My favorite and must-see TV of 2022

Not an easy year to make this list, because there’s been so much good TV. So the list ends up long, and the list is not in order. If I could only pick one show, I’d pick Severance but it’s a tight race.

Drama/Thriller

• Severance S1 (Apple TV+)
• Andor S1 (Disney+)^[1]
• Slow Horses S1 & S2 (Apple TV+)^[2]
• White Lotus S2 (HBO)
• Better Call Saul S6
• Pachinko S1 (Apple TV+)
• For All Mankind S3 (Apple TV+)
• Barry S3 (HBO)
• Peacemaker S1 (HBO)
• The Boys S3 (Amazon Prime)

Mini-series

• Black Bird (Apple TV+)
• Bad Sisters (Apple TV+)^[3]
• We Own This City (HBO)

Comedy

• Hacks S2 (HBO)
• Mythic Quest S3 (Apple TV+)
• Loot S1 (Apple TV+)
• She-hulk S1 (Disney+)
• The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (Disney+)

Documentary

• Prehistoric Planet (Apple TV+)

Runner ups

Still good shows that I enjoyed and can recommend, just secondarily to the above ones.

• Rings of Power S1 (I have high hopes for the coming seasons. So much better than I could have dreamed of)
• The Old Man S1 (great first half, went off the rails later)
• The Afterparty S1
• Shining Girls S1
• Reacher S1 (Amazon Prime)

Skip

This category is shows I saw hoping they’d be better but would recommend skipping.

• Stranger Things S4. Just more of the same. There is one truly excellent hour of TV show in here, with the "Billy" episode.
• The Walking Dead finale. A pretty good season but the finale underwhelmed so much I want to forget the whole thing.
• Ozark S4.5. I had higher hopes.
• Obi-wan. I honestly don’t understand why anyone liked this show. Awful bore.
• House of the Dragons. Formulaic and made by people who did decidedly not understand what made the first couple seasons of Game of Thrones great.
• The Handmaids Tale S5. I’m still watching because it remains an important story and extremely well made and acted. But just not as engaged as I used to be.

Still on the list

Shows that came out in 2022 that I want to watch but didn’t yet.

• 1899
• The Bear

1. The first truly good Star Wars show. And first one made for adults. I enjoyed Mandalorian S1 but this is so much better. Ohi-wan and Book of Boba Fett are just awful in comparison ↩︎
2. Season 1 and 2 both came out in 2022, and both are truly excellent. Season 3 is already filmed and coming in 2023. ↩︎
3. Although there’s somewhat surprisingly a second season coming, the first one works fully as a contained thing)] ↩︎