It was a good year for craft beer and a terrific year for cutting-edge television and as usual we overindulged in both.

Clearly HBO is responsible for taking long form cutting-edge TV in the US seriously. (Would there ever have been a Breaking Bad without The Sopranos?). But with the emergence of Netflix streaming possibilities grew exponentially.

2020 saw almost too many new streaming networks flexing creative muscle forcing traditional networks like ABC to up their games with series like Abbot Elementary if they wanted to survive.

And now in no particular order….

American Craft Beer’s Best Television Series of 2022.

(Better Call Saul: Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

Better Call Saul (AMC)

It’s rare when a spinoff of a hit series, in this case Breaking Bad, ends up being as good as the original, but that’s what Vince Gillian’s Better Call Saul, (which ended its six season run in 2022), did. It’s also rare when a beloved series can find its way to and ending that meaningfully resonates and Better Call Saul did that too.

Credit Bob Odenkirk for his defining performance as the shady lawyer Saul Goodman for driving a series that could be as human as it was tensely entertaining and complex. But it’s Rhea Seehorn’s performance as his morally-conflicted yet dedicated girlfriend that gives this winning series its heart.

(The Bear: Matt Dinnerstein/FX)

The Bear (Hulu)

The Bear may be one of 2020’s biggest word-of-mouth successes. Jeremy Allen White stars as an award-winning New York City chef who returns to Chicago to run his family’s Italian beef sandwich shop after the suicide of his older brother, who left behind debts, a rundown kitchen, and an unruly staff.

Supported by a strong cast of fresh urban characters that make this dramedy sing The Bear is a gripping tale of family and trauma, coupled with the intensity of running a failing kitchen that’s always on the brink.

(Severence: AppleTV+)

Severance (Apple TV+)

An audacious and almost Kafkaesque take on corporate drudgery, Severance takes place at Lumon Industries, a mysterious bio-tech company that uses a medical procedure called “severance” to detach their employees’ consciousness between their work lives and the outside world.

Mark (Adam Scott), a Lumon employee who’s had the procedure to mask his pain from a failed marriage, now oversees other “severed” workers in the corporate basement. And things turn ominous as he starts questioning what they actually do at the secretive company, and whether he should have ever agreed to submit himself to the severance procedure.

(Pachinko: Apple TV)

Pachinko (Apple TV)

Intricate yet intimate, Pachinko is a sweeping multilingual series that captures the arc of history in South Korea, as well as the enduring bonds of family. Technically brilliant (few shows in 2020 looked or sounded better), this epic emotional saga follows the lives of one immigrant family in Japan told across four generations and three languages.

Plus Pachinko, which takes its name from gaming houses in Japan with arcade like slot machines, also has the best opening credit sequence of the year, with the whole ensemble dancing through a Pachinko parlor to a classic rock song.

(Euphoria: HBO)

Euphoria (HBO)

A brutally graphic and deeply sexual American adaptation of the Israeli show of the same name, Euphoria follows the troubled life of 17-year-old Rue (Zendaya), a drug addict fresh from rehab with no plans to stay clean. It also follows her alcohol and/or drug-addled Southern California high school friends who are just as troubled as she is, if not more so.

Now in its second season, Euphoria isn’t for everyone that’s for sure. But if you can hang in there you’re in for compelling ride. Special shout-out to Angus Cloud who plays a local drug dealer with a close relationship to Rue and to Labyrinth an English singer, songwriter and record producer who added to its wonderful soundtrack.

(Andor: Lucasfilm/ Disney+)

Andor (Disney +)

Like many we’ve largely given up on the later Star Wars movies having found too many of them to soulless facsimiles of the original series. Although we were encouraged by streaming TV’s The Mandalorian we found The Book of Bobba Fett to be fairly vacant and Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi was a total dud.

But Andor, 2022’s prequel to Star Wars Rogue One movie, is an adult take on the Star War universe that revitalizes everything. Disney + has traded juvenile aliens in rubber costumes and cute robots (well there is one) for cinematic world-building and a gritty storyline that ties together the series cosmology in a more mature way.

Bottom line: Andor is the best Star War’s story since The Empire Strikes Back. So maybe there’s hope.

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