20 Best TV Shows of 2022 (So Far)

Liz Shannon Miller
·13 min read

The post 20 Best TV Shows of 2022 (So Far) appeared first on Consequence.

Our 2022 Midyear Report continues with a look at our favorite TV series of 2022 so far.

The most exciting thing about Consequence‘s picks for the best TV of 2022 so far is how weird it all is. Almost every single one of these series played gleefully with genre and form, challenged our assumptions about events and people we thought we knew everything about, and exposed us to brave new wild worlds, from the antiseptic halls of a soulless corporation to the crumbling walls of a struggling Philadelphia public school to the wide-open spaces of the Wyoming countryside.

It’s an eclectic bunch of series, though in some ways they have a lot in common. Not just the ways they push boundaries, though that certainly happens. (Can you guess now which three shows are united in their depiction of copious full-frontal male nudity? The answer might surprise you!) But they’re all united by a deep interest in humanity — who we are as people, how we use stories to connect with each other, how our best moments and worst moments can make us stronger. There may be a lot of wang on this list. But there’s also a lot of beauty.

— Liz Shannon Miller
Senior Entertainment Editor

20. Murderville

Improv shows can be dicey propositions, but there’s something magical about the format to Netflix’s Murderville — in which Will Arnett’s Detective Seattle takes a celebrity guest through a scripted murder mystery for which their guest does not know the script. Some celebs (Annie Murphy, Ken Jeong) get hung out to dry, but the Marshawn Lynch, Sharon Stone, and Kumail Nanjiani episodes feel like breathtaking comic high-wire acts. — Clint Worthington

19. Peacemaker

Spinning out of one The Suicide Squad in the care of director/writer James Gunn, Peacemaker goes harder and delivers better than 95% of the cinematic DCEU. With loveably unlikeable characters, fantastic turns from John Cena and Danielle Brooks, and the balls to reckon with the fact that this extinction-level threat exists in the world of the Justice League, the show surprised as one of the most fun and heartfelt serial superhero adventures around. Plus, that opening sequence alone could top a list of best TV moments of the year. — Ben Kaye

18. Pam and Tommy

One of the year’s best docu-dramas so far was this wild, and at times, harrowing recount of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s sex tape leak in 1997. At a first impression, this is a show that can go horribly wrong; after all, this was pre-#MeToo Hollywood, a sad tale of sensationalism that continues to follow Anderson to this day (she refused to take part in this series).

But like director Craig Gillespie’s empathetic work on I, Tonya, Pam and Tommy seeks to demonstrate just how dehumanizing this experience was for Anderson, and the resulting show is a passionate and powerful look at misogyny in Hollywood. Sebastian Stan and Lily James are outstanding in Pam and Tommy, and the show succeeds the most at reframing Pamela Anderson’s storied career. — Paolo Ragusa

17. Hacks (Season 2)

Deborah Vance and Ava are back, they’re still kind of awful, they’re still absolutely self-absorbed, and they still desperately need one another. They’re also still never going to admit to any of that. Hacks continues to be riveting and impeccably acted, and Season 2 has one thing its predecessor did not — an absolutely unhinged Laurie Metcalf. — Mary Siroky

16. Outer Range

For a show whose premise hinges on a mysterious hole in the middle of a contested patch of pasture that might or might not lead to a parallel universe (and might or might not be a good way to hide the drunken dick of a neighbor your son accidentally murdered), Outer Range gets shockingly close to what everyday life in modern-day Wyoming really feels like: A bit isolated, a bit weird, a bit full of gruff old white men whose sense of self is entirely wrapped up in claims on land that was stolen from the Shoshone and Arapaho in the first place. But also, you know, incredibly beautiful. There aren’t a lot of answers to the (w)hole mystery in Season 1, but you can only imagine what swings might be yet to come. — Alexis Gunderson

15. Somebody Somewhere

Set in small-town Kansas, this nuanced, sweet, and sad HBO dramedy focuses on Sam (Bridget Everett) as she finds a new creative outlet after decades of dormancy, with some help from an old classmate (Jeff Hiller) who helps reawaken her love of music. Everett might be most recognizable from her many TV appearances riffing on her bawdy cabaret work, but in Somebody Somewhere, she revealed her raw and beating heart, and it was beautiful. — L.S.M.

14. The Dropout

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably are at least passingly familiar with the story of Elizabeth Holmes, the fraudster Silicon Valley once-gazillionaire whose fall from grace provided plenty of schadenfreude (and also turned a mirror on a society of gullible enablers and money-hungry capitalists who assisted in her rise in the first place).

So when Hulu announced they were airing a limited series about Holmes’ journey from try-hard Stanford student to world-conquering founder to convicted felon, you might’ve rolled your eyes: “Really? They’re still milking this story?” But The Dropout is must-see TV simply because of the virtuoso performance of Amanda Seyfried, whose uncanny portrayal of Holmes will make you laugh one moment and scare the absolute shit out of you the next. — Spencer Dukoff

13. Minx

Feeling an aching absence of full-frontal peen in your prestige cable television? With HBO Max’s Minx, you can worry no further, as a budding feminist mag in the 1970s struggles to stuff its second-wave treatises on the patriarchy in between as many shots of big-hogged muscle hunks as possible. Doesn’t hurt, of course, that the cast is perfect to a tee, especially the back-and-forth between Ophelia Lovibond’s uptight Joyce and Jake Johnson’s sleazy skin merchant Doug. — C.W.

12. Stranger Things (Season 4)

Prior to the release of the long-awaited new installment of Netflix’s blockbuster franchise, the only thing we knew for sure was that it would be a lot — literally, with episode runtimes all easily stretching past the hour mark. But while the actual episodes did end up being long, they came by those lengths honestly, with each episode packed with multiple stories as the intrepid young friends attempt to fight back the ever-growing evil threat of the Upside Down on multiple fronts. Perhaps the most remarkable achievement of the first seven episodes of Stranger Things is that it made us excited to watch more Stranger Things — July 1st will be a banner day for us. — L.S.M.

11. Heartstopper

This love story between two young Brits is a Heartstopper, and it’s also incredibly heartwarming. We all might feel a bit conditioned to expect the worst when it comes to queer love stories, but Charlie and Nick give us a lovely place where that isn’t the case at all. The thoughtful and outright adorable show is a runaway hit for Netflix, and we have two more confirmed seasons coming to continue to explore these characters and their leaf-decked world. — M. Siroky

10. The Staircase

Who or what killed Kathleen Peterson? The Staircase, the HBO Max retelling of the infamous murder trial, isn’t quite sure, making it an even more compelling watch. Add a bumbling husband, a French documentary crew, and an owl to the mix, and you get a fascinating look at how the true crime subgenre alters the perception of crimes so drastically, that its subjects are never really understood. — Erin Brady

09. The Afterparty

The Afterparty, which debuted this year on Apple TV+, is a murder mystery, but it is by no means trapped by the prohibiting structures of classic murder mysteries. The series, which was helmed by Christopher Miller (with support from his close collaborator Phil Lord, among others), follows a group of people in their 30s attending a high school reunion after party in a swanky LA mansion, until — surprise — someone is murdered.

But what makes the show so unique is the way “murder mystery” is simply a framework to explore as many different styles as they can. One episode is a full-on musical comedy, one episode entirely a flashback, one a psychological thriller… they even have an obligatory animated episode (c’mon, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller had to flex those muscles a bit). Add an incredible cast — which includes Tiffany Haddish, Ilana Glazer, and a career-high performance from Ben Schwartz — and you get one of the best murder mysteries of the modern era. — P.R.

08. Girls5eva (Season 2)

Though we may RIP Mr. Mayor, the other arm of the Tina Fey-Robert Carlock empire is still going strong in its second season. Everyone is still working in perfect harmony in Girls5eva, from Renée Elise Goldsberry’s Wickie Roy, who’s definitely not dating Shaq, to Busy Phillips’ Summer, still trying to deprogram from her hyper-Christian brand/upbringing. But the secret sauce is still the one-liners, not the least of which includes letting Sara Bareilles casually tell one character, “I’m not gonna write them a love song ‘cause they asked for it.” — C.W.

07. Barry (Season 3)

One of the best shows on HBO is back for another season of unexpected subversions of both showbiz satires and grisly hitman thrillers, and the stakes are higher (and darker) than ever. Hader’s Barry is a cluster of guilt-ridden neuroses, a sociopath who knows something’s wrong with him but can’t seem to figure out what; this season tests those limits. Add to that more Anthony Carrigan as Noho Hank, and we remain hooked. — C.W.

06. The Kids in the Hall

Older performers returning to the young man’s game of comedy after years away is far from a sure thing. So it’s all the sweeter that the forever Kids (Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Scott Thompson, Kevin McDonald, and Mark McKinney) made eight episodes’ worth of sketch comedy that’s as weird and sharp as their original run. The Kids in the Hall‘s march through middle age has a mischievous spring in its step, even when the material turns rueful or dark. — C.W.

05. Our Flag Means Death

From the start, the Taika Waititi-produced droll pirate comedy about foppish landowner (and real-life historical pirate) Stede Bonnet, and his misadventures with the motley crew of the bespoke pirate ship Revenge, was already a deliriously funny parody of swashbucklers, with a neat Rhys Darby turn at the center.

But as viewers (and Gay Twitter) discovered as the season went on, Our Flag Means Death slowly morphed into one of the sweetest, most openly queer romances to ever grace our television screens. Rather than pull for some Killing Eve-level queer-baiting, the show just openly positions Stede and Waititi’s gruff Blackbeard as two men slowly, inexorably falling for each other, and it’s as sweet as it is hilarious. The June 1st announcement of its renewal at least gives us a good omen for the rest of Pride Month. — C.W.

04. Abbott Elementary

You would think that in 2022, the workplace mockumentary would be played out. It’s hard to quickly break away from the action for a filmed confessional punchline and not think “Oh, just like The Office” or “Oh, just like Parks & Recreation.” And in an era where our comedy skews toward irony, sarcasm, and even cynicism, it can be a risk to be wholesome.

But that’s the magic of Abbott Elementary, a rare feel-good show that will actually make you laugh out loud (and occasionally shed a tiny tear). It’s a tribute to the richly developed characters, from Quinta Brunson’s unstoppably optimistic Janine Teagues to Janelle James’ self-aggrandizing principal Ava Coleman, who grow and change and become more human as the season rolls on.

Educators are consistently underappreciated in this country, and recent attacks on the school system from anti-vaxx, anti-CRT parents are certainly not making it any easier to be a teacher. Abbott Elementary shows the cracks in our educational system, while still finding a way to hang on to a bit of hope. And beyond a few laughs, a little hope is what we all need right now. — S.D.

03. Better Call Saul (Season 6, Part 1)

At this point, it’s a natural reflex to yell about how brilliant the Breaking Bad spinoff series is at all times, but Season 6 Episode 7, “Plan and Execution,” took things to a whole new level, ushering in the darkness that has always loomed at the edges of the frame. It’s not so much that the midseason finale was shocking, though, as it is how those events resonate so much because of what led to them.

Better Call Saul will be remembered for a lot of things, in the long run, but chief among them will be how it showcases what happens when great writers are given the free rein they deserve to tell the story they think is worth telling. The end result is proof that great prequels are possible, as long as they always remember where they came from — the future that no one can ultimately escape. — L.S.M.

02. Atlanta (Season 3)

After a capital L-Long four-year hiatus, Atlanta returned for its third season, weirder and more unpredictable than ever. Although much has changed since we last saw Earn (Donald Glover), Darius (Lakeith Stanfield), Van (Zazie Beetz), and Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), the acclaimed FX series has mostly stayed the same: a surreal, inventive odyssey that interrogates race, celebrity, and success through pitch-black absurdity, sharp social satire, and horror-inflected comedy.

This time around, however, this season split its time showcasing the main ensemble on a deeply strange European tour to tell four standalone episodes, some captivating (“Three Slaps,” “The Big Payback”) and others more uneven (“Trini 2 De Bone,” “Rich Wigga, Poor Wigga”). Even with the slight format tweak and frequent plot deviations, the anthology chapters were an often-successful experiment that both expanded on Glover and Co.’s singular world-building and further tapped into the show’s creative potential. — Sam Rosenberg

01. Severance

Severance owes a lot to the era in which it happened to debut, a time when most people were already regarding the concept of working in an office with some skepticism (and fear). But even decades ago, when the modern American worker was more content to do the daily commute and breathe the same air as their unmasked coworkers, creator Dan Erickson’s compelling dramedy would have likely struck a nerve.

The Apple TV+ sci-fi series is set in a world where one company has developed a technique for splitting a person’s consciousness so that their “innie” retains only work-related memories while inside the office, while their “outie” lives their non-office life unburdened by thoughts of work. Like most sci-fi technologies, the drawbacks are as big as the advantages, but what makes the series so compelling is how the innies trapped inside their corporate confines have developed their own little world and identities within it; in the absence of our memories, who do we become?

That, plus some deliciously twisty mysteries scattered across the first season, fantastic performances by one of the year’s best casts (including Adam Scott, Zach Cherry, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, Jen Tullock, Dichen Lachman, Michael Chernus, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, and Patricia Arquette), and eerily perfect direction by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle, cement why Severance earned the top spot on this list. — L.S.M.

20 Best TV Shows of 2022 (So Far)
Liz Shannon Miller

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