Nick's List of Pop Cultural Stuff 2022
Cultural Happenings The Abadzis Household Experienced and felt Worth Recording in 2022
TV / Streaming
DRAMA
Winning Time - The Rise of the Laker’s Dynasty (HBO)
Noticeably absent from many mainstream lists, probably because it was “about” sport. Except it isn’t. It’s about modern America and how it came to be, as viewed through the lens of the history of this basketball team. It’s a superbly rich canvas to explore, but don’t take my word for it - watch for yourself. The most underrated and least celebrated show of the year.
Sherwood (BBC)
Shifting between two time zones and multiple character perspectives, Sherwood isn’t just any old crime drama. It examines the vicissitudes of family life, over generations, the rifts in these and the society around them, the mysteries of same. By turns terrifying and mundane, it’s a beautifully observant drama about secrets, resentments, forgiveness (or not), respect, duty, the past, the possibilities of the future and how then affects now.
The White Lotus S2 (HBO)
Mike White does it again. If anything, S2 is even better than S1. As a portrait of tedious privileged blowhards, abstracted by their vast wealth and distracted from meaning and actual human relationships, it really goes the distance and is unyielding in its detailed depictions of their discomforts. It is a catalogue of hilarious grotesqueries. Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) is an especially accurate portrayal of vapid, moneyed, shallow and needy privilege. She is also as epic as Etna, gamely erupting in the background of the final few episodes.
1899 (Netflix)
As steampunk period drama “magic box” storytelling goes, you simply can’t do better. Stuffed with intriguing characters, at first I worried that it might go a bit “Lost,” but seeing as this show was created by the makers of Dark, I should’ve known that their interest in bringing forth deeper themes of human existence would burst forth in various undercurrents, and they did. I love the scope, ambition and performances, not to mention the lavish, beautiful and immersive production design. Can’t wait for S2.
Update, January 2 2023 - Netflix have canned the show after one season. Read director Baran Bo Adar’s message on IG here. How incredibly shortsighted of Netflix, especially given some of the rubbish they renew. I hope Apple or similar rescue it.
Andor (Disney+)
Most of these lavish, big budget live action Disney shows are very easy on the eye and intellect but are ultimately pretty empty. Maybe that’s why this show is such a curve ball. It’s very clearly not everyone’s cup of Star Wars, with its unusually adult tone and character-based style of storytelling, for which it’s been roundly criticised in some corners of the Internet. (Not enough funny aliens, too dark, etc.) On the other hand, it forces the viewer to peer into the workings of the fictional universe and see who is paying for all those cool spaceships, laser swords and moon-sized, planet-killing battle stations.
In a cultural environment where there's little appetite for comprehending the cost of systems of intolerance and brutality as there once was, I can't help but think Andor is performing a very valuable service and, by doing so via the best-known mainstream SF&F franchise of all time on Disney+, it is one of the most subversive, courageous, timely and relevant shows around. In the process, it’s also rejuvenated the possibilities for the rest of the franchise and delivered the only Star Wars my wife has ever wanted to watch. It also has a superb score by Succession’s Nicholas Britell.
The Walk-In (ITV)
Speaking of fascism, ITV’s unflinching look at those who make it their duty in society to combat it and bring hate crimes to the attention of prosecutors, is hard to watch but so worth your time.
Pachinko (Apple TV)
Sublime intergenerational story of one Korean family over time, tracing their fortunes, failures, falls, hopes and dreams in both Korea and Japan. It has a bit of a weird title sequence; don’t be put off. It’s wonderful.
Severance (Apple TV)
A big metaphor for what it’s like to work in an Apple store nowadays. Shit, did I say that out loud? I meant “office.”
For All Mankind S3 (Apple TV)
I really love this show, for all its “real space” and “alternative history” aspects, but it’s also just great drama with characters you can care about.
Industry S2 (HBO)
Every single character in this show is beyond awful, but that doesn’t make it any less compelling.
This Is Going To Hurt (BBC)
It did, in places, especially if you’re even halfway aware of what pressures the UK’s NHS is under these days and in recent times, but it was also utterly compulsive viewing.
The Tourist (BBC)
Wild “main character with amnesia” runaround in Australia. Completely entertaining.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+)
How to do modern Star Trek - i.e. just go boldly in a starship, episodically without any incomprehensible galaxy-threatening season arcs. It helps to have this wonderful cast, headed by the charming and utterly convincing Anson Mount as Captain Pike.
I Hate Suzie Too (HBO / Sky)
Sequel to the remarkable I Hate Suzie and quasi-cousin to Billie Piper’s 2019 film, Rare Beasts. Fearless exploration of human ego, fallibility, misogyny, control freakery and the traps (and trappings) of fame.
Candy (AKA Candy: A Death in Texas) (Hulu)
True life crime drama. There are a lot of those now, good and bad, but we binged this five-episode mini-series in two nights.
The Devil’s Hour (Prime)
Peter Capaldi as a serial killer. What else do you need to know? Stays admirably true to its core dramatic conceit right until the end.
The Peripheral (Prime)
Timey-wimey, reality bending SF based on a book by William Gibson. Very engaging, but worth the price of entry alone for T’Nia Miller’s villain Cherise Nuland.
Cabinet of Curiosities (Netflix)
Wasn’t taken by every episode, but that’s the nature of anthologies. However, when it was good, it was exceptional. Fave ep: The Autopsy.
Under the Banner of Heaven (Hulu)
Another true-life crime drama but one that gives special insight into what it might have been like to be a member of the LDS religion in the 1980s. Scary in various ways.
Raised By Wolves S2 (HBO)
I was completely mistaken in thinking this show was SF at all in S1 (although that’s how it was marketed). S2 more or less abandons any semblance of SF and goes MYTHICAL full throttle… and to my surprise, I found myself really enjoying it. Events often occur for no good dramatic reason, but the visceral impact of them really works if you let it all just wash over you. There are some moments of genuine horror, particularly in episode 6 in a seaside scene so macabre I nearly fell out of my chair. The mythological and religious symbolism mixed with SF and fantasy imagery reminds me of a mid-70s Franco-Belgian BD by Moebius or Druillet or similar. The production design is utterly incredible. Turn your sense of dramatic logic off and just enjoy it. Truly a very strange and offbeat achievement, and I’m sad to know it won’t be renewed for a S3.
Star Trek: Prodigy (Paramount+)
Animated Star Trek supposedly aimed at kids but which is so well written, plotted and executed it gives all the modern ‘Kurtzman era’ live-action shows a run for their money. Great characters!
COMEDY / DRAMEDY
Detectorists Christmas Special (BBC)
Abbot Elementary S1 and S2 (HBO/Hulu)
Ghosts S4 (BBC)
Bad Sisters (Apple TV)
The Outlaws S2 (BBC)
Am I Being Unreasonable? (BBC)
Loot (Apple)
Julia (HBO)
Minx (HBO)
Hacks S2 (HBO)
Welcome to Chippendales (Hulu) (UK: Disney+)
DOCUMENTARIES
The top three are absolute must-watches about the state of the world. In all honesty, I don’t think Moonage Daydream is as wonderful as the BBC’s Five Years series of documentaries on Bowie, but it’s still a beautiful (and more personal) homage to one of the greatest artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Vow is forensic in its investigations of obsession and how cults evolve, Flee is animation taken to another level, The Anarchists is a series of lessons on how not to change society, but Light & Magic is the feelgood triumph of documentary filmmaking in 2022.
Navalny (BBC)
We Need To Talk About Cosby (Showtime)
The US and the Holocaust (Ken Burns)
Moonage Daydream (Brett Morgen)
Light & Magic (Disney+)
Flee (Jonas Poher Rasmussen)
The Anarchists (HBO)
The Vow S2 (HBO)
FILM
The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)
Pinocchio (Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson)
Nope (Jordan Peele)
Empire of Light (Sam Mendes)
The Worst Person In The World (Joachim Trier)
Tár (Todd Field)
The Wonder (Sebastián Lelio)
Everything Everywhere All At Once (Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert)
Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)
Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund)
Prey (Dan Trachtenberg)
Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Barbarian (Zach Cregger)
Nanny (Nikyatu Jusu)
The Menu (Mark Mylod)
The Bombardment AKA The Shadow In My Eye (Ole Bornedal)
(Actually came out in 2021, but missed it until this year - one of the best war films I’ve seen in recent years. )
BOOKS
All music books - everything else I read seems to be in the line of research. I can’t recommend Miki Berenyi’s autobiography too highly. It’s just one of the most vivid rock bios I’ve read in recent years and really deserves its place at the top of many music books lists of 2022.
Fingers Crossed - Miki Berenyi
A Perfect Silence - Ben Wardle
The Sound of the Machine - Karl Bartos
MUSIC
I bought a lot of music in 2022, but not all of it new releases. Here’s the new stuff that really made an enduring impression on my ear.
Weyes Blood - And In The Darkness Hearts Aglow
I’d never heard of Natalie Mering until this turned up in my Bandcamp feed as a recommendation. Haven’t stopped playing it since, and bought all her earlier albums.
Ezra Collective - Where I’m Meant To Be
Joyous double LP apparently created over Covidtimes, which makes its jubilant atmosphere all the more stirring.
Sault
Sault released six albums in 2022. I don’t think I’ve had time to get to know to know them all, but I love the leftfield release of AIR and its later twin, AIIR, soundtracks to films as yet unmade. (I also haven’t yet had time to listen to Little Simz’ Inflo-produced latest, but I suspect that’ll shortly be added to this list.)
Ralph Heidel - Modern Life
Berlin’s jazz magician returns for a second album and further listening sessions to give your thoughts wings.
Wet Leg
Everyone seems to love this album... with good reason. It hasn’t been off my turntable much. One of the best and most instantaneous debuts I can recall.
Spiritualized - Everything Was Beautiful
Not much to say except, yes, it is beautiful.
Burial - AntiDawn and Streetlands EPs
Burial continues to experiment and amaze. I suppose these can be described as “ambient,” but a better description might be that each track is a sonic painting.
Horace Andy - Midnight Rocker
And also, Rockers & Scorchers (remixes and versions) and Midnight Scorchers. He’s making some of the best music he’s ever made at the age of 72.
State Azure - Cadwell’s Reach
You can bury yourself in State Azure’s back catalogue - I am still exploring - but this vast, Blade Runner inspired soundscape is my favourite from 2022.
My Bandcamp Page, if you’re curious, is here.