It’s another list! Below are my most anticipated seasons of television in the coming year, including the welcome return of many shows that have been in development limbo since early 2020. It’s frankly shaping up to be an amazing year of television. Enough preamble!
Honorable Mentions: Moon Knight (Disney+); What We Do in the Shadows – Season 3 (FX); Star Wars: The Mandalorian – Season 3 (Disney+); Squid Game – Season 2 (Netflix); House of the Dragon (HBO Max); Ozark– Season 4 (Netflix)
10. Secret Invasion (Miniseries, Disney+) – Late 2022
Of the handful of Marvel series coming this year, this show barely edges out Moon Knight as the most promising. My only reservation is it’s adapted from an ambitious storyline that would be better suited for an Avengers-level film where several characters are revealed to be shape-shifting Skrulls, so we’ll see how this series, with only a handful of returning stars (among them Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn), handles the large-scale premise.
9. The Boys (Season 3, Amazon) – June 3, 2022
This transgressive adaptation of the vulgar comic series has smartly dialed back some of the tonal shock factor of the source material but retained the absorbing, profane, and darkly funny story elements about the cynical world filled with shitbag superbeings.
8. Atlanta (Season 3, FX) – March 24, 2022
Donald Glover’s show is returning after a lengthy pause: the sometimes-surrealist dramedy about an aspiring rapper in Atlanta that has turned into one of the most poignant and sharply-written dramas on television, filled out by an outstanding cast (Brian Tyree Henry, LaKeith Stanfield, and Zazie Beetz).
7. Barry (Season 3, HBO) – TBA 2022
Barry‘s initial black humor premise has wrought genuine dramatic tension and stakes, with show creator and star Bill Hader’s incredible range as hitman-turned-aspiring-actor in LA. After a teasing cliffhanger from 2019’s second season, I’ve been dying to see what Hader has in store with his completely-written third and fourth seasons.
6. Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi (Miniseries, Disney+) – May 25, 2022
Is this perhaps the final Star Wars product to unite all the disparate factions of Star Wars fandom? This is the property that should have been fast-tracked from the initial purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney. As one of the universally-liked elements of the Star Wars prequels, Ewan McGregor’s return as not-as-young Obi-Wan Kenobi is highly-anticipated. The show is expected to follow his exile to Tatooine and will surprisingly feature the return of Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, with concept art teasing a rematch between the two (before their eventual final rematch in 1977’s Star Wars). I probably should temper my expectations; Disney’s track record with their shows is rocky, especially with the uneven The Book of Boba Fett and how much their budgets seemed to be stretched with all Disney+ series—but I can’t help feeling a rush of adrenaline at the thought of this. And it’s dropping on the 45th anniversary of Star Wars! Please be good.
5. Rick and Morty (Season 6, Adult Swim) – Late 2022
Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland’s animated sci-fi comedy is one of the funniest shows on television and a new season is rumored to drop later this year. The show plays perfectly to Harmon and Roiland’s comedic strengths, offering perfect deconstructions of genre tropes and storytelling—that Harmon also employed to great effect on Community—and finding genuine moments of gravitas baked in the comedy.
4. Better Call Saul (Season 6, AMC) – April 18 & July 11, 2022
Better Call Saul is the best show I never think about. I don’t mean that as a dig; as the prequel series to Breaking Bad, Saul is one of the smartest-written and superbly-acted series of the last decade, following the decline of Bob Odenkirk’s earnest Jimmy McGill into the slimy, smooth-talking Saul Goodman. It’s also the best kind of prequel, never succumbing to cheap fan service, but always offering in-universe justifications for any ties to Breaking Bad. It never coasts on fan goodwill, crafting dynamic stories and introducing characters that rival any featured on Breaking Bad. The sixth and final season is airing this year (in two parts) and I’m truly thrilled to see where Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould take this story.
3. Stranger Things (Season 4, Netflix) – Summer 2022
I can’t tell if culture has turned on Stranger Things. Is it now uncool to be so excited for this show that is unashamed nostalgia-bait? Obviously some of the shine and novelty has left the series since it exploded out of nowhere in summer 2016, but I don’t really care; even in the weaker moments of the series, I have too much fun with these characters and romanticized 80s vibe. Yes, it probably should’ve been an anthology series, and yes, it will probably overstay its welcome by the time the series wraps up…but I’m a sucker for coming-of-age stories that follow performers naturally aging through those formative years.
2. Succession (Season 4, HBO) – TBA 2022
If The Sopranos and The Wire defined “prestige television” in the 2000s, and the mantle fell to Breaking Bad and Mad Men in the 2010s, then Succession is the natural successor for this decade. It is the best show on television right now and you all should be watching it.
1. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Season 1, Amazon) – September 2, 2022
Amazon dropped a staggering $2 billion on this property, clearly angling to be the next Game of Thrones. Only time will tell if that investment pays off, but they’ve signaled the right moves so far. They’ve set the story thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings, just close enough to include a handful of fan-favorite immortal characters, but far enough in the timeline so as to not completely remove dramatic tension. They’re also seemingly committed to practical effects and largely filmed the series in New Zealand (although they have since moved production to the U.K. for the already-announced second season). It has the right pedigree and could possibly be a dynamite experience. I’ve been burned before, but come on. It’s Lord of the Rings. If we’re watching any show this year, this is it.
