Squid Game Squeezes Out Competition as Long-Form Storytelling Dominates Best Series Awards

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Submitted by RJ Carter on Thu, 02/03/2022 - 20:24

When Critical Blast began our "Best of Year" awards in our first year, the category was "Best Television Series." It didn't take long before the advent of streaming services turned the entire paradigm of home-delivered episodic storytelling on its head. Netflix, Hulu, Disney +, Amazon, and a host of others have all become de facto television networks, each putting out exclusive content that drives viewer counts. It's become such a go-to choice

for so many that this year we only had one traditional television network make the cut with enough votes to earn a spot in the rankings: CW's Stargirl, which took 4.41% of all votes cast, tying with Netflix's Lupin, IMDb's Alex Rider, and Apple TV's Ted Lasso.

Mark Millar's superhero epic, Jupiter's Legacy, was cancelled after it's first season run, but it still ranked as the best series for 5.88% of our readers, led by a pair of Marvel shows on Disney +, Loki and Hawkeye, with 8.82%. The Marvel boys couldn't match the magic of WandaVision, however, which pulled away with 13.24% of the vote, tying with the Netflix animated series, Arcane.

But it was Netflix's emotionally charged Korean drama, Squid Game, that had everyone talking last year, with its outrageous premise and heart-rending psychological conundrums. The life-or-death stakes applied to children's games for an outrageous sum of money to the winner had people binging and chatting -- and, indeed, voting. Squid Games claimed the top spot for our Best Series of 2021 with a healthy 17.65% of the vote.

Series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk promises that he has a lot more of this story to tell, so expect a strong showing for the second season when it gets released.

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