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The streaming era of TV is a never-ending feast. The finest bites this year came from shows including "Barry," "Ms. Marvel," "Pachinko," "Station Eleven," and "This Fool."
These days, TV can be many different things. A television show may also do this: It might be an episode of a sitcom, a revelatory stand-up special, or a "chapter" of a visual novel.
Our selections of some of the top individual pieces we've tried this year include all of those and more. The binge may have dominated television in 2022, but occasionally the highlight of a feast is just one perfect mouthful. PONIEWOZIK, JAMES
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The penultimate installment of “Station Eleven,” with Rebecca Applebaum and Himesh Patel, was one of the most memorable TV episodes of 2022.Credit...Ian Watson/HBO Max |
‘Amber Brown’ (Apple TV+)
Season 1, Episode 3: ‘No Place Like Two Homes’
The light tween drama about a sixth-grader whose parents had just separated was so adorable. Amber (Carsyn Rose) is trying to muster the bravery to audition for the school play in the third episode of the show. She wishes to follow in her father's drama club footsteps so that they may strengthen their relationship now that he has returned to town. She turns to her best friend and asks, "Do you think he likes me?" Of course," responds her friend. He loves you; he is your father. Amber responds, "Well, I know he loves me." "I only want to know if he likes me." This kind of brutally gorgeous poignancy is what distinguishes the program. (Apple TV+ streaming.) MARTHA LYONS
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| “710N,” from the third season of “Barry,” included some of the year’s most thrilling action sequences.Credit...HBO |
‘Barry’ (HBO)
Season 3, Episode 6: ‘710N'
More than one scene from this stunner would have been the pinnacle of any other series, including a high-speed motorcycle chase through a traffic bottleneck and a high-firepower battle at a car dealership. However, "710N" did more than only highlight Bill Hader's directorial abilities. The action scenes complemented "Barry's" broader objective, which was to tell the tale of an antihero without glorifying his antiheroism. They were simultaneously exhilarating, comedic, and bathetic. (Watching via HBO Max.) PONIEWOZIK
‘Black Bird’ (Apple TV+)
Season 1, Episode 4: ‘WhatsHerName’
Paul Walter Hauser, a talented and distinctive actor, was given the chance to shine in Dennis Lehane's miniseries as Larry Hall, a convicted kidnapper and suspected serial killer who is only days away from having his convictions overturned and going free. According to the plot (which is based on an autobiographical novel), Taron Egerton plays another prisoner who strikes a bargain to befriend Hall and compromise him. But the only thing that matters is Hauser's quiet, sibilant, and oddly sensual performance. In the fourth episode, Hall is tasked with cleaning up after a prison riot (which Jim McKay directed to be a horrifying and poetic outburst of violence), and Hauser exudes a deep, narcissistic joy that pits cleanliness against beastliness. (Apple TV+ streaming) HALE, MIKE
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| Shauna Higgins, left, and Dearbhaile McKinney in “Derry Girls.” An episode this season flashed back to when the parents on the show were rebellious teens.Credit...Netflix |
‘Derry Girls’ (Netflix)
Season 3, Episode 5
A high school reunion was employed in Lisa McGee's boisterous Northern Irish comedy to travel back in time to the 1970s and the adolescence of its Derry Mums. The half-hour included a new cast portraying its adult characters as punk-era teenagers, but McGee developed the characters' voices and personalities through three brief seasons such that you could recognize the elders in their younger iterations (and see their daughters in them as well). The bittersweet incident brought home how, like some political uprisings, juvenile rebellions transcend generations. PONIEWOZIK‘Fleishman Is in Trouble’ (FX on Hulu)
Season 1, Episode 7: ‘Me-Time'
The 2019 novel by Taffy Brodesser-Akner was meticulously recreated in this limited series, down to the upside-down images that mirrored the surreal picture of the book cover and the heavy usage of voice-over. The series' creator and this episode's author, Brodesser-Akner, works as a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine. Here, it used the powers of the film, particularly a heartbreaking performance by Claire Danes, an emotional volcano who has rarely exploded better, to pull off the novel's trademark reversal—telling the titular character's divorce narrative from the perspective of his wife. (Hulu streaming.) PONIEWOZIK
‘Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal’ (Adult Swim)
Season 2, Episodes 7-9: ‘The Colossaeus’ (parts I, II and III)
With the addition of an episode set in 19th-century England and the introduction of numerous new clans to our cave man and dinosaur heroes, "Primal" broadened its focus and historical period in its second season. The show's emotional nuance and uncompromising violence were best illustrated in this three-part bloodbath, which ended with a triumphant slave insurrection at sea. It served as a reminder that, although while cartoon violence can be draining and pointless in live-action productions, it can still be captivating and significant when used appropriately. The characters in "Primal" rarely use gesture and communicate their ideas mostly through expression, breathing, and attention. But few other shows can convey passion and suffering with such accuracy, a lifetime recounted through a single furrowed forehead. (Watching via HBO Max.) LYONS
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| Iman Vellani, right, with Aramis Knight, plays a teenager with superpowers in “Ms. Marvel.”Credit...Disney+ |
‘Ms. Marvel’ (Disney+)
Season 1, Episode 5: ‘Time and Again’
The most endearing and likeable of the Marvel shows for Disney+ thus far is Kamala Khan, a "Spider-Man"-like series about Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), a 16-year-old from a working-class immigrant family in Jersey City who learns that she has superpowers. Set during the partition of India and Pakistan, the compulsory flashback episode explaining how Kamala acquired her abilities could have easily resulted in something laborious and formal, but in the hands of the writers Fatimah Asghar and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, it was clever and surprisingly emotional. (Watchable on Disney+) HALE
‘Pachinko’ (Apple TV+)
Season 1, Episode 7
This Min Jin Lee novel adaptation's penultimate episode, which is set during and after the 1923 Yokohama earthquake, is mind-boggling in its magnitude and depiction of devastation. The expansion of Koh Hansu's (Lee Minho) portrayal is equally, subtly devastating. Koh Hansu was introduced in the series as a scary, charismatic mobster. "Chapter 7" connects him to the other Korean exiles in the series who are also forced to make difficult decisions in a hostile Japan by laying out how he started out as a young math instructor with dreams for a respectable life, then fell upon his path via tragedy and fate. (Apple TV+ streaming.) PONIEWOZIK
‘Rothaniel’ (HBO)
In recent years, a lot of "confessional" comedy has become predictable. But with this poetic and restrained show, in which he comes out as gay and examines his tumultuous connection with his family, comedian Jerrod Carmichael gives the paradigm new life. Carmichael unravels family secrets and permits tangled and unresolved facts to coexist at the same time as he weaves together sadness and laughter, understanding and fear, love and disappointment. (Watching via HBO Max.) LYONS
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| An episode of “The Simpsons,” seemingly about Lisa and Bart in the scouts, gave way to a rapid-fire series of gags.Credit...Fox |
‘The Simpsons’ (Fox)
Season 34, Episode 3: ‘Lisa the Boy Scout’
Hackers disguised as Guy Fawkes and Homer Simpson hijack a fairly unremarkable episode of "The Simpsons" and demand a $20 million ransom before releasing a torrent of "Simpsons" outtakes that are "so ill-conceived, so moronic that their publication would undermine the value of the very I.P. itself." Fortunately, nobody pays, so we may enjoy a carefully curated collection of blackout sketches written by Dan Greaney and directed by Timothy Bailey, spanning 34 seasons of characters and animation techniques. One standout scene features the Sea Captain and Groundskeeper Willie in a two-hander where the only words said are "Yar" and "Aye." (Hulu streaming.) HALE
‘Slow Horses’ (Apple TV+)
Season 1, Episode 3: ‘Bad Tradecraft’
In one way, "Slow Horses," based on Mick Herron's Slough House novels, is a parody of John le Carré's brooding, cerebral stories of the postwar British intelligence services. It is set in a fictional MI5 headquarters where out-of-favor operatives squander their time doing busy work. However, it also functions as a thoroughly credible spy thriller, complete with convoluted, plausible turns and well-executed action. The show's seesawing blend of sarcastic humor, deft characterization, and occasionally harsh suspense was best expressed in the third episode of the first season, which was written by Will Smith and directed by James Hawes. (Apple TV+ streaming.) HALE
‘Station Eleven’ (HBO Max)
Season 1, Episode 9: ‘Dr. Chaudhary’
Last year, just before the Christmas, TV's loveliest apocalypse narrative debuted, and in early 2022, it was still a gift. In the show's penultimate episode, Jeevan Chaudhary (Himesh Patel) was seen acting as a doctor in a big-box store that had been converted into a birthing facility. This was a creative expression of the show's peculiarly optimistic vision: the beginnings of humanity's future were being kindled amid the commonplace ruins of its past. Like the itinerant actors who form the core of this tale, Jeevan puts up a show that ultimately proves to be authentic and healing. (Watching via HBO Max.) PONIEWOZIK
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| An episode of “This Fool” used “Austin Powers” references to make a point about the importance of change.Credit...Hulu |
‘This Fool’ (Hulu)
Season 1, Episode 5: ‘Sandy Says’
This episode-long homage to "Austin Powers" has one of the most rewarding payoffs I watched all year in the final few seconds. "Sandy Says" is a prime example of the tricky tone "This Fool" is able to achieve, fusing the framework of conventional sitcoms with the look of auteur comedies, and finding the perfect balance of the silly and the witty. The episode is jam-packed with shagadelic Easter eggs before Luis (Frankie Quinones), who just got out of prison, partially reveals why the movie means so much to him. Luis is annoying-eighth-grader mode with his constant "Austin Powers" references. He complains, "I'm tired of wasting time living in the past. We'll hopefully change. The world is cozy and constantly changing. I have to adapt to it. That is the main theme of "Austin Powers." I used to believe that movie was a comedy, you know. But I realize now that it's a tragedy. (Hulu streaming.) LYONS
‘This Is Us’ (NBC)
Season 6, Episode 4: ‘Don’t Let Me Keep You’
Over the course of its six seasons, "This Is Us" traveled a lot, across several family trees, across the death split, and from the distant future to the present. However, it was frequently at its best when concentrating on a single narrative, as in this case, Jack's (Milo Ventimiglia) journey to Ohio to attend his mother's funeral and face the legacy of his violent father. It's an opportunity for Ventimiglia to shine, who anchored a powerful program with his understated portrayal of a father, husband, and son determined to make things right. (Hulu streaming.) PONIEWOZIK
