Best Television of 2022, Part 3
Jury Prize: Series That Just Missed The Cut
In the style of my critical idol Roger Ebert, I have a habit of giving a jury prize to series and actors that would have my Best of year list but were excluded for reasons that are inconsequential. Because some of these shows fall into categories that have overriding trends, I’m going to rank some of them in groups.
Series That Makes You Think Broadcast TV Might Still Have Imagination:
So Help Me Todd
It would have been wrong for me to ignore this series that gleefully goes out of its way not to fit in any real box. Ostensibly, it’s a legal drama, but its also a mystery series, a family series and one of the funniest shows I’ve seen in years. Perhaps it is fitting that So Help Me Todd is on the same network as The Good Wife, another ostensibly legal drama that spent the 2010s gleefully flitting between every format imaginable and being entertaining in all of them. So Help Me Todd isn’t there yet, but it sure as hell looks like it has the potential.
Powered by two of my favorite performers of all time, Marcia Gay Harden and Skyler Astin played Margaret and Todd Wright, a mother and son trying to help each other even though they are disagree about everything and drive everyone around them to distraction. As their bond has grown closer, both are becoming more reliant on each other and more loyal to their cause. The series also had a lot of interesting side characters that, while not as well developed yet, do have a lot of potential. There’s Lyle, the incredibly put upon (by Todd) investigator who has more layers with each meeting and is incredibly good at his job there’s Carol, the overachieving daughter who is the ‘good child’ in the family and keep showing incredible strain keeping it that way (her marriage may be crumbling, and an intriguing group of recurring actors who have enormous potential. (I particularly like Jeffrey Nordling as a seemingly incompetent attorney who has more layers that Margaret wants to admit. I’m hoping he gets his own spinoff.) Frankly the only thing that keep this show from long term success is that it doesn’t fit the typical CBS mold of procedurals and reboots. I hope being original and the early ratings are enough to keep it going.
Reboots Whose Existence Are Justified On More Than Nostalgia Alone
The Wonder Years and Quantum Leap
Last year, I gave a rave review to the reboot version of The Wonder Years set with an all-black cast in 1968 Atlanta and put on my top ten list. It did not make my list again this year, but that’s not because it got worse. Quite the contrary, the series continues to show immense range and growth in many ways, expanding beyond Dean and going around the complicated relationship between his pioneering mother and his enterprising father. When his brother came back from Vietnam with an injury, it added more layers to the show as he tried to find his own independence and showed that he had more layers than you thought. An episode involving a salon between his sister peace-loving group and the brother could have devolved into a fight; instead, it was one of the more hopeful scenes I’ve seen in resolving conflict on any show this year.
The series has been marking key points throughout the original series: Winnie Cooper’s brother who died in Nam in the Pilot of the original was highlighted in a late episode and the season finale involved the storm that Kevin and Winnie were trapped in the first season finale to — with similar repercussions for Dean and his love Keisha. But this isn’t just the case of a series checking off boxed; this Wonder Years has its own heart and soul, and I look forward to Season 2 next year.
Many were inclined to similarly demean the new Quantum Leap before an episode aired, and I was more than willing to be one of them. But having watched much of the first season, there’s an argument that the new version is actually realizing more of the potential than the original ever had. It helps matters immensely that the new version has expanded the team behind the scenes, deepened the mysteries behind each of them (including showing a critical link between Ernie Hudson’s character and the original series) and shown more possibility for range and diversity without being really showy about. Quantum Leap may be ‘sacred’ to some, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t immense flaws in the original. This new version is, like the original mission statement, ‘putting right what once went wrong’, and putting added layers to it. NBC has already renewed this show for a second season. I hope that the series manages not only to be a success, but perhaps even resolve the cliffhanger that we were left with when the original was abruptly cancelled thirty years ago.
Movie to Television Adaptation That Does The Source Material Proud:
Let the Right One In
There have been more than a few very good adaptations of films to TV that have reached a level the original wasn’t capable of — A League of their Own went in direction the film couldn’t, and in my opinion American Gigolo was the right version of one of the most iconic 80s films with great casting choices. And considering the new version of Interview with a Vampire AMC developed this year, some might think that redefined what horror television was capable. But in my opinion the best TV adaptation of an iconic vampire film was one that demystified the lure of the vampire. Showtime’s Let the Right One In.
There are many reasons I love this new series, some of which have to do with the fact that there are deeper layers to it that have messages I’m not sure even the writers have in mind. (When the new year begins, I’m actually going to go into more detail about it because it deserves more room than I can give it here.) But one reason I think it’s extraordinary is because it focuses on two groups of two family members, one of whom is a vampire and one of whom is a monster. The series deals with what you do what you to do to protect the person you love most, even if that means damning your own soul to try and keep theirs pure — or perhaps more horribly, being willing to slaughter dozens of people or create monsters out of countless more in order to save one life. Both Claire and Mark would argue that the ends justify the means, but for both of them, they have completely rejected what the person they are doing it for is.
Of course, if you want to ignore the subtext (that’s going to be difficult but you can) you can still marvel in everything this series does will. Damian Bichir and Grace Gummer are exceptional as the caretakers who have sacrificed everything for their loved ones at the expense of their souls. Akoni Noni Rose is superb as Mark’s neighbor Naomi, NYPD who wants desperately to protect her son from the horrors of the outside world, not knowing that one of their representatives lives next door. And the series kept making you rethink your expectations with every episode right up until the final minute which is a game changer in the worst possible way for Isaiah, Naomi’s son who utterly loves Eleanor even knowing what she is. I don’t know yet if the series will be renewed, but if there is a Season 2, the biggest question on my mind is, how will Isaiah ever forgive Eleanor for this, even if he never learns the real reason he already had to hate her?
Returning Series That Make Me Have Some Faith in Netflix Yet:
Russian Doll and Dead To Me
Yes Netflix is in a lot of trouble, and its collapse may soon be imminent. But that doesn’t mean that we still can’t enjoy some of the truly brilliant TV its created before it faces changes we can’t handle. This year, two of Netflix’s most successful series returned after a prolonged absence to huge acclaim for one and great viewership for the other. But I’m not here to discuss The Crown or Stranger Things. Instead, I want to discuss two lesser gems that I had to wait for nearly is long in both cases, each of them created by and starring incredible talents and both of which are more than capable of testing the boundaries of the comedy series.
When Natasha Lyonne brought Russian Doll back for a second season after four years, I didn’t think I could be stunned by what she did after Season 1. Boy was I wrong. Nadia spent all of Season 2 traveling through her own past (taking the F Train there, naturally) and literally by going through her crazy mother and messed up grandmother’s bodies. At one point, she actually gave birth to herself. I can’t think of an actress more perfect than Lyonne who can handle an utterly messed up situation like this with such utter aplomb and calm as she traveled through time, had conversations with her crazy mother, and tried to rescue herself from dysfunction even though it might destroy the space-time continuum. (If they ever decide to do an American Doctor Who, Lyonne is my first choice for the role. I kept thinking that watching walk through the streets of New York, with a duster and cigarette in her mouth.) We also got to see some superb actresses, including Chloe Sevigny, Elizabeth Ashley and Annie Murphy strut their stuff as the world just got weirder. Lyonne intends to wrap things up with a third season. I don’t know what she can do to top herself, but I have complete faith in her ability to do so.
The Emmys and other awards shows basically ignored Russian Doll. It’s far less likely they’ll do the same with the other brilliant Netflix comedy that returned this year, Dead to Me. Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini continued to demonstrate why they are two of the greatest actresses in the history of the medium as this series that started out with us learned that one had accidentally killed the other’s husband actually got darker and more absurd in the final season. (Jen got pregnant! Judy got cancer! Ben hit them with a car!) This could have been the plot for an 80s soap were it not so funny all the time; watching Jen and Judy constantly dodging disaster made you wonder if they could have done an I Love Lucy remake at one point. This will likely be Applegate’s final role, given her diagnosis of MS last year. And while its very early in the process, I’m not going to lie. I really would like if she won an Emmy next fall. I think we all would
Show That Continues To Bring Joy to Be After More Than Thirty Years:
Jeopardy!
I know, every third article I’ve written this year seems to deal with Jeopardy in some context. But having been through this calendar, it’s really hard to argue that the show hasn’t been more relevant or exciting than it has been in year. We started this year with super-champion Amy Schneider, who finished her run with 40 wins and nearly $1.5 million. We are ending this year with another super champion, Ray LaLonde, who has already won ten game and nearly $300,000. Between that, we’ve had two winners of more than twenty games, a sixteen game winner who somehow slipped under most people’s radar, the first ever Second Chance Tournament, which brought back eighteen runners-up who eventually proved they were all worthy of their second chance, and a Tournament of Champions unlike any in the series nearly four decade run that took longer than any previous tournament and was eventually won by the most deserving player after an exciting and entertaining finals that among its virtues put Professors’ Tournament Winner Sam Buttrey on the map for more reasons than just being a great player. I’ll actually go into more detail about some of the champions this year in my final entry in this blog, but it’s very clear that we’re still in the era of Peak Jeopardy and that the studio audience — back after a two year absence — is now getting as many thrills as the ones at home.
Tomorrow, I’ll wrap this series up with articles about some of the most impressive performers of 2022.