Wednesday, December 28, 2022

TQ's Year of TV (2022)

MY 2022 TV AWARDS
[Previous Years: 202120202019201820172016 / 2015 / 2014 LT / 2014 NLT / 2013 / 2012 / 2011]

I'm fairly confident I watched 40+ shows this year. and if time and life wasn't a factor - I would've watched 20+ more...
In years past I've tried really hard to write about television content that was released in the recent year - but as queues pile up (and life's priorities change), I'm just gonna share thoughts on what I felt was worth my time in 2022. Here's a bunch of fake awards I created:

Best Shelter In Place Show:
Station Eleven (HBO Max) 
Runner-up: Welcome to Wrexham (FX/Hulu)
I started watching Station Eleven very soon after last year's version of this post was published and saw it many lists. It's likely the best show most of you haven't seen yet. Don't worry, it's only one season.

WtW is a great fun watch - marathon watch a show that won't make you wonder if a character will die every week. Get in now before a new season drops.


Best TV Show That Has Recently Completed / All Seasons Watch Recommend:
Better Call Saul (AMC) 
Runner-up: Ozark (Netflix) 
It's wild that BCS hasn't gotten the Emmy Hardware it deserves. Make it a trilogy with the final installment set entirely in Chile and call it Young Gus.

Ozark is done. I think the ending wasn't stuck as well as others in this post. Will people rewatch this show the way they will watch shows from the Heisenberg universe?


Best TV Show That Is Seriously Great:
The Patient (Hulu)
Runner-up: Severance (Apple)
The Patient is not better than Better Call Saul, but the best self-contained single season of television this year was this absolute panic rollercoaster of a show. I hope it finally gets Steve Carrell the Emmy he should've gotten a decade ago.

Severance is worth the weird. Have yourself a Music Dance Experience.


Best TV Show That Is Bonkers:
The Rehearsal (HBO)
Runner-up: How To With John Wilson (HBO)
If you like The Rehearsal, go back and watch all of Nathan For You on Hulu.

HTwJW is on the "Nathan Fielder Coaching Tree." Wilson is as ultra-sincere as Fielder is ultra-ironic.


Best TV Show That Needs To Get Resurrected ASAP:
Girls5eva (Peacock)
Runner-up: Westworld (HBO)
GREAT NEWS - G5E is getting a better shot at Netflix for its next season!

Westworld was kinda bad - I admit it... But I do wish it was given at least a two-hour movie to wrap that mess up into an ugly ball.


Best Limited-Run Anthology Series:
The White Lotus (HBO)
Runner-up: Murderville (Netflix)
The second season of TWL wasn't as funny as the first, but it was more suspenseful. It also had a much better opening theme song.

I think Kumail's episode of Murderville was the best.


Best TV Show That Had a Disappointing Recent Season:
For All Mankind
 (Apple)

Runner-up: Cobra Kai (Netflix)
FAM is still a very good show, but I'm afraid the show may be losing... altitude?

CK is straight-up laughable at this moment... but as long as I'm laughing, I'm watching.


Best shows I'll likely never watch: Euphoria, Yellowstone, Pachinko
Please don't waste your time trying to convince me, because I know they are all amazing and that I know I would love them. My apologies to all offended.

Best shows that I'm not current: Mythic Quest (Apple), Only Murders in the Building (Hulu), Atlanta (FX), 
The first seasons of MQ and OMitB were very entertaining. The 3rd season of Atlanta was amazing.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
- Best show I'll try to quit: Stranger Things (Netflix)
- Best stress watch (non The Patient): The Bear (Hulu)
- Best successful attempt at what Westworld should've been: The Peripheral (Amazon)
- Best show with two seasons in one year: Slow Horses (Apple+)
- Best 90s nostalgia: Pam & Tommy (Hulu)
- Best 80s nostalgia: Winning Time (HBO)
- Best extended universe show: Andor (Disney)
- Best Heat (the Michael Mann Masterpiece) show: Tokyo Vice (HBO)
- Best use of Sam Richardson: The Afterparty (Apple)
- Best use of masculinity: Reacher (Amazon)
- Best use of satire: The Boys (Amazon)
- Best dragon show: House of the Dragon (HBO)
- Best vampire show: What We Do In The Shadows (FX)
- Best comic show: Hacks (HBO)
- Best actor show: Barry (HBO)
- Best boat show: Below Deck(s) (Bravo)
- Best show I quit: Moon Knight (Disney)

UNHONORABLE MENTIONS:
- Worst extended universe show: Obi-Wan (Disney)
- Worst show I know I won't quit: Industry (HBO)
- Worst show I did quit before it ended: The Baby (HBO)

IN THE ETHER: Real Housewives of Wherever, Sister Wives, The Masked Singer, 90 Day Fs

IN THE QUEUE: (order of likelihood I'll see in 2023)
Welcome to Chippendales
Reservation Dogs
The English
Fleishman is in Trouble
Tulsa King
The English
Trainwreck (Woodstock '99)
The Dropout
Under the Banner of Heaven
Reboot
The Sandman
She-Hulk
The Resort
The Old Man
The Man Who Fell To Earth
Interview with the Vampire
Dark Winds
Angeylne
Human Resources
Paper Girls

Until next year,
TQ