Best TV of the Year

Best TV Shows of 2022

We truly are living through the golden age of television. In an era when long-form storytelling is at an all-time high, audiences have the pleasure of following characters and stories through several seasons of character development and story arcs. Though some, I’m looking at you, Disney, Marvel, and Amazon, have saturated the long-format to the extent of muddling, there are still plenty of great shows on television worth your while. For this list, I’m looking towards the most exciting and powerful episodic series, some of whom I’ve followed for the better part of a decade and some who have won me over in their very first seasons. 

5. Ted Lasso

What’s more fun than an infinitely optimistic American coach trying to win over the whole of England’s “football” fanaticism? Jason Sudeikis and company have managed to win audiences over through the first two seasons of this hilarious show by not sugarcoating the optimism of the central character and never going for the low-hanging tropes prevalent in the fish out of water genre. Here we follow Lasso and his right-hand man, Coach Beard (Brenden Hunt), as they surprise the team members, fans, and even team owner Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), who is initially plotting against not only Lasso but the whole team, until they are won over by his charm and dedication to principle. Overall, the show is a rare instance of good writing being wholesome but never sappy, a tightrope walk these writers and actors manage with ease.

4. The Bear/Atlanta

Another tie, but what can I say? Sometimes there is just too much good entertainment for a list handle. These excellent shows both display the hardships of the modern world through an equally optimistic and cynical eye, though in very different ways.

Danny Glover’s Atlanta is a perfect example of Afro-Surrealism: a phrase coined in effort to understand the experience of minorities in an unforgiving world. While many episodes follow the plot of Glover’s Ernest, his rapper cousin Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), and the fan favorite hanger-on Darius (a phenomenal Lakeith Stanfield), as they rise the ranks of the Atlanta rap scene. The show may be at its best when it veers off course and decides to tackle themes bigger than those experienced by the central characters, such as the brilliant racial takedowns in episodes like “Three Slaps” and “Rich Wigga, Poor Wigga” or, my personal favorite the reparations saga of “The Big Payback.” After a four-year absence, Atlanta returned in 2022 with not one but two full seasons, and it was more than worth the wait.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have the Jeremy Allen White-led The Bear, which focuses on the day-to-day operations of a Chicago restaurant White’s Carmy inherits after his brother commits suicide. Carmy made his way through the cut-throat ranks of New York’s uber-prestige high-end food industry, shown in an anxiety-inducing flashback. Back at home, he gets no respect from his new employees who think he’s over-educated and under-experienced, unfit to take over. For those who have never spent time in a busy kitchen, the show may seem like hyperbole, but rest assured, it’s not. The intensity reaches a fever pitch as things get more chaotic as the show progresses. Match the great cast, excellent writing, and a fist-pumping soundtrack; this is a show that can hook just about anyone on the first episode.

3. Severance

Ever wondered what it would be like to go to work but have no memory of it? Well, that is exactly what this Ben Stiller-helmed show attempts to explore. In a not-so-distant future, Adam Scott plays Mark S., a worker bee at Lumon by day and a depressed alchie by night, though the two have never met. When Mark is told by his ominous superior Ms. Cobel (played with malevolent brilliance by Patricia Arquette) to lead the orientation of Helly R. (Britt Lower), the audience is thrown into the mix. Soon, it becomes clear Helly wants nothing to do with the process in which the social brain and work brain are “severed” from each other. This is a show which works on just about every level, as we get to know the central characters better, the plot thickens. Great writing, direction and acting all tiptoe neatly around the devious center of this surrealist workplace drama. Think Twin Peaks meets The Office, and you might be close.

2. Succession

If you want to know how the one percent live, check out White Lotus, but if you want to know about the one percent of the one percent, this is the show which dives deep into their world. Doing for television what Orson Welles did for movies; this show bings the most powerful people we would never know about front and center in order to expose how they manipulate a public who listen and the media corporations who read the news. Brian Cox is perfect as the Rupert Murdoch inspired Logan Roy, as he leads his family of uber privileged adult children through the most vile opulence imaginable. These kids don’t know much, but they know what comes with this upbringing. Sometimes you get to help pick the next president, but mostly they are pitted against everything and everyone around them (family included) as Cox’s patriarch divides and conquers his way to the top while he maintains his status as one of the most powerful men on the planet. One of the best shows since The Sopranos, Succession is not to be missed. 

1. Better Call Saul

When it came to its conclusion almost ten years ago, everyone thought the idea of a Breaking Bad spinoff about “criminal” lawyer Saul Goodman would only tarnish the reputation of the former, and boy, were they way off. Not only has this impeccable piece of television history proved showrunners Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould can top perfection, but it has also added new depths to characters whose story we  thought we already knew. When we first met Jimmy (a pitch-perfect Bob Odenkirk having a blast in the role of a lifetime) 7 years ago, he was a struggling two-bit ambulance chaser trying to scrape up a single client. It all seemed standard enough. But then the layers began to peel back, season after season we learn more about each one and where they fall in the BB timeline. By the time the final season aired over the summer, there were aspects of Saul’s life we could have never imagined, including his controlling older brother (a fantastic Micheal McKean) and the relationship of his lifetime in the equally eager to rise Kim Wexler (Rhea Seahorn in a performance which was as captivating as it was emotional.) Rounded out by the return of BB favorites Mike (Jonathan Banks) and Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), who took their characters to new heights, and the addition of new characters on the cartel side in the ever-conflicted Nacho Varga (Micheal Mando) and the terrifyingly charming sicario Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton). Lets not forget about the bumbling high priced lawyer Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian). 

The audience can only gasp for air as we get closer to the heart of each character as they one-by-one get in over their heads, while we know what is waiting for them, even when we don’t realize it. What BCS showed was a solace we didn’t know we needed, brevity we didn’t realize was just under the surface of the most tense scenes we could imagine. Equal parts laugh-out-loud funny, white knuckle intensity and powerfully dramatic endings for all involved, this was a show that made us hold our breaths and beg for relief, only to be happier with every second we couldn’t reach it.

Graphic by Adrian Ortega