Written by Andreas Babiolakis

2022 was absolute dynamite when it came to quality television, which is helpful considering how we are still confined to our homes as the pandemic ends as slowly as can be (say hello to hybrid working environments). A few contemporary classics concluded as well as possible while brand new series kicked us as hard as they could (instantly forcing us to beg for more). Either way, we saw streaming services continue to dominate with original programming: a trend that likely won’t die down anytime soon. What series felt the most applicable in this disjointed, frenzied age? What shows were just right during times of uncertainty? What had us glued to our screens and devices every single week (or for hours on end during an unhealthy binge watch)? Here are the best ten television shows of 2022.

Honourable Mentions (In No Particular Order):
-House of the Dragon (Season 1)
-Irma Vep
-The White Lotus (Season 2)
-Demon Slayer (Season 2)
-Abbott Elementary (Season 1 & 2 So Far)
-Peaky Blinders (Series 6)
-Spy x Family (Season 1)

10. Undone (Season 2)

Time continues to break in the breathtaking rotoscope series Undone, as the Amazon original vows to destroy how television narratives are conveyed. Alma continues to battle her internal demons amidst some brilliant breakthroughs (particularly the Hail Mary in season 1 working as we all had hoped as soon as this followup season begins), because we can never rest when we are broken. So Alma and her loved ones dig deeper in as many senses of the phrase as possible, bringing us to new timelines, locations, and mindsets. Undone season 2 may resemble your conventional time travel stories a little more than the first season did, but the show is still as creative as ever, blurring what you once perceived to be the end results of changing the course of events throughout history (be they large in scale or entirely personal on an introspective level).

9. Attack On Titan (Season 4 Part 2)

Consider me still salty that Attack on Titan hasn’t actually finished yet, but I cannot deny how hooked I was on the anime series every single week: waiting for Crunchy Roll to figure itself out while handling millions of viewers at the drop of every episode was almost as anxious as the episodes themselves. Eren Yeager continues to corrode more and more as a symbol of hope, humanity proceeds to look doomed in the faces of the powerful, and it’s impossible to not have lost faith by this (hopefully) penultimate season. Closure is starting to develop, mind you, as a number of closed loops, call backs, and warranted returns render Attack on Titan’s latest season twisty, shocking, and ultimately rewarding.

8. Hacks (Season 2)

Succession, meet The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. HBO Max’s Hacks continues to reign as television’s strongest straight-up comedy series. There’s nothing lovelier than seeing the washed up comedic tyrant Deborah Vance squabble with cancelled aspiring joke writer Ava Daniels. Oh, wait. Yes there is. Put them both on the road and see how uncomfortable they get with one another. The comedy only gets better and better (you’d think the humour would capsize at the two being thrown off of a ship, but Hacks continues to climb from there), but the connection between this unlikely pairing of maternal and daughter figures also blossoms (amidst a tough-love lawsuit: one of the great punchlines of 2022). I have so much faith in the Hacks team, even if the characters on the show have zero confidence in one another (or so they’ll lead you to believe).

7. Pachinko

I believe we are still in the Golden Age of Television because storytellers are continuing to find new ways to reinvent how the episodic formula can convey narratives. Enter Pachinko: created by Soo Hugh and directed by both Kogonada (After Yang) and Justin Chon (Blue Bayou). This generational miniseries leaps from era to era, connecting the dots between one’s choices and the ripple effects that last for decades and affect the future of one’s family tree. Focusing on the generations of one Korean immigrant family, Pachinko left me guessing, nervous, and chasing hope for things to work out for all of these dreamers, whether they search for a better future or try to read the paths of the past left by their ancestors.

6. The Bear (Season 1)

While online algorithms can kill many projects, it can also allow something to become an instant success through word-of-mouth virality. Such was the case for The Bear: quite possibly the most nerve wracking show that is still ongoing. Not many series united audiences in mutual agreement quite like this creation of Christopher Storer, as we all binge watched the lows and even-deeper lows of one struggling sandwich shop being held together by a grieving chef de cuisine, a hot headed manager, a gifted prodigy that quickly becomes sous chef, and the rest of the kitchen staff. Everyone gets heated and attacks one another in The Bear, and the pressures of working in a restaurant have never been so fully realized on television. Season 1 ends with promise but enough loose ends that spell trouble for Carmy and company, and I can’t wait to lose more hair and gain more wrinkles with the impending stress in finding out what’s next for The Bear.

5. Barry (Season 3)

I’d call Barry the best ongoing comedy on television, but the series is so unrecognizable under that label now; it’s going full on BoJack Horseman in the tragicomedy department (but with more murder, of course). The more we learn about the titular hitman-turned-actor, the more we realize we’ve bitten off more than we can chew. Barry is no longer acting parts on the stage: he’s teaching himself to put on a persona as a regular person as to disguise his growing comfort with being a monstrous person (something he never was, despite being a killer on a daily basis). Barry Berkman (or Barry Block) is slowly becoming the next best antihero on television (a title that is now up for grabs), and with one season left after that jaw dropping season finale, I can’t even begin to predict where Barry will go from here (outside of up).

4. Severance (Season 1)

I was itching for a great new science fiction thriller to watch on television, and Apple TV+’s new original, Severance, does all but disappoint. The basic premise is already great: here’s a reality where people have their brain split into halves (a work mindset, and a life mindset), with both parts being toggled between via a switch (one’s life self has no real recollection of their work mindset, and vice versa). Where Ben Stiller (yes, that Ben Stiller) and company go with this premise is to such imaginative lengths: philosophical questions about one’s place in society as an employed individual and as a citizen. As the Lumon Industries wisen up and try to thwart whatever project they are a part of, Severance becomes a televised spectacle that will leave you speechless (similarly to how I felt after the biggest cliffhanger of 2022: I’m still aching to see what transpires next).

3. Atlanta (Seasons 3 & 4)

The third season of Atlanta polarized audiences for the amount of narrative deviations and episodic detours it took. Season 4 was a return to form, but a brief glimpse of familiarity before the FX staple concluded for good. There’s one thing you can call both of these Atlanta seasons: daring. Donald Glover and company destroyed our comfort zones again and again while leaving us wondering where this beloved series will wind up. We finish with “It Was All A Dream”: one of the greatest series finales you may ever see that re-contextualizes the entire series we’ve watched repetitively ad nauseam and thought we had figured out by now (we hadn’t). Atlanta will go down as one of television’s greatest satires (if it hasn’t already), and it feels great to be certain of this fate now that the show has ended on such a high note.

2. The Rehearsal (Season 1)

The best new series of the year has to be Nathan Fielder’s absurd experiment, The Rehearsal. What starts out as a bonkers idea (a series where Fielder helps willing participants rehearse upcoming events and confessions countless of times, with ambitiously created sets that are identical to where these meetings will take place, and with hired performers acting as the recipient of these tough bits of news) becomes so much more. I wasn’t sure what to expect after Nathan For You, but it wasn’t Synecdoche, New York. The initial premise quickly gets sidelined as Fielder gets more and more invested in the possibilities of his concept, and he’s full-on living a new life a few episodes in. The Rehearsal cleverly reminds us how fabricated our own lives are as this series of reenactments and permutations may be more truthful than any of us ever intended (especially Fielder himself).

1. Better Call Saul (Season 6)

It feels a bit on-the-nose to select Better Call Saul as the best series of the year, but it makes so much sense. This Peter Gould/Vince Gilligan series was always a slow burning tale of comeuppance, greed, deception, and corruption, and the only thing that mattered is where it arrived. Well, we have now been granted three series finales: “Plan and Execution” (season 6’s finale for part 1) where years of work wound up backfiring disastrously and killing all that happened before it, “Fun and Games” (the ending of Jimmy McGill for good), and the actual finale “Saul Gone” (a painfully bittersweet sendoff in the form of an eventually redemptive asking for forgiveness). There’s no more build up, and we’ve had more than enough pay offs landing exactly as they needed to. Following two halves of a blistering final season, Better Call Saul is solidified as a modern classic and unquestionably one of the greatest spinoffs in television history (if not the very best spinoff). Will television ever be this patiently calculated again? We’ll have to wait and see, but it was amazing to see such meticulously crafted storytelling work out as beautifully as it does in Better Call Saul.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.

The Best 10 Television Shows of 2022