Living Dangerously: The Best of 2022

My write-up of 2022, following 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

2022 marks a decade since my first entry here. I’ve gotten so tired writing this blog. Not tired of writing it, but tired of swimming against the tide.

Acts of Love: notes on Let the Right One In and The Devil’s Hour

A psychological horror story and a paranormal procedural; both with a lot to say about parents and children — and hard choices. One is great, the other is darn good; both are worth a watch.

Let the Right One In is based on a best-selling Swedish novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist. It’s been adapted into a Swedish film, an American film by Matt Reeves, and even a stage production. So this new Showtime series comes with a lot of baggage — and has a lot to live up to — but what I watched on the screen over the last ten weeks was damn near perfect.

One Day at a Time season 7

I’ve resisted doing this essay for years, because I could sing the praises of One Day at a Time Season 7, but how would you watch it? No DVDs are available, and the only place it’s streaming right now is Pluto TV. But it goes beyond that. Just defining “One Day at a Time Season 7” is tricky. A whole lot of episodes produced that season are splendid — and the season arc is glorious — but Season 7, as it aired, also included several episodes left unaired from Season 6, and they stink. (The 1980 actors’ strike held up the start of most TV shows that season; One Day at a Time produced 24 episodes for Season 6, but only 21 had aired by season’s end. The rest were inserted, rather haphazardly, into Season 7.) And the domino effect continued; a couple episodes produced for Season 7 didn’t air until Season 8, and they’re worth a look. If you assemble the episodes intended for Season 7, it’s not just a highly watchable season, but a fine example of returning writers resuscitating a show that seems to be on its last legs.

Negotiations: notes on Minx, Ipcress File and Inside Man

As the year starts to wind down, spotlighting three series that brightened my 2022.

Minx has flown under the radar; it’s a comedy about a woman determined not to fly under the radar, so there’s some sort of poetic injustice to that. I heard very few people discussing it while it was airing, and when it was ultimately picked up for a second season by HBO Max, there was hardly a murmur. And now that HBO Max is being absorbed into Discovery Plus, and a lot of its scripted shows — even ones that have been renewed — may fall by the wayside, I still don’t hear anyone talking about it, or fretting about its future. But it’s the best new comedy I saw in 2022: not just a vivid evocation of life in America in the early ‘70s, but a resolutely apt analogy for life in America in 2022.

Rating Richard Armitage

I discovered Richard Armitage alongside millions of other TV viewers, only ten years later. That sounds like an oxymoron, so let me explain. North & South, the miniseries that made Armitage a star, aired on BBC in 2004 and was released on DVD a year later — but I didn’t come across it until 2014. Nevertheless, it was my introduction to Armitage, and just like audiences a decade earlier, I was transfixed; I proceeded to seek out as many of his performances as I could. I’m not one to let an actor dictate my TV viewing — I tend to choose properties based on the creator and/or the premise — but Armitage is one of a handful of artists whom I determinedly follow from show to show. (Others include James Norton, Nicola Walker, Ben Whishaw and Mireille Enos.) I make a point of researching what they’re up to next, and I make a point of tuning in. I trust them to choose smart properties, and I look forward to seeing what they'll do with them.

What Do Critics Want?: notes on American Rust, The Offer and The Time Traveler’s Wife

HBO canceled The Time Traveler’s Wife last week. There goes another show I quite enjoyed. But hell, I’m used to it; at 63, I practically expect networks to discard the series I’m most fond of. What I don’t expect is that those same series will be so thoroughly trashed by critics.

The 10 Best "Everybody Loves Raymond" Episodes

Picking your favorite Raymond episodes ultimately comes down to “which Everybody Loves Raymond do you like best?” Don’t get me wrong: unlike a lot of long-running series, Everybody Loves Raymond has no dramatic shifts in focus or approach. No new showrunner comes in at the halfway mark hellbent on “righting the ship”; there are no late-stage casting shake-ups designed to goose the ratings. The core characters in the pilot — sportswriter Ray Barone and his wife Debra, plus his parents Frank and Marie and brother Robert, who live across the street (thaaat’s right) — are the core characters in the finale. (Monica Horan, a recurring presence for seven seasons, is elevated to series principal near the end, but that stems from story-line, as her character marries into the family.) Showrunner Phil Rosenthal and writers Tucker Cawley, Steve Skrovan and Lew Schneider are there at the start and there at the end. Kathy Ann Stumpe pens her first script early in Season 1 and sticks around for five years; Aaron Shure and Tom Caltabiano come aboard a few seasons in and never leave. Stability in every department — nine years of it — is paramount to Raymond’s success.

And yet…

Men in the Middle: notes on The Tourist, This Is Going to Hurt, The Responder and Around the World in 80 Days

Four dramas that got 2022 off to a strong start: dramas that owe their success not merely to the talents of their leading men, but to the onscreen personas that they’ve cultivated.