1 Ted Lasso
When I found myself choking up at an instant-classic Christmas episode—in the middle of August!—that was so overwhelmingly heartwarming it almost caused acid reflux, I realized what a gift Ted Lasso is for all seasons. This year’s Emmy darling, about a Kansas football coach transplanted to England to lead a soccer team, is a feel-good underdog story that expertly blends saltiness and spice with an underlying sweetness. It’s a welcome tonic forour toxic times. In its second season, as folksy-corny Ted (Jason Sudeikis, center, with Brendan Hunt and Nick Mohammed) faces his demons with the help of a warily compassionate sports psychologist (the terrific Sarah Niles), our love only grows for the show’s deep bench of memorable characters. And for Ted’s way with words: “You are more mysterious than David Blaine reading a Sue Grafton novel at Area 51.” He said it. Streaming on Apple TV+
2 WandaVision
My other favorite show of 2021 is the biggest surprise: a Marvel series that rarely feels like a Marvel series, at its best when it uncannily re-creates classic sitcom tropes—with The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched and The Brady Bunch as obvious models—in equal parts homage, parody and cosmic mystery. Using TV nostalgia as a smokescreen to cushion the grief of “Scarlet Witch” Wanda Maximoff (pitchperfect Elizabeth Olsen, left) over losing her android soulmate Vision (suave, droll Paul Bettany), WandaVision is visionary entertainment. Streaming on Disney+
3 Succession
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BLITZ FRIDAY, NOV. 22
It is clearly \"the worst of times\" in this stirring Dickensian nail-biter of a movie, set during WWII's early days, when the German Luftwaffe bombed London nightly for months.
INTERIOR CHINATOWN TUESDAY, NOV. 19
Willis Wu (Silicon Valley's Jimmy O. Yang) is stuck.
BEATLES '64 FRIDAY, NOV. 29
In February 1964, the Beatles made their first flight to an America still reeling from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
MUSIC BY JOHN WILLIAMS
\"There's no one else like John Williams,\" says Laurent Bouzereau, director of this documentary.
Spellbound FRIDAY, NOV. 22
Three years after earning Oscar nods for Being the Ricardos, Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman are playing a much different celebrated couple with issues.
Our Little Secret WEDNESDAY, NOV. 27
The Lindsay Lohan (below) renaissance continues with this sassy anti-rom-com about a woman miserably stuck spending the holidays with her bitter ex (Pretty Little Liars' lan Harding) after they realize their new significant others are siblings.
The Merry Gentlemen WEDNESDAY, NOV. 20
If you've seen Chad Michael Murray in the closing number of Netflix's Mother of the Bride, you know he has the moves (and the abs) for his gig in this Magic Mike meets balls, er, boughs of holly.
BLACK DOVES THURSDAY, DEC. 5
Oh, bullet hole-y night!
Emilia Pérez WEDNESDAY, NOV. 13
A gritty crime drama about a Mexican cartel boss that's also a pulsating musical?
Our Oceans WEDNESDAY, NOV. 20
Nature docs always aim to top what has come before, and this five-parter delivers with glorious footage and facts that will make your jaw drop to the sea floor.
