10 Best TV Episodes of 2022

by Julian Spivey

Photos: FX Productions, Netflix, Apple & HBO

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10. Dear Billy – Stranger Things

The fourth season of “Stranger Things,” which saw many of its episodes fleshed out to feature film-length runtimes, had a handful of stellar outings, but the one that stood out most to me is “Dear Billy,” in which Sadie Sink gives maybe her best performance of the series as Max, who is in grave danger under Vecna’s spell and at the time of watching the episode I wasn’t sure she’d survive the encounter. Meanwhile, Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) and Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) end up at a local insane asylum to interview Victor Creel, an excellent guest star in horror film legend Robert Englund, about his house and experiences with Vecna. These are told in excellent flashbacks to 1959 where we watch his entire family being horrifically mutilated.  It’s this trip where they find a key to defeating Vecna’s spell is one’s favorite music. So, we get two excellent musical moments: Ella Fitzgerald’s “Dream a Little Dream of Me” in the scariest scene you’d ever expect to hear it and Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” in an effort to save Max. 

9. Cancer Attack – Atlanta

“Atlanta” hadn’t aired an episode since season two wrapped up in 2018 due to ongoing projects within the cast and then the pandemic in 2020. Then all of a sudden half of the entire series aired in a roughly eight-month span with season three debuting in late March and ending in mid-May and the fourth and final season debuting in mid-September and ending in mid-November. It was a whirlwind of “Atlanta” and there were so many excellent offerings to choose from for this list. The third season was quite controversial for airing about half of its episodes without the main cast of characters, but I feel many of these episodes were among the series’ best and the season was unfairly maligned. My choice for this list – “Cancer Attack” – comes from season three and features one of my favorite Brian Tyree Henry performances as rapper Paperboi. In the midst of Paperboi’s European tour, he’s doing a show in Budapest when his phone goes missing. The kicker for me during this episode is Earn (Donald Glover) and Paperboi attempt to play good cop/bad cop with the person they suspect of stealing the phone. 

8. The Demon of the Road – Evil 

I continue to feel three seasons in that Paramount+’s supernatural/horror/thriller drama “Evil” is the least watched best series on television (though that could also be said of Hulu’s “Reservation Dogs” and a few others). Few episodes of “Evil” truly scare me – it’s more of a creepy horror than jump scare horror, but nothing on television in 2022 gave me such piloerection as “The Demon of the Road,” which sees investigators Father David Acosta (Mike Colter), Dr. Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) and Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi) trying to get behind a mysterious phenomenon leading to loss of power of vehicles, blood-curdling screams on the radio and lights following drivers.  

7. The End of Eli Gold - The Good Fight  

One minor criticism I’ve had of Paramount+’s “The Good Fight” throughout its excellent run, which wrapped this year, is we haven’t seen any real main characters from its predecessor “The Good Wife,” except for, of course, its lead Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski). So, I was thrilled when Alan Cumming reprised his role as attorney and political power broker Eli Gold in a couple of episodes of the show’s final season. “The End of Eli Gold” is the most nerve-wracking episode of a season filled with frayed and fragile nerves and truly speaks to today’s political climate in a frightening manner.   

6. How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall? – The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Many critics seem to be off of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” train with season four, which came in early 2022 after a two-year hiatus, but there were moments in the recent season that rank among the show’s best in my opinion. One of those moments is the season four finale “How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?,” which I believe should have won Luke Kirby the Guest Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy for his portrayal of Lenny Bruce. Bruce has put in a good word for Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) to open at the famed Copacabana for Tony Bennett, but much to his chagrin she turns the offer down. After Bruce’s epic performance at Carnegie Hall, he invites Midge backstage and rebukes her for turning down the gig, as well as pretty much any other performance that could help her career. It’s the pep talk she needs to get the engine revved up again and hopefully will lead to an amazing final season of the series. 

5. Miguel – This Is Us

There were a handful of episodes during the second half of the final “This Is Us” season on NBC that could’ve made this list, especially the penultimate “The Train” or “Day of the Wedding,” but I absolutely love that late in its final season the family drama gave the character of Miguel his time to shine in an episode sharing his name. “Miguel,” tells the entire story of Jon Huertas’ character from boyhood in Puerto Rico until his death and in the midst of it his friendship with Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and his relationship with Rebecca (Mandy Moore). It’s a beautiful episode that really gives fans all they ever wanted for probably the show’s least-covered character. 

4. The We We Are – Severance

Every episode of AppleTV+’s sci-fi/drama/thriller/black comedy (there’s truly a bit of so many genres wrapped into this show) “Severance” is an on-the-edge-of-your-seat watch. But the season one finale “The We We Are” sees our Lumon Macrodata Refinement gang on the cusp of figuring out some crucial mysteries behind the company they work for and the “severance” program they’ve undergone which separates their work life from their personal life. It’s also nice to finally get to see what Helly (Britt Lower) and Irving (John Turturro) are like on the “outside.” The episode ends in a cliffhanger so delicious I can’t wait for season two in 2023. 

3. The Captain’s Wife – Hacks

The second season of HBO Max’s “Hacks” had back-to-back episodes in the first half of its season in “Trust the Process” and “The Captain’s Wife” which are the best back-to-back episodes of any show I saw in 2023. “Trust the Process” could’ve easily been in this spot. But “The Captain’s Wife” is probably my favorite Ava (Hannah Einbinder) episode ever and the character and Einbinder’s performance really shined in season two. “The Captain’s Wife” finds stand-up comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) accidentally booked on a lesbian cruise (a crowd she historically hasn’t done well with). However, things are going better for her than expected until her comedy set when she offends essentially everybody onboard. Ava, who’s bisexual, is having the time of her life on this cruise and Deborah’s offensive set getting the two of them kicked off via a dinghy at sea provided maybe the most laughs of any TV episode all year. 

2. 710N - Barry 

The “710N” episode of “Barry” easily could’ve been the No. 1 TV episode of the year. The moment it ended I was pretty sure it would be. It feels like it’s more of a 1B than a No. 2. The episode begins with us thinking Fuches (Stephen Root), Barry’s mentor turned nemesis, might be dead. It ends with the possibility (though being the titular character an improbability) that Barry might be dead. In between, we have one of the funniest scenes on TV all year in which Sally’s (Sarah Goldberg) career is falling apart and her agent Lindsay (Jessy Hodges) and a TV executive (Vanessa Bayer) have the most ridiculous meeting and maybe the greatest car chase scene (even though it’s all on motorbikes) in the history of television that is likely the single best scene on television all year long. This episode shows Hader is an absolute auteur in the making as a director.  

1. Review – The Bear

As soon as it aired some critics were saying the season one “The Bear” episode “Review” was so great it would one day be taught in film school. The episode, written by Joanna Calo and directed by series creator Christopher Storer, is the most nerve-wracking, tension-filled episode of television I may have ever seen. Much of what makes it this way is it’s amazingly done as a single shot from the time the credits finish to its end. The camera follows the ins and outs of an absolutely horrible day at the restaurant and the performances from the entire cast are at their peak. “Review” is also the penultimate episode of the season and sends us into the finale on such a creative high, but also a devastating gut punch.