The best TV shows of 2022 you need to see

Contains light spoilers.

For many of us, that period between Christmas and New Years is a weird time. You're often off work, or else work isn't asking a lot of you. (The exception to this rule, obviously, being people in the service industry — our thoughts and prayers are with you.) You can find yourself with a lot of time on your hands between Dec. 26-30.

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Which seems like the perfect time to catch up on all the excellent television you missed this year. Because what else are you gonna do? Go outside? Have you looked outside? It's freezing out there. Watch the World Junior Hockey Championships? Why? We're the only country who cares about this tournament. It's absolutely a made-up thing. Spend time with your family? Are you not sick of these people by Boxing Day?

No. What you're going to do is grab some snacks and binge watch 12-plus hours of television a day, like a normal person.

The Afterparty

The show opens like a classic whodunnit. A bunch of old friends have gathered for their high school reunion, and the most famous graduate of the Class of 2006 — a Bieber Lite pop star name named Xavier (Dave Franco) — has invited everyone back to his place for the titular afterparty. Xavier's not much of a host, however: the dude winds up dead. And suddenly, everyone's a murder suspect — with their own unique version of events. Millennial Miss Marple? Sort of. But The Afterparty quickly becomes something way more clever.

I pressed play on this Apple TV+ series expecting the laughs to be as stacked as the cast. You've got Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip) and John Early (Search Party) playing the detectives on the scene, plus party guests including Ilana Glazer (Broad City), Sam Richardson (Detroiters), Ben Schwartz (Parks and Recreation) — and more comedy stars than I could name without blowing past my word count. The Afterparty's got gags, for sure — and showrunner Christopher Miller (Clone High, The Lego Movie) reportedly left the cast plenty of room to improvise — but the show's less about the LOLs than it is about the storytelling, and its format is more audacious than anything I saw this year.

Each episode plays out like a different Hollywood genre with a blockbuster budget to match. There's an action caper straight out of the Fast and Furious franchise; a pop musical (with songs written by some of the folks behind Crazy Ex-Girlfriend); a rom-com and even an animated feature. How do you crack a case when everyone has Main Character Energy? It's a premise that made The Afterparty one of my favourite new series of 2022, and a fresh mystery is on deck for next year with Haddish returning as Detective Tanner. Watch The Afterparty now on Apple TV+.

- Leah Collins, senior writer, CBC Arts

Atlanta

After leaving two calendar years between Seasons 1 and 2, and four between Seasons 2 and 3 — although the pandemic had something to do with that — Donald Glover and Hiro Murai decided to drop the final two seasons of their surrealist hip-hop dramedy Atlanta in one calendar year. 

I'm not going to say that they were two seasons of equal quality. 

Season 3 was, if we're being honest, more of a mixed bag. The season's premise — taking the crew out of Atlanta while Paper Boi, a.k.a. Al (Bryan Tyree Henry), goes on his first European tour — was fundamentally solid. The change of scenery produced some excellent moments: Earn (Glover), Darius (Lakeith Stanfield), and Al confront the, frankly, racist Dutch Christmas tradition of Zwarte Piet; Dairus watches a London neighbourhood get gentrified at warp speed; there are a surprisingly high number of ghosts. Unfortunately, it was marred by having four of the season's 10 episodes be stand-alone "capsule" episodes. Glover and Murai's casting of intentionally inflammatory stunt cameos (Chet Hanks, Kevin Samuels, Liam Neeson) also didn't help. 

That said, Season 4 was absolutely Atlanta at its finest, with incisive commentary on race, class, and the politics of the music industry mixed with moments of straight-up absurdity. Darius attempting to return an air fryer to a Target that is actively being looted feels like a commentary on just trying to be a human being in 2022, doing your best in a world where nobody seems to give a shit anymore. Earn setting out to become D'Angelo's manager, only to discover that D'Angelo doesn't really exist, is one of the series' strangest, and therefore best, moments. 

Still, Season 3's highs outweigh its lows, and if you take the two seasons as one unit, Atlanta was still one of the year's best shows. Watch Atlanta now on Disney+.

- Chris Dart, web writer, CBC Arts

Fakes

This fourth-wall breaking teen-crime caper is probably the best scripted show the CBC produced this year, other than the second season of Sort Of, but somehow we totally forgot to tell anyone that it exists. (Presumably we were too busy promoting Season 18,000 of Heartland or whatever. We get it. There's horses.) But we're fixing that now.

The premise is this: an Odd Couple of high school besties — rich party girl Becca (Jennifer Tong) and anxiety-ridden high achiever Zoe (Emilija Baranac) — find themselves on top of fake I.D. empire with help and/or threats from sketchy older dude Tryst (Richard Harmon). The show starts with the pair getting hit with a police raid, so we already know how this is going to end. The show is about what happens in between. And it turns out that Zoe and Becca — unreliable narrators both — have VERY different interpretations of what went down. 

Fakes is fast-moving, not at all subtle, imminently bingeable and a metric heap of fun. CBC needs to make more shows like this. Watch Fakes now on CBC Gem.

- Chris Dart, web writer, CBC Arts

The Legend of Vox Machina

Based on a 2015-2017 Dungeons & Dragon campaign from the folks at Critical Role, The Legend of Vox Machina is a testament to what a supportive fandom can do. What started out as a Kickstarter with a goal of $750,000 for a special led to $11 million dollars raised and a 12-episode season, with a second on the horizon and a third just recently announced at New York Comic Con in October.

Who knew there was such an appetite for the expansive storytelling that can come from playing D&D?

But forget all that. You don't need to know about D&D to enjoy this show. Nor do you need to know that it's based on the first campaign of the popular streaming show Critical Role where a "bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons" — their words, not mine. It's high fantasy told through stunning animation, topnotch voice work, detailed character and world-building, a healthy dose of profanity, and at least one shot of a gnome's taint.

On a personal note, the show turned 2022 into the year of D&D for me, having sent me bingeing 500+ hours of their second campaign on their YouTube channel, which I hope sparks a spinoff series. Plus, I finally rolled my own dice and started playing the popular tabletop roleplaying game. Ashamed it took me this long. Watch The Legend of Vox Machina now on Amazon Prime Video.

- Michelle Villagracia, producer, CBC Arts/CBC Life

Our Flag Means Death

Created by David Jenkins (People of Earth), Our Flag Means Death stars Rhys Darby (Flight of the Conchords) as Captain Stede Bonnet, a "gentleman pirate" who leaves his comfortable sitch as a Barbadian landowner for a life on the high seas. His ship, the Revenge, comes equipped with a lending library and a packed walk-in closet. In short, Bonnet's hardly born for swashbuckling, and comedy obviously ensues — with some of the series' most winning early moments hinging on his soft-boi attitudes toward employee management. (See Episode 1's flag-design contest.) 

Like other shows executive produced by Taika Waititi — I'm chiefly thinking of What We Do in the Shadows, whose Season 4 deserves an honourable mention on this list — Our Flag Means Death begins as a charmingly silly comedy that's stuffed with guest-star cameos. Things change course by Episode 4, however — slightly, albeit significantly — when the dread pirate Blackbeard (Waititi) comes aboard the Revenge. A tentative friendship begins between Blackbeard and Bonnet, a relationship that grows into one of the sweetest onscreen romances of the year. (The vocal fandom that's sprung up around the show would agree, at any rate.)

There's a tender quality to so many of the relationships on the series — particularly supporting characters Oluwande (Samson Kayo) and Jim (Vico Ortiz) and even eventually Bonnet and Mary (Claudia O'Doherty), the wife he ditched in Barbados. It's a detail that grounds the action, and yet, the show remains absurdly hilarious — as any comedy about pirates really should be. Watch Our Flag Means Death now on Crave.

-Leah Collins, senior writer, CBC Arts

Severance

The concept of Severance is elegantly simple: in this world, office workers can undergo a surgical procedure to split their consciousness in half between their work and personal lives. Their work-selves have absolutely no memory of what happens outside their office building, and vice versa. It's work-life balance taken to the max. 

There's twists, turns, and endless mysteries to uncover about Lumon Industries, the shadowy company at the centre of it all — not to mention a stupidly entertaining final episode that feels like a 40-minute long rollercoaster drop. But all of this just wouldn't work without some seriously incredible acting talent, and thankfully this show is overflowing with it. 

Adam Scott helms the series as nuanced office worker Mark Scout, and Patricia Arquette takes a turn as the tightly-wound manager and main antagonist, Ms. Cobel. Christopher Walken, John Turturro, Zach Cherry and Britt Lower all fill out the cast in equally captivating supporting roles. 

The show-stopping cast, combined with the intricate writing and unique story-world, make this series a massively bingeable viewing experience, and one that greatly rewards repeat viewings. (Trust me, I've seen it three times now.) Watch Severance now on Apple TV+.

- Tiffany Wice, associate producer, CBC Creator Network

Shoresy

Look, if you had asked me 12 months ago which Letterkenny characters I'd most like to see star in their own spinoff, Shoresy (series creator Jared Keeso, who also plays Wayne) would have been near the bottom of the list. (The three spinoffs I'd most like to see, obviously, are as follows: a) Tanis runs for chief, b) Glenn and My Tattered Journal get picked to play Cornerstone, the Christian Coachella, and c) the McMurrays have a joint profile on Feeld. Because you know they do.)

I was wrong. I admit that. Shoresy, who was sort of a one-note joke on Letterkenny — foul-mouthed hockey player who chirps obscene and oddly specific insults at his opponents and teammates — became a fully fleshed-out, nuanced, dare-I-say loveable character with a deep backstory and complex motivations. And all that without losing the brawling and cursing Letterkenny is known for.

In the series, Shoresy assembles a Suicide Squad of NHL washouts and local tough guys in an attempt to save a struggling minor pro hockey team, the Sudbury Blueberry Bulldogs. Several real-life ex-hockey players have roles in the show, including hockey player-turned-rapper Jonathan Diaby — playing a fictionalized version of himself — and former Danbury Trasher Jon Mirasty. (The Danbury Trashers are one of the weirdest stories in sports history. Google them now.)

I have never been so happy to be wrong about something as I was about Shoresy. It is up there with the best seasons of Letterkenny, which is up there with the best television comedy this country, or possibly any country has ever produced. Watch Shoresy now on Crave.

- Chris Dart, web writer, CBC Arts

Snowfall

If you're not familiar, Snowfall is (very, very) loosely based on the story of California drug kingpin "Freeway" Rick Ross, who got very cheap, very pure cocaine from CIA-affiliated sources in the 1980s. Those sources then used their cocaine profits to fund anti-Communist counterrevolutionary guerillas in Central America. 

By Season 5 of the show, Ross stand-in Franklin Saint (Damson Idris) should be on top of the world: he's about to be a father and he's halfway to going legit after investing his dope money into Los Angeles' booming real estate market. He's achieved wealth beyond his wildest dreams and moved far away from his South Central neighbourhood. Which is good, because crack has hit that neighbourhood REAL hard. Unfortunately, his drug organization — once a close-knit network of friends and family — has become increasingly fractured and filled with infighting. When Teddy (Carter Hudson), his increasingly-tightly-wound former CIA plug comes back into the picture, the deck of cards that is Franklin's life gets even more unstable.

To be honest, I'm not sure why Snowfall isn't more of a pop cultural phenomenon. "What if The Wire was also The Americans?" sounds like the sort of show TV critics and prestige TV dorks would love. It should be, at minimum, Breaking Bad-level big. That it's not is an absolute shame. The sixth and final season drops in 2023, so take this holiday season to get caught up, because the Saint Family is much, much more interesting than yours. Watch Snowfall now on Disney+.

- Chris Dart, web writer, CBC Arts

Sort Of

In an endless sea of streaming options to choose from, Sort Of is a rare and beautiful gem.

Co-creator Bilal Baig stars in the show as Sabi, a South Asian gender-fluid millennial living and working in Toronto. But rather than focusing solely on trans trauma, Sort Of revels in displaying trans joy. It's not often that mainstream audiences get to see not only a racialized, queer, non-binary person play the lead in a TV series, but to also watch that character simply navigating through everyday life has been refreshing. The show explores the complexities of so many different kinds of relationships — romantic, platonic, familial — through a uniquely intersectional experience.

Without giving away any spoilers, I will say that the story arcs from this year's second season have resonated with me so deeply that I feel like they could have been lifted from my own life. As a queer, trans, non-binary, racialized person myself, witnessing this specific perspective represented in Canadian media has been such an important moment for me. Because, perhaps for the first time in my life, I have felt truly seen and heard — and I think that's pretty damn special. Watch Sort Of now on CBC Gem.

- Chelle Turingan, video producer, CBC Unscripted

Three Pines

Three Pines is a Canadian detective show with a British lead and very British detective show vibes, on an American streaming service. Sometimes globalization isn't all bad. 

Based on the series of novels by Louise Penny, Three Pines follows Sûreté du Québec Chief Inspector Armand Ganache (Alfred Molina) as he and his band of misfit cops solve murders in the fictional Eastern Townships town of Three Pines. Like Midsomer County in Midsomer Muders and Father Brown's Kembleford, the seemingly bucolic, picturesque town seems to have a per-capita homicide rate on par with that of Ciudad Juarez. The good people of Three Pines just cannot stop killing each other, often in inventive ways. (The first episode involves an improvised electric chair at a curling match.) 

While investigating the homicide of the week, Ganache and company are also investigating the disappearance of Blue Two-Rivers (Anna Lambe), an Indigenous teen who's gone missing from a neighbouring reserve. Blue has been written off as a runaway by the rest of law enforcement. 

If you are someone who has a Britbox subscription because you can't get enough 90-ish minute murder mysteries set in weird small towns, I cannot recommend Three Pines hard enough. Watch Three Pines on Amazon Prime Video.

- Chris Dart, web writer, CBC Arts

We Own This City

In the words of Mark Twain and Bad Religion's Greg Graffin, "truth is stranger than fiction." In 2022, no show embodied that more than We Own This City, the dramatization of the jaw-dropping story of the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force. 

In the late '00s and early 2010s, the Gun Trace Task Force was repeatedly praised by city officials for doing the tough work of getting guns off the streets of one of America's most violent cities. Unfortunately, the Task Force was actually operating as a criminal conspiracy in its own right: robbing and brutalizing suspects, planting evidence, selling seized drugs, and in one case, killing an innocent bystander during a high-speed chase, all while defrauding the city out of hundreds of thousands of dollars of overtime.

We Own This City was created by David Simon and George Pelecanos of The Wire fame, so you know the writing is immaculate — but what really makes this show incredible are the portrayals of Task Force leader Sgt. Wayne Jenkins (Jon Bernthal) and his right hand man Det. Momodu Gondo (McKinley Belcher III). The pair are amazingly convincing as products of a system so profoundly broken, they don't even think they're doing anything that bad.

Like The Wire, this show pulls no punches and is frequently merciless, but it's also riveting. Once you start watching it, you won't be able to stop, and you'll have to keep reminding yourself that this really happened. Watch We Own This City now on Crave.

- Chris Dart, web writer, CBC Arts

The White Lotus

Every HBO Sunday, I am invited into the world of The White Lotus by a titillating chorus of strings, followed by the perfect Eurotrash beat drop. It makes me want nothing more than to fly to Sicily and dance with death in the suffocating care of White Lotus Enterprises. It's a theme song that exudes sex, hijinks, and history. 

This season magnified the 95 ways machismo fails women, the Sicilian locals, men themselves, and worst of all, Laura Dern (see Episode 1). As we follow the DiGrasso men, three generations of an Italian-American family searching for their roots — grandfather Bert (Murray F. Abraham), son Dominic (Michael Imperioli), and grandson Albie (Adam DiMarco) — we get to see three different versions of said failure play out in real time.

Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge) is the sole main character to carry over from Season 1. "Whenever I stay at a White Lotus, I always have a memorable time — always," she says upon arrival, accompanied by her sketchy husband Greg (Jon Gries) and her microtrend-laden assistant Portia,who is apparently not played by Zoey Deutch. (It's actually Hayley Lu Richardson.) This vacation will be no exception for sweet Tanya, as she learns that gay men will not be excluded from this season's examination of toxic masculinity: gay men's alliance and shared experiences with cis women allow them to dance on either side of feminism and misogyny, and in the case of Tanya and her sudden new BFF Quentin (Tom Hollander), it's a dance with very high stakes. 

Meanwhile, Cameron (a.k.a. Theo James from Divergent) and Daphne (Megan Fahy, the blonde woman from The Bold Type) engage in some sort of backwards relationship anarchy while Harper (Aubrey Plaza) and her nouveau riche boy-husband (Will Sharpe) try to keep their boring marriage above the corpse-ridden turquoise waters of Sicily. Their double dates catered with paranoia, homoerotic tension, gaudy outfits from the resort gift shop, tone-deaf political chit-chat, and Aperol Spritzes galore. 

The White Lotus continues to give me heart palpitations in its sophomore season and that's all I care about. I demand to be blindsided and captured – taken to faraway places, each more dangerous and sexy than the last. The White Lotus has proven it will steal you away every time and maybe even kill you. Watch The White Lotus now on Crave.

- Shuli Grosman-Gray, associate producer, CBC Arts/CBC Q