The 20 Best New TV Shows of 2022

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – December 27, 2022

In the gallery on this page are the highest-scoring first-year TV series (including limited series) debuting in the United States between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022. Shows are ranked by Metascore (an average of grades from top professional critics on a 0-100 scale) prior to rounding based on scores as of December 23, 2022, and any programs with fewer than 7 reviews are excluded. One-off TV specials and made-for TV movies are also excluded (though the best of these is revealed at the end of the gallery, along with a list of the year's highest-scoring returning shows).

17 of 23 photo by Courtesy of HBO

88 Mind Over Murder (HBO)

(#4) The best-reviewed true-crime series of 2022 came from Nanfu Wang, already a much-heralded director following her two most recent documentary features, One Child Nation and In the Same Breath. Her latest project is not another film but instead a six-episode HBO series that sheds light on a bizarre murder case in which six people (five of whom confessed to the crime) were convicted of murdering a 68-year-old grandmother in Beatrice, Nebraska in 1985. Thirteen years ago, all six people were exonerated by DNA evidence. So why did they confess, and what actually happened? And can memories be trusted in any criminal trial? Those are just some of the issues explored by Wang in a true-crime series that is more complex and provocative than much of its competition.

“Wang’s docuseries is vital, gripping, immersive, and profound. 'Mind Over Murder' is everything a true-crime series should be.” —Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

Watch it on HBO Max (6 episodes)

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