The A.V. Club’s favorite TV episodes of 2021

Succession, Ted Lasso, Pen15, Loki, and more of our favorite episodes of the year

By Baraka Kaseko, Danette Chavez, Sam Barsanti, William Hughes, Gabrielle Sanchez, Shanicka Anderson, Matt Schimkowitz, Gwen Ihnat, A.A. Dowd | December 17, 2021 | 4:10pm

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The A.V. Club’s favorite TV episodes of 2021

Screenshots, clockwise from top left: The Bachelor: After The Final Rose, What We Do In The Shadows, Ted Lasso, Loki, Succession Graphic: Natalie Peeples

The A.V. Club’s end-of-year coverage is officially underway—check out our picks for the best TV performances and film scenes. Before our best TV shows list arrives next week, we’re looking back at our favorite episodes of the year with this week’s AVQ&A:

What was your favorite episode of TV this year?

For All Mankind, “The Grey”

Just as leaned into the pyrotechnics for the closer to its excellent second season, I find myself choosing spectacle over everything else for my favorite episode of the year. Which isn’t to say that “The Grey,” FAM’s feature-length season-two finale, is just bombast without meaning. Written by Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, “The Grey” is one of the tensest episodes of the year, as much for the questions it raises about the future of the space program as the fate of two of its most beloved astronauts. Overall, the second season just keeps growing on me (I regret being earlier this year!), in large part because of this finale, with its nods to Die Hard and Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan. [Danette Chavez]

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