Just gonna come right out and say it: there is so much TV. Seriously—so much. Obviously, Netflix is a powerhouse, but we’ve now reached a point in the streaming era where HBO Max has hit its stride (Did you see Station Eleven and Peacemaker?), Hulu is riding a true story wave with The Dropout, The Girl From Plainville, and Pam & Tommy, Peacock is gaining traction, and Apple TV+ has such a massive budget for stars (and Jon Hamm agrees) that you’ve just always got to be aware of what they’ve got coming down the pipeline. And that’s not even considering traditional TV prestige powerhouses like the O.G. HBO, or top-notch cable like FX or AMC. In short? There’s a lot of TV for us to watch, and a lot of it is going to be good.
Which is why we’re here—we want to make sure you’re spending your time only on the shows that are deserving of it. Sometimes that’ll be epic dramas that will bring you to tears. Other times it might be action. Other times it might be superheroes! Hell, sometimes it may even be traditional-style sitcoms that don’t need you to think much but will have you watching with a smile on your face and not a thought in your head.
Just like in 2021, there’s a lot of new shows to keep track of, but we’re going to do our best to do it. A few of these shows carried over from last year—Station Eleven and Yellowjackets started in 2021, but ended in 2022, so we’re counting them. A few of them are already on the air, and the rest are all shows that we either know for sure or can speculate should be coming later this year. And while we’ve done the research to make sure these are all worth getting excited about, we can’t promise they’ll be as amazing as they seem—not until they come out, at least. Which is where the fun part comes in: watching.
And so, without further ado, here are best shows we saw on TV in 2022.
Station Eleven may have started in 2021 (and it also made our Best New Shows list for that year), but it wrapped up in 2022—so we’re counting it! Based on the novel of the same name, Station Eleven may seem like a tough watch right now, being about a deadly pandemic and all. But it actually turns into one of the most uplifting, touching, and intensely-built character studies in recent TV history. The entire cast—particularly Mackenzie Davis, Himesh Patel, and Matilda Lawler, among others—are absolutely fantastic. You have to stick through some moments where it seems like the show is spinning its wheels a bit, but it all pays off in the end.
Another one that was on our 2021 list but wrapped up in 2022, Yellowjackets is simply one of the buzziest and most intriguing shows to come along in recent years. Imagine the intrigue and mystery of Lost, combined with Lord of the Flies, and then mixed with kind of a “then and now” It or Stand By Me vibe— but distinctly 1996. Led by Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Juliette Lewis, and Christina Ricci (along with their 1996 counterparts), the show has stellar casting across the board, an incredible soundtrack and is just a great, great watch. Yellowjackets is coming back for Season 2, and can’t come back soon enough.
Peacemaker is part of what we love about The Boys, and then part of what we love about the Disney+ shows in the MCU—a Hard-R, hyperviolent, hypervulgar, superhero romp, set right in a well-established superhero world. While we may not see Batman or Superman, they and their pals are frequently referenced; and John Cena’s titular Peacemaker was of course introduced (and used to great effect) in The Suicide Squad, which Peacemaker is directly spun off from.
Writer/Director James Gunn does great work to translate his world to a different medium and the cast is 100% game. Even outside of Gunn, other standouts include Orange is the New Black star Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Holland as the returning Harcourt, and Freddie Stroma as the totally insane Vigilante who is, well, a vigilante.
For all the Yellowstone-heads out there, 1883 is the first chapter in the Dutton family’s story. Taking place in 1883 (rather than the flagship series’ contemporary setting), creator Taylor Sheridan gets to take a semi-unconventional stab at a western here. And with a cast that includes Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Billy Bob Thornton, and one of our greatest cowboys, Sam Elliott, he’s got some really great toys in his sandbox.
Abbott Elementary (ABC, Hulu)
Abbott Elementary isn’t exactly breaking the mold of the modern mockumentary sitcom, but it’s done really well, and brings a lot of laughs. The series is build on the charm of series creator/star Quinta Brunson, while Everybody Hates Chris‘s Tyler James Williams plays the committed and ambitious substitute teacher. The show tells the story of an underfunded public elementary school in Philadelphia, weaving in a bit of well-deserved social commentary in a place (network sitcom!) you don’t usually find it.
How I Met Your Father (Hulu)
Let’s just be real on this one for a quick second: How I Met Your Father is not a show that’s going to push you to your intellectual limits. But it’s a fantastic show for something we all really, really need: something nice to put on and massage our brains for 20 minutes at a time. This sequel (or spin-off, who knows) from How I Met Your Mother basically flips the script, putting Hilary Duff in 2022 at the center of our story (and Kim Cattrall as the same character in flash-forwards to 2050, lovely stuff), as we wonder who she ends up with. It’s not reinventing the wheel, but it’s fun and nice and most of us will wind up watching all of it.
The Afterparty (Apple TV+)
If you dug Only Murders in the Building last year (and who the hell didn’t?) The Afterparty may be right up your alley. This star-studded Apple TV+ series (with Dave Franco, Tiffany Haddish, Sam Richardson, Ilana Glazer, Ben Schwartz, Dave Franco, Ike Barinholtz, and Search Party‘s John Early)is another murder mystery, this time unfolding at a high school reunion with each episode taking place from a different character’s perspective. Chris Miller (of the Miller and Lord team that’s been behind 21 Jump Street and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) is the creator and director of each episode.
This based-on-a-true-story series chronicles the relationship of model/actress Pamela Anderson and rocker Tommy Lee (played by Lily James and Sebastian Stan), and the leaking of their sex tape. Seth Rogen and Nick Offerman also star in this series, which is based on a Rolling Stone piece from 2014, and is surprisingly tender and compassionate toward its famous subjects.
This series from producer/director Ben Stiller (dipping his toes back into TV after the Escape at Dannemora series a few years back) is a darkly comic thriller that feels like a melding of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich, and Office Space. The story centers on a man (Adam Scott) who undergoes a process where the memories of his work life and his personal life are 100% severed, with one having zero awareness of the other. The show obviously puts a mysterious thriller spin on the idea of something that everyone struggles with: the work/life balance. The rest of the cast also includes the very funny Zach Cherry and Britt Lower, along with a trio of legends in Christopher Walken, John Turturro, and Patricia Arquette.
The year of the scammer series peaks with The Dropout. While WeCrashed is also good (and more on that in just a bit), this series starring Amanda Seyfried as Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is truly the cream of the crop. Not only is it stylistically good (and the combination of a genre-appropriate soundtrack and synthy score make the vibe right), but Seyfried is also joined by co-star Naveen Andrews (Lost) giving another strong performance as her professional and romantic partner, Sunny Balwani. Those two are the only main characters throughout the series, but guest stars like Laurie Metcalf, Stephen Fry, William H. Macy, and Alan Ruck are among those who are wonderful in recurring roles. As a show that tells events as they happens, but also holds its troubling characters’ feet to the fire, The Dropout is one of the must-see shows of 2022.
Our Flag Means Death (HBO Max)
This series—loosely based on a true story—follows an aristocrat (Rhys Darby of Flight of the Conchords fame) who abandons his comfortable life as an aristocrat to become a pirate. Along his journey, he meets Blackbeard (Taika Waititi). As if you needed to be sold any more, the show has richly drawn characters across its cast, and a storyline that actually makes you eager to see what will happen next. We can’t wait for Season 2.
The Boys Presents: Diabolical
Do you love The Boys? Do you love dark, twisted, adult-themed cartoons? If the answer to either of those is ‘Yes,’ you’ll love The Boys Presents: Diabolical, an animated series of short, standalone stories set in The Boys universe. If the answer to both of those questions is ‘Yes,’ this may just be your favorite show of the year. If you finished The Boys Season 3, this is a great place to come to keep getting your fix on that sweet, sweet Compound V.
Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (HBO)
Winning Time focuses in on two super important figures in the past of the National Basketball Association: Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly), the new owner of the Los Angeles Lakers who knows he wants to create the flashiest product (and most winning) product in the NBA, and his new star, Magic Johnson (played by newcomer Quincy Isaiah). The show also features the likes of Sally Field, Jason Segel, Jason Clarke, Rob Morgan, and Adrien Brody, among others—the cast is stacked. The show is vulgar, looks just like the era its depicting, but most of all—it’s fun.
You thought we were done with the year of the scammer on TV? You were wrong. Apple TV+ got into the game with WeCrashed, the story of WeWork’s founder Adam Neumann (played here by Jared Leto, of course doing the most) and his fall from grace. Anne Hathaway plays Rebekah Newman, Adam’s wife who also played a role within the company. What WeCrashed does particularly well is not pass judgment on its characters or try particularly hard to push them in any light; it simply presents them, and lets the audience draw its own conclusion (spoiler: it should not be a positive one!).
Based on the widely-acclaimed novel of the same name, Pachinko is one of Apple TV+’s biggest swings yet—a story spanning four generations of a Korean immigrant family. And, so far, it lands—Pachinko is one of the best-reviewed shows of the year and has even loyal book fans compelled. The cast is led by last year’s Academy Award winner Yuh-Jung Youn (from Minari), and the direction and photography look stunning through and through.
HBO Max’s Minx is kind of the antithesis to HBO’s Winning Time. Where Winning Time kind of looks at the messiness of the “boys club” type of antics that led to the success of the Los Angeles Lakers in the ’80s (and the women who ultimately worked behind the scenes), Minx depicts a story that makes it clear that it wasn’t all debauchery and misogyny. This story of a woman (Ophelia Lovibond) and a magazine publisher (Jake Johnson) who create an erotic magazine with the female gaze in the ’80s is both fun and vulgar (with a lot of male nudity!) while putting everything through a rather progressive lens (and with all the nostalgia we want from this sort of thing).
One of Marvel’s very weirdest comic anti-heroes gets the live-action treatment in the form of a six-episode Disney+ series—and with perhaps the streamer’s most impressive cast yet. Oscar Isaac plays the titular Moon Knight, while Ethan Hawke is along for the ride as the show’s cult leader-type villain. Moon Knight in recent years has become a story about mental illness, and the show is going all-in on depicting the Dissociative Identity Disorder of Steven Grant—or is it Marc Spector? Moon Knight is a trippy, weird, show, especially for the MCU, where things can admittedly tend to sometimes get a bit formulaic. This is one you’ll want to stick with until the very end.
David Simon and George Pelecanos re-entered the world of the crime drama with We Own This City (based on the book of the same name), a 2015 Baltimore-set drama that unfolds at the same time as citizens of the city were demanding justice for Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old who died under suspicious circumstances in police custody. Against that backdrop, Simon and Pelecanos once again paint an intricate story of crime, corruption, and complex characters. Jon Bernthal leads a cast that tells a complex and troubling story.
Under The Banner of Heaven (FX/Hulu)
The age of Garfield continues! Andrew leads this FX mystery series, based on Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction book of the same name. Garfield plays a Mormon detective investigating a murder of a woman who finds his faith in question when he finds clues that the church may have been involved. The series is directed by David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water) and written by Dustin Lance Black (Milk) with co-stars including Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sam Worthington, and Wyatt Russell, among others.
In the very, very, very, very, very crowded 2022 field of based-on-a-true-story crime drama, The Staircase stands above the rest of the crop (alongside The Dropout) as the best of the bunch. Come for the mystifying and confounding story around Kathleen Peterson’s (Toni Collette)death, stay for one of the best TV performances you’ll ever see from Colin Firth as her possibly guilty husband, Michael Peterson. The rest of the cast—including Michael Stuhlbarg, Parker Posey, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sophie Turner, and more—is exceptional across the board.
Gonna be completely real for a minute: the Obi-Wan show was a little disappointing. But the good parts are really good; Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi is a joy, and the show makes good (if brief) use of Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader. And some of the moments shared between. those two are worth the price of admission for Star Wars fans alone.
Ms. Marvel started off really unique, kind of settled into being fairly standard Marvel fare in the middle, and really had a great conclusion. Which is just about all we can ask for! Iman Vellani, who plays the Pakistani-American superhero Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel is an absolute delight in this series, and while her superhero origin story is fun, the real best parts of this series are the rich relationships we see her share with her friends, and especially her parents. It’s the first Marvel series since WandaVision that’s actually made us feel some real emotions.
This year’s version of Ted Lasso or The Queen’s Gambit is probably The Bear, a super fast-paced half-hour dramedy about a restaurant in Chicago. The premise is simple enough, but after an episode or two you will be fully sucked into this engrossing story of a world-class chef (Shameless star Jeremy Allen White) who returns to Chicago to run his family’s sandwich shop following his brother’s unfortunate death. You’ll burn through The Bear—not only is it one of the best shows of the year, but the music is great and these episodes move fast. Good news, chefs: Season 2 is already on the way.
The Old Man was on our radar for a while, and even appeared briefly on a 2021 version of this same list. Once Jeff Bridges’ cancer has entered remission, that settled things: it was time to be a badass again. Enter The Old Man, which finds Bridges back in the game as an off-the-grid assassin finding himself back in the game he wanted so badly to be out of. He’s joined by John Lithgow and Alia Shawkat in an exceptional cast. As always, The Dude Abides.
Nathan Fielder—of Nathan For You—is back in peak quasi-documentary/how much of this is real? form with The Rehearsal, a show that starts with the mind-bending premise that finds Fielder coaching real people through meticulously-planned “rehearsals” for significant moments to come in their lives. But if that sounds wild…you have no idea what’s to come. By the end of the series, something that started as Borat meets Queer Eye finds itself barreling full speed ahead toward the work of David Lynch.
One of the most beloved comics of all-time—Neil Gaiman‘s The Sandman—got the big scale, big-budget, big-time Netflix treatment in 2022. The show’s cast is enormous, casting Tom Sturridge as Dream and Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, with countless others along for the ride (including Boyd Holbrook, David Thewlis, Charles Dance, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, and Patton Oswalt, among others). If you’re into fantasy, or the source material, you’re in for a treat with The Sandman. And some more good news—the show is coming back for Season 2.
A League of Their Own (Amazon Prime Video)
Amazon’s swing at telling the story of the first All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) is less an adaption of the original 1992 A League of Their Own film and more of a home run expansion of a world that should’ve been revisited years ago. The Rockford Peaches’ struggles for legitimacy against the 1942 sexism are still central to the story. But, the identity awakening of Carson Shaw (Broad City’s Abby Jacobson) and Maxine “Max” Chapman (The Photograph’s Chanté Adams) add stakes that make it relatable today. Adams is unforgettable as the indomitably driven Black pitching prodigy, and Jacobson delivers one of her best dramatic roles yet. There are tasteful homages to the original film (Yes, there’s crying in baseball), and it crushes the Bechdel Test. Do yourself a favor and watch this show immediately.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (Disney+)
She-Hulk takes a page from the WandaVision Disney+ MCU playbook and veers toward a genre-bender. But where WandaVision felt like a take on sitcoms, She-Hulk instead is a sort of Boston Legal-esque superhero legal comedy. The series focuses on Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany, who was great in Orphan Black and the first season of HBO’s Perry Mason), an attorney and cousin of Bruce Banner (and, yes, Mark Ruffalo is also in the series). She gets Hulk powers and then the show really takes off from there. It’s fun, funny, and really rides on the back of its cast, keeping episodic stories (with fun guest stars!). Just wait until you see what the show does with the return of Emil Blonsky/The Abomination (Tim Roth).
House of the Dragon (HBO)
Are you ready to head down this wormhole again? HBO made a big bet on the answer being a resounding Yes, and it paid off, as House of the Dragon told the first part of the network’s new Targaryen-centered Thrones tale in a wildly-popular manner. It takes a little bit to get invested into the House of the Dragon world, but the show tells a uniquely-paced (multiple time-jumps, so be prepared) story of politicking and drama that leads up to an inevitable civil (dragon) war.
Welcome to Wrexham (FX/Hulu)
So imagine Ted Lasso. But instead of Rebecca, the owner of AFC Richmond is a major movie star and a major TV star who became friends virtually before ever meeting during a global pandemic. And then imagine that those friends—those famous friends—decided to film their journey into small town football (soccer, to us in America) ownership. And then we got to see it on FX/Hulu. That’s the story of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney buying Wrexham A.F.C., and their docuseries, Welcome to Wrexham, which is a whole lot of fun—and not just for the celebrity aspect of it. The show also takes time to explore the Wrexham players, staff, and community, and does so with time and care that make the show worth watching.
Reboot boasts perhaps TV’s most impressive ensemble sitcom cast: Keegan-Michael Key, Judy Greer, Calum Worthy, Johnny Knoxville, Krista Marie Yu, Rachel Bloom, and Paul Reiser. And with Modern Family‘s Steven Levitan at the helm, Reboot does its impressive stars well. The basis of the show—an early 2000s sitcom is rebooted by an estranged daughter (Rachel Bloom) and her father (Paul Reiser) who originally created the show—gives way to some really great characters and hilarious moments. It’s one of the best sitcoms of the 2020s so far.
Interview with the Vampire (AMC)
People often look to streaming services these days for quality, binge-worthy television, but original prestige programming comes from the likes of AMC and HBO. In their post-Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and Mad Men era, AMC has found a new irresistible show in Interview with the Vampire. Starring Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson, the show is a contemporary rendition of Anne Rice’s classic gothic vampire series dealing with race, class, and sexuality in a way the books and 1994 film did not. Plus, it’s just really good TV. It’s one of the best shows out right now, and it deserves far more recognition.
This year’s biggest surprise: that the smartest, boldest, most artistically unique installment of a known franchise was not the follow up to award-winning works with “Rings” and “Thrones” in their titles. It was a Star Wars show. Andor gives us the most adult take on the George Lucas universe since … ever. It captures all the political and social parallels of the originals while also avoiding all the campiness. It’s awesome. Go watch it.
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Netflix)
If you love Black Mirror but wish it had just a bit more of a spooky horror twist, then Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, produced and presented by the Academy Award-winning filmmaker behind Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water himself, is a show for you. Each of these standalone tales comes from a different notable director and stars people you’ve likely seen before, like Tim Blake Nelson, Rupert Grint, and Sofia Boutella.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Amazon Prime Video))
We know what you’re probably thinking—no, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is not a remake, or a reimagining, a reboot, or anything of the sort. Peter Jackson’s movies are canon and will be left alone, thankfully.
Instead, the Bezos bunch returns to the “Second Age” of Middle Earth, telling a story set distinctly in Tolkien’s world (but not written by him) of the era when the Rings were forged by Sauron.
A serial killer kidnapping his therapist to help him stop serial killing—starring Steve Carell and Domhnall Gleeson—should be hilarious. And it is, sometimes. But mostly it’s terrifying and darker and way more fucked up than we could have imagined. Both Carell and Gleeson turn in career-topping performances. Don’t expect the dark humor to turn that frown upside down. This show will bum you out.
The Midnight Club (Netflix)
Mike Flanagan would have been considered one of the modern horror masters in recent years due to his films alone—Doctor Sleep, Gerald’s Game, Hush, and more—but it’s his TV relationship with Netflix that has taken his success to the next level. His latest project was yet another standalone series: The Midnight Club.
Based on the Christopher Pike YA novel of the same name, Midnight still leans horror, but likely have more of a Stranger Things feel than any of Flanagan’s previous projects. The story is simple enough: seven terminally ill young people meet every night at the hospice home they live in to tell scary stories, and reach a pact: the first of them to die will have to communicate with the rest of them from the great beyond. Horror fans will be thrilled to see Heather Langenkamp as the charismatic doctor of the hospice, while Flanagan, as always, brings back a few of his old friends: Zach Gilford, Matt Biedel, and Samantha Sloyan all return from Midnight Mass.
OK, we know what you’re thinking: The White Lotus isn’t a new show! It already had a whole season and won a bunch of awards. What gives? Well, I’ll tell you what gives: there’s a new season with a whole new story (only Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya and her love interest, BLM Greg (Jon Gries) returns) set in Sicily. It’s The White Lotus, and it has the same vibe as the first season, but it’s totally different. The cast includes the likes of Aubrey Plaza, Theo James, F. Murray Abraham, and Michael Imperioli, and it’s great. If you love TV, you need to watch The White Lotus: Sicily.
The Taylor Sheridan Universe expands furth with Tulsa King, which keeps its creator’s proven formula—a charismatic male lead attempts to balance a criminal undertaking with his own personal endeavors—and brings the legendary Sylvester Stallone into the mix. Yellowstone, Mayor of Kingstown, 1883, and now Tulsa King. And while it’s not reinventing the wheel, it lets its star have fun and is an enjoyable fish-out-of-water crime tale.
Welcome to Chippendales (Hulu)
Those looking for a true crime story you won’t believe will be excited to check out Welcome to Chippendales. This story of the famed male dancers stars Kumail Nanjiani and Murray Bartlett, and quickly descend into a wild tale of darkness and crime.
Fleishman is in Trouble (FX/Hulu)
Taffy Brodesser-Akner is the showrunner for this FX/Hulu adaptation of her adaptation of novel of the same name about a divorced man (Jesse Eisenberg) who finds new successes and problems after splitting up with his wife. Claire Danes plays his ex-wife, Adam Brody plays one of his best friends, and Lizzy Caplan plays both the omniscent narrator and another one of his best friends in this series that is really quite fun. Any fans of Stranger Than Fiction out there? This one is for you.
You may not have realized how badly the world wanted more Addams Family in their lives—Wednesday has been a massive hit for Netflix, and has been one of the most fun shows of the year. Built on the combination of Jenna Ortega‘s fantastic turn as the deadpan Wednesday Addams herself and Tim Burton’s signature gloomy vision (he executive produces and directed many of the episodes), Wednesday will have you laughing, on the edge of your seat, and wondering what will happen next. And did you see that dance?
We don’t need to say too much: 1923 is the spiritual sequel to 1883, a spin-off/pre-quel of Yellowstone. And, quite frankly? At this point, these stories are better than the main thing. Just like how writer/showrunner Taylor Sheridan was at his best when creating the contained stories for his movies Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River, he’s been at his best putting together these stories to build out the lore of his Dutton-verse. And having Indiana Jones playing opposite one of the few Oscar/Emmy/Tony winners in the business doesn’t hurt too much either.
Evan Romano
Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE.
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Qiana Fleishman