10 Shows That Made Me Hate the World (a Little) Less in 2022

Editors' Picks: TV Guide already ranked the Best Shows of 2022, but as the year comes to a close, individual editors share their personal favorites for your enjoyment — and to argue about over the internet. Happy New Year, and happy watching!

A common old adage, especially in Hollywood, is to write what you know, and when you're two years deep into a pandemic, with climate change ravaging your planet, sexual misconduct, racism, and the loss of women's and LGBTQIA+ rights making headlines every day, what you know is a lot of anger, hurt, and pain. That can (and has) made for some pretty remarkable, not to mention award-winning, television in the past. And sometimes it can be therapeutic to immerse yourself in a fictionalized version of similar events to what you're really experiencing, as a way of working through your own complicated emotions about the state of ::gestures wildly:: everything. But sometimes you need a break.

For a lot of reasons (not just limited to the ones listed above), 2022 was a year I truly needed a break. Of course I had to watch everything for work this year, and yes, that included the ripped-from-the-headlines stories and the stories that weren't technically ripped from the headlines but certainly felt like they could have been. From The Boys to The Handmaid's Tale, those weren't without enjoyment. But when reaching for content to consume on my own time, I increasingly found myself drawn to comedies.

Some were old staples (Friends, Happy Endings), while others were more recent comfort TV (The Mick, The Other Two). But most notable are the titles that people are making — and that are airing or streaming — new right now. Comedies have long been salves for tough times, but there was something very special (and very necessary) about finding joy, laughter, and hope among the below crop of fictional characters and their stories.

Abbott Elementary

The first season of Quinta Brunson's mockumentary sitcom set among the educators at a Pennsylvania elementary school burst to high acclaim immediately upon its sneak preview at the end of 2021. The first season, which aired on ABC at the top of 2022, introduced the world to Brunson's Janine Teagues, a ridiculously positive second grade teacher at the titular school, and her colleagues, veteran teachers Barbara Howard (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and Melissa Schemmenti (Lisa Ann Walter); nerdy and neurotic history teacher Jacob Hill (Chris Perfetti); the substitute who wants to be principal, Gregory Eddie (Tyler James Williams); and the principal who seems to want to be anything but, Ava Coleman (Janelle James). The second season, which began in September, went even deeper with these characters, taking them out of the school setting more often to get to know their personalities and relationships on their home turf. The show sometimes features a sobering look at the hardships teachers face, but it does so while deftly mixing in silly scenarios (such as teachers trying to stop a Tik Tok trend by getting in on it, thereby rendering it uncool) and poignant stories about the group banding together to help each other. It reminds us how important having the support of a community can be, offers a love letter to the great teachers of the world, and, of course, delivers countless quotable lines of dialogue, Meme-able moments, and even a budding romance to ship.

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The Afterparty

A show that centers on a murder may not be a lot of people's first choices for something that actually makes you feel better about the world, but this one earned its place on this list for the inventive way it told its story in Season 1, which premiered in January 2022 on Apple TV+. Set at an afterparty (obviously) of a high school reunion, Xavier Duckworth Jr. (Dave Franco) bit it, leaving everyone in attendance (aka his former classmates) as suspects in his demise. As cops (played by Tiffany Haddish and John Early) arrived on the scene and began questioning those former classmates, episodes shifted into different character perspectives and visual styles, from action to animation. That alone is quite an undertaking, and it made for many unique surprises along the way for a decades-old genre (the whodunnit). But, if you were paying very close attention, there was a long trail of Easter eggs built into the show — everything from props to acting choices — to tip you off to who the real perpetrator was, and that's an even bigger feat of filmmaking.

A Black Lady Sketch Show

It should be enough that Robin Thede's HBO sketch comedy series provides consistent laughs from sketches that range from takes on what the women of Biblical times thought about The Last Supper and Jesus' resurrection to a woman deemed so invisible she is able to work as a spy. And honestly, that is enough. But the show doesn't stop there. In addition to those unique and memorable individual sketches and recurring characters, the series also delivers a narrative throughout about women who appear to be the sole survivors of an apocalyptic event that carries real stakes on its own. And, in the third season that aired on HBO beginning in April 2022, that narrative not only delivered answers as to why the women were trapped together, but also tied their story into the universe that the sketches inhabit in a way that tracks back all the way through the series. When the real world feels so out of control, it's really nice to rewatch A Black Lady Sketch Show and feel assured that at least someone knows what they're doing.

Dead to Me

Known more as a "traumedy" than a straight comedy, Dead to Me has always made a meal out of juxtaposing some very real, very dark situations (namely death) with equally absurd occurrences (a surprise identical twin turning up, for one). Its third and final season, which launched on Netflix in November, admittedly leaned much harder on the former as it wrapped up Jen Harding's (Christina Applegate) and Judy Hale's (Linda Cardellini) journey as fast friends who bonded at a grief group and ended up covering up a murder together. Those final 10 episodes began with the aftermath of a hit-and-run and featured a season-long arc in which Judy was diagnosed with cancer (and spoiler alert, she didn't make it), which made pieces of it incredibly hard, emotionally, to watch. Through it all, though, the show remained a beautiful meditation on the importance of friendship and the lengths that you will go for someone when you love them. That was true on-screen, as Jen stepped into the caretaker role for Judy, while Judy tried to confess to Jen's crime, but it was also true behind the scenes, where the entire production rallied behind Applegate, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

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Ghosts

The diverse dead residents of Woodstone Manor on CBS' version of the British sitcom of the same title proved to be the perfect people to spend much of 2022 with. Although they came from very different time periods, they learned to coexist well together over the years of their afterlives, and, in the second season that started in September, they have even begun to evolve. Specifically, such characters as Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky) and Thorfinn (Devan Long), who are a couple of the older ghosts and therefore have the farthest to go, became more tolerant and accepting, but even the youngest ghost Trevor (Asher Grodman) showed himself to be much more than just the "frat bro" persona he often projected. The show itself also evolved in its humor, going so far as to be meta with holiday themes and tropes, thanks, in part, to star Rose McIver's involvement in such a film franchise. And being that it is a traditional broadcast sitcom, it never failed to deliver multiple LOL-worthy jokes per scene.

Girls5eva

From its start, Girls5eva did a lot to normalize women of all ages going for their real dreams, but in the second season, which premiered on Peacock in May 2022, it upped the ante tenfold with rapid-fire quotable lines and references, ear worm tracks, and the payoff of a first-season cliffhanger conspiracy theory to boot. Spoiler alert: Yes, it appears Ashley really is dead, but the catharsis Gloria (Paula Pell) experienced investigating whether a mysterious pop star really was Ashley in disguise was not only great escapism, but it also created a very sweet and emotional song titled "At the Beep." The musical comedy went just as deep with its other three leading ladies in the second season, exploring everything from dating after divorce when your pre-marriage image was virginal (for Busy Philipps' Summer) to dating a regular person when you're a superstar in your own mind (for Renée Elise Goldsberry's Wickie) and wrestling with creative control and the pressure that comes with it (for Sara Bareilles' Dawn). Plus, again, there's a killer soundtrack that will also make you hate being stuck in traffic a little less.

Reservation Dogs

From its rural setting where options for advancement seem limited to the death by suicide of the main characters' friend, there is a lot about Reservation Dogs that is extremely grounded and serious. Yet, the FX series that streamed its second season in August 2022 on Hulu also knows how to have fun with itself, including bringing "sh-- ass" into wider use. That second season followed the adventures of the core four characters as they tried to reverse curses, dealt with another big death, broke Cheese (Lane Factor) out of a group home, and prepared for life as adults. The latter included finally fulfilling their deceased friend Daniel's (Dalton Cramer) wish of leaving their reservation in Oklahoma to visit California, and they set out on a road trip that not only cemented their bond but also changed their futures. Even though each character had a lot they are dealing with individually, they proved that they were stronger when coming together, which is an invaluable lesson about chosen family also depicted through elders within their community.

Starstruck

Here's where things have the potential to get a bit TMI because who am I, really, and why do you care about me when you likely just want to find things worth your time to binge? Well, I am someone who, as a child and young teen, would create elaborate scenes in my mind (and sometimes in my journal, which I guess technically constitutes fan fiction) about meeting my favorite actor by chance and having him fall madly in love with me. Who the actor was isn't necessarily important, nor was he the same person from age "child" to "young teen." But anyway, I say that all now to explain that Rose Matafeo's comedy struck (no pun intended) a stronger nerve than many other rom-coms because its love story centers a famous actor (played by Nikesh Patel) and a "regular person" (played by Matafeo). They met and began falling for each other in the first season, but the second season, which launched in March 2022 on HBO Max, really expanded upon their characters' differences, both internal because of baggage and external because of their responsibilities and place in the world. Yet, even with challenges pulling them apart, it was a very sweet (but still with enough bite to avoid being cloying) love story.

We're Here

OK obviously this one is not a comedy, but its positive tone and fierce celebration of individuality and authenticity is the definition of a show that should make everyone hate the world a little less. As the third season of HBO's unscripted series that follows drag queens Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka O'Hara, and Shangela Laquifa Wadley was gearing up for premiere in November, LGBTQIA+ individuals across the world were under attack — physically, as in the attack at a club in Colorado Springs, but also their rights. You couldn't watch the show and escape from that devastating reality, but nor should you because ignoring the problem only makes it worse. The show did not shy away from showcasing some of the misguided hate the queens experienced as they traveled the country from Texas to Utah to Florida to put on drag shows in underserved communities and spread their message of love and inclusion, but it always led with love. Watching these queens' drag kids come alive as they prepare for the show, find new support and get embraced by the queens and members of their own small towns has always been the joy of this show, but in the third season that all felt so much more monumental, in part because of the backdrop of the world it came upon. And it wasn't just the drag kids who were changed by experiences this time around: Eureka shared a very emotional, very important revelation about her own sexual identity when working with her drag daughter Mandy in Florida. Everyone involved in this show provides so much hope for the future it is truly remarkable.

What We Do in the Shadows

Usually, stories about vampires are out to make you scream — or at least gasp. And in fairness, FX's What We Do in the Shadows sometimes does make you gasp, just with excitement. Mostly, though, it never fails to cause cackles. The fourth season, which aired during the summer of 2022, was no different, following the centuries-old vampires who live in Staten Island and their human familiar-slash-secret-vampire-hunter-slash-soon-to-be-vampire-himself Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) as they opened a night club, planned a wedding, got a makeover for their mansion, and raised a new version of Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) from infancy. The stakes (no pun intended) were higher than ever before as a trip overseas between seasons created new tension among some of the vampires and their new endeavors presented additional challenges. But even when things seemed outlandish (even for a series about supernatural beings), stories always tied together with emotional weight and meaning. It was a great way to trade one dark world (our real one) for another slightly more wacky one, even if just for a half an hour reprieve at a time.