After five years of Explosion Network and several of these award seasons, I’ve realised that the ‘best returning series’ is the closest award we can have to The Emmy Awards. We’re likely to keep the same five shows here year after year if they keep making them as good as they were the year prior. But hey — it’s never a bad thing to have quality.

Here are our Top 5 picks for the Best Returning TV Series of 2022.

– Dylan Blight

5.) The Boys: Season Three

In a world oversaturated with superhero shows and movies, The Boys continues to blaze its own trail covered in blood and bodily fluids. Not many shows can jump from hilarious parodies to heartfelt character moments to gory fights to infantile jokes as well as The Boys does.

As well as introducing Soldier Boy to the mix, the season also saw a deeper look at Black Noir, Butcher’s struggles with using Compound V, the anticipated Herogasm event and answered the question ‘What would happen if someone enlargened while inside a person?” With a new live-action spin-off not far away, we can only hope the world of The Boys keeps up this level of quality.

– Ashley Hobley

4.) Euphoria: Season Two

It’s been a few years without the follow-up to 2019’s Euphoria. We’ve had two specials in between, but the second season officially debuted in 2022 and took the characters of Euphoria in some interesting direction. I was hooked from the first episode, as I’d expected. Still, this was a well-anticipated return, as social media interaction around this season (at least on Twitter) was super-high throughout the second season’s run. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait as many years for the next season. 

– Dylan Blight

3.) What We Do In The Shadows: Season FOUR

2022 was the year I really got into What We Do In The Shadows. After devouring the first three seasons, I eagerly anticipated the show’s return and was not disappointed as it continues to be one of the funniest shows being made. Whether it was dealing with Nadja’s attempt to run a vampire nightclub, following the escapades of Baby Colin Robinson or just having Matt Berry’s Lazlo say “New York City”, the show always had me laughing at something.

– Ashley Hobley

2.) Stranger Things: Season Four

After a nearly three-year wait, Stranger Things returned to Netflix to provide us answers to the third season’s ending and prove that it is still the biggest show on the streaming platform. Bolstered by a strong antagonist for our crew to fight against and with a fantastic performance by Sadie Sink, this season laid the groundwork for what will hopefully be a satisfying final season but it never felt like that is what it was doing. Split into two parts and featuring two supersized final episodes, Stranger Things was a must-see show in 2023.

– Ashley Hobley

1.) Better Call Saul: Season Six

It had been a long wait between the Season 5 finale in April 2020 to the premiere of Season 6 in 2022. The delay only made it worse, knowing it would be the final season. For someone like me who loves this show, I eagerly anticipated the return of my favourite show on TV while also dreading it coming to an end. 

Of course, Better Call Saul didn’t disappoint when it returned in 2022 for one last run of episodes.

– Dylan Blight

Dylan Blight and Ashley Hobley compiled this Top 5 list. The TV shows nominated must release between November 15th 2021 – November 15th 2022 and have been released in Australia via network TV, VOD or a streaming platform.