The grand total of Certified Fresh TV seasons in 2021 was 94, which is less than the nearly 130 of 2020, but impressive nonetheless. One climactic monologue, written by House of Cards ’ Beau Willimon and delivered by Stellan Skarsgård, crystalised the cost and spirit of the Rebellion better than anything in the entire franchise.The pandemic might’ve continued to affect the box office in 2021, but the year gave us a wealth of quality television, including a total of 21 rare 100% Certified Fresh seasons (all of which joined the stellar seasons of Rotten Tomatoes’ 100% Club). Props to showrunner Tony Gilroy for shaking off the memory of Obi-Wan Kenobi (inessential) and The Book of Boba Fett ( baaad) with one of the most politically vital shows on telly. Following Diego Luna’s loner thief from Morlana One to Aldhani to the prison moon of Narkina 5, Andor charted the galaxy’s pre-Vader, pre- Rogue One days as bureaucracy slowly turns into tyranny – and how the resistance took shape against it. The worldbuilding tends not to be a problem with these series, but it was especially strong in Andor. The best Star Wars series so far – with an honourable mention to The Mandalorian – Andor eschewed the kind of go-nowhere fan service that’s blighted so many of the recent movies and TV spin-offs in favour of progressive storytelling, pin-sharp writing and immaculate casting. Severance, a dystopian office-based reminder of why working from home rules, mixed chilly sci-fi beats with a pointed investigation of our one-sided relationship with capitalism, Guillermo del Toro opened his freaky, spooky Cabinet of Curiosities and The Boys returned to rip the ever-living piss out of superhero infatuation – and explode some more heads. Released in the US mid-summer, FX’s majestic restaurant dramedy The Bear subjected its UK audience to an agonising wait that proved more than worth it when it finally dropped in October. The Star Wars universe swelled still further with three new spinoff series, the best of which, Andor, was up there with anything on the small screen in 2022.īut you didn’t need orcs and dragons to deliver the goods. Then HBO’s disappointing Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon, came along and asked it to hold its poisoned barley beer, marrying big-scale intrigue with alarming amounts of Targaryen incest. The mûmakil in the room was Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings, which raised the bar for enormo-budgeted home viewing that no one else could possibly compete with. It was the year that streaming and TV supersized itself.

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