I watched a lot of TV in 2021, and as a result, this list is long. I'm going to have to keep commentary on each item at a minimum so that this article is something you can read in under an hour. I did rewatch all of Stranger Things, and a lot of seasons of Dexter, but I'm not listing the re-watches. Here goes, in roughly chronological order.
Wandavision - At the end of this year, it's tough to accept that the first MCU television offering was this year. Wandavision was great on many levels. I've written about it a bunch of places.
Falcon & The Winter Soldier - Probably my least favorite of the current MCU television offerings, but I still loved it.
Invincible - I wrote about Invincible on Geekdad. It's a great show, and I'm looking forward to a second season.
Doom Patrol - I watched the first two seasons largely because Alan Tudyk was in it, and I love the guy. The show is weirder than I'd ever have guessed. Haven't gotten to season three yet.
His Dark Materials - Surprisingly good, and true to the books. Worth checking out.
For All Mankind - One of the best TV shows I watched all year, and very possibly a new entrant to my top five TV shows of all time. For All Mankind envisions an alternate history in which the USSR won the space race in 1969, which led to an entirely different space race.
M.O.D.O.K. - While it wasn't nearly as good as any of the canon MCU content, I enjoyed the show and its Adult Swim stop-animation humor.
Fringe - Fringe is one of my all-time favorite shows, and I went back and re-watched all five seasons.
Russian Doll - Russian Doll is a fun little spin on the Groundhog Day repeating day thing.
Sweet Tooth - Post-apocalypse, and some people are born half-animal. Weird, but interesting.
Manifest - Manifest annoyed me. It was like The 4400 meets Highway to Heaven. I watched most of the first season before I lost interest. The whole "calling" thing started to drive me nuts after a while.
Electric Dreams - An anthology show on Amazon, with some good episodes, and some so-so episodes, all based off the works of Philip K Dick. There's a few I'd recommend. Firstly, "Autofac", which deals with an Amazon-like factory run entirely by AI that continues to produce and ship useless goods after most of humanity has been wiped out in nuclear wars. Next, "Real Life", which stars Anna Paquin and Terrance Howard, which is almost certainly based on We Can Remember It For You Wholesale. Third, "Safe and Sound", which has an activist in fractured future America and her daughter moving from the wasteland West Coast camps to the more civilized Eastern US. Lastly, "Human Is", starring Bryan Cranston, which reminded me a lot of the 2001 Gary Sinise movie Imposter. It's funny, because having looked up someone else's episode rankings, they're putting many of my least favorites on top, so your mileage may vary.
Loki - Another of the Marvel shows, and while it wasn't my own favorite of the year, my family certainly enjoyed it. The end had some big ramifications for the Marvel Cinematic universe.
Chernobyl - Everyone had talked about this show a couple years ago or whenever it originally came out, so I figured it was time to watch it. It wasn't bad.
What If? - Probably my favorite bit of Marvel television this year, although WandaVision was a very close second. The animation and the out-of-the-box premise allows the writers to go places they'd never have otherwise gone, and to rehash favorite scenes from all of the films, but with a twist.
Counterpart - My wife and I had started watching Counterpart when it was new, but never made it past the first episode. I went back to it over quarantine, and my favorite thing was how similar to Fringe the whole alternate universe thing was. Even though it was no Fringe, it was all worth it for the second season episode Twin Cities, which revealed the origins of the phenomenon, and was simply amazing.
Utopia - A deeply weird Amazon series which I went through pretty quickly. I enjoyed it, but it's difficult to recall much about it now.
Y, The Last Man - While I was initially excited for another comic-to-screen adaptation, the show quickly devolved into Walking Dead without zombies. Maybe I'm just burnt out on Dystopian futures.
Squid Game - I initially avoided it because it was foreign, but after all the buzz, I decided to check it out. It was more entertaining than I'd expected.
The 4400 - We're talking about the 2021 CW remake of the 4400, not the original 4400, which I still love. I'm going to continue watching it, but my take at the moment is that the plot is moving so much more slowly than the original, and I just want something to happen.
Wheel of Time - It's been a long time coming, and I'm digging it. More thoughts here.
Hawkeye - I really like it. I'd currently place it third of the five 2021 MCU television shows, behind WandaVision and What If?
Get Back - I really liked the long-form documentary. I've heard complaints that it's too long, but I loved every minute, and I spent a week afterwards singing Oh, Darling, I Dig a Pony, and Two of Us.
Dimension 404 - Dimension 404 is a dorky little Hulu anthology show which is similar in many ways to Amazon's Electric Dreams, but despite the less-serious nature of the stories, I liked it for the actors. I really like Malcolm Barrett, who I know from Timeless, Ryan Lee, who I know from Super 8, and Patton Oswalt, who I know because... it's Patton effing Oswalt. And to top it all off, it's all narrated by Mark Hamill, which I'd honestly never have known if I didn't look it up.