Looking forward: the best TV shows of 2022

Conversations With Friends, BBC Three

Sally Rooney is something of a Marmite figure in the literary world, but she always ascends the bestseller lists without fail. Similarly, her series adaptation of Normal People with co-writer Alice Birch and director Lenny Abrahamson became lauded as one of the best TV dramas of 2020. That puts a lot of pressure on the new BBC adaptation of Conversations With Friends, Rooney's debut novel.

The story follows the peculiar ménage-à-quatre between two Irish students, Frances (Alison Oliver) and Bobbi (Sasha Lane), and an older creative couple, Nick (Joe Alwyn) and Melissa (Jemima Kirke). But the adulterous relationship between Frances and Nick grows into something more significant.

Photo: BBC

Everything I Know About Love, BBC One

Like Sally Rooney, Dolly Alderton is another millennial author that seems to capture the vibe of her generation. After working as a dating columnist for The Sunday Times, she wrote the popular memoir Everything I Know About Love – in which she details all the bad dates and friendships and job-hunts that defined her 20s.

Now, she’s adapting the book for a semi-fictionalised series for the BBC. Set in 2012, the story follows childhood mates Maggie (Emma Appleton) and Birdy (Bel Powley) living together in a London house-share and navigating their 20-something millennial lives.

Bel Powley in The Morning Show, Apple TV+. Photo: Apple

Mood, BBC Three

Fleabag started life as a one-woman show before it was adapted for BBC Three, and subsequently became a global cultural phenomenon. Could the same brilliant fate befall Nicôle Lecky and Mood, a new series based on her popular Royal Court play Superhoe? Considering BBC Three’s track record – Normal People, Starstruck, We Are Who We Are – it’s more than likely.

The story follows the 24-year-old wannabe singer Sasha (Lecky), who’s gone from being the most popular girl in school to spending most of her time scrolling social media in her bedroom. After being suddenly kicked out by her mum and ghosted by her boyfriend, she decides to enter the dodgy world of online sex work.

Photo: BBC

I Hate Suzie, series 2, Sky Atlantic

It’s hard to think of another show that captures the horrors and anxieties of female celebrity life like I Hate Suzie does. This creative collaboration between Billie Piper and Succession writer Lucy Prebble grew into a lockdown hit, examining the traumatic fallout of former child star Suzie Pickles (Piper) after sexual images of her are leaked online. Season one showed her enduring the seven stages of grief.

But considering those stages have all concluded, what will happen in the upcoming second season? There are a few threads that have yet to be tied up: Suzie's potential pregnancy, her divorce from the nauseating Cob (Daniel Ings), and her separation from best friend and manager Naomi (Leila Farzad).

Photo: Sky

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, season 4, Amazon Prime

We could all use a splash of musical, marvelous colour in our lives, and this series from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino always delivers. Exploring the life of a female comedian in the more misogynistic days of the 1950s, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel is a glittery stage of dense and snappy dialogue, unforgettably eccentric characters, and lavishly polychromatic costumes.

Season four takes place in 1960, when change is thick in the air. After Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) screwed things up with Shy Baldwin (LeRoy McClain), she strives to be an independent stand-up – telling her own jokes on her own terms. But this proves difficult for her long-struggling and brilliantly sweary manager Susie (Alex Borstein).

Read our five-star review of season three.

Photo: Amazon

The Time Traveler's Wife, Sky Atlantic

After spending seven years running Doctor Who, you’d have thought that writer Steven Moffat would be sick of men bending time for their own ends. But unlike The Doctor, Henry DeTamble (Theo James) – the title character in Moffat’s romantic drama The Time Traveler’s Wife – can’t control his fourth-dimensional leaps. For Henry, it’s all accidental.

The young woman Clare (Rose Leslie) has witnessed Henry appear in the woods behind her house since she was six years old, believing he was imaginary. As she grows up, she realises that Henry is real and that he’s been travelling through time. And one day, she will become his wife.

Photo: Sky

Fleishman is in Trouble, Disney+

Based on the lauded debut novel by American journalist Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman is in Trouble examines the supposedly upward life of a 41-year-old hepatologist after a bitter divorce battle. Toby (Jesse Eisenberg) is elated by his new liberation, diving into the modern era of digital dating where he’s able to find sexual prospects anywhere in NYC.

But just at the start of his new life, his two kids are dropped at his doorstep at 4am and his ex-wife Rachel suddenly disappears. Despite enjoying his time as a single man, her vanishing makes him look uncomfortably hard at his marriage.

Photo: Jessie Eisenberg in The End of the Tour, courtesy of Sky

Pam & Tommy, Disney+

Although it’s taken long enough for the rest of the real world to catch up, the internet was always marred by sex and trolls and revenge porn. The 1995 sex tape of Baywatch star Pamela Anderson and Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee became the first of its kind to be distributed online, after bitter electrician and former adult-film actor Rand Gauthier broke into Anderson and Lee’s home and stole the tape from their safe.

Created by The Wrestler screenwriter Robert Siegel and partly directed by Cruella’s Craig Gillespie, Pam & Tommy follows the entire sordid scandal. Lily James (The Pursuit of Love) makes a remarkable transformation for the role of Pamela Anderson, and stars alongside Sebastian Stan (Avengers: Endgame) as Tommy Lee. Gauthier is played by Seth Rogen (The Disaster Artist) alongside Nick Offerman (DEVS, Parks and Recreation) as Uncle Miltie.

Photo: Disney

Pistol, Disney+

How do you match the sounds of the 60s, filled with tunes by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan? Well, you tear the whole system down. Such was the aim of punk rock, a movement that gestated in the late 60s with The Velvet Underground and The Stooges before exploding in the 70s with the Sex Pistols. The band made music that fought against everything and everyone – reaching their zenith with the Never Mind the Bollocks album.

The announcement of a new Sex Pistols series, focusing on the life of guitarist Steve Jones, was a welcome surprise. But the addition of Trainspotting director Danny Boyle – a master of marrying music with film – secures Pistol as a must-watch. The drama follows Jones’s life from growing up in west London council estates to hanging out with Vivienne Westwood and dealing with the band's various controversies. Jones is played by Toby Wallace (Babyteeth), alongside Thomas Brodie-Sangster (The Queen's Gambit) and Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones).

Photo: Sky

Euphoria, season 2, Sky Atlantic

If Sex Education shows the brighter, lighter side of modern Gen-Z life, Euphoria plunges into a deep, dark hole.

The first season of Sam Levinson’s brutal, phenomenal, and stylistic teen drama was the best TV series of 2019, and made a serious performer out of Zendaya. She plays Rue, a 17-year-old drug addict who keeps spiralling between relapsing, rehab, anxiety, and depression in a devastating loop. The only respite came from her relationship with Jules (Hunter Schafer), but she had her own issues. They broke up at the end of season one, and Rue inevitably returned to drugs. The series also squirms through issues of domestic and emotional abuse, child porn and dick pics.

From the teaser trailer, season two sees Rue in a bad place (again). She looks slightly better than in last year's special Trouble Don’t Last Always, but she’s clearly high again.

Read our five-star review

This Is Going to Hurt, BBC One

This pandemic era has made people realise the importance of the NHS, and that praise will hopefully continue. But few outside the institution would fully grasp the pressures and pitfalls scattered on every ward, as revealed by the doctor-turned-comedy writer Adam Kay in his bestselling memoir This Is Going to Hurt.

A new seven-part BBC adaptation is on the way, penned by Kay himself and starring Ben Whishaw: detailing the 97-hour weeks in an obstetrics and gynaecology ward. Alongside Whishaw, Ambika Mod plays the ambitious junior doctor Shruti. She has the potential for a great career ahead, but the chaos of the ward throws her into doubt.

Trigger Point, ITV

Line of Duty star Vicky McClure swaps bent coppers for bomb disposal in this new counter-terrorism thriller from ITV.

In Trigger Point, McClure plays the experienced bomb disposal operative (‘Expo’) Lana Washington, a front-line officer employed to disarm bombs – risking her life daily on ‘the long walk’. She works alongside Joel Nutkins (Adrian Lester), an ex-military friend from her tour in Afghanistan. When a terrorist threat hangs over the capital, the Expos are distributed to suppress the bombings before more people are killed.

Photo: ITV

Ozark, season 4, Netflix

When Ozark dropped on Netflix in 2017, there were several comparisons with Breaking Bad. But aside from the 'family crime drama' dynamic, the overall tone is very different. Whereas Breaking Bad is like a graphic novel in its brilliant and showy set-pieces, Ozark strives to show the banality of evil via meticulous money-launderers. It has more in common with The Sopranos.

And now, it’s finally reaching its conclusion – split into two parts with seven episodes each. After the bloody and shocking conclusion to season four, the Byrdes become more embroiled in the Mexican Navarro cartel. Stars Jason Bateman and Laura Linney.

Photo: Netflix

Better Call Saul, season 6, Netflix

Speaking of Breaking Bad, the slower and more ponderous prequel Better Call Saul is also concluding in 2022. Whereas Walter White turned to crime straight away, Saul Goodman's process is gradual; his ethics slowly evaporate, but with the aim of helping the helpless.

Season five saw the transformation from Jimmy McGill to Saul Goodman complete itself, and now season six will be the bridge crossing into Breaking Bad. Will that mean we’ll have appearances from Walter and Jesse? Considering the sequel movie El Camino, it’s not entirely out of the question.

Photo: Netflix

Peaky Blinders, season 6, BBC One

And here’s another historic conclusion to a long-running and important crime drama. Beginning in 2013, the stunning and cinematic Peaky Blinders – based on the real-life Birmingham gang operating in the 1920s – became essential viewing. It’s also among the first to buck the trend of casting movie stars in TV shows, namely: Sam Neil, Adrien Brody, Anya Taylor-Joy and Tom Hardy. Hardy’s character, the rough and well-spoken Alfie, is especially memorable and reappears for the upcoming season. Stephen Graham (Time, The Irishman) will also star.

After his botched plans at the end of season five, will the gang leader Tommy Shelby MP (Cillian Murphy) finally carry them out properly? Considering the rise of fascism and the opening echoes of the Second World War, this final season probably won’t end in anything but soot and death.

Photo: BBC

The Crown, season 5, Netflix

Peter Morgan’s excellent series, dramatically tracing the history of our current monarchy, has always been slightly controversial. But recently, it's gained more bombastic reactions. To many, the royal family is too sacred to treat with scrutiny or even dramatisation – especially after the Prince Charles/Princess Diana plotline in season four.

Olivia Colman’s reign has ended, and now the great Imelda Staunton takes the throne. Season five covers the Windsor saga during the 90s Britpop era, which will include the infamous interview with Diana by Martin Bashir. Taking over from Emma Corrin, Elizabeth Debicki is the new Diana. Jonathan Pryce is playing Prince Philip, Dominic West takes on Prince Charles, and Lesley Manville plays Princess Margaret.

Photo: Netflix

Bridgerton, season 2, Netflix

It was the sexy guilty-pleasure hit of 2020, the most-watched show on Netflix (well, before Squid Game sniped it off the top).

From the premise, Bridgerton sounds like your bog-standard period-drama: set in Regency Britain, mingling among high society, and parents finding potential husbands and wives for their children. But there’s a silliness and a sex appeal to the series: something you watch purely to laugh at and be seduced by, to empty your mind and escape.

Season two has been delayed to 2022 because of Covid, but we're looking forward to another cheesy slice. Plot details are scarce but from a clip released recently, it's clear that the sleazy Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) has a new love interest: the outspoken and feministic Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley).

Photo: Netflix

The Lord of the Rings prequel, Amazon Prime

There’s expensive, and then there’s ridiculous. After Game of Thrones, Amazon has wanted a similar fantasy success for their streaming service (starting this year with The Wheel of Time). But the upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel is a whole new beast, rumoured to be the priciest TV show ever produced at $465 million for just one season.

Set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before Bilbo and Frodo, this series aims to capture the integral events leading up to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Morfydd Clarke (Saint Maud) stars as a young Galadriel, a powerful Elf who would prove vital to the eventual destruction of the One Ring.

Photo: Amazon

House of the Dragon, Sky Atlantic

Where other platforms tried to find their own Game of Thrones, HBO scrabbled for potential spin-offs. They currently have three series in development, but the fourth one – House of the Dragon – is the first to succeed.

Set 200 years before Game of Thrones, the story pores through the history of House Targaryen – the mostly mad and blonde family that eventually conceived the Mother of Dragons, Daenerys. This period sees the Targaryens ruling Westeros, with violent family friction (of course). The series shows the civil war between siblings Aegon II and Rhaenyra, which shadows the whole of Westeros in war.

House of the Dragon stars Matt Smith (Last Night in Soho), Olivia Cooke (Vanity Fair), Paddy Considine (The Third Day), Emma D’Arcy (Wanderlust), and Steve Toussaint (It's A Sin).

Photo: Sky