Favorite TV — 2022

Hope in despair. Light in darkness. Victory in loss. Maybe it’s a reflection of the types of stories I have been pursuing as a screenwriter, but it’s also part of all the shows I love most from this year.

10. Reservation Dogs

In its stellar second season, Reservation Dogs plunges further into the death and despair that is as natural to the characters’ lives as the air they breathe. But as dark as it is, it’s not a morbid show about sadness, but the way people handle sadness in their own different ways, often hilarious, toxic, unexpected, but sometimes with grace too.

9. What We Do In The Shadows

What We Do In The Shadows proves again its one of the funniest shows on television with its hilarious & brilliant fourth season. This isn’t just because of the appearance of a baby/adolescent/teenage Colin Robinson and his shenanigans, but because the episode set-ups, as well as their twists and turns, continue to catch us off guard (most notably the brilliant episode “Private School”).

8. Abbott Elementary (Season 1)

Hilarious & heartfelt, an ode to teachers and all of the selfless, incredible work that they do to make kids’ lives just a little bit better. An unsentimental, yet optimistic broadcast show — feels like a miracle in this day and age. It also boasts one of the strongest sitcom ensemble casts in years — there’s not a single player you aren’t excited to spend time with.

7. The Bear

The story of a found family in a Chicago beef kitchen, with all of its specificity and passion, love and hatred, fulfillment and resigned disappointment. A natural crucible for drama and comedy, with an incredible Jeremy Allen White as its vitriolic, but warm, center of gravity. A show about the stress and terror that comes from cooking, but the unique joy that arises from it too.

6. The Rehearsal

An unexpectedly strange series from Nathan Fielder (yes, I know that sounds absurd) that sets out to be one thing, only to evolve into something much stranger, more unexpected, and heartfelt. It’s hard to tell how much of this was part of the plan, or a series of happy dramatic accidents. It feels like the latter, since after all, there’s only so much in life that we can rehearse. At the center of it all is Nathan, a man uninterested in being vulnerable, only for his vulnerability to emerge regardless.

5. Andor

The best thing to come out of Star Wars since The Last Jedi because it brings humanity back to the forefront, vapid fan service be damned. The story of the beginning of the Rebellion, with all of its growing pains, political intrigue, and the push and pull between hope and nihilism that never feels glib. Like Better Call Saul, it’s a great prequel series that still makes you feel tense even when you know its ultimate destination.

4. Severance

The best new series this year. A show that makes you want to watch the next episode immediately, a parable of soul-sucking corporate America, and the dangerous next steps in technological devolution. A horrifying story of people trapped in a system, deluded into believing they have free will, only to realize what it could mean to actually break free. It’s a disturbingly prescient piece of dystopia sci-fi, but laced with enough hope to keep us on edge.

3. Under the Banner of Heaven

The best limited series I’ve watched this year. What starts as a frightening true crime story set in a Mormon community in Utah reveals itself to be a story about a Mormon’s crisis of faith. Yet, it’s not an indictment of faith itself, but an investigation as to whether faith can & should survive in a world where its exploited to such horrific ends. Can we still believe in a just world amidst so much suffering? Or is the just world one that we have to make ourselves?

2. Better Call Saul

Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould’s stunning show delivers on its final season, mining their wonderful, standalone spinoff for all of its unexpected emotional potential, while casually drawing from its predecessor Breaking Bad as it sees fit. These last several episodes are jaw-dropping and unexpected, but never out of left field — it’s all based in these complex characters, and how they’ve changed over the years. At its core is an incredible couple (Bob Odenkirk & Rhea Seehorn) who continue to surprise us till the very end.

1. Barry

The best series of the year. A show that has courageously allowed itself to evolve into something darker and sadder than any of us could have anticipated, while still being morbidly funny. Not merely a satire on the disappointments of Hollywood, but the gnawing pain that it causes, especially when your self-worth is inextricable from professional success. Amidst all of this, it fulfills Fuches’ initial warning to Barry that when you become a hitman, you close the doors on everything else in life.

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Favorite Performances

There’s no performance this year I love as much as Rhea Seehorn in Better Call Saul. An absolute barn-burner of a performance, so genuinely vulnerable, so specific and nuanced. She is the moral heart of the show, and manages to feel like a real, painfully empathetic person carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Other incredible performances this year:

• Abbott Elementary — The entire cast, but especially Quinta Brunson and Janelle James
• Andor —Denise Gough, Andy Serkis
• Barry — Sarah Goldberg, Bill Hader
• The Bear — Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach
• Better Call Saul — Bob Odenkirk
• A League of Their Own — Chanté Adams, D’Arcy Carden
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power — Morfydd Clark
• Severance — The entire cast, but especially Britt Lower
• Under the Banner of Heaven — Andrew Garfield
• What We Do in the Shadows — Matt Berry