Best Sitcoms Of 2021 | Screen Rant
Isabella Ramos In 2021, sitcom TV shows pushed the genre's boundaries, moving situational comedy forward with diverse stories. Here are the best sitcoms of 2021.
With a year as turbulent as 2021, sitcoms were a much-needed escape from reality - here are the best sitcoms of the year. Comedy has always been a look into the collective psyche of any society. It is a tool that people use to process the world around us through the humorous situations that the characters on screen are experiencing. Though the traditional sitcom format has become less popular than in previous decades, the sitcom has made a resurgence over the past few years. With new, genre-pushing shows changing the comedy game, and a switch from the tradition of the multi-camera show filmed in front of a studio audience, to single-camera shows with a more cinematic feel, the television comedy is among the best shows that TV has to offer in this new golden age.
2021 saw sitcoms that blended genres in order to tell more human stories. The sitcoms of the past often featured cliché stories with common tropes which put the characters in funny situations that needed to be resolved by the end of the episode. By leaning into the human issues of dramas, as well as the hallmarks of other genres such as horror and true crime, many of the sitcoms of 2021 felt less concerned about confining themselves to the qualities of the traditional sitcom and more concerned with telling the best story possible. 2021 was a diverse year in television, with many new sitcoms premiering that center around women and people of color.
Some of the best comedies of 2021 are also some of the best television shows of the year, regardless of genre. WandaVision, for instance, captivated audiences of both Marvel fans and people new to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with its decade-jumping sitcom-within-a-show created as a manifestation of Wanda’s trauma, while Reservation Dogs introduced the world to an entire cast of Indigenous actors while offering a realistic depiction of life on the rez. Sitcoms in 2021 reflected the diversity of the real world while providing a much-needed escape from the reality of living through the coronavirus pandemic. Here are the best sitcoms of 2021.
10. Abbott Elementary
Abbott Elementary premiered right at the end of 2021, debuting on ABC in December. Its late premiere is the only thing keeping this show from being ranked higher. Abbott Elementary is a show about teachers in an inner-city elementary school in Philadelphia, created by and starring Quinta Brunson. While only two episodes have aired, this show is already proving itself to be a worthy successor of The Office. It's a workplace mockumentary, much like The Office, and Brunson's eager young teacher character Janine Teagues is a hapless millennial icon in the making. She is passionate about her job and her students, but finds little of that same passion in return, least of all from the careless and incompetent Principal Coleman, played by Janelle James. It also features familiar sitcom faces like Everybody Hates Chris star Tyler James Williams and Sheryl Lee Ralph, who played the stepmom on Moesha, as fellow Abbott Elementary teachers.
9. We Are Lady Parts
Originally created for Channel 4 in the UK, We Are Lady Parts also streamed on Peacock in 2021, to much acclaim. This show is unabashedly all girl power, and changes the way that Muslim girls are typically portrayed in the media. It's about an all-female Muslim punk band called Lady Parts, who find a shy and nerdy biochemical engineering Ph.D. student named Amina (Anjana Vasan) who just happens to also be a really great guitarist. Amina, however, has terrible stage fright that causes her to be sick. The band bonds through music while navigating cultural differences, relationships, and the perils of friendship, all while trying to make a splash in the London punk scene.
8. PEN15
Airing its second and final season in 2021, PEN15 is a satire about what life was like for Millennial middle schoolers in the year 2000. Created by Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle, who also play middle school versions of themselves on the series, it follows Maya and Anna as they embarrassingly struggle to fit in. The cringe-comedy style of the show both satirizes the early '00s and perfectly captures what it's like to be in middle school trying desperately to be cool and, in doing so, totally failing. Erskine and Konkle ended the series after only two seasons, and it is sure to be missed.
7. The Wonder Years
The Wonder Years is a reboot of the classic 1980s sitcom of the same name. The series is narrated by Don Cheadle and stars Elisha Williams as Dean Williams, the main character in the same role as Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) from the original series. Just like the 1980s version, it's about a 12-year-old boy who is growing up in the turbulent late 1960s. The story takes on a different meaning, however, for Dean, a Black kid growing up in Montgomery, Alabama during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. The Wonder Years tackles issues pertaining to family, friendships, and social change in a heartfelt way that keeps the warmth of the original series intact. The star of the original, Fred Savage, is an executive producer on the series, and he also has directed several episodes.
6. Reservation Dogs
Reservation Dogs is a first-of-its-kind series created by Sterlin Harjin and Taika Waititi, which features all Indigenous writers and directors and has an almost entirely Indigenous cast and crew. It follows four Indigenous teens who live on the reservation in Oklahoma. After the death of their friend Daniel, the group of teens, a cast of characters known as the Rez Dogs, are trying to save up enough money to move to California, committing minor crimes in order to help save up the money. Bear (D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), who thinks of himself as the Rez Dogs' leader, has visions of a spirit guide, who attempts to give him life guidance that is just a bit underwhelming. The show is full of Indigenous humor and culture, offering a real look at what it's like to be an Indigenous American kid in today's world.
5. Ted Lasso
During the pandemic lockdowns of 2020, Ted Lasso became an unlikely respite. The story, which surrounds an American football coach who is hired to coach an English soccer team, could have been a silly one-off joke about confusing the two sports called "football" but proved itself to be a heartwarming fish-out-of-water tale, wonderfully performed by Saturday Night Live alum Jason Sudeikis. Ted Lasso returned in 2021 for a second season, which this time, explored Ted's trauma and also took a deeper look into the lives of the other characters in the series. The second season also expanded the show from a 30-minute format into hour-long episodes.
4. WandaVision
WandaVision is a show that leans into every sitcom trope spanning 70 years of American television, and in doing so became one of the most interesting projects that Marvel Studios released in 2021. It centers around Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen, as she copes with the grief of losing Vision (Paul Bettany) after the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. Wanda creates sitcom realities where she and Vision can live out their perfect lives together, just like the characters of the sitcoms that she grew up watching. The first few episodes of the series are completely in the world of the sitcoms, leaving little clue as to why Wanda and Vision are suddenly living in a sitcom about their lives. While the show doesn't shy away from its connection to the greater Marvel universe, it does a great job as a legitimate sitcom, turning the classic sitcom tropes on their heads and even filming each episode the way it would have been filmed in the decade that it references. It is an innovative show and a love letter to sitcoms, making it one of the most interesting things to release in 2021.
3. The Sex Lives of College Girls
Mindy Kaling proves herself as a comedic mastermind with this show. Her stories always blur the lines between funny and real, and The Sex Lives of College Girls might just be her freshest take yet. It follows four freshmen girls at the fictional Essex College, who are discovering their sexuality while navigating their lives at school. It's a refreshing take on freshman year, and is probably one of the most honest looks at what college is like for young women. The young women in the show have active sex lives, though they're not over-sexualized or belittled because of their libido.
2. What We Do In The Shadows
What We Do In The Shadows is a mockumentary series created by Jemaine Clement based on the film of the same name, which he created and starred in alongside Taika Waititi. It surrounds the lives of three vampires, Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), who live in Staten Island with Nandor's familiar Guillermo (Guillen). In its third season, which premiered in 2021, the vampires struggle to figure out what to do with Guillermo, after he is revealed to have been a vampire hunter. The show not only is a self-referential satire, paying off small jokes in later episodes, but openly references familiar vampire media. Blade actor Donal Logue, for instance, plays a version of himself who has decided to become a real vampire after making the movie. What We Do In The Shadows has consistently been a hilarious love letter to the horror genre, and season 3 did not disappoint. The show will return for season 4 in 2022.
1. Only Murders In The Building
Steve Martin and Martin Short have been a dynamic comedy duo for decades. With Only Murders In The Building, the duo returns, bringing in former Disney Channel star Selena Gomez to round out the main cast. The show follows three neighbors who live in a luxury apartment building in New York and become unlikely friends over their favorite true-crime podcast. When a neighbor is murdered in their building, the trio decides to come together to create their own podcast and investigate the murder. Only Murders blends the murder mystery and sitcom genres perfectly, while also exploring the lives of the diverse characters in the story. Mabel, the young woman played by Gomez, was childhood friends with the murder victim and knows a secret about his past, but she fears that if anyone knows the truth, she will become a suspect in his murder. Martin and Short's return to television was a triumph, creating a fresh take on a classic concept and certainly qualifying as one the best sitcoms of 2021.
