This annual list of European and American dramas is selected from media such as "The New Yorker", "The Guardian", "Vulture", "Vanity Fair" and "Esquire", and also includes the author's own viewing interest. Anxiety and existential crisis are the themes of 2022, with flamboyant emotions, hyperbolic means and loud volume. Only in this way, fighting poison with poison can soothe our lonely hearts a little.
1. "This Is Going To Hurt" (This Is Going To Hurt, AMC+)
Adam Kay has channeled his years as an NHS junior doctor into this touching medical skit. Dr. Adam, played by Ben Whishaw (Ben Whishaw), along with his colleagues, was continuously worn down by the public hospital system until he found out that he was not such a good doctor, was a bad boyfriend and colleague, and had a higher moral standard than himself. For the low.
Dr. Adam is neither higher nor lower than us. He was trapped between the wards (like hell) too busy to be depressed, but this sad face has clearly shown the characteristics of depression. The existential crisis that Adam encounters is a common disease of the times. Doctors, patients, everyone is tortured, and only two admirable dead people escape gracefully.
2. The Bear (FX/Hulu)
Yet another story of a troubled and gifted white male who saves life and himself. But this time around, critics have temporarily turned off the politically correct radar, unanimously calling it the best book of the year.
Five-star chef Carmen (Jeremy Allen White) is trapped in Chicago's Fly Restaurant, trying to hide the grief of his brother's death in the noise and chaos. He's also wrestling with his own dark side and addictions.
Like "Inevitable Pain," "The Bear's Diner" is a presto variation on modern life. Everyone in the back kitchen was yelling, overlapping words, and most of the time no one could hear what the other was saying. The brakes failed, and they couldn't stop their words, with an urgency that seemed to stop life if the shouting stopped.
This drama is a kind of noise therapy, fighting fire with fire, letting the energy of life flow away in the yelling and constant impact on the eardrums. It has long exceeded the scope of venting, not inflating, but letting it leak. Only by lying flat on the floor after leaking air can we bear the impact of the noise of the waves.
3. The Rehearsal (HBO)
The devil game designed by Nathan Field: a person splits into several, and a situation spreads like branches. The real-life experiment becomes an infinite extension in the two facing mirrors, which is frightening. Is there any truth in it?
Nathan, like a ruthless philosopher, allows one thought to lead to another. HBO gave him a budget that he could spend freely, so that he could not only mobilize countless actors to play others, conduct rehearsals, and even rehearse a child's growth. In the end, Nathan comforted the audience with warm thinking, making us believe that all this is just for testing: How much emotional reality can there be in the virtual world? But we couldn't help stepping into the icy water, doubting the authenticity of the environment. This kind of doubt is even worse than Truman's world, layer by layer without end, until the sense of boundary between reality and fiction is completely lost, leaving only the reach of the senses to rely on.
He is playing God. Before this moment, perhaps the earth was not even born.
4. The White Lotus, Sky Atlantic
"White Lotus Resort", which premiered last year, told the story of a group of rich people who "revealed their original form" in a resort. What resonates more generally is that this group of people want to go to the "paradise on earth" to find happiness, but they can't find it. Even if their half-numbed minds are touched a little, they will return to their original state after the week's vacation is over.
Jack White's screenplay is driven by the changeable heart of the characters, without relying on the pile of coincidence. Every character is complex. White, without moral prejudice, gives dark and impenitent hearts to the most promising young men. He pities die-hard conservatives and sex-hungry women, and doesn't demystify (and, of course, don't defend) the rich. Diva, dying by his own hand, dances like a king's favorite elephant, contributing the most comical and magnificent curtain call.
5. Mo's Way of Survival (Mo, Netflix)
The semi-autobiographical work of Palestinian-born comedian Mohammad Amir has always been anxious about the green card issue. He played Amu and his family fled to the United States as refugees when he was a teenager. All these years later, the family is still tormented by the immigration system, teased by the courts, and never granted U.S. status. Amu Meng went back to her hometown, surrounded by seven aunts and eight aunts wearing headscarves, and woke up in fright. He has no crisis of faith, because his faith has long been thinned out along with the thoughts of his homeland.
Amu only pays attention to the current crisis of survival, and tries his best to make money, but the big bear with a sharp tongue doesn't always turn danger into good fortune. At the end of the first season, he was stranded overseas (in Mexico) without a passport. Amu's consistent pragmatic attitude and flexibility will face a greater test. How many adventures and disappointments can a heart bear before it can finally be accepted by a society that does not welcome him?
6. Desperate Writer (Hacks, HBO Max)
Comedians are sad people, or in other words, sad people make good comedians. Not only that, but someone who is authoritarian, stubborn, selfish, and cruel is best, like Jane Smart's veteran comedian Deborah. She forms a platonic alliance with young comedy writer Eva (Hannah Ebinder) and embarks on a road trip in Season 2.
They are like two hard sponges, absorbing everything on the journey, spit out tons of jokes in the glorious night. Both of them discovered strange sides to themselves. There are still some difficult moments during the journey, when the situation takes a turn for the worse or the hope fails, for the time being, they can only accept it silently, and they cannot yet turn it into creation.
There is always more experience, less confiding, changes are happening all the time, this is life.
7. Severance (Severance, Apple TV+)
There are not many high-concept sci-fi works, and "Splitting Life" is one of them.
It sets up a scenario where people's memories in the workplace and outside of work are disconnected. While working, one forgets about one's own life. If you leave the company, you will forget all your working memory. The employees who agreed to accept Lumon's cutting operation showed an increasingly strong tendency to do everything possible to regain the integrity of memory and cognition. They feel the lack, and gradually experience the pain of being deprived of a part of time (that is, life). The slow, painful and difficult awakening of the characters in the play is like sleepwalking, like the ocean current under the sea level, brewing a tsunami throughout the first season.
Individually, the person in the office is not the same person as the person leaving the office. This feeling makes a person schizophrenic, not knowing who he is and what he is doing at another time. The resulting anxiety and panic promote the rapid development of the plot.
Conspiracy theories about the comprehensive control of social animals by technology are especially intriguing today.
8. Better Things (FX)
The fifth season of "Better Things" is over. Farewell, rose-scented Sam Fox family.
Pamela Adlon wrote, directed, and acted in this drama, which gently evokes the heartstrings like real life. She lives passionately with her three daughters and a mother. Sometimes this life is so light that it almost slides into the kingdom of elves;
Middle-aged Sam is out of breath and encounters constant encounters. She showed a middle-aged scene full of curiosity, daring to accept changes, and still able to be inspired and moved by others. She makes "middle age" no longer synonymous with depression, thank you Pamela.
9. For All Mankind (Apple TV+)
The last episode of the second season, "The Grey", was jaw-dropping, and I didn't expect that every episode in the third season would not lose this level. As a rare all-over space historical drama, "For All Mankind" is a transcendental TV drama. Its dialogue is on par with "Mad Men" and "Mad Men," and its characterization is on par with "The Americans." It's an American story in space, and everyone in it is incredibly conservative.
10. Ando (Disney+)
"Rogue One" (Prequel) prequel "Andor" (Andor) shows the moment before the establishment of the Rebel Alliance, the rebels are like sand, and the little people of the galaxy have different minds and surging thoughts. After the first season was broadcast, some people were optimistic that it would be the best series in Disney+ history.
"Andor" has its shortcomings, such as too slow rhythm. Its self-confidence is also shown here. The writers believe that "Andor" can build up its strength and stamina. In the galaxy of small people, it reminds us to find our identity, voice and the life we want.
