(10) Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber
The story of how Uber went from wild upstart in the highly competitive Silicon Valley to the world’s largest taxi service is a maddeningly messy, astonishingly dramatic one that none of us knew beforehand, not until Sky Showtime showed it anyway. Taking healthy amounts of inspiration from The Social Network and Newsroom, series creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien offered a rip-roaring tale of wild gambles, loyalty, betrayal, hubris and everything in between and, along with brilliant acting, qualified it for our collective list of the year top.
(9) Severance
Here at the editorial office, we like mysteries. The more intricate, the better and no mystery was greater than Severance. One long, sweet mindfuck that we couldn’t get out of our minds. We walked around in a Severance fog most of the year and who can blame us? It really isn’t often that you get the opportunity to experience something like Dan Erickson’s puzzle drama. But the story wasn’t just an enigma that contained everything from plants to warfare and goats, but it was, in its best moments, also a solid character-driven chamber game filled with brilliantly written characters, who managed to be both ethereal and completely ordinary. It was also exciting. A pure nail-biting party. From the video showing for the first time to the pulsating season finale, we were on edge and it was also a feeling of actually being there and experiencing it all together. We got to be one of those people who go to work every day without feeling like you ever left. We were one of those people who never stamped out and went home at the end of the work day and as horrible as that may sound, we loved everything about Severance.
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(8) The English
We were primed for classic heroic Wild West adventure when Emily Blunt’s tough Englishwoman teamed up with a brave prairie Indian to get revenge on some barbaric cavalrymen and in many ways that’s exactly what we got. However, we weren’t prepared to have our hearts ripped out and crushed by the series’ bittersweetness – the best kind of heartbreak. What began as a witty and violent revenge odyssey in desert environments slowly but surely began to turn into a painful reminder that beauty and cruelty were only two sides of the same cold coin. The English gave us so much more than just the usual “violence begets violence” message once revenge was sought, blending many wild west styles to carve out a harrowing tale of the deep roots of corruption at the dawn of American civilization. This series hit us like a steam locomotive, because our chests still clench when we think about the direction Hugo Blick’s epic story took. We hope that more viewers will feel the same pain that we experienced with this well-polished western gem.
(7) Tokyo Vice
Kishi kaisei in Japanese roughly means “bringing the dying back to life” and that’s exactly what old seasoned fox Michael Mann did with the washed-up gangster genre. Tokyo Vice was a real blast from the past. A tight 90s raffle, filled to the brim with clichés and stereotypes, but he didn’t apologize for it. No, instead they drove on, with neon lights, yakuza, plenty of cigarettes and risky mountains of debt. With lovely vibes from hard-boiled detective stories of yesteryear, this sober newspaper noir cozy slipped into our lives unnoticed and decked us, instantly. Like a juicy roundhouse kick right in the solar plexus, it left us on the floor, gasping for breath. The only thing that kept Tokyo Vice from being even higher on the list was the lackluster ending that left a lot to be desired. Otherwise, this was near perfection. Obsolete and decadent. Neat. Exciting. Slyly erotic.
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(6) Andor
The best Star Wars experience since Rogue One was the one that felt the least Star Wars – and we loved Andor for that. With the Bourne nerve on their resume, the Gilroy brothers had moved away from the cloying fan service that this franchise usually stomps in and instead opted for a more stripped down, human and above all exciting nail biter for the adult fans. Gone was the Bolimbompa feel of Boba Fett and the forced drama of the Kenobi show, where the series creators instead explored the gray areas of characters and the political power play in the background. The portrayal of the characters, who were on both sides of the law, was realistic and Andor himself proved to be an engaging protagonist who became our eyes and ears during the beginning of the rebellion. We loved the believability of the constant power play, we were blown away by how much we sympathized with the antagonists, and we were especially grateful to see so much respect for George Lucas’ magical galaxy in this phenomenal space thriller.
(5) Pachinko
Equal parts Asian Dallas as an instructive tale of culture, history, politics and family. Soo Hugh’s acclaimed drama based on the best-selling book offered an epic sense of scope without forgetting the characters, offered romance without skimping on either the drama or the suspense and entertained from start to finish.
(4) The Bear
The human restaurant drama floored us completely. Of course, we had certain expectations for Shameless actor Jeremy Allen White’s new works, but none of us had honestly believed that this would turn out to be the year’s strongest depiction of life itself and that this life would smell so strongly of food, cigarette smoke, sweat and exhaustion syndrome. Anxiety and stress in cubic but also pure euphoria. In focus, ordinary people of flesh and blood, the whims of fate and a constant commuting between the stops hope and despair. The Bear was like nothing we had seen before and we stood there, in the middle of the fire, in an unprestigious kitchen in Chicago and together with a strong ensemble of actors we saw dreams being born and dying. We were one with the scene where chaos was constantly on the menu and we enthusiastically tried every dish before we were full and satisfied. This was the series that dared to be dirty, it dared to be rough around the edges. It was not like so many others in the genre. Well polished and pretentious. But most of all, it was a series that felt alive. A series that meant something and a restaurant production where the dish was not the focus, but actually the people behind it.
(3) Better Call Saul (Season 6)
We don’t know if there’s any other series out there that has managed to demonstrate in such a poignant, poignant and clear way the consequences of someone’s actions in the year 2022. For seven long years, we got to witness Slippin’ Jimmy’s slow transformation into his alter ego Saul Goodman in what was not is something else a masterclass in storytelling. To follow up one of the most successful TV series in world history, Breaking Bad can’t have been easy, but to in many ways even succeed in surpassing it? Like rings on the water, Jimmy’s action and its consequences became more and more tangible before everything was finally brought to a head in what became the seventh and final season with an ending that can hardly have left anyone untouched. Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan made the impossible a reality and created a sequel that became at least as stylistic as its predecessor. Brilliant script, characters that felt almost impossibly alive and some of the best acting this side of the galaxy. Better Call Saul has been unparalleled from day one and the final season cemented its place in the history books by honoring and respecting the incredible journey of Saul Goodman, Kim Wexler, Mike Ehrmantraut, Nacho Varga, Howard Hamling and all the other unforgettable characters. Better Call Saul was nothing short of a masterpiece, and its final season’s place on the list of the best TV series of the year is therefore also obvious.
(2) The Boys (Season 3)
Supernatural creator Eric Kripke’s pitch-black superhero satire has been spot-on since the pilot episode, but it wasn’t until this year’s season, the third in a row, that it became brilliant. Absolutely brilliant throughout. The way the Superman pastiche Homelander finally cracked and decided to fully embrace his dark side while awakening his father, Soldier Boy, from some kind of 100-year slumber paved the way for the action, drama, and nerve that now makes that the third season of The Boys ends up in our second place.
BEST TV SERIES OF THE YEAR 2022:
(1) Stranger Things (Season 4)
The year of television has arguably been absolutely phenomenal, but there was nothing that even came close to the fourth season of Stranger Things. After the Netflix flagship faltered in previous seasons, the Duffer brothers suddenly decided to spare no expense whatsoever, offering Netflix users what can best be described as a cinematic TV event like no other. The season’s fresh new take and emotional weight made us love the characters more than ever, with fans of the show getting everything they ever wanted and then some. In addition to the villain being excellently nasty, the series creators answered several unanswered questions that satisfied and only gave us more flavor. It really didn’t matter that the episodes were extra long, on the contrary, we loved this luxurious blockbuster format that flexed with its budget and strong script work. It’s been said many times before, but this time we really meant it: this is a glorious tribute to Spielbergian cinematic magic.
