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).

6 of 23 photo by Showtime

83 We Need to Talk About Cosby (Showtime)

(#15) It's a genre that has produced hours of quality television, yet it is also one we wish didn't exist. Following in the footsteps of recent eye-opening docuseries like Leaving Neverland , Allen v. Farrow, and Surviving R. Kelly, W. Kamau Bell's four-part Showtime series examines the life of Bill Cosby through the lens of the present day, when numerous sexual assault charges have been leveled at the one-time comedy legend. Critics praised Bell's nuanced and comprehensive approach.

“The series is a comprehensive, harrowing, and exhaustive look at Cosby’s rise in the entertainment industry, his strategic self-branding throughout the decades of his career, and the unimpeachable impact he had in changing Black culture and how Black Americans are viewed in this country. ... The series also painstakingly builds the other pillar of Cosby’s legacy, brick by haunting brick: the graphic detail of the dozens of assaults alleged by his survivors.” —Kevin Fallon, The Daily Beast

Watch it on Showtime (4 episodes)

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