The 14 most WTF TV moments of 2022

It has been an extended, irritating, magical 12 months of tv, with standout episodes and each new and returning favorites maintaining us glued to our couches. And it has been an particularly wealthy 12 months for moments that made us marvel what the hell we simply watched.

Dodging TV spoilers on social media can really feel like a full time job generally, nevertheless it’s price it when a present builds as much as an enormous reveal, beautiful set-piece, or narrative curveball, and we get to expertise the total influence of a shocking or stunning second. Generally it is a dying we by no means noticed coming, at the same time as we braced ourselves for dangerous information; generally it is an unhinged visible fever dream or dance sequence; it may very well be a shock cameo, a season-long sluggish shudder, or only a sandwich filling too unusual to not strive. In no explicit order, please be a part of us as we relive a few of 2022’s most surreal, shocking, and suggestive TV moments.

1. The waffle social gathering (Severance)

We heard in regards to the waffle social gathering perk all season-long on Severance, however completely nothing may have ready us for the reality. Workers are taken to the reproduction of Lumon founder Kier Eagan’s home deep contained in the advanced, the place they eat a plate of waffles that look advantageous however not wonderful. They then have a Kier Eagan-themed intercourse social gathering full with a Kier masks, lingeried people dressed as Kier’s 4 Tempers, and a cat o’ 9 tails bearing the identify of every of Kier’s 9 core ideas. In a present filled with WTF moments, this unusual mixture of office rewards, cultish company devotion, and sexual gratification takes the cake — or, ought to I say, the waffle. — Belen Edwards, Leisure Reporter

2. Tanya’s destiny (The White Lotus)

Credit score: Courtesy of HBO

We have come to count on lots of madness from The White Lotus — Suitcase pooping! Doable incest! Portia’s wardrobe! Nonetheless, nothing may have ready me for Tanya McQuoid’s (Jennifer Coolidge’s) yacht shootout within the Season 2 finale. One second, Coolidge is mowing down a bunch of murderous gays with a mafia lackey’s gun. The subsequent, she’s struggling to get off the homicide yacht solely to fall, hit her head on her escape boat, and drown. By way of methods to go, that is simply horrifying sufficient to be tragic and simply silly sufficient to be weirdly humorous. However maybe essentially the most “WTF”-inducing factor of all that is that White Lotus creator Mike White has robbed us of one other season of Jennifer Coolidge. How dare he! — B.E.

3. The Physician regenerates (Physician Who)

Credit score: BBC Studios

Again in Could, returning Physician Who showrunner Russell T Davies revealed Intercourse Schooling star Ncuti Gatwa was to be the subsequent new face of the Time Lord within the TARDIS. He would begin after thirteenth Physician Jodie Whittaker exited the present in a particular function size episode in November to mark the BBC’s one hundredth birthday. Naturally, you assumed this meant Jodie would regenerate into Ncuti this November. However RTD obtained us all: He by no means as soon as, in that Could-November hole, mentioned that Ncuti can be the 14th Physician. He mentioned he was a new face, not the subsequent face. Outcome: mouths agape world wide in November when Whittaker regenerated, in a blaze of rainbow gentle, into … David Tennant, the tenth and now 14th Physician. Who, along with his signature line — “What? What? What?” — was clearly simply as stunned as we have been. 

Then got here the coup de grace: a trailer for subsequent November’s Physician Who specials, that includes fifteenth Physician Gatwa additionally talking for us all: “Will somebody inform me what the hell is happening?” The complete Who-loving world, all the way down to essentially the most informal fan of this hottest fashionable Physician, can discover their mind exploding with questions that will not be answered for a 12 months. — Chris Taylor, Senior Editor

4. Bruce Wayne brings his dad and mom again as zombies (Harley Quinn)

HBO Max’s animated romp has been filled with intercourse, motion, and mayhem since its begin. However in its third season, Harley Quinn went exhausting with Batman’s orphan trauma. Not solely did this outrageous cartoon usher us into his thoughts, full of Crime Alleys, slaughtered dad and mom, and people doomed strands of pearls, but additionally it made Bruce Wayne the seed of a carnage-sprouting finale. All of it started along with his twisted must carry Thomas and Martha Wayne again from the useless. A little bit of kidnapping, theft, bizarre science, and deep denial culminated in a plant-based zombie rebellion that threatened to show Gotham into the world’s weirdest and deadliest forest. In a season filled with WTF moments, a giddy superhero introducing his half-tree, half-undead dad and mom to a room filled with buddies and hostages positively got here out on high. — Kristy Puchko, Movie Editor

5. Tampongate (The Crown)

Credit score: Netflix

One of many largest royal scandals of The Crown Season 5 (and the ’90s) was included virtually phrase for close-up phrase. Sure, we’re speaking about Tampongate, wherein Prince Charles (Dominic West) and Camilla Parker Bowles’ (Olivia Williams’) personal, saucy telephone calls have been recorded and offered to the Day by day Mirror in 1993 — the inheritor’s affair was out. With out kink-shaming anybody, simply attempt to “really feel your approach alongside” via these scenes (sorry) represented in The Crown episode 5. The dialog runs twice, notably in full when the transcripts are revealed — and here is the place it will get, as Princess Anne unforgivably calls it, “gynecological.” Because the digicam will get proper up shut on West’s mouth, the pair utter the notorious Tampax-related traces because the scene cuts to varied royals studying their intimate dialog on the entrance web page — together with the Queen Mum herself.

“God, I want I may simply dwell inside your trousers or one thing. It might be a lot simpler.”

“What are you going to show into, a pair of knickers?”

“You’re a whole fool. What a beautiful thought.”

“Or, God forbid, a Tampax, simply my luck.”

All tampons apart, the scene definitely hits totally different in 2022 contemplating conversations round privateness and press intrusion have developed since “Camillagate” — to not point out that Charles is now, y’know, the precise King. — Shannon Connellan, U.Ok. Editor

6. Viserys rotting to dying (Home of the Dragon)

Credit score: Ollie Upton/HBO

Home of the Dragon gave us many memorable deaths, however none have been as horrifying — or as drawn-out — as that of King Viserys Targaryen. A small minimize from the Iron Throne results in a misplaced pinky, which spirals right into a misplaced arm, which culminates in a face that is all however rotted away. Thematically, it is smart: The stress of sitting on the Iron Throne is actually killing Viserys. Visually, it is tough to look at, and even tougher to abdomen. Good factor Viserys is ready to decorate with that gold masks although — it is all in regards to the silver linings. — B.E.

7. That devastatingly unusual finale dying (Yellowjackets)

Half the enjoyable of Yellowjackets is wildly speculating about what occurs between the 90s wilderness flashbacks we have seen to this point and the trauma-chaos of the survivors’ present-day antics — and one of many largest questions was “What occurred to Jackie?” Ella Purnell’s spoiled, sophisticated golden woman hadn’t appeared within the current day but, along with her greatest buddy Shauna (Sophie Nelisse/Melanie Lynskey) clearly now mourning her misplaced pal, and she or he was high of the listing of candidates for Who Will get Eaten (Or At Least Ritually Sacrificed) First. However her true destiny, revealed within the Season 1 finale, was way more prosaic, and all of the extra heartbreaking for it.

After a battle with Shauna, Jackie goes to sulk and sleep exterior by the campfire as a substitute of contained in the cabin the place the Yellowjackets are sheltering. An more and more eerie sequence the place they make up is revealed to be a dream, as Shauna begins awake to search out that the primary snow of a harsh Canadian winter has fallen within the evening, and runs exterior in frenzied panic to the place Jackie has frozen to dying. The sound of Nelisse’s screaming has stayed with me all 12 months, and when the present returns in 2023, we’ll be simply as targeted on the brutality of teenage woman emotions because the foreshadowing of cannibalism. — Caitlin Welsh, Australian Editor

8. Any time Julia Garner opened her mouth as Anna Delvey (Inventing Anna)

Portraying scammer Anna Sorokin (aka Anna Delvey), the American actress delved tongue-first into an explicable tangle of accents. From the primary bored however biting bit heard within the trailer, the general public was fixated, spurring a slew of social media commentary, a Saturday Night time Stay sketch, and interviews the place Garner was requested to elucidate her selections.

When Mashable interviewed voice coach Chris Neher about this distinctive Delvey supply, his skilled opinion defended Garner, saying, “Should you’re pissing individuals off, you are in all probability doing one thing proper.” — Ok.P.

9. Higher Name Saul goes out swinging for the fences

Credit score: GREG LEWIS/AMC/SONY PICTURES TELEVISION

The ultimate season of Higher Name Saul was filled with so many WTF moments, it is exhausting to choose only one. Lalo Salamanca taking pictures Howard Hamlin! Gus Fring taking pictures Lalo! The entire present fast-forwarding to Saul’s post-Breaking Unhealthy id, a Cinnabon supervisor at a Nebraska mall, a lot sooner than anticipated! A reluctant mall heist that felt like a meta-commentary on client tradition! However all that was simply laying groundwork for the collection finale, which wrong-footed us another time. Having been turned in by cat video-loving senior Marion (Carol Burnett), Saul performs the Feds like a violin. He whittles a 190-year sentence for these meth cartel crimes all the way down to seven years in jail. 

After which…Saul blows up the plea deal alongside along with his id, reverting to plain previous Jimmy McGill. He confesses his crimes in court docket, and will get 86 years. For what? Principally, for the prospect to have another cigarette in jail along with his former companion, in crime and out of it, Kim Wexler. (Kim will get her personal WTF episode: this authorized mastermind is now residing a hellishly mediocre life in Florida with a forgettable boyfriend and a job at a sprinkler firm.) Has the amoral lawyer lastly made good? Not fairly; when Kim arrives for that smoke, we be taught he is sorta Saul once more, king of the convicts because of a cult of character. BCS was American meta-commentary all the best way all the way down to the final scene — and in consequence, Breaking Unhealthy now truly stands in its successor’s shadow. WTF? — C.T.

10. The liverwurst and marmalade sandwich (Solely Murders within the Constructing)

Should you had informed me {that a} marmalade and liverwurst sandwich would have cracked the primary thriller of Solely Murders within the Constructing Season 2, or that I’d then strive mentioned sandwich for science, I’d have laughed in your face. Nevertheless, each issues did occur, and I can affirm that the liverwurst and marmalade combo is strictly as disgusting because it sounds.

A salty-sweet nightmare, this sandwich could have helped catch a killer — however at what value to our style buds? — B.E.

11. Jen smashes the fourth wall (She-Hulk: Legal professional At Regulation)

Data Enhanced Visible Interconnectivity Nexus, for those who’re nasty.
Credit score: Marvel Studios

At a tense second in She-Hulk‘s mega-meta Season 1 finale, I believed my Apple TV had glitched out — the distinctive ethereal “bloop” of the again button sounded and the Disney+ menu display appeared. However then Jen Walters (Tatiana Maslany), aka She-Hulk, climbed out of her eponymous present’s tile and down into that of docuseries Marvel Studios: Assembled, the place she stormed into the writers’ room of her personal present, beat up a bunch of Disney safety guards, and confronted Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige A.I. overlord Ok.E.V.I.N. in regards to the drained previous round-em-up-and-punch-em-out denouement set out for her. Whereas demolishing the fourth wall is as a lot She-Hulk’s factor as it’s Deadpool’s, it was additionally satisfying fanservice to see somebody take “Kevin” to job for not letting superheroes truly fuck till Jen got here on the scene. — C.W.

12. Wednesday’s dance routine (Wednesday)

Credit score: Netflix

All of us watched it and cherished it. Wednesday’s dance routine in Wednesday’s fourth episode was one of the vital “wtf however YES EXACTLY” scenes we’ve been blessed with on tv this 12 months. The routine, an homage to all issues ‘80s goth, was a treasure chest of chaotic, camp goodness, inspiring a wave of TikToks and misguidedly convincing everybody that they can also pull it off. However I concern nobody has but been in a position to match the delicate particulars in Jenna Ortega’s shoulder shimmy, her deadpan stare, and even the physics behind her excellent arm swinging. Sure, Wednesday’s dance routine was an enigma of science, and for the primary time ever, it had me wishing I used to be a goth raving in a dingy nightclub within the ‘80s. A WTF second for its sheer camp spectacle, and an enormous slay all the identical. — Yasmeen Hamadeh, Leisure Intern

13. Tommy Lee’s penis talks (Pam & Tommy)

Credit score: Hulu

The raunchy docu-comedy collection took audiences behind the scenes of one of many largest celeb scandals of ’90s: Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s stolen intercourse tape. In jaw-dropping makeovers, Lily James and Sebastian Stan starred because the Baywatch bombshell and the rock n’ roll dangerous boy. However the scene-stealing cameo of this madcap mini-series was beloved comedic actor Jason Mantzoukas, who lent his voice to Lee’s grumbling penis, proven in full frontal. Impressed by Lee’s memoir Tommy Land, his unit acts as an intimate and foul-mouthed confidante, who gives surprisingly considerate recommendation about this whirlwind romance. In a 12 months filled with true crime-inspired exhibits, this wacky re-imagining stood out with a useful hard-on. — Ok.P.

14. The Cow (Peacemaker)

There’s one accusation you may by no means degree at James Gunn’s hilarious and surprisingly touching Peacemaker, which rescues John Cena’s character from the wreckage of Suicide Squad. From the primary title sequence to its finale-opening joke about fart jokes, it ain’t precisely going for subtlety. However how do you high that? The way you finish a season that contained a minimum of one main WTF second per episode (together with Peacemaker straight-up taking pictures his white supremacist dad between the eyes, and alien butterfly creatures getting into the orifices of people)? Easy: explode an enormous alien “cow”, one which’s feeding all of the tiny butterfly creatures, in as gross a approach as attainable. That is what we get on the conclusion of “It is Cow or By no means,” Peacemaker‘s first (however blessedly not its final) finale episode. After a young second of reference to these immediately sympathetic alien butterflies, outcast from their planet, the eponymous oaf fires certainly one of his helmets into the stomach of the cow. 

However what makes it a legendary WTF second is that the helmet is being worn by Peacemaker’s buddy Adebeyo (Danielle Brooks) on the time. Adebeyo’s first phrases after falling from the stomach of the beast, alongside a number of thousand gallons of blood and guts: “What the fuck?” Not even the looks of DC’s largest superheroes within the denouement – not even a cameo from Aquaman (Jason Momoa) responding to the rumor that he has intercourse with fish – can high it. — C.T.