As 2021 comes to a close, we look back at all the television shows that have kept us entertained and binge-watching through the night.
From a record-breaking dystopian South Korean drama to Kate Winslet’s turn as a small-town detective, the year proved to be another strong one in television, thanks to brilliant acting and great storylines as well as creative original content.
‘Mare of Easttown’
The crime drama limited series focuses on Easttown detective sergeant Mare Sheehan (Winslet), who is investigating the murder of a young girl and the disappearance of another in a small Pennsylvanian town. The show also delves into how she’s trying to keep her personal life together after the death of her son, her divorce and a custody battle with her former daughter-in-law.
‘The White Lotus’
The American satirical comedy-drama takes place at the luxurious White Lotus resort in Maui. It follows the exploits of various employees and guests at an exclusive Hawaiian resort over the span of one highly transformative week. The first episode opens up with the reveal that someone staying at the hotel has died and then flashes back to a week earlier to find out how and who it is.
‘Squid Game’
The first Netflix original from South Korea follows Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), a divorced father and gambling addict who lives with his mother and struggles to financially support his young daughter. He takes part in Squid Game with a group of other debt-ridden contestants – 456 of them to be precise. They are placed in an arena where they must compete in a series of challenges adapted from popular children’s games, until one emerges as the sole winner of a $38.5 million prize.
‘WandaVision’
The first television series from the Marvel Cinematic Universe has Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany returning as Avengers superheroes Wanda Maximoff and Vision and takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Using different sitcom styles to move through the decades, the series focuses predominantly on Wanda and the ways she’s learnt to deal with her heartache and grief following the events of Endgame.
‘Hellbound’
The South Korean drama from Yeon Sang-ho is set in an alternative universe in the near future where people can be summoned to hell by an apparition that randomly appears to pronounce the impending death date of people who've purportedly committed some form of crime. The sentence is then carried out on a specific date and time by three smokey Hulk-like beings who appear out of nowhere, literally tearing apart the damned and torching them to a crisp, sending them to "hell". However, things get complicated when a newborn baby gets condemned.
‘Ted Lasso’
The second season of the comedy-drama returned, picking up where the first season ended, with football team AFC Richmond relegated from the English Premier League. The show was once again met with critical acclaim despite a focus on heavier themes including the mental health of various characters, including titular Ted Lasso, thanks to a new sports psychologist brought on to help the team.
‘Money Heist’
The Spanish series reached cult status once it began showing on Netflix in 2017. Although it was initially supposed to be a limited series, after massive success on the streaming platform, Netflix decided to renew the show with an increased budget. This year marked the beginning of the end, as the fifth and final season shown, with the last five episodes out in December. After wondering for more than two years how the group would escape their second heist at the Royal Mint of Spain, all was revealed with a satisfying end to the beloved show.
‘Nine Perfect Strangers’
This American mini-series is based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty. It’s about nine strangers who gather for 10-day retreat at a mysterious health and wellness resort and, one by one, spill their secrets. Featuring a strong cast, including Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, Luke Evans and Regina Hall, Nine Perfect Strangers has you guessing throughout – mostly about what genre it falls under. Is it a drama? A thriller? Science fiction? The answer to this is not particularly clear by the end, and it leaves you with plenty more questions about love, life and happiness – in a good way.
‘Succession’
The American satirical comedy show explores the themes of power, politics and family through the eyes of an ageing, ultra-wealthy media mogul and his four grown children. In its third season, the series centres on the Roy family, who are dysfunctional owners of Waystar Royco and fight for control of the company amid uncertainty over the health of the family’s patriarch, Logan Roy.
‘Clickbait’
The eight-episode limited series tells the story of Nick Brewer, a family man who gets kidnapped and held hostage as a video of him surfaces online saying he will die if it gets five million views. As the view count climbs and the video goes viral, his sister and wife try to piece together how to save him. Every episode focuses on a new character and the show keeps you on your toes until the very end.
‘Only Murders in the Building’
This comedy crime drama boasts a fantastic star cast – Steve Martin, Selena Gomez and Martin Short – and keeps you hooked right until the end. The show is about three neighbours in New York who are obsessed with true crime. After a suspicious death takes place in their affluential apartment building, they decide to investigate and record a podcast of their own to document it. The whodunnit has hilarious quips, quirky characters, chemistry between the protagonists and guest appearances.
‘Midnight Mass’
Netflix horror fans will be familiar with Mike Flanagan thanks to his previous works The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor. This year, he returned to the streaming platform with Midnight Mass. The limited series centres around the return of Riley Flynn to Crockett Island to live with his family after serving time in jail. At the same time, a mysterious new priest appears in town to replace the old one after he disappears, and mysterious occurrences start to happen. The show deals with many themes, such as religion and immortality.
'The Great'
Brutal and beautiful, the "occasionally true" drama-comedy The Great centres around Catherine the Great (Elle Fanning) and returned for its second season. The show picks up four months since the coup against her husband Peter the Great (Nicholas Hoult) and both sides are at a standstill. In the first season, viewers watched as Catherine adapted and adjusted her views to the ways of Russia and now we see that she is more determined than ever to rule, having been unable to convince Peter to abdicate.
Read more
A year in pop culture: 20 of the biggest viral and celebrity moments of 2021
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The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
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Company profile
Company name: Suraasa
Started: 2018
Founders: Rishabh Khanna, Ankit Khanna and Sahil Makker
Based: India, UAE and the UK
Industry: EdTech
Initial investment: More than $200,000 in seed funding
The biog
Hobby: "It is not really a hobby but I am very curious person. I love reading and spend hours on research."
Favourite author: Malcom Gladwell
Favourite travel destination: "Antigua in the Caribbean because I have emotional attachment to it. It is where I got married."
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
Torque: 374Nm @ 5,200rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 10.5L / 100km
MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Manchester United v Barcelona, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Match on BeIN Sports
At a glance - Zayed Sustainability Prize 2020
Launched: 2008
Categories: Health, energy, water, food, global high schools
Prize: Dh2.2 million (Dh360,000 for global high schools category)
Winners’ announcement: Monday, January 13
Impact in numbers
335 million people positively impacted by projects
430,000 jobs created
10 million people given access to clean and affordable drinking water
50 million homes powered by renewable energy
6.5 billion litres of water saved
26 million school children given solar lighting
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
England's lowest Test innings
- 45 v Australia in Sydney, January 28, 1887
- 46 v West Indies in Port of Spain, March 25, 1994
- 51 v West Indies in Kingston, February 4, 2009
- 52 v Australia at The Oval, August 14, 1948
- 53 v Australia at Lord's, July 16, 1888
- 58 v New Zealand in Auckland, March 22, 2018
Series information
Pakistan v Dubai
First Test, Dubai International Stadium
Sun Oct 6 to Thu Oct 11
Second Test, Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Tue Oct 16 to Sat Oct 20
Play starts at 10am each day
Teams
Pakistan
1 Mohammed Hafeez, 2 Imam-ul-Haq, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Asad Shafiq, 5 Haris Sohail, 6 Babar Azam, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed, 8 Bilal Asif, 9 Yasir Shah, 10, Mohammed Abbas, 11 Wahab Riaz or Mir Hamza
Australia
1 Usman Khawaja, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Shaun Marsh, 4 Mitchell Marsh, 5 Travis Head, 6 Marnus Labuschagne, 7 Tim Paine, 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Peter Siddle, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Jon Holland
Rajasthan Royals 153-5 (17.5 ov)
Delhi Daredevils 60-4 (6 ov)
Rajasthan won by 10 runs (D/L method)
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
More on Quran memorisation:
The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Personalities on the Plate: The Lives and Minds of Animals We Eat
Barbara J King, University of Chicago Press
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
The specs: 2019 Audi A7 Sportback
Price, base: Dh315,000
Engine: 3.0-litre V6
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 335hp @ 5,000rpm
Torque: 500Nm @ 1,370rpm
Fuel economy 5.9L / 100km
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Roger Federer's 2018 record
Australian Open Champion
Rotterdam Champion
Indian Wells Runner-up
Miami Second round
Stuttgart Champion
Halle Runner-up
Wimbledon Quarter-finals
Cincinnati Runner-up
US Open Fourth round
Shanghai Semi-finals
Basel Champion
Paris Masters Semi-finals
