Top Ten Movies/TV of 2022

As with the past few years, I haven’t been watching too many movies, but I saw a few good ones, and also watched quite a bit of TV thanks to Netflix and a free trial of Amazon Prime. Again, not in any particular order besides movies at the top, TV at the bottom, here are 10 good things I watched last year.

1. Addams Family Values – Avoiding the problem that many sequels have, where the production team goes weirder, wackier, and worse than the original, Addams Family Values is just as good as The Addams Family. When Wednesday suspects her new baby brother Pubert’s nanny Debbie of nefarious schemes, Debbie gets Morticia and Gomez to ship Wednesday and Pugsley off to summer camp. Shenanigans ensue.

2. Star Trek: First Contact – This is the second Next Generation (TNG) movie. I liked the first one too, but it does feel more like an extended TV episode than a movie. In First Contact, Picard and crew must travel back in time to make sure the Borg don’t stop Zefram Cochran from testing the warp core that leads to humanity’s first contact with aliens. Though the movie isn’t super amazing, I enjoyed seeing the TNG cast again.

3. Turning Red – Teenage girls in early 2000s Toronto, one of whom starts turning into a giant red panda when she experiences strong emotions thanks to a family curse? Why not?

Also watched: In the Heights – enjoyed the songs, costumes, and cinematography; Dune (1984) – has surprise Patrick Stewart and a very bizarre ending; Dune (2021) – feels more like the book, but I don’t think Hans Zimmer was the right choice for the soundtrack; Greyhound – more interesting than it sounds; Hocus Pocus – fun and a bit ridiculous; and Beetlejuice – weird and quite ridiculous, but I liked it. And a bunch of Christmas movies that ranged from not very good to bad.

4. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (seasons 3-7) – Out of all the Star Trek I’ve watched so far, the plot and character development in DS9 are the best, though TNG has my favorite cast and I think most fully realizes what the original series was trying to do. This was the best show I watched in 2022.

5. The Great British Bake Off (seasons 12-13) – The producers’ need for drama and excitement has been hurting the show for the past couple seasons in particular, and I think it came out in a big way in the finale of the latest season. But it’s still Bake Off, so I still liked it.

6. Ted Lasso (seasons 1-2) – My first impression of this show wasn’t great because the two big questions it starts with are “who would be so arrogant that they’d agree to coach a Premier League team without knowing the rules of soccer/football?” and “who would be dumb enough to hire an American football coach to lead an English football club in the most prominent league in the world?” It’s reminiscent of the attitude that American football is the real football, despite very little contact between feet and balls, and that soccer is boring, despite American professional football being comprised of 1 hour of play and 2 hours of ads. However, the second question is resolved by the end of the first episode and the first more gradually as the show goes on. As a soccer fan, I ended up really enjoying the show, and there’s some surprisingly good acting depth that you don’t always get from comedies.

7. Scrubs (seasons 1-9) – Not all of the show has aged super well, and the soft reboot in the last season doesn’t quite work, but there’s enough to make it worth watching. Apparently it’s also one of the more accurate medical dramas.

8. The Legend of Vox Machina (season 1) – D&D livestream turned TV show. I haven’t watched the episodes the show’s based on, so I don’t know how well it’s adapted, but I enjoyed it.

9. Grey’s Anatomy (season 18) – Along with enough viewers to make this long-running endeavor profitable, I’ve been Stockholm-syndromed into seeing this show out to its end (but seriously, please end it). I still like it, but I also recognize it’s ridiculous and needs to end (I’m not kidding; end this show).

10. Blown Away (seasons 1-3) – A glassblowing version of GBBO, except they’re absolutely not amateurs (and mostly not British). Worth a watch to see the glassblowers’ creations for each challenge.

And some one-line reviews: The Magic School Bus Rides Again – not as good as the original; Carmen Sandiego – great characters, good geography, egregiously bad science on several occasions; Seinfeld (seasons 1-2) – didn’t find the show very funny and couldn’t get into it; Psych (seasons 1-4) – fun show, though Shawn can get annoying; Heartland (season 14) – just catching up on the latest season, not sure about some of the changes they made; The IT Crowd – mixed feelings – some parts are quite funny, and others are quite sexist; Star Trek: Lower Decks (season 1) – liked it, didn’t love it; The Sandman – solid adaptation of the comic, with the sense of wonder that I wanted Dune to have; The Rings of Power – very briefly: looked great, mostly liked the characters, plot was all over the place; Chicago Med (seasons 1-5) – solid addition to the medical drama genre; Severance – well-made show, just didn’t really fall in love with the characters; School of Chocolate – the chocolate creations were amazing, but the editing made some of the contestants come off as not being very nice; Somebody Feed Phil (seasons 1-3) – travel and food is usually a good combination; and Jane the Virgin (seasons 1-3) – after five and a half years of Spanish classes, I can appreciate a good telenovela¹.

¹Added bonus: spotting actors from all the medical dramas I’ve watched. So far I’ve seen Nicholas Gonzalez (The Good Doctor), Judy Reyes (Scrubs), Rachel DiPillo (Chicago Med), and Debbie Allen (Grey’s Anatomy).