It’s a uniquely human gift to become emotionally invested in fiction. Even though we know what we’re watching on television shows isn’t real, we feel for the characters — laughing when they laugh, crying when they cry, and screaming “fuck yeah!” when they do a particularly fuck yeah–worthy thing.
These are the TV moments that dropped our jaws, made us fist pump on our couches, and yes, made us yell “fuck yeah” at the screen in 2021.
12. Marty fires Ike, The Shrink Next Door
In The Shrink Next Door, Marty (Will Ferrell) is a nice guy. Too nice by a mile. Doctor Ike (Paul Rudd), however, is not nice. He's an unethical psychiatrist, a predator, a manipulator, and a truly terrible houseguest. When Marty comes to Ike for professional help, Ike sees an easy mark and begins a horrifying real-life retelling of If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, which rips Marty away from his family, his friends, his money, and his autonomy over his own life. The shocking reality that Ike had Marty in his sway for almost thirty years makes it easy to assume he'll never escape. That makes the moment when Marty fires Ike — using the doctor's own manipulative "fake lawyer" gambit — all the more satisfying. Marty couldn't regain those lost years, but standing up for himself late was definitely better than never. —Alexis Nedd, Senior Entertainment Reporter
How to Watch: The Shrink Next Door is streaming on Apple TV+.
11. Catherine goes for the kill, The Great
At the end of The Great Season 1, Catherine (Elle Fanning) fails to seal the deal on her coup by refusing to kill her husband (Nicholas Hoult). Season 2 deals not only with the aftermath of leaving the former Russian emperor alive as she takes over his empire, but also with Catherine and Peter's budding feelings for each other as they become parents to baby Paul. The will-they-won't-they makes for some great romantic tension, but the untenability of falling in love with the husband you really ought to have murdered builds through the season until Catherine finally — finally! — hits her limit and goes in for the kill. Shoulda done it ages ago, Catherine. —A.N.
How to Watch: The Great is streaming on Hulu.
10. Otis and Maeve, Sex Education
After two years of obstacles and poor timing, the dissolution of Otis (Asa Butterfield) and Maeve's (Emma Mackey) sex advice clinic, and eventually their friendship, Sex Education fans had all but given up on a happy ending for the could-be couple — at least for the time being. Season 3 surprised them and us in episode 5 by stranding the estranged friend-crushes at a French rest stop, where they fight, talk, and finally kiss. Complications ensue, but by the final episode, we get a brief and glorious glimpse of what a relationship between these two would look like — only before one final twist snatches it away. —Proma Khosla, Entertainment Reporter
How to Watch: Sex Education is streaming on Netflix.
9. The Guardians of the Multiverse, What If…?
Think back to 2012. If you plucked one iconic moment out of your brain from the first Avengers movie, what would it be? For most people, that's an easy choice: the moment when the Avengers finally assemble. It's tough for any one moment to truly stand out in a series as sweeping as the one taking shape in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but if there's any one sequence that defines a "before" and "after" for the ongoing story, it's that formative moment in Avengers.
Marvel's Disney+ series What If...? exists in the first place to toy with expectations set by more than a decade's worth of film and streaming TV. In episode after episode, memorably iconic MCU moments are reimagined around whatever off-the-wall premise is being explored. Given all that, it's no surprise that the big "Avengers, assemble!" remix came during the What If...? finale. Of course, it's the Guardians of the Multiverse here, not the Avengers. But the emotional impact is the same. We inch forward in our seats, shout for joy, and soak in every last second of a beautiful, season-long payoff that is itself rooted in more than 10 years of Hollywood history. —Adam Rosenberg, Senior Entertainment Reporter
How to Watch: What If...? is streaming on Disney+.
8. Gi-hun's final phone call, Squid Game
It was clear from the first episode of Squid Game that whoever survived this ordeal would have a lot to live with. That pays off in the finale, when we catch up with a broken Gi-Hun (Lee Jung-jae) a year after he wins the whole pot but can’t escape what he endured in the game. Just as things start to look up — after he rescues Sae-Byeok’s brother and plans to move to America for his daughter — he sees The Salesman, brutalizing yet another desperate soul to kick off the year's games.
He manages to wrest the games’ calling card away from the man. Then as Gi-Hun walks the jetway, he dials. His voice quakes with pain and anger as he declares that he is not a horse, but a person. He demands to know who is running the games and how they can do such a thing. Front Man answers coolly, telling Gi-Hun not to get any ideas. Gi-Hun can’t forget, and he certainly can’t forgive. The call ends, but his decision is made; he turns around and walks out of the jetway, back to Korea, and back to the games. So, he can end them once and for all. —P.K.
How to Watch: Squid Game is streaming on Netflix.
7. Classic Loki remakes Asgard, Loki
Classic Loki (Richard E. Grant) gets the MVP award for his brief but memorable appearance in Loki's fifth episode, "Journey Into Mystery." In the coolest moment of Marvel's timey-wimey series, Classic Loki makes an epic stand against the monster Alioth. His magical rebuilding of Asgard makes for a perfect distraction, and for a perfect "f*** yeah" moment. Aside from the awesomeness of seeing Asgard again, this is the most powerful any Loki variant has ever been, opening up future possibilities for extreme mischievousness. Glorious purpose, indeed. —Belen Edwards, Entertainment Fellow
How to Watch: Loki is streaming on Disney+.
6. That bridge fight, Arcane
This one isn't an "F- yeah" moment for any character in Netflix's League of Legends animated show Arcane. It's kind of the opposite, actually, since Vi's lost faith in Powder (Mia Sinclair Jenness) is confirmed when Jinx (Ella Purnell) shows up to interrupt their mission. This is an "F- yeah" for Arcane as a whole, with the ensuing fight between Ekko (Reed Shannon) and Jinx proving how beautiful and creative the show can get even in its most violent, heartbreaking moments. Ekko opens the fight with his pocket watch swinging, and the ticking brings both characters back to their more innocent days, when Ekko and Powder would play ball together. The animation becomes hazy and nostalgic, then snaps back to the present-day style when the ball transforms into a bullet. Whew. F-yeah, animation team. —A.N.
How to Watch: Arcane is streaming on Netflix.
5. Tom gets a win, Succession
It's hard to root for anyone in Succession since they're all — you know — terrible people. But the betrayal by Tom freaking Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) in the Season 3 finale is one of the most meaningful and exciting twists the show has ever seen. Tom spent most of the season worrying about going to jail. Then, he spent the rest of the season worrying that his wife Shiv (Sarah Snook) didn't love him. She even flat-out says so at one point, in a seriously ill-advised attempt at dirty talk. So when an opportunity arises for Tom to reclaim some of the power he once had, he takes it, throwing Shiv and her brothers under the bus in order to gain some status with Logan (Brian Cox). It's the biggest power play of the season, and it sets up a real bloodbath between husband and wife as the show moves forward. The moral of the story: If your partner is going to prison, maybe be nice to them? —B.E.
How to Watch: Succession is streaming on HBO Max.
4. Never perform again you MAN, Hacks
Few things are worse than an obnoxious, unfunny comedian. Hacks presents us with a truly insufferable example with Drew (Adam Ray), the owner of a comedy club who harasses the female performers. He's smug, gross, and all too familiar, which is why it's so cathartic when comedy legend Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) calls him out in her set. She makes Drew an offer he can't refuse, promising to give him $1.69 million if he never performs again. Smart absolutely owns this scene, with Deborah's anger bubbling just under a facade of sharp wit. When Drew accepts her offer, her joy at his humiliation is our joy as well. "I can't get rid of 'em all, but I can get rid of one," Deborah says. We offer our sincerest thanks. —B.E.
How to Watch: Hacks is streaming on HBO Max.
3. Crystal takes the mic, Heels
There aren’t a lot of TV moments that make me stand up and yell in my living room, but Heels episode 5 was one of them. Michael Waldron’s wrestling drama is so well-written that you don’t quite realize you would die for Crystal Tyler (Kelli Berglund) before this moment.
She's freshly disrespected by Jack Spade (Stephen Amell), who wants to keep his storylines focused on male wrestlers. Meanwhile, brother Ace (Alexander Ludwig) fires Crystal from valet duty so he can trot out the new girl he’s sleeping with. And Crystal has had enough. She’s got Wild Bill’s (Chris Bauer) voice in her ear, telling her that she’s got something special and should take what’s hers. So she does — literally. She snatches the microphone out of Ace’s hand when she enters the ring so that she can have the satisfaction of dumping him for Bobby Pin (Trey Tucker) instead of being framed as a lying adulterer. The crowd goes wild and pretty soon, Ace does too. But for that entire monologue, the Duffy Wrestling League is Crystal’s house, and we can’t wait to see what she does next. —P.K.
How to Watch: Heels is streaming on Starz.
2. It was "Agatha All Along," WandaVision
WandaVision is the first Disney+ series to start painting a broader picture of the MCU, and it's not without its share of surprises. Much to our chagrin, Mephisto wasn't one of them. Yet a character that's had close ties to Marvel comic's version of the Devil did get her own big coming-out moment: Agatha effing Harkness (Kathryn Hahn).
Throughout the season, fans loudly voiced their suspicion that Wanda's nosey, overly friendly neighbor Agnes would turn out to be an MCU version of the magic-wielding comic book character, who is a survivor of the Salem Witch Trials. Our patience was rewarded with an expected reveal that arrived in the most unexpected and musical of ways — but one that was nonetheless thematically appropriate for WandaVision.
"Agatha All Along," that Grammy-nominated earworm we all found ourselves inexplicably humming for multiple weeks after it aired, is one of Marvel's greatest reveals to date. It was a surprise reveal that theory-loving fans were prepared to not be surprised about, and the arrival of a kickass character, who we'll surely be seeing plenty more of soon enough. —A.R.
How to Watch: WandaVision is streaming on Disney+.
1. You're a Mean One, Mr. [REDACTED], Hawkeye
Worlds are colliding! Finally! Just days before Spider-Man: No Way Home unleashed a multiversal mindf*ck on every member of the MCU fandom, Hawkeye trotted out its penultimate episode on Disney+, and it was delivered with one hell of a final shot. It's a blurry image of Kate Bishop's mom, Eleanor, in a room with a large man wearing a white suit. His profile is unmistakable: This is Wilson Fisk, Marvel's Kingpin (Vincent D'Onofrio).
For fans familiar only with MCU movies and Disney+ series, the import of the moment may have been lost. But anyone who remembers the Netflix-produced MCU shows recognizes this big crime fella. Kingpin was a major antagonist there and a nemesis to Daredevil in particular. His sudden appearance in a Disney+ series amounts to hard confirmation — for the very first time! — that what happened on Netflix is still canon, and still very much a factor in Marvel's future plans. Oh, how lucky we are. But let's maybe let Danny Rand sit this one out, OK? —A.R.
How to Watch: Hawkeye is streaming on Disney+.
Honorable Mention: Pietro???, WandaVision
After a year with no new Marvel releases, the fandom had high hopes for WandaVision. The show itself was great, but equal to its critical reception was the level of hype each new episode brought with its twists and reveals. The greatest of all of those moments was when actor Evan Peters, who played Quicksilver in Fox's X-Men series, appeared on WandaVision as Wanda's brother Quicksilver, previously played in the MCU by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. At the time it appeared to be a hardcore confirmation of the multiverse and the X-men crossing over into the MCU, which would have been the biggest "F- yeah" moment of the year if not the decade. But alas, Peters's Pietro was in fact Fietro, a fake Pietro projected into the body of a Westview resident named Ralph Bohner. Ralph. Bohner. Still, points are awarded for the awesome few weeks when we all thought the MCU's biggest crossover event was happening right before our eyes. —A.N.
How to Watch: WandaVision is streaming on Disney+.
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