TOP 10 of 2022: TV Shows
I'm finishing 2022 by looking back at my top 10 choices for the best TV of 2022, plus some honourable mentions and disappointments.
This year, I clocked in over 950 episodes of TV, not all of them new shows but on the whole, I’ve kept up with new series at probably a better rate this year than any before. I’d say it’s largely been a strong year, even if there has been way way too much content, more than ever.
Anyway, here were the TV shows that both affected me the most, and seemed to contain the greatest artistic measure, from 10 through to number 1.
Would love to know your thoughts as to your top 10 choices...
10. THE AFTERPARTY (Season 1) (Apple)
Building their reputation on auteur-driven non-franchise concepts, Apple have had a heck of a year in the TV business and The Afterparty is a good example as to why. Imagine a mash up of Knives Out and Game Night and you’re stylistically in the right ball park, with Tiffany Haddish’s dogged detective facing an array of diverse suspects in a murder at a party, with each episode focusing on the backstory of a particular guest/suspect, which naturally pieces together the tricksy web of events at the heart of the story.
It’s clever, laugh out loud funny, at points thrilling, experimental and playful, and utterly rockets along. A great example of how well-told murder mysteries are very much in vogue.
9. PEACEMAKER (Season 1) (HBO)
James Gunn absolutely taking the piss and doing so with aplomb. You wonder now he’s running DC’s film/TV arm if he’ll get to do something as cheeky as Peacemaker, but let’s hope so. Playing off John Cena’s entertaining turn in The Suicide Squad, this blast of fun works to both indulge in superhero action but also invert a bunch of tropes, mock and lampoon the nature of teamwork and heroism, and tell a familial narrative at the heart of it.
Rude, crude but playing to Cena’s comedic strengths, it’s a cracker of a season. And that song and dance title sequence? Worth the admission price alone.
8. WEDNESDAY (Season 1) (Netflix)
Tim Burton in quality modern directorial effort shocker! Let’s face it, he’s been pretty wank over the last decade or more. Expectations are quite low even if he’s one of the singular directorial visionaries of his age. Wednesday though, the first four of which he helms and a show for which he very much sets the tone, is stylistically excellent. Imagine Sex Education spliced with Harry Potter in a Burton-Gothic universe, and you have the measure of this Addams Family modern take squared on sardonic Wednesday as she hunts a monster while settling into her boarding school.
Jenna Ortega is revelatory in the role, spawning a TikTok craze, and you can see why she’s on the pop culture money - she makes a series filled with darkly fun constituent elements and propulsive storytelling. It’s the Next Big Thing and I’m here for it.
7. OZARK (Season 4) (Netflix)
All good things come to an end and Ozark has been a mighty fine show, accruing quality and good will from the off as each season betters the last. The final year is extended and threatens once or twice to run out of steam but then Ozark will twist unexpectedly, or Julia Garner will unleash a thrilling ferocity, or Laura Linney will quietly terrify, and the series keeps you right on the hook. The ending is… questionable. Open and fascinating in terms of the ultimate rather nihilistic message of the show but it’s in step with the dark, desperate tone of the show.
If not Breaking Bad, the show it most clearly sought to emulate, Ozark ends as a more than worthy imitator. I’ll miss it.
6. FROM (Season 1) (Epix)
An unexpected entry and probably the least well known show on the list, given it aired in the barely watched channel Epix in the States before transferring to Sky Sci-Fi over in the U.K. and barely registering. Why is it here? Simply, because it’s the finest example of mystery box storytelling outside of Severance & Yellowjackets I’ve seen in some time, and probably the closest analogue to Lost for years - with or without Lost star Harold Perrineau in the lead role. Lost meets Stephen King set in a backwater town cut off from civilisation and, frankly, it was a ten episode ride with a hell of a cliffhanger.
In some ways, quite old fashioned storytelling and likely to infuriate as many people as it entertains, but inject it into my veins. More people need to know From exists.
5. GAME OF THRONES: HOUSE OF THE DRAGON (Season 1) (HBO)
Probably among the most anticipated series of the year and, in the main, House of the Dragon didn’t disappoint. I think the biggest surprise was just how much like Game of Thrones it actually turned out to be—from style, concept and even using the same theme tune and similar credits—but it worked to pair this tale of the Targaryen dynasty to its forebear. Imagine the original show with most of the fantasy and mysticism ripped out—dragons aside, of course—and that’s Ryan Condal’s approach. Dynasties, families, brewing wars, tensions - all here, buoyed by great performances particularly from Paddy Considine, Matt Smith & Olivia Cooke.
Largely a prequel for the rip-roaring events to come, as depicted in George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood tome, it immersed us back into a world I’d very much missed.
4. THE DEVIL’S HOUR (Season 1) (Amazon Prime)
Where did this come from? Blimey O’Riley, The Devil’s Hour flew out of the gates at Amazon with a six-part fusion of dark, Millennium-esque nihilistic drama, Thomas Harris cat and mouse tensions and the hint of a supernatural undercurrent which takes you on a heck of a journey. Jessica Raine does a lot of the heavy lifting as Lucy, a detective with a very strange son, while Peter Capaldi has a great time as a Lecter-style serial killer guiding her toward weird truths. Tom Moran’s series balances just enough mystery box storytelling with compelling character development to make this a full meal, even while setting up ideas that desperately need to play out in a future season.
Just great. A real surprise. Had no business being as good as it was.
3. THIS IS GOING TO HURT (BBC)
What hurts the most about This Is Going to Hurt is just how much these compassionate, skilled people should not be working so hard to ensure a basic human right. Though supremely well produced on all levels and throughly entertaining, Adam Kay gives us a manifesto for why we shouldn’t just protect the NHS at all costs, but demand better care is taken of it.
Added thoughts:
2. BETTER CALL SAUL (Season 6) (Netflix)
This had to be here. The end of one of television’s more tragic tales, that of the (sort of) rise and continuing fall of Jimmy McGill aka Saul Goodman, as Vince Gilligan & Peter Gould’s show finally catches up with the black and white future Better Call Saul spent its entire run teasing. I came to this late, binging the first five seasons just this year, and I’m so pleased that I got to experience the last few weeks of a show that captivated, tortured and ultimately ripped out my heart and threw it in the gutter.
Masterful storytelling. Masterful performances from Bob Odenkirk & Rhea Seehorn. A fitting ending for one of the greatest dramas of all time.
1. SEVERANCE (Season 1) (Apple)
Nothing, however, came close to beating Severance for me this year. What a show. What. A. Show. Dan Erickson’s concept, fuelled by Ben Stiller as a directorial talent, is a thrilling and fascinating fusion of 70s conspiracy thrillers, mystery box drama, religious observance and corporate satire, with Adam Scott leading a tremendous cast of new faces and old legends in a complex and incredibly well thought out world with a killer idea at the heart - what would happen if you could go to work and never have to remember it? That just scratches the surface of nine episodes of tremendous storytelling which actually works even better on a second viewing. I’ve launched one of the most successful episodic recaps of the show, Illumination Above All, and picking through the detail has been mindblowing.
Simply the best first season of anything I’ve watched in years. If the rest of the show continues this quality, we’re looking at an all time classic.
HONOURABLES:
THE SANDMAN (Season 1) (Netflix)
This likely features on a lot of top 10 lists for 2022 but it didn’t quite get there for me. The first five or six episodes are largely excellent, faithfully and creatively adapting some of Neil Gaiman’s most thrilling single issue Sandman stories. The back half, when the overarching Rose narrative kicks in, really loses a head of steam and the season peters out into sub-Doctor Who fantasy storytelling.
Still, loads of promise overall for the future of this show.
MS MARVEL (Season 1) (Disney Plus)
Easily the strongest Marvel show on TV in what has been an average year generally for the studio on multiple fronts. Iman Vellani strikes an instant chord as the titular heroine Kamala Khan, whose family dynamic, friendships and comedic balance with superhero action work together nicely. It has more of a neighbourhood Spider-Man feel at points, although it tries to pack too much story into six episodes with a back half that veers into partition time travel theatrics that over egg the pudding somewhat.
On the whole though, a lot of fun & delivers a great cliffhanger that will lead nicely into The Marvels movie next year.
STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS (Season 3) (Amazon Prime)
Without doubt the best modern Star Trek show by some distance as it stands and another solid season of Lower Decks confirms it. Mike McMahan’s series has found its voice, operating somewhere between the cheeky referential tone of Rick & Morty and a satirical Trek lampoon, but the quality truly lies in the characters and performances. We are genuinely seeing a crew grow together in consistent fashion around all of the jokes and reference points and the series is if anything appreciating the more we get of it.
Sure, it’s geared up mainly for Trek fans but therein lies the joy.
THE BOYS (Season 3) (Amazon Prime)
Eric Kripke’s series arguably gets bolder each season and the third is no exception. Even after a second run that vastly improved over a stodgy first, this season might be the best yet. Some really cathartic moments, audaciously naughty visuals (this has easily the goriest sex scene ever put on screen) and the ongoing evolution of Anthony Starr’s Homelander into one of the greatest TV villains of all time.
Can’t wait for another season of this.
ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING (Season 2) (Disney Plus)
Cards on the table: I didn’t really like the first season of Only Murders in the Building all that much. Despite the Steve Martin Short pedigree, and the fun podcast true crime premise, I found it all a bit grating and strung out. I didn’t see the appeal and I came back to give it a second chance. Boy, was that a wise decision. This worked for me to a much greater degree. Martin & Short, and their third wheel Selena Gomez, clicked as a trio to a greater degree while the mystery—building off the first season’s storylines and cliffhanger—felt far more satisfying.
Funnier, breezier and more confident, it made me really excited for a different third season likely to come.
DISAPPOINTMENTS:
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER (Season 1) (Amazon Prime)
This was either going to go one of two ways - be truly outstanding, revoltionary TV or be phenomenally underwhelming given it’s easily the biggest TV series in history. It was the latter, in the end. Although ‘phenomenally’ is probably unfair. None of this was bad. It was just really really average. It didn’t look the price tag for one thing - House of the Dragon not only looked closer to cinema but had far stronger storytelling. The acting here was hit & miss (although Morfydd Clark was a great Galadriel) and though it does pick up in the last two or three episodes, the journey there is a slog unless you’re a Tolkien/fantasy die hard.
One bonus point for Bear McCreary’s score, which is gorgeous stuff. Let’s hope the show itself can crank up a gear next time.
THE OUTLAWS (Season 2) (BBC)
What the heck happened here? Stephen Merchant’s comedy drama about a group of low level criminals doing community service had a fun first six episodes. It was implausible, sure, but it was charming, set in the under-represented Bristol (my nearest adopted home city now) and somehow convinced Christopher Walken to join the cast! This second season you would never guess was filmed at the same time because it falls into a ridiculous set of contrivances in order to embroil these people into a criminal plot & face Claes Bang’s sinister The Dean (he has way more fun playing a much better bastard in Apple’s Bad Sisters). It ends up being just really poor writing with characters who simply wouldn't exist.
The final episode feels like a full stop and that’s good, because this has already way outstayed its welcome.
OBI-WAN KENOBI (Disney Plus)
How did LucasFilm manage to pull off an entire show about Obi-Wan Kenobi and make it this dull?
Ewan McGregor does well with what he has but six months on, I can barely remember anything about it. Except how much I loathed seeing Darth Vader in his prime as an underwhelming TV villain. Not awful. Just should have been a movie.
A bit more on this show and IP generally here.
KILLING EVE (Season 4) (BBC)
To be fair, Killing Eve had been on the slide since what was an exceptional first season the series never could top. Jodie Comer remained fantastic even when given naff material as her deadly psychopath Villanelle, and rightly has a burgeoning star career to show for it, but the quality systematically plumetted after Phoebe Waller-Bridge decided to do only one season. The end of S2 nicely evoked Hannibal but after that we had successive seasons where the plot either went nowhere or in circles, and numerous showrunners failed to recapture the magic. And as for the series finale? Rubbish. Just pure rubbish.
We still have that brilliant first season. My advice is to tell newcomers just to watch that and check out of the rest.
STAR TREK: PICARD (Season 2) (Amazon Prime)
Just best to read my in-depth review because my feelings haven’t changed. A step down and another dent in my faith when it comes to modern live-action Star Trek.
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Anyway, what are your choices for top 10, honourable mentions & disappointments? Do let me know in comments and continue the conversation.
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