There are endless out there to get you started (the critics are right:you should definitely watch),but there are also so many shows that aren’t getting the love they deserve.
To help you out,our team of culture writers have picked their favourite hidden gems:the shows that more people should have been talking about in 2022.
We Own This City (Foxtel/Binge)
Considering the success ofThe Wire,and its role in helping usher in the golden age of television,you would have expected a show created by its showrunner David Simon also focusing on corruption and urban decay in Baltimore to have been a massive hit.
Sadly,that wasn’t quite the case for HBO’sWe Own This City,despite the fact that it was at least as good as its spiritual ancestor (and potentially even better). Inspired by the true story of a corrupt unit within the Baltimore police force,the show featured Jon Bernthal in what was one of the best TV performances of the year.
The choppy,non-linear narrative takes a minute to get used to,but as the series unfolds over six episodes,the non-traditional storytelling approach works to help remind us that corruption is a function of systemic problems,not just individual character failings.
It’s tight,exhilarating and satisfying in its short run,but I would happily have lived in this universe for another five seasons. OF
From Scratch (Netflix)
If you are inspired to stay in Sicily post- for your streaming delights,check outFrom Scratch. A friend in America called especially to tell me to watch it as she could see some of my own life story in the one recreated by Netflix starring Zoe Saldana and Eugenio Mastrandrea.
It is filmed in Sicily,Florence and Los Angeles and is a beautiful,passionate and heart-wrenching,real love story based on the memoir of the same name by Tembi Locke. That book was a bestseller thanks to the blessing from Reece Witherspoon’s book club,and the excellent adaptation was tightened by Locke’s TV writing sister Attica.
As its name suggests there is some cooking “from scratch” given the black Texan protagonist meets her future husband,an Italian chef,on the streets of Florence. But it is also about starting “from scratch” and beginning life again. Perfect new year’s viewing:an authentic tale of love,loss and lentils.HP
Killing It (Stan)
A show about slaughtering snakes in the Florida Everglades isn’t usually the type of thing that would be top of my watch list,but this surprisingly sharp comedy from some of the minds behindBrooklyn Nine-Nine was one of my favourite shows of the year.
Killing It follows hapless entrepreneur Craig (The Office’s Craig Robinson) and Jillian (Australian comedian Claudia O’Doherty),an eccentric Uber driver who lives inside the billboard she tows from her car,as they try to win a $US20,000 ($30,000) python-killing prize to eke their way out of working poverty.
The 30-minute episodes are really fun and easy to watch,but a few might also sneak up on you. Whether waiting in line all day to vote or trying to seduce wealthy jerks while possibly caught up in fraud during an escalating TaskRabbit caper,there’s an underlying sadness to these perpetual hustlers. The resulting show is one of best and most absurd satires of class in modern America going today.MW
Welcome to Wrexham (Disney)
There’s no questionWelcome To Wrexham would not have happened without Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. But there’s no escaping the fact that theDeadpool star and the creator ofIt’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,who bought the Welsh non-league soccer team for £2 million ($3.6 million) in 2021,are the least interesting thing about this 18-episode documentary series.
They take on the project of ownership as a business exercise – rapidly scooping up sponsors,splashing the cash on new turf and players,and generally trying to buy success and the all-important promotion to the televised (and thus better remunerated) divisions. But it’s in the focus on the fans,the hooligans,the players and the club as a whole where the show really earns its stripes.
It’s a gloriously well-rounded portrait of the relationship between a team and a town,with the inherently compelling narrative arc of a season and the ultimate prize at its end to push things along to an edge-of-the-seat conclusion. Brilliant.KQ
Home Economics (Stan)
Please believe me when I say the next part of this sentence is actually praise:Home Economics is the kind of show you can watch while doing your chores. It’s light wholesome fluff that you can mentally tune out of for five minutes while you chop up some onions and still easily follow where things are at with the episode’s mild crisis of the week.
Home Economics centres on the three adult Hayworth children,each of whom are at a different socioeconomic level. Topher Grace (That ’70s Show),plays the same character he always does,just with a different name and occupation. Here,he is a novelist reeling from the failure of his last book. So,he decides to write a book about his family’s financial discrepancies titled – you guessed it –Home Economics.
The central tension (that his siblings will find out about his book) falls over early in the series,and from there everything just centres on low-stakes sitcom antics. It’s fun,low-stress and very watchable.EF
Derry Girls (Netflix)
You wouldn’t know it watchingThe O.C.,Gossip Girl orEuphoria,but high school is mostly.
Thankfully,2022 served us up some shows which at least attempted to create characters who look and act less like a 24-year-old Blake Lively and more like the slightly anxious teen with the locker next door. and were standouts,but an honourable mention must also go to Irish teen comedyDerry Girls.
The first two seasons weren’t necessarily underrated,but the third and final instalment didn’t really get the attention in deserved. In 2022,creator and writer Lisa McGee achieved a rare feat in wrapping up the story with a charming,hilarious and wholly satisfying season bookended by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement,which brought an end to a turbulent period in Irish politics.
A Liam Neeson cameo,a Fatboy Slim concert and a soundtrack full of The Cranberries help make this an endearing and seriously rewatchable snapshot of life on the Irish border in the ’90s. Dead on,as they say in Derry.AT
Wolf Like Me (Stan)
Josh Gad (Frozen,Beauty and the Beast) is not everyone’s idea of a compelling romantic lead – hell,he may not be anyone’s – but there’s a genuine and surprising chemistry between him and the always-bewitching Isla Fisher in this werewolf rom-com set in Adelaide (though filmed in Sydney).
From writer-director Abe Forsythe (Down Under,Little Monsters),the show is so much better in practice than on paper. Gad plays a single dad struggling to deal with the death of his wife;Fisher brings all her considerable manic pixie energy to the role of a woman trying to keep her dark secret under wraps:come the full moon,she eats people. It’s an uneasy mix of laughs,horror and genuine emotional depth and,amazingly,it works.KQ
Bad Sisters (Apple)
It’s one thing to start your season with a dead body,but quite another to give it an erection and call it “the prick” from the get-go. But as a dual timeline reveals over the course of 10 episodes,it’s a well-earned moniker for our dead man walking,John Paul.
Co-created by Sharon Horgan (who also plays the lead),Bad Sisters is murder-comedy at its most gratifying,with excellent whodunit suspense. The show follows five sisters,Eva,Becka,Bibi,Ursula and Grace (who is the subservient wife of John Paul),and as the story unfolds,I find myself audibly barracking for the would-be killer/s.
But it works beyond that because it offers something genuine underneath;five women making their way through life,nailing it,stuffing it up,and unflinchingly having each other’s back. When I’m not sharing their murderous thoughts,I want to be swimming with the Garvey sisters at their Dublin waterhole;eating at their hectic,heart-filled table;and joining them for just a little bit of the very lot of wine they seem to go through.KL
Bonus pick:This Way Up (Stan)
Yes,this show wasn’t actually released this year,but it’s a must-see that somehow snuck under the radar via Stan in 2021,and I only caught up on it in 2022.
I would follow Sharon Horgan ofBad Sisters andCatastrophe anywhere,and it was her involvement that led me to findThis Way Up. The BAFTA Award-winning series tells the story of two Irish sisters living in London:Aina,played by Aisling Bea (who created and wrote the series) – herself a revelation – and Shona,by Horgan (who also serves as executive producer).
A teacher of English as a second language,Aina is recovering from a nervous breakdown,while Shona is grappling with commitment,career and her sister’s issues dominating her life. It manages to be laugh-out-loud funny while also tackling the complexity of mental illness.KO
Find out the next TV,streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees..
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