Best (& Worst) Films and Series of 2022

[Mercurius]

The rules: Must either have first aired in 2022 and/or you first saw it in 2022. Your list will be highly subjective, of course (of course!), so feel free to go about it your own way...maybe they were the most entertaining (to you), the most meaningful (to you), the most well made (iyo), etc. Oh, and one sentence per film or series, to tell us why you loved (or hated) it.

List as few or as many as you want, but my suggestion would be 5-10 best and 1-5 worst (or, at least, most forgettable). Mine will be in a follow-up post (got to refresh my memory).

Alternately, you can do a "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" for films you really liked, you didn't like, and ones that stood out as particularly bad.

 

[Mercurius]

THE GOOD (Most memorable)
Possession (1983) ~ Saw this for the first time - only barely heard of it before. Isabella Adjani is amazing.
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once ~ One of those rare films that surprised me, with a bit of a lot of things. It just works.
Barbarian ~ This was a nice surprise, both with a classic horror feel but some new and unique qualities.
Men ~ Another horror film. I'm a big fan of Alex Garland, though didn't like this as much as Ex Machina or Annihilation, but still very good.
The Stranger ~ A rare film I went into not knowing what it was about, and it surprised me.
Nope ~ Not nearly as good as Get Out, but still another good film from Jordan Peele.
Severance ~ This was terrific - can't wait to see the second season.
The Bear ~ Hits a lot of great notes, and Jeremy Allen White is fantastic.
Black Spot ~ Feels a bit like a Nordic Noir, but with a supernatural (and French) bent. Loved it.
Outer Range ~ Just captures a lot of qualities I like: sci-fi, with a moody and mystical bent.
Archive 81 ~ So bummed this was cancelled!
A Bunch of Nordic Noir ~ I watched a bunch of these series this year, too many to name so I'll include them in one group. My favorites were Bordertown, Trapped, and Chestnut Man. Oh, and Marcella, Equinox, and one or two others.

There are others worth mentioning, but the list is getting unwieldy as it is...

THE BAD (Or at least very Meh)
Blockbuster ~ I only made it through one episode, but what an annoying show. It had that quality of telling you it was funny, but it actually wasn't.
Hellraiser ~ It wasn't terrible, but felt like a typical recent remake that didn't capture the best qualities of the original beyond a superficial level.
Marry Me ~ I like a good rom-com, really like Owen Wilson and have even enjoyed J-Lo in some films, but this was the definition of "forgettable."
Devil in Ohio ~ I wanted to like this, but it was just sub-par. Only watched a couple episodes.
Willow ~ OK, I only watched 15 minutes but quickly realized this wasn't for me: yet another CW-ish fantasy series that feels like 21st century America with different clothes and set pieces.

THE UGLY (I'm offended! Sorta...)
Rings of Power ~ A mockery of Tolkien, poor acted and plotted. I've said it all before.
Handmaid's Tale ~ I include this with some hesitation, because it was actually rather good in terms of cinematic quality. But it was so dark and felt like watching a snuff film (I imagine)...I made it through one season and then decided I couldn't watch any more of this. So yeah, ugly.

 

[aco175]

Out of all those listed, I only seen the Willow remake/part 2. I find it not that exciting to make me want to watch it and I only go to watch when I'm not finding something else.

I saw the Glass Onion/ Knives Out 2 which was ok but not as good as the original. Sadly not much is- except Empire Strikes Back.
Top Gun 2 was good but mostly action and a feel good to be an American film.
All Quiet on the Western Front was good but felt dragged some. I liked the camera angle shots which were a bit like 1917.
Moonfall- meh, maybe the idea was cool and some of the graphics of destruction were cool, but not much more.
Jungle Cruise with the Rock was fun, but a bit silly. I liked the idea some to maybe use for an adventure.
The Adam Project, Uncharted, Thor L&T, Dumbledore, were all fine enough and watchable, not Morbius which was a waste like Samaritan and Black Adam.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'd categorize things differently and probably list more than suggested because my brain works funny and I won't remember the ones I really liked unless I do:

Seriously Good

The Bear - Ohhhh you so nearly got it perfect, but you just had to go a little too trope-y broad (I don't buy ANYONE in that kitchen would eat a doughnut off the floor, let alone those two characters). But still a completely great show, and I can't wait to see more of it.
Andor - Amazing. I really thought I'd hate it, because I loathed Rogue One, but it's easily my favourite Star Wars show and one of my favourite SW things ever.
House of the Dragon - It really didn't seem like it was going to be, but then it got it's act together right at the end.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Literally the best Star Trek made since the 1990s. Also the best/only actually-good first season in any Trek show. Already better than the 1st seasons of either TNG or DS9 (maybe than the second season of TNG too).
Severance - What is there to say? It was great.
Slow Horses - Best spy thing of recent decades. Possibly better than the books, even. Gary Oldman is not an actor I consistently love, but when he's on, he's on, and oh my god is he on!
Top Gun: Maverick - I don't want to put Maverick on here, don't make me! But it was so ridiculously good at what it did. Better than the original for sure.

Fun Good

Willow - Delightful D&D-esque fun fantasy instead of the po-faced crap we're normally dealing with.
Everything Everywhere All At Once - this is borderline. It was overlong and heavy-handed, but when it was good it was extremely good.
Archer - Something of a return to form after some dubious seasons.
Justified - I watched all of Justified over 2022, many years late to the party. It was pretty fun in a really silly way.
Physical - Really fun despite the depressing '80s vibes, still need to watch S2 though
Our Flag Means Death - Absolutely lovely show.
Downfall: The Case Against Boeing - "They had me in the first half" as they say - this documentary had me yelling at the screen a lot in the 30-50 minutes but then it dropped the hammer and actually became legit, and extremely effectively summarized and explained the whole situation, and went from being "Uh oh" to "Oh good".
The Batman - I was incredibly surprised that Goth Nirvana Batman was in fact best 21st century Batman. Soz Bale/Nolan, but this is more actually-Batman ("NO TRUE BATMAN!" and so on lol).
SAS: Rogue Heroes - Watched out of boredom. Was shocked that I loved it because it sounded eyeroll-y.
Bad Sisters - Same review as SAS: Rogue Heroes lol.

Questionable but watchable

Rings of Power - 95% of people who actively hate (ignoring racists etc.) this is are totally fake/surface-deep Tolkien "fans" who don't actually get the mythology Tolkien created nor understand his legendarium in a way beyond "I READ THE SILMARILLION!!!!" but also it wasn't great lol. Felt kind of like MERP the TV series lol/
Archive 81 - I wanted to like it a lot more than I liked it. On paper it is 100% my groove. In practice it was a bit... overwrought?
Wheel of Time - It's not a good show, but I enjoyed watching it.
She-Hulk - I felt like they needed to not do the terrible courtroom scenes which just made Jen look like the worst lawyer in human history (I mean jesus), but this show has something, and landed a tricky ending imho.
Unsolved Mysteries - ABSOLUTE TRASH and you can take it from cold dead hands. I dunno why I love this trash but I do.
Avatar: The Way of Water - A good movie? Hard to say. A very watchable movie that I couldn't take my eyes off, and that had an actually great action-finale of the kind I haven't seen for what feels like a decade or more? Yeah. So those plasma exhausts, my inner SF nerd nearly died.

Meh/Boring

MCU absolutely dominating this category because I tend to watch it so I can talk to friends about it even though I am increasingly bored out of my mind with it. Give me the X-Men or give me the sweet release of death!

Thor: Love & Thunder - also naughty word off using cancer as a plot in such a dumb way and also naughty word off doing the naughty word "stage 4 = death sentence" trope.
Ms Marvel - It started off great, with a loveable family, a delightful lead, cute graphics and music, and then went completely off the rails but suddenly introducing some badguys who were, despite their alleged "just want to go home" motivation, were just mindless psychopaths and oh they want to end the world (?!!?) and oh wow yikes they all just got brutally murdered (mostly with knives) in a massive tonal shift and oh wow tonal whiplash as we're suddenly doing Gen Z Home Alone and oh jesus tonal whiplash AGAIN as we're supposed to care about a character who has been nothing but a wanker, and take this all seriously. What a car crash.
Wakanda Forever - More like Wakanda Went On Forever, amirite? < people booing > Whaaaaat? It started well, good funeral, great cast, good performances, ohhh they made Namor and just as much of a dick as he should be, good job, and then... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... like did anything really happen between like, the fight on the bridge in NYC and the final showdown because I can barely remember it if so.
Dr Strange and the WHY AM STILL WATCHING MARVEL MOVIES? - Sam Raimi wasn't enough to stop this being an inch deep (even by MCU standards) and an hour too long. Just "who cares?" stuff.

Actively Bad

Fewer things here than I expected because I think I got pretty good at identifying TV series which are gonna suck before watching them or when 5 minutes in to the first episode. Whereas I always give documentaries a chance to redeem themselves.

Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story - HOW THE HELL do you mess up a documentary about a monster like this? Especially when you have amazing access and clearly a large budget? Well, you do it by basically skipping/jumping around the entire story of the guy's offending, especially excluding almost everything about how the police were a huge factor in this. Despite being extensively covered in all serious reporting on Savile, and getting a lot of coverage in the broadsheets, the "documentary" basically straight-up whitewashes/covers up the significant involvement of two police forces in essentially enabling Savile's offending. It's disgusting. This a real travesty of a documentary. They basically treat all the enabling as sort of "unfortunate accidents", which is just horrible, because it's not what well-recorded history shows.
Fear City: New York City vs The Mafia - I mean, I can't even use the appropriate words to describe this in front of Eric's Grandma, but this was a VERY BAD documentary of what is a very interesting period in NY history. Just oversimplified to the point of active misrepresentation of the facts and realities.
The Eternals - < Maniacal laughter > Easily the worst film I've intentionally watched in the last five years. Wow.


Also watched a bunch of forgettable crime series which were either "meh" or "questionable" and I ended up half-watching at most, like Three Pines (YOU WASTED ALFRED MOLINA HOW DARE YOU!) and The Shining Girls (wanted to like it but the badguy was just miscast, frankly) or um that nutso British psychic one on Prime which I kinda loved but was dumb as a box of rocks.

I've missed a bunch of good stuff but I feel like I've gone too long already.

 

[payn]

Movies
The Good:
The Banshes of Inisherin
Glass Onion
The Batman
Death on the Nile

The Meh:
Bullet Train
The Gray Man
Top Gun Maverick
Nope

Woof!:
Black Adam

Series
Must see TV
Night Sky
House of Dragon
Doom Patrol
Archive 81

Show hole stuff
Tulsa King
Resident Evil
The Peripheral
Reacher
Outer Range
Tokyo Vice

Dont see TV
Rings of Power
Halo
Wheel of Time
The Terminal List

 

[Older Beholder]

Thought I'd just do a top 10 films of 2022

1. Banshees of Inisherin
2. Nope
3. After Yang
4. Puss in Boots : the last wish
5. The Menu
6. The Northman
7. Glass Onion
8. Everything Everywhere all at once
9. Triangle of Sadness
10. You Won't be Alone

Probably missed some stuff here, but it was a pretty good year for films.
I'll have a think about TV shows and maybe respond later.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I'm going to go off the beaten track, well, partially, for my 2022 list. This won't include the usual geeky shows we all spend so much time obsessing over. So even though I loved Andor and Peacemaker and Ms. Marvel and Strange New Worlds (as did my couch mate SNARFZODIACKILLER!!!!!), they won't be considered.

Also? I don't think I watched much that was bad this past year ... life is too short for bad.

So ... the good stuff.

TV SHOWS (10)
The Bear.
I didn't believe the hype. And then I finally got around to watching it on Hulu. If you've ever worked in, or near, a kitchen ... well, you'll feel this. Just an absolute banger of a first season.

Severance.
I wrote a thread about this when it first came out (the best show no one is watching) and, eventually, people started watching it. It so perfectly captures the disquieting anomie in the modern workplace, but also the little ties that bind people together.

The Rehearsal.
There is little I can say about this that hasn't been said. Either you think Nathan Fiedler is a creative genius, or you hate every moment of this. I fall in the first camp, and remain stunned that anything so brilliant and so strange made it TV.

The White Lotus.
Who says camp can't also be incredibly thought-provoking? Besides, you've seen my avatar.

Irma Vep.
Does the TV show comment on the movie, or on the TV show, or the original Irma Vep, or on the life of the creative people behind it?
Yes.

Hacks.
Season 2 somehow managed to build on what was a perfect Season 1.

Barry.
I put this here because, as TV shows go on in time, people start to lose interest. Don't lose interest in this one. What started as a comedy with dark moments became a dark comedy and is now ... well, it's dark. But still anchored by absolutely brilliant performances.

Station Eleven.
Given the recent pandemic, it was a tough watch at times ... but it was also so very good.

WeCrashed/Dropout.
Both shows say a lot about modern capitalism ... none of it very flattering.

What We Do In Shadows.
It's funny.

Note- There are several shows that are likely going to be on the list, like We Own This City, but I haven't seen them yet.

 

[payn]

Barry.
I put this here because, as TV shows go on in time, people start to lose interest. Don't lose interest in this one. What started as a comedy with dark moments became a dark comedy and is now ... well, it's dark. But still anchored by absolutely brilliant performances.

I want to like Barry, but man this show (despite great performances) is just swirling the misery porn drain. Sorry, ive lost interest and im not going back.

Special note: Peacemaker felt like an SNL movie. By that I mean a really funny 5 min sketch that makes a very long and tired 90min movie. Convert that into a series and you have Peacemaker.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I want to like Barry, but man this show (despite great performances) is just swirling the misery porn drain. Sorry, ive lost interest and im not going back.

Not all shows are for all people. I think that what Barry does, quite masterfully, is slowly subvert the expectations of the viewer. You get caught up in the comedy, and the identification with the protagonist (Barry), and the desire for a happy ending ... but it's not about misery porn, it's about the concept that Barry isn't a hero, he's damaged. And he damages those around him.

In other words, you come for the comedic premise (What if a real hitman wanted to be an actor?), but you find that this is entertwined with a drama (What happens when all the consequences of your actions are coming back on you?).

It's as if you married Get Shorty and The Shield, which is what makes it one of the most fascinating genre exercises I can remember.

Special note: Peacemaker felt like an SNL movie. By that I mean a really funny 5 min sketch that makes a very long and tired 90min movie. Convert that into a series and you have Peacemaker.

To each their own, again. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, and think that it s far from a one-note show. But it's certainly no Barry!

 

[payn]

Not all shows are for all people. I think that what Barry does, quite masterfully, is slowly subvert the expectations of the viewer. You get caught up in the comedy, and the identification with the protagonist (Barry), and the desire for a happy ending ... but it's not about misery porn, it's about the concept that Barry isn't a hero, he's damaged. And he damages those around him.

In other words, you come for the comedic premise (What if a real hitman wanted to be an actor?), but you find that this is entertwined with a drama (What happens when all the consequences of your actions are coming back on you?).

It's as if you married Get Shorty and The Shield, which is what makes it one of the most fascinating genre exercises I can remember.

I get the gimmick, im just not buying it. If it had ended already it might be a great series and exercise, but im afraid this thing is going to keep going into irrelevancy. Hardly a problem unique to Barry.

To each their own, again. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, and think that it s far from a one-note show. But it's certainly no Barry!

It certainly is no Barry. I do want to say I loved the Foster the People joke complete with metal cover at end of the episode. That kind of thing was far and few between sadly.