I'll throw this artichoke at your head!
Top 10 TV Shows of 2022
The only thing on my mind today is finishing this god-forsaken work week so I can blow through the new Harry and Meghan Netflix doc in peace.
Typically I don’t care much about the royals, but this shit is going to be JUICY. “Were you silent or were you silenced” has, as the TikTok kids say, forever altered my brain chemistry. As a spiteful person, I love watching people get their comeuppance, and M & H have declared WAR!
Speaking of TV, this week I’m kicking off my year-in-review series, starting with my Top 10 Shows that graced the small screen.
10. Sex Lives of College Girls S2 — (HBO Max)
Season 2 of Sex Lives drops us off on the fictional Essex campus right after Thanksgiving Break.
I feel like the Thanksgiving Break after your freshman year is a core memory for most — if you had a hometown boyfriend, you dump him. If you’re obnoxious, you go back to your high school to “visit” your teachers and condescend to all the seniors about how rigorous college is. You drink wine with your parents for the first time and pretend to like it. That sort of thing!
Anyway, Leighton, Kimberly, Whitney, and Bela return to a mess on their campus — their antics last season have them banned from every frat party, which is basically social suicide. If I were the fifth roommate, I’d be like “oh noooo, fiddlesticks! Whatever will we do now?” but secretly I’d be so happy I could stay in my room watching Survivor.
Also, not to get all @Girlbosstown with you guys, but I have an idea for HBO — they NEED to have this show do a collaboration with Parade. These ladies are always marching around in adorable matching lingerie sets, and they could do a cute collection inspired by each of the four girls. Am I a genius??
Works best as: A nostalgic time-killer to evoke the feeling of a pre-game while you wait for your 8PM dinner reservation.
9. Abbott Elementary S2 — (ABC)
When’s the last time you watched an actual network sitcom? And as it came out, not just in a chaotic Hulu binge?
For moi, it’s been Abbott Elementary, which had a triumphant Emmy’s evening this fall after its freshman season. Much like its mockumentary-sitcom predecessors The Office and Parks and Rec, the second season is stronger now that the initial character development is out of the way.
In season 2, Janine is officially a single woman, accelerating her will-they-wont-they-yes-they-will with Gregory, Melissa gets a ditzy teaching assistant who’d be better suited as a Zara attendant (disinterested and unhelpful), and the young, bright-eyed teachers continue to clash with their jaded elders.
Is it bad that I relate more to the olds in this scenario? I can’t imagine making $32,000 at a decaying public school and trying to reinvent the wheel out of the pureness of my heart. But I guess it’s not that different from when I was a girlboss making $40,000 and tried to like, forever change the shaving industry as we know it. Stupid lol.
Works best as: Something neutral to put on in bed after you had two too many moscow mules at happy hour.
8. White Lotus S2 — (HBO)
I’m going to get major flack for having White Lotus so low on the list, and I own this decision as CEO. But in all seriousness. . .was it really that good?!?
Season one was electric and perfectly paced. It made me feel like a frog being slowly boiled alive. Which means the bar is set! Big shoes to fill!!!
And season two certainly has some wins: Sicily is a dream, the sex scenes are hot & heavy, and the social dynamics between each of the core character groups keep us theorizing for days after the episode airs. But it’s been almost too slow of a burn for the journey to be worth the payoff.
I know we have the finale left this weekend, and maybe I’ll have to eat my hat in shame if it’s like, the most brilliant thing ever, but this season hasn’t been as tight as the OG. The wheels finally came careening off in episode 5, and instead of ramping up, episode 6 kind of brought us right back down to where we started. I should be on the edge of my seat, and instead I’m like, draped over my chaise lounge.
That said, it’s still been a good ride, and I enjoy being part of a cultural moment through all the social media discourse and memage — rare these days outside of The Bachelor.
P.S. If you missed my White Lotus Season 3 Fantasy Draft, catch it here!
Works best as: A show to watch with your significant other, where you’re all like, “babe, don’t watch the new White Lotus without me! I just have to finish prepping these carrots.”
7. Only Murders in the Building S2 — (Hulu)
The Selena Gomez documentary may have soured this a little for me, but Only Murders in the Building is one of the most feel-good shows you can have in your arsenal.
In Season 2, Mabel, Charles, and Oliver are prime suspects for the murder of their cranky building manager, and they aim to clear their names, find the true killer, and podcast about the whole thing (AKA the American Dream).
I can’t think of anything else that has ever truly nailed “fun for the whole family” quite like this — boomer parents get aging comedy legends Steve Martin and Martin Short, and petulant teens get international pop star Selena Gomez and Victoria’s Secret model Cara Delevingne. And white millennials stuck in 2011 get cameos from Tina Fey.
Works best as: A cozy winter watch under a weighted blanket with a cup of the gourmet hot chocolate mix you got as a White Elephant gift.
6. The Kardashians S2 — (Hulu)
Wow. We got so much from the KarJenners this season — incredible how eight episodes can pack a lifetime of punch, but would we ever expect less from America’s royal family?
We saw Kim’s Met Gala saga, the aftermath of the Khloe and Tristan paternity scandal, the birth of Kylie’s son, Kourtney’s Italian wedding, and Kris getting high as a kite at a Mexican restaurant. Kendall, as usual, underdelivered — her plot line was something like, “I love interior design!”
It’s 2022 — if you’re still a Kardashian hater, you’re jealous and you’re bitter! To quote Jeff Probst, I’ve got nothing for ya.
Works best as: A Sunday afternoon pick-me-up — you’re back from brunch and still have makeup on, but you’re changing into cute loungewear and settling into the evening.
5. Hacks S2 — (HBO Max)
Having attended college with the short-lived aspiration of being a young and successful Hollywood TV writer, I’ve been genetically pre-determined to love Hacks, but there’s still a good chance you’ll like it, too.
In Season 2, washed-up comedian Debra Vance is making a comeback, touring the country with her new hour of material and with Ava, her Gen Z writing partner, by her side.
Even for those of us who spend our days drafting marketing strategies for thermal sock companies rather than navigating the high-stakes complexities of showbiz, a lot of the themes about career, mentorship, and female friendship spark universal resonance. I ugly cried at the finale and I try to limit my cries to six per year!
Works best as: Something to watch in your girlboss era — not in like a cheugy Bold Type way, but in an “I’m focused on my craft right now” way.
4. Yellowjackets — (Showtime)
2022 was not the year of the Tiger, it was the year of the Cannibal! Bones and All, Fresh, and Yellowajackets?! What is this, a multifaceted, yearlong cannibal PR campaign???
Toggling between flashbacks and present day, Yellowjackets tells the story of a 90s high school women’s soccer team whose plane goes down in the middle of the woods. Their surroundings are grim AF, and the teenage girls are left to desperately scrounge up enough calories to survive, like me when the office is out of Skinny Pop.
As one can imagine, their situation basically devolves into The Donner Party meets Can’t Hardly Wait.
This series is truly so worth the Showtime free trial! And now I’ve been paying for Showtime for a YEAR because I’m too lazy to cancel and keep rationalizing that maybe I’ll watch another Ziwe episode. That’s how they get you!
Works best as: A ravenous binge-watch! But not before a long flight.
3. The Rehearsal — (HBO)
I can already hear you making fun of me — Reddit called, they want their Dungeons & Dragons dice back. Ha, ha, ha.
But whatever! For people who consume an absurd amount of content, The Rehearsal gave us something that felt genuinely fresh and new. Don’t we deserve that?!
For the uninitiated, Nathan Fielder of Nathan For You fame created a docu-style reality-sort-of series where he used the bottomless resources of HBO to “help” real people (maybe?) prepare for challenging or uncomfortable conversations and life events.
This involves recreating a multi-million dollar replica of Brooklyn’s Crocodile Lounge to help a man share a secret with his erratic trivia partner and setting a woman up with a rotating cast of child actors to play her son 24/7, so she could experience parenthood from ages 0-18 before deciding if she really wants to become a mom.
The show gets increasingly meta as it goes on, and the line starts to blur between Nathan the character and Nathan the human. Just watch it, and then choose from the plethora of think pieces from prestige titles that articulate it a lot better than I ever could.
Works best as: Something to watch when you’re getting content fatigue and want to reactivate your brain before it turns to apple sauce.
2. Barry S3 — (HBO)
My HBO bias is showing. They have big heads over there but they aren’t unwarranted!
I tried to start watching Barry like three times, but the pilot was so slow it was too much of an uphill battle. But then after I really committed to watching three episodes, it was off to the mother fucking races. I watched this whole series in like a month and was depressed when it was over.
It’s hard to go into detail about season three without spoiling the entire show, but they had the foresight to abandon the tried-and-true formula of the first two seasons to prevent it from getting stale and jumped ahead into the future to shake up the power dynamics of the core players.
Works best as: A solo watch. You want to be in the right headspace, so a partner will only slow you down.
1. Severance — (Apple TV)
This was like, a dark horse of the year when it should have been standard water cooler convo. But no one has Apple TV and they don’t market their shit outside of Ted Lasso.
Severance creates a world where a sketchy conglomerate called Lumin gives employees the option of severing their consciousness between work and life. When you’re at work, you have no memory of your personal life, and when you’re home, you have no memory of what goes on at work. The value prop is the ultimate work/life balance, but of course it’s not that simple.
I watched this as it was coming out on a weekly basis, but I would have given Apple my eggs to have watched all 10 episodes at once. Which you can now do for free!
Severance is hella eerie, so creative that it made me jealous, and has one of the most gripping finales we’ve seen in a while.
Works best as: A prestige watch — treat it like Succession. Phone on silent, house to yourself…it deserves your un-severed attention.