Top 12 of TV in 2022

My annual list:
You can view my 10 Honorable Mentions here and all the editions of this list dating back to 2009 here. And support me on Patreon here

1. White Lotus (HBO) –The second season of White Lotus brings us characters who run the gamut from naive (Albee); to hypocritically judgmental (Harper); to lonely to the point of selfishness (Tanya); to just-plain shallow (Daphne). And then, of course, Cameron has a shade of all seven deadly sins in one package. However, unlike the first season with irredeemable brats Shane and Olivia, writer-director Mike White managed to navigate their fates and give them enough of a tinge of self-awareness so that they’re all ripe for satire in this grand comedy of manners.
   
   The show is set in Sicily and benefits from the lack of identity politics (they’re all White, no need for grand-standing speeches about White privilege). Ironically, the series is still about identity, but about how we see ourselves in our relationships — largely romantic, but also our subordinates (Tonya-Portia, Valentina-Isabella); and superiors (Jack-Quentin, Albee-Dominic) — and what that says about us. The characters with the highest ideals (Harper, Ethan, Albee) get their asses handed to them by fate, while the two resident prostitutes come out the weeks’ big winners for already having the self-awareness at the beginning of the week that relationships are transactional.

This is the kind of multi-layered character study that sparks endless discussion and the kind of pre-emptive murder mystery that provides endless intrigue.

2. Winning Time (HBO) — This docudrama about the beginning of the Magic Johnson era is apparently completely detached from the historical record. At the same time, maybe it’s better in this age of hyper scrutiny to throw documented history out the window and rely more on the “based on a true story” moniker at the start of each episode? The advantage is that it allows producer Adam McKay to tell the most exciting story his imagination can muster, and it’s pretty damn exciting. Watching this show is a reminder of how little of the narrative in the sports world we get through filtered press conferences and surface-level sports writing: The rivalries, the competitive dynamics, and the struggle to trust one another when the stakes are high.