The 25 Best TV Shows of 2022 (So Far)

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The 25 Best TV Shows of 2022 (So Far)

Our “Best of the Year So Far” lists always sneak up on me. “Already??” I say in a panic, checking the calendar and confirming that yes, somehow, almost half the year has passed us by. Over the last two years, the idea of sorting through the TV that had aired so far was not too overwhelming; COVID-19 had shut down most television productions, so most of what we got in that time were international shows, shows that had finished up production and were being metered out slowly, and shows filmed in a “COVID-safe bubble”—usually miniseries.

But now, in 2022, productions are back to work and the Peak TV pipeline that defined the pre-pandemic viewing era has revved up to historic levels. Since early 2020, we’ve also seen the launch or expansion of an exceptional number of streaming services. So not only is there more TV than ever, but there are more places to watch it.

TV is our job, though, so we do genuinely bounce from Hulu to Paramount+ to HBO Max to Netflix and more to try and see it all. But for regular viewers? That’s less likely the case. In our ranked list below, you’ll not only get summary of each show but a link to where you can watch it. Hopefully you can find a few new series to check out among the services you already have, or maybe a reason to start a free trial somewhere else.

Speaking of those big services, one dominated this list above all others: HBO Max. In combining both HBO’s cable offerings and original series on Max (all of which stream on Max, regardless), the Warner company is already ruling 2022 in a big way. Check back in December to see if that holds…

Eligibility: TV Shows had to air the majority of their episodes between January 1, 2022 and May 31, 2022—meaning that while we’ve really enjoyed Obi-Wan Kenobi, it won’t officially be eligible until our year-end lists. Since Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was on the cusp, though, we did allow it to be included in the vote (which included weighted contributions from both Paste staff and Paste TV writers).

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25. The Righteous Gemstones

Network: HBO
Season: 2

Watch on HBO Max

Since launching on HBO in 2019, The Righteous Gemstones has felt like a Southern analogue to Succession. It’s a show about a powerful man and shameless bastard whose three spoiled children squabble over who gets to rule his empire when he’s gone, only it’s riffing on Jim Bakker and Jerry Falwell instead of Rupert Murdoch. The Gemstones have been frauds and hypocrites from the start, but Season 2 digs into the violent origins of their rise to power, and how that violence threatens them decades later.

I don’t mean to make Gemstones sound too serious, of course. This is a show that turns the potential death of a major character into a mass barfing scene that’d make Stand By Me proud. It’s as brash, vulgar, and absurd as Danny McBride’s earlier HBO shows, as anybody who watched the first season of Gemstones can attest. But like Eastbound & Down and Vice Principals, no matter how ridiculous Gemstones gets, it still somehow makes you care about its destructive, cartoonish characters, exploring the fear, desperation, and sadness that drive them. The shows masterfully combines the outsized and the subdued, contrasting broad, loud, propulsive comedy with surprisingly nuanced characterizations and a believable setting. The Righteous Gemstones Season 2 preserves that delicate balance, and also has pro wrestling, too. How could it get any better? —Garrett Martin [Full Review]


24. Slow Horses

Network: Apple TV+
Season: 1

Watch on Apple TV+

The “Slow Horses” of MI5 are the exiles, the screw-ups, the has-beens who are no longer wanted where the action is hottest. Their leader is Jackson Lamb, the slovenly, cynical, occasionally cruel boss who seems to be the very definition of washed up. But through the brilliant performance of Gary Oldman, we learn that there’s more to him than meets the eye, waiting to be drawn out by the right circumstances. He is the centerpiece of this superb spy drama, and around him, the likes of Jack Lowden and Kristin Scott Thomas make up a cast with no weak spots. In its many strengths, Slow Horses joins a very short list of recent TV series from the espionage genre which rise to the level of greatness. Even more impressive, it does so through the strength of wounded people. Humanity beats within them, from Lamb down to Cartwright and all their semi-miserable colleagues. This show manages the incredible task of being a human redemption story, a genuinely funny comedy, and above all, a terrific spy tale. Apple TV+ has a hit on its hands, and unlike the sad, exiled souls of Slough House, you won’t have to look very hard to see its merits. —Shane Ryan [Full Review]


23. The Flight Attendant

Network: HBO Max
Season: 2

Watch on HBO Max

After an exceptionally fun but sometimes silly first season, The Flight Attendant returns for Season 2 with a new case, a new location, and a new set of problems for Cassie (Kaley Cuoco) to overcome as she embraces her new life as a flight attendant and official civilian operative of the CIA. But in a surprising twist, it isn’t actually the spycraft that makes the show worth watching this time around. The show’s dedication to exploring Cassie’s personal growth as she attempts to maintain her sobriety amidst the chaos of her life makes for a deeper and more emotionally resonant show in Season 2, and The Flight Attendant is all the better for it. —Kaitlin Thomas [Full Review]


22. We Own This City

Network: HBO Max
Season: Miniseries

Watch on HBO Max

Based on the non-fiction book of the same name by former Baltimore Sun crime reporter Justin Fenton, We Own This City showcases not only the corruption within a unit of the Baltimore Police Department but the tireless work of the FBI agents who broke the real life scandal in 2017, and the Department of Justice lawyer that tries to repair one of the most corrupt law enforcement agencies in the country. Even though it has some issues, David Simon’s latest work is a captivating by the story of how a criminal justice system has failed its citizens. Provocative, powerful and with first rate performances, We Own This City is the next generation of The Wire fans have long craved. —Terry Terrones [Full Review]


21. Peacemaker

Network: HBO Max
Season: 1

Watch on HBO Max

Chris Smith, aka Peacemaker, is a ridiculous character.

The red, white, and blue-clad superhero/supervillain is a walking, dudebro-talking contradiction. Peacemaker is arrogant, socially unaware, misogynistic, and culturally insensitive. His ridiculousness extends not just to his costume (that’s not a toilet seat he’s wearing on his head, that’s a beacon of freedom) or to his pet bald eagle named Eagly, but also to his most commonly used catchphrase. “I cherish peace with all my heart,” says Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad. “I don’t care how many men, women, and children I need to kill to get it.”

The script is rich with witty banter, action scenes are destructive and wacky, and star John Cena will clearly say or do anything for a laugh. “This is my jam,” says Peacemaker while flipping through a stack of ‘80s hair metal albums from the likes of Cinderella and Faster Pussycat. “This is back when men were real men because they weren’t afraid to be women.” A few moments later he’s singing along to the Quireboys song “I Don’t Love You Anymore,” using a vibrator as a mic while wearing only tighty whities and dancing around like Axl Rose. It’s embarrassing and hilarious at the same time. This series luxuriates in its own ridiculousness, which it manages to balance with a compelling story. Bottom line, Peacemaker is just flat-out fun to watch. — Terry Terrones [Full Review]


20. Atlanta

Network: FX
Season: 3

Watch on Hulu

With so many TV series formerly on pandemic hiatus now returning, it’s been hard to remember where things left off two years ago. In the case of Atlanta, it’s been four years since its Season 2 finale, an unfathomable span of time that also—in this particular case—doesn’t matter. As one of television’s most experimental (and experiential), inventive series, Atlanta rolls back in on its own terms and in its own unique way. Four years? It’s no time at all.

Atlanta returns to themes from both of its prior seasons, led once again by director Hiro Murai’s dreamy interpretations. We continue with the story of Earn (series creator Donald Glover), as he manages his rapper cousin Paper Boi / Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry) on a European tour. Along for the ride is the always chilled-out Darius (LaKeith Stanfield), who goes on his own journey with Vanessa (Zazie Beetz)—the mother of Earn’s child—who also came along to try and figure out what she’s doing with her life.

Though taking place mostly in Europe this time, the show doesn’t miss a chance to lean into the specifics of Atlanta as its guiding light. There are thoughtful impressions, strange occurrences, exceptional happenstance. In many ways, Atlanta is creating its own folklore. Like the city after which it was named, it has a curious allure that’s hard to define, but captivating nevertheless. —Allison Keene [Full Review]


19. Raised by Wolves

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Network: HBO Max
Season: 2

Watch on HBO Max

As you may (or may not) recall, TV’s most uniquely insane series Raised by Wolves began in Season 1 by introducing us to two increasingly human-like androids in shiny spandex, Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim), tasked with caring for and raising a host of children transferred via pods after two warring factions destroyed Earth.

But from the start, Raised by Wolves began subverting expectations. The religious sect were not anti-tech; they embraced it, building androids and using them in their society. And the utopian atheist community set up with these pod children? It didn’t work. But Raised by Wolves didn’t take sides; over and over again, it showed how fanaticism on either side is dangerous.

That general fabric of belief vs unbelief constantly simmers throughout Season 2; there is a lot at play here between androids and humans, alongside the rigidity of a “just” society and the relative freedom of a burgeoning cult. But once again, Raised by Wolves grounds these grand ideas with its excellent storytelling, balancing constantly expanding mythology with constantly evolving characters. And somehow, it all kinda makes sense. Creator Aaron Guzikowski seems to have a clear vision for the series, even if moment by moment it’s impossible to predict what will come next. A snake god? A skeleton resurrected by blood milk? The Tree of Life? An android fighting pit? Puberty? You simply cannot have a series this out-there and not have a plan. So far, it’s working.

Unfortunately, the series was cancelled in the wake of Discovery’s merger with WarnerMedia. It’s still worth watching these two seasons, but we’re praying to Sol another network will let this story finish on its own terms. —Allison Keene [Full Review]


18. Pam & Tommy

Network: Hulu
Season: Miniseries

Watch on Hulu

Much like its subject matter, Hulu’s Pam & Tommy is a series that, on the surface, feels like it’s going to be a joke. Happily, it’s not—the series not only contains surprising emotional depth but feels like an important piece of the much-needed reckoning our pop culture is currently undergoing when it comes to the misogynistic way we treated female celebrities in the 1990s. Featuring a pair of uncannily accurate physical transformations and layered performances from stars Lily James and Sebastian Stan, Pam & Tommy is a series that manages to harness the utter ridiculousness of its premise for good. –Lacy Milas Baugher [Full Review]


17. Russian Doll

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Network: Netflix
Season: 2

Watch on Netflix

In the follow-up to a flawless first season, Season 2 of Russian Doll goes off the rails. It’s messy but fun, and after successfully pulling herself out of a never-ending cycle of death, Nadia Vulvokov breaks linearity once again, now plummeting through time. Russian Doll continues to use sci-fi schticks as a way to dive into stories about generational trauma and healing your past. Natasha Lyonne is still our favorite cock-a-roach, and although Season 2 is a bit less grounded than its first, Russian Doll is without a doubt still weird and fascinating, pushing the boundaries of storytelling, especially in terms of the Netflix binge-and-purge model. We may not get a crystal clear allegory this time around but it’s still worth your time to check out. Season 2, what a concept! —Kristen Reid [Full Review]


16. The Dropout

Network: Hulu
Season: Miniseries

Watch on Hulu

2022 is certainly turning out to be the year of the girlboss scammer, with Hulu’s The Dropout serving as the latest installment in this true crime sub-genre. The limited series is based on the ABC News podcast of the same name that investigated the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, following her from her acceptance to Stanford University to her corporate downfall.

Here, Holmes (Amanda Seyfried) is very quickly defined as someone who wants to be one of the greats. Her ambition is intertwined with her awkwardness, something that she is so self aware of that she is constantly trying to create an outward personality to get her what she wants. Further, her attempts at self-reinvention go from endearing to unsettling, which is not only a testament to Seyfried’s talent but to the directing and editing teams behind the camera. The gradual deepening of Elizabeth’s voice and her over-practiced corporate reassurances paint an fascinating portrait of a woman perpetually on the edge.

In the end, The Dropout does an excellent job of depicting a train that deserved to get derailed. Elizabeth Holmes is painted as a textbook example of why simply having an idea is not a good justification for dropping out of a prestigious institution of higher education, and Hulu’s portrayal of her girlbossing too close to the sun is captivating through and through. In the age of the scammer show, The Dropout is certainly worth being played. —Kathryn Porter [Full Review]


15. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Network: Paramount+
Season: 1

Watch on Paramount+

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is an absolute blast, and a big reason for its success is that it’s deeply rooted in the DNA of the Star Trek mythos. It’s full of compelling characters, and its episodic format serves as one of several bridges that link it to The Original Series. Allowing viewers to see the action aboard the Enterprise from multiple perspectives is refreshing. Smart, addictive, and flat-out fun, Strange New Worlds is the best Star Trek series since The Next Generation, and acts as a faithful love letter to the original. Old fan or new, this is a trek you’ll certainly want to take. —Terry Terrones [Full Review]


14. Single Drunk Female

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Network: Freeform
Season: 1

Watch on Hulu

In Simone Finch’s comedy series Single Drunk Female, Samantha (Sofia Black-D’Elia) is forced to move back to Boston and live with her mom Carol (Ally Sheedy) after her public intoxication at work leads to a criminal conviction. Once home, she must confront the fact she is an alcoholic, albeit one who has functioned for years. She needs a job and a sponsor. And, she needs to own up to the mistakes she’s made. The result is a series that blends humor with a raw and honest look at addiction. Sheedy is fantastic as a mom who loves her daughter but makes a lot of mistakes in her efforts to support her, while Black-D’Elia shines as a woman who continues to make frustrating choices even though she wants to do better. —Amy Amatangelo


13. Heartstopper

Network: Netflix
Season: 1

Watch on Netflix

From a Tumblr webcomic to a graphic novel to a Netflix show, Alice Oseman’s uplifting queer tale has gathered a dedicated fanbase that is only going to grow with the arrival of the Netflix adaptation. The sweet romance between Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick (Kit Connor) is wonderfully realized in this heartfelt and earnest teen coming-of-age drama directed by Euros Lyn and written by Oseman. Much of Oseman’s original spark carries over into the moving frames that are complemented with a fantastic soundtrack, perfectly detailed production design of teenage bedrooms, and an all-around talented cast.

As Nick and Charlie grow closer and their feelings become impossible to ignore, they have a whole host of supportive friends to confide in. The group includes caring Elle (Yasmin Finney), eccentric Tao (Will Gao), quiet Issac (Tobie Donovan), and two girlfriends: bubbly Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) and thoughtful Tara (Corinna Brown). Heartstopper updates stale cliches of the teen coming-of-age genre to deliver a thoughtful and earnest reflection of youthful self-acceptance, exploring what it is to be part of the LGBTQ+ community today. —Emily Maskell [Full Review]


12. Our Flag Means Death

Network: HBO Max
Season: 1

Watch on HBO Max

Midlife crises manifest as many things, and in HBO Max’s Our Flag Means Death, Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) checks off all the usual criteria. A flashy new vehicle? Yep. A flashy new relationship? Of sorts. A drastic career change? Well, that’s an understatement. Inspired by the stranger-than-fiction true story, the 10-episode historical adventure comedy follows the aftermath of Bonnet leaving his cushy aristocratic life to become a pirate during the Golden Age of Piracy. “Pirate workplace comedy” provides an entertaining entry point, and Darby serves as the show’s hapless but well-meaning boss, bringing a Ted Lasso-esque mentality to the captain who wants his crew to grow as people, not just pirates. Taika Waititi co-stars as the legendary Blackbeard who’s having a midlife crisis of his own, and poses a perfect foil to Bonnet’s antics. While the first few episodes are uneven, creator David Jenkins ultimately strikes a satisfying balance between exploring Blackbeard and Bonnet’s relationship and adding dimension to supporting players. By the affecting finale, Our Flag Means Death charts its course in the right direction. —Annie Lyons [Full Review]


11. Ghosts

Network: CBS
Season: 1

Watch on Paramount+

Based on the UK series of the same name (which itself is streaming on HBO Max), the delightful Ghosts has become a bona fide hit for CBS. But if you’re an elder Millennial such as myself, you could be knocked over with a feather to learn this is one of TV’s best series. And yet, don’t sleep on it.

Ghosts follows a young couple, Samantha and Jay (Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar), who inherit a large country estate that is, turns out, filled with ghosts only Sam (after she goes through a near-death experience) can see and hear. These ghosts aren’t scary though, they’re mostly friendly and occasionally annoying in their demands to smell bacon or have Sam turn on the TV. They also make for a fantastic comedy ensemble. Comprised of a small percentage of those who have died on the estate’s property from the beginning of time, the ghosts rule the roost: Bossy Revolutionary War soldier Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones), kind Boy Scout leader Pete (Richie Moriarty), pants-less Wall Street bro Trevor (Asher Grodman), uptight lady of the manor Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky), certified hippie Flower (Sheila Carrasco), flamboyant jazz singer Alberta (Danielle Pinnock), deadpan Lenape tribesman Sasappis (Roman Zaragoza), and the oldest of all the ghosts, Thorfinn (Devan Chandler Long), a Viking.

As Sam and Jay work to establish a B&B, the ghosts both help and hinder the process in earnestly funny ways. The charming CBS series is not quite as cozy as the UK’s version, and features a few early hallmarks of American sitcom formatting that can feel heavy-handed, but when it hits, it really hits. Best of all, Ghosts is typically family-friendly enough for everyone to enjoy. —Allison Keene


10. Girls5Eva

Network: Peacock
Season: 2

Watch on Peacock

Here’s the thing about Girls5eva: You are either an Xennial woman who will feel so seen by every single moment of the series that it will be impossible for you to not text every line to your friends and hum “BPE” regularly, or… you aren’t. That’s not to say that Girls5eva isn’t an extremely fun and witty satire of the music industry that could easily be enjoyed by anyone interested in a tightly-packed half-hour comedy. But if you are its niche target demographic, there’s no expressing the heights of its excellence.

That specificity, of a time, a place, a people, is what makes Girls5eva so wonderfully dense and rewarding to watch. Like the group itself, it knows what it wants to say and it makes no apologies for it. The songs remain great and catchy (I’ll never stop singing that theme song at every opportunity), and from top to bottom the series winningly mixes together low-key humor with laugh-out-loud moments.

Grounding it, though, it that show allows its characters to grow—which is the real crux of Season 2. The women finding new, adult roles for themselves in this girl group is part of that, along with the joy of success on their own terms. But it’s also about their growth as people. And yet, the show never makes that feel forced or lame; how could it, when the culmination of their efforts is the song “Big Pussy Energy”? They’re discovering their own power, and some of their own foibles, and they are owning all of it. That’s BPE, folks—and you don’t want to miss it. —Allison Keene [Full Review]


9. Starstruck

Network: HBO Max
Season: 2

Watch on HBO Max

Starstruck Season 2 takes everything we loved from the HBO Max’s comedy’s glorious first season—its biting honesty, its heartfelt relationship humor, the fantastic chemistry between stars Rose Matafeo and Nikesh Patel—to the next level. Where its first outing reimagined the will they/won’t they rom-com courtship for a new generation, its second season asks: what’s next? What comes after the grand gesture, when the question of Tom and Jessie’s relationship status is both answered and affirmative? How does a rom-com ending translate into real life?

Season 2 carefully shifts the pair into that next stage of their relationship, filled with the usual pitfalls and shared awkwardness that is part and parcel of seriously dating someone, and reshapes the contours of their story into something that is new and different, but no less compelling than it was before. —Lacy Baugher Milas [Full Review]


8. Under the Banner of Heaven

Network: FX on Hulu
Season: Miniseries

Watch on Hulu

Based on the popular true crime novel of the same name, Under the Banner of Heaven will likely introduce a whole new generation to the horror of the Lafferty murders—in which a young mother and her baby were brutally murdered by her Mormon fundamentalist brothers-in-law—and spark renewed interest in the darker corners of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and its history. But while the show is unflinching in its honesty about the dangers of religious fanaticism and the horrors of violence done in (any) God’s name, it’s also a thoughtful look at what it means to believe in something enough to trust that it can not only withstand scrutiny, but that such questioning ultimately makes one’s faith stronger in the end. Andrew Garfield shines as everyman detective Jeb Pyre, who must balance his devout belief in the church he’s dedicated his life to with the horror slowly unfolding in front of him, as their case continues to pull back the curtain on some of that church’s darkest secrets. —Lacy Baugher Milas [Full Review]


7. Minx

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Network: HBO Max
Season: 1

Watch on HBO Max

HBO Max is turning into the home of TV’s best comedies. The streaming service’s newest series, the 1970s-set comedy Minx, chronicles the burgeoning partnership between an idealistic feminist (Ophelia Lovibond) and a sleazy but empathetic magazine publisher specializing in pornography (Jake Johnson, with the perfect amount of chest hair) as they team up to launch the first erotic magazine for women. The show is easy and breezy and full of infectious energy as it mines the topics of equality and women’s rights from engrossing but hilarious stories involving everything from the Catholic roots of mob wives to the rampant misogyny of country clubs. With its focus on the female gaze, a winning performance from Johnson (he’s a porn magnate with a heart of gold!), and an excellent supporting cast (Lennon Parham steals every scene she’s in), Minx is a good time in more ways than one. —Kaitlin Thomas


6. Better Call Saul

Network: AMC
Season: 6

Watch on AMC+

As Better Call Saul has inched ever closer to the world of Walter White and the events of Breaking Bad, the series has simultaneously gotten more tense and more exhilarating. In Season 6 (the show’s last, split into two parts) everything feels like it is ratcheted up to 1,000—because it is. From Kim’s (Rhea Seehorn) continued descent into morally gray areas and Jimmy’s (Bob Odenkirk) surprise at how far Kim is willing to go, to Nacho’s (Michael Mando) precarious existence and Lalo’s (Tony Dalton) dangerousness, we’re not just on the edge of our seats as we watch the final episodes play out—we’re sprawled out on the floor trying to remember to breathe. And we wouldn’t have it any other way. —Kaitlin Thomas [Full Review]


5. Severance

Network: Apple TV+
Season: 1

Watch on Apple TV+

In Severance, a group of people working for an evil company (Lumon Industries) have opted to go through the title procedure, severance, in order to mentally separate their work selves from their “real” selves. This involves needles going into brains, and the net effect is that it creates worker drones who literally only have the barest consciousness while at work. The minute they step out of the elevator to go home, they snap back to the real world, with everything that happened in the past nine hours totally forgotten.

If you don’t think about it for more than two minutes, this might seem like an attractive idea. You—the “you” who lives outside work—get to just cut out the entire shitty workday, along with whatever stress and disappointment comes from it, and your entire life is now just the good parts. When you think about it for that third minute, though, the full horror dawns: You also create a secondary “you” living in a godforsaken work zoo, never sleeping, never going outside, literally living an entire life of stepping on and off elevators and sitting at a desk, ad nauseam, until the day your “outie” self decides to retire, at which point you just die.

We watch as main character Mark (Adam Scott) marches through a series of blindingly white corridors, and is joined in his office by Irving (the always excellent John Turturro) and Dylan (Zach Cherry). But the real force behind the story comes from Helly (Brit Lower), a new employee with a mysterious background, and Petey (Yul Vazquez), Mark’s former co-worker who is attempting to bridge the divide between the innies and outies and uncover just what the hell Lumon Industries is up to. For now, Severance is dedicated to keeping that other side a mystery. —Shane Ryan [Full Review]


4. Hacks

Network: HBO Max
Season: 2

Watch on HBO Max

Season 2 of Hacks takes place primarily on the road as comedy veteran Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) workshops her new stand-up material, but in a metaphorical sense, these episodes are a path to something larger. It’s a liminal season, as the characters figure themselves out with no fixed end point in sight. But the truism holds out here: it’s about the journey, not the destination.

In case you forgot where we left off, Ava (Hannah Einbinder) had just sent a damning email about Deborah to some Hollywood producers, Deborah was planning to leave Vegas behind for a fresh start on tour, and Marcus’ (Carl Clemons-Hopkins) relationship had fallen apart thanks to his obsession with work. The writers also keep pushing the cringe comedy, just as they did in Season 1, and the dynamic duo of Ava and Deborah proves as watchable as ever; the progress of their relationship is spoiler central, but needless to say that the show continues to mine the vein that Ava is, in many ways, a younger version of Deborah. While this similarity was more than established in Season 1, it finds real purchase here.

Hacks’ second season is very much a middle act, with plenty going on, but no concrete resolutions. And that’s perfectly okay; these characters are well-established and enjoyable enough that it’s fun to simply hit the road with Deborah, Ava, and Marcus. —Clare Martin [Full Review]


3. The Afterparty

Network: Apple TV+
Season: 1

Watch on Apple TV+

If I can only use one word to describe Christopher Miller’s genre-defying murder mystery The Afterparty, it’s “super-freaking-fun.” The eight-episode first season follows the investigation of a high-profile murder that occurs at a high school reunion afterparty. Each episode is a retelling of the night’s events as viewed through the lens of a different popular film genre that corresponds to the perspective and personality of the person being interrogated. The result is a series that both operates within and pokes fun at the tropes of not just the formulaic murder mystery, but also romantic comedies, psychological thrillers, musicals, and high school movies. It’s not a terribly deep show, but with a cast filled with actors and actresses who are often the funniest and best parts of every project they’re in, it’s an exceptionally good time from start to finish. [Full Review] —Kaitlin Thomas


2. Barry

Network: HBO
Season: 3

Watch on HBO Max

It is exceptionally rewarding to see a show that goes all-in for half an hour in a way that mixes action, emotional resonance, horror, and humor in such a satisfying way. Which is, of course, what Barry has been doing all along.

But the show also makes clear at the start of Season 3 that Barry Berkman (Bill Hader) is not a hero. He’s a deeply troubled man, or as he is asked early in the first episode, “are you a psycho?” Maybe.

In this way, Barry continues to impress in how it weaves so many different themes and tones into an exceptional TV tapestry, managing to comment on serious topics alongside absurdist hijinks. There is a silliness to Barry, but also a soul—and a lot of darkness. Even when the show reaches unbelievable narrative heights, there is an intimacy that continues to ground it. It’s up close, personal. It relishes in making us uncomfortable, and then backs off just enough for us to take a deep breath before the next thrillingly unpredictable round.

In addition to second rounds, Barry Season 3 is all about second chances. There are various seeds of revenge being planted, but also the powerful idea that forgiveness must be earned. Where Barry or Barry goes next is an exciting, if trepidatious mystery. But both the man and the show are earning every step. —Allison Keene [Full Review]


1. Abbott Elementary

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Network: ABC
Season: 1

Watch on Hulu

The best new network show of the season is already delighting viewers and dominating 2022. Quinta Brunson writes, executive produces, and stars in this ABC comedy inspired by her mother’s experience as a teacher in the Philadelphia public school system. The show is both hilarious and poignant as it lays bare the inequities in public education both for the children and those who are dedicated in their profession to enriching their lives. Keep an eye out for Tyler James Williams as a reluctant substitute and Sheryl Lee Ralph as the veteran teacher who has seen it all. —Amy Amatangelo


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