The 10 best series of 2022

From the intimate conflict to the big franchises.

From fantasy blockbusters to grounded stories.

Looking back at the 2022 series says a lot about the human being in today's world.

He wonders about his own identity and tries to deal with anxiety and grief, and at the same time, he resorts to dream worlds to escape from everyday life, to search for answers or, simply (as if it were really simple), entertainment.

Many of the most critically acclaimed titles in 2022 have deep and intimate reflections behind them.

Anxiety and mourning dominate the protagonist of

(Disney+) with the frenetic rhythm of a kitchen in the background.

The search for human connection moves the characters of the comedy-drama

(HBO Max).

The vindication of the memory of the grandmothers and the shared inheritance give their particular flavor to

(AppleTV+).

The conflict over one's own identity is behind the dystopia posed by

(Apple TV+).

The vital anguish of a lost youth presides

(HBO Max).

And the exposure of the different ways in which racism is manifested is the background of the surreal journey that he proposes.

(Disney+).

Religious conflicts torment the detective protagonist of

(Disney+).

In the British harvest, dramas such as the hangover have stood out

(Filmin), about a teenager dealing with her mother's mental illness, and the combination of realistic drama and black comedy with which

Movistar Plus+) claims public health.

Jin Ha in, in the fourth chapter of 'Pachinko'.

On the other side of the scale, one of the most celebrated series in the United States this year has been

(Disney+), a mockumentary-style comedy broadcast on free-to-air television and with teachers from the infant public school as protagonists.

Far from the bleak trends that dominate television today, her well-intentioned characters have made her a favorite among Americans.

The three investigators and

of

(Disney+) also repeated their success with their peculiar combination of comedy and suspense.

To reach the general public, the platforms know that they have more options if they turn to already known brands.

The two biggest blockbusters that have premiered this year on television had behind titles settled in the collective imagination and fantasy worlds.

(HBO Max), the prequel to

moved the family conflicts typical of a soap opera to the Targaryen house and its dragons.

At the same time,

(Amazon Prime Video) traveled to the past of Middle-earth so that the viewer would be reunited with elves, dwarves and hairy ones.

More information

Dragons vs. Elves: The Great Battle for the Throne of Epic Fantasy Is Fighting on TV

Fantasy has become strong this year with titles such as the adaptation of the comics

(Netflix) or the continuation of the eighties classic

(Disney+).

Fantasy, nostalgia and an increasingly dark touch mark the path of the young protagonists of

which dominated the conversation at the beginning of the summer with its fourth season.

The Star Wars franchise has had two powerful representatives with

and

while Marvel has added

and

(all of them on Disney+).

And if we talk about the exploitation of well-known brands, we should mention the last great television phenomenon of the year,

(Netflix), which recovers the universe of

From left to right, Selena Gomez, Martin Short, Steve Martin and Zoe Colletti, in an image from 'Only murders in the building'.

Alamy Stock Photo

Stories based on true events dominated the first half of the year.

From

(HBO Max) to

(Disney+), going through

(Disney+),

(HBO Max) or

(Netflix), all have taken recent stories and characters as a basis to turn their almost incredible stories into fiction.

The current queen of all series based on true events

(Netflix), has recently launched its fifth season with Lady Di and Carlos from England at the center.

But if we look at those games with reality from fiction, it is impossible to curl the loop more than

(HBO Max),

a cross between a social experiment and a psychological analysis of the human being commanded by Nathan Fielder.

Better Call Saul

put an end to the

era (Movistar Plus+) with a highly celebrated sixth season.

More discreetly left the zombies of

(Fox) -although they will return in numerous sequels.

This year Diane Lockhart's laughter died down with the end of

Movistar Plus+) and the

(Netflix) and the Byrde family from

(Netflix) put an end to their criminal businesses on screen.

Spanish production has also followed similar patterns.

Inner conflict, mourning, personal drama and the search for one's own identity preside over bets such as

(Amazon Prime Video),

(Netflix),

(Netflix) or

(Filmin).

Even the trip to 90's Valencia

(Atresplayer Premium) is dominated by the internal conflicts of its characters, and emotional reasons push the protagonist of

(TNT) to try to get the card.

And meanwhile, the success of

(Telecinco) on free-to-air television was the resistance in a panorama populated by the dominance of Turkish fiction.

The 10 best series of the year

The challenge faced by last year's revelation series was no less: maintaining the level without falling into complacency or nonsense.

He has overcome it by betting on continuity, just wash and mark.

The extraordinary chemistry of the leading trio, the crazy group of neighbors capable of stealing the shot from Shirley Maclaine and the Hawksian dialogues brimming with intergenerational quips (“it's like watching The Squid Game without subtitles”) continue there.

In this season, the Arconia shows the heart of it: the real one, the passageways behind the sumptuous wallpaper, and the metaphorical, Bunny Folger;

the chapter dedicated to his last day exemplifies the main strength of the series: his ability to combine tenderness, satire, melancholy and vitriolic humor without losing balance.

By

• Mysterious murder in Arconia:

  review by Eva Güimil

• A silent chapter is the most modern:

  critique of Ricardo de Querol

The television universe created by Vincent Gilliam and Peter Gould from

finds its great culmination in this series.

was based on that great series (the eighth episode of the third season was called that and there are hundreds of cross references between the two) and intended to be a comedy.

Six seasons later, the story of the racketeer lawyer Jimmy McGill (or Saul Goodman) has gone far beyond the simple

and has become one of the best series of recent times.

An unclassifiable and risky product, but one that works and stands out in the era of series made as photocopies.

By

• The goodbye of 'Better Call Saul' ends an era,

  article by Natalia Marcos

• Better Call Saul' and the aesthetics of cruelty,

  analysis by Sergio del Molino

The chef of a prestigious restaurant returns home to Chicago to take over his brother's sandwich shop.

The frenetic pace and extreme stress experienced in kitchens set the pace in this suffocating and hypnotic drama with half-hour episodes into which all of life slips in, with the good and the bad.

Shot with pulse and an almost naturalistic style, this series perfectly reflects the adrenaline and roller coaster of cooking and the ups and downs of life.

While the protagonist tries to deal with his anxiety attacks and an incomplete grieving process that has left him with a million unresolved doubts, the life and way of being of the local workers are unraveling.

The seventh episode, shot in long shot, is a display of television virtuosity.

By

• 'The Bear', one of the best series of the year, is a suffocating portrait of anxiety and mourning

  , a critic by Natalia Marcos

To

We arrived at first because of the laughter, brilliant and acid, and we stayed to live in it because of its bitter and buried tears.

The two leading women, from very different generations and backgrounds, build a bond that goes beyond sorority around both of them.

The various universes that separate two relatively close cities like Los Angeles and Las Vegas pit Ava, a wise-ass millennial TV writer canceled for a Twitter joke about a closeted gay senator, and Deborah, a veteran casino stand-up queen who wears decades struggling with nails, hairspray, sequins, heels and teeth to stay on top.

From the initial confrontation we went to the joint odyssey on a bus, hit by failures and epiphanies.

Cynical humor is for them only a momentary antidote against loneliness.

By

• 'Hacks' or the dialogues of a monologist,

  column by Ángel S. Harguindey

• Young comedy and old comedy

  , column by Sergio del Molino

A simple premise (a melancholic and embittered university professor recently separated who signs up for driving school in his 40s) serves as the starting point for a comedy that knows how to be intelligent and funny, something that does not always go together in the genre.

An excellent Juan Diego Botto leads a cast full of successes and with some outstanding supporting roles.

Wonderful David Lorente as a teacher (he would say "educator") totally dedicated and with some of the best lines in the script.

The tone and the idea of ​​limiting it to six chapters plays very well.

His creator, Borja Cobeaga, changes register again to hit the nail on the head.

By

'I don't like to drive': how doing a series is similar to learning to drive, a

column by Paloma Rando

Borja Cobeaga: "It took me longer to get my card than to do this series",

interview by Natalia Marcos

Since 2009, Diane Lockhart's laughter has graced television, first as a supporting role in

and then starring in

The lawyer played by Christine Baranski has said goodbye this year with a sixth season that has placed her protagonists in a United States on the brink of civil war as a reflection of the current political tension and polarization.

The series that has best explained the madness of Trump's United States, satirizing them and taking them to the extreme, has been sometimes excessive, other times surreal and has always played on the wire, on the verge of falling.

But he managed to hold on, miraculously.

That it appears on this list in a season that has not been the best serves as a tribute to everything that Diane Lockhart and her company have given us.

By

'The Good Fight', the end of the series that reflected this crazy, crazy, crazy world,

analysis by Natalia Marcos

Farewell with a Laugh to Diane Lockhart,

Column by Paloma Rando

If, while recommending

someone asks you to describe it, it won't be easy.

Gender?

Let's say existentialist documentary comedy.

But that does not cover its magnitude.

And what is it about?

A man helps you prepare and replicate in detail the most relevant decision of your life until you learn to face it.

maybe it's a

self help.

That wouldn't do him justice.

Or is it really a fiction wrapped in metalanguage?

If it is, its misfit creator, Nathan Fielder, will take it to the grave.

Perhaps it is all of that, and also nothing that can be summed up in a sentence.

Or yes: you can say that it is something unique, never done before.

And you stay so comfortable.

That already makes it worthy of being the best of 2022. But it is not just a bizarre facade.

He is also looking for answers;

the most important answers in existence.

Unhinged, crazy and, no matter how much you rehearse, unpredictable.

By

In 'The essays', life is a matter of trial and error,

article by Natalia Marcos

What if we could totally separate our work life from our personal life?

A company makes it possible to do so by implanting a chip that generates something like two versions of the same person in a single body.

The working version doesn't know what its outside self is doing and vice versa.

But some workers at Lumon Industries are beginning to ask themselves questions: what do they really do in that company?

What happens to workers who disappear?

What is your own life like outside there?

With a very particular aesthetic and a rhythm that accentuates the tension, this dystopian

starring Adam Scott and directed by Ben Stiller has been one of the most addictive and original series of the year and has generated the most questions and theories around it.

By

The true labor terror,

column by Sergio del Molino

'Separation', the disturbing series by Ben Stiller for those who don't miss going to the office,

article by Héctor Llanos

If it weren't for what happened, that the distribution of one of the most famous porn videos in history was due to a rock star (Tommy Lee, from the band Mötley

Crüe) humiliate and not pay a carpenter has an incredible aroma because of the stupidity of the matter.

Also to poetic justice, if it weren't for the fact that the vertex that completed the triangle was a woman, at that time one of the most desired on Earth, Pamela Anderson, who suffered contempt, misogynist comments and sarcastic murmurs from half the planet.

is written 25 years after the events, and therefore fights to restore the image of the

actress .

Bad approach.

Much better is the

tone of almost all the episodes, the reflection of the madness that surrounded an impossible marriage and a botched man who discovered in his flesh that the internet is a business in which others always get rich.

By

'Pam & Tommy': story of the first viral sex video,

article by Natalia Marcos

A dismembered gang, a duel, a disoriented music scene in its last years...

starts at the end of its story to go back two years in each chapter in what could be called a coming-of-age story in reverse: we see its characters rejuvenate and the bakalao route return to its glory hours far removed from the image that sensationalism wanted to give of it.

We know that the story does not end well – hence its first episode – but that melancholy, far from distancing us from the characters, invites us to dance with them at a party to enjoy as if it were the last.

By

• 'La ruta': why we are invaded by nostalgia for the 'after',

  analysis by Noelia Ramírez

• 'La ruta' retraces the steps of bakalao and the Valencian scene in search of its brighter and more unknown side

  , article by Héctor Llanos

Selection of Eva Güimil, Natalia Marcos, Héctor Llanos, Jimina Sabadú, Paloma Rando, Juan Carlos Galindo, Gregorio Belinchón, Sergio del Molino and Eneko Ruiz.

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