As if brave, flanneletted butterflies emerging from our binge-friendly cocoons of the COVID era, we began to leave the couch in 2022 to reclaim what was left of our short, pathetic little lives, yet there remained many reasons to eschew friends, family, career and vitamin D and stream even more TV. Here are some hits (and misses).
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The White Lotus (BINGE)
Was season two in Sicily as good as season one in Maui? The internet seems to think so, dissecting every aspect of Mike White's clinical takedown of privileged Americans on holiday; from its fashion, to its friendships to its geopolitics. Writer/director White again proved a massive asset for HBO, producing a slyly addictive, satirical slow-burn drug which had you strung out for more each week. Will he pull it off for a third season? In the immortal words of Jennifer Coolidge's inscrutable heiress Tanya: You got this.
House of the Dragon (BINGE)
Was this HBO prequel series as good as Game of Thrones? No, but anything beats the final season of GoT, even if we did have to endure Matt Smith in a creepy albino wig pashing his niece. The visuals were a bit naff, the opening titles sort of weird and gross and that birth scene at the end there was a bit OTT, but all up, HotD proved a worthy Westeros successor. Looking forward to the cousins going the full biff on their CGI flying lizards.
Only Murders in the Building (Disney+)
Was season two as good as ... ahhh, forget it. Life (and death) in The Arconia continues to be an utter delight. Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez clearly love working together and this show's writing remains the pristine exemplar of serialised smart, funny and touching. The whodunnit series is something of a throwback to when studio stable talent generated screwball alchemy. We're so lucky to have it.
Severance (Apple TV+)
As we still scratch our heads about how season two of Ted Lasso went so wrong, Apple TV more than redeemed itself with this brilliant mind-bending extrapolation of the workplace genre. The premise of having your brain altered to split your work and real self into separate entities is genius enough, yet added intrigue and paranoia sent us even deeper down the rabbit hole. Smart and disturbingly credible.
The Crown (Netflix)
Too soon? Given it is trawling through the doomed Diana denouement, Netflix was always going to court controversy with season five of this prestige soap, but the death of the Queen seems to have tipped public opinion firmly to one side. Since it began, The Crown has been in the hands of scriptwriters filling in the blanks, so it seems strange this season has come under so much fire for blurring fact with fiction. Regardless, the series, with its questionable casting, is looking tired.
Andor (Disney+)
Whereas the overly simplistic and continuity-stretching Obi-Wan Kenobi showed us how the Star Wars franchise can so easily be lost to the dumb dark side, this sumptuous spy thriller starring Diego Luna shows us how the lore of Lucas can still be a vehicle for high-end creativity. It also proves, when it comes to filmmaking in an increasingly green-screen universe, nothing beats real locations. Close to the best thing to come out of a galaxy far, far away since The Empire Strikes Back.
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The Rehearsal (BINGE)
Did that just happen? Is this real? Can someone please make it stop ... Nathan Fielder's surreal OCD version of reality TV turns discomfort into an art form in which we all must play a part none of us signed up for. As he fastidiously recreates pivotal moments in people's lives, agent provocateur Fielder even outdoes Louis Theroux in the guileless stakes. He makes things happen you will never see anywhere else. Watch in real time a man's very reason for existence drain from his face when he discovers a trivia night has been rigged.
Stranger Things (Netflix)
Season four struck a cross-generational chord thanks to a certain musical genius living the quiet life in the English countryside being thrust back into the limelight and the charts. If nothing else, the Duffer brothers should be celebrated for reminding the world just how wonderful Kate Bush is. Their show is getting darker, the kids are getting older and we are nearing the end of this nostalgic odyssey of horror and childhood. Young fans will carry this with them for the rest of their lives.
Yellowstone (Stan)
OK, we really should be watching something worthy like Slow Horses over on Apple TV or something from Scandinavia with subtitles on SBS, but we keep going back to Montana, where the sky is big, the jeans are snug and the horse floats hog the roads like majestic silver whales. Costner country continues to be a place where the beauty and badness of America is exhibited without apology. Yee-haw.
Wednesday (Netflix)
Kids and tweens and teens and young adults were drawn to this little gem (and mega-hit) as if by osmosis. Tim Burton steered a franchise into a clever new direction and, as the titular Addams Family daughter, Jenna Ortega made a much-loved character her very own. A near-perfect show for its target audience.
