Best International TV Shows and Series of 2022

Vicious and delightful, sprawling and focused, and each of them vivid in their own way: Here’s a collection of ambitious global stories that made TV better this year.

It’s a refrain we’ve echoed many times across many of our best-of lists, but streaming services are usually not the greatest at letting people know the gold that rests within their own libraries. It’s true for TV series overall, but especially so for non-English-language programming.

Sometimes, a show becomes such a word-of-mouth hit that it becomes undeniable and the whole industry starts to take notice. But it’s often the case that some of the best shows on the major streaming platforms get added unceremoniously and only put in front more adventurous subscribers.

For those who want to alter their own personal algorithms and keep tabs on what under-the-radar treasures are out there, we’ve tried to put forth some options throughout the year. To add to that effort (and in the spirit of giving as many quality shows as possible the chance to bask in the warm year-in-review glow), we’ve assembled some of the best non-English series to become available to U.S. subscribers this year.

Arbitrary to be sure, but in the spirit of taking note of a wider range of programs, we’ve left off a handful of shows that you should definitely seek out if you haven’t already. “Pachinko” and “Irma Vep” have made their way onto a few of our 2022 Best-Ofs so far. “1899” continues to be a welcome year-end Netflix success story. “Acapulco” remains one of TV’s warmest, most charming comedies.

To the overall collection of multilingual excellence in 2022 TV, we add the following alphabetical list of titles. And, try as we do to be as comprehensive as possible, there are always more gems to discover beyond those listed below. (Where possible, we’ve also linked to stories from earlier in the year when these seasons first dropped.)

There’s no other concrete thematic tie holding all of these picks together. Some speak directly to the past while others are focused on the future. There are gutting tales of despair, far-reaching mysteries, and breezy stories designed to be met with a smile and a laugh. They all add a distinct flavor to the overall palate of television and for that, we’re grateful.

“Alice in Borderland” (Season 2)

Image Credit: Kumiko Tsuchiya

Watch it on: Netflix

Don’t expect more of the same from this mystifying manga adaptation as it returns in the waning days of the calendar year: The puzzles and tricks of Season 1 give way to a Season 2 marked by grueling endurance tests. If the first foray into this ghost world of Tokyo was an adrenaline shot of characters surviving purely on instinct, this new batch of episodes finds Arisu (Kento Yamazaki) and his roving band of new allies living with the weight that getting back home is going to take a lot more resolve than hopping over some card game hurdles. Even if the show’s overall atmosphere has shifted, director Shinsuke Sato still handles scope in a way few others can. From cross-city chases to psychological battles of will, “Alice in Borderland” thrives on a world that leaves room for the massive and the claustrophobic and little else in between.
“Bang Bang Baby”

Image Credit: Prime Video

Watch it on: Prime Video

If you’re gonna make an ‘80s-set drama with heavy organized crime elements, you might as well make it a full sensory experience. So “Bang Bang Baby” goes for it, through the eyes of Alice (Arianna Becheroni) as she starts to grapple with the idea that the father she thought was long-dead is not only alive but a key piece of a Milan-area crime family. The show fully embraces the decade it’s set in, pairing Alice’s dreamlike conception of the world with a sleek visual style that’s clear even its literal darkest moments. Its most violent chapters are meticulously crafted to the point where it doesn’t blunt the consequences at stake for everyone in the greater Barone web. But it also delights in the abstract, escaping into some of Alice’s more fantastical ideas. (What else would you expect from a show so often bathed in neon light?) All set against the backdrop of a brewing feminist wave, “Bang Bang Baby” is one of the slickest looks at what you owe to family, or who even gets to claim to be a part of one in the first place.
“Beforeigners” (Season 2)

Image Credit: HBO Max

If the first season of “Beforeigners” was a combination murder mystery/thought experiment — What if the sudden appearance of time-traveling Norwegians in the waters off Oslo led directly to a chain of unexplained deaths? — then Season 2 was the logical extension of what would happen to society at large with a few extra years to adjust to a fundamentally changed reality. Without losing the allegorical nature of a capital city and how it treats its immigrant population, “Beforeigners” continued building out its time-altered world. In the process, it shifted the main focus from a detective (Nicolai Cleve Broch) battling addiction to his partner and former Old Norse shield-maiden Alfhildr (Krista Kosonen, giving one of TV’s most undersung performances). The subcultures she investigates contain some people who embrace “trans-temporal” arrivals and work to build a welcoming way of life that includes their contributions. She also finds people who view themselves as vengeful instruments of a new, daunting power (including one man who might just be connected to one of history’s infamous cold cases). It’s a season that builds on a fascinating high-concept premise with some bold, striking story choices to match.

(The show was a casualty of the Great HBO Max Purge of 2022 and although it’s available for purchase at other locations, here’s hoping “Beforeigners” will be back and discoverable on streaming before too long.)
“Belascoarán, PI”

Image Credit: Camila Jurado/Netflix

Watch it on: Netflix

Between playing an investigative priest on Paramount+’s “The Envoys,” turning in a blissfully odd supporting turn on Peacock’s beguiling “The Resort,” and starring in this Netflix series, Luis Gerardo Méndez had one of the strongest years of any actor in 2022. Here, he dons the jacket of Héctor Belascoarán Shayne, a self-made private investigator cutting his teeth around the edges of 1970s Mexico City. This latest screen adaptation of Paco Ignacio Taibo II’s popular detective novels is a first season (of many, hopefully) featuring a trio of extended-length mysteries. With Méndez at the lead, this is a series where death and crime don’t overwhelm the spirit of the age, vibrant in its recreation of wide-lapeled wardrobes and noir-ready makeshift offices. It’s playful and energetic in Belascoarán’s swift rise to competence in his new line of work, and it’s a personal arc that rewards diligence, specialized expertise, and a cooperative attitude towards the community at large. That Belascoarán stands against the corruption of local police forces and leads a self-aware trip through the usual arcs of a detective story makes him a welcome antidote to his brooding, self-serious TV peers.
“Black Butterflies” (“Les papillons noirs”)

Image Credit: Netflix

Watch it on: Netflix

While a certain other serial killer took an inordinate amount of the Netflix headlines and viewing hours in the second half of 2022, his fictional French counterpart offered a more measured and murky look at what can drive someone to take another life. Niels Arestrup stars as Albert, a man in the twilight of his life who enlists down-on-his-luck novelist Adrien (Nicolas Duvauchelle) to help write his story, particularly as it relates to a string of deaths throughout Europe in the mid 1970s. Weaving together Adrien’s anxieties in the present and the terrifying sun-drenched crimes of the past, “Black Butterflies” weaves together a thorny narrative, barbed with uneasy ideas of desire and consent and the haziness of memory. All wrapped together with a throwback Clément Tery score that walks the razor’s edge between dream and nightmare, “Black Butterflies” is another fascinating entry in a long lineage of stories about the lies we tell ourselves.
“Harmonica”

Image Credit: Viaplay

Watch it on: Viaplay

Watching an artist struggle with the legacy of their work is always fertile ground for a story, but musicians rarely get the best end of that deal. Make it a story about a fictional band and the success rate gets exponentially smaller. It’s why this Swedish series about a folk band’s reunion tour feels all the more remarkable. Back out on the road, decades after topping the charts with a bubble gum pop hit, couple and lead vocalists Harry and Monica (see, even the title is a thing of beauty) have to work doubly hard to save their band and their marriage. (Think of it as a spiritual sibling to “The Broken Circle Breakdown,” only following a group recovering from their highest highs rather than clawing their way to survive the business.) As Harmonica plays to venues much smaller than their headlining days, the show around them zeroes in on the emotional truth of the marital stress at its heart and the musical truth of the fantastic original songs the band is playing. Factor in the triple duties handled by Josephine Bornebusch (Monica, co-writer, director) and Jonas Karlsson (Harry, co-writer, and songwriter) and this is an even more impressive, against-the-odds feat. Add this one to the top your queue if you’re trying out Viaplay via Roku or taking the plunge when the standalone app arrives early next year.
“Love & Anarchy” (Season 2)

Image Credit: Ulrika Malm

Watch it on: Netflix

To its credit, “Love & Anarchy” never felt like a show that was headed for a rousing fairytale ending. As much work as the show did in its first season to fuel a thoroughly unique workplace flirtation, the bill for the collateral damage from that affair would really come due in a Season 2. Series writer/director Lisa Langseth finds a fascinating way to pay that off in these new episodes, tracking what else gets sucked up in the vortex of a whirlwind romance. With Ida Engvoll continuing her comedic performance for the ages and Björn Mosten more than holding his own, this Netflix show still found room for hijinks at the office of the publishing house where both their characters met. Between dribbled coffee, cat cosplay, and an eventful work cruise, “Love & Anarchy” met tragedies big and small with its own brand of outrageousness to balance things out. May there still be more of it on the horizon.
“Oh Hell”

Image Credit: HBO Max

Watch it on: HBO Max

Pick any show you want as the guiding light of “young woman trying her best not to detonate her life while joking about it all along the way”: “Oh Hell” deserves a spot in the same conversation as all the rest. Whether you prefer the biting, morbid stretches of “Fleabag,” the romantic misadventures of “Starstruck,” or the winking self-sabotage of this year’s “Single Drunk Female,” there’s a refraction of all of them in Helene (Mala Emde) as she searches for a way to stabilize her early 20s. Series writer Johannes Boss and directors Lisa Miller and Simon Ostermann find that rare, elusive balance between whimsy and reality, as “Hell” finds ways to skirt all consequences until she…doesn’t. As with all great entries in this subgenre, the season gradually shows it’s not just about Hell, but the people who find themselves caught in her pull and the people who helped make her who she is. With Emde leading the way, you won’t find another show on Earth this year that’ll make you laugh quite like this one does.
“Prisma”

Image Credit: Prime Video

Watch it on: Prime Video

“Prisma” is the rare high school drama that feels like it’s speaking to the lives of teens rather than shouting at them. Relationships ebb and morph in real time rather than exist purely as operatic chum in the water. Here, it helps to have Mattia Carrano at the center, who pulls off the feat of playing twin brothers Andrea and Marco, each entering different stages of life as their time left in high school is dwindling. Using a different color as an unofficial guide for episodes that hop been past and present, the result is a teen story spectrum that floats through lives without judgment or trepidation. Through Andrea and Marco and friends old and new, the show moves through tales of betrayal, forgiveness, exploration, and the extent that these young lives are defined by how much of themselves they share with those around them. Director Ludovico Bessegato and co-writer Alice Urciuolo craft this story with patience and empathy, marked by the same sense of discovery that its twin protagonists share.
“Snabba Cash” (Season 2)

Image Credit: Netflix

Watch it on: Netflix

Every country has its own crime show, whether it’s led by the people investigating it or the people doing it. No one in the world does it quite like “Snabba Cash,” a show that continually earns the feeling that it’s unfolding right in front of your face. Season 2 of the series has plenty of those sequences, whether it’s words or bullets flying between people on opposite sides of a showdown. After the heartbreaking ending to the show’s first season, Leya (Even Ahmad) becomes the true “Snabba Cash” anchor, fighting her way through the boardrooms of Stockholm’s tech world and a growing battle for the streets outside those office buildings. The directing team of Jesper Ganslandt, Måns Månsson, and Lisa Farzaneh always manage to bring a surprising amount of clarity to the occasional handheld mayhem. Watching co-creator Oskar Söderlund and the rest of the writing team add their own agents of chaos into an already tumultuous mix only adds to the tension that sets “Snabba Cash” apart from its peers.