So many streaming services, so many TV shows and… not had time to watch them all? With an overwhelming choice, it can be hard to figure out where to start if you’re trying to sort out your summer entertainment. So we’ve put together a list of our favourite TV shows from the last year to help you get started.
It was an interesting year for television in 2022, with high-profile and spectacular event series like Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, House of the Dragon and Obi-Wan Kenobi dazzling fans of their respective franchises.
Elsewhere, the latest seasons for beloved shows such as Better Call Saul and Yellowstone also impressed, while new arrivals such as Severance, Yellowjackets and The Bear blew us all away.
So with all of this content to consider, the question of which were the best TV shows of 2022 springs to mind, not to mention where and how you can stream them in Australia. And with most of us set to get some time off over the coming holiday period, there’s no better time than right now to check out these great shows for yourself.
Best TV shows of 2022
Returning shows
Better Call Saul (Season 6): streaming now on Stan
If fans of Breaking Bad and its spectacular ending in 2013 were hoping for similar from the conclusion of Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul, they certainly wouldn’t have been disappointed with this sixth and final season. Much like its predecessor, the last chapter of the Saul Goodman saga had series fans on the edge of their seats not knowing what to expect – or which of their favourite characters would survive the chaos.
Following up the kind of acclaim achieved by Breaking Bad was never going to be easy, but Better Call Saul’s conclusion nonetheless managed to affirm the series as a more than worthy follow-up with an equally shocking and impactful finale. As sad as it is to know there will be no more from Saul Goodman (played by Bob Odenkirk) to look forward to, the well-considered series end does more than enough to dull the pain.
Stranger Things (Season 4): streaming now on Netflix
Fans and critics of Stranger Things alike have become so accustomed to excellence from the series at this point that many of them failed to fully appreciate the sci-fi hit’s latest season. To an extent this is completely understandable – when we know that we can expect good things, why should we be surprised when we get good things? But there is a case to be made that the fourth season of Stranger Things is its very best, or at least best since its stunning debut.
The stakes have arguably never felt higher than in this season, with the fate of more than just the series regulars hanging in the balance. Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown) powers have seemingly been lost, Hopper’s (David Harbour) fate following the events of the season three finale remains unknown and series newcomer Eddie (Joseph Quinn) has been accused of a murder he didn’t commit. To say any more would risk spoiling what is genuinely an extraordinary adventure that feels so alive with possibilities, but fans and newcomers alike won’t be disappointed by catching up with the latest adventures in the town of Hawkins.
Only Murders in the Building (Season 2): streaming now on Disney Plus
If the debut season of Only Murders in the Building managed to charm us, the series’ second entry serves to confirm that the success of its first was anything but a fluke. Whether it’s the scarily plausible base premise (three true-crime obsessed neighbours start a podcast investigating a murder close to home) or the chemistry of the series leads, Only Murders in the Building has clearly managed to discover a winning formula.
An ability to not take itself too seriously is also a large part of OMITB’s charm and, in many ways, this takes centre stage for the series’ second season. Yet its greatest quality is arguably the surprise heart and depth on offer. Mabel, played by Selena Gomez, stands out on this front in this latest season as she explores love, reconciles with grief and confronts her past. But each of the three lead characters continue to perform so strongly that it’s impossible to give any one of them primary credit for the series’ success and that of this second season. It’s a true group effort and one we hope will continue to charm in its confirmed third season expected to arrive on Disney Plus potentially sometime in 2023.
Barry (Season 3): streaming now on Binge
Fans waited three long years for the return of Bill Hader’s depressive hitman Barry in season three of the series by the same name. It’s set to arrive in April this year, and it didn’t take long to make itself known as being well worth the wait. As has always been the case, season three of Barry is largely carried by Hader’s powerhouse performance, yet somehow manages to take an even further step up in overall quality with this latest offering.
If the span of time between Barry’s second season in 2019 and its latest in 2022 had any negative impact on Hader’s ability to assume the character of Barry, it certainly didn’t show. Barry’s beating heart of balancing humour and bleak introspection is as strong as ever while the stakes for Barry and his fellow series regulars feel as high as ever. If only to ensure we get more of it in the future, Barry’s season three is well worth a watch.
What We Do in the Shadows (Season 4): streaming now on Binge
Guilty of flying somewhat under the radar, What We Do in the Shadows has still managed to successfully cement itself as one of the most consistent comedies in television right now while also getting better and better with each passing season. Picking up from the conclusion of season three, which found the much-loved Colin (Mark Proksch) reborn as an adult-faced Baby Colin, the series’ fourth stanza excels in adding even greater depth and character to its extraordinary main cast.
We see Colin literally grow before our eyes, Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) finally begins to assert himself and Nandor (Kayvan Novak) explores new (old) love, while the Shadows household’s resident married couple Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Laszlo (Matt Berry) each see further growth as individual characters. As a reimagining of the excellent New Zealand film of the same name, What We Do in the Shadows as a television series had already shown itself as uniquely superior to its source material. This fourth season only continues to demonstrate that its true excellence extends far beyond even this.
New series
Severance: streaming now on Apple TV Plus
The suite of original programming offered by Apple’s streaming service has been quite singular since launching in 2019, but truly announced itself in 2022 with a string of exceptional new series. In fact if this list were made up entirely of new series to have debuted on Apple TV Plus, it’s likely nobody would bat an eye, given the top quality of the likes of Shining Girls, Bad Sisters and Pachinko. Yet, arguably, none of Apple’s new roster of acclaimed successes manages to stand out more than the ominously mysterious sci-fi thriller Severance.
In a dystopian near-future, Mark (played by Adam Scott) agrees to a "severance" program with his employer which sees his non-work memories separated from his work memories. To streamline productivity, Mark’s employer, Lumon Industries, has sought to create separate identities for its employees – one at work and one outside of work – but is productivity the only reason? With six of the nine episodes masterfully directed by actor Ben Stiller, the appeal and intrigue of Severance’s core mystery is matched only by extraordinary performances and the obvious metaphors for our own realities.
Andor: streaming now on Disney Plus
The best thing that can be said about Andor might be to acknowledge how, throughout its 12-episode first season, it so often doesn’t feel as though it’s a Star Wars series at all. Of course, we know that it is, being a prequel to 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story movie (itself a prequel to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope). And Star Wars fans will find plenty to love about Andor, particularly as it fleshes out the backstory of the future Rebel Alliance leader Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly).
But there are no Jedi in Andor, nor does the mythical ‘force’ (and corresponding force powers) make an appearance. Instead, much like Rogue One before it, Andor revels in displaying the more human side of the Star Wars universe. Andor and series creator Tony Gilroy clearly recognise that the rebellion, which ultimately topples the Empire, wasn’t driven by the Jedi at all. Sure, we know what Luke Skywalker accomplishes, but even he would never have started on his journey as a Jedi had the rebellion not spilt over into his simple life on Tatooine. Andor not only recognises this but revels in it, introducing both Star Wars fans and newcomers to the true stakes that ultimately drive the rebellion and set the events of the original Star Wars trilogy in motion. And those stakes are not the fate of just the Jedi, or of the Skywalker lineage, but of the entire galaxy’s ability to live free of oppression.
Wednesday: streaming now on Netflix
The most cynical critics might disagree, but the only thing that Addams Family spin-off Wednesday really needed to achieve was to be fun – and it does that in spades. Maybe this is partly due to the charming, high-energy performance of Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams, but the series as a whole excels in not allowing itself to be restricted by its source material. After all, the majority of those the series would hope to reach would be the newer generation that hadn’t grown up with the Addams Family, so Wednesday was set the task of having to establish its own chops as a property far more than many might realise. In short, Wednesday couldn’t simply rely on the legacy of the Addams Family, and fortunately doesn’t.
And with beloved director Tim Burton in the mix, Wednesday manages to assert itself in its own right through a well-crafted balance of intrigue, comedy and gothic charm. Memorable and fun, Wednesday is an exceptional debut that hopefully results in future seasons to follow.
House of the Dragon: streaming now on Binge
Most fans of HBO’s smash hit Game of Thrones series would probably still have had a bad taste in their mouth by the time the prequel series House of the Dragon arrived in August. The conclusion to Game of Thrones’ final season had, to put it mildly, left a lot to be desired for franchise fans. With this as a backdrop, House of the Dragon faced a challenge not only to match the quality of Game of Thrones’ extraordinary eight-season run, but also to make up for the highly controversial way in which it ended.
Does it achieve the latter? Debatable. But there’s little point in arguing that it manages to succeed on the former, swooping in with the same scale of drama and fantasy that Game of Thrones has been known for. It isn’t perfect, as debut seasons for any series often aren’t, but the characters, writing and performances are exceptional enough to make it clearly one of the best series of the year.
Slow Horses: streaming now on Apple TV Plus
Debuting in 2022 with not one but two seasons, spy thriller Slow Horses is a well-portrayed journey in humanity and intrigue that appears to only get better with each passing episode. Led by Gary Oldman and deftly balancing a tightrope act between workplace drama and spy action, Slow Horses could have easily been a disaster. After all, the drudgery and mundanity of office work is at various times a central character in its own right, and making this entertaining takes some work. But by relying on solid performances and flirting with black comedy elements, Slow Horses rarely feels stale or boring.
The Apple TV Plus original could have landed on this list based on its first season alone, but has sealed the deal with everything we’ve seen of its second outing so far. Upping the ante and somehow managing to improve on everything that worked so well in its debut, Slow Horses has fast become must-watch TV and should well and truly thrust Oldman back into awards conversations.
Underrated gems
Harley Quinn (Season 3): streaming now on Binge
We’ve seen a lot of Harley Quinn in recent years, with Margot Robbie’s turn as the clown princess of crime in two Suicide Squad films and a solo film since 2016, while Quinn’s adventures in comic book form also saw an uptick to seize the moment offered by the character’s renaissance in film. Yet, as fun as Robbie’s rendition of Harley Quinn was, it still failed to truly flesh out the character as much more than one-dimensional, predictable and as uncomfortably tied to the story of the Joker as ever.
So when Harley Quinn’s DC Universe original animated series first arrived in 2019, it came as a breath of fresh air. Accomplishing the challenging task of not only making Quinn’s story appear fresh and divorcing the character’s value from a reliance upon Gotham’s dark knight and his clown nemesis, but also achieving the same for Gotham City as a whole, the Quinn headline act has been nothing short of a revelation. And this has never been more true for the series than in this latest season (its third), now helmed by HBO Max. Maintaining the series’ humour and ability to poke fun at itself (and fandom, generally) but further contributing new layers to its heart and originality, the third season of Harley Quinn reinforces the animated series’ unique stamp on Gotham City to its greatest extent yet.
No longer is the woman born Harleen Quinzel (voiced by Kaley Cuoco) reliant upon the Joker (Alan Tudyk) or Batman (Diedrich Bader), and gone is the ditzy, confused mess of Margot Robbie’s turn with the character, this Harley Quinn is the original, fun clown princess Gotham City needed.
Yellowjackets: streaming now on Paramount Plus
Maybe this is cheating given Yellowjackets originally began in late 2021 and only concluded its debut season in 2022, but the thriller drama series’ inaugural entry is simply too good to let such details matter. Calling to mind the likes of Lost and Prison Break with their own respective first seasons, the debut of Yellowjackets feels as though it is a true event in itself – one of those rare “can’t miss, can’t go to bed until I’m all caught up” type of series that tend to linger with an influence on broader culture.
When a flight carrying a girls high school soccer team crashes in the wilderness, the surviving team members are forced into trying to discover ways to survive until help (hopefully) arrives. Bouncing back and forth between this horror fight for survival and the present-day lives of those who survived, we see dark glimpses of how the girls ultimately come to withstand the elements, while the presence of something potentially supernatural looms throughout. The mystery and the tantalising promise of answers to come are the primary headline acts, but the characters and the outstanding acting of the series’ full cast do their own part to ensure that the process of discovering these answers doesn’t become arduous too soon. Season 2 is slated for March 2023 and will be one not to miss if Yellowjackets’ stunning debut is any indication of what we can hope for.
From: streaming now on Stan
Much like Yellowjackets (above), From manages to stand out as a series through its feeling like nothing short of an event. Each passing episode brings with it mystery and intrigue while reinforcing the extent of the danger each of the characters are in by maintaining the unforgivingly high stakes. Maybe this shouldn’t have come as such a surprise given the presence of two of the producers for Lost for this series, but From well and truly exceeds expectations.
In a town that traps anyone who enters, and is beset by mysterious supernatural creatures who appear to prowl at night, answers are few and far between as much as danger appears to lurk behind every corner. The most impactful thriller series achieve their thrills by making it clear that absolutely nobody is safe, and From manages this, while also withholding just enough at every step to keep you hooked. A second season of From can’t come soon enough, if only to give us some greater idea at just what the hell is going on.
Chainsaw Man: streaming now on Crunchyroll
What makes a great anime? It’s likely every anime fan will have a different answer, but certainly many of the best throughout the history of the medium have shared in common a willingness to embrace chaos and the absurd without sacrificing emotional depth. Chainsaw Man, the highly anticipated adaptation of the manga of the same name, undoubtedly revels in the chaos and the absurd. Its gory, balls-to-the-wall base premise makes that very clear.
But the humour and heart also thrown in add enough to make Chainsaw Man an anime worth not only the hype, but your time too. It never appears to meander in ways previous anime favourites like Attack on Titan and Naruto seem to, but it also doesn’t fall into the trap of getting too carried away with itself. It would be better without the bizarre sexual undertones that occasionally pop up, but of course this is an issue not uncommon to anime as a medium and it never feels too overbearing to turn you away. All in all, Chainsaw Man feels like it achieves everything it needed to and more, and should earn the series plenty of new fans.
She-Hulk: streaming now on Disney Plus
It seems strange to consider a Marvel series as being underrated at this point, given the sheer intimidating volume of MCU outings that seem to only be matched by the appetite for them. But She-Hulk hasn’t appeared to capture the attention many of its fellow Marvel series managed to, even while representing a welcome point of difference to all of them. Make no mistake, She-Hulk is unquestionably a Marvel property and features no shortage of references and throwbacks that fans of Marvel comics, films and series will recognise. But it also manages to feel quite refreshingly different.
On numerous occasions throughout its nine-episode first season, She-Hulk feels as though it is much less led by its comic book origins than it is willing to entertain them, instead tackling head-on the trials and tribulations a green-skinned, hulking lawyer would reasonably face. The series’ showrunners also appear to be acutely aware of the looming threat of Marvel fatigue facing even the strictest Marvel loyalists, with She-Hulk at various times embracing a willingness to poke fun at itself and the universe it is set in. Best of all, though, She-Hulk (played by Tatiana Maslany) is fun and, if nothing else, that reason alone is enough to see it land on this list.
Special mentions
To be completely honest, 2022 was such a solid year for new (and returning) series that this list could go on forever, but that wouldn’t make a lot of sense for a list of ‘the best’. Still, there are a number of candidates worth a special mention who just missed out on being included above, but are no less deserving of your time.
- The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power – streaming now on Prime Video
- The Bear – streaming now on Disney Plus
- The Rehearsal – streaming now on Binge
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – streaming now on Paramount Plus
- Reservation Dogs (Season 2) – streaming now on Binge
- The Boys (Season 3) – streaming now on Prime Video
- Blackbird – streaming now on Apple TV Plus
- Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities – streaming now on Netflix
- Our Flag Means Death – streaming now on Binge
- The Sandman – streaming now on Netflix
Need a new screen to watch the best shows of 2022 on? Check out our top picks
