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Published : 29 Dec 2022, 08:06 PM
2022 was another great year for television around the world, but the broad spectrum of shows, channels, and streaming services has made it hard to keep up.
Here are the Stripe Team’s favourite TV series from this year, both new and ongoing.
House of the Dragon
Three whole years after the cataclysmic end of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon landed with a bang and restored faith in the franchise.
Adapted from George RR Martin’s book Fire and Blood, the new series follows rival factions of the Targaryen dynasty as they plunge Westeros into the civil war known as The Dance of the Dragons.
Though it has only run one season so far, the result has been a thrilling show that delves into much greater ambiguity than its predecessor. It starts strong and grows in confidence as it goes along, with stellar performances, spectacular dragons, court intrigue and unpredictable storylines. After the debacle of Game of Thrones’s ending, House of the Dragon is one of the biggest and best surprises of the year.
- Yashfinul Haque
Big Mouth
Big Mouth follows the trials and tribulations of teen boys Andrew Glouberman and Nick Birch as they struggle through the strange transformations and out-of-control emotions of puberty alongside their friends and classmates. Despite the edgy, gross-out humour and fantastical characters like Maury the Hormone Monster, Tito the Anxiety, and Kitty Beaumont Bouchet the Depression Kitty, the series grounds its characters and its audiences with hard-hitting facts about reality.
Drawing on the awkward experiences of co-creator Nick Kroll and his childhood best friend Andrew Goldberg, the show ploughs through embarrassing stories that each seem as to have a kernel of truth. The show covers a lot of ground - parental pressure, racial stigma, confusion with personal identity, gender and sexuality, and shattered families - but stays funny, even as it depicts the uncomfortable truth of adolescence. It's likely that laughs from older viewers will be shot through with the sting of familiarity.
- Puja Sarkar
The Sandman
At a time when honest comic book adaptations are nearly dead, Neil Gaiman’s unapologetic adaptation of his greatest creation is rejuvenating.
Though small changes were made to make the show clear and palatable to a wider audience, The Sandman is largely faithful to the enchanting tale that unfolded 34 years ago on the comic page.
The dark, twisted, and captivating story follows Dream of the Endless, an immortal being who is forced into captivity for a century and must regain his power in a world of magic, demons, and gods. Though the plot may seem a bit familiar, the telling is anything but as The Sandman moves through a vast cast of compelling characters, varied tones, and ideas over its first season.
The decent acting, emotional score, and striking cinematography add to the feeling of a dark lucid dream. Though the second half of the show dips a bit, it still makes a strong foundation for the vast potential of the epic to come.
- Arnob Khan
Andor
1977’s Star Wars has three good things – the grand, mythical story, the operatic score, and the lived-in tactility of its setting. Andor is the first live-action Star Wars to truly care about that last point.
The boots-on-the-ground political thriller follows Cassian Andor, a thief whose luck runs low at the exact moment he draws the attention of a brutal Empire. To survive, he must join with the first sparks of a Rebellion looking to take the fight to the fascist regime.
The show has no right to be any good. It’s a realpolitik spy show set in Star Wars, for Pete’s sake! But the series helmed by Tony Gilroy (the Bourne movies, Michael Clayton) isn’t about galactic heroes, it’s about the people who die in the background as the heroes make their daring escape and why they fight. It’s The People’s History of a Galaxy Far, Far Away.
This means the stakes, though small, have never been higher. Fighting a fascist regime isn’t easy, and no one gets away clean.
Andor takes its time, but by the end of its first season, it felt like the best thing to happen to Star Wars in 40 years.
- Shoumik Hassin
Twenty-Five Twenty-One
Asian rom-coms are often full of the sweetness of young love, stories of success, and sometimes, the miraculous achievement of the protagonist’s wildest dreams. But Twenty-Five Twenty-One, named after a 2013 hit song by Jaurim, is different.
Na Hee Do (Kim Tae-ri) has a dream - to face the world-class fencer Ko Yu Rim. She desperately tries to get into the fencing team and nurture her passion. Along the way she meets Baek Yi Jin (Nam Joo-hyuk) who’s trying to support his bankrupt family and become a journalist for a renowned news channel.
Not only does the series show the growing emotional connections between the two, it also depicts the warmth of friendship, the importance of family, and perhaps most importantly, the triumph of achieving something after hard work.
- Raiyaan Tabassum Imita
Wednesday
Tim Burton’s reimagining of The Addams Family for the YA generation is among 2022’s most popular shows, and for good reason. Jenna Ortega is dark and delightful as the titular Wednesday Addams, living up to her shadiest and wittiest instincts. She is borderline selfish at times and it makes her character arc throughout the series, where her stoicism chafes against the bubbly Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers), very satisfying.
If there’s one complaint, it’s that the macabre ghouls of the old TV show and cartoons don’t get to be as lovably freakish. The Addams’s satirical take on the post-WWII American nuclear family is not as biting in the Netflix show because these supposed outcasts have spaces where they can be themselves without running afoul of higher authorities or wider society. Maybe next season Wednesday can have more adventures that take the main cast outside their usual haunts.
- Puja Sarkar
The White Lotus
A good mini-series often succeeds because it makes proper use of its time. They are made to be brief, so very few can maintain their quality for another season. Surprisingly, The White Lotus manages to pull off an excellent second season by taking things in a distinctly different direction.
Once again, the series follows a group of wealthy people who congregate at an extravagant resort, this time in Italy. But while the first season was the pinnacle of sharp, black humour, the second is more of a mystery drama with a focus on character development.
Showrunner Mike White weaves the characters together skilfully, exposing their idiocies and weaknesses with a touch of comedy while laying the groundwork for the catastrophes they walk into unawares. His star-studded cast excels at bringing the tension and conflicts of lust, love, and morality alive while the spine-chilling soundtrack and the apt use of symbolism bring an undercurrent of darkness to the bright beauty of Sicily. All the build-up pays off handsomely with a climax that is witty, surprising, and makes great use of the iconic Jennifer Coolidge.
- Arnob Khan
Alchemy of Souls
Alchemy of Souls is perhaps the most ambitious Korean fantasy drama ever made. Set in the fictional nation of Daeho, the story follows the riveting, soul-switching tale of Jang Uk (Lee Jae-wook), a young lord stripped of his ability to use magic as he finally finds a master in Naksu (Go Youn-jung), a vicious assassin who has switched souls with his maid Mu Deok (Jung So-min).
From romance to drama, magic spells to sword fights, this show has a dash of something for everyone. Despite the high ratings, Alchemy of Souls still feels criminally underrated, which goes to show just how good it is.
- Shanjida Nowshin Chowdhury
The Bear
Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto is an internationally acclaimed chef who comes back home to run his family’s restaurant after the death of his older brother. What he finds would make anyone’s blood pressure skyrocket - the shop is out of money, the staff are messy and belligerent, and disaster is either looming around every corner or is already here.
The Bear crackles along, powered by a sizzling ensemble cast led ably by Jeremy Allen White as Carmy, and electric turns from Ayo Edebiri as his highly-trained lieutenant and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as a rough, but charismatic family friend.
Over eight hearty episodes, the show deals with the intricacies of grief, loss, and family, both biological and found. It’s one of the best-crafted shows of the year, offering a feast of witty, fast-paced, and outright nerve wracking character drama. And it’s not afraid to go big either, whether it’s an episode that rushes through a heart-attack-inducing day in one shot or a long, heavy monologue that solidifies White’s star-making performance.
It’s truly great television, as long as you can handle the stress.
- Ariya Tabassum Abdullah
This is an article for Stripe, bdnews24.com's page for coverage of society and culture through a youth perspective.
