Just gonna come right out and say it: there is so much TV. Seriously—so much. Obviously, Netflix is a powerhouse, but we’ve now reached a point in the streaming era where Binge has hit its stride (Are you watching Peacemaker?), Stan’s usually good for a couple bangers per year, Disney+ is gaining traction, and Apple TV+ has such a massive budget for stars (and Jon Hamm agrees) that you’ve just always got to be aware of what they’ve got coming down the pipeline.
Which is why we’re here—we want to make sure you’re spending your time only on the shows that are deserving of it. Sometimes that’ll be epic dramas that will bring you to tears. Other times it might be action. Other times it might be superheroes! Hell, sometimes it may even be traditional-style sitcoms that don’t need you to think much but will have you watching with a smile on your face and not a thought in your head.
Just like in 2021, there’s a lot of new shows to keep track of, but we’re going to do our best to do it. A few of these shows carried over from last year—Station Eleven and Yellowjackets started in 2021, but ended in 2022, so we’re counting them. A few of them are already on the air, and the rest are all shows that we either know for sure or can speculate should be coming later this year. And while we’ve done the research to make sure these are all worth getting excited about, we can’t promise they’ll be as amazing as they seem—not until they come out, at least. Which is where the fun part comes in: watching.
And so, without further ado, here are favorite TV shows of 2022 so far—and many more we simply cannot wait for.
Station Eleven (Stan)
Station Eleven may have started in 2021, but it wrapped up in 2022—so we’re counting it! Based on the novel of the same name, Station Eleven may seem like a tough watch right now, being about a deadly pandemic and all. But it actually turns into one of the most uplifting, touching, and intensely-built character studies in recent TV history. The entire cast—particularly Mackenzie Davis, Himesh Patel, and Matilda Lawler, among others—are absolutely fantastic. You have to stick through some moments where it seems like the show is spinning its wheels a bit, but it all pays off in the end.
Yellowjackets (Paramount+)
Another one that was on our 2021 list but wrapped up in 2022, Yellowjackets is simply one of the buzziest and most intriguing shows to come along in recent years. Imagine the intrigue and mystery of Lost, combined with Lord of the Flies, and then mixed with kind of a “then and now” It or Stand By Me vibe— but distinctly 1996. Led by Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Juliette Lewis, and Christina Ricci (along with their 1996 counterparts), the show has stellar casting across the board, an incredible soundtrack and is just a great, great watch. Yellowjackets is coming back for Season 2, and can’t come back soon enough.
Peacemaker (Binge)
Peacemaker is part of what we love about The Boys, and then part of what we love about the Disney+ shows in the MCU—a Hard-R, hyperviolent, hypervulgar, superhero romp, set right in a well-established superhero world. While we may not see Batman or Superman, they and their pals are frequently referenced; and John Cena’s titular Peacemaker was of course introduced (and used to great effect) in The Suicide Squad, which Peacemaker is directly spun off from.
Writer/Director James Gunn does great work to translate his world to a different medium and the cast is 100% game. Even outside of Gunn, other standouts include Orange is the New Black star Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Holland as the returning Harcourt, and Freddie Stroma as the totally insane Vigilante who is, well, a vigilante.
1883 (Paramount+)
For all the Yellowstone-heads out there, 1883 is the first chapter in the Dutton family’s story. Taking place in 1883 (rather than the flagship series’ contemporary setting), creator Taylor Sheridan gets to take a semi-unconventional stab at a western here. And with a cast that includes Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Billy Bob Thornton, and one of our greatest cowboys, Sam Elliott, he’s got some really great toys in his sandbox.
Abbott Elementary (Disney+)
Abbott Elementary isn’t exactly breaking the mold of the modern mockumentary sitcom, but it’s done really well, and brings a lot of laughs. The series is build on the charm of series creator/star Quinta Brunson, while Everybody Hates Chris‘s Tyler James Williams plays the committed and ambitious substitute teacher. The show tells the story of an underfunded public elementary school in Philadelphia, weaving in a bit of well-deserved social commentary in a place (network sitcom!) you don’t usually find it.
How I Met Your Father (Disney+)
Let’s just be real on this one for a quick second: How I Met Your Father is not a show that’s going to push you to your intellectual limits. But it’s a fantastic show for something we all really, really need: something nice to put on and massage our brains for 20 minutes at a time. This sequel (or spin-off, who knows) from How I Met Your Mother basically flips the script, putting Hilary Duff in 2022 at the center of our story (and Kim Cattrall as the same character in flash-forwards to 2050, lovely stuff), as we wonder who she ends up with. It’s not reinventing the wheel, but it’s fun and nice and most of us will wind up watching all of it.
The Afterparty (Apple TV+)
If you dug Only Murders in the Building last year (and who the hell didn’t?) The Afterparty may be right up your alley. This new star-studded Apple TV+ series (with Dave Franco, Tiffany Haddish, Sam Richardson, Ilana Glazer, Ben Schwartz, Dave Franco, Ike Barinholtz, and Search Party‘s John Early)is another murder mystery, this time unfolding at a high school reunion with each episode taking place from a different character’s perspective. Chris Miller (of the Miller and Lord team that’s been behind 21 Jump Street and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) is the creator and director of each episode.
Pam and Tommy (Disney+)
This based-on-a-true-story series chronicles the relationship of model/actress Pamela Anderson and rocker Tommy Lee (played by Lily James and Sebastian Stan), and their relationship with the media in particular (with paparazzi—who leak their sex tape—played by Seth Rogen and Nick Offerman). The series, which also features Jason Mantzoukas as the voice of Tommy Lee’s penis (Hell yeah), is based on a Rolling Stonepiece from 2014.
Inventing Anna (Netflix)
Ozark star Julia Garner continues her huge month on Netflix with Inventing Anna, where she plays the notorious scammer Anna Delvey. Based on a New York Magazine article, the show looks at the true story that saw her infiltrate NYC’s high society and draw a number of others into her intricate web of deception. The show has an impressive cast, also including Anna Chlumsky, Anders Holm, and Succession‘s Arian Moayed.
jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy (Netflix)
jeen-yuhs has a chance to be one of the most interesting music documentaries in years (or, at least, since last year’s The Beatles: Get Back and The Velvet Underground)—that is, if Netflix doesn’t give its subject exactly what he’s asking for. This series of documentaries is set to examine, in more depth than ever, the story of one Kanye West (now, I suppose, known as Ye). Ever heard of him? And it’s got the chance, for better and for worse, to tell his story in a true and honest way.
But if Netflix folds and gives him final cut as he’s been requesting, it stands to potentially tarnish the entire thing. No one wants to watch a documentary that’s been sanitized to the point of being an advertisement or propaganda. And h0pefully this one will be better than that.
Severance (Apple TV+)
This series from producer/director Ben Stiller (dipping his toes back into TV after the Escape at Dannemora series a few years back) looks like a darkly comic thriller with a slight twist on the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind memory erasure story. The story centers on a man (Adam Scott) who undergoes a process where the memories of his work life and his personal life are 100% severed, with one having zero awareness of the other—and obviously, some madness will emerge from there. The rest of the absolutely cast also includes the very funny Zach Cherry and Britt Lower, along with a trio of legends in Christopher Walken, John Turturro, and Patricia Arquette.
Super Pumped
Based on the nonfiction book of the same name, Super Pumped tells the presumably Social Network-esque story of how Uber came to be and how its CEO Travis Kalanick (played here by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) fell from grace. Kyle Chandler and Uma Thurman lead the rest of the impressive cast. The year of the business scam in scripted TV continues!
The Dropout (Disney+)
We continue with this scammer series programming with The Dropout. Based on the podcast of the same name, The Dropout casts the excellent Amanda Seyfried as the fraudulent Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, alongside costars William H. Macy, Laurie Metcalf, and Alan Ruck, among others. New Girl creator Liz Meriwether is writing, so we’re certainly curious how the tone will turn out.
Pieces of Her (Netflix)
Based on Karin Slaughter’s novel of the same name, Pieces of Her sounds like a great one for those of us in the Toni Collette fan club. The Hereditary and Knives Out star returns to TV for a series that finds her playing the mother to a girl named Andrea; the two find themselves in the midst of a shooting, and the mother snaps into action, quickly dispatching the shooter. The rest of the series serves as a means to understand how they got to that point.
Shining Vale (Binge)
We love a good horror, and Shining Vale is mixing that with a bit of comedy that we don’t quite know much about yet—but seems pretty intriguing. We’ll always trust Courteney Cox in horror due to her Scream bonafides, but she’s joined here by Greg Kinnear to make a particularly charming on-screen couple. The show finds this pair bringing their family from Brooklyn to a house in Connecticut (and one that is almost certainly haunted) where we start to wonder if characters are possessed or just depressed. Because, as the show posits, who can really tell the difference these days?
The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey (Apple TV+)
The first of two Samuel L. Jackson-led TV projects this year (the other being Disney+’s Secret Invasion) is The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, based on Walter Mosley’s novel of the same name. It’s another Eternal Sunshine-y premise: Jackson plays the titular Ptolemy Grey, a far-along dementia patient who falls into the care of a teenager (played by Judas and the Black Messiah star Dominique Fishback); eventually, they discover a treatment that can get him his memories back, and those memories prove super revealing. The show also stars one of the very best actors in the game, Walton Goggins. Sounds like it has the potential to be one of Apple TV+’s best dramas yet.
