2022 is halfway over and you have a lot of TV to catch up on. We say this knowing that it’s an undeniable fact. Every single person reading this has about 50 shows they’ve heard are great, but have not yet watched yet. And 2022 hasn’t helped by adding even more shows to the list. Show about sci-fi offices, potty mouthed superheroes, gay pirates, New Jersey fangirls, there’s a lot. So go ahead and click through to see what we think, of all the genre shows that have come out in 2022, the best are. So far.
Our Flag Means Death
The high seas pirate comedy starring Rhys Darby as Stede, the gentleman pirate, and Taika Waititi as Blackbeard in a sweeping romance has stolen all our hearts. The motley crew misadventures are from showrunner David Jenkins is a smart and inventive reimagining of pirate life that we can’t get enough of. With an ensemble of scene stealers, the humour and misadventures are filled with incredible moments from not only it’s stars but ensemble including Vico Ortiz, Nathan Foad, Joel Fry, Samson Kayo, Samba Schutte, Kristian Nairn, Matthew Maher, Con O’Neill, Nat Faxxon, and Ewen Bremmer. With one season under its belt Our Flag Means Death is already a comfort favourite and probably our most watched show on HBO Max. – Sabina Graves
Severance
There are so many new shows these days that many of them slip through the cracks. But the good ones? The good ones generate buzz and demand you watch them to be part of the conversation. Such is the case with Severance, the Apple TV+ show with an incredible pedigree (executive producer and directed by Ben Stiller, starring Adam Scott, Rosanna Arquette, Christopher Walken and John Turtorro among others) that was released a bit under the radar. But with each week more and more fans discovered the truth. Severance was an intense, fascinating, original sci-fi conceit that opened up levels of mystery and intrigue that really get audiences talking. All of it led to a jaw-dropping first season finale that gave audiences exactly 1% of what you had been waiting for, and 99% desire to see more and more of this fantastic show. Season 2 is in the works. – Germain Lussier
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Coming out of the gate with what might be the strongest debut season of Star Trek ever — rivalling Lower Decks’ own fantastic start — Star Trek’s return to the U.S.S. Enterprise and a more episodic, retro-influenced storytelling format has made for a hell of a time. Riffs on classic Trek premises and simple, yet insightful character work has made Strange New Worlds feel like a breath of fresh air for the ever-expanding scope of current Star Trek, with a back-to-basics approach that’s given us some delightfully earnest sci-fi adventures. – James Whitbrook
Undone
Considering that the first season of Prime Video’s Undone featured one of the most weirdly satisfying cliffhanger endings ever, it almost felt wrong to dip back into Amazon’s lushly rotoscope-animated drama for more. But season two of the series — which stars Rosa Salazar and Bob Odenkirk as members of a Texas family with time-hopping and multiversal talents — took the story in surreal new directions, digging deep into a multi-generational saga about the emotional fallout of facing dark moments in the past… as well as the rewards and/or perils that come with fiddling around with them. Kate Purdy and Raphael Bob-Waksberg (BoJack Horseman)‘s series has yet to be renewed, and it may not be (this time, the story really does feel complete), but fans of adult animation and brain-twisting genre tales shouldn’t hold back on binging this one. (Prime Video) – Cheryl Eddy
Ms. Marvel
As this is posted, Ms. Marvel has yet to finish its six episode first season but, we think it’s worthy of inclusion anyway. While most of the previous Marvel Studios streaming shows have centered on established characters (WandaVision, Hawkeye, Loki, Falcon and Winter Soldier) or a big name actor (Moon Knight), Ms. Marvel has neither luxury. It’s an origin show featuring a brand new actress which, on the surface, might be seen as a problem. However, Ms. Marvel treats it as an opportunity. Through the eyes of Kamala Khan, played by the charming, charismatic Iman Vellani, we see ourselves in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Kamala is a huge MCU fan and as she begins to become a hero in a world that heroes exist, she’s a perfect avatar for the audience. Plus the show has such great inclusivity, beautiful production design, and energitic filmmaking, it’s very difficult not to love it. – Germain Lussier
Dead End: Paranormal Park
Netflix’s adaptation of the wonderful supernatural/slice of life Hamish Steele comic DeadEndia provided a wonderfully breezy tale of found families, theme park mysteries, and the occasional demonic summoning and/or invasion. But its sweet heart, centred on the struggles of protagonist Barney as he dealt with everything from the aforementioned demons, falling in love with the perfect guy, and dealing with his family’s transphobia gave us the sort of challenging, relatable queer storytelling rarely seen in animated TV like this. – James Whitbrook
Spy x Family
A spy and an assassin form a marriage of convenience, but the only one who knows about their secret professions is their telepathic, 5-year-old daughter, who tries to help them with their missions without revealing her powers. It’s a wild premise, but it results in an anime series that is hilarious, action-packing, and still utterly heartwarming as the faux family slowly transforms into a real family, bound by a growing love for each other. It’s no wonder it’s one of, if the, most popular anime series of 2022 so far! – Rob Bricken
Stranger Things Season 4
The Duffer Brothers and Netflix juggernaut solidified its place in pop culture in with its 4th season outing. Stranger Things is back and breaks away from some of its nostalgia crutches to reveal a surprising endgame for Hawkins’ heroes. Eleven’s connection to Vecna’s history and the alliances she has to forge to save her friends has raised the stakes in ways that amp us up for season 5’s series finale. However, we don’t count Max, Lucas, Mike, Will, Dustin, Nancy, Steve, Robin, Eddie and the gang out from rising to the challenge of taking matters into their own hands to save their town. – Sabina Graves
Peacemaker
By 2022, it’s fairly obvious that James Gunn has his finger on the pulse. Movie after movie, the director has crafted stories that are exciting, funny, just a little bit wrong, and fans eat it up. With Peacemaker, he’s turned all of that up a few notches, telling a long form superhero story that is very exciting, very funny, and a whole lot of wrong. But that’s why we love it. John Cena reprises his titular role, first seen in Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, to lead a rag tag team of characters through a mission to save the world. It’s subversive, it’s weird, it’s surprising, it’s exactly the superhero show you’d expect from a filmmaker like Gunn. Plus? Great opening titles. – Germain Lussier
Evil
Now in its third season, Evil manages to combine the slick production values of what still feels like a network show (it started on CBS but moved to Paramount+) with surprisingly complex characters (the excellent cast includes Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, Michael Emerson, and Christine Lahti), a storyline that blends monster-of-the-week procedurals (the main characters investigate paranormal phenomena for the Catholic Church) with ongoing arcs and dramas, and the utter fearlessness to just… get as bizarre and shocking as it damn well pleases. Season two’s nearly dialogue-free episode, “S Is for Silence,” was a creative standout for any series, much less one that regularly that deals with horny monsters and Satanic conspiracies and possessed children. This season’s ongoing theme is “Demons” (with episodes so far titled “The Demon of Memes,” “The Demon of Sex,” etc.), but Evil is so committed to its freaky-yet-somehow-also-classy storytelling that it barely feels like a gimmick at this point. – Cheryl Eddy
Disney+’s Making Of Shows
We all love Disney’s Marvel and Star Wars projects but they’re so, so secretive. That means we generally don’t know anything about how they came together. Thankfully, for both Marvel and Star Wars projects, Disney+ has been creating really entertaining, insightful behind the scenes documentaries that are released on the platform after a season is over. For Marvel’s they’re called “Assembled” and for Star Wars they’re called “Gallery” but they’re the same thing. All access looks into the creation of these shows with all sorts of new information. They have been happening since the early days of Disney+, with The Mandalorian, but in 2022 we’ve seen episodes on The Book of Boba Fett, Hawkeye, Eternals, Moon Knight and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, with more certainly on the way for Ms. Marvel, Obi-Wan Kenobi and more. These shows are our best chance to lear about how these very secretive movies and shows are produced and they are produced very well.- Germain Lussier