The Top TV Shows of 2022...To This Point
This ranking is perfect and any objections will be dismissed
The television shows, folks, they’re pretty good! As we surpass the halfway point of 2022, I figured I’d write about some of the series I spent probably too much time watching. This is a perfect list, and all complaints can be forwarded to my agent, the family of raccoons stalking my apartment. Thank you.
THE BEAR
You don’t need to have worked in a restaurant to fully appreciate Hulu’s “The Bear.” In fact, maybe it’s better if you haven’t. Even for me, a person who worked at a low budget Lebanese joint that at capacity maybe sat 50 people for eight months, “The Bear” instantly invoked the chaotic rhythms of that place. The nonstop movement from open to close. The managers on a power trip. Yelling “BEHIND” every. single. time. you skittered past someone. Finding a coworker checking their texts while the to-go order phone rings for 30 seconds straight, a discovery that makes you want to simply evaporate and never be heard from again. It’s all there.
But that’s why “The Bear” works. It hits 100 mph from the opening scene and never lets up as you scramble to take in the sights flying past you. Jeremy Allen White is incredible as Carmy, a talented New York chef who schlubs back to his hometown of Chicago to takeover his brother’s restaurant after said brother commits suicide. There’s not much backstory given to Carmy and his kin’s relationship outside of one significant flashback (with Jon Bernthal!); “The Bear” doesn’t have time for it. Instead, the show builds itself around Carmy and his kitchen staff, their explosive attitudes bouncing off each other like molecules in a confined space until they combust in Episode 7, which is already one of the best single episodes of television to ever exist.
By the time “The Bear” takes a breath in the opening moments of its finale to dive into Carmy’s feelings about his deceased brother, you almost miss the velocity of the previous seven installments. No matter. Every rollercoaster has to pull back into its station. With “The Bear," you’ll rush to get right back in line.
SEVERANCE
The act of working, as it exists in a capitalist society, kind of sucks. The hours consume you. Companies view you as depreciating assets. Taking vacation, in many places, is still made to feel like you’re letting an entire planet down. So wouldn’t it be super chill if you just…had no memory of your work day at all? Like it didn’t exist as a part of you in any way?
That’s the question “Severance” asks, and the answer is unfortunately much more complicated than “Hell yeah!” By now you’re probably aware of the plot, in which Adam Scott’s character elects to undergo a procedure in which his brain is “severed,” splitting him into two different people. One version of him exists only at the workplace, the incredibly sketchy Lumon Industries. The other version exists in the world outside of work. The mystery of what it is Lumon does, and who the people trapped at work are on the outside, make “Severance” an incredibly potent thriller that really takes off after an initial slow burn.
Underneath the surface, there’s ruminations on trauma and how we face it (Scott’s character has the surgery after his wife dies), work culture and and a bit of commentary on playing God. It all adds up to one of the best and most creative shows of the year.
TOKYO VICE
Give any character a story tangentially related to them attending Mizzou and I’m already in. I, an esteemed alum of the University of Missouri, will look past a lot of flaws if one person on my screen even utters the school’s name (Wyatt from Ozark, I’m looking at you, bud). So “Tokyo Vice,” a kind-of-based-on-a-true-story about a Mizzou journalism graduate who becomes the first foreign-born journalist to work at a prestigious Japanese newspaper in 1999, already had me on the hook. Add in the Yakuza, Ken Watanabe as a classic no-nonsense detective and the backdrop of Tokyo, and folks, we’ve got a winner.
Ansel Elgort plays the aforementioned journalist, who upon landing at the Japanese publication is hungry to uncover some Real News instead of re-writing police reports day in and day out. To do so, he decides to get close to both Watanabe and a member of the incredibly dangerous Yakuza, Sato, to try and unfurl a life insurance scam that’s causing people around Tokyo to kill themselves. Complications ensue!
Any show that can take a terrifying Yakuza member and have him sing along to the Backstreet Boys in a way that isn’t slightly out of character deserves every award possible.
BARRY (SEASON 3)
Over three seasons, “Barry” has seamlessly transitioned from a laugh-out-loud comedy to a show so dark even “Breaking Bad” is like “yo chill.” There are still moments of levity (the Beignet Guy had me losing it), but with Barry’s world crashing down on him, there’s only so much humor to be found in watching people in his orbit get slung down with him.
A lesser show might let its Big Bad Dude get away with his crimes. “Barry” is going in the opposite direction. What started as a philosophical musing on if a person can not only stop being defined by their past, but actively change their future has run full force into an answer: No. Watching Barry fight and claw to convince himself that, deep down, he’s a good person, all while repeating the same behavior that makes him a terrifying sociopath, is the show’s greatest juggling act.
Whatever destiny awaits Barry, it’s bound to be a disturbing one. Just protect NoHo Hank at all costs.
THE BOYS (SEASON 3)
In a show replete with some of the most graphic images I’ve ever seen, the opening to season three of “The Boys” still caused me to gasp. A coked-up Supe (Boys slang for superhero) shrinks himself down to the size of a thimble so he can, uh, leap inside his partner’s…member. Once inside, the Supe accidentally sneezes, causing himself to revert back to regular size. You can probably imagine the gruesome results, which “The Boys” shows off with glee.
“The Boys,” ostensibly a show about what would happen if someone who watched Fox News acquired superpowers, does not do subtlety. Not when it’s showing a man’s head explode, not when it’s depicting a superhero orgy, and certainly not when it’s taking shots at the right wing political machine. The third season focuses on The Boys efforts to kill Homelander, quite possibly one of the best villains to ever grace a screen, by enlisting the help of a Supe equally as awful. Like the first two seasons, it’s a spectacle, and even when you want to look away, you can’t.
ATLANTA (SEASON 3)
“I had someone tell me I fell off, oooo I needed that.”
Before I watched a second of the third season of “Atlanta,” finally back after a four-year hiatus, Twitter did its best to douse coolant all over the hype.
Too many weird standalone episodes.
Why are they in Europe.
We waited four years for this???
“Atlanta” has always been a weird show, though, with its creators (Donald Glover and company) never giving much of a fuck about dancing too far outside the box. Did its third season open with an episode featuring none of the main characters in a move that could only be look at as an epic troll? Yes. Did “Atlanta” steer away from the adventures of Earn, Darius and Paper Boi a few too many times? Probably. But much like J.R. Smith, when “Atlanta” is on, there’s nothing else like it.
Focusing its gaze on a Earn’s rise as a manager in the music industry and how it strains his relationship with Paper Boi as the crew galavants through Europe results in two of the best episodes “Atlanta” has ever made. The first, “Cancer Attack,” follows the trio trying to locate Paper Boi’s phone after it’s stolen from him during a backstage meet and greet. The second, “New Jazz,” accompanies Paper Boi and Darius as they take some sort of psychedelic and wander around Amsterdam, only for Paper Boi to get separated and have a trippy night (which, incredibly, features a Liam Neeson cameo) full of self-discovery (akin to when he got lost in the woods in season 2).
Both episodes are packed with everything “Atlanta” does best: involving its characters in hijinks that ultimately reveal a deeper tension, whether that’s internal or between the three friends.
Stay weird, “Atlanta.”
HONORABLE MENTIONS: The Old Man (FX/Hulu), The Staircase (HBO), Station Eleven (HBO), We Own This City (HBO)