From Ms. Marvel to The Dropout: a genre-based 2022 TV watchlist

With a slew of reboots, spinoffs, revivals and originals on their way 2022 is proving to be one of the richest years for TV in recent memory.

But with so much on its way, it can be hard to keep track of what to watch, or when you can watch it.   

Here, CBC News has compiled some of the best series coming out in 2022 — with release date and streaming platform when available — all arranged by what kind of shows you might like. 

Looking at both TV and film coming out in 2022, it can feel like just about everything is either a sequel, reboot or extended universe. For those looking for something truly original (and perhaps slightly weird) check out shows such as Astrid and Lilly Save the World, premiering Jan. 26 on CTV's Sci-Fi channel, and streaming on Crave.  

Starring Ontario's Samantha Aucoin and Manitoba's Jana Morrison — with filming largely completed in Newfoundland — it's been described as Buffy the Vampire Slayer mixed with Shaun of the Dead. The show follows two bullied girls who accidentally open a portal to a "terrifyingly quirky monster dimension."

Elsewhere, Adult Swim's animated adult comedy Smiling Friends (the first two episodes premiered Jan. 10 on Amazon Prime and Apple TV+)  is a hyper-surreal tale of two friends employed at a company whose only goal is to make people smile. Fans of Rick and Morty or Aqua Teen Hunger Force may find a home here.

And finally, CBC and BET's The Porter — premiering Feb. 21 on CBC Gem — looks at railway workers of the 1920s and the subsequent creation of the world's first Black union. In an interview with CBC News, showrunner and writer Annmarie Morais said making a show about the experience of Black people in this country that goes beyond the topics of slavery and the Underground Railroad reveals "a foundational part of the history of Canada" that rarely finds its way to the screen. 

2022 will be a boon year for horror — specifically on Netflix. There's 1899, an eight-episode "horrifying nightmare" from the makers of Dark, about passengers on a migrant steamship who discover another ship drifting in the open ocean. It's possible the tale takes at least partial inspiration from the 1872 discovery of Canadian-built ghost ship Mary Celeste, when eight crewmen — along with the captain and his wife and daughter — vanished without a trace. Their bodies were never found.

The Midnight Club (based on the Christopher Pike novel, and helmed by The Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Sleep and Midnight Mass director Mike Flanagan) is about a group of terminally ill patients who meet nightly to exchange scary stories — eventually from beyond the grave. Meanwhile, Archive 81 (based on the podcast of the same name) follows an archivist who reconstructs a filmmaker's work, only to stumble upon a dangerous cult. 

All of Us Are Dead is a South Korean high school tale about students trapped inside their school … by zombies. And finally, Neil Gaiman's The Sandman will find its home on TV more than 30 years after the comic was first released, led by David Thewlis, Stephen Fry, Gwendoline Christie, Patton Oswalt and more.

All of Us Are Dead will go live Jan. 28, and Archive 81 premiered Jan. 14; the others do not yet have confirmed release dates.

Long considered a doomed endeavour, studios are taking a chance of stories adapted from video games in 2022. A Halo TV series is slated to release sometime in 2022 through Paramount+, with B.C.'s Pablo Schreiber taking on the role of Master Chief. 

The narrative-heavy game The Last Of Us is receiving the HBO treatment (HBO content is available in Canada through the Crave streaming service) with production putting out calls for extras in Southern Alberta throughout last year. Craig Mazin, who created HBO's five-part miniseries Chernobyl, is executive producer and showrunner. 

Lastly, Netflix is trying again on Resident Evil after a fairly disastrous animated series released in 2021. The new live-action will follow sisters Jade and Billie Wesker both before and after the franchise's "T-virus" infects and nearly eradicates all life, and will release sometime in 2022.