Travis M Andrews, Helena Andrews-Dyer, David Betancourt, Bethonie Butler & Sonia Rao
THE WASHINGTON POST – As the so-called Golden (and Silver) Ages of television continue to recede in the rearview mirror, we’ve entered what can best be described as the Overwhelming Age of TV.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing! But there was so much small-screen fare to choose from that 2022 became a year featuring not one, not two, but (at least) three shows about tech start-ups. (And to think some people call TV the idiot box). It was the year Star Wars grew up, and pandemic shows got boosted into second seasons.
The same year that found HBO Max with so many shows, its parent company simply began deleting them. From chefs to teachers, serial killers to murder detectives, 2022’s slate included a little something for everyone.
It was also the year that ends with The Washington Post seeking our next TV critic, so the Style department’s most telly-minded writers culled together a list of our favourite series from the past 12 months.
THE BEAR
The Bear may be a lengthy undertaking for the anxious television pausers among us, but boy is it worth it.
Few series this year so effectively enveloped viewers in the physical sensations of a setting – in this case, the hectic kitchen of Original Beef of Chicagoland, a Chicago sandwich joint run by Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), a fine-dining chef who takes over the family business after his older brother’s suicide.
Praised as a wincingly honest depiction of restaurant kitchens, Hulu’s The Bear also proves revelatory in how it explores the way grief informs Carmy’s sense of duty.
White delivers a convincing performance alongside pitch-perfect co-stars Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, whose characters often bicker in the Original Beef kitchen.
ABBOTT ELEMENTARY
Abbott Elementary is good. That applies to what’s happening on-screen in this excellent Emmy Award-winning sitcom and for how the show makes you feel. Good. In its second season on ABC, Quinta Brunson’s comedy about overworked teachers in a underfunded public school still feels hopeful without being preachy. Sure, all the toilets in the building are broken, but someone’s got a plan.
There’s always a plan. In a time when the world’s problems seem insurmountable, Abbott consistently delivers small steps forward with sharp observations from the stellar cast – including Brunson, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Tyler James Williams and Janelle James – about what the best of us do when the crap can’t even hit the fan because the fans don’t work. The message underneath each punchline is obviously “pay these people more!” but also the somehow surprising “teachers are human, too”.
THE WHITE LOTUS
Showrunner Mike White already walked a tightrope when he created, wrote and directed the entirety of The White Lotus, an HBO show set on a Hawaiian resort that aired during a global pandemic that kept us all in our homes.
His reward was 10 Emmys. Ours is the second season, which flips the Aloha State for Sicily and introduces an excellent, almost entirely new cast including Aubrey Plaza, F Murray Abraham, Michael Imperioli and Haley Lu Richardson.
White’s creation remains as scathing (and hilarious) as ever – and again showcases his ear for sharp but realistic dialogue – while the more tightly plotted second season focusses less on class divides and more on sexual politics. One theme, though, remains clear: Try as we might, we can never escape ourselves, even during vacation.
ATLANTA
Donald Glover’s Atlanta, the FX dramedy about two cousins navigating Atlanta’s rap scene, ended this year after airing Seasons 3 and 4 nearly back-to-back after a four-year hiatus.
The series always offered a unique and groundbreaking mix of slice-of-life and surreal narratives that elevated the coming-of-age story at its heart, and its final two outings were no different.
The third season – which followed Earn (Glover) and Alfred, aka Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), as the rapper embarked on a European tour – was punctuated by stand-alone episodes that skewered White privilege and cultural appropriation.
The fourth season stayed closer to home, but one of its best episodes took the shape of a mockumentary that made a case for A Goofy Movie as “the Blackest movie of all time”. Naturally.
ANDOR
Andor is the most grown up, gritty, sexy and serious Star Wars has ever been on the screen, and undisputedly an unrivaled achievement during the streaming renaissance of this far-away galaxy on Disney Plus – and yes, that includes anything with Baby Yoda in it.
Inspirational speeches, espionage, and despair highlight this 12-episode season, as showrunner Tony Gilroy isn’t so much interested in lightsabers and the Dark Side as he is the little people who are affected by those staples. A fearless Diego Luna (Cassian Andor) shines in the titular journeyman role, alongside outstanding performances from Stellan Skarsgård (Luthen Rael) as the architect of a rebellion with no soul left to spare, and Genevieve O’Reilly (Mon Mothma), who can’t become the heroine she’s destined to be without first getting her hands dirty.
THE REHEARSAL
One aspect of Nathan Fielder’s comedic mission – inspired partly by reality TV – has always been to see how just how far people are willing to go, particularly when they’re being watched.
Could he convince a small business to sell poo-flavoured frozen yoghurt, for example, and convince customers to try it? The answers, as seen in Nathan For You, were yes, and yes.
The Rehearsal, his nearly indescribable first project on HBO, at first feels like an extension of that show.
Can he convince people to rehearse real-life situations, from offering an apology to raising a child, until they’ve exhausted every potential outcome? As is always the case with Fielder, though, the insane premise is merely a launchpad for something far more peculiar, as he begins to grapple with the parts of life he’s missed out on in pursuit of his career, and the potential damage he’s caused with his docu-comedy pranks.
It’s difficult to recall a more polarising piece of television. By its final, truly-difficult-to-watch episode, some will adore it, many will despise it, but everyone can agree that nothing like this has ever been on TV.
THE PATIENT
Steve Carell takes a dramatic turn in FX on Hulu’s 10-episode thriller about a therapist who gets kidnapped by one of his patients: Sam (Domhnall Gleeson), a serial killer desperate to stop murdering.
The acclaimed series is grounded in the nail-biting suspense of its novel premise – rarefied territory in today’s TV landscape – as it explores the petty motivations that fuel Sam’s repeated killings, as well as the childhood trauma behind his inescapable rage. But The Patient, from The Americans creators Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg, also peers into the life of Carell’s Alan Strauss, a Jewish man grieving the death of his wife and his estrangement from their increasingly religious son.
As he’s confined to his patient’s basement, Alan reflects on his past and a future that seems achingly improbable.
THE DROPOUT
Amanda Seyfried portrays Elizabeth Holmes, disgraced founder of the failed biotech company Theranos, in Hulu’s absorbing eight-episode miniseries.
Created by Elizabeth Meriwether, The Dropout traces the downfall of Theranos from Holmes’s brief time at Stanford University – where her idea for a revolutionary blood-testing company first took underdeveloped shape – to the company’s improbable rise in Silicon Valley despite clear problems with its technology.
The cast features a worthy ensemble including Kate Burton, William H Macy, Laurie Metcalf and Sam Waterston.
But it’s Seyfried’s Emmy-winning performance (and pitch-perfect voice modulation) that nails the unique mix of desperation and entitlement that fuelled Holmes’s downfall and makes the series so compelling.
THIS FOOL
Comedian Chris Estrada’s existential comedy on Hulu is one of several working-class sitcoms that helped to define the year in television with its irreverent and observational humour.
Based loosely on his experience as a Mexican American who grew up in Inglewood, California, and South Los Angeles, This Fool follows Julio (Estrada) as his cousin Luis (Frankie Quinones) returns to his family’s multigenerational household after completing an eight-year prison sentence. The hilarious misadventures mount as codependent Julio – employed at a gang rehabilitation programme called Hugs Not Drugs – tries to help his cousin adjust to life on the outside, which has changed almost as much as it has remained stagnant.
UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN
In Hulu’s haunting Utah-based true crime miniseries, Andrew Garfield makes the case for a Hollywood actor supposedly “slumming” it on the small screen.
The Oscar and Tony nominee gives a virtuoso performance as Jeb Pyre, a devout Mormon detective whose faith is shaken while investigating the brutal murder of a woman and her child that might have ties to the church of the Latter-day Saints.
Based on the nonfiction book of the same title by Jon Krakauer and guided by the steady hand of showrunner Dustin Lance Black, the show never condescends, preaches or articularly judges – even during various flashbacks depicting Joseph Smith’s founding of the religion.
Rounding out the cast are the always-excellent Daisy Edgar-Jones as Brenda Lafferty, the murdered mother who had been trying to find some independence within the faith, and Wyatt Russell as her brother-in-law Dan, who becomes increasingly radicalised.