What were the best plot twists in TV show history? If we were to ask you this question, I’m sure many series would come to mind. From all-time classics like Lost and Game of Thrones to fan favorites like The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural and recent releases like The Good Place and Mr Robot, television has treated us to plenty of revelations we didn’t see coming, and made us love these series even more. But what about plot twist in TV shows from the 2020s?
Even though many amazing series have been releases in these past few years – last year, alone, gave us plenty of binge-worthy material – we haven’t seen a surprisingly low number of memorable plot twists lately. That said, a few shows still managed to take us completely by surprise, so before you hire a college essay writing service to answer this question for you, take a look at our list below! Here are 5 great plot twists from 2020s, ranked from worst to best! Needless to say, spoilers ahead!
5. Mare of Easttown (2021)
Let’s start with this HBO limited series from 2021 with Scandi crime vibes! In the Pennsylvania-set Mare of Easttown, Kate Winslet plays detective Mare Sheehan, who is called to investigate the murder of a teenage girl named Erin (Cailee Spaeny). As she does that, she’ll end up uncovering secrets about the small town where she lives, as well as her own life. There are many plot twists in Mare of Easttown, the main one being that Erin’s murderer is her cousin John (Joe Tippett), with whom she had been having an affair. Except that that’s not the main twist at all. Erin’s affair still remains what got her killed, but the killer was actually Ryan (Cameron Mann), John’s son, who found out about it.
This plot twist was unexpected, and encompasses what’s memorable about Mare of Easttown as a whole. This isn’t a series about heroes and villains, and both John and Ryan are portrayed as flawed people who made mistakes and didn’t know how to handle their own share of trauma. So why is it at the bottom of the list? Because what we liked the most about Mare of Easttown is the way the narrative slowly unfolds over the course of each episode, dedicating equal attention to Erin’s unsolved case and Mare’s own share of loss and trauma.
4. Squid Game (2021,-)
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, chances are you already know all there is to know about Netflix’s Squid Game. But just in case you don’t, the show was a sensation when it first hit Netflix in 2021, so much so that another season is coming soon, and Netflix even shared the first stills of season 2! The premise of this South Korean series is highly relatable: a young man named Song Gi–hoon (Lee Jung-jae) is in huge debt and has no idea of how to make some money. Just when he thinks there’s nothing left he can do, he is approached by a businessman who offers him money in exchange for playing a game. Needless to say, Song Gi–hoon agrees.
As expected, alas, there is a catch. If our well-meaning hero doesn’t win the game – which would make him a millionaire – he won’t make it out alive. Each episode is more engaging than the next, and as we become acquainted with all the people we might soon have to bid farewell to as less players remain, we get closer to uncovering the truth. And when we finally do… Well, it’s not what we expected at all. It turns out that Player 001, the oldest participant in the game, is actually the one who set it all up: a wealthy old man who was, quite simply, bored and with plenty of money to spend. This twist is so memorable because it perfectly encompasses the society in which we live, with our constant need to be entertained. It certainly deserves to be part of our list of great plot twists from the 2020s and it makes us even more excited about Season 2!
3. Ted Lasso (2020-2023)
Ted makes the biscuits himself! Rebecca is not actually evil! Jamie is a lovely person when he doesn’t listen to his toxic father! Roy spends his evenings at yoga club! Even in Season 1 of Ted Lasso alone, there are plenty of twists that we didn’t see coming in this show about a small-time college football coach from Kansas (Jason Sudeikis) who somehow gets hired to coach a professional football team in England despite knowing absolutely nothing about British football. In fact, the show itself starts with a twist that solves the mystery: AFC Richmond’s new owner, Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), hired him because she wants him to fail, out of spite toward her ex-husband who used to own the club and cheated on her.
But that’s not a plot twist at all, as it’s the first thing we find out in Season 1 of Ted Lasso. In the series’ best tradition of subverting TV tropes, the only one who doesn’t know what’s going on is actually Ted himself, which makes for some interesting dynamic and highly compelling storytelling. Over the course of its three seasons, Ted Lasso keeps on surprising us, and the biggest surprise comes at the end of Season 2, when we find out that kitman-turned-coach Nate-The-Great (Nick Mohammed) has actually been – to borrow a line from the next plot twist on this list – “angry at Ted all along”. Nate becoming Richmond competitor West Ham’s new coach is a pretty big twist, but an even bigger one comes in Season 3, where in the best Ted Lasso tradition, we see Nate’s relationship with both Ted and the team evolve in new, unexpected ways. We’ll let you find this part out for yourself!
2. WandaVision (2021)
All together now: “It was Agatha All Along!”. It feels like ages ago when WandaVision, the MCU’s first show, hit Disney Plus, and blew our minds with its innovative storytelling. The series takes place after Avengers: Endgame and revolves around Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision’s (Paul Bettany) relationship – only, it all unfolds over the course of different types of TV sitcom, which we somehow get to watch through a screen, and where the characters themselves often address us. This first plot twist is explained quite early in the series, when we find out that Wanda is actually controlling everything, unable to cope with the grief over the loss of Vision and completely in denial.
But there’s a second plot twist, and it’s a lot juicier. When some unexpected things start happening to Wanda, our protagonist doesn’t know what’s going on. At first, we think it might all be due to the humans who have started to figure out what Wanda is up to, and to penetrate her world. But toward the end of the show, it is finally revealed that Wanda’s neighbor Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) all along has been working against her all along. This is absolutely one of the best plot twists of 2020s TV shows, mainly due to the clever use of the first twist to make us think another one won’t be coming so soon. As a result, it took us completely by surprise, and it even gave us a fantastic song and… An Agatha series of her own! Watch the trailer above!
1. Severance (2022,-)
Severance succeeded in the task of giving us one of the best plot twists we’ve ever seen in television. The show takes place in a world where some companies require their employees to undergo the titular procedure, which effectively splits their brain in two. Even though you’re still the same person, once you’ve been “severed” you won’t be able to remember any of the time you spend at work, just like the you who’s working will have no idea of who you are in the outside world. The show’s protagonist is Mark Scout (Adam Scott), who becomes the head of his department in the first episode, after learning that a co-worker (and former best friend) is somehow not working there anymore.
As the show goes on, it’s up to us to figure out what exactly is going on, and what the company is really doing underneath this bizarre facade. But Severance has something else in store for us: the show’s premiere introduces us to a character named Helly (Britt Lower), who tries to leave the firm from the moment she wakes up inside it, lying on a table and with no recollection of who she is. In the finale, we find out that, in the outside world, Helly is actually Helena Eagan, and she’s actually involved in the company itself. Not only that, but the very reason that Helly is trapped in this nightmare is that Helena – her “outie” – is set to prove to everyone that Severance is the “best thing ever”, so much so that she has secretly been filming her all this time. We’ll soon find out what happens next in Season 2, which hits Apple TV+ in January 2025!
The 5 2020s shows listed above are all fantastic series with great plot twists! If you’re looking to be surprised, there is plenty of binge-worthy material here that should do the trick! Happy watching!
