Welcome to the 2022 SiftPop.com Sifties!
2022 was great year for television. Amidst a landscape that can at times feel oversaturated, there were still five shows that were able to stand out among the rest. Between a highly anticipated final season, a revitalized franchise, a consistently excellent dark comedy, an always hilarious vampire comedy, and one of the biggest pop culture properties there currently is, there was a wide variety to appreciate. The SiftPop crew nominated five films for Best Show: Better Call Saul, What We Do in the Shadows, Andor, Barry, and Stranger Things.
Here’s how the voting played out:
Four seasons in, What We Do in the Shadows still manages to impress with each return. The characters are cemented in who they are, yet, as seen with Colin Robinson’s arc, the writers are still able to bring in fresh and exciting storylines. While other mockumentary-style shows can feel a bit stale at this point, our gang of vampires and their out-of-time demeanors carry it beautifully. With a cast that consistently delivers and episodes that are at once hilarious and emotionally touching, What We Do in the Shadows is nowhere near slowing down.
It was somewhat of a surprise when Barry burst onto the scene and immediately became one of the best things on TV. Bill Hader is best known for being the silly guy from SNL. But with Barry, he quickly showed that he’s much more than a one-trick pony. Season Three is perhaps the most mature season to date, as there is no doubt that Barry himself is a horrible person who can’t help but sabotage and corrupt his own life, as well as the lives of everyone around him. The show is still funny, but the jokes are much fewer and farther between than ever before. With its incredible and humbling finale, you can’t help but to look forward to what’s coming next.
Saul Goodman was supposed to be a throwaway character in Breaking Bad. Instead, he extended the Breaking Bad universe into a spinoff drama series for the ages. Better Call Saul is the ultimate fall from grace for attorney Jimmy McGill, whose decisions lead him to a life of representing the members of the criminal underworld in New Mexico. Concluding with its sixth season, Better Call Saul balances laughs and legal drama with some wonderfully tense moments with drug cartels. Superbly acted with riveting characters, Better Call Saul is a gripping television series that will be greatly missed.
Somehow, Netflix’s flagship show manages to keep upping the ante. Stranger Things Season Four is bigger than any of the seasons that came before it, and the introduction of Vecna as the big bad of the series gives the show its best antagonist to date. As the stakes get higher, the show rises to match. Look no further than “Dear Billy,” which both happens to be perhaps the most emotional of the show, while also showcasing one of the series’ best action sequences. Splitting the season in to two parts helped prolong the show’s pop culture footprint, which turned “Running Up That Hill” into one of the songs of the summer, and had everyone shredding to “Master of Puppets” on their air guitars. It perfectly primes audiences for the final season.
After the Sequel Trilogy invited controversy back into the Star Wars fandom, a reset of some sort was imminent. No one can authoritatively say what Star Wars is anymore, and because of that, the franchise has become a variety of different things to different people — and that’s how it should be. It cannot be said that Andor is like any Star Wars content that’s ever come before; a deeply tense political thriller, following seemingly dissonant story threads, divided into blocks of stories that each have a particular application to the world we live in today is hardly what most expected from the latest live action Disney+ offering. Despite what Star Wars may mean to any one individual, it’s an unashamedly political franchise, and Andor embraces that with wit and vigor.
Make sure to check out the previous 2022 Sifties winners, and don’t forget to check back tomorrow for the winner of Best Voice Performance in a Movie! You can also listen to the SiftPop writers’ top five movies of the year on the SiftPop Writers’ Room Podcast!