I don’t write much about television shows, mostly due to not being able to catch up with everything that gets released. It’s either plunge full-on into movies or TV and I’ll always choose the former. Still, I try to be as up to date as I possible can with all the critically-acclaimed and popular stuff rummaging through the small screen.
Now, I’m not trying to say that the best and most engrossing stuff that I saw in 2022 came straight from the small tube, but I will say that I can’t think of many films that had the same highs as watching “The White Lotus,” “Better Call Saul,” “The Bear” and “Severance.” These we’re tightly-constructed and fascinating shows that, again, made the case for television as a primal art form to rival American movies.
This was the final season of “Better Call Saul” and its creator Vince Gilligan once again proved how all-encompassing his vision was for the ‘Breaking Bad’ world-building he’s been obsessively painting on his canvas since 2008. What more can be said about a spin-off to one of the greatest shows ever made that itself wound up being one of the greatest shows ever made. Go figure. I wouldn’t mind seeing Gilligan get into directing next. He showed impressive chops on TV and also with “El Camino” — his underrated 90-minute Netflix “continuation” of “Breaking Bad.”
The biggest surprise this year came out of left field, it was a show titled “The Bear.” A young chef from the fine dining world comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop after his brother dies. Set almost entirely inside a tiny nerve-wrecking kitchen space, “The Bear” felt like something The Safdies would concoct on the small screen: a gritty, soul-crushing realism that managed to fit in small business ownership, strong-willed kitchen staff and strained familial relationships all into one. It helps that performances, led by Shameless alumn Jeremy Allen White, felt authentic — not to mention creator Christopher Storer’s effervescent knack for “gutter poetry.”
I interviewed Mike White a few years ago and he struck me as a very shy and reserved man, but a very contemplative one as well. That’s why I’m not surprised by the resounding success of “The White Lotus.” Its awkward as hell elite-class characters struck me as soaked up in this kind of relatable realism that is was funny, sad and pathetic. Nobody writes like Mike White and I find he’s finally found the best medium for his style of writing. He had attempted TV many years back with the batshit brilliant “Enlightened,” which turned out to be one of the best shows to have been cancelled by HBO.
Ben Stiller also absolutely triumphed with his dystopian WTF-did-I-Just-watch office drama “Severance.” His series left more questions unanswered than answered, and I would hope that when the screws finally tighten next season it’ll be done in satisfactory fashion. With that said, the atmosphere of his minimalist world-building was incredibly realized.
I guess I should catch up with “Andor” since everybody is raving about it. I just can’t fathom, after LucasFilm got butchered by Disney, a Star Wars show being that watchable, but people I trust seem to have really taken a liking to it. I haven’t even caught up yet with “The Mandalorian.”
Also, is it just me or is Bill Hader turning into this ultra-talented filmmaker? Some of the shots he creates in “Barry” are so absurdly impressive — especially the action sequences. The guy know how to build up taut, tense and terrific setups.
Best of 2022: The White Lotus, Severance, The Bear, Better Call Saul, Barry, The Rehearsal and Season 3 of Atlanta, NOT the disappointing fourth season which almost destroyed that show’s legacy (although that didn’t stop Rolling Stone from puzzlingly naming it the 9th greatest show of all-time much earlier in the year).