Best Returning Series 2022
Streaming services continued their dominant ascension with The Power of the Dog, Coda, and The Mitchells vs. the Machines all placing in the top 10 Best Movies overall of 2021. Streaming was also the place curious and adventurous viewers found worthy documentaries, covering topics ranging from classic rock (The Velvet Underground) and folk tales (Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched) to riots (Attica), athletics (Changing the Game), algorithms (Coded Bias), and politics (Mayor).
The order reflects Tomatometer scores (as of December 31, 2022) after adjustment from our ranking formula, which compensates for variation in the number of reviews when comparing movies or TV shows.
Adjusted Score: 103177%
Critics Consensus: Better Call Saul remains as masterfully in control as Jimmy McGill keeps insisting he is in this final season, where years of simmering storytelling come to a scintillating boil.
Adjusted Score: 67042%
Critics Consensus: Foregrounding its characters and namesake again after an anthological sojourn in Europe, Atlanta closes out in its sweet spot: funny, insightful, and weird as hell.
Adjusted Score: 103766%
Critics Consensus: Bill Hader and company can take a well-deserved bow -- Barry makes its belated return to the screen without missing a step, retaining its edge as one of television's funniest and most unsettling offerings.
Adjusted Score: 104275%
Critics Consensus: Hacks hits the road, but Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder remain very much at home with each other in a sterling sophomore season that finds novel ways to deepen the central pair's lovable friendship.
Adjusted Score: 106380%
Critics Consensus: Managing to up the ante on what was already one of television's most audacious satires, The Boys' third season is both bracingly visceral and wickedly smart.
Adjusted Score: 101689%
Critics Consensus: Deftly managing an expanded roster of punchy personalities, Cobra Kai graduates to a black belt proficiency in heartfelt melodrama and sly humor.
Adjusted Score: 104010%
Critics Consensus: Only Murders in the Building gets a new lease on life with a knottier sophomore outing that retains the series' core charm and wit.
Adjusted Score: 102712%
Critics Consensus: Reservation Dogs has bittersweet bite in its sophomore season as it mines more difficult dilemmas than before with its spiky sense of humor, making for a piquant portrait of a community and a place.
Adjusted Score: 101833%
Critics Consensus: Aside from turning this demonic household into Three Vampires and a Baby, What We Do in the Shadows doubles down on what it does best without drastically changing the formula -- and remains fang-tastic all the same.
Adjusted Score: 101637%
Critics Consensus: Peaky Blinders' sixth season gracefully addresses the untimely passing of star Helen McCrory while setting the stage for a fitting climax to this epic saga of likable scalawags.
Adjusted Score: 101248%
Critics Consensus: Bittersweet, funny as ever, and brimming with wisdom, Better Things's final sendoff is as good as it gets.
Adjusted Score: 101540%
Critics Consensus: Who woulda thought? -- Harley Quinn graduates from a ribald spoof into one of the most heartening additions to the DC canon in a diabolically clever and emotionally textured third season.
Adjusted Score: 101637%
Critics Consensus: Parting is such sweet sorrow, but Derry Girls' final season promises to milk as many laughs as it can before viewers say a fond farewell to this lovable band of miscreants.
Adjusted Score: 101541%
Critics Consensus: Slow Horses says neigh to the sophomore jinx with a second season that might be even better than its supremely addictive predecessor.
Adjusted Score: 97442%
Critics Consensus: Atlanta takes Paper Boi and his entourage out of Georgia, but this inspired third season proves that the more things change, the more they stay weird.
Adjusted Score: 102544%
Critics Consensus: Not all of Russian Doll's gambles pay off in this ambitious and thrillingly audacious second season, but the show's willingness to take risks is often its own reward.
Adjusted Score: 99419%
Critics Consensus: For All Mankind's third season goes as far as Mars while maintaining a homey focus on its original ensemble, delivering another epic adventure with an intimate focus.
Adjusted Score: 97442%
Critics Consensus: Finessing complicated financial jargon into scathing repartee, Industry's stock is way up in this superlative sophomore season full of frustrated ambitions and tested loyalties.
Adjusted Score: 97344%
Critics Consensus: Undone broadens out into a family affair in a gorgeously trippy continuation that's as heady as it is moving.
Adjusted Score: 96149%
Critics Consensus: Like an addictive pop song, Girls5Eva is just as delightful the second time around, with its band of scrappy divas remaining one of the funniest ensembles on television.
