Although this is predominantly a movie blog, as we start the New Year, I wanted to take a moment to recognise some of my favourite stand-out moments from 2022’s ‘event’ TV. I don’t claim to have seen everything, but these are my Top Ten favourite TV moments from the last year (for the most part, I’ve tried to be a bit more imaginative than simply choosing everything’s season finales!).

Honourable Mention – Only Murders in the Building: “Persons of Interest” (season two, episode 1)

After a great debut season, Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez were able to recapture their easy chemistry for a second season of this fun comedy whodunit mystery series.

10 – Wednesday: “If You Don’t Woe Me By Now” (season one, episode 7)

While you could cynically argue that this show is quite derivative in concept, it’s executed perfectly, thanks to the combination of Tim Burton’s stylistic touches and a fantastic lead performance from Jenna Ortega (who was also excellent in 2022’s Scream). Just when I thought I’d figured everything out in the central mystery, episode seven demonstrated that there was more to the show that it may have first appeared. All in all, a promising debut season.

9 – Ms. Marvel: “Crushed” (season one, episode 2)

Ms. Marvel was such a joyous TV show, partly because it was so much fun spending time in the company of Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) and her friends Nakia (Yasmeen Fletcher) and Bruno (Matt Lintz), and her family (Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur and Saagar Shaikh). This was evidence as early as episode two, particularly in the fun scenes where Nakia is campaigning for votes at the Eid al-Adha celebration.

8 – Reacher: “Welcome to Margrave” (season one, episode 1)

I’m a big fan of the Jack Reacher novels (and the movies), and the first episode of the new series captured the tone of the novel Killing Floor perfectly. The rest of the serial adaptation did not disappoint, and this was my first must-see binge watch of 2022.

7 – The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: “Udûn” (season one, episode 6)

As much as I loved the season as a whole, I have to admit that all of the (necessary) world-building meant that the early episodes lacked a bit of momentum. But when Galadriel (the excellent Morfydd Clark) finally made it back to Middle Earth in episode six, we were presented with an epic, episode-long battle that stood up to anything that Game of Thrones had managed before – and then it provided us with a final coda that took me completely by surprise.

6 – House of the Dragon: “The Green Council” (season one, episode 9)

The season as a whole was one long, slow-build to the inevitable civil war for succession, but what the show did so well was to flesh out all of the sides so that the audience could understand what it would take for a family to turn in on itself in the most violent way imaginable. Episode nine was, in many ways, the culmination of all of the plotting, resentments and recriminations, and the whole thing was tinged with tragedy because of the (potentially avoidable) events that led to Alicent (Olivia Cooke) and the Small Council’s actions in this episode.

5 – She-Hulk: Attorney at Law: “Ribbit and Rip It” (season one, episode 8)

The whole season was so much fun, and there wasn’t a single weak episode IMHO – but episode eight had it all. Not only did we get the much-hyped return of Charlie Cox in full Daredevil costume, but we also got some fun courtroom scenes, and some off-the-chart chemistry between Tatiana Maslany and Charlie Cox. While the finale was perhaps the biggest WTF meta TV moment of the year, it was hard to beat episode nine for its sheer fun factor.

4 – Peacemaker: The main titles sequence (season one)

Even after watching (the excellent) The Suicide Squad, I really wasn’t sure we needed a spin-off show about the amoral, dim-witted killer Christopher Smith aka Peacemaker – but writer/director James Gunn gave us an R-rated delight with this show, which combines bananas violent comedy with a touching and complex character study. Nowhere is the insanity more clearly on display than in the bonkers main titles sequence, which is perhaps the best main titles sequence ever!

3 – Better Call Saul: “Plan and Execution” (season six, episode 7)

Let’s be fair, you could arguably pick any episode of Better Call Saul’s final season and it would deserve a place on the Top Ten of the year. But of all the moments from it’s swansong season, the mid-season cliff-hanger episode was perhaps the most shocking (even coming just a few episodes after the also-stunning "Rock and Hard Place"). Episode seven weaved the Sandpiper scheme and the Cartel storylines together perfectly, to deliver one of the most memorable moments of the show’s entire run.

2 – Andor: “One Way Out” (season one, episode 10)

After the disappointing The Book of Boba Fett, and the inconsistent quality of Obi-Wan Kenobi, expectations were low for this Star Wars spin-off focusing on the guy most casual viewers could barely remember from Rogue One. But Andor turned out to be the best thing Star Wars has done in years, proving that you can play with different tones and themes while still maintaining the inherent ‘Star-Wars-ness’ of the universe. Episode ten was a tour de force, giving us not only an award-worthy performance from Andy Serkis, but also a monologue from Stellan Skarsgård that really highlighted what sets Andor apart from other recent Star Wars TV projects.

1 – Stranger Things: “Dear Billy” (season four, episode 4)

The fourth season of Stranger Things was arguably its best yet, and it was packed full of fantastic moments (including Vecna’s chilling first murder in “The Hellfire Club”, the mid-season cliff-hanger of “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab”, and the entirety of “Volume Two”) – but for me, there was no more memorable, no more intense, and no more emotional TV moment in 2022 than the final 10 minutes of this episode. Quite simply, a breath-taking episode, and a career-making performance from Sadie Sink.