The Best Shows of 2022 Have Something in Common
Forget dragons. Forget sinister, squelchy alternate dimensions. Forget fugue-state globe hopping and ethereal elven world building. The maximalist, budget-busting trend in television is aesthetically overwhelming and virtually unavoidable right now. Still, the most fascinating shows of 2022 thus far aren’t the ones reconstructing Edith Wharton’s New York brick by pixelated brick or staging cinematic missions to Mars. They’re much smaller in scope and tighter in frame. They feel unmistakably confined.
, a new FX drama from the creators of , takes place predominantly in a cozy ’70s-style basement, where a character played by Steve Carell has been shackled around his ankle. , another FX show and the surprise breakout of the year, is centered on a claustrophobic restaurant kitchen in Chicago. , Apple TV+’s genially strange series about corporate capitalism run amok, features employees who are essentially trapped in the office. On Showtime’s , horrors ensue when an all-girls soccer team gets stranded in, a comedian feels gloomily oppressed by her return to her small Kansas hometown. On Season 2 of , a diva-esque comedian and her assistant spend far too much time together on a cramped tour bus.
