12 great TV shows from 2024 to binge

This was a weird year for TV. Things started out very strong but then by May you could really feel the effects of the 2023 SAG/WGA strikes and the summer was the kind of desert we haven’t felt since the pre-streaming days when June, July and August were all reruns. Then in the last couple months, there’s been so much new stuff I haven’t quite caught up, including Agatha All Along and The Penguin (haven’t watched at all but hear good things), the new season of Industry, and Nobody Wants This and Bad Monkey (haven’t finished but I like). Biggest disappointment was Alfonso Cuarón’s infuriating Disclaimer which wasted the talents of Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline and Sacha Baron Cohen.

Also disappointing: Slow Horses‘ fourth season, which wasn’t bad but not quite as good as the first three. Luckily, 2024 had a bumper crop of other spy shows, three of which make this list. This is not quite a Best TV Shows of 2024 list and assumes you’ve probably watched Baby Reindeer (which I found at times excruciating but ultimately rewarding) and hopefully Hacks and the great fifth season of Fargo (which started in late 2023), but it is a dozen shows from this year that I thought were fantastic.

Head before for those and happy viewing.

Shōgun (FX / Hulu)

James Clavell’s 1975 novel Shōgun has been adapted into a TV miniseries twice now, but unlike the 1980 NBC version starring Richard Chamberlain, the 2024 FX/Hulu version rightfully spends more time with the Japanese than the white guy. Created by husband-and-wife team Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks, this Shōgun is a true epic and the best show of 2024. Here, Cosmo Jarvis (who, despite his name, was not a Britpop star in the ‘90s) plays Blackthorne, a ship navigator whose boat shipwrecks off the coast of Japan, and he soon finds himself in the middle of a growing power struggle between the country’s five regents. One of them is Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) who controls the Kantō region which includes Edo (now known as Tokyo) and he takes an interest in Blackthorne and hopes to find him useful. Toranaga assigns Blackthorne a translator, Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai), who is from a royal but disgraced family; sparks fly almost immediately between them, though she is married to a vassal of Toranaga’s. This Shōgun has been compared to Game of Thrones often and it’s easy to see why: there may be no dragons or magic, but the complicated 3D chess match at play between Toranaga and the other regents is deliciously complex, with endless moves of one-upmanship, court whispering, palace intrigue, etc. It’s a complex story that also involves Spain, Portugal, and the Catholic Church; Blackthorne is just one player here, really more a pawn and source of comic relief, with Toranaga, Mariko, and the charmingly duplicitous Lord Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) as the main focus. Also like GoT, there’s no shortage of shocking violence – feudal Japan was no joke, with beheadings, seppuku, and people being boiled alive – and you shouldn’t become attached to any one character more than those characters should be too attached to their heads. James Clavell didn’t write a direct sequel to Shōgun but they’re making a second season of the show. We shall see where it goes.

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Ripley (Netflix)

Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 psychological thriller novel, The Talented Mr Ripley, has been adapted a few times over the years, including as a 1956 teledrama for CBS and the 1999 hit film starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law. This version is from Steven Zaillian, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Schindler’s List, Gangs of New York, The Irishman, and more. He wrote and directed all eight episodes of the series, which stars Andrew Scott (“Hot Priest” in Fleabag) as Tom Ripley, a scam artist eking out an existence in NYC’s Greenwich Village in the 1950s. He’s asked by shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf to track down his trust-fund son, Dickie, in Italy and bring him home. Greenleaf mistakenly thinks that Tom and Dickie are college friends and Tom does not correct him, taking the plane ticket and a healthy stipend before heading off. When Ripley gets to Atrani, on Italy’s gorgeous Amalfi Coast, he immediately sees an opportunity to live a better life. Instead of telling Dickie (former indie musician Johnny Flynn) of his father’s wishes, he pretends to know him and insinuates himself into Dickie and girlfriend Marge (Dakota Fanning)’s cushy life full of linen clothes, oysters, Prosecco, and Carravaggio paintings. Zailian clearly has a distinct point of view with his Ripley that paints Tom as a creepy sociopath that puts nearly everyone he meets on edge, from shopkeepers to hotel clerks to one very attentive cat. Andrew Scott is a good 20 years older than the Ripley of the book and other adaptations but he’s so excellent here it doesn’t matter at all, and it fits with his portrayal as a chameleon who can blend into surroundings. Like Ripley, Zaillian is methodical in his approach, taking his time to lay out his tableaus, and happy to linger on the Italian sculptures, architecture (staircases in particular), and those Carravaggios, all shot in gorgeous black and white by cinematographer Robert Elswit, who’s been behind the camera of many Paul Thomas Anderson films, including There Will Be Blood. If you’re a fan of “process,” you get a lot of it here, including finding out just how hard it is to dispose of a dead body. Some may find it slow but I would call it deliberate, with a pace that really works to carefully crank up tension as Ripley worms his way out of getting caught again and again. He is not likable like Damon’s Ripley could be, but you grow to admire his tenacity. The series comes to a satisfying end, though you may have to turn your 2024 brain off at times (it was tough being a detective in Italy in the ‘50s), and with four other Ripley books by Highsmith, it leaves obvious room for more.

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Somebody Somewhere (MAX/  HBO)

I included Bridget Everett’s dramedy Somebody Somewhere in my 2022 TV list and it’s only grown stronger since, especially in the third and final season which aired this year. The show was created by High Maintenance writers Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, but was made with Everett in mind and takes details straight from her own life, including setting it in her hometown in Kansas. Everett plays Sam, a 40-something who moves back to her Kansas hometown to take care of her dying sister, Holly, and after her passing she finds herself approaching 50 and utterly adrift. While there she reconnects with a high school classmate, Joel (Jeff Hiller), who invites her to “choir practice,” a cabaret social night for the LGBTQ community and fringe dwellers of the town, and this opens up her world. This is the kind of slice-of-life series where the plotlines are born from the characters and not vise-versa, and the more time you spend with them the richer Somebody Somewhere becomes. Season 2 found Sam and Joel’s friendship tested with a major blow-up, while a secret Holly kept from her rocks her world. In the final season, Sam has approached something near comfort in small town life, helping her other sister, Tricia (Mary Catherine Garrison) with her event planning business and Etsy store, while finding surprising satisfaction as a bartender. There’s also “Iceland” (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) who has rented Sam’s parent’s farm, their friend Fred (drag performer Murray Hill) and his busybody wife (Jennifer Mudge), and of course best friend Joel, who has moved in with his boyfriend (an amazing Tim Bagley). Along the way, there are financial and romantic crises, an illuminating trip with her sister to Kansas City for an event planning expo, a nominee for one of the Greatest Thanksgiving Episodes in TV History, and a sweet song-and-tear-filled finale. They don’t make shows like this much anymore, and they may not again, but we should feel lucky we got three wonderful seasons of Somebody Somewhere.

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Black Doves (Netflix)

Are you a fan of fast-paced, quippy and violent action films set during the holidays? You know, Die Hard, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and the first Lethal Weapon? Black Doves, which delivers all this in a UK spy thriller setting, is for you. Keira Knightley stars as Helen, a mother of two and wife to England’s Secretary of State for Defense who may also be a deep cover operative for the Black Doves, an organization that sells information to the highest bidder. When three interconnected murders set off red flags, Helen is thrown back into dirty work, as is her former “triggerman” Sam (Ben Wishaw) who disappeared from London a decade earlier. Things, as they say, escalate quickly. Creator Joe Barton (Girl/Haji) weaves together a complex (convoluted, but fun) plot and if you like Slow Horses but wish there was more John Wick-style action, and a little Love Actually holiday romance (and on-the-nose needle drops), you’ll power through its six episodes in no time. Keira Knightley is great but the real reason to watch is Wishaw, who brings depth and pathos to Sam while all sorts of mayhem explodes around him. The cast is a deep bench of British character actors including Sarah Lancashire (Happy Valley, Julia), The Damned drummer Rat Scabies, and relative newcomer Ella Lily Hyland, who steals every scene she’s in. Shot in London around the holidays, Black Doves looks great and, like believing in Santa, if you don’t think about what’s going on too hard you’ll have a happy Christmas.

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Fantasmas (MAX / HBO)

Julio Torres’ last HBO series, the great Los Espookys, was canceled after two seasons, but the network clearly likes him and this year they released the purest strain of Torres’ surreal humor yet. All six episodes of Fantasmas were written and directed by Torres, who plays an alternate version of himself in an alternate reality of NYC where he goes on a mythic quest to find an oyster-shaped gold earring he lost in a club. While searching for this artifact, he struggles to survive in a rough gig economy where nearly everything – jobs, health care, getting an apartment – requires a “proof of existence” card, something Julio does not want to get. Shot on a soundstage using inventive, old-school effects (shadow puppets, stop-motion animation, forced-perspective and other in-camera optical illusions), Fantasmas is part theater and part lucid dream, with the “story” stitching together dozens of sketches. Like Monty Python and Mr Show, Torres would rather cut to another idea than force an ending to a sketch, which ups the joke count and the surreal vibe. Among the many memorable sketches: Fufus, “the first and only queer nightclub for hamsters in New York City”; a Christmas Elf (Bowen Yang) who is suing Santa for unlawful work practices; an infomercial for “toilet dresses” featuring Aidy Bryant; a Harry Potter parody called Cunty Little Rich Kids; a very dark parody of Real Housewives-style reality TV; and a very twisted spoof of ‘80s sitcom Alf starring Paul Dano. Fantasmas is as stuffed with guest appearances as it is clever ideas, including many of Torres’ fringe comedy cohorts (Patti Harrison, Cole Escola, John Early, Kate Berlant) and big name actors like Steve Buscemi, Emma Stone, Rosie Perez, and Tilda Swinton, who co-starred in Torres’ feature film directorial debut Problemista which was also released this year and makes for a nice companion piece to this show. It feels like everyone wants to work with Julio, and Fantasmas makes it obvious why.

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The Agency (Paramount+)

Le Bureau, a spy series that ran for five seasons from 2015 – 2020, has been called France’s The Wire thanks to rich characterization and slow-to-boil but fully realized storylines that sometimes took years to pay off. (It’s incredible and if you’re not scared of subtitles I highly recommend you check it out.) It’s now been adapted for English language viewers with an impressive pedigree in front of and behind the camera. Michael Fassbender stars as a CIA agent known only as Martian who is pulled out of deep cover in Ethiopia and brought back to the London office where he previously worked. As he settles in, readjusting to office operative life and reconnecting with his teenage daughter, Martian is pulled into a web of international intrigue. (It’s the best kind of web!) In addition to Fassbender, The Agency‘s cast is seriously stacked including Jeffrey Wright, Richard Gere, Jodie Turner-Smith, Katherine Waterston, The Wire‘s Dominic West and more, and the international production is just as stunning. (It was created by sibling playwrights / screenwriters Jez & John Henry Butterworth and episode directors include Joe Wright [Atonement, Hanna].) While it draws from Le Bureau‘s plotlines, The Agency is charting its own path and doesn’t seem to be dumbing things down in the process. The first season is only halfway through as of this posting, but it feels embedded for the long haul.

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Mr & Mrs Smith (Amazon Prime)

The 2005 film Mr & Mrs Smith starred Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt as a couple in a stagnant marriage who, unbeknownst to each other, were both spies for different sides. Donald Glover takes the title and concept but twists it into something very different for this very entertaining big-budget series adaptation. In it, Glover plays an agent for an unnamed entity that he communicates with only through texts. He agrees to pose as a married couple with another agent (Pen15‘s Maya Erskine) who he’s never met prior. Known only as John and Jane, they’re given an extremely enviable, tricked out Manhattan townhouse as they await missions that occasionally don’t go as planned. Mr & Mrs Smith was originally set to co-star and be co-run by Fleabag‘s Phoebe Waller-Bridge, but she left the show early in the production due to “creative differences.” I can only imagine what that would’ve been like but the version we got is terrific. Glover and Erskine are fantastic together as they go from being purely partners in the field to partners elsewhere, and begin to mistrust each other when it becomes unclear what side they’re actually working for. No expense seems spared in the production, which was shot around the world, from Manhattan, to the Dolomites and Lake Cuomo in Italy, and the cameo/guest star list is both extensive, impressive and too good to spoil, though Paul Dano in the “nosy neighbor” role is especially great. There’s a nice mix of “mission of the week” instant gratification and season-long arcs, and Glover and showrunner Francesca Sloane manage to pull off a tone that can go from glib to dead serious within a scene. Despite what is probably an insane per-episode cost in an era when streaming budgets are being slashed, Mr & Mrs Smith has been renewed for a second season, which is good because S1 ends with a helluva cliffhanger.

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John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in LA (Netflix)

When Netflix announced that John Mulaney would be hosting a live talk show during their Netflix is a Joke comedy festival in Los Angeles, nobody quite knew what to expect. But whatever you had in your mind, apart from it probably featuring couches and musical guests and hopefully being funny, you probably weren’t expecting what we got: one of the most free-wheeling, exciting and hilarious talk shows in decades. Streamed live around the world at 7 PM Pacific time, it allowed John to “talk about weird things in LA instead of going to therapy,” but it is not your average talk show. Each episode was themed around a specific LA topic (“Helicopters,” “Coyotes,” “Earthquakes”) and John would bring all his guests out at once, usually a celebrity/comedian and an expert on the topic, which definitely confused some people like Jerry Seinfeld. (David Letterman, on the other hand, rolled with it and was having a blast in the episode he’s on.) They also took live calls, Richard Kind was the announcer, there were very LA musical guests (Warren G, Weezer, Beck, Los Lobos), and there were lots of very funny pre-taped segments, including a little Oh Hello in LA. The atmosphere Mulaney created was one where it felt like anything could happen and usually did. Everybody’s in LA has the same vibe of the early years of David Letterman and Conan O’Brien, though the best comparison might be to public access TV (The Chris Gethard Show comes to mind) but with a bigger budget, and that is a compliment. The show was so wonderfully odd and not tied to daily headlines and guests there to plug stuff that it doesn’t really date, despite being a show that aired live. Trying to describe Everybody’s in LA does not do it justice, apart from saying it’s one of the best things I watched this year. Let’s hope they do it again.

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One Day (Netflix)

One Day is based on David Nicholls’ 2009 romantic novel of the same name where we follow a British couple through 20 years of their lives by checking in on them on the same day (July 15) every year for 20 years. Emma Morley (This is Going To Hurt‘s Ambika Mod) and Dexter Mayhew (White Lotus S2’s Leo Woodall) meet at the graduation day ball at the University of Edinburgh in 1988 and have a one night stand. They end up staying friends through letters and postcards but, of course, end up reconnecting and reigniting the flame over the years which includes a number of surprising twists and turns. While One Day begins very much in rom-com land, it becomes a much more emotionally and dramatically rich series with each episode and you may want to have a box of tissues ready when it hits the last few episodes. The book had already been turned into a 2011 movie but this story was meant for something longer format like this. (It’s not too long, though; most episodes are just a hair over 30 minutes and sometimes multiple years are covered in one.) Woodall and Mod are great together and shoutout to music supervisor Matt Biffa for amazing, period-perfect needle drops throughout the two decades One Day covers.

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Say Nothing (FX / Hulu)

Based on Patrick Radden Keefe’s nonfiction 2018 book of the same name, Say Nothing is about “The Troubles,” aka the dark, bloody, frequently explosive three-decade conflict over Northern Ireland that lasted from the late-’60s through the late-’90s. It remains a thorny, hot-button topic to this day that has parallels to current conflicts in the Ukraine and Gaza, and this nine-episode series, like the book, knows better than to try and tell the complete story. Instead, we see The Troubles through the eyes of sisters Dolours and Marian Price, who grew up in an IRA household and became key players themselves by the early ’70s. (Dolours and Marian are played, at different points in time, by Lola Petticrew/Maxine Peake and Hazel Doupe/Helen Behan.) Say Nothing also follows the disappearance of Jean McConville, a single mother of 10 who was abducted from her home in 1972 and never seen again. These two stories will intertwine, though American (like Keefe) showrunner Josh Zetumer takes his time in connecting the dots. Say Nothing also takes a page from Goodfellas in tone and structure: we meet Dolours and Marian in early-’70s Belfast as 20-somethings who want to follow in their parents’ footsteps and make a difference. They find life as rising IRA foot soldiers rewarding, a little glamorous, and even fun, as they rob banks in the name of a united Ireland and do other jobs for their local leader Gerry Adams (Josh Finan) and his right hand man Brendan Hughes (Anthony Boyle). It’s all set to a soundtrack of period rock and pop songs, as well as tracks from current Irish artists like Lankum and The Mary Wallopers. They even lead an ambitious bombing in London where if it all goes to plan it will further the IRA’s cause without harming anyone. But how often do things go to plan? Say Nothing‘s nine episodes allow for nuance, joy, anger, shock, disgust and some catharsis while not wasting a minute of viewers’ time. I cannot speak to how accurate the series is to real events, but it makes for riveting television.

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Shoresy (Hulu)

Letterkenny creator and star Jared Keeso also played trash-talking hockey-player Shoresy on the series. Despite never getting to see his face, this comic relief bit player became one of the most popular characters on the show, so Keeso spun Shorsey off into his own titular show in 2022. You don’t have to have watched Letterkenny, or know anything about hockey, to like it, though the latter probably helps. The show centers around a Canadian Senior League hockey team in the rural town of Sudbury. The Bulldogs have been struggling for years, attendance is down (way down), and when general manager Nat (Tasya Teles) lets it slip the team might fold, Shorsey makes her an offer: if she lets him take full control of the team, the Bulldogs will never lose again. She accepts and he rebuilds the Bulldogs with players who don’t “love to win,” they “hate to lose.” Shorsey has an incredibly specific tone and sense of humor that includes many recurring gags that become funnier with every episode. The series exists in the old school world of ice hockey where the very profane insults fly as often as the fists, and the show’s on-ice mayhem is almost exclusively soundtracked with ’00s-era bloghouse and hipster folk, though it’s set in current day. Shoresy is consistently laugh out loud funny and surprisingly poignant and sweet. Season 3, which aired this year, brought the show to what seemed like an end, but there’s a fourth season on the way. Get ready for overtime!

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If you still need more TV recommendations, here’s last year’s list.