The 18 greatest TV episodes of 2022, to this point

We’re solely midway by means of 2022, and there is already been an overwhelming quantity of nice tv this 12 months. A must-watch present drops almost each week, and with these must-watch exhibits come must-watch episodes.

Since there’s been a lot TV this 12 months, it is sensible that there is additionally been a bumper crop of fantastic episodes. We have picked our 18 favorites, from nail-biting finales to laugh-out-loud adventures to vomit-inducing farewells. Right here, in no explicit order, on the 18 greatest TV episodes of 2022 (to this point).

1. Severance Season 1, episode 9, “The We We Are”

Apple TV+’s new mysterious office thriller, Severance, debuted some of the compelling first seasons in TV historical past. However the ninth and closing episode of Season 1, “The We We Are,” dialed the present’s suspense, intrigue, and meticulously crafted stress as much as 11.

Followers lastly bought to see a few of their favourite Innies within the outdoors world, and performances from the complete solid — particularly Adam Scott (Mark), Britt Decrease (Helly), John Turturro (Irving), and Patricia Arquette — have been masterful. The episode featured gorgeous cinematography, a worrying rating, and continually shifting storylines that led to a significant cliffhanger — and left followers with a slew of recent questions. I can’t bear in mind the final time I compulsively paused to examine how a lot time was left in an episode or screamed at my display screen, and I anxiously await Season 2. — Nicole Gallucci, Senior Editor

Find out how to watch: Severance(opens in a brand new tab) is now streaming on Apple TV+.(opens in a brand new tab)

2. Euphoria Season 2, episode 5, “Stand Nonetheless Just like the Hummingbird”

Season 2 of Euphoria was a cultural juggernaut. Regardless of its many, many flaws, it impressed new memes and even hooked individuals who had by no means seen a single episode. In a season filled with uneven storylines and irritating writing, one episode stands out as an all-time sequence excessive. That episode is “Stand Nonetheless Just like the Hummingbird,” Rue’s (Zendaya) nightmarish odyssey by means of drug withdrawal.

That is Euphoria at its greatest: centered, tightly paced, and genuinely terrifying. Zendaya continues to show why she received an Emmy, as Rue argues together with her household, blows up Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) and Maddy’s (Alexa Demie) friendship, and hits all-time low at a drug vendor’s home. If you are going to watch any episode of Euphoria, make it this one. — Belen Edwards, Leisure Reporter

Find out how to watch: Euphoria (opens in a brand new tab)is now streaming on HBO Max.(opens in a brand new tab)

3. Our Flag Means Demise Season 1, episode 5, “The Greatest Revenge is Dressing Nicely”

Stede and Ed: our new favourite pirate ship. Credit score: Aaron Epstein/HBO Max

At first look, David Jenkins and Taika Waititi’s Our Flag Means Demise seems to be a young and foolish comedy about woefully unequipped pirate captain Stede Bonnet and his misfit crew — however first glances are sometimes deceiving.

After just a few episodes of seaworthy shenanigans, Stede crosses paths with the dread pirate Blackbeard and…takes him to a cocktail party. A fancy feast. What follows is a compressed comedy of manners that contrasts the violent aggression of Blackbeard with the passive aggression of the higher crust. By the tip of the episode, the envy and distant admiration that stored Stede and Blackbeard from viewing one another as actual human beings have dissipated, leaving room for the 2 pirate captains to forge a brand new and exquisite relationship. — Alexis Nedd, Senior Leisure Reporter

Find out how to watch: Our Flag Means Demise (opens in a brand new tab)is now streaming on HBO Max.(opens in a brand new tab)

4. This Is Us Season 6, episode 17, “The Prepare”

Whereas the This Is Us sequence finale was a genuinely satisfying goodbye, Season 6’s penultimate episode was undoubtedly the standout. “The Prepare” bid farewell to the Pearson matriarch, Rebecca, performed by Mandy Moore. And earlier than the episode aired Moore revealed that she really threw up after studying the script. After watching, we completely get why.

Along with ushering ultimately of an period and displaying a cruel string of emotional scenes, “The Prepare” options some of the uniquely stunning, and deeply poignant on-screen depictions of transitioning from life to demise. I nearly threw up 26 occasions whereas watching. I’m advantageous! — N.G.

Find out how to watch: This Is Us (opens in a brand new tab)is now streaming on Hulu(opens in a brand new tab).

5. Stranger Issues Season 4, episode 4, “Expensive Billy”

Kate Bush and Sadie Sink actually are the MVPs of “Stranger Issues 4.” Credit score: Netflix

Is “Expensive Billy” the perfect Stranger Issues episode ever? Fairly probably! It is definitely the perfect episode of Stranger Issues 4 to this point, and it is all due to a gut-wrenching storyline centering Max (Sadie Sink). Max’s grief over shedding her brother Billy makes her the subsequent goal of Vecna, the Upside Down’s latest unhealthy man. So, we spend a lot of the episode apprehensive that we’ll lose her for good.

“Expensive Billy” intertwines the disappointment of Max saying farewell to her family and friends with a chilling Silence of the Lambs homage that sees Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Robin (Maya Hawke) go to Victor Creel (Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund). What they study leads us to Stranger Issues‘ most transferring (and most epic) sequence but, involving Max’s reminiscences of her buddies, Kate Bush’s “Working Up That Hill (A Deal With God),” and Sink giving it her all. I am nonetheless emotional occupied with it! That is the ability of a very good episode (and a very good tune). — B.E.

Find out how to watch: Stranger Issues 4 (opens in a brand new tab)is now streaming on Netflix.(opens in a brand new tab)

6. The Afterparty Season 1, episode 3, “Yasper”

It is arduous to choose only one stand-out episode of Apple TV+’s glorious and extremely conceptual whodunit, The Afterparty. The finale is a winner as a result of All Is Revealed, in fact, however the distinctive format that ties the single-character focus in each episode to Hollywood style conventions that replicate every star’s character makes all of them sturdy contenders in their very own methods. But, “Yasper” nonetheless stands out.

The present’s third episode, dedicated to Ben Schwartz’s fast-talking content material creator is, fittingly, a musical. The Hamiltonian brilliance of “Two Pictures” will get issues off to a terrific begin. Nevertheless it’s Schwartz’s efficiency that stands out essentially the most. His portrayal of the totally self-obsessed Yasper is ideal, elevated even additional by catchy melodies and a clue-ridden set design. The Afterparty‘s whodunit feels downright easy by the point the season wraps up, however “Yasper” sells the premise higher than some other episode that precedes or follows. — Adam Rosenberg, Senior Leisure Reporter

Find out how to watch: The Afterparty (opens in a brand new tab)is now streaming on Apple TV+.(opens in a brand new tab)

7. Moon Knight Season 1, episode 2, “Summon the Swimsuit”

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, my identify’s Steven with a ‘V!'” Credit score: Courtesy of Marvel Studios.

It is at all times an enormous second when the superhero costume makes its first look in any Marvel Cinematic Universe journey. Moon Knight on Disney+ raises the stakes for these reveals with a surprising one-two punch of super-suits for Oscar Isaac’s Marc Spector and Steven Grant.

After a sluggish introduction to either side of the character within the sequence premiere, “Summon the Swimsuit” dives in arduous with large solutions to dangling questions and clearer seems to be on the story’s major gamers, together with Ethan Hawke’s villainous Arthur Harrow and Could Calamawy’s Layla El-Faouly. Nevertheless it’s actually the tip all of us bear in mind greatest, proper? A traditional-looking Steven leaps out a window to flee Harrow. However when he lands, he is a person reworked: Do not name him Moon Knight; it is Mr. Knight. — A.R.

Find out how to watch: Moon Knight (opens in a brand new tab)is now streaming on Disney+.(opens in a brand new tab)

8. Barry Season 3, episode 6, “710N”

It is arduous to know if “710N” would even exist with out the unforgettable second season “bottle” episode a few martial arts professional and his uncannily expert child daughter. However the two half-hour slices of story positive really feel like they’re spiritually linked.

Overlook concerning the subplots. Invoice Hader’s Barry Berkman carries this one, together with a gang of gun-toting motocross professionals who’re out for revenge. There’s not a complete lot of speaking in “710N,” simply lots of beautiful cinematography and the sort of modifying that pushes viewers proper to the sting of their seats. There’s loads of magic in Barry‘s characters, however it’s additionally some of the thoughtfully and consciously cinematic exhibits on HBO’s roster. — A.R.

Find out how to watch: Barry (opens in a brand new tab)is now streaming on HBO Max.(opens in a brand new tab)

9. The Legend of Vox Machina Season 1, episode 2, “The Terror of Tal’Dorei – Half 2”

Roll initiative. Credit score: Amazon Studios

Once you watch The Legend of Vox Machina, you’re feeling such as you’re witnessing a killer Dungeons and Dragons marketing campaign come to life — and you might be! The grownup fantasy cartoon relies on Important Function’s first live-streamed Dungeons and Dragons marketing campaign. Whereas the present delves deep into the superb Briarwood arc in its later episodes, I wish to shout out Vox Machina‘s second installment for delivering half an hour of pure Dungeons and Dragons enjoyable. There is a thriller to resolve, a betrayal to uncover, and a charismatic shopkeeper to befriend. Plus, all of it ends with a completely radical, additional badass, hype-fulfilling dragon boss struggle. This episode is the place the present, and its band of ragtag mercenaries, actually clicks, setting us up for extra epic motion down the highway. — B.E.

Find out how to watch: The Legend of Vox Machina (opens in a brand new tab)is now streaming on Prime Video.(opens in a brand new tab)

10. RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 7, episode 2, “Snatch Recreation”

After the fiasco that was RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 14’s Snatch Recreation, the staple Drag Race problem wanted a RuDemption in an enormous manner. Enter All Stars 7, the All Winners season, which delivered not one, however two, riotous Snatch Video games. Highlights embody the sheer brilliance of Jinkx Monsoon’s Judy Garland impression (which is hands-down the perfect Snatch Recreation efficiency of all time), the physicality of Trinity the Tuck’s tackle Leslie Jordan, and Raja’s flawless transformations into the puppet Madame and Diana Vreeland.

Between legendary queens bringing their A-game, genuinely enjoyable challenges, and a refreshing rule change, this episode helped cement All Stars 7 as certainly one of Drag Race‘s greatest installments but. — B.E.

Find out how to watch: RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7 (opens in a brand new tab)is now streaming on Paramount+.(opens in a brand new tab)

11. Abbott Elementary Season 1, episode 11, “Desking”

How will the Abbott Elementary academics cease desking? Credit score: ABC/Temma Hankin

There are such a lot of nice episodes of Quinta Brunson’s phenomenal Abbott Elementary that it is arduous to decide on our favourite. That being mentioned, we’ll give the gold star to “Desking.” It is a pleasant whodunnit that sees the academics of Abbott band collectively to search out out who’s liable for bringing the viral “desking” development to highschool.

Between assembly Jacob’s (Chris Perfetti) boyfriend and Gregory (Tyler James Williams) getting some sound life recommendation, that is an episode that expands and deepens the characters we have grown to know and love. What takes it over the sting is Barbara’s (Sheryl Lee Ralph) superb supply of the road, “Candy child Jesus and the grown one too, my desks have been desked!” Emmys, take notice! — B.E.

Find out how to watch: Abbott Elementary (opens in a brand new tab)is now streaming on Hulu.(opens in a brand new tab)

12. Hacks Season 2, episode 4, “The Captain’s Spouse”

Hacks Season 2 asks us: What do you get once you put Deborah Vance (Jean Good) on a lesbian cruise? And the reply, unsurprisingly, is hilarity. Additionally chaos.

Deborah and Ava (Hannah Einbinder) have very completely different experiences whereas on the boat — sorry, ship. However additionally they have a reasonably compelling dialog about queerness, male consideration, and extra. We additionally see Deborah’s narcissism rise to new heights… after which crash spectacularly in one of many present’s most uncomfortably humorous scenes but. — B.E.

Find out how to watch: Hacks (opens in a brand new tab)is now streaming on HBO Max.(opens in a brand new tab)

13. Pachinko Season 1, episode 4, “Chapter 4”

Dancing within the rain! Credit score: Apple TV+

Primarily based on Min Jin Lee’s best-selling novel, Pachinko unfolds the entrancing multi-generational saga of a Korean household, who emigrated from their homeland to Japan, going through excessive poverty, overt racism, and political upheavals. The primary season facilities on matriarch Kim Sunja, following her by means of her youth, maturity, and outdated age. But it’s her grandson Solomon (Jin Ha) who steals focus in “Chapter 4,” partly as a result of he appears to hit his climax on the midway mark of Season 1.

Rising up in a really completely different world than his grandmother did, Solomon carries immense privilege and generational insensitivities behind his cocky grin. After making an attempt to opportunistically use Sunja as a bargaining chip in an enormous actual property gambit, the hot-shot businessman is confronted with a make-or-break second in his profession, and remarkably, he chooses break. This defining — and personally devastating second — sends him working from his workplace constructing, shedding his tie and go well with jacket, dashing into the rain after which the embrace of buskers masking a tune from The Treatment. Very like the enchanting opening title sequence that blends despair and defiant delight, this second is soul-shakingly profound. And it is only the start of Solomon’s story. — Kristy Puchko, Deputy Leisure Editor

Find out how to watch: Pachinko(opens in a brand new tab) is now streaming on Apple TV+.(opens in a brand new tab)

14. Shining Women, Season 1, episode 8, “30”

Think about the ghoulish love little one of Sliding Doorways and Zodiac, and you will get the gist of this mini-series adaptation of Lauren Beukes’s 2013 crime novel. Created by Silka Luisa, Shining Women facilities on Kirby Mazrachi (Elisabeth Moss), an archivist whose actuality has been shifting with out warning — ever since she was viciously attacked and left for useless in 1980s Chicago. One second, she’s residing together with her mother, the subsequent she’s married to a co-worker she barely is aware of. She would not perceive why that is occurring however is definite it connects to a stalking serial killer (Jamie Bell), who’s been concentrating on implausible girls throughout many years.

That includes graphic violence, time journey twists, and harrowing revelations, Shining Women could be a robust watch. However its finale episode makes all of it worthwhile. Luisa neatly buttons up the mysteries of those murders, their un-aging perpetrator, and what it means to grow to be disentangled on a molecular degree. Greater than solutions, nonetheless, this finale provides poetic justice to its villain and hard-won empowerment to its harried heroine. Which, contemplating how Kirby’s quest to be believed performs like essentially the most excessive model of a violence sufferer’s expertise talking out, is darkly and deeply satisfying. — Ok.P.

Find out how to watch: Shining Women(opens in a brand new tab) is now streaming on Apple TV+.(opens in a brand new tab)

15. Bridgerton Season 2, episode 7, “Concord”

Kanthony without end. Credit score: Liam Daniel/Netflix

When Bridgerton Season 2 made it previous the sequence midpoint with none on-screen intercourse and even kissing, folks have been able to riot. “The place is the intercourse?” they requested, “the primary one was sizzling as a result of it had the intercourse!” These folks missed the purpose.

Season 1 adopted the horny tropes of a recognizable bodice-ripper, however Season 2 drew inspiration from Bollywood romance. The stress between Kate and Anthony is the horny a part of Bridgerton Season 2, which makes each near-miss kiss as charged because the one they lastly get in episode 7. You realize, the one the place they lastly bang and Kate goes right into a intercourse coma (form of). With out the withholding and longing between Kate and Anthony all season, their intercourse scene would not have meant as a lot — or been wherever close to as satisfying. Wink. — A.N.

Find out how to watch: Bridgerton (opens in a brand new tab)is now streaming on Netflix.(opens in a brand new tab)

16. Atlanta Season 3, episode 1, “Three Slaps”

After 4 years, Atlanta is lastly again in our lives, rolling up with a Season Three premiere that felt like reconnecting with an outdated good friend. Loads has modified in the true world since we final left Earn and Paper Boi, however creator Donald Glover immerses us again into the present’s world like no time has handed in any respect.

In an indication of fearlessness, the premiere, titled “Three Slaps,” would not even contain any of the primary characters. As a substitute, it takes viewers down a reality-bending journey, straddling fiction and non-fiction. From begin to end, the bottle episode leans into what critics are calling the brand new age of Black surrealism or renaissance of Afro-surrealism in leisure.

The opening scene begins with a dream-like vignette that tells the final word American ghost story: how our souls are collectively haunted by a buried legacy of white supremacy. Then we meet the primary protagonist, Loquareeous (Christopher Farrar), a younger Black boy whose story is clearly impressed by the IRL true crime case of the Hart household.

We cannot say extra to keep away from spoilers, however suffice it to say that Atlanta‘s method to true crime reclaims a lot of the style’s worst blind spots. Particularly, it supplies much-needed counter-programming to its obsession with useless white girls. By re-centering the Black youngsters victimized by two “progressive” white girls’s savior complicated (which additionally typically fuels the true-crime craze), the present sheds mild on how Karens may be a few of the worst perpetrators of social violence. Like the perfect of Atlanta, it holds up a funhouse mirror to replicate American society, revealing the cruel however true actuality of who we actually are. — Jess Joho, Tradition Reporter

Find out how to watch: Atlanta (opens in a brand new tab)is now streaming on Hulu.(opens in a brand new tab)

17. Peacemaker Season 1, episode 4, “The Choad Much less Traveled”

Do you actually wanna, do you actually wanna style it? Credit score: Katie Yu/ HBO Max

Two years in the past nobody would have anticipated a The Suicide Squad spinoff about John Cena’s Peacemaker would have been one of many higher superhero(ish) exhibits on TV. Nevertheless it’s 2022, and actually, nothing ought to shock us lately.

Episode Four stands out for a humanizing misadventure that sends Peacemaker’s adoring sidekick Vigilante to jail, solely to actual punishment on Peacemaker’s white supremacist father for inflicting his greatest good friend’s childhood trauma. The wiry, glassy-eyed Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) initially appears to be fully unhinged. However the sheer devastation on his face when he realizes he is made issues worse places the reckless killer’s hero-worship of Peacemaker into a brand new mild — and formally brings him on to Peacemaker’s group for the remainder of the season. — A.N.

Find out how to watch: Peacemaker (opens in a brand new tab)is now streaming on HBO Max.(opens in a brand new tab)

18. Survivor Season 42, episode 8, “Recreation of Hen”

The most effective Survivor episodes are outlined by singular moments. In Season 33, it was Zeke Smith’s considerate response after one other competitor outed him as transgender. And in Season 42’s ninth episode, “Recreation of Hen,” it was Drea and Maryanne, who spoke eloquently about their Blackness within the context of systemic racism, whereas vocally refusing to weaponize their identities for gameplay functions.

The sweeping social experiment we name Survivor shines brightest when the interpersonal relationships between gamers come to organically replicate our fashionable life. “Recreation of Hen” is maybe the perfect instance of that up to now within the present’s 22-year historical past. — A.R.

Find out how to watch: Survivor (opens in a brand new tab)is now streaming on Paramount+.(opens in a brand new tab)