential candidate might not be ready to take on the job of Mayor of the nation’s largest city and that Ziwe was must-see TV. – Gregory Ellwood
