Trevor's Favorite Tv Shows of 2022
I have never done a list of favorite TV shows before! I usually only do Music and Movies, so here we go: The world of Television has changed so much. Many of these shows that are among my favorites of 2022 play more like movies, especially the mini-series which basically are long movies. The question has to be asked, in the age of digital streaming: what is the difference between Television shows and Movies anymore? Could an argument be made that the term “TV shows” as it exists now is an antiquated term? Is the difference just length, and should some movies that are so full of ideas for franchising basically just be mini-series instead?
I’m not saying I agree with any of these statements but they are valid questions. The main reason I decided to do a favorite TV shows list in the middle in between my Music list (previously posted on Facebook) is because I probably liked Tv Shows as much if not better than the movies I saw this year. Don’t get me wrong, I loved them all and I am still a huge fan of cinema, but only a fool would say that the lines aren’t becoming blurred and that the only difference now is length and the decision to call one thing by an old name. Movies stars are mainly on TV shows, tv Shows now make movie stars, and really….we don’t watch most shows on Television anymore but some kind of Streaming service easily viewable on Smart Tv, Phones, or computers. So here are my top 10….long movie shows….of last year:
Honorable Mention: Just didn’t have enough time to write about these 11 – 20 ones (Season 1 or miniseries unless otherwise noted). But I enjoyed them too:
11.The Man Who Feel to Earth
12.Under the Banner of Heaven
13.The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Season 4
14.The Offer
15.The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window
16.She-Hulk
17.Dead to Me: Season 3
18.Ozark: Season 4
19.Mythic Quest: Season 3
20.The Dropout
10.The Resort
Cristin Milioti is everywhere these days, finally recognized by the world as the lead actress of shows and movies that she can be. So I will follow her anywhere, and on her latest show The Resort there is much to enjoy. She plays Emma and she and her Husband areon vacation at an exotic resort in Mexico. The Resort plays like a mystery that keeps you in suspense with cliffhangers, while also being a relationship drama about the trials and tribulations of marriage, and finding a special place in a jungle where dreams can come true and time is infinite (Pasaje! does it exist?). Did I just describe the show Lost as well? Well sort of, that is definitely a big influence. However, The Resort marches to the beat of its own weird drum, and to say more about what the show is about would be spoiling.
But like I was drawn in by an actress who can do about anything (other recent shows of Milioti’s include Made for Love, guest staring cameos on Black Mirror, Modern Love and Mythic Quest, and the movie Palm Springs) the premise of the show sounded similar in promise form the creator of the film Palm Springs (2020) a couple years ago. What Director Andy Siara shows us though his exotic settings and luxury trappings are people who may have money but also have problems- at one point Emma tells the hotel owner “You wouldn’t understand, you were born rich/ Life is expensive.” There exists in the jungle of Central America a nature that is just full of secrets and an Earth that refuses to let us off with easy answers. Throw in Sam (Skyler Gisondo) and Violet (Nina Bloomgarden), a teenage couple who went missing in the same Yucatán location 15 years earlier with a parallel story and Nick Offerman as Violet’s dad too, for a double dose of pathos and comedy. The mystery around Hotel Resort owners Baltasar (Luis Gerardo Méndez) and the possibly insane Alex (Ben Sinclair) make everything even more mysterious with paintings form the future and visions from a hole underground in the Yucatan Peninsula. You have to just watch and see for yourself, if this sounds interesting, and I hope it returns for another season.
Watch currently on: Peacock
9.Fleishman is in Trouble
I was looking forward to the premise of Fleishman is in Trouble more than the actors, though once again everyone in it surprised me. Jessie Eisenburg and Claire Danes are certainly not my go to people and make a very strange couple at first for the center of this production. In the story of their separation, both characters are fleshed out, the story presented form one perspective is turned on its head by another, a sort of Rashomon experience played out the length of a TV mini series. To top it off, the fully developed relationship of the narrator (played by Issy Caplan and her husband Josh Radnor) takes center stage at one point towards the end of the show. And so life in general ends up getting explored, old friends from high school and where are they now, the pains of growing up or marrying too soon, the children and job along the way. By the end of the show it had shown me a lot of things, and maybe even taught me some life lessons as well: never count people out until you see things from their perspective, being the main one. What is there on the surface level is a fully developed person underneath and everyone of us struggles with finding their way in this life. Not a bad lesson, for show with such a bad title….
Watch currently on: Hulu
8.The Chase: Season 3
The Chase USA (current version) is the greatest game show around, and a constant source of joy in our household. It has improved on the paradigm of Jeopardy, the longest running and standard trivia show. The host (Sara Haines) is passionate about people winning, instead of mocking or making fun of them, and also plays around with expectations. There are 3 levels of questions, and then a great idea for a finale with one of the Trivia masters being pitted against a two-minute lightning round at the end. It has improved with each iteration, you can find English UK and Australian versions on Youtube with back episodes that mostly play as clumsy TV with the scattered excited moments, but this new show has the formula perfected. Its only in the second part of seasons on 3 now, and I hope it never ends!
Watch currently on: Hulu
7.Killing It
It was such a nice surprise to watch Craig Robinson in something great especially with him as the lead. Plot: Divorced and still to support his child, he has plenty idea of trying to be an entrepreneur but no one will go for his ideas. When desperate for money he meets the hilarious Uber driver Claudia O’Doherty and they both try to compete in a contest governed by the state of Florida killing the most pythons which are overwhelming Florida’s natural habitat…we will just say zaniness ensues. There is a slight serious side of the show, about a man who just wants to get ahead but keeps getting sidetracked by life and I think we can all be compassionate about that.
Many side character actors also make this worth watching, The Mick’s Scott MacArthur as a fellow snake hunter, Rell Battle as his Brother, Tim Heidecker as….himself. The bond that this unlikely friendship forms between the two main leads and how the competition morphs into something kind of dangerous but somehow still funny is a joy to watch. Hey, sometimes a snake gets nailed to your hand! I hope there is a season 2.
Watch currently on: Peacock
6.Resident Alien: Season 2
Resident Alien is definitely the greatest sci-fi comedy running, Alan Tudyk plays the titular character Harry with such strange accuracy of how an alien would act it is some kind of beautiful feat. After a typical but hilarious first season, the story is expanding in a great way with a warring alien race also present on earth (The Grays) and more people finding out Harry is an alien posing as a human trying to contact his race to come to Earth and evaluate it for take over. All of this is played out brilliantly with a murder mystery for the local police, a family drama about lost connections between children, and an under lying theme about how aliens from other worlds can still possibly like us in ways that count. It all takes place in a fictional but charming small Colorado town.
If Resident Alien sounds like it may not be your thing, you may be surprised. There are aspirations and visions of a coming future shown in hallucinogenic premonitions, there is an alien baby who might be a lost child or could actually be…Harry himself….and of course some relationship dramas that actually work despite the silly premise. Sara Tomoko plays Harry’s best friend and only link to humanity, Corey Reynolds is the hard edged sheriff who is clueless to an alien’s presence in his town. We were blessed with 16 episodes this season, and each one builds and builds in ways that work really well and even the most minute characters get plenty of development. But it’s Tudyk that ties it all together make no mistake- his small ticks and overall demeanor yell “ALIEN!” to us but people don’t always take notice of those around them. Aliens could easily be among us right now, and hopefully if so they have faith in us like Harry does.
Watch currently on: Peacock
5.The Bear
This is a show about people that mean well but can’t seem to get their lives together. They are all cooks in a kitchen in a family restaurant in the middle of Chicago, they have to work together to succeed, and none of them get along with each other for more than 5 minutes. Carmen (Jeremy Allen White) has inherited the place from his recently deceased brother who he was on bad terms with, and he has to deal with his brother’s best friend Richie (Ebo Moss-Bacharch) hanging around and always stirring up trouble while his biggest prospect chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) tries to be perfect and is perhaps too ambitious for him. Throw in Uncle Jimmy (Oilver Platt) as a sort of local loan-shark type who was friendly with Carmen’s brother and is wondering what happened to the 100 grand he loaned him, sister Sugar (Abby Elliot) to whom he has years of apologies, and Jon Bernthal in flashback’s as the deceased brother and you have an amazing ensemble cast that can bounce of each other just like the best chef’s in the best local diners.
What makes this show so amazing is its kinetic energy, the feeling that anything could happen at any minute and how everyone is so wrapped up in their own world, perhaps too much to see anything beyond their own perspective. The cramped little kitchen everyone works in feels huge and expansive, like each moment for each dinner counts even though the time and energy they put into crafting perfect food is gone as soon as somebody eats it. There is beauty in the small dishes just like there is beauty in every part of life even if it only lasts a day. The dialogue reminds be of the best Kevin Smith, very particular and it works because of the body language of the actors and the way it is told. It is super stressful to watch at times, as everyone reaches their absolute boiling point of anger every episode it seems, but as hopeless as the characters say they are we can tell they were put in these positions for a reason, that as long as they can keep going things will work out. Raw emotions, like as raw as the sun. It’s a show still finding out what it is, but its already pretty great.
Watch currently on: Hulu
4. Severance
Severence touches a nerve with our society because we can sympathize with the parts of people displayed as "half-there". In this original show directed by Ben Stiller, their mind is split somehow so when these people work their office /cubical jobs, the half of them that works does not remember their outside of work life, and vise versa. The actors involved (Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Jon Turturro, Christopher Walken) are great an playing their roles as basically drones in an office where all the lights are florescent, all bathroom breaks have to be accounted for, and it feels like there is no way out.
If this all seems bleak well, it is, but its also full of plot twists and joyful expressions and the idea that when we are two people we are not our full selves. People will soon meet that have met before, but these versions of themselves have not met before. These people that have become severed are in fact different people, and the left brain/ right brain thoughts are full of infinite possibilities. Will these enslaved minds break free? That's what we hope for and root for throughout, seemingly mundane struggles of sneaking around locked doors and hallways become tense beyond belief. Some of the main lives (that must spend a lot of time just sleeping when you think about it) or "outties" as they are known are the ones living a real life on the outside world. These outies are not good or bad per se, they just needed break from the routine of work. There isn't a person alive that can't sympathize with that. The twists and turns and suspense that build up are what make the show worth watching, and I can only guess what puzzle season 2 will hold.
Severance is a show that takes place in an office with cubicles and fluorescent lights blaring that so many of us have worked in for the better parts of our lives. Even if you haven’t worked in an office like the once shown here, its easy tot be sympathetic to the plight of the people in the show how are stuck working apart form their main bodies and are nothing better than slaves for the system they work for. Who do they work for, and why was this sever-mind process delved, well that is part of the mystery for sure. Its classified a sa sci-fi show but its concepts aren’t really all that futuristic
Im not sure if the show wil end up being fanatical with there being some huge conspiracy revealing who Lumen Corp is or it may actually just be more normal and mundane as an answer than we think. The latter option would go along more with the shw as a whole.
Watch currently on: Apple TV
3. Hacks: Season 2
Hacks is one of the most consistent and funny shows on TV, with an amazing idea for a premise and all-star writers that make it work. After Broad City ended, Paul W Downs created this show with Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky with an intention of making something that had the feel of an old-fashioned classic casting Jean Smart in what might be the performance of her long and amazing career. She plays Debra Vance as a version of herself, a loud and abrasive comedian with quite a temper but a real knack for reinventing career that would make sense in the 2020's. Tie that together in with Hannah Einbinder as Ava, a Generation Z bisexual writer that she tries to mentor in the most verbally abusive way possible. Its comedy gold, and the over-arching story of Ava constantly accidently insulting Debra serves as a nice framework and proposes a little bit of drama at times to see if their relationship will continue. Like being in a band, they may not get along as people but the writing/delivery really works and wows the nation.
But it’s the jokes mainly that work, the hilarious assistant of Jimmy, Kayla (Megan Stalter is a genius as idiot the spoiled daughter of the head of the firm) and her crush on Jimmy (Downs also acts as both ladies' agent), her dad pushing for marriage even though Jimmy can’t stand her, the minor stops on the bus-riding world tour in the gas station where Debra meets some of her adoring fans and how she fails to connect for them even as she writes her new act specifically for them. There is a stop for a tarot card reading where Ava cannot believe in the fantastical, a revealing email she wrote about Debra also got published. Ava has quite the good timing as a writer on the show for Debra; though she has quite the guilty conscience about doing what is right for herself and her career. She constantly uses Smart phones and cameras and recordings on them; are they too important in our lives and/or do they ruin comedy? Carl Clemons is great as Marcus, Debra’s assistant as liaison between Ava and Debra, as his own personal life is well thought out just like every aspect of Hacks it’s touching at times but also funny.
The idea of What is funny these days and styles of comedy among aging comedians and people dealing with an age gap has been the premise of many great shows throughout time: I Love Lucy, Seinfeld, Mary Tyler Moore, The Office, you name it. Every frame of Hacks is constantly in motion, every scene is edited perfectly and most importantly every joke is snappy and timed exactly right. Hacks could probably end after season 2 and it might be perfect…but I still want more. Will they pull the great comedy trick of leaving us wanting more?
Watch currently on: HBO
#bestof2022 #hacks #besttvshows
2.Better Caul Saul: Season 6
Better Caul Saul did exactly what was promised: served as the prequel to Breaking Bad and each season got more and more like its predecessor. Show creator Vince Gilligan has created maybe his best season of a show ever here, as I admired even the 1st season mainly about lawyers and law firm antics with Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) moving around the law to his advantage and finding ways to get around while also tackling the drug trade that the characters in Breaking Bad collide with toward the end of their run, headed by Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) and his head of security Mike (Johnathan Banks). The show shares a leisurely pace with its predecessor, an insane attention to detail, and having stories that at first have nothing to do with each other but than this final season plays like a series of multiple climaxes and many characters we have lived with meet rather grizzly ends or in the case of Jimmy McGill’s titular character, a new personality completely. Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton) it must be mentioned, one of the true great psychopaths of modern storytelling, but even him you feel sympathy for.
The show never stops having multiple things happening and constantly shows off Gilligan’s ability to surprise us even though we know only bad things are about to happen. The dialogue is pointed and perfect for each character, Saul can’t stop talking and lying, Kim can't stop making excuses for his/her behavior, Salamanca cannot not help but be awkwardly creepy, Gus barely speaks at all unless it is worth his time. Still somehow, these characters surprise you and it is a show about CHARACTER first and for most. For me, I feel the actual plot is a bit tighter overall than Breaking Bad was, even though many consider that one of the best shows of all time; I feel Better Call Saul is actually superior. Wherever you fall on that opinion line, it must be said now that anyone starting to watch these shows and root for these characters it would make perfect sense to watch BCS before Breaking Bad now, and this way you get the full effect of everything. The Character of Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) might end up being the best character in the entire series, her transformation is in a way more shocking than Jimmy’s in this final season (and season 5 too really) as the true nature of “what-have-i-become” hits home very, very hard in her case.
That is really what any great TV show, novel, movie, story or whatever is about- human nature. Do we become this bad person and reveal our sinister nature or is this just what the world does to us? Can people truly change, or were they born a certain way and just reveal it more and more through time? Compare Saul’s arc to Gus’s arc: is it the exact same thing with one being a little easier to stomach? I had this season a bit lower on my top ten at first but as I watched it just took over my life like all good shows do and I have to admire the craft put into it and the talent on display. Either way you view this show as a whole, it is very satisfying ending and Season 6 is the best season. I guess it’s really just a beginning.
Watch currently on: you have to buy it on Amazon or Apple, soon to be on Netflix hopefully
#bestof2022 #BetterCallSaul #besttvshow
1.Super Pumped
This miniseries about Uber founder Travis was the most scathing indictment of Silicon Valleys and business culture I have ever seen, with the best performances and the most interesting dynamics. Somehow it was also the most the most under-appreciated show of the year with no real awards buzz and mediocre reviews. But the steps it takes to describe how ambitious people can just skate over the responsibility and moral compasses that they should have when building an empire is accurate and pointing, and even with the portrayals skirting into pure evil at points, you can’t help but feel a little for its main characters. Joseph Gordon-Levitt leads the pack, creating a sort of sociopath with Travis K that might have had good intentions when starting Uber but really was cutthroat as a businessman, doesn’t care about his workers, and would do anything to get what he wants. His ex-girlfriend clings to him and perhaps helps him too long, his best friend Emil (Babak Tafti) and business partner gets a little close to him but not really as he is also more of a sycophant then a friend, and his long-term girlfriend just cannot keep suffering by his side because all she is a commodity.
That’s all Travis’s Uber drivers are to him as well, as you can trust me because I am one of them 😊 With a lead female executive at the company () there is showing of how it’s still not a fair deal for women here, with the one exception probably being Arianna Huffington (played wonderfully by Uma Thurman). An entire episode is devoted to what a toxic environment this sort of workplace can be for women. Other episodes are devoted to who has the best lawyers and what business tricks these people constantly apply to each other, with Kyle Chandler being quite the shrewd VC supporting Travis but also having a (more reasonable) agenda of his own. Watching these two actors spar was definitely one of the highlights of the year.
The bad business culture of Uber is not necessarily created by Travis himself, but he doesn’t do much to stop it predatory ways of men around him. The rich and powerful, no matter how young they are, still have a responsibility to society and to ther workers to do things in a way that corresponds to morality. Uber is still a thriving business and someday it may not be as prominent in our society, something else will come along and replace it and that is a certainty. It all works because of a great soundtrack (mainly by Pearl Jam) a sleek manner to each episode partially directed by the equally underrated John Dahl. There are many things untouched, including the spinoff business of Uber Eats and several other details that would take many more episodes to uncover, but Super Pumped is a perfect mini-series for what it sets out to do: tell the Story of the rise and possibly future fall of Uber as a company who the viewpoint of someone who witnessed it all. It’s worth your time for a watch and a cautionary tale.
#bestof2022 #superpumped #besttvshows
Watch currently on: Showtime