My 20 Favorite Television Shows of 2024

 

Usually, I like to introduce these lists by talking about whether it was a good year for the medium, and I tend to consume so much that I always find a way to come out on the positive end.  Well here's a first: 2024 was a bad year for TV.  I'm not ready to have a doomsday mentality about it, because I think it's mostly down to last year's strikes disrupting the release pipeline.  (Though the general trend towards shows having eight-episode seasons that come out every two years is slowly leading to worse television as well.)  I didn't have a problem creating a top 20, but it resulted in cases like my number two pick being technically the show's worst season, but it's the highest I've ever ranked the series on a year end list.

Still, I found plenty to enjoy outside of the traditional scripted Western television.  2024 was an amazing year for anime, for example, which you'll see below.  And though they can't qualify for something like this, I loved watching things like Carlos Alcaraz vs. Jannik Sinner in the Beijing tennis finals, or my favorite Street Fighter 6 player PunkDaGod finally winning EVO after years of being labelled as somebody who chokes in big moments.  Anyway, I digress -- let's talk about some of my favorite TV of the year. 

The rules: Shows are considered for this list based on their episodes that aired between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024.  This used to be a big thing when people watched more network shows where the seasons bled into the new year, but it doesn't factor in as much now.

Honorable Mentions (25-21)

Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night (HiDive) impressed me with its bubbly story about friendship and discovering self-confidence, as well as its striking production values.  Switching streaming services but never losing a beat, Girls5Eva (Netflix) maintained the highest joke rate on TV in what ended up being its final season.  The year ending just as the second season is starting to heat up is the only reason Silo (Apple TV+) isn't higher on this list, because I love the way this series reminds me of grungy genre shows from 15 years ago.  An anime called Days with My Stepsister (Crunchyroll) makes you immediately think it's going to be some fetish show, but it's much more nuanced and contemplative than the name would suggest, and it sports creative direction that really elevates the material.  Great performances and twisty plotting make Presumed Innocent (Apple TV+) an excellent potboiler in prestige clothing.

20. My Brilliant Friend (HBO)

HBO's adaptation of Elena Ferrante's massively popular Neapolitan novels went a little under the radar after its first season, but the final season was a reminder of its unique power.  My Brilliant Friend was always adept at melding issues both big and small, exploring decades of political upheaval in Italy along with more interior domestic drama, all through the lens of the complex, often perplexing friendship between Lenu and Lila.  Season four found the show leaning in to its literary origins, filling the story with haunting ambiguities that felt devastating instead of frustrating, and ultimately ending on a satisfying note for these two women we watched over the course of their entire lives.  It's easy to see why the source material made an impression on so many people.

19. The Apothecary Diaries (Crunchyroll)

If you're somebody who hates the shrinking of the television season and misses the rhythm and structure of 20+ episode seasons, consider checking out The Apothecary Diaries.  In many ways, it's a really good American procedural in anime form, balancing case of the week stories with a larger serialized narrative.  And the half of season 1 that aired in 2024 braided those two elements together, elegantly revealing the way in which the weekly mysteries we'd been following tied in to the master arc.  It's the oldest trick in the book, but The Apothecary Diaries exhibits why this model of storytelling was the standard for so long.

18. English Teacher (FX)

Recent developments have complicated how we talk about English Teacher.  When it first aired a couple of months ago, I loved how fully-formed it was, and the way it used its school setting as a vehicle for presenting comedic takes on many of today's biggest political issues.  But it's hard not to let that praise be colored by the recent allegation that star and creator Brian Jordan Alvarez sexually assaulted one of his former collaborators while filming a scene for their web series years ago.  English Teacher still hasn't been renewed for a second season, and who knows if it will at this point, but it sure is a shame that so many funny people don't seem to know how to treat others well.

17. Mr. Throwback (Peacock)

The NBC-Universal Media Group did a poor job of marketing Mr. Throwback to me.  In the thousands of ads I got for it during the Summer Olympics, they pitched it as some gimmicky comedy with NBA player Steph Curry in it, when all they had to do was tell me it was created by David Caspe.  For the uninitiated: he created Happy Endings, one of the last great network sitcoms, and the spirit of that show lives on in Mr. Throwback.  In it, Happy Endings alum Adam Pally stars as a screw-up drowning in debt who crafts an elaborate lie in order to reconnect with his childhood basketball teammate Steph Curry.  What follows is a fast, joke-heavy comedy with the added bonus of some magical chemistry between Pally and Ayden Mayeri.  Even Curry himself ends up being funny!

16. Tell Me Lies (Hulu)

"Guilty pleasure" is a forbidden phrase here at the Oy With The Articles Already blog.  If you manage to find something pleasurable in this sea of content gruel, there's nothing to feel guilty about.  In light of that self-imposed ruling, I'll call Tell Me Lies a well-kept secret instead.  Look past the soapy plotting and you'll find a series with surprisingly well-realized (albeit sociopathic) characters, and dialogue that always feels sharper and more real than you'd expect.  After a wild, reveal-heavy first season finale, season two came back even stronger, as the dramas of the students and professors at Baird College precariously stacked up in ways the writers had fun toppling over, with the help of some rock-solid television structure.  You can clearly see where this show will eventually fall apart constantly chasing big twists, but right now the ride is exhilarating.

15. Delicious in Dungeon (Netflix)

If you're not watching Delicious in Dungeon, the latest anime from the beloved Studio Trigger, then you're missing out on some of the best worldbuilding on television.  What starts out as a straightforward premise -- a party of adventures exploring a dungeon to save their friend must cook and eat monsters to survive -- slowly widens its scope to reveal an extremely considered ecosystem and lore.  Source material author Ryoko Kui is an avid D&D player, and you can tell both from the fun dynamics within the main party and the level of thought that's been put into this world, where every little detail is stealth foreshadowing for a later plot development.  Fans of the manga say the end of season one is around the halfway point of the story, and I personally can't wait to see what surprises are in store for the second half next season.

14. Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)

Even the sun goes down.  And so Curb Your Enthusiasm, which seemed as if it would go on intermittently releasing new seasons until Larry David died, finally came to a close after 24 years and 12 seasons.  The final season saw Larry going the same way he arrived: curmudgeonly getting himself into hilarious, farcical situations.  (And what's more Larry David than using the end of his run to relitigate the reviled Seinfeld finale?)  If you put season 12 side by side with whatever you consider the peak of Curb to be, it might not stack up, but what's impressive is how high-quality the show remained until the last second.  This year even delivered a stone cold classic in the form of "Vertical Drop, Horizontal Tug."  Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened to Larry David and not to you.

13. Under the Bridge (Hulu)

My mission to watch everything Riley Keough does in the hope that one day she notices my dedication sometimes takes me down dark paths, like the Chris Pratt combat bro show The Terminal List.  But more often than not, following her work leads me to great art.  Under the Bridge is another winner in a strong resume.  Its telling of the real-life murder of 14 year-old Reena Virk at the hands of her peers is a gripping look at the nauseating cruelty of teens.  And despite the grisly nature of the case, the series is not exploitative at all, ending up as a moving mediation on absolution.  Though Keough and Lily Gladstone are the marquee actors, it's the affecting performances by the teen actors that really steal the show here.

12. Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines! (Crunchyroll)

The characters in Makeine know that they're in a story, or at least if they were in a story, that they'd match classic archetypes perfectly.  They're the "losing heroine," the friend who gets passed over by their crush for somebody else instead.  Even Nukumizu, the male lead who gets unwittingly wrapped up in their troubles, fits the trope of the boy who helps women out with their problems (a la Monogatari or Bunny Girl Senpai).  With that setup, you'd think Makeine would be an overly-meta winkfest, but the joy of it is that despite its characters' self-awareness about their circumstances, they can't help but be earnest in their striving.  The show's funny, warm cast is a pleasure to watch, and the season's mini-arcs effortlessly glide from being buoyant one minute to absolutely heartbreaking the next.  If you instantly recoil at the idea of harem romances in anime, Makeine is the perfect subversion for you.

11. The Jinx (HBO)

Time and time again we see self-contained, one-season stories become smash hits and then have to cash in and extended themselves.  Though it seemed like that from the outset, The Jinx season two proves its vitality despite the fact that it comes nine years after the first season.  Partially, it boils down to a matter of craft.  Director Andrew Jarecki and his collaborators put real thought into structure, masterfully choosing the perfect time to relay information to the viewer.  This works especially well if you didn't closely follow Robert Durst's life after the airing of season one.  His arrest, murder trial, and eventual conviction contain wild little turns that are just as unbelievable as the details that unfurled in the initial run.  Jarecki's stirring, Errol Morris-style reenactments are the key to understanding what's so remarkable in that regard -- if this were fiction, it would feel too outlandish.

10. Ripley (Netflix)

Stairs, and particularly the act of climbing them, are a motif that recurs all over Ripley.  That's the best and most succinct image to sum up its titular character, a man who lucks into an opportunity to help a rich man track down his trust fund kid in Italy, and uses that as an entryway to becoming a new person in a higher status group.  Adapting Patricia Highsmith's novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, which already had an acclaimed film adaptation in 1999, the series digs into ideas on the mutability of identity and whether there's something innate that the wealthy can suss out to indicate you don't belong, no matter how hard you try to assimilate.  Elevated by a reptilian lead performance from Andrew Scott and gorgeous black and white direction from Steve Zaillian, Ripley is a riveting watch all the way through.  There are many miniseries that would be better as films, but this one shows the value that sometimes can be found in unraveling a story and picking at its innards.

9. Masters of the Air (Apple TV+)

Following in the footsteps of classic miniseries like Band of Brothers and The Pacific is a daunting endeavor, but Masters of the Air, the third installment in Tom Hanks' and Steven Spielberg's WWII project, acquits itself well.  The story centers on the 100th Bomb Group of the US Air Force this time around, but it keeps its sister series' contained episode structure and ability to swiftly invest you in its large ensemble.  With each mission shown comes an increased sense of stomach-churning danger, and you just desperately want each character to be okay by the end.  Its painterly, golden-hued imagery and big swings for pathos only add to the feeling that what you're watching is epic and grand.  Much like the other two Playtone series in this informal trilogy, Masters of the Air has rewatch classic written all over it.

8. House of the Dragon (HBO)

Stock for the Game of Thrones universe was at an all-time low after a series finale that even D.B. Weiss and David Benioff's family members probably didn't like.  That season one of House of the Dragon was great enough to revive the goodwill for the franchise is nothing short of a miracle, and season two had the equally scary goal of maintaining that momentum.  It certainly was up to the task.  Though the war between the Greens and the Blacks was in full flight this year, season two was still at its best when it was focused on the human element, the machinations and misunderstandings that pile up and lead to messy conflict.  That's why, though the circumstances that led to them were a little shaky, the few scenes that allowed main characters Alicent and Rhaenyra to share the screen were so electric.  The story had no shortage of shocking turns to keep the fans of its predecessor's splashier moments sated either.  As long as it never strays too far from its tantalizing palace intrigue in favor of blockbuster setpieces, House of the Dragon should continue to be closer to the quality of peak Game of Thrones than anybody could have ever imagined.

7. The Agency (Showtime)

It's always tough to make a call on a season that's only half-finished by the end of the year, but six episodes is enough to the plant the flag of greatness on The Agency.  Though I haven't yet gotten to The Bureau, the revered French series it's adapting, this doesn't feel like a dumbed-down American version.  Instead, it comes from The Americans model of espionage drama, crafting complex stories with a grounded perspective on spycraft.  So far, its multiple plots have been teased out with patience and intelligence, smartly trusting the viewers to keep track.  And though its emotions are chilly, there's a real attention to the ways this business can erode the soul, how the more identities you accumulate only scrapes away at who you really are.  Anything can happen in the last four episodes next year, but what we've seen of The Agency already makes it a quiet, moody gem.

6. Say Nothing (FX)

Finding the best way in can make an interesting story incredible.  You could likely mine a compelling miniseries from any of the major players in Northern Ireland's violent struggle for independence between the 1960s and 1990s, but Say Nothing taps a rich mine by centering sisters Dolours and Marian Price.  We see the revolution largely through their journey from initial radicalization to becoming major players in the IRA, and they remain fascinating and well-drawn as it becomes unclear whether their devotion to the struggle is just a way for them to express their devotion to each other.  Along the way, the show is frequently exhilarating and just as often heartbreaking.  It reaches the peak of that tension in its harrowing sixth episode, focused on the hunger strike the Price sisters go on to protest being held in a men's prison following their role in a London bombing.  And in its final stretch, Say Nothing's ambition comes into full view, as it shows the long tail of revolution, and the different forms that dedication to a cause can take over the years.

5. Shogun (FX)

Everybody pictured "the next Game of Thrones" coming in the form of another fantasy epic, and we did get that with prequel series House of the Dragon.  But in many ways, Shogun feels like the real answer.  It's no coincidence both shows understand that for all the scale you paint your story with, it all falls apart if you can't succeed at the micro level.  Where Shogun is at its most engrossing is when it refines its storytelling down to long conversational scenes, usually featuring only two or three characters.  Stakes both abstract (honor and duty) and concrete (life and death) hang over every dialogue exchange, and it's pulse-pounding to see people navigate them through deferred meanings and doublespeak.  Shogun carefully builds its sweep through those small moments, and the result of that accumulation is immensely satisfying.

4. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Prime Video)

It seemed like a strange idea for Donald Glover and his creative crew to make a TV version of Mr. & Mrs. Smith at first -- evidence that even our most vibrant artistic minds have to kowtow to the demands of IP supremacy in order to make a living.  What we got was blessedly much fresher: sleek, stylish, and effortlessly molding itself to the episodic format in fleet cases of the week that serve to advance the central relationship.  And that dynamic is the heartbeat of the series, which uses its genre setup to explore what it means to be in a relationship with another person.  "John" and "Jane" might be in circumstances with higher stakes than other marriages, but they have to navigate the same interpersonal dilemmas as everyone else.  Donald Glover and Maya Erskine are terrific at playing their characters' differences off of one another, where you buy why they work and why they're on the brink of falling apart in equal measure.  With that in mind, it's a curious decision that the show is allegedly deciding to switch to different leads for season two.  I've learned not to doubt this team anymore, though.

3. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (Crunchyroll)

At the end of 2023, the first half of Frieren season one impressed with its unconventional storytelling and elegiac approach to time.  The second half that continued into the beginning of this year shifted gears a bit, introducing the common anime format of an exam arc and ballooning its cast as a result, but maintaining its excellence nonetheless.  By expanding its world, the show added a variety and richness, all rendered gorgeously thanks to meticulous animation from an all-star production team.  Frieren is still at its strongest when its locked in to the dynamic of its main trio, but the 2024 run of episodes wisely showed that the show's got more than just one trick up its sleeve.

2. Slow Horses (Apple TV+)

Occasionally, the Brits do get it right.  We're living in a current television landscape where shows drop an eight episode season and then disappear for two and a half years, where by the time they come back you no longer remember what happened last, if you even still care.  And then there's Slow Horses: they only have six-episode seasons, sure, but they have the decency to give us four of them in 29 months.  They're excellent seasons too -- at this point, the quality of the show is expected but it's still a wonder to see it in motion, balancing larger espionage plotting with smaller workaday shenanigans.  If one of the best shows on TV can deliver at this speed, what's everybody else's excuse?

1. Sound! Euphonium (Crunchyroll)

Over the course of three seasons, two films, and a few OVAs, Sound! Euphonium has covered three years in the lives of the members of the Kitauji High School Concert Band, but by the end of the journey it felt like we've spent a whole lifetime with them.  The show's world is one with a deep sense of history, and thanks to sharp writing and a precise attention to detail in its art and animation, everyone down to the most minor character feels real and whole.  In its final season, Euphonium used that to depict a year where every moment seemed informed by what we've seen happen in the past.  Beautiful mirrors and refractions rippled throughout each episode.  There's a special joy that comes from character writing that's so well-defined that when a conflict occurs, everyone behaves in a way that's perfectly in tune with how they've been built up, when victories feel hard-won and even tiny disappointments can devastate.  Don't let any biases about anime hold you back, this is one of the best television shows ever made, in any genre and any medium.

Thanks for reading my best shows of 2024 list.  I love reading other lists, so feel free to share yours in the comments.  Or if you want to share your thoughts on my list, then you can do that too!  To see a complete inventory of all the TV I watched this year (with even more rankings), you can find it on this Google Doc.

Previous lists
2023

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2020

2019

2018
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2015
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2013