My favorite non-movie things of 2022
Let’s start counting this year out.
Are we really nearing the end of this year? It seems hard to believe; after two years that seemed to crawl by, this one has moved at a bullet’s pace. The return, for better or worse, to full-on normalcy after the restrictions of the pandemic, coupled with some life changes in our household that were a bit trickier to navigate than we anticipated, means I often felt like I was holding on for dear life as a train rocketed through the months.
But here we are, approaching mid-December, and it’s time to start looking back at the last 12 months.
Full disclosure: There won’t be a Best Movies of 2022 list for me until next year. I often depend on year-end critics group screeners to help me catch up on everything released near the end of the year, but the Detroit Film Critics Society – which would have celebrated its 15th year in 2022 – unfortunately disbanded this year. It bummed me out, partially for the screeners but mostly because I loved being part of that community of very smart, savvy film lovers.
So, I’ll be spending time during my two weeks off over the Christmas break – as well as much of the snowy, cold month of January – catching up on the movies I missed this year. I actually have a list of 10 films that I could release right now that I’d be very happy with; but I know there’s still a bunch I missed that I’m curious about and want to spend time with, so I’m going to do my due diligence. Look for my Best Movies of 2022 list to drop Jan. 31.
But that doesn’t mean there’s no list-making going on. Next week, I have a fun list that I’m going to drop that is movie-related. And this week, I thought I’d give my list of the top TV shows, books and podcasts of the year, as well as the five pieces from this newsletter that I’m most proud of over the year.
A bit of housekeeping: There may be a few other random newsletters over the next few weeks; it’s possible there’s a Franchise Friday that may hit before Christmas if time allows. There’s a We’re Watching Here episode that I need to finish editing this weekend. And on December 23, I’ll put out a piece that puts a personal bow on the year for me, before closing my laptop down for two weeks.
But there’s still a ways to go before that. So, let’s start counting 2022 out the door.
My 5 Favorite TV Shows of 2022
Severance (Apple TV+)
Ben Stiller’s dystopian drama is a slow burn, and I’ll admit I spent some time during the first few episodes wondering if my patience and attention would be rewarded. I got my answer during the series’ final, compulsively watchable four episodes, which ended with the best cliffhanger of the year. Adam Scott stars as a low-level drone for a mysterious company who undergoes a procedure that bifurcates his memories between work and home. Throughout the season, he and his coworkers begin to piece together their employer’s secrets and find a way to discover the secret lives of their “outies.”
During a time when we’re rethinking our relationships to work and the prominence it plays in our lives, this show is amazingly prescient and relevant. It asks deep and sometimes unsettling questions and isn’t afraid to follow its characters into bizarre corners of its world. And it does all this while keeping their humanity in check; a relationship between Christopher Walken and John Turturro is one of the warmest and most heartbreaking subplots of this first season. Stiller and his cohorts' direction is fantastic, and the cast – which includes Patricia Arquette, Britt Lower and Zach Cherry doing stand-out work in addition to the others – is fantastic. When the first season ended, I groaned; not in any negative response to the show but because I knew I’d have to wait too long to get to the next season.
Better Call Saul (AMC)
One of the most anguishing questions of the year for me was how this Breaking Bad spinoff would conclude. Would Saul Goodman pay the ultimate price for his crimes, or would Slippin’ Jimmy skate away once more? In the end, in one of the most satisfying series finales I’ve seen – one that improves on Breaking Bad’s – the answer was a bit more complex.
But it was a tense ride getting there. This final season was split into two halves, with its first run of episodes concluding on one of the most shocking moments of its run and the second opening on a devastating one-two punch. Throughout, as we finally got our glimpse at how likable but flawed lawyer Jimmy McGill turned into the amoral “Criminal” lawyer Saul Goodman, Bob Odenkirk led the best ensemble on TV, with Jonathan Banks, Michael Mando, Tony Dalton, Patrick Fabian, Giancarlo Esposito and – especially – Rhea Seahorn turning in career-defining performances. The show was beautifully filmed and its final rush of episodes brought a tense, heartbreaking and layered end to one of TV’s greatest shows.
The Bear (Hulu)
If I was tempted at times to walk away from Severance’s early episodes because they moved a bit too slow, I had the opposite problem with The Bear. The show is a full-on streaming service panic attack, a riveting look at egos colliding in a high-pressure Chicago kitchen. The first episode stressed me out so bad that I wasn’t sure I wanted to revisit the show (and its nerve-wracking, one-shot seventh episode is still one of the most nerve-wracking television episodes I’ve seen).
But I’m glad I stuck with it. Christopher Storer’s show is a visceral look at the pressure-cooker of working in the restaurant business, a career that sends its chefs home with nightmares and health problems. But at heart, it’s also a show about family, healing, and finding the balance between passion and obsession. James Allen White leads an outstanding cast of characters who slowly reveal themselves to have their own hopes, dreams, frustrations and anxieties. The food looks amazing (I’ve been craving a hot beef sandwich since August) and the show is often just as funny and touching as it is stressful and shrill. When the season ended, it seemed like a fitting finale for the series. But a second season’s been approved, and I’ll happily say “Yes, Chef” to more.
Peacemaker (HBO Max)
Big-screen superheroes mainly weren’t my thing this year. Yeah, I had fun with Doctor Strange and Thor, but the second Black Panther frustrated me. Marvel’s biggest successes seemed to be when it allowed itself to break free of its obsession with continuity and let loose with holiday tales or She-Hulk. And yes, I really enjoyed Matt Reeves’ The Batman, but have to acknowledge that as visually striking as it is, it is, yet again, a dark and gritty take on Batman.
No piece of comic book entertainment was as fun or thoroughly satisfying as James Gunn’s Peacemaker. A spin-off of The Suicide Squad (which I liked but didn’t love) featuring John Cena’s character (who was one of my least favorite things about this movie), I was prepared to write this off and only tuned into the first episode out of obligation. What I got instead was a crass and hyper-violent, but surprisingly heartfelt, story about broken people in a cobbled-together family, powered by the best soundtrack of the year (and featuring possibly the best opening credits sequence ever). As he often does, Gunn combines a wicked and pitch-black sense of humor with earnestness, and Cena goes to dramatic places I didn’t know he could. It’s big, loud fun and ends on one of the greatest final beats for these type of shows. I can’t wait for season 2, especially now that Gunn is in charge of the DC empire and can be fully unleashed.
What We Do in the Shadows (FX)
Baby Colin Robinson. Vampire nightclubs. Nandor’s Djinn. Matt Berry’s pronunciation of “New York City.” TV’s funniest and filthiest show kept getting funnier and filthier in its fourth season, and I think it’s safe to say that we can have legitimate conversations about whether this show has surprised the heights of hilarity of its cinematic predecessor.
My 5 Favorite Books of 2022
Billy Summers by Stephen King
It's a bit infuriating to read this and realize that not only is Stephen King a master of horror, not only has he crafted one of the best long-form fantasy series, and not only did he write one of the few really good books about the craft...yeah, he can also spin a pretty good crime yarn as well. Reading Billy Summers, you can see the influence of writers like Lee Child or Don Winslow, but what makes the story cook is King's humanity. Yes, the hero is a killer. But the novel's beating heart is the relationships he forms with others. Add to that a subplot about the joys of writing and finding your voice, and it's possibly King's best novel since Revival.
The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman
I'm not sure how this book will hit those who didn't come of age in the Nineties, but I found it to be an antidote to nostalgia, a clear-eyed look at the attitudes, perceptions and ideologies that fueled us for a decade and seem almost quaint today. Klosterman examines the pop culture, politics and aesthetics of the decade, cutting beyond a simple conclusion that it was the generation of "whatever" and alternative music, and instead painting a picture of something more complex and contradictory.
But how do you do a 300-plus page book about the Nineties and only mention "The Simpsons" offhandedly once?
Analog Christian: Cultivating Contentment, Resilience and Wisdom in the Digital Age by Jay Y. Kim
Essential reading for those of us who need to remember to disconnect and tend to our soul. Kim, a pastor out in the Silicon Valley, explores social media and digital technology through the lens of the Fruit of the Spirit, concluding that these platforms and tools often develop the opposite of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. It’s not a Luddite screed that tells us to log off and cancel our social media accounts, but it is a call to sober and discerning use of these tools, and a reminder that they can’t replace lived-in relationships and service. As we continue to burrow deeper into our electronic hideaways, this book is a much-needed balm.
Blood, Sweat and Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road by Kyle Buchanan
Kyle Buchanan's meticulous oral history covers every facet of making Mad Max: Fury Road, from its conception through its Oscar successes. It's colorful, honest and mind-blowing. I read it quickly, and it's a testament to Buchanan's reporting AND the magnificence of the movie that I somehow know everything about how this movie got to the screen, and I still don't believe it exists or that no one died making it. This just solidifies Mad Max: Fury Road as one of the best movies of the last 25 years.
Tinder Box: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers by James Andrew Miller
For 50 years, HBO has changed the face of TV; to the point where “it’s not TV, it’s HBO” is kind of true. Miller, who was also co-writer on the essential Live From New York oral history of SNL, crafts a similarly exhaustive look at HBO's storied history. It’s most interesting when it focuses on the early, scrappy maneuvers it made to gain footholds in sports and TV, and then when it delves into the creative battles behind such classics as The Sopranos, The Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Westworld. You can't tell those stories without talking about all the corporate moves and politics, and there’s no shortage of C-suite dirty laundry. It gets a tad repetitive in its final stretch, detailing minutiae that we’ve just seen covered in entertainment journalism in the last few years. Still, it is a great reminder that few entities have ever made movies or TV like HBO.
My 5 Favorite Podcasts of 2022
Podcast: The Ride
I’m a big roller coaster and theme park nerd, and a trip that my wife and I made to Universal Orlando earlier this year only deepened that love. So I was delighted to find this rambling, funny and very nerdy look at theme parks and rides. The hosts are knowledgeable but also have fantastic banter, and they often book some great guests. It’s a niche, and I’d only recommend it to people who know what “Defunctland” is or have their own amusement park obsessions. But for that niche, it’s pretty great.
You Must Remember This
Karina Longworth’s podcast about the Hollywood history has been around for awhile, and I’d previously heard it take on Song of the South. But with this year’s Erotic Eighties miniseries – which looks at cinema’s approaches to sexuality in the ‘80s as a way to understanding that decade’s changing social mores, gender conversations, censorship, and movie stardom – she really hooked me. The looks back at films like Fatal Attraction, American Gigolo, Porky’s is often eye-opening and illuminating; it’s easy to see how attitudes toward sex were so different in our culture at that time, but it’s also clear how much this has never been a topic we’ve had much comfort discussing. I want to go back and listen to her series on the Manson murders, and I’m eagerly awaiting her follow-up Erotic Nineties sometime soon.
The Holy Post
I’ll admit it feels weird to post this one after a discussion bout erotic cinema, but whatever. Over the last few years, I feel like “VeggieTales” creator Phil Vischer has been one of the last rational voices in mainstream Christian culture, able to talk about the big problems Christians are having when it comes to race, politics and more with candor and wit. Vischer’s smart and funny; the things that made “VeggieTales” one of the few pieces of Christian kids’ entertainment that actually worked. His co-host Skye Jethani (and also Kaitlyn and also Christian) balance out his rascally elements well, and the conversations and interviews are always thoughtful, engaging, funny and unafraid to go against the louder elements that have given Christians a bad name in recent years.
Downlow.D: The Rise and Fall of Harry Knowles and Ain’t It Cool News
I’ve written before that I wouldn’t be a film critic if it wasn’t for the website Ain’t It Cool News. It was the first site I read every morning for a decade, looking for the latest inside scoop on movies or reviews from test screenings. I stopped reading the site before the allegations came out about creator Harry Knowles’ alleged sexual assaults, but the site always plagued by controversy. Today, I have mixed feelings about AICN; I am clear-eyed about its scandals, and I think some of its contributions to the world of film criticism have been detrimental to the form. But I also know it provided an early cinema education for me, helped me think that I could break into this world, and introduced me to writers like Drew McWeeny, Eric Vespe, Jeremy Smith and C. Robert Cargill, who continue to do great work as critic. Joe Scott’s multipart look at the site’s history is balanced and honest, and he gets great interviews with the people involved in the site’s rise and fall. Anyone who was a film geek in the Nineties should give this a listen, and I had a great time talking with Joe when he agreed to appear on our podcast.
Blank Check
I’m sure I’ve named Blank Check on these lists before, but David Sims and Griffin Newman continue to get better at this each year. Their looks at directors’ filmographies gives a great structure for them to talk about film but also dive into several often very entertaining tangents with their guests. I’ve gotten to the point where I’ll even listen to an episode if I haven’t seen the movie in question; it’s fun just to hear them talk for two or three hours. This year, their miniseries covered Jane Campion, Sam Raimi, Bob Fosse (with Lin-Manuel Miranda talking All That Jazz!) and Stanley Kubrick, and their current miniseries on Henry Selick is a delight.
My 5 Favorite Chrisicisms pieces of 2022
I’m kind of loathe to do self-promotion in this, but I also understand there may be some new readers here. Since it’s been such an up-and-down year, I haven’t paid much attention to the analytics. I was shocked to look back at the numbers from a year ago and find that the number of subscribers has tripled since last December. First off: thank you!
Second: If you’re new here, I wanted to highlight some pieces I was particularly proud of from this year. I’d like to know what you’re enjoying, and what you’d like more of in 2023.
Joking at a Time Like This (Jan 5)
Bo Burnham’s Netflix special Inside messed me up when I saw it in 2021. To wrap up that year, I wrote about how he perfectly captured the mental collapse so many of us felt through the pandemic.
LIGHTYEAR, representation and loving others (June 20)
I think Lightyear is a fine but fairly unexceptional Pixar effort. Their other 2022 release, Turning Red, was much better. But there was a surprising uproar about a two-second shot in Lightyear, and I wrote about my feelings about that and the importance of representation.
20 Years Ago, I Almost Died Watching a Robin Williams Movie (Aug. 31)
On August 31, 2002, I had a stroke in the lobby of a Detroit-area movie theater after watching One Hour Photo. As I looked back on the 20th anniversary of it, I wrote this piece to sort out my feelings.
We’re Watching Here talks Robert Altman’s NASHVILLE (June 27)
This year, I moved We’re Watching Here to Substack’s podcast platform (it’s also on Spotify), and I’ve been happy to see that people are listening. I’m playing around with some new podcast ideas for this in 2023. But this was an episode I was particularly proud of, as Perry and I continued our Robert Altman series by talking about one of the greatest movies about America ever made.
Franchise Friday: More Series Need to be like THE EVIL DEAD (Oct. 21)
I covered a lot during Franchise Friday this year – Kevin Smith’s movies, the Before Trilogy, the Cornetto trilogy. In the fall, I realized doing this weekly was kind of taking it out of me, though. So, I tried a new monthly approach (we might get back to it sometime this month, but for sure in January). The result was this look back at Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy, and Iiked taking this approach of talking about all the films at once. It allowed me to compare how different each of these movies are, and led to both one of the articles I had the most fun writing.
That’s it! Like I said, it’s possible there might be a piece before next Friday. But if not, I have a fun piece in store for then!