The 20 Best New TV Shows of 2022 So Far

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – July 1, 2022

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.

20 of 21 photo by Anika Molnar/Sister Pictures/BBC Studios/AMC

91 #1: This Is Going To Hurt: Season 1

This comedic, seven-episode adaptation of Adam Kay's medical memoir stars Ben Whishaw as a low-level doctor struggling with the long hours and high demands of working in an OB-GYN ward of a British NHS hospital, with the series following him (and his colleagues) both at work and in their personal lives. British critics loved the series when it aired on the BBC early this year, and American reveiwers also delivered high praise when the series began streaming on AMC+ and Sundance Now in June.

“One of the best medical dramas to hit the small screen in years. It’s an emotionally complex and uneasily hilarious examination of the U.K.’s National Health Service and a prickly character study played with a rich disinterest in likability by Ben Whishaw.” —Dan Fienberg, THe Hollywood Reporter

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