The Best TV Shows of 2022

Network: HBO

Season: 2

Genre: Comedy

Where to Watch: HBO Max

After the first season of The Righteous Gemstones, the Danny McBride-created HBO series, established itself with razor-sharp wit and blazingly smart examination of the televangelist industrial complex. The show could have continued retracting similar beats and been perfectly entertaining. Call it manna from heaven then that the sophomore season of Gemstones transcends the first and becomes nothing short of a miracle. As various plots form against the Gemstones—including a muckraking journalist, violent hitmen, and a hidden secret from the past—the family pulls ever closer together, inspiring empathy (and consistent hilarity) from the goofiest of characters and ridiculous plots. McBride’s ensemble cast clicks together like a well-oiled machine, generating some of the year’s most memorably uproarious moments. When you take it all together, the fact that Righteous Gemstones is this consistently satisfying and funny is a real blessing. —William Goodman

Network: Netlfix

Seasons: 4

Genre: Fantasy, Mystery

Where to Watch: Netflix

The gang is back, but far from together. Following Stranger Things Season 3’s epic finale and the numerous cliffhangers we had to sweat over during the show’s nearly three-year Covid hiatus, Season 4’s opening episode became the most important since the series premiere. Hopper (David Harbour) might be dead. While Joyce (Winona Ryder), Will (Noah Schnapp), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) have moved 1,000 miles away. Supernatural occurrences are mounting, and puberty is pulling the gang apart. Blessed with a one-hour 18-minute episode to kick things off, all our gnawing questions found answers early thanks to a spree of demon attacks. Pulled together to defeat the new evil threatening Hawkins, the gang discovered the town’s tormentor was actually the creator of the Upside Down. Facing off against the boss baddie, epic twists and amazing character development make Season 4 one of Stranger Things’ best to date and a shoo-in for all 2022 top lists. —Nate Houston

Network: HBO Max

Season: 1

Genre: Action

Where to Watch: HBO Max

Director/writer James Gunn’s recent work indicates he loves a challenge. As if turning a group of C-List Marvel characters—including a talking tree and a gun-wielding raccoon—into a massive franchise wasn’t enough, Gunn’s latest magic trick was to take John Cena’s Peacemaker (a D-List DC character who ostensibly wears a toilet on his head) and make him the star of an HBO Max streaming series. Spinning out of the events of Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker sees Gunn asking his audience to have sympathy for the devil, a man who famously quipped, “I cherish peace with all my heart. I don’t care how many men, women, and children I need to kill to get it.”

Across eight episodes—most of which Gunn directed, all of which he wrote—the show dives deep into Peacemaker’s psyche, exploring toxic masculinity, white supremacy, and moral ambiguity in a way that follows in the footsteps of a series like Watchmen. The show turns into an absolute showcase for Cena, who is more than capable of handling profound emotional moments with the gravitas of a leading man. It’s one thing to ask for sympathy for the devil, but who would have thought that by the end of Peacemaker you’d think he deserves it. —William Goodman  

Network: Hulu

Season: 1

Genre: Mystery, Comedy

Where to Watch: Hulu

The coziest murder mystery on TV made its second season debut this year, surpassing its stellar frosh run and securing itself a spot on this list. Reprising their roles as Upper West Side amateur sleuths, Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez), Oliver Putnam (Martin Short), and Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin) find themselves at the head of a new murder investigation. Picking up where last season left off, the three DIY detectives are arrested on suspicion of killing their neighbor, Bunny (Jayne Houdyshell). 

Branded outcasts by the other tenants and desperate to clear their name for fear of prison, or worse, ending up like their accused victim, Mora, Oliver, and Charles once again weave their hilarious web of comedy-driven crime fighting through the halls of the Arcadia and the gossip-filled lives of its occupants. Further stacking the already stellar cast with new heavy hitters such as Cara Delevingne, Amy Schumer, Mark Consuelos, and Paul Rudd, it’s not hard to see why Only Murders in the Building has become an even bigger hit the second time around. —Nate Houston 

Network: Apple TV+

Season: 1

Genre: Drama

Where to Watch: Apple TV+

There has been a lot of talk regarding work-life balance as of late. People are aiming to find ways to separate their personal lives from their professional and Apple TV’s Severance explores the possibility of what that could be like. Adam Scott stars on the show as Mark, who is responsible for leading a team of his office coworkers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives through a procedure called severance. While they are at work at the mysterious company, they have no recollection of their life outside of the building, and when they are out, they know nothing about what goes on behind the company’s doors aside from the fact that they work there. The lines start to get blurred when Mark connects with a former colleague outside of work, which starts to unravel the truth about their jobs and the company he works for.

Scott is known for his comedic performances in Parks and Recreation and Step Brothers but he pushes beyond those roles and really shows his range as Mark. The Severance cast also includes Britt Lower, John Turturro, Patricia Arquette, Christopher Walken, and was created by Dan Erickson, with episodes directed by Ben Stiller. Stiller has always been a joy to watch in front of the camera, but with Severance, he has proved to be a force behind it as well. This is the kind of show that if you have yet to watch and you are into psychological thrillers, you’re definitely missing out. —Karla Rodriguez

Network: HBO

Season: 3

Genre: Comedy

Where to Watch: HBO Max

Barry took a pandemic break but came back in 2022 with a vengeance. The Bill Hader-created show started out following a depressed hitman from the Midwest looking for a way out of the life of crime he’d built for himself. He managed to create a new persona as an aspiring actor in Los Angeles throughout seasons 1 and 2 but that wasn’t enough to get rid of the stench that followed him from his previous career. Unable to shake that side of him, the new relationships he has built in LA are starting to crumble and Barry (Bill Hader) finds himself still lonely and dissatisfied with his existence.

Hader’s incredible performance as a sad, down-bad hitman is only made better by the actors who surround him. Sarah Goldberg’s take on Barry’s girlfriend Sally Reed—a neurotic actress on the brink of making it—is so convincing, that she’s almost annoying. Anthony Carrigan is the show’s breakout star thanks to the way he has brought the remarkably hilarious NoHo Hank to life. Stephen Root is infuriating as Barry’s handler Fuches and Henry Winkler, who plays Barry’s acting teacher Gene Cousineau, is the final touch on an already incredible cast. Season 3 sees them all dealing with the consequences of their actions, and seeing how they react when everything they wanted is within reach. Fans may have had to wait a while for this new season, but it’s safe to say that what they delivered was worth the wait. —Karla Rodriguez

Network: Disney

Season: 1

Genre: Action

Where to Watch: Disney+

Looking back at 2022, we may view it as the year the superhero genre started falling back to Earth. But being grounded isn’t always bad—which is undoubtedly the case with Ms. Marvel. Anchored by the absolutely winning Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan, Ms. Marvel isn’t so much about saving the world as it is about protecting the block. Furthermore, the decision to focus on Kamala’s familial legacy and heritage helped to give a personality to a show that may have otherwise felt standard or rote. In a year where the stakes of the genre have ballooned past guarding the galaxy and into saving the multiverse, Ms. Marvel’s focus on telling a small tale made the show feel bigger and more spirited than its contemporaries. —William Goodman

Network: ABC

Seasons: 2

Genre: Mockumentary

Where to Watch: Hulu

I can’t think of the last time a sitcom had people glued to their screens and live-tweeting each episode the way they did with the first season of Abbott Elementary. Shows like Insecure and Power had a similar effect on the timeline with people criticizing the shows or arguing about the characters week after week. But it was different with Abbott—viewers were simply expressing pure enjoyment as they watched. The Quinta Brunson-created series follows an eager school teacher and her coworkers as they navigate working at an underfunded elementary school in Philadelphia—a story inspired by Brunson’s mother who taught at a school in West Philly. The longtime internet personality managed to take her online success and flip it into one of the most-watched, funniest, and most beloved sitcoms of the last five years.

Stellar performances from Chris Perfetti, Lisa Ann Walter, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Tyler James Williams also make this ensemble cast one of the best on TV—and the show’s breakout star Janelle James, who plays Principal Ava Coleman, takes things to the next level by providing some of the show’s most captivating moments. Abbott has had its fair share of comparisons to other hit mockumentaries like The Office and Parks and Recreation, but to be frank? Comparing it to any other show does Abbott a disservice. After just two seasons, the ABC workplace comedy is already cruising down its own lane. —Karla Rodriguez

Network: HBO

Season: 1

Genre: Fantasy, Drama

Where to Watch: HBO Max

No show has had more of an impact on television in the past decade than Game of Thrones. Blessed with an amazing run only to be marred by a disastrous final season, the future of HBO and George R.R. Martin’s long-planned prequel was left in doubt. Could they match the quality of GOT’s early seasons? Would the fans show up to watch? Would HBO even go through with the show? All these questions and more were laid to rest with the first episode of House of the Dragon. Set nearly 200 years prior to the original series, HOTD shows a Westeros where Targaryens still reign supreme.

Ruled by Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine), the kingdom quickly comes into turmoil after the death of his wife (Sian Brooke) and baby boy. Set upon by his headstrong brother Daemon (Matt Smith), manipulated by his adviser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), despised by his daughter Princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), and untrusted by his strongest ally Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), the king attempts to maintain control of his kingdom as civil war threatens to tear it apart. Utilizing time jumps, many of the historical and political questions left unanswered in GOT find their genesis in HOTD, further differentiating the series from the original while pulling us deeper into the world we already love. —Nate Houston

Network: Disney+

Season: 1

Genre: Action

Where to Watch: Disney+

What’s the cost of revolution? The answer to that question is at the heart of Andor, which is not only the best franchise prequel to air this year but the best Star Wars TV series to grace Disney+ since the LucasFilm/Disney merger. Under the considered eye of Rogue One scribe Tony Gilroy, Andor takes a lot of the skeletal elements of a traditional Star Wars story and grafts the leanest, sleekest muscle to it. That resulted in a propulsive and considered thriller that’s electric to watch from moment to moment as Gilroy and his collaborators manage micro and macro storytelling with expert craft.

One of the many things that stood out about the original Star Wars is that it was a galaxy covered in dust and grime—a shorthand to indicate these people were here long, long before audiences checked in with them. Andor takes that dirt and smears it all over its lead characters, becoming a series about survival at all costs and the true impact of those consequences. There are no moral binaries, just people living increasingly hazy shades of gray. In this morass, Andor makes Star Wars feel more vibrant and alive than ever. —William Goodman

Network: HBO

Seasons: 2

Genre: Drama

Where to Watch: HBO Max

Sophomore seasons are tough. Catching lightning in a bottle for a second time is hard enough already, let alone the degree of difficulty required to go bigger, deeper, and better than what’s come before. Yet Industry managed to make this task look simple, as the second season of the HBO drama yielded an all-killer, no-filler batch of episodes that expanded the world of the show in fascinatingly complex ways. Headed by one of the most excitingly talented groups of young performers in recent memory (Myha’la Herrold, Marisa Abela, Harry Lawtey, and David Jonsson) and incredible industry stalwarts (Ken Leung and Jay Duplass), Industry flew like Harper’s (Herrold) oft-mentioned Icarus—only without ever having its wings melt.

The resulting climb saw the show do the things you want from a sequel, as it became larger and better by excavating more into its characters. That’s a delicate balance to achieve, let alone to accomplish it in a way that seems as effortless as the show made it seem. Kinetically shot and brilliantly written, Industry’s Season 2 confirmed that this series is poised to soar for a long, long time. —William Goodman

Network: FX

Season: 4

Genre: Comedy-Drama

Where to Watch: Hulu

I didn’t think it was possible for Atlanta to go on a four-year hiatus and come back even sharper, stronger, and more elevated than its first two seasons, but they made it happen. After being off the air since 2018, the hit FX series returned this year with not one but two seasons and continued to provide some of the most bizarre, unique, and incredible television we’ve seen in decades. The show concluded in November with Season 4, leaving us all to wonder, was it all a dream? In the course of the last 10 episodes, we saw each one of the main characters Earn (Donald Glover), Alfred a.k.a. Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry,) Darius (LaKeith Stanfield), and Van (Zazie Beetz) became more settled and found themselves eons away from the people we started with in Season 1. Throughout the series, we watched as they all grew into their own and found their paths as their lives adjusted to Paper Boi’s success in the rap game. 

Season 3 delivered four standalone episodes that didn’t include any of the original cast members, and that carried into Season 4 with mesmerizing episodes like Episode 8 “The Goof Who Sat By The Door”—a hilarious episode that became a fictionalized ode to the impact A Goofy Movie has had on the Black community. The unpredictability of those episodes caused divisiveness within the fanbase that hadn’t existed before. While some were enthralled by the social issues that the separate episodes explored through other actors and unfamiliar faces, others just wanted to get back to the crew and their misadventures. I, for one, enjoyed the standalone episodes more. You never knew what you were going to get when you hit play and that made the experience even better. 

It’s sad to see it end, but Donald Glover and his team of creators seem to understand when to let a good thing go. It’s better to let the show come to a close before it gets stale and they did so masterfully by wrapping up the story beautifully and letting viewers get a sense of what their lives will be like post-finale. The series finale, “It Was All a Dream,” left us all wondering if the entire four seasons were just products of Darius’ sensory deprivation-induced hallucinations. As eccentric as the show has been since its 2016 debut, that’s a possibility. But whatever you believe, one thing is for sure—Atlanta broke the mold during its run, creating some of this generation’s best TV. Beetz, Stanfield, and Henry have gone on to become highly sought-out movie stars since the start of the show, and they’re just getting started. I’m also eager and ready to see what Glover and his creative team have in store for us going forward. They have the bar set high after Atlanta. —Karla Rodriguez

Network: Hulu

Season: 1

Genre: Comedy-Drama

Where to Watch: Hulu

The Bear had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June. While there was only one other outlet on the red carpet that day aside from Complex, the series hit Hulu shortly after and went on to become a giant (viral) hit for the streaming service—mostly thanks to the praise it received from both viewers and critics online. Knowing that Jeremy Allen White was the lead was enough for me to be interested. The actor starred on Shameless as Lip Gallagher for 11 seasons, and although the rest of the cast is also stellar, he carried the show on his back when Emmy Rossum left after Season 9. I knew with him as the lead, The Bear was in good hands, and I was right. 

The show is an intense, high-stakes restaurant drama about a guy named Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Allen White), who is a young chef from the fine dining world. He returns home to Chicago to run his family’s rundown sandwich shop after the heartbreaking death of his big brother. As Carmy fights to keep his struggling restaurant afloat, he realizes that even though his brother is gone, the chef inherited a loyal, talented and special kitchen crew who shows him a new meaning of family—and that good food doesn’t only come from Michelin star restaurants.

The Bear is a realistic comedy about food, family, and the hustle of the service industry (which was so accurately depicted, it triggered people who had a past working in the restaurant business.) In a TV world full of dragons, creatures, and superheroes, shows that mirror our realities like this one are sometimes the ones we need the most. Am I eagerly awaiting Season 2? The answer is, “Yes, chef.” —Karla Rodriguez

Network: AMC

Seasons: 6

Genre: Crime-Drama

Where to Watch: AMC+

Better Call Saul’s sixth and final season and series finale needed to toe an extraordinarily difficult line. Ostensibly the third finale in Vince Gilligan’s ABQ universe after Breaking Bad and El Camino, Saul needed to provide closure for all of its protagonists—mainly Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) and Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk). As these initial episodes rolled along, there seemed to be too many lingering threads. When would we tie up the black and white flashforwards? How much of the show, if any, would take place during the events of Breaking Bad? What exactly happened to Kim? The number of spinning plates felt like too much for Gilligan, Peter Gould, and their expert team of writers to handle. Not only did the dishes keep rotating, they never once wobbled during their delicate dance. 

Saul’s last episodes were tremendously satisfying, a series of meditative pieces that led up to a finale that swapped the literal gunfire of Breaking Bad’s end for the metaphorical death of the show’s titular character. In its concluding moments, Saul centered the poignant relationship between Kim and Jimmy at the forefront, showing that this prequel wasn’t so much a story about what happened before Walter White (although, brilliantly, Saul was that too) as it was about the relationship between these two characters. Meticulously crafted, expertly directed, and engagingly written, Better Call Saul managed to transcend its predecessors and carve a path for itself on its own terms. All in all, that’s not bad for a show many of us thought was a bad idea from the get-go. —William Goodman