2021 Media Review: Shows

The top 10 streamed shows of 2021 were:

10. The Handmaid’s Tale

9. The Witcher

8. Lucifer

7. Star Wars: The Clone Wars

6. Ted Lasso

5. Titans

4. Kobra Cai

3. Wandavision

2. The Mandalorian

1. Stranger Things

Between an american soccer coach in the UK, superheroes, space bounty hunters, other dimensional beings and the literal devil, we were watching some pretty out-there stuff last year. What are the overarching themes that connect many of these trending stories and what are some pot holes, or should I say Plot holes, that we should try to avoid? Once again, we are adding a Spoiler Alert to this weeks video!

Wandavison was the hit first show of the MCU on Disney+. There was a lot riding on the success of Wandavision as it would set the tone for this new way of telling the huge stories that we had come to expect from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but in smaller pieces and more methodical pacing broken up over a number of weeks. The risk paid off, however, as Wandavisioin managed to capture viewers' attention and curiosity as we were left hanging week to week, sending the internet bloggers into a storm trying to guess where all of the threads would lead. At the core of all of this, and what ended up holding it together, was a powerful story of grief, loss and how far someone would be willing to go in order to bring back someone they loved. We not only got to see the idealized version of what Wanda thought her hoped her life could have been with Vision, but we also got to see how her fantasy affected the people around her. Her inner pain eventually lead to her causing great pain to everyone in the town. Wanda walked through denial, depression, bargaining, anger and eventually acceptance, all in a very grandiose way. WandaVision also explored how the people around us in our times of need play a role in our recovery. Sadly, there are those who will take advantage of our pain and use it to manipulate and control our decisions. On the other hand, there are those who see our hurt and are willing to risk being hurt themselves in order to reach out to us.

Ted Lasso was another big story last year. The first season introduced us to the overbearing positivity of Coach Ted as the fish out of water and in over his head American football coach hired to lead a European soccer team in Britain. While season 1 had just begun to scratch the surface of Ted’s underlying anxiety stemming from a recent divorce which lead to him experiencing a severe panic attack towards the end, season 2 takes it even further. Introducing a psychiatrist at the beginning of the season, the show sees Ted wrestle through deep seated trust and abandonment issues and the effect his father’s death had on him. Other characters in the show all had their lives shift dramatically as new love interests came into focus, while established relationships were challenged. Critics of the shows first season were quick to poke holes in the apparent “power of positivity” message preached by the shows titular character, but season two revealed how the over-the-top niceness belied a hurricane storming under the surface.

Once again, many of the top shows of last year, as with the top movies we covered last week, had a focus on makeshift families and overcoming challenges with the help of friends. It’s important to recognize how none of these stories could exist without the relationships that ground them. In fact, the quality of the stories is not in how high the stakes can get, how incredible the powers and abilities of the heroes can become, how great the graphics look or even how well it is all acted out. The glue that holds these stories together is how well they’ve developed the relationships. If we can believe that these characters really care about each other, then we can accept whatever fantastical premise these characters find themselves in. In our own lives, these qualities of compassion, loyalty, courage and love are needed to keep the relationships in our lives strong.

Now, for the plot holes – We very clearly have in innate understanding that these values have true worth and merit. We recognize that there is real good that comes from compassion, loyalty, courage and love but we also recognize our own failure to live out what we know are the right things to do. Rather than owning up to our failures in these areas, we often try to justify ourselves instead. We know that it’s wrong and it hurts when other people treat us in this way, but we fabricate a worldview that allows for us to make those same mistakes without culpability. Underneath it, we’re really the good guy. This is why a show like Lucifer can be so appealing. I mean, if the actual devil is really just this misunderstood, unlikely hero, then why can’t we be. His cool, sexy, aloofness is how we want to see ourselves but the underlying heart of gold is what really counts. We justify our past actions and behaviors in relationships thinking it was because of our circumstances, our experiences and the fact that true love hadn’t come along and brought out who we really were underneath. Then, just like Lucifer in the show, we can have the opportunity to become God ourselves, creating our own reality where we were really the good guy all along. There has been a consistent trend in the narratives of some of the most popular shows and movies that go to great lengths to show that the good guy really isn’t so good and the bad guy really isn’t so bad, just misunderstood or right in their own perspective. This pursuit of the moral grey area, also known as moral relativism, is really just narcissism in disguise. If I can grant you whatever you think is right for you, I’m really only attempting to preemptively build my case for whatever I think is right for me. The pursuit of moral relativism is really just the pursuit of self above all else. But, because we know that there are values and principles that supersede self, we can’t help but be drawn to true virtue. Thankfully, Lucifer is finally done after its 6th season. This next year, don’t simply get sucked into stories because they feed that subconscious longing for self-affirmation. Instead, try to find stories of true virtue, value and substance.

Next week, we’ll be concluding our month-long recap of the media from last year as we look at the internet’s top hits from 2021. Remember to send us some of your favorite songs with positive messages about relationships to add to our WholeHeartEd Spotify playlist which we will be sharing with all of you during our live podcast on the last Thursday of the month. Let us know your thoughts on the top shows from last year and remember that you can catch up on all of our previous videos under the videos tab!