The 20 Best New TV Shows of 2022 So Far
Which newcomers on the small screen have impressed reviewers the most during the first half of the year? In the gallery on this page, we rank the highest-scoring first-year TV shows (including limited series and specials) debuting between January 1, 2022 and June 30, 2022. Only shows with at least 7 reviews from professional critics are included.
If you find The Wire tough to revisit because of its (semi-)embrace of (some) cops as heroes, consider this a corrective. Not a single Baltimore cop gets a positive portrayal in the true-story HBO miniseries We Own This City, David Simon's return to the streets of Baltimore that he previously explored in both The Wire and The Corner.
Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard) and co-created by novelist George Pelecanos, and adapted from the nonfiction book by Baltimore Sun journalist Justin Fenton, the six-episode series chronicles the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force, a rogue and corrupt division that was eventually the target of a federal investigation. Jon Bernthal heads a cast that also includes Wunmi Mosaku, Josh Charles, McKinley Belcher III, Dagmara Domińczyk, Treat Williams, and some familiar faces for Wire fans including Jamie Hector, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Domenick Lombardozzi, and Anwan Glover.
“Living with these characters is gutting, watching even the most well-intentioned find themselves embroiled in something so far-reaching that it poisons the water miles from the source, and Green’s tack for dramatizing even the most innocuous of moments is what drives this series and keeps your eyes glued to the screen despite the way your stomach might turn. There’s an urgency to everything every person on-screen does, whether it’s filing paperwork, raiding a home sans warrant, or contending with memories from their own past.” —Maggie Boccella, Collider
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