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).

18 of 23 photo by Apple

89 Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock (Apple TV+)

(#3) Remembered fondly by anyone who grew up watching it (admittedly, our sample size was only three, but still), the original Fraggle Rock was a Jim Henson-created puppet series that ran for five seasons on HBO in the 1980s. In January, Apple rebooted Fraggle Rock, retaining the original characters (and even some of the original puppeteers) and the show's blend of fantasy, comedy, and musical numbers but boosting the production values and adopting a semi-serialized format (with an ongoing ecology-based storyline). A charming revival for kids of all ages, Back to the Rock was finally renewed for a second season just a few weeks ago.

“Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock is a revival that recaptures the magic of the original and gently pushes the show into a more serialized style of storytelling—one that invigorates and makes more potent the messages threaded into the spine of this 13-episode season.” —Tara Bennett, Paste

Watch it on Apple TV+ (13 episodes + holiday special)

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