The Best TV Shows Of 2022
From House of the Dragon to Reservation Dogs, here are my top picks for 2022.
Sometimes the TV and movie landscape can feel a little bleak. Big, promising, hyped-up shows that we’ve been looking forward to finally drop and end up being major disappointments. Or the shows we fall in love with are cancelled after one season.
Fortunately, there are so many TV shows out there these days and if you sift through all the garbage, there are diamonds to be found. Below is my list of top shows of 2022, and I know that I’m missing a few good ones that I simply didn’t have time to watch yet. They’re on my bucket list, of course, and please don’t hesitate to shoot me your favorites and recommendations on Twitter or Facebook.
I’m dividing the following list into two categories: New and Returning shows. We’ll start with . . . .
The Best Returning TV Shows Of 2022
Resident Alien Season 2 (SyFy)
This show doesn’t get enough love. Resident Alien is one of the funniest shows on TV, and Alan Tudyk is simply brilliant as Harry, an alien sent to destroy earth who ends up becoming enmeshed in the community of a small Colorado town. The series has some truly hilarious gags, but is also profoundly moving and emotional at times. The secret sauce is a cast of characters you truly care about—and some good mystery and suspense to keep things lively.
Reservation Dogs Season 2 (Hulu)
I knew I’d love Reservation Dogs when one of the main characters was named Elora, named after the baby princess from Willow. It’s a running gag in a show with lots of hilarious running gags. Like Resident Alien, this series gives us a phenomenal cast of characters who you care deeply about. As funny as it often is—dipping into magical realism, pot jokes and a very unique brand of Native American humor—it’s also often heartbreaking, dealing with issues like addiction, suicide and abandonment.
The Orville: New Horizons (Hulu)
The Orville really grew into its own this past season, largely thanks to the flexibility afforded the Star Trek-style comedy at its new home on Hulu. I’ve enjoyed Seth McFarlane’s goofy space outing since the beginning, but it’s gotten stronger each season, with fewer dick jokes and more thought-experiments. This is a show that tackles things like AI depression and suicide, cultures that transition the gender of infants—and alien civilizations who worship a god named after a car rental company. It’s more Star Trek than most of the new Star Trek shows, with plenty of off-color humor to keep audiences chuckling.
Better Call Saul Season 6 (AMC)
Better Call Saul did something I thought impossible: The show ended up being just as good as Breaking Bad somehow, with a finale that—while less explosive—was perhaps even more emotionally profound. Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn, along with the rest of the stellar cast, simply knocked this one out of the park. A tremendous final season with one of the best series finales ever made.
Raised By Wolves Season 2 (HBO)
Season 2 of Raised By Wolves was absolutely bonkers—even crazier and weirder than the first season, if that’s even possible. The story of humanity trying to rebuild on a distant planet after an Earth-destroying war between the Atheists and the fanatical Mithraic dips into all sorts of fantastical science-fiction, with terrifying flying serpents, mysterious ancient androids, and a bizarre story that pulls you in and doesn’t let go. This one ended with some serious cliffhangers—and then got cancelled by HBO during the Time Warner Discovery merger. Hopefully some other savvy streamer picks it up, because this story deserves an ending.
The White Lotus Season 2 (HBO)
The White Lotus is an anthology series, so the events of Season 1 and Season 2 are mostly unrelated save for Jennifer Coolidge’s character, Tanya. The show deals with wealthy, often somewhat miserable people, vacationing at the swanky White Lotus hotel. Season 1 took place in Hawaii; Season 2 in Sicily. After the zany madness of Season 1, I was a little worried at first that Season 2 wouldn’t live up to expectations. But in some ways, I think the second season might have topped the first thanks to some tremendous performances by the cast, and a finale that was completely insane.
The Boys Season 3 (Amazon Prime Video)
So I forgot to include Season 3 of The Boys in this list when I published, but was soon reminded. I flirted with the idea of adding it as an Honorable Mention, but frankly I think it deserves to be in the list proper. Season 3 was excellent, pushing the show forward with momentum the second season lacked. The addition of Soldier Boy really complicated everything in a good way, and watching Homelander go Full Evil was pretty horrifying. Black Noir may have stolen the show, however, with his weird imaginary animated friends acting out his trauma with Soldier Boy. Just wildly creative stuff.
Read More: The Worst TV Shows Of 2022
The Best New TV Shows Of 2022
Vox Machina (Amazon Prime)
Based on the Critical Role D&D campaign, Vox Machina is an animated fantasy show (for adults) voiced by the same actors who played in the campaign livestreams. The series stars Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Matthew Mercer, Liam O'Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham, all of whom reprise their roles from the campaign. This is a show I can watch over and over again. Not only is it hilarious (and very raunchy and gory) it has wonderful characters with surprising depth. Their friendships and struggles make this show great, but the villains and adventures and action are all terrific. So is the animation and music. This is a far better fantasy than Amazon’s more expensive efforts, The Wheel Of Time and The Rings Of Power.
House Of The Dragon (HBO)
I had mixed feelings about House Of The Dragon at first mainly because the time-jumps felt jarring and the characters all seemed so unlikable. But as the series continued, it grew on me enormously and by the end I really do believe it eclipsed Game Of Thrones as the better, better-written of the two. The wonderful performances from Paddy Considine, Emma D’Arcy, Milly Alcock, Matt Smith and others really solidified this for me. While Thrones was terrific epic fantasy (until it wasn’t) House of the Dragon is more Shakespearean and complex, with characters who are rarely good or bad or easy to pin down. Some of the best original music as well, from Ramin Djawadi (Game Of Thrones, Westworld).
Andor (Disney Plus)
I had high hopes for Andor based on two things: Tony Gilroy, the man credited with saving Rogue One, was showrunner; and the trailer looked really damn good. I was not letdown. If anything, I was shocked at just how brilliant Andor ended up being. It is hands down the best Star Wars since the original trilogy, and in some ways the best Star Wars ever made. No, it’s not as fun as the OG trilogy or The Mandalorian, but it’s taken the franchise to new heights, with the best writing and production values to-date, and themes of rebellion and freedom vs tyranny that go beyond anything that’s come before. It’s a shame more people haven’t watched this, because it’s really a masterpiece.
Yellowjackets (Showtime)
A plane carrying a high school girls soccer team crashes in the middle of nowhere in the 90s. The survivors have to fight for their lives for 18 long months and bad things happen. In the present day, some of those survivors are still dealing with the trauma of this life-changing event. Both timelines are explored at once, as we shift between the past and present, with new mysteries looming and old horrors returning to haunt them. I thought this show looked good when I saw the trailer, but I wasn’t prepared for something this brilliant. One of the best, most menacing and dread-inducing shows in years, Yellowjackets will absolutely blow your mind over and over again in its phenomenal first season. I am waiting on the edge of my seat for Season 2 which comes out this March.
Severance (Apple TV)
The only show that blew my mind as much as Yellowjackets in 2022 was Severance. This also has to be one of the best TV shows I’ve seen in years. It’s just so enormously creative and suspenseful and weird. The story deals with a new technology created by a strange, almost cult-like company called Lumen. The ‘severance’ tech allows people to sever their work consciousness so that they don’t remember anything from their work lives, essentially separating them into two separate people. The “Innie” only knows life inside the office; the “Outie” lives life free from work stress, enjoying that paycheck without all the BS. Only, it’s not that simple. In fact, it’s probably the most dystopian concept since the first season of Westworld. This one is so good, I was absolutely floored. I remember practically yelling at my TV as it was coming to an end I was so mad I had to wait for the next season.
Bonus: Arcane (Netflix)
A lot of reviews for The Last Of Us on HBO are saying it’s “the best video game adaptation of all time” and that may be true—I’m quite positive about it in my review as well—but Arcane may still give it a run for its money. The animated show is based on League Of Legends from Riot Games. The great thing about the show is that you really don’t need to know anything about League to enjoy it. It’s just a damn fine story with perhaps the best animation of any TV show I’ve ever seen (outside of some of the episodes of Love, Death & Robots maybe). Yes, this came out in late 2021, but I didn’t watch it until early 2022 so I’m counting it as a bonus here. It’s really great so don’t let the fact that it’s based on a video game dissuade you.
Others
There are plenty of other great shows out there that I either haven’t seen or haven’t finished. I’m still watching Cyberpunk Edgerunners on Netflix and The Old Man on Hulu. Readers keep telling me to watch From, which sounds terrific so I will get to that I promise. And Slow Horses, starring one of the greatest actors of all time—Gary Oldman—looks right up my alley, so that’s on Ye Olde Bucket List as well. So is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds which I hear is a nice course correction for the series.
Honorable Mentions
As far as Honorable Mentions go, 1883 was very good; Wednesday was very fun, but mainly Jenna Ortega was just very good; Stranger Things 4 had some wonderful moments, but also fell short in a lot of big ways. I also loved returning to the world of The Dragon Prince, even if Season 4 wasn’t as strong as Season 3.
Let’s just bullet point my 2022 bucket list—I’ll add as new stuff comes up:
Cyberpunk Edgerunners (halfway done)
The Old Man (halfway done)
From
Slow Horses
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Tokyo Vice
The Bear
Outer Range
1923
1899 (Maybe? It’s cancelled!)
Still need to get into What We Do In The Shadows and This Flag Means Death
What else have I missed? What else do I need to catch up on? Please let me know on Twitter or Facebook. I also made a video discussing some of these shows which you can watch below:
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Started watching Resident Alien last night with my wife and it is brilliant--you were absolutely spot-on about the right mixture of humor and touching moments.
Tulsa King