The Top 25 Highest Rated TV Shows of 2021

HIGHEST RATED NEW TV SHOWS COLLECTION

The Top 25 Highest Rated New TV Shows of 2021

Here is a looked at the highest rated brand new scripted TV shows that debuted in 2021. The ratings are averaged from the scores on IMDb, and Rotten Tomatoes.

25 – Cruel Summer

Drama | Mystery

20 April 2021 – Ongoing | 1 Season

NETWORK:

IMDb: 7.4 | RT Audience: 7.6 | RT Critics: 9.4

COMBINED SCORE:

8.13 /10

SYNOPSIS:

Taking place over three summers – 1993, 1994, 1995 – in a small Texas town, a beautiful popular teen, Kate, is abducted and, seemingly unrelated, a girl, Jeanette, goes from being a sweet, awkward outlier to the most popular girl in town and, by ’95, the most despised person in America.

24 – Ghosts

Comedy

7 October 2021 – Ongoing | 2 Seasons

NETWORK:

IMDb: 7.8 | RT Audience: 7.9 | RT Critics: 9.1

COMBINED SCORE:

8.27 /10

SYNOPSIS:

Samantha and Jay throw caution to the wind when they convert their recently inherited country estate into a bed-and-breakfast. Call it mislaid plans. Not only is the place falling apart, but it’s also inhabited by spirits of previous residents — whom only Samantha can see and hear.

23 – Chucky

Crime | SciFi & Fantasy

12 October 2021 – Ongoing | 2 Seasons

NETWORK:

IMDb: 7.3 | RT Audience: 8.4 | RT Critics: 9.1

COMBINED SCORE:

8.27 /10

SYNOPSIS:

After a vintage Chucky doll turns up at a suburban yard sale, an idyllic American town is thrown into chaos as a series of horrifying murders begin to expose the town’s hypocrisies and secrets. Meanwhile, the arrival of enemies — and allies — from Chucky’s past threatens to expose the truth behind the killings, as well as the demon doll’s untold origins.

22 – Station Eleven

Drama | SciFi & Fantasy

16 December 2021 (Ended) | Limited Series

NETWORK:

IMDb: 7.6 | RT Audience: 7.4 | RT Critics: 9.8

COMBINED SCORE:

8.27 /10

SYNOPSIS:

A post apocalyptic saga spanning multiple timelines telling the stories of survivors of a devastating flu as they attempt to rebuild and reimagine the world anew while holding on to the best of what’s been lost.

21 – The Sex Lives of College Girls

Drama | Comedy

18 November 2021 – Ongoing | 1 Season so far

NETWORK:

IMDb: 7.8 | RT Audience: 7.5 | RT Critics: 9.7

COMBINED SCORE:

8.33 /10

SYNOPSIS:

Follow four college roommates as they arrive at New England’s prestigious Essex College. A bundle of contradictions and hormones, these girls are equal parts lovable and infuriating as they live out their new, free lives on campus.

20 – Resident Alien

Sci-Fi & Fantasy

27 January 2021 – Ongoing | 2 Seasons so far

NETWORK:

IMDb: 8.1 | RT Audience: 7.5 | RT Critics: 9.4

COMBINED SCORE:

8.33 /10

SYNOPSIS:

Crash-landed alien Harry takes on the identity of a small-town Colorado doctor. Arriving with a secret mission, he starts off living a simple life…but things get a bit rocky when he’s roped into solving a local murder and realizes he needs to assimilate into his new world. As he does, he begins to wrestle with the moral dilemma of his mission and asking the big life questions like: “Are human beings worth saving?” and “Why do they fold their pizza before eating it?”

19 – Shadow and Bone

Drama | Sci-Fi & Fantasy

23 April 2021. – Ongoing | 1 Season so far

NETWORK:

IMDb: 7.6 | RT Audience: 8.8 | RT Critics: 8.8

COMBINED SCORE:

8.40 /10

SYNOPSIS:

In a world cleaved in two by a massive barrier of perpetual darkness, a young soldier uncovers a power that might finally unite her country. But as she struggles to hone her power, dangerous forces plot against her. Thugs, thieves, assassins and saints are at war now, and it will take more than magic to survive.

18 – Dr. Death

Drama | Crime

15 July 2021 – Ongoing | 1 Season so far

NETWORK:

IMDb: 7.6 | RT Audience: 8.5 | RT Critics: 9.2

COMBINED SCORE:

8.43 /10

SYNOPSIS:

The terrifying true story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch, a flourishing Dallas neurosurgeon whose patients suddenly begin becoming permanently maimed or dead. As victims piled up, two fellow physicians set out to stop him.

17 – The North Water

Drama | Mystery

14 July 2021 (Ended) | Limited Series

NETWORK:

IMDb: 7.6 | RT Audience: 8.3 | RT Critics: 9.5

COMBINED SCORE:

8.47 /10

SYNOPSIS:

Henry Drax is a harpooner and brutish killer whose amorality has been shaped to fit the harshness of his world, who will set sail on a whaling expedition to the Arctic with Patrick Sumner, a disgraced ex-army surgeon who signs up as the ship’s doctor. Hoping to escape the horrors of his past, Sumner finds himself on an ill-fated journey with a murderous psychopath. In search of redemption, his story becomes a harsh struggle for survival in the Arctic wasteland.

16 – 1883

Western | Drama

19 December 2021 (Ended) | Limited Series

NETWORK:

IMDb: 8.8 | RT Audience: 8.0 | RT Critics: 8.8

COMBINED SCORE:

8.53 /10

SYNOPSIS:

Follow the Dutton family as they embark on a journey west through the Great Plains toward the last bastion of untamed America. A stark retelling of Western expansion, and an intense study of one family fleeing poverty to seek a better future in America’s promised land — Montana.

15 – Yellowjackets

Mystery | Drama

14 November 2021 – Ongoing | 1 Season so far

NETWORK:

IMDb: 7.9 | RT Audience: 7.8 | RT Critics: 10

COMBINED SCORE:

8.57 /10

SYNOPSIS:

This equal parts survival epic, psychological horror story and coming-of-age drama tells the saga of a team of wildly talented high school girls soccer players who become the (un)lucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the remote northern wilderness. The series chronicles their descent from a complicated but thriving team to savage clans, while also tracking the lives they’ve attempted to piece back together nearly 25 years later.

14 – Hawkeye

Drama | Comedy | Action & Adventure

24 November 2021 (Ended) | Limited Series

NETWORK:

IMDb: 7.5 | RT Audience: 9.0 | RT Critics: 9.2

COMBINED SCORE:

8.57 /10

SYNOPSIS:

Former Avenger Clint Barton has a seemingly simple mission: get back to his family for Christmas. Possible? Maybe with the help of Kate Bishop, a 22-year-old archer with dreams of becoming a superhero. The two are forced to work together when a presence from Barton’s past threatens to derail far more than the festive spirit.

13 – Squid Game

Action & Adventure | Mystery | Drama

17 September 2021 – Ongoing | 1 Season so far

NETWORK:

IMDb: 8.0 | RT Audience: 8.3 | RT Critics: 9.5

COMBINED SCORE:

8.60 /10

SYNOPSIS:

Hundreds of cash-strapped players accept a strange invitation to compete in children’s games—with high stakes. But, a tempting prize awaits the victor.

12 – WandaVision

Sci-Fi & Fantasy | Mystery | Drama

15 January 2021 (Ended) | Limited Series

NETWORK:

IMDb: 7.9 | RT Audience: 8.8 | RT Critics: 9.1

COMBINED SCORE:

8.60 /10

SYNOPSIS:

Wanda Maximoff and Vision—two super-powered beings living idealized suburban lives—begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems.

11 – Power Book III: Raising Kanan

Drama

18 July 2021 – Ongoing | 2 Seasons so far

NETWORK:

IMDb: 7.4 | RT Audience: 8.5 | RT Critics: 10

COMBINED SCORE:

8.63 /10

SYNOPSIS:

Set in South Jamaica, Queens, in 1991, this prequel to “Power” revolves around the coming of age of Kanan Stark.

10 – Leverage: Redemption

Action & Adventure | Comedy | Drama

8 July 2021 – Ongoing | 1 Season so far

NETWORK:

IMDb: 8.3 | RT Audience: 8.4 | RT Critics: 9.3

COMBINED SCORE:

8.67 /10

SYNOPSIS:

The Hitter, the Hacker, the Grifter and the Thief are together again, this time with help from a new tech genius and corporate fixer, to take on a new kind of villain. From the man who created an opioid crisis from the comfort of his boardroom to the shadowy security firm that helps hide dangerous secrets for a price – when someone needs help, they provide… Leverage.

9 – Maid

Drama

1 October 2021 (Ended) | Limited Series

NETWORK:

IMDb: 8.4 | RT Audience: 8.6 | RT Critics: 9.4

COMBINED SCORE:

8.80 /10

SYNOPSIS:

After fleeing an abusive relationship, a young mother finds a job cleaning houses and fights to provide a better future for her child.

8 – Loki

Drama | Sci-Fi & Fantasy

9 June 2021 – Ongoing | 1 season so far

NETWORK:

IMDb: 8.2 | RT Audience: 9.0 | RT Critics: 9.2

COMBINED SCORE:

8.80 /10

SYNOPSIS:

After stealing the Tesseract during the events of “Avengers: Endgame,” an alternate version of Loki is brought to the mysterious Time Variance Authority, a bureaucratic organization that exists outside of time and space and monitors the timeline. They give Loki a choice: face being erased from existence due to being a “time variant” or help fix the timeline and stop a greater threat.

7 – Dopesick

Drama | Crime

13 October 2021 (Ended) | Limited Series

NETWORK:

IMDb: 8.6 | RT Audience: 9.3 | RT Critics: 8.8

COMBINED SCORE:

8.90 /10

SYNOPSIS:

The story of how one company triggered the worst drug epidemic in American history. Look into the epicenter of America’s struggle with opioid addiction, from a distressed Virginia mining community, to the hallways of the DEA, and to the opulence of “one percenter” Big Pharma Manhattan.

6 – Reservation Dogs

Drama | Comedy | Crime

9 August 2021 – Ongoing | 2 seasons so far

NETWORK:

IMDb: 8.1 | RT Audience: 8.9 | RT Critics: 9.9

COMBINED SCORE:

8.97 /10

SYNOPSIS:

This comedy follows the exploits of four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma who steal, rob and save in order to get to the exotic, mysterious and faraway land of California.

5 – Hacks

Drama | Comedy

13 May 2021 – Ongoing | 2 seasons so far

NETWORK:

IMDb: 8.2 | RT Audience: 8.7 | RT Critics: 10

COMBINED SCORE:

8.97 /10

SYNOPSIS:

Explore a dark mentorship that forms between Deborah Vance, a legendary Las Vegas comedian, and an entitled, outcast 25-year-old.

4 – Time

Drama

6 June 2021 – Ongoing | 1 season so far

NETWORK:

IMDb: 8.2 | RT Audience: 8.8 | RT Critics: 10

COMBINED SCORE:

9.00 /10

SYNOPSIS:

A prisoner consumed by guilt, an officer with an impossible choice. What does it take to survive? A tense story of punishment and principles, starring Sean Bean and Stephen Graham.