Hi,
Welcome back to Continue Watching! Listen, what a year. The vibes were chaos, everything was in its flop era, and no one could catch a break. We sent out eight issues this year, less than we could have ever imagined but more than we could have ever managed. Between new jobs, new cities, new houses, we tried to prioritise Continue Watching, and only succeeded a handful of times. The one thing we promised each other, though, was to be kind to ourselves when we couldn’t send an issue out. There was no need for us to drown in guilt, primarily because we were already drowning in work and life admin. Nonetheless, we got our first press mention this year, which goes on to show that everything is super random!
We have no way of knowing what 2023 is going to look like, but Continue Watching shall keep hitting your inbox sporadically and often, like a long-distance friend with ride or die energy. Before we end the year, though, we’re bringing you the Continue Watching TV Awards™ — completely made-up and completely accurate. Between the two of us, we have watched 158 shows this year, so you have to understand that no one is more qualified than us to judge 2022 TV (we’re even watching the new Emily in Paris right now, where Emily has somehow gotten even more obnoxious and is also unable to talk in a normal pitch).
Before we get to the awards, here’s the summary of our year gone by wrapped in a TV show.
If your 2022 were a TV show, which one would it be from the shows you’ve watched this year?
KASHIKA
Definitely season two of The Flight Attendant, where Cassie is trying super hard to be good and live well but every single decision she makes is a bigger trainwreck than the previous one. Some of these choices eventually work out and some don’t, but at no point does it feel like she will make it out alive or in one piece. People call it a dark comedy because they’re too polite to call it what it is — a fucking joke.
SHAHANA
It would be a combination of All of Us are Dead and Starstruck, to be completely honest. While the central romance in Starstruck is really cute, I feel like I tune in for Jessie and Kate’s friendship more. Romantic partners will come and go, but a good, solid female friend who will give you unconditional love and support and also call you out when you’re being stupid is like striking gold. And I struck gold.
Why have I also said this year felt like a show where people are turning into zombies and everyone is dying? Because the planet is in crisis, people! But no, honestly, look around you. People are legitimately losing any kind of critical thinking skills, there’s people on Instagram saying sunscreen gives you cancer, that beerbiceps guy does whatever it is that he does, no one knows what love jihad is but apparently it is rampant. I am slowly inching towards death and every day just brings with me news that fills me with dread. We are all alive, but are we really?
On that positive note, we hope you have a wonderful, joyful 2023! May we all watch good television and eat good food. Until next time,
Continue Watching (and reading!),
Kashika and Shahana
The Continue Watching 2022 TV Awards
Kashika's winners
No. of shows started in 2022: 64
No. of shows finished in 2022: 55
No. of shows abandoned in 2022: 9
2022 was the year of big decisions. I moved away from most of my friends to a city I don’t understand as a concept, and was rewarded for it with four months of nonstop rain. It got better, partially because I had my shows to keep me company. I’m surprised that I watched 64 shows this year, because most days felt like they went from day to night in the blink of an eye. I’m now wondering if I should be watching fewer TV shows to be able to achieve more in life. Lol jk. I do think, however, that my overall attention span has reduced and there were weeks when I watched nothing except one episode of Bigg Boss every day. But let that not eclipse how many lovely, moving, incredible shows I watched this year, most of which you will read about below.
The #1 show of the year
On the face of it, Bad Sisters is a show about the murder of a man. But half an hour into the first episode, you’ll realise that it’s about five sisters who are ready to kill each other and kill for each other at a moment’s notice. Sharon Horgan doesn’t just star as the oldest sister Eva Garvey, she also developed this series. And you can tell that this is a story built by a woman, because instead of focusing on a unidimensional understanding of abuse and power, Bad Sisters focuses on women and how they hold emotions inside them, not just their own but also of every single person around. Not a single decision is made in isolation or with only themselves in mind. But the show understands that this is not always sacrifice, it’s often survival. Please, please watch it!
Bad Sisters - Apple TV+ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The show that fundamentally shifted something inside me
Twenty-Five Twenty-One is a show about two people who meet and fall in love when they’re new adults. As they grow up, their lives and dreams take them in different directions. Simple, right? That’s what I thought when I started it. But Twenty-Five Twenty-One tore my heart open and forced me to keep breathing as it slapped me in the face with a reality everyone knows but refuses to acknowledge. Sometimes, you meet people at a very specific time in your life, they change the way you live and breathe, and then they walk out of your life. And just because you love them, it doesn’t mean they will come back. I was not ready for a lesson like this from a K-drama, and I hated the ending for it.
Special mention: Good Trouble season 4
Good Trouble continues to be a show only I watch. I watched season 4 late, and had missed the entire news cycle around it, so I had no idea that in the third episode, one of the main characters, Callie, was leaving the show. As I saw Marianna watch her sister leave, unable to verbalise her grief and completely shutting down as a result, only to burst into tears at the most random times for a bunch of episodes, the reality of my living situation sunk in. I have never reacted so viscerally to a TV character’s exit (and I watched Grey’s Anatomy for 15 seasons!).
Twenty-Five Twenty-One - Netflix ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Good Trouble -You’ll have to get creative to find it ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The show that made me cry so much I had to keep the video off in all my meetings the next day
This is the most predictable choice in this newsletter, but when Rebecca died in the penultimate episode of this show, and Mandy Moore looked the prettiest I’ve ever seen her look in that red dress, I lost it. I started crying at the 4-minute mark in the episode and sobbed through every single minute. I was so, so sad that once the episode was over, I threw myself on my bed and sobbed hysterically until my brother came in my room to make fun of me.
Special Mention: From Scratch
I watched four episodes of this show not knowing where the story is going. I texted a friend saying I don’t understand why everyone said they kept crying, nothing is happening. Then something happened in episode five and I cried so hard I had to sit up. I watched the entire show in one sitting from 9pm to 4am. I don’t think I’ve ever cried so much in one night.
This Is Us - Disney+ Hotstar ⭐⭐⭐⭐
From Scratch - Netflix ⭐⭐⭐
The show I shouldn’t have binge watched
Yellowjackets did the old timey thing of releasing one episode per week, which my pea-sized brain cannot handle anymore. Four episodes in, I realised that it was for the best because there are only so many scary, fucked-up things you can watch in one sitting. Still, I watched the first eight episodes in one go (because I found it late) and had such terrible nightmares that they rivalled the time I’d watched NH10 before bed. This is the story of a bunch of teenage girls who are stranded in the wilderness after a plane crash, ready to (maybe literally) eat each other just to survive. We don’t know who makes it out alive but we follow some of them into adulthood, so there’s the constant suspense of who ate killed whom and how they made it out. I’m not doing a great job explaining it because I’m traumatised by that tunnel-within-the-house-for-some-black-magic scene in the end.
Yellowjackets - Voot ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
The show that kept me going on rough days
K-dramas are famous for getting fluffy, feel-good romances right, but few have done this as well as A Business Proposal in recent times. The story of a young woman who unknowingly goes on a blind date with her boss to save her friend from an arranged marriage, this Korean show is sweet, swoon-worthy, and laugh out loud funny. There are two top-notch romances and a female friendship for the ages. It ended my K-drama drought at the beginning of the year, and reminded me that not all of them get boring after episode 10.
Special mention - Heartstopper
In the era of Euphoria and Elite, it can be difficult to remember that high school stories can also be sweet and wholesome, that everything is not always mystery-murder-death-drugs-sex-scandal. Having grown up on Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars, I understand the inclination towards shocking, fast-paced teen shows, but perhaps that is all the more reason a show like Heartstopper can come along and win you over with its sweetness. This perfect little show of 30-minute-long eight episodes is so full of light and laughter that it is impossible to not get invested.
A Business Proposal - Netflix ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
Heartstopper - Netflix ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The show that made me feel things I wasn’t ready for
In Somebody Somewhere, Bridget Everett plays Sam, who does not fit in her hometown, and yet, as an adult, finds a community there that stands by her in one of the toughest times of her life. This show will emotionally wreck you and then make you laugh in the span of one episode. Since Sam is grieving, you can see how she’s struggling to hold the sadness, fatigue, hope, and need for connection in her body at the same time, but the story comes together beautifully, with the kind of emotional authenticity that is hard to watch. As someone who has a very complicated relationship with her hometown, Somebody Somewhere was too real, too raw for me. I loved it and hated it in equal measure.
Somebody Somewhere - Disney+ Hotstar⭐⭐⭐⭐
The show I watched only for my brother
Friday Night Lights is one of my top three shows of all time, but it is an exception. I do not make a habit of watching high school kids play a sport with the kind of passion I only reserve for…nothing. I don’t think I feel that strongly about anything in life. Cobra Kai is the spin-off/sequel to The Karate Kid movies, and follows the lead and the antagonist of the films live their lives as karate senseis to the next generation. The amount these people and this town care about karate is unhinged, but the show tells a great story with insane stakes. The kids are all so stupid and the worst decision-makers, and the adults are no better. It is very fun, and I only started watching it with my brother because I knew our time together at home was coming to an end, and two very different cities were about to call us back to work.
Cobra Kai - Netflix ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Shahana’s winners
No of shows completed in 2022: 73
No of shows started but still watching in 2022: 16
No of shows abandoned in 2022: 5
2022 was a bit of a rollercoaster for me. I started a new job, where I sometimes get told off by people younger than me, and while my ego has taken a bit of a hit, I console myself by looking at the bright side—I’m not accountable for mistakes, and big decisions aren’t up to me. Obviously, I licked my wounds by choosing to ignore my reality and focusing on a fake one. While I made the list for how many shows I watched this year and saw exactly how many I had seen, I stopped to ask myself if I was okay, and then told myself this is why I have a therapist. But my unhinged mind is your watch list, so I hope this year Continue Watching helped you find something interesting to watch.
The show that made me feel a type of way I cannot put in words
To describe a show like Twenty-Five Twenty-One is hard; to try to find words to describe what it feels like to watch someone find receive unflinching support, to have someone show up for them over and over again, and see it then fade out, as it so often happens in life — it’s at times like these that you know sometimes, words can only do so much. Twenty-Five Twenty-One was special, and watching Na Hui-do and her friends go through life, fall in love, fall out of love, do brave things, find success and defeat, taught me things too—that you could meet the most perfect person, but if life wants to, it will get in the way. Despite all the love, it can and will end. And life will go on. However, the love was there. Other things were stronger, but the love was there. It changed nothing, but it was there, and it mattered.
Twenty-Five Twenty-One - Netflix ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The 2022 K-drama line that made me sick
Every year, a K-drama male lead will say something that metaphorically brings me to my knees. This year, it’s Jang Uk from Alchemy of Souls. Let me paint you a picture. He has entered into a marriage of convenience with a woman (we will call her A to avoid spoilers), while nursing a heartbreak of epic proportions because the woman he loves is dead. A is the woman he loves who he thinks is dead but no one knows except her mean mom (who is shocked those two found their way to each other despite not knowing each other—do you see why I’m feral over them). So after Jang Uk announces to a council they are married and therefore A cannot be declared virgin priestess and whisks her away, her mean mom does magic, calling her home, which causes A excruciating pain. Jang Uk pretends not to care, but breaks into A’s mom’s home (an impenetrable fortress, FYI), destroys the magical object, and says, “My wife cannot sleep. Please refrain from calling her in the middle of the night.” If that wasn’t enough, he adds, “Also, as you know, we are newlyweds,” to remind his mother-in-law that she is making it hard for him to sleep with his wife. Tsundere men who do things for the people they love out of care and devotion with no need for anyone to know have me weak.
p.s. This scene has a hold on me so strong I am way over the word count Kashika made me promise to stick to. I could write an entire essay on this one sentence and everything it means, that’s how whipped I am for watching whipped men be whipped.
Alchemy of Souls, Part 2 - Netflix ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The show that taught me what an actual nightmare looks like
Listen, I really like my current job, and I’ve mostly liked my other jobs. But, my favourite part of the work day has always been shutting down my laptop and packing my bag to go home. The plot of Severance had me screaming “what the fuck, what the actual fuck” at it constantly. I mean, no wonder Helly tried to kill herself. If my life was literally being at work ALL MY WAKING HOURS WITH NO REST, I too would do the same.
Severance- Apple TV+ ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The scene so stressful I nearly broke out in hives
In Episode 7 of The Bear, the staff at the restaurant learns that Sydney accidentally left the preorder option for the to-go service on, and just before the lunch rush, tickets start to pile in. I’m not talking one or two, literally hundreds of tickets start to come in. The entire scene, a little under 20 minutes, is shot in one single take, as the kitchen erupts in chaos, everyone is rushing to try to fulfil the orders they know they cannot prepare. Sydney and Marcus start saying the nastiest things to each other, and in a kitchen, with sharp knives and hot utensils, when you lose your rhythm, things have the potential to go very, very wrong. Marcus gets stabbed, Carmy’s yelling at everyone, and I desperately wanted to turn the TV off, but I couldn’t because I needed to know how it ended.
The Bear - Disney+ Hotstar ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The line delivery so good I laugh every time I remember it
Jennifer Coolidge is excellent in everything she does, and her comic timing is impeccable. The entire time on season two of The White Lotus, Coolidge’s Tanya somehow manages to make bad decision after bad decision till she’s on a yacht in the middle of the sea, stuck with people trying to murder her. Desperate, she runs to the captain and tries to explain she’s in danger, and not being able to get through the language barrier, just yells, “The gays are trying to kill me!” I know what you’re thinking, why is Shahana laughing at a woman’s terror at her approaching murder? But that’s the thing about way Coolidge says it—it’s just one of those lines that will fall flat unless an actor with remarkable skill delivers it, and Coolidge nails it.
The White Lotus S2 - Disney+ Hotstar ⭐⭐⭐
The show that brought back memories of fraught teenage female friendships
I’m a big fan of television plotted around female friendships. The Bold Type, Be Melodramatic, Dollface, Pen15, Big Little Lies — I’ve seen it all. How Yellowjackets differs from these shows is that it doesn’t care the slightest bit about the caring nature of female friendship, but centers itself on the insidiousness of teenage female friendship — it is often a place of envy, where tenderness is bound together with spite. The primary friendship, that of Jackie and Shauna is the perfect example—one is vivacious and popular, the other quiet and docile. A common friendship trope, where the quiet one, the perpetual wallflower tells the story of the popular one, and in doing so, “finds herself.” Not in Yellowjackets. Here, after the plane carrying them crashes in the wild, their roles are reversed. Shauna’s secret resentment of Jackie becomes clear; at school, she is torn between wanting to be Jackie or follow Jackie, but in the wild, she can do neither. She is forced to find ways to literally survive, and in doing so, reverses their roles in the social hierarchy, the consequences of which are far more serious and final than losing a bit of popularity. It reminded me of school, and not in a good way.
Yellowjackets - Voot ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The show I thought was excellent from start to finish
If you want to write a show about women’s abuse, Bad Sisters is the way to do it. The basic plot is this—the show is about the five Garvey sisters, and the show opens with Grace mourning the death of her husband John Paul. The other sisters don’t care and only care enough to help Grace through it, and flashbacks to the previous six months before John Paul’s death makes it painfully clear why. Bad Sisters paints a clear and painful picture of John Paul—he is a violent, controlling, abusive man who spent the years married to Grace killing her spirit and eroding her personality. Their scenes together are agonising to watch, as he gaslights, needles, and makes her second guess the tiniest steps she takes towards being her own person—enough that she would never open her mind to making bigger choices for herself. Even more accurately shown is the helplessness the other sisters feel watching their sister wither away in front of them and how powerless they are to do anything about it—only until they do decide to do something about it. It’s a show about domestic abuse, but it’s still a dark comedy. And as Kashika says, it is obvious that Bad Sisters is written by a woman, and it is evident in the scenes where the Garvey women work together. You can see it in the unshakeable alliance between them, expressed in the kind of bickering only siblings indulge in, without ever diminishing each other.
Bad Sisters - Apple TV+ ⭐⭐⭐⭐
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