The 25 best tele­vi­sion shows of 2022

You would be hard-pressed not to find some­thing worth watch­ing across myr­i­ad stream­ing plat­forms and tra­di­tion­al TV view­ing options avail­able. A glut of tele­vi­sion excel­lence in 2022 means inevitable blind spots and miss­ing titles from this line-up of new offer­ings and old favourites — it remains impos­si­ble to keep on top of every­thing. Long over­due pan­dem­ic-delayed high-pro­file pro­duc­tions made a tri­umphant return, while big-bud­get fare jos­tled for atten­tion along­side more inti­mate sto­ries. It is a snap­shot of what this medi­um offers, whether adap­tions, orig­i­nal nar­ra­tives, spin­offs, or reboots that are deemed a must-watch.

25. Peaky Blind­ers (BBC/​Netflix)

The final sea­son of the Birm­ing­ham gang­ster series entered the 1930s, push­ing the now-sober Tom­my Shel­by (Cil­lian Mur­phy) to the brink with a plan to infil­trate and stop British fas­cism. On and off screen grief informs the dark­er mood as cre­ator Stephen Knight address­es the loss of Helen McCro­ry while still ensur­ing Polly’s pres­ence is felt. Mur­phy plays new shades of despair and nihilism in his dual role as a crime boss and politi­cian, try­ing to keep it togeth­er while the world falls apart.

24. Under the Ban­ner of Heav­en (FX on Hulu/​Disney Star)

It has been an excel­lent 12-plus months for Andrew Garfield per­for­mances that dig deep into explor­ing dif­fer­ent ver­sions of faith, guilt, and how work is entwined with these fac­tors. Dustin Lance Black adapts Jon Krakauer’s non-fic­tion book exam­in­ing a dou­ble homi­cide that rocked a Mor­mon com­mu­ni­ty in the 1980s. Garfield plays a detec­tive stuck between his com­mit­ment to the LDS church and his pro­fes­sion­al duty, and Gil Birm­ing­ham is as com­pelling as his part­ner, offer­ing an outsider’s perspective.

23. Baby­lon Berlin (Sky Atlantic)

The big-bud­get Ger­man series’ fourth out­ing kicks off on New Year’s Eve 1930, so while there is still danc­ing (this year’s ear­worm is ​“Ein Tag wie Gold”), it is begin­ning to tip toward the bleak­er end of the scale. Berlin is beset not only by ram­pag­ing men in Nazi uni­forms (includ­ing a famil­iar face) but organ­ised crime gangs at war with each oth­er. Lars Eidinger wields a cape like no oth­er, as the eccen­tric (and wealthy) indus­tri­al­ist Alfred Nyssen was not impact­ed by the finan­cial crash at the end of the last sea­son, but he does encounter new obstacles.

22. The Dropout (Hulu/​Disney Star)

Amid a sea of real-life scam adap­ta­tions, Aman­da Seyfried in a black turtle­neck as Eliz­a­beth Holmes stands head and shoul­ders above the fraud­u­lent heiress­es and start­up pow­er cou­ples. New Girl cre­ator Liz Meri­wether proves she is equal­ly adept at explor­ing the nuances of the Ther­a­nos founder as she is at sit­coms in a lim­it­ed series that gets to the heart of this scan­dal. Seyfried deft­ly por­trays a Girl­boss cau­tion­ary tale, whether awk­ward­ly danc­ing to Lil Wayne or prac­tis­ing the recog­nis­able deep­er voice. It is a per­for­mance so good that Jen­nifer Lawrence dropped out of play­ing Holmes in a movie version.

21. A League of Their Own (Ama­zon Prime)

Thir­ty years after Pen­ny Marshall’s beloved base­ball com­e­dy was released, it gets the TV adap­ta­tion treat­ment. Abbi Jacob­son and Will Gra­ham have brought back the Rock­ford Peach­es. This time, they have expand­ed the world fur­ther, fol­low­ing Black play­ers like Max Chap­man (Chan­té Adams), who were not per­mit­ted to play in the All-Amer­i­can Girls Pro­fes­sion­al Base­ball League. Queer love sto­ries are vital to this depic­tion, main­tain­ing the heart of Marshall’s series while acknowl­edg­ing the era’s real­i­ties. This reimag­in­ing knocks it out of the park.

20. Der­ry Girls (Chan­nel 4/​Netflix)

The final sea­son of Der­ry Girls main­tained the tricky bal­ance required for a com­ing-of-age sit­com set against the back­drop of the Trou­bles in mid-90s North­ern Ire­land. Cre­ator Lisa McGee dish­es out a Spice Girls trib­ute for the ages, a flash­back episode to when the par­ents were teens, and the lengths required to blag Fat­boy Slim tick­ets. Sound­track and fash­ion choic­es will spin view­ers back in time, and there is no short­age of laughs. How­ev­er, McGee excels at the sur­prise gut punch when you least expect it and doesn’t sug­ar­coat the inevitable change.

19. Only Mur­ders in the Build­ing (Hulu/​Disney Star)

The sec­ond sea­son of the pod­cast who­dun­nit is whim­si­cal and bit­ing in its expand­ing true crime uni­verse. Yes, the crime takes place in the same lux­u­ry Arco­nia res­i­dence, but Charles (Steve Mar­tin), Oliv­er (Mar­tin Short), and Mabel (Sele­na Gomez) must con­front secrets that go back years — and, in some cas­es, decades. The rich visu­als are part of this comedy’s charm, as is the grow­ing cast of mem­o­rable char­ac­ters. Themes of lone­li­ness and com­mu­ni­ty are explored fur­ther, and Shirley MacLaine is excel­lent in a guest-star­ring role.

18. Abbott Ele­men­tary (ABC/​Disney Star)

Cre­ator and star Quin­ta Brunson’s Emmy Award-win­ning com­e­dy proves that net­work sit­coms are still vital and hilar­i­ous amid a crowd­ed TV land­scape. The under­fund­ed Philadel­phia school offers a back­drop that deals with the real­i­ties of this set­ting with­out ever feel­ing preachy, mar­ry­ing the mock­u­men­tary for­mat with Nor­man Lear’s social com­men­tary sen­si­bil­i­ties. Sheryl Lee Ralph and Janelle James’ per­for­mances couldn’t be more dif­fer­ent, but both stand out in an ensem­ble brim­ming with charm and comedic chops.

17. Andor (Dis­ney+)

Star Wars and Mar­vel dom­i­nate the Dis­ney+ TV orig­i­nal line-up, which can some­times get repet­i­tive. Enter Tony Gilroy with a pre­quel to Rogue One that gets to the heart of rebel­lion on a gran­u­lar lev­el with­out a lightsaber in sight. Diego Luna repris­es his role as Cass­ian Andor lead­ing an impres­sive cast that includes Stel­lan Skars­gård, Andy Serkis, Fiona Shaw, and Denise Gough. Among notable set pieces, Gilroy cranks up the ten­sion with a heist, a prison break­out, and a funer­al pro­ces­sion. The lat­ter utilis­es Nicholas Brittel’s emo­tive score in one of 2022’s most unfor­get­table sequences.

16. Pachinko (Apple TV+)

For starters, Soo Hugh’s adap­ta­tion of Min Jin Lee’s 2017 nov­el has the best open­ing title sequence of the year. Cut­ting between archival images and the bright­ly-lit pachinko par­lour, in which each gen­er­a­tion of the large ensem­ble dance exu­ber­ant­ly empha­sis­es the threads of this decades-span­ning sto­ry. The nar­ra­tive tog­gles between Japan­ese-occu­pied Korea in the ear­ly 20^th cen­tu­ry to the 1980s when the prej­u­di­cial rip­ple effect is felt long after colo­nial rule end­ed. Oscar-win­ner Yuh-jung Yohn plays the old­er ver­sion of Sun­ja, embody­ing the theme of endurance run­ning through­out the stun­ning eight-episode series.

15. The Good Fight (Para­mount+)

Try­ing to respond to polit­i­cal chaos in near real-time might seem like a fool’s errand, but Robert and Michelle King found the per­fect ves­sel in their spin­off of The Good Wife. In its sixth and final sea­son, protest and civ­il war loom as the lawyers con­tin­ue their work in an increas­ing­ly fraught envi­ron­ment. It is rare to have a satire that man­ages to be this bit­ing and play­ful in its explo­ration of the cur­rent cli­mate. Chris­tine Baran­s­ki has por­trayed Diane Lock­hart for the last 13 years, and this char­ac­ter will be sore­ly missed.

14. Hacks (HBO Max/​Amazon Prime)

Deb­o­rah Vance (Jean Smart) goes on the road and out of her Las Vegas com­fort zone in the sec­ond sea­son of the Emmy-win­ning com­e­dy. The cre­ative part­ner­ship dou­bling as a pla­ton­ic love sto­ry between Deb­o­rah and Gen Z writer Ava (Han­nah Ein­binder) nav­i­gates mul­ti­ple obsta­cles stem­ming from an act of pro­fes­sion­al betray­al. Work binds them, and this dri­ve to suc­ceed in this field tri­umphs above every­thing else. Ein­binder more than holds her own oppo­site Smart, nav­i­gat­ing grief rip­pling beneath the sur­face. Vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty is not easy for Deb­o­rah or Ava, but peel­ing back the lay­ers is a reward­ing experience.

13. The Eng­lish (BBC/​Amazon Prime)

Cap­tur­ing the expan­sive and dan­ger­ous Amer­i­can West has long pre­oc­cu­pied film­mak­ers, which sees British writer-direc­tor Hugo Blick tack­le this set­ting in a stun­ning six-part lim­it­ed series. Emi­ly Blunt and Chaske Spencer play the unlike­ly trav­el­ling duo who are both search­ing for a res­o­lu­tion to a painful past. A ten­sion-build­ing score by Fed­eri­co Jusid cou­pled with an expan­sive land­scape cap­tured beau­ti­ful­ly by Arnau Valls Colom­er con­tribute to one of the year’s most visu­al­ly arrest­ing pieces of television.

12. The Bear (Hulu/​Disney+)

“Yes, chef!” rings out loud and clear by the end of the first sea­son of this dram­e­dy set in Chica­go. The fre­net­ic atmos­phere of the kitchen is cranked up fur­ther in an episode shot in one long take, and while this is undoubt­ed­ly a high­light, there is more to this series than a tech­ni­cal gim­mick. Loss, ambi­tion, and fam­i­ly are served up amid argu­ments about hot dogs, sand­wich­es, and spaghet­ti — all of which will make you hun­gry. Jere­my Allen White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Ayo Ede­biri lead the impres­sive ensem­ble amid the culi­nary chaos.

11. Yel­low­jack­ets (Showtime/​Sky Atlantic)

The year began amid Yel­low­jack­ets’ first grip­ping sea­son, which saw the sur­vivors of a plane crash grap­pling with what­ev­er went down in the wilder­ness when they were teenagers. We know mat­ters will even­tu­al­ly tip into Lord of the Flies ter­ri­to­ry (with added can­ni­bal­ism), and the mys­te­ri­ous forces (or cult) did not stay in the seclud­ed woods. The adult cast in the present-day scenes includes heavy­weights like Melanie Lynskey and Juli­et Lewis, and their younger coun­ter­parts more than rise to the occa­sion with­in the fraught ​‘90s timeline.

10. The Patient (FX on Hulu/​Disney+)

Ther­a­py and tele­vi­sion are com­fort­able bed­fel­lows, whether as a sit­com back­drop dat­ing back to The Bob Newhart Show (and then Frasi­er) or aid­ing the likes of Tony Sopra­no. In what feels like a reverse Han­ni­bal, a ser­i­al killer kid­naps his ther­a­pist to over­come his dead­ly com­pul­sions. Domn­hall Glee­son plays the mur­der­er look­ing to change, with Steve Car­rell as the recent­ly-wid­owed licensed pro­fes­sion­al. It is a taught, inti­mate and often claus­tro­pho­bic exam­i­na­tion of what makes us human, loss, and buried trau­ma. The Amer­i­cans showrun­ners Joe Weis­berg and Joel Fields have struck ten­sion-filled gold again.

9. Bad Sis­ters (Apple TV+)

Bad Sis­ters starts with a body before unrav­el­ling why each of the five Gar­vey sis­ters has a rea­son to want John Paul (aka the Prick) dead. Sharon Hor­gan adapt­ed the series from a Flem­ish who­dun­nit Clan, lay­er­ing the sto­ry with Irish humour and dread in criss­cross­ing time­lines. In the present, insur­ance agents and half-broth­ers Tom (Bri­an Glee­son) and Matt Clafin (Daryl McCor­ma­ck) must prove foul play to save their busi­ness. Horgan’s script deft­ly walks the line between hor­ror and heart, with PJ Harvey’s cov­er of Leonard Cohen’s ​“Who By Fire” as an atmos­pher­ic theme song.

8. This is Going to Hurt (BBC/AMC+)

Adam Kay is an over­worked, sleep-deprived junior doc­tor, break­ing the fourth wall to indulge in gal­lows humour or give addi­tion­al com­men­tary on the bleak sit­u­a­tion. No, this is not the NHS by way of Fleabag but an adap­ta­tion of Kay’s non-fic­tion book of the same name. Ben Whishaw offers a mul­ti­fac­eted take on the prick­ly pro­tag­o­nist who wields sar­casm as a shield against the real­i­ty of a health­care sys­tem ready to break. Even at its dark­est, the dra­ma nev­er lacks compassion.

7. For All Mankind (Apple TV+)

The alter­nate-his­to­ry depic­tion of what would hap­pen if the Sovi­ets land­ed on the moon first enters the 1990s and a race to Mars. Space tourism and pri­vate firms get­ting in on the astro­naut busi­ness mean it is no longer a case of the US ver­sus Rus­sia, com­pli­cat­ing an already tense head-to-head. The sec­ond sea­son end­ed in tragedy, and For All Mankind quick­ly reminds view­ers that leav­ing Earth is dan­ger­ous. No oth­er series has this many jaw-on-the-floor sequences that are equal­ly exhil­a­rat­ing and emo­tion­al­ly draining.

6. The White Lotus (HBO/​Sky Atlantic)

Mike White switch­es Hawaii for Sici­ly, but the guests stay­ing at The White Lotus are as bliss­ful­ly unaware. Meghann Fahy steals the show as afflu­ent (seem­ing­ly) devot­ed wife Daphne while try­ing to bond with Aubrey Plaza’s prick­ly Harp­er on a sur­prise overnight trip away from their hus­bands. While the mys­tery of who has died bub­bles beneath the glossy sur­face, White dials up the intrigue and farce with a help­ing hand from enter­pris­ing local women Mia (Beat­rice Grannò) and Lucia (Simona Tabas­co) and uptight hotel man­ag­er Valenti­na (Sab­ri­na Impacciatore).

5. Some­body Some­where (HBO/​Sky Atlantic)

Brid­get Everett’s small-town Kansas dram­e­dy is a semi-auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal look at what her life might have looked like if she hadn’t moved to New York City. Sam (Everett) is still an open wound deal­ing with her sister’s death and the com­pli­cat­ed rela­tion­ship with her fam­i­ly. Through co-work­er Joel (the bril­liant Jeff Hiller), she finds sal­va­tion in an open mic cabaret host­ed in a church after hours. It is a beau­ti­ful and fre­quent­ly hilar­i­ous med­i­ta­tion on find­ing your peo­ple and how much pow­er there is in mak­ing music together.

4. Sta­tion Eleven (HBO/​Lionsgate+)

Based on the book by Emi­ly St. John Mandel’s book, the pan­dem­ic in Partick Sommerville’s lim­it­ed series adap­ta­tion may sound a lit­tle too close to real­i­ty. Thank­ful­ly, this explo­ration of the role of art in a post-apoc­a­lyp­tic set­ting offers hope among the ruins of the world as it was. Criss­cross­ing time­lines are anchored by tween and adult Kirsten (Matil­da Lawler and Macken­zie Davis), with Himesh Patel deliv­er­ing a stand­out per­for­mance as reluc­tant hero Jee­van. Direc­tor Hiro Murai sets the tone, and Dan Romer’s score adds to the unfor­get­table tapestry.

3. The Last Movie Stars (HBO/​Sky Atlantic)

Ethan Hawke took the box­es of tran­scripts giv­en to him by Paul New­man and Joanne Woodward’s chil­dren, enlist­ing his many actor friends via Zoom to explore the poten­cy of this rela­tion­ship — with­in and out­side of Hol­ly­wood. Inter­views con­duct­ed as part of an aban­doned New­man mem­oir pro­vide the foun­da­tion of Hawke’s docuseries quest that exam­ines the per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al highs and lows, nev­er shy­ing away from their imper­fec­tions. Hawke’s knowl­edge and enthu­si­asm, cou­pled with his expe­ri­ence, give an insid­er per­spec­tive that adds to the inti­ma­cy of the project.

2. Bar­ry (HBO/​Sky Atlantic)

It is impres­sive that Bar­ry cre­ators Bill Had­er and Alec Berg find new ways to paint the hit­man-turned-actor into deep­er cor­ners. Bar­ry has a tar­get on his back, and an exhil­a­rat­ing motor­bike chase sequence strips away any music to fur­ther ramp up the ten­sion. It is the dark­est and fun­ni­est sea­son to date, peel­ing back the lay­ers of the TV indus­try. Bar­ry isn’t the only one at a cross­roads as Sarah Goldberg’s Sal­ly goes through tri­umphs and tribu­la­tions, NoHo Hank (Antho­ny Car­ri­g­an) expe­ri­ences love, and Gene Cousineau (Hen­ry Win­kler) gets a sec­ond chance.

1. Sev­er­ance (Apple TV+)

Being able to divide your work and per­son­al life sounds like a dream, but cre­ator Dan Erickson’s extreme ver­sion of this sce­nario proves oth­er­wise. Adam Scott plays both sides of the sev­ered coin with pre­ci­sion; his Out­ie is with­drawn and griev­ing his wife, and his Innie enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly tows the com­pa­ny line. Slow­ly the divid­ed world begins to merge, and the sur­re­al nature of this work­place increas­es. Direc­tors Ben Stiller and Aoife McAr­dle cap­ture the absurd and increas­ing­ly dis­turb­ing ele­ments while nev­er los­ing the under­ly­ing con­nec­tions that flour­ish despite the cir­cum­stances. Any­one for some inter­pre­ta­tive jazz?