Ed Martin's Top 25 Programs of 2022 -- Part One

Better Call Saul AMC When I published my review of season six four months ago I had already made my decision Better Call Saul was the Program of the Year Saul brought the personal stories of characters it introduced throughout its run and many first seen in Breaking Bad to interesting if mostly tragic conclusions That was in its primary timeline which centered on Jimmy McGill the man who would become the Saul Goodman we first met on Breaking Bad and his true love and partner in cons Kim Wexler All of Saul happened six years before the start of the Breaking Bad story as we know it but Saul also revisited the Bad timeline in ways that enhanced hindsight appreciation for that show And at the same time it advanced the story of Gene Tacovic the hapless Cinnabon employee Saul Goodman remade himself as in order to escape detection by the FBI and the many dangerous people he crossed paths with while working for Walter White and other sketchy characters Plus Carol Burnett She39s pictured above with star Bob Odenkirk To say that franchise creator Vince Gilligan and his talented team went out on top is a trite understatement They were already there when Breaking Bad beganAbbott Elementary ABC The television industry would have us all believe that broadcast TV is increasingly outdated and will soon be obsolete And yet out of the hundreds of new and returning scripted programs that appeared this year across the linear cable and streaming landscape the most talked about show of them all is this charming contemporary network comedy about teachers at an innercity school holding it together as best they can for the benefit of their kids I mean who doesn39t love Abbott Elementary And who thinks it would have made the same wideranging splash on a streamer that it is enjoying on ABCGhosts CBS Meanwhile over at CBS Ghosts in its sophomore season continues to sparkle as yet another example of broadcast comedy done right It39s smart sweet funny inventive informative as we continue to learn about the lives and times of the many ghosts and often genuinely moving Granted it39s an adaptation of a British series but Ghosts is an example of genuine creativity coming out on top Score another plus in the broadcast columnReservation Dogs FX on Hulu This show has been enjoying wideranging support in the press since it began but as I said last year when Reservation Dogs also landed in my Top 25 column nobody covered it from the start with quite as much gusto as my MediaVillage colleague Juan Ayala So I asked his opinion of season two quotAfter a fantastic first season Reservation Dogs skillfully avoided the dreaded sophomore slump and remained as heartfelt and hilarious as everquot he replied quotStars D39Pharaoh WoonATai Devery Jacobs Lane Factor and Paulina Alexis continued to shine together as an ensemble and individually in solo episodes Season two dealt with death purpose tradition and trauma in compassionate relatable ways that many comedies have trouble pulling offquotThe White Lotus HBO The unabashedly adult nature of The White Lotus is as much a meditation on lust longing and desire as anything else It continues to remind me of 3970sera cinema which drilled deep into the American psyche in ways that Hollywood hadn39t done before Season one was also an unapologetic observation of family parenting ambition and the soulcrushing recognition that one39s dreams may never be fulfilled Round two was more like an addictive sexy beach read with much criminal behavior in the mix I39m not sure it ended the right way because on that rare occasion when one captures lightning in a bottle it39s not always wise to dispose of it Regardless at a time when seasons of so many cable and streaming series run entirely too long White Lotus always feels way too short If there is a higher compliment for a television series these days I don39t know what it isMerli Sapere Aude Netflix I39m not sure how I found this remarkable Catalan import about young philosophy students and the particularly demanding professor who isn39t afraid to say whatever it takes to challenge them but few series of recent vintage from any country have nailed the emotional psychological and physical confusion of youth with such heartfelt conviction Nor can I recall being instantly enthralled by a spinoff of something without having seen the original in this case Merli Maria Pujalte as Maria Bolano the professor who isn39t always successful at battling her own demons is a marvel And all the kids are great But Merli Sapere Aude belongs to Carlos Cuevas pictured above at right as Pol Rubio a young bisexual philosophy student coming to terms with love sex relationships and family matters while navigating much drama among his friends and family Cuevas is a sensational young actor clearly destined for global stardom He had a great 2022 also starring in the new comedy Smiley on Netflix and costarring in Leonardo on The CW If you aren39t convinced by the end of season one watch how he handles a walloping plot twist for Pol at the top of season two and see if you don39t agreeThe Good Fight Paramount The thirteenyear journey of Atty Diane Lockhart which began on CBS39 The Good Wife and continued through spinoff The Good Fight on CBS All Access and then Paramount can39t really be over can it Worldbuilders extraordinaire Robert and Michelle King can39t just stop now can they Christine Baranski is a national treasure and while we will still be able to enjoy her in HBO39s period drama The Gilded Age to never again watch Lockhart take command of a courtroom crisis express political exasperation put an unctuous acquaintance in his or her place or simply let loose with her distinctive laugh seems inconceivable With all those wonderfully vital characters from both shows still alive and well surely the Kings can find one or two to continue their vital ongoing stories Whether Lockhart appears at center stage or simply makes guest appearances is up to Baranski Whatever happens we39ll always have Wife a show that challenged broadcast drama to get smart and grow up and Fight which was crucial to the early success of two streamersThe Bear FXHulu Call it the unexpected success of the year Who would have thought that a modest little dramedy about a successful young chef who returns to his native Chicago following his brother39s suicide to run his family39s struggling sandwich shop and the varied relationships he forms with the kitchen staff there would emerge as one of the best shows of the year I39m not sure that running a show during the summer months that is largely set in a cramped sweltering kitchen was the smartest scheduling decision but why complain The Bear is a true original and the cast is uniformly terrific especially Jeremy Allen White a soulful marvel on Showtime39s longrunning Shameless who is even more marvelous hereEuphoria HBO With apologies Euphoria is easily the most addictive series on television and perhaps the best argument ever for birth control Are kids today as feral and batshit crazy as teenager Rue and her friends Are parents as toxic and useless as the quotgrownupsquot in this show I39m not sure I want to know the answers But it39s great to see a controversial American show about contemporary American teenagers that eats the bones of typical youthensemble dramas for breakfast and can proudly take a seat at the same table as similarly unfiltered shows from other countries For example the early seasons of Elite on Netflix I haven39t seen an actress so fearlessly immerse herself into so demanding a role in the way that Zendaya inhabits Rue since Edie Falco shook us up in Nurse Jackie She must be exhaustedThe Offer Paramount In my praise of The White Lotus above I referenced my profound appreciation for the movies of the 3970s The Offer literally took us inside the moviemaking machine of that era focusing on the historic development production and release of The Godfather and touching upon the execution of so many other classic movies from that time including Love Story The Getaway Chinatown and others The nostalgia of it all was intoxicating as were so many of the performances especially cool cat Matthew Goode pictured above at left as slick superproducer and studio chief Robert Evans a nicely understated Miles Teller above at right as producer Albert S Ruddy and sparkling Juno Temple as his devoted assistant Bettye McCartt And has Justin Chambers formerly of Grey39s Anatomy ever had more fun than he did here playing the legendary Marlon BrandoReboot Hulu Hulu39s delightful Reboot can take its place alongside Abbott Elementary Ghosts and Apple TV39s Ted Lasso as one of the smartest comedies currently on television A lot of thought went into the basic narrative of this show which has great fun with the industry39s unfortunate fixation on relaunching rebooting remaking or reviving classic TV programs of yesteryear If only those quotreallifequot shows were as entertaining as this one Reboot tells the story of a cynical screenwriter who successfully pitches a contemporary revival of an early 2000s family sitcom featuring the original cast who went from being big stars to mostly train wrecks in the years since the show ended The stories of the actors navigating a second shot at success are funny enough but the real comedy gold here comes in scenes set in the writers39 room where woke Millennials of questionable talent and experience clash with talented and unapologetically not woke veteran scribes as they assemble scripts The sublime cast includes KeeganMichael Key Judy Greer Johnny Knoxville Rachel Bloom and Paul ReiserEvil Paramount Is there a television series anywhere that was more fun this year than this always surprising thriller from master storytellers Robert and Michelle King Every episode seemingly careens from urgent drama to unrelenting horror to wild story twists to laughoutloud comedy and back again all incorporating aspects of digital technology that other shows dare not touch The Kings excelled at tackling tech in The Good Wife and The Good Fight too I39ll admit there are times when I39m not sure what39s going on But I don39t care It39s a ride unlike any other and I39m there until the end Cast members Katja Herbers Mike Colter Michael Emerson Aasif Mandvi Christine Lahti and the invaluable Andrea Martin must be having the time of their lives with the material they39re givenYou39ll find the rest of my Top 25 Programs of 2022 hereClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160

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Ed Martin's Top 25 Programs of 2022 -- Part One

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