Note: I wrote this in December and forgot to publish it! I ’ve watched (and have opinions) on several other shows/movies (including Avatar 2, which came out after I wr ote this) _but if I wait to edit it, it ‘ll never get published. _

In January 2022 I listed movies & TV shows I was looking forward to.

Some of these were great! There was also some amazing stuff that came from nowhere.

This article is a brief retrospective of some of the movies and TV shows I enjoyed in 2022

My favourites

My favourites of the year were all TV shows. In order:

  • House of the Dragon. It captured the spirit of the earlier seasons of Game of Thrones , and I can’t wait for more.

  • Andor. Star Wars without light sabers, the force, or any Skywalkers. I read one review describing it as prestige TV disguised as a Star Wars show, and that feels about right.

  • The Time Traveler ’s Wife. Terrific adaptation of the book.

  • Interview with the Vampire. I didn’t realise I needed a new attempt to bring Anne Rice’s world to the screen, and this was so. much. better. than. the. movie. (Sorry Tom and Brad!)

Taylor Swift meets Nickelback, circa 1999

Others that I thought were really good:

  • Weird. Daniel Radcliffe had a great year, with this role and his role in The Lost City. I LOVE the conceit of this movie and its execution. And a lot of the specific jokes. This deserves to be a cult classic.

  • Reacher. Unlike the movies, Jack Reacher was perfectly cast. I always imagined him as a big version of Richie McCaw.

  • Bullet Train. It was everything the movie set out to be.

  • Spirited. Time will tell, but I think this will be a movie I will watch many times during the Christmas season. When I wrote about the movie at the start of the year I gave it a 30% chance of it being a Christmas classic. After watching, I gave it a 60% chance. Given the lack of oxygen it seems to have received, I’m downgrading to 40%.

  • The Menu.

  • Fresh.

  • Although this article is about new TV shows and movies, I want to give special mention to a TV show that was new-to-me in 2022: Fleabag. It took me a couple of episodes to get into, but once it kicks into gear it is . I can’t believe that season 2 managed to ride the highs of season 1 and I’m still wowed about that scene (“where did you go?!”). I look forward to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s future projects.

Good

  • Top Gun: Maverick. The movie was much better than I expected. Technically, it’s better than the first one in almost every way (apart from the soundtrack, sorry Lady Gaga). However, I watched it at the cinema twice and didn’t find it as engaging the second time around. Perhaps it’s a time-of-life thing, but I still consider the original to be more essential in a hard-to-articulate sort of way way.

  • The Lost City. I really enjoyed it. Brad Pitt’s cameo was so good, and his chemistry with Sandra Bullock so convincing, that it almost ruined other parts of the movie.

  • Obi-Wan Kenobi. Much better than all the reviews seemed to suggest. But I can’t help but think that more could have been done to make the most of Darth Vader’s presence.

  • Ticket to Paradise. A rom-com featuring Julia Roberts and George Clooney. Worthy of its leads (or perhaps because of them).

Didn ‘t meet my expectations

All of these movies were okay, but they struck me as lost opportunities:

  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness deserves special mention. I think Marvel had an amazing opportunity with the multiverse concept, and Spider-man: No Way Home pointed to some of these possibilities. With this movie, Marvel ruined its chance.

  • Jurassic World Dominion. My third favourite movie in the recent Jurassic World trilogy.

  • Thor: Love and Thunder. This might be unfair, because the movie suffered because I can’t help but compare it to Thor: Ragnarok.

  • The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. So unbearable I couldn’t finish it. I was going to play myself, I’d play someone who was likeable.__

  • The Adam Project. Like Thor , I think this suffered from my sky-high expectations.

  • The Batman. Like most of the movies above, this wasn’t bad. In fact, it was relatively good. But any movie that gets comparisons with The Dark Knight will struggle to match my expectations.

Meh

There were lots of TV shows and movies that I looked forward to, but for whatever reason lost interest in and haven’t seen. These include Morbius , Black Adam , Don ’t Worry Darling , Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore , The Sandman , The After Party , Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power , and How I Met Your Father , a little bit guilty about The Sandman , and kind of guilty about Black Adam – my intuition is that it’s better than the reviews make out, but who knows!

List of shame

I haven’t watched the following (entirely or in part):

  • Banshees of Inishireen

  • Everything Everywhere All At Once