The best TV of 2022: From ‘Abbott Elementary’ to ‘The Bear’

Here we are, nearly at the year’s end and — as with recent years before it — 2022 was absolutely packed with TV options. This is why I tend to side-eye “best of” lists these days. More than 500 scripted shows came out over the past 12 months. Yes, we critics may watch more TV than the average person. But there’s no way we’re getting a look at the majority of what’s out there. That’s just the reality.

You may notice certain absences on my list that may show up on others: No “Succession,” or “White Lotus” or “The Gilded Age” or “The Crown” — all of which are preoccupied with humanizing the rich and ridiculous. No “Severance,” either — a show with a crackling premise and sharp cast, but nowhere near nine episodes worth of story. Expensively made and sharply acted as these aforementioned series may be, I have