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Here’s today’s reminder that we are halfway through the year 2021, brought to you by another list of this year’s best entertainment.

We know about all the best books of the year, as well as all the best movies of the year, and now the time is here to look at all the best TV shows and series we’ve seen thus far.

Mashable has gone ahead and picked their best 10, and we have to start with Mare of Easttown, which should make every single one of these lists.

Yes, we’re fans.

Mare of Easttown

HBO’s drama became a rare case of must-see viewing and appointment TV — a dying breed that the Home Box Office is one of the last networks to dominate.

Kate Winslet and her Pennsylvania accent lead this cast which feels as real as any small town in middle America. Winslet gives Mare endless rough edges, cloaking the character’s pain in her gruff determination to solve the crime. Whether or not you saw that final twist coming, Mare sucked you in and kept you coming back.

You can watch Mare of Easttown on Showmax.

Girls5Eva

It seems like fads in fashion and social media are bringing the sexy from the year 2000 back, with Y2K nostalgia all over the place.

Including this comedy, Girls5Eva, which sees a fictional turn-of-the-millennium girl group reunite 20 years after their last hit:

It scratches the Y2K nostalgia itch while also satisfying our need to rethink some of the things we were saying and doing back then — all in a zippy half-hour package that has the bite we’d expect from a show executive produced by Tina Fey and created by Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt alum Meredith Scardino.

You can check out Girls5Eva on Peacock.

Hacks

Hacks is a provocative piece about the business of comedy, featuring Jean Smart, who does something quite different to her role as Mare’s mother in Mare of Easstown:

The show, about a falling star older comedian (Smart) and the once-hot, now-blacklisted writer (Hannah Einbinder) that begins to work with her on her Las Vegas standup act, is snappy and smart, with plenty to say about women who never got their due.

It could easily have turned into a screed against Gen Z or Boomers, but instead, Hacks (which was co-created by Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky) is a thoughtful exploration of change and comedy, engaging to both those who know a lot about the inside of Hollywood as well as those who look on from afar.

You can find Hacks on HBO Max.

Mythic Quest Season 2

Mythic Quest is at it again after a pretty decent first season, although this time around it promises a more intricately detailed and emotionally complex set of lovable characters:

This cutting workplace comedy from the creators of It’s Always Sunny tempers the mean streak of the FX series with an inescapably wholesome gooey center.

It’s also confidently grounded in the day-to-day work of building a hit video game, capturing all the inherent ridiculousness of a serious-minded job where people can spend a whole day debating the merits of a virtual shovel.

Mythic Quest season one and two are available on Apple TV+.

WandaVision

Paul Bettany and Elisabeth Olsen feature in this comedy-drama that blends classic television and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which two super-powered beings living idealised suburban lives begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems:

There is truly no reason that a sitcom-pastiche-grief metaphor starring two tertiary Avengers should be a knockout hit and television masterclass, but Jac Shaeffer knew what she was doing with WandaVision.

The genre-bending series brought us back to the MCU after more than a year-and-a-half without it, and immediately elevated storytelling possibilities for Marvel, Disney, and TV itself.

You can check out WandaVision on Disney+.

Looks like strong female characters have been ruling the TV series roost this year, then.

For the other series on the list, head here.

[source:mashable]