Annual Best TV of 2022 List: Honorable Mentions

Adventure Beast (Netflix)-I tuned into this show expecting edu-tainment in the vein of Magic School Bus or Carmen Sandiego, but did not expect such an absurdist R-rated delight. One way that animation can surpass live action comedically is that blood and gore can be used without the squick factor. This is Adventure Beast's bread and butter. The show centers around a kooky zoologist (based autobiographically on star voice over actor Bradley Trevor Greive) who's such an enthusiastic nature lover, that he repeatedly lets himself be mauled in all sorts of entertaining ways just to protect them. Joining him are two sidekicks who couldn't be any more different: Hypochondriac Dietrich and foolhardy Bonnie. Each episode is a different part of the world, a different biome to learn about, and a different close brush with death. 

Cobra Kai (Netflix)-Season 4 was a master class in story logistics and character plotting. Considering this is all based on 80s cheesiness, I was blindsided by how well the show developed so many character arcs and collided them in such ass-kicking combinations. With the richness of Tori and even Hawk, there’s now enough space  in our empathy to root for entirely new and unexpected people to champion in the sport of karate (except Robby: He’s a snooze-fest). Of course, the trauma that define our favorite characters arcs is largely at the expense of different characters who happen to also be our favorite, so it’s a bit of a circular cluster-f*ck at this point. Season 5 showed some pretty strong signs of how the momentum is slowing down with characters so archetypically evil as to be cartoonish. Season 4 was perfect, but factoring in the disappointment of the 5^th season, this falls into honorable mention territory.

Derry Girls (BBC4 -> Netflix)-The seven-episode arc of the show’s final season sees our central quintet continue to work themselves over various minor crises while displaying significant growth in spite of that teenage shallowness. In one of the best episodes of the series, the older generation shows they can be just as prone to Murphy’s law and handle their dilemnas with equal pettiness at a class reunion. Also, newsflash: Two characters kiss (one of them is James and considering the group consists of his cousin, a girl who might be mentally disabled, and a Lesbian, you can guess who)! But, no matter, Michelle wisely intercedes that it would be horrific to have to deal with a short-lived romance, so they wait. Well-played, Michelle! And well-played Lisa McGee and crew for such a wonderful regionally specific show (you almost need subtitles to understand their Irish brogues).

Dicktown (FX)-John Hodgeman and David Rees pitched this show with the concept "What if Encyclopedia Brown never adulted as he grew up?" As the two central characters, John and David are a pair of 40ish detectives who aren't taken seriously by anyone except high schoolers. It would be sad if David weren't self-deluded into thinking his life is going well, and John wasn't so good at what he does. The second season offers some upward progress for the pair, so that's a plus.

Dropout (Hulu)-The limited series docudrama covers the true story of Stanford dropout Elizabeth Holmes who invented a way to diagnose multiple diseases through blood or something like that, and then cut corner after corner to the point where she went from wide-eyed dreamer to over-stressed manager to someone who could unequivocally be classified as the bad guy. Played by Amanda Seyfried in a new career high water mark, Holmes is a figure we can never quite seem to pick apart as she’s not even honest with herself about her transforming personality. The show also has an excellent co-villain in Naveen Andrews as Elizabeth’s subtly threatening lover, and a wonderful All the Presidents’ Men angle with two sleuthing interns  (Dylan Minnette and Camryn Mi-young Kim) coming from contrasting ends of privilege.

 

Marvelous Mrs Maisel (Amazon)-Perhaps, “Marvelous” should be replaced with “Plucky” because Miriam continues to get sidelined but she never stays down for very long. Still, with only one season left, it’s a pretty long road to comic immortality. I’m getting the feel that career advancement in comedy for women or anyone in the 1950s was not a linear progression, which is a pretty good recipe for future tension. This season had two of the show’s best scenes: Miriam breaking the news to her family that she got fired on a Coney Island ferris wheel ride, and the congregation ganging up on Abe during a bar-mitzvah.

 

Reboot (Hulu)-Shows about show business are a tired trope from unimaginative writers, but occasionally something pops through that’s worth fighting against that bias. Created by Steve Levitan (Just Shoot Me, and more recently Modern Family), this show contains some of the more wholesome relics of old-school sitcoms while still maintaining a sharp subversiveness. Three has-been actors (Johnny Knoxville, Judy Greer, and Callum Worthy) and one classically-trained has-been in denial (Keegan Michael-Key) are recruited to revive a multi-camera (AKA old-school, laugh-track) sitcom in a comedic landscape of more advanced comedy. To make matters more complicated, the new executive producer is an avant-garde (Rachel Bloom) who’s only doing the show to get back at her father (Paul Riser) who sorta kinda abandoned her as a child and he refuses to relinquish the rights without getting involved in the day-to-day trappings. Like Levitan’s previous hit, Just Shoot Me, this is a sharp comedy centered around a (forgive me for using such a gooey word) beautiful father-daughter relation.

Resort (Peacock)-Sit in the Mexican tropics, a married couple (Christine Milioti and William Jackson Harper) attempts to cure their rut by taking on a 15-year-old mystery of two teenagers who disappeared on a dark and stormy night (cliché as that sounds). The pair join forces with a kooky local heir who fancies himself a film noir detective. With one of TV’s best sidekicks in tow, the journey of this jaded couple is intercut with the pair of love-drunk teenagers (Skyler Gismodo and Nina Bloomgarten). Filled with needle drops and time jumps upon time jumps, the show is ambitious and even effortlessly shifts genres into the supernatural as it picks up steam.

Shantaram (Apple TV)-Charlie Hunnam stars as an escaped Australian convict who gets caught up in the criminal underworld of Bombay. Only he can’t make a very good criminal because he seems too morally upright. In fact, he got in prison in the first place because he stopped mid-robbery to attempt triage on a cop trying to stop him. Lin’s story to find of finding redemption and do good in a lawless society echoes the narrative arcs of Buddha and Jesus. The symbolism is a bit more obvious when you consider that the title of the series takes its name from what the Hindu villagers give him: "Man of God's peace." But if this is an elaborate religious allegory, it’s a very gritty and sexy one.  Although it was shot in Thailand during COVID, the film is at the production level of a David Lean epic. 

True Story with Ed and Randall (Peacock)-Ed Helms and Randall Park host people with cool stories. They range from the kind of anecdotes that would get picked up by a local paper (One person crashes the Super Bowl locker room), to the personally meaningful (a guy wins a high school state championship in a sport he never tried before to impress his crush), to the bizarre (a man getting caught stopped by the same traffic cop three times in one night in a mad dash effort to satisfy his pregnant wife’s craving). Each story is acted out by known talents like Terry Crews, Marc Evan Jackson, Sharon Woodard, and Lauren Ash that intercut with the storytelling. In addition, Ed and Randall compliment the ordinary Joe storytellers perfectly as enrapt listeners who share in their delight and probe with the right questions. When it comes to unscripted TV, the art is in how you present the material, and this show is a master course.

 

 

Best TV Ensembles of 2022

 I contributed a couple entries to this TV Fanatic crowd-sourced article about best ensembles on TV.

My top pick: Reboot (Hulu)

Reboot is about the coexistence of different generations of artists. In that vein, who could be better epitomize that clash than Paul Reiser and Rachel Bloom as an estranged father and daughter entrusted with co-running a sitcom?

Reiser is an old-school 90s sitcom star with a comic delivery that borrows a little from Borscht Belt comedy. Rachel Bloom made her way to TV fame as the star and co-creator of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend via YouTube stardom that turned musical theater conventions on their head.

The pair is complemented by a writing room that echoes Bloom’s Gen Z approach to artistic merit with Riser’s Borscht Belt big laughs approach, and the combination is hilarious.

Meanwhile on the show’s set, Keegan-Michael Key, Judy Greer, Johnny Knoxville (who thought of that casting choice?), and Calum Worthy play a quartet of has-been actors who form a found family with healthy doses of comedy and heart.

Other picks:
Ghosts (CBS): The eight actors who play the ghosts weren’t particularly hot on casting lists before this show. In an ideal world, they should be now. Each member of the octet provides such pitch-perfect character beats to create this great whirlwind of humor. It’s like your favorite comedic duo expanded by six with the rat-a-tat banter still operating like clockwork. Of course, credit goes to Sam (Rose McIver) and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) for bringing the heart and grounding the plots. (I also wrote about Ghosts here)

Star Trek Picard (Paramount Plus): Alison Pill, Michelle Hurd, and Santiago Cabrera bring a sense of visceral edge that I’ve never seen in Star Trek before. Pill’s displays an antsy-ness at being in space that seems pretty logical for most humans, but somehow Star Trek has never shown that side of the 24th century populance before. It makes sense: Star Trek: The Next Generation was designed to appeal to a broad audience in the 1980s so the actors weren’t aiming for high drama, but when the TNG cast is introduced they also are up to that higher bar.

Yellowjackets (Showtime): The show centers around a plane crash involving a teenage soccer in the 90s, and the way the survivors are traumatized all the way through their adulthoods. How fitting that the show cast three of the most promising ingenues of the 90s as the roles of the four main survivors: Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis. All three have long been underrated actresses and deserve to be attached to one of the hit shows on television. But that’s half the battle: The show also succeeds in casting matching teenage versions of these characters with all their drama.

Winning Time (HBO)-When you have two Oscar winners in your cast (Adrien Brody and Sally Field) and neither of them are central characters, then you’ve got a pretty deep talent pool. This docudrama about the Lakers 1980 championship features John C. Reilly in one of the most complex roles of his storied career as larger-than-life team owner Jerry Buss. Quincy Isaiah shines here in his first screen credit playing Magic Johnson as a bright-eyed superstar that’s still in the incubation phase. His main rival for the starting position is Norm Nixon played with swagger by the real-life figure’s son, DeVaughn. Surrounding them are a murderer’s row of character actors in Jerry West, Hadley Robinson, Jason Segel (did not see that coming), Tracey Letts, and the aforementioned Brody alongside Field who makes a strong impression with little screen time.

Ramy (Hulu): Ramy Yousef just plays a less self-assured version of himself, but there’s so much idiosyncrasy in the characters around him that this show deserves a place. Watching this show and not knowing the names of all the actors is a good reminder of the scarcity of Middle-Eastern actors with name recognition. Ramy’s parents are played by Amr Waked (Syriana, Salmon Fishing in Yemen) and Hiam Abbass (The Visitor) who have both done enough good work to be names among more astute American audiences, but everyone on this show deserves a brighter future. It also helps that the show format gives characters like Dena (May Calamaway), Uncle Naseem (Laith Nakli), and Ahmed (Dave Marheje) an episode in the spotlight or two.

The White Lotus (HBO)-This one is going to pop up on a lot of my lists because you can't make a TV series that works on so many layers without doing so many things right. This show has Lost/Arrested Development levels of Easter Egg placement and you better believe that the actors are in on the intricacies of each character. The show's brightest star is Emmy-winner Jennifer Coolidge but deserves a lot of credit for finding a new tone of deadpan for Aubrey Plaza, and making spaces for the largely unknown-to-American-audiences Italian newbies.

Top Ten Character Arcs in TV in 2022

 

10 Best Character Arcs on TV in 2022

I contributed a number of entries to TV Fanatic where I am currently writing:

Tori Nichols (Peyton List) Cobra Kai, Netflix-Tori caught the audience’s attention the first day when she walks into Cobra Kai and challenges anyone in her way to a battle royale. In 2002, she became a capable anti-hero that provides a welcome counterpart to Samantha’s privilege. Although we expected to cheer an eventual Samantha win at the tournament this year, it felt unexpectedly right to see Tori triumph at the end of the day (Even if there was a technicality involved).

Gordon (Paul Reiser), Reboot (Hulu): The best thing about Gordon is that he isn’t that much different from where he was at the start of the season. He makes insensitive jokes and doesn’t appear to have changed his ideas of what’s funny or what isn’t. But, he has formed a genuine relationship with his daughter and a genuine appreciation of the people he works with. With that, every insensitive joke he makes has a little more good intent behind it.

Al (Adhir Kalyan), United States of Al (CBS)-South Asian characters on TV are typically either ambassadors of cool (the personas of Kumail Nanjiani or Utkarsh Ambudkar) or sheltered nerds. Adhir Kalyan first became known through the 2007 TV series Aliens in America as an exchange student who was doomed to high school nerdom the moment he entered the school in his traditional South Asian garment. Most of Kalyan’s roles have been like that, but Al is a wonderful exception as he has started to change and (more importantly) assimilate to the better opportunities of his culture. He even gets a make-out buddy (Jayma Mays) and squares things better with his non-traditional love interest (Azita Ghanizada).

If I were to round out the list to a clean top 10, I would say:
Craig (Craig Robinson), Killing It (Peacock:) Learning to stop chasing some bourgeoisie vision of success is empowering (If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t be writing these words). And learning to appreciate a good person (Claudia O’Doherty) for her faults and strengths takes a lot of growth as well.

Eli “Hawk” Moskowitz: (Jacob Bertrand), Cobra Kai (Netflix): It’s not just Tori that was a tournament winner that no one predicted. It’s also an ending we didn’t know we wanted until it happened.

Emma (Cristin Milioti), The Resort (Peacock): A determinator of a character, nothing will stop Emma from finding out what happened to these two random strangers 15 years ago. But she learns about herself and her marriage in the process. Sort of like that hackneyed “the treasure was friendship all along” trope, but tonally the show managed to work out Emma’s arc.

John Hunchman (John Hodgeman), Dicktown (FX): The stunted Encyclopedia Brown John Hunchman finally earns an iota of self-respect when he solves a 20-year-old high school case. The second season of Dicktown was more serialized than the first and it worked y to John’s favor.

D’Arcy Bloom (Alice Wetterlund), Resident Alien (SyFy): The idea of watching a Winter Olympian try to retain her former glory is always an interesting arc. It’s also a great anti-ship: Her relationship with Elliott didn’t work because she’s not there yet, but her efforts towards intimacy count for their own sake. It’s also unclear if a Season 1 version of D’Arcy would have apologized to Kate.

Portia (Haley Lu Richardson), The White Lotus (HBO): A lot of fellow fans of this show saw Portia as suffering from some sort of character defect for rejecting the vanilla Albie in favor of the bad boy. But, come on, she needed to go over to the dark side a little before valuing him properly. And what a wild episode it was: Surely more than the ennui-laden zoomer wished for when she wanted to feel alive.

George Shultz (Sam Waterson), Dropout (Hulu): Having unfortunately lived in the US during the last six years, it’s easy to see how evil is perpetuated by powerful people not wanting to admit they’re wrong. I’m not familiar enough with the real-life story of Elizabeth Holmes to know what George Shultz actually did but the idea of him is nice and we need to know more. And he’s pretty damn effective in Sam Waterson’s hands

Review of Reboot (Hulu)

 

I generally dismiss shows about show business as a tired trope from unimaginative writers, but occasionally something pops through that’s worth fighting against that bias. Created by Steve Levitan (Just Shoot Me, and more recently Modern Family), this show contains some of the more wholesome relics of old-school sitcoms while still maintaining a sharp subversiveness.

The doozy of a plot is as follows: Three has-been actors (Johnny Knoxville, Judy Greer, and Worthy) and one classically-trained has-been in denial (Keegan Michael-Key) are recruited to revive a multi-camera (AKA old-school, laugh-track) sitcom in a comedic landscape of more advanced comedy. This wouldn’t be unusual as tons of 90s schlock is being rebooted, but in this case it’s a little of an in-universe head scratcher as the proposed TV executive, Hannah (Rachel Bloom from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), has pretentious high-art tastes. Secretly, however, Hannah is doing the show because her estranged dad, Gordon (Paul Riser), is the creator and she wants to ruin his legacy. Her daddy issues reemerge when Gordon appears back on set and has decided not to surrender the intellectual property so these two knuckleheads have to now work together.

They also have competing writing rooms: Old Borscht Belt comedians verses the kinds of LGBT and POC headliners who often populate hotlists merely because they are gay or a person of color (this is demonstrated by two women of color pitching a joke about two women discussing the Bechtel test but having nothing funny in the punch line). The show is an equal opportunity skewer (or is the word skewerer?) and the comedic tension of these eight secondary characters has the potential to give me about as much hope for intergenerational friendship as this polarized age can provide.

Like Levitan’s previous hit, Just Shoot Me, this is a sharp comedy with very shallow back-stabbing characters with the emotional heft of a (forgive me for using such a gooey word) beautiful father-daughter relationship.