--- title: Best TV Shows April 2022: What Our Critic Loved description: From 'We Own This City' to 'Shining Girls' to 'Heartstopper.' canonical: https://time.com/6170853/best-tv-shows-april-2022/ author: Judy Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-04-29T11:00:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T14:10:40.335Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: The 5 Best New Shows Our Critic Watched in April 2022 og:description: From 'We Own This City' to 'Shining Girls' to 'Heartstopper' og:url: https://time.com/6170853/best-tv-shows-april-2022/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec0d2a774ae3f554/698a315886f68e31216f12ca/Heartstopper_Season1_Episode2_00_14_52_02.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Heartstopper_Season1_Episode2_00_14_52_02 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The 5 Best New Shows Our Critic Watched in April 2022 twitter:description: From 'We Own This City' to 'Shining Girls' to 'Heartstopper' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec0d2a774ae3f554/698a315886f68e31216f12ca/Heartstopper_Season1_Episode2_00_14_52_02.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The 5 Best New TV Shows Our Critic Watched in April 2022 > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Apr 29, 2022 11:00 AM UTC  Heartstopper HeartstopperNetflix  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Apr 29, 2022 11:00 AM UTC If you’re reading this, congratulations: you’ve all but survived the [great docudrama onslaught of spring 2022](https://time.com/6149027/super-pumped-inventing-anna-docudramas/). And while that outpouring has produced some worthwhile television, from last month’s Hulu standouts [_The Dropout_](https://time.com/6153051/dropout-review-hulu/)and [_The Girl From Plainville_](https://time.com/6161600/best-tv-shows-march-2022/) to [David Simon](https://time.com/6169177/we-own-this-city-david-simon-george-pelecanos-interview/)‘s unofficial [_The Wire_](https://time.com/3691610/wire-serial-baltimore/)sequel, _We Own This City_, most of my favorite new shows of April strayed a bit farther from the confines of reality. Below you’ll find a dreamy teen romance, a brainteasing sci-fi thriller, a horror comedy about a bloodthirsty baby and more. ## _The Baby_ (HBO) In the first episode of this British horror comedy, 38-year-old protagonist Natasha or Tash (Michelle de Swarte) lashes out at one friend, who dared to bring her baby to poker night, and offends another by responding to that woman’s pregnancy news with an abortion joke. A few scenes later, as Tash is smoking on a nighttime beach, a woman falls off a high cliff to her death, mere feet away from her. Then, an adorable infant drops right into her arms. Hey, do you think the universe might be sending her a message about motherhood? _The Baby_ isn’t subtle. It isn’t polite. It’s sometimes extremely silly. And its unusual juxtaposition of a darling baby boy and heaps of bloody, gory violence surely will not appeal to everyone. But if you can live with all of the above, it’s more than just fun—it’s also a whole lot smarter and more thought-provoking than most of the shows sucking up all the attention this month. **\[**[**Read the full review**](https://time.com/6169712/baby-hbo-review/)**.\]** ## _Heartstopper_ (Netflix) It’s hard to be a human in the year 2022, and so we all need our little treats. Mine, this past month, was _Heartstopper_. Adapted by 27-year-old British YA sensation Alice Oseman from her [comic of the same name](https://time.com/6166698/book-to-screen-adaptations/), the eight-episode series follows sweet, self-effacing gay teenage outcast Charlie (Joe Locke) as he crushes on his new desk mate, Nick (Kit Connor), a surprisingly kind, apparently straight rugby player who looks like he could be Prince Harry’s little cousin. It’s obvious from the very first scene where this story is headed, but—as in all the best teen romances—the delayed gratification is the point. There’s plenty to enjoy in the meantime, from a cast of endearing young characters that traverses the LGBTQ spectrum to animated flourishes that recreate the intimacy of the comic. (When Charlie’s hand grazes Nick’s, pastel sparks and lightning bolts fly.) Even with the inclusion of realistic antagonists among the homophobic jocks on Nick’s team, the show is undeniably twee. The soundtrack is all shimmery indie-pop, the kids debate the merits of movies like [_Donnie Darko_](https://time.com/5559750/us-movie-rabbits-meaning-bunnies-in-horror-films/) and most of the action takes place in the halls of two single-sex English secondary schools where everyone wears a uniform. If that kind of thing gives you a toothache, _Heartstopper_ probably isn’t the comfort binge for you. But if it sounds like your brand of escapism, then you’ll almost certainly enjoy this gentle show populated by queer and trans high schoolers whose parents love them very much. Speaking of which: yes, that really is [Olivia Colman](https://time.com/6095398/the-lost-daughter-review/) popping in every few episodes to play Nick’s doting mum. ## _The Outlaws_ (Amazon) A joint BBC/Amazon project, _The Outlaws_ is a spiritual successor to [_Orange Is the New Black_](https://time.com/5631804/orange-is-the-new-black-season-7-legacy/) and [_The Breakfast Club_](https://time.com/3708962/the-breakfast-club-30th-anniversary/), in that it throws together people who have nothing in common but their shared punishment–and it’s refreshingly self-aware about that. “Everyone’s a type,” teen shoplifter and self-described “studious Asian good girl” Rani (Rhianne Barreto) points out in the premiere. “You’ve got your right-wing blowhard, left-wing militant, celebutante, shifty old-timer.” (The latter, fresh out of prison and eager to make amends with his rightly resentful daughter, is played by a surprisingly subdued Christopher Walken.) Rani’s “bad boy” love interest and a nerdy loner round out the crew. Slowly, in _Orange_\-style flashbacks, everyone’s story comes out. And even as it pushes forward the plot with genre standbys like gangsters and bags of cash, the show fosters unexpected bonds that stretch the characters’ understanding of themselves and one another. This can be hokey, but mostly it’s humane, merging the experiences of people from different backgrounds without thoughtlessly equating them. **\[**[**Read the full essay**](https://time.com/6163440/outlaws-tokyo-vice-61st-street/) **on what makes a great crime show when so many shows are about crime.\]** ## _Shining Girls_ (Apple TV+) When we meet our protagonist Kirby Mazrachi ([Elisabeth Moss](https://time.com/5847292/shirley-elisabeth-moss-review/)), she’s a timid Chicago _Sun-Times_ archivist who shares an apartment with her punk-rocker mom (Amy Brenneman) and a cat. Then, without warning, reality shifts. Kirby comes home to find that she lives on a different floor of the same building, with a husband (Chris Chalk) she remembers only as a co-worker, and a dog. Instead of explaining the twist, the show immerses viewers in her disorientation. What we do know about Kirby is that she was on track to become a star reporter before narrowly surviving a brutal assault. Only after she regained consciousness did the facts of her life start shifting. Since then, she’s drifted through a series of realities, which arrive with no apparent rhyme or reason. When a murder occurs whose details match those of her attack—the assailant leaves objects in the bodies of his exclusively female victims—Kirby teams up with hardboiled reporter Dan Velazquez (Wagner Moura) to not just catch a potential serial killer, but also make sense of what’s happening to her. **\[**[**Read the full review**](https://time.com/6169879/shining-girls-review-apple/)**.\]** ## _We Own This City_ (HBO) Following productive stints in [_Treme_‘s post-Katrina New Orleans](https://entertainment.time.com/2010/04/09/dead-tree-alert-treme-plus-full-treme-review/) and the [1970s New York of _The Deuce_](https://time.com/4929340/review-the-deuce-hbo/), David Simon has turned his attention back to his greatest muse: Baltimore. But it isn’t quite the same city as it was in the ’90s and early 2000s, when he autopsied its failed criminal justice system in [_Homicide: Life on the Streets_](https://time.com/collection-post/3101687/homicide-life-on-the-street/), _The Corner_ and his masterpiece _The Wire_. Corrupt and decaying institutions remain a preoccupation of Simon and his frequent collaborator George Pelecanos in _We Own This City_, an adaptation of Baltimore _Sun_ reporter Justin Fenton’s 2021 nonfiction book about the Baltimore Police Department’s scandal-stricken Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF). In typical Simonian fashion, the drama centers on a few main characters—GTTF’s showboating leader Sgt. Wayne Jenkins (Jon Bernthal) and Nicole Steele (Wunmi Mosaku), a DOJ attorney poking around the city’s halls of power in service of police reform efforts—whose actions ripple outward to touch local politicians, cops in surrounding jurisdictions and various players within Baltimore’s criminal demimonde, until the cast list swells to include dozens of peripheral figures. What distinguishes the show from _The Wire_ is its grounding in a contemporary law-enforcement milieu that is reacting, in ways both constructive and destructive, to the [Black Lives Matter movement](https://time.com/magazine/us/5851840/june-22nd-2020-vol-195-no-23-u-s/). Under a microscope after [Freddie Gray’s horrific 2015 death in police custody](https://time.com/4304225/baltimore-crime-police-freddie-gray/), many officers have overreacted to that scrutiny by simply neglecting to do their jobs. That gives bad cops who are still making arrests, like Daniel Hirsl (Josh Charles), and apparently successful, secretly corrupt teams like GTTF disproportionate power. While the characters, based on real people, aren’t quite as enthralling as their Dickensian counterparts in _The Wire_, this is a [thorny, fascinating story](https://time.com/6168269/we-own-this-city-true-story-hbo-max/) that raises the question of whether police reform is even possible—and these two creators are exactly the right people to tell it. **\[**[**Read Josiah Bates’ interview**](https://time.com/6169177/we-own-this-city-david-simon-george-pelecanos-interview/) **with Simon and Pelecanos about** **_We Own This City_** **.\]** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6170853/best-tv-shows-april-2022/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6170853/best-tv-shows-april-2022/"},"headline":"The 5 Best New TV Shows Our Critic Watched in April 2022","datePublished":"2022-04-29T11:00:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T14:10:40.335Z","description":"From 'We Own This City' to 'Shining Girls' to 'Heartstopper.'","url":"https://time.com/6170853/best-tv-shows-april-2022/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec0d2a774ae3f554/698a315886f68e31216f12ca/Heartstopper_Season1_Episode2_00_14_52_02.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Judy Berman","jobTitle":"TV Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/judy-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec0d2a774ae3f554/698a315886f68e31216f12ca/Heartstopper_Season1_Episode2_00_14_52_02.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Heartstopper_Season1_Episode2_00_14_52_02","caption":"Heartstopper","creditText":"Netflix","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6170853/best-tv-shows-april-2022/","name":"The 5 Best New TV Shows Our Critic Watched in April 2022"}}]}] ```