2022 was an exciting and successful year for streaming services. With many movies and shows being postponed due to the recent Covid pandemic, there was a vast amount of great entertainment to choose from.
You can find the most popular streaming movies and shows of 2022 in ExpressVPN research. The leaders were Stranger Things and Ozark.
Let’s see what other shows and movies people enjoyed watching this year and where you can stream them.
1. Severance (Apple TV+)
A whole season of Black Mirror nightmares set in an office environment – that’s what Ben Stille brought us on Apple TV+. Severance is a gradual unfolding of a brilliant concept: in the story, a mysterious corporation requires its employees to undergo a process of ‘severance’, whereby their home and work selves are split into two, and two consciousnesses are formed, unaware of each other. For many, separating work and private life can be a dream, but for some, escaping their trauma into a schizophrenic life, like Mark (Adam Scott), who faces challenges as both a team leader and a civilian, while the company’s intrigues slowly unravel.
Severance relies heavily on satirical elements, such as the forced cheerfulness of the office environment, the cliché of “your colleagues are your family,” and the meaningless, undefinable – and therefore utterly useless – robotic work that must be done day in, day out. Dan Erickson, the creator of the series, was discovered by Ben Stiller himself and turned his first work into a hit series. Severance’s instant success is down to the excellent cast of John Turturro, Patricia Arquette and Christopher Walken, and the confidently paced narrative, culminating in a season finale that is a guaranteed emotional high for anyone who dives in.
- The Boys – Season 3 (Amazon Prime)
Can the madness get any crazier? The Boys certainly tried and delivered a bombastic third season with great success, surpassing the sometimes wavering but maximally demanding standards of the previous seasons in almost every way. The adaptation of Garth Ennis’ superhero-hating comic book has become the unquestioned flagship of Amazon Prime, and the story of ordinary guys killing bastards with special powers has produced its most exciting season this year, after two years of waiting.
Although Homelander, the psychopathic Superman, remains the star of the show in a fantastic performance by Antony Starr, every character has moments to make them stand out from the crowd. This even includes the star of The Ode to the Past, Jensen Ackles, who steals the show with his ruthlessly butchering Captain America paraphrase. As well as moving its cast brilliantly, the third season of Boys really went big with its references to current affairs and its exposé of how the media and public opinion work.
Eric Kripke’s series is much more about contemporary America than previous seasons: the references, the caricatures, the socially critical edge about politicians who pretend to be saviors but live off the back of a suit, the bloodthirsty masses, and the media-themed truth-telling are all incredibly poignant. Even if it does not say anything really surprising that would not have occurred to people skeptical about the zeitgeist, Boys is a credible portrayal of an increasingly degenerating public life and the institutions that shape it. It is a world we are guaranteed not to want to live in, and we almost do.
3. Stranger Things – Season 4 (Netflix)
As Netflix’s flagship show, Stranger Things, is under a lot of pressure, mainly because the Duffer brothers know that after a while, you can’t make a living on the speed-of-light nostalgia train. Make no mistake: the series’ mood is so engaging, and the dynamics between the characters work so brilliantly every time, whatever the line-up, that Stranger Things can’t be bad. But with the fourth season, we’re feeling less déjà vu, and the series has managed to shake things up a bit during its three-year hiatus. This is thanks in part to the instant crowd-pleaser Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn), who brought the world’s most metal concert to the upside down, Max (Sadie Sink), who, in episode four, goes on a shocking journey that is unprecedented in the world of Stranger Things, and Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). The season’s main villain is not only an unprecedented threat to Hawkins but a beautifully crafted, fearsome, and driven character who embodies both the supernatural and human dangers.
Despite the marathon-length episodes, the fight against Vecna keeps us glued to the couch, and the tension builds with each episode. In fact, the plot threads of a team scattered across the globe are less exciting, and the events in Hawkins are still the most intriguing, but they still need to be interspersed with a great rhythm to keep us engaged in the story. Although the huge cast of Stranger Things has grown a little too big for its own good – which is why it wouldn’t have hurt to say goodbye to a few more characters, however painful the finale was – the newly empowered Eleven and her friends will need everyone to defeat Vecna. The Duffer brothers have once again dragged us into the Pit, from which we can only escape when we finally get to see season five.
Here you have it – here are a few exciting shows you can stream today. If you already watched these, make sure to check ExpressVPN’s list once again and see what other shows are worth your attention.
