Andor, Reacher, Severance, Wednesday among the best new TV shows of 2022

It was a television year in which everyone doubled down on true crime (sometimes pretty much directly on the same topic), Marvel and Star Wars dominated Disney+ production, and Korean drama continued to flourish.

Everything about the ’90s was celebrated or reviled, rich bad-behaved people became a popular conceit, big-budget fantasy series came back into fashion, and Kiwis finally got to see a steady supply of Paramount+ content.

But while the latest episodes of favorites like The White Lotus, You better call Saul, Peaky Blinders and Stranger things proved more than satisfactory, it was some newbies who made the biggest impact.

After viewing the schedules, Things to watch has put together a list of our 10 favorites that debuted in 2021 (and where to watch them now).

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Andor (Disney+)

Sacrificing himself to make sure the Rebels get the Death Star plans at the end Rogue One didn’t stop Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) from getting his own 12-episode series.

Of course, the events take place before the fatal mission of the thief-turned-spy to Scarif, focusing on the formation of the rebel alliance against the Galactic Empire.

Created by Rogue co-writer Tony Gilroy, the show’s cast also includes Stellan Skarsgard, Denise Gough, Adria Arjona, and Fiona Shaw.

Bold and ambitious, Andor is also a refreshing old-school action thriller that, unlike recent Star Wars series, takes the time to introduce its players and their backstories.

The Gilded Age (Neon)

This 1880s New York drama features all the tropes you associate with acclaimed Downton Abbey screenwriter Julian Fellowes: power struggles, frowned romances, an array of characters from different classes within one household, and a scene-stealing, caustic matriarch. . .

Here, that’s Agnes van Rhijn (a magnificent Christine Baranski), a woman whose “family has been in charge since the Mayflower landed.”

As you’d hope, the production design is excellent, the costumes superb (Carrie Coon’s new money Bertha’s seemingly endless selection of bustles and breath-taking dresses easily the best on the show) and the acting ensemble top-notch.

Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Netflix)

Mexico’s terror titan debuted just in time for Halloween, curating a collection of eight different and beautifully crafted hour-long horror stories that will both terrify and delight.

The greatest strength of this anthology lies in the cadre of horror-hardened but underutilized visionaries the Pan’s Labyrinth director mustered together.

There’s Panos Cosmatos, the Italian-Canadian helmer who gave the world Nicolas Cage at his most Cage-y in 2018’s Mandy, Cube creator Vincenzo Natali, the man behind the lockdown cult hit The empty man (David Prior) and Guillermo Navarro, Del Toro’s go-to cinematographer.

However, it’s a trio of women (A Girls Walks Home Alone at Night’s Ana Lily Amirpour, The Babadook’s Jennifer Kent and Thirteen’s Catherine Hardwicke) whose efforts are perhaps the most striking, chilling and memorable.

The Last Movie Stars (Neon)

Sort of a cross between archival audio guided documentaries like Listen to me, MarlonBBC lockdown comedy StagedSet in the Actors Studio and a star-studded table reading of a play, Ethan Hawke’s six-part series is a wildly entertaining and enlightening look back at a seemingly long-lost era of Hollywood.

While the title is intended to be provocative – it comes from a description of the pair depicted by their close friend and mischief Gore Vidal – there is no doubt that Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward rose to fame at a time when cinema was beginning to decline. as “the dominant art form”.

That this has arrived at a time when going to the cinema once again faces major challenges and questions about the sustainability of the future feels very appropriate.

Reacher (first video)

Fans of Lee Child’s most famous creation rejoice.

Free from (Tom) Cruise control, Jack Reacher finally has a physical form that matches author James Dover Grant’s literary descriptions. In fact, Alan Ritchson (Smallville) seems almost taller than the six-foot-tall ex-serviceman depicted in 25 novels over the past quarter century.

Just as important to this eight-part series, though, is that he’s a winning, mysterious, and charismatic mix of Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner, Christopher Reeve’s Superman, and Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne.

However, the show’s real secret sauce is the character interactions and light touch. Ritchson has a great sense of humor and has great chemistry with Willa Fitzgerald’s officer Roscoe, a smart, no-nonsense match for him.

Severance pay (Apple TV+)

Director Ben Stiller does a great job bringing the futuristic, yet retro vibe of Lumon Industries to life and immersing viewers in the mystery of what they actually do in this evocative, intriguing nine-part sci-fi drama.

He also makes the most of a fantastic ensemble, though this is very much Adam Scott’s show, which beautifully delineates the two disparate, very separate parts of his character’s life.

Saying more would spoil some of the series’ delights, but whether you see it as an allegory for modern life, or just a slice of high-concept escapism, it offers plenty to ponder – and enjoy.

Sherwood (TVNZ+)

Inspired by a pair of real life murders in Nottinghamshire in 2004, this is perhaps the most compelling crime drama to come out of the UK since Broadchurch.

Creator and screenwriter James Graham, whose village was traumatized by those murders, has crafted a truly addictive character study, mystery, and police procedural that you can’t help but get swept up in an attempt to debate and resolve on your own.

It’s been 30 years since the infamous miners’ strike of 1984, but tensions are still running high here. Neighbors and sometimes even families divided between those who crossed the picket line and those who followed the edict of the national union and subjected the “scabbers” to verbal remarks. and occasional physical violence. Even the police are not exactly welcome, their approach to the conflict is still perceived as heavy-handed. That makes the investigation into the death by crossbow of a former striking miner particularly delicate.

Slow Horses (Apple TV+)

Gary Oldman’s first multi-episode television role in nearly four decades was worth the wait.

Based on Mick Herron’s 2010 book of the same name, it focuses on the residents of a British security office in Aldersgate, London, a location “so far from the heart of MI5 it might as well be in Slough”.

While there are potentially scene-stealing supporting turns from both Kristin Scott-Thomas and Jonathan Pryce, the epicenter of the black, sometimes bleak comedy is the tour de force that is Oldman’s Jackson Lamb. A creation that can rival his Oscar-winning Churchill of the Darkest Hour, Sirius Black or The Professional’s classical music-loving Stansfield, it’s a role that Oldman seems to throw his heart and soul into. A second season has just started.

This is going to hurt (TVNZ+)

The BBC’s latest hospital series couldn’t be further from the glossy visions of Grey’s Anatomy.

If you’re looking for a slick soap opera masquerading as a medical drama, you’ve come to the wrong place. This is a bleak, comical, raw and disturbing look at the lives of junior doctors who work in an obstetrics and gynecology unit at a London National Health Service hospital.

The masterstrokes here were getting veteran comedy script editor Adam Kay to adapt his own critically acclaimed 2015 memoir (based on his own experiences as a doctor in training), as well as casting the brilliant Ben Whishaw to play him. The now 41-year-old has a unique ability to combine great comedic timing with an extremely relatable vulnerability, skills that are pushed to the limit here.

Wednesday (Netflix)

Has there ever been a more perfect match between director and material than this one? Tim Burton’s gothic sensibilities fit perfectly with the macabre aesthetic of cartoonist Charles Addams’s satire of the ideal 20th-century American family, which first appeared in The New Yorker in 1938.

In his first foray into TV since his short miniseries The Word of Stainboy over 20 years ago, the man who gave us his own unique, twisted visions of Batman, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is at the helm of a Riverdale/Chilling Adventures of Sabrina-esque Addams Family update – and the result is just as creepy, eerie, and goofy as anyone hoped.

Anchored by a fantastic, caustic turn from Jenna Ortega as the eponymous black-and-white-loving and Machiavellian eldest Addams child, Wednesday is an eight-part black teen comedy that should delight fans of the franchise — and Burton — of all ages.