The Best TV Shows Of 2024 (That We Were Able To Get To)

No viewer with even one brain cell would be able to say that this was the best year ever for TV. The Hollywood strikes and lingering production shortages from the pandemic kept quality low. But it didn’t really seem to hurt supply. Streaming services, networks, and YouTube continue to dump content on us like chum onto the deck of a fishing boat. It’s too voluminous to even quantify. So when compiling a “best” list, it really means “The Best TV Shows We Were Able To Get To.” Apple+ drops a new show every week starring three Oscar winners. No one knows these shows exist, so by the time they learn about them, it’s too late!

Given that, in the case of editor-in-chief Neal Pollack, mandated by law to watch at least three hours of Dodger baseball a day for half the calendar year, it’s a miracle they were able to watch anything at all. But they have excellent taste, and this an excellent guide. So here goes: Our Best TV Shows Of 2024 (that we were able to get to). We list our critics in alphabetical order. It’s only fair.

Omar Gallaga

Fallout – A surprisingly fun and light-on-its feet romp about mech suits, underground vault society, and a post-nuclear-war world that happens to be a good hang. Walton Goggins, Kyle MacLachlan, Aaron Moten, and especially Ella Purnell deliver perfectly tuned performances for another videogame adaptation that’s much better than it needed to be.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith – Donald Glover and Maya Erskine lead the year’s best show about relationships and all their thorny dimensions under the guise of a spy-comedy TV adaptation. Both portray complex, spiky characters falling in love, sort of, amid a gorgeous array of cities and set pieces. 

Shōgun – The year’s big Emmy winner for a reason. The FX series emerged as the most satisfying, sweeping, emotionally resonant show of 2024. Great performances, immaculate production design, flawless pacing, smart adapting of James Clavell’s novel. 2024’s biggest TV triumph by far.

Everybody’s In L.A. – John Mulaney’s very specific take on a live late-night talk show was weird, ramshackle, extremely self-aware and smarter than the room, exactly what you’d expect from Mulaney. 

Fantasmas – It took me a few episodes to understand what Julio Torres was doing on this short, six-episode HBO comedy. This was his version of a sketch-comedy show filtered through his obsessions and elevated aesthetic. And it worked.

Honorable Mentions: We Are Lady Parts, The Penguin, Kaos, Bad Monkey, Have I Got News for You, What We Do in the Shadows, Disclaimer, Doctor Odyssey, Hacks, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Shrinking, Scavenger’s Reign.

Scott Gold

The Gentlemen–I discounted “The Gentlemen” from the get-go, writing it off as yet another likely mediocre series capitalizing on a decent film. I couldn’t have been more misguided, and I’m not ashamed to admit it, because this might have been the most fun series of the year for me, and Guy Ritchie is wholly in his element here crafting a thrilling and hilarious yarn about an English Duke (Theo James, killing it handsomely) who inherits his title along with a significant role in a high-stakes marijuana empire. It’s hilarious, sexy, thrilling, violently bonkers and eminently watchable. Season two recently got picked up, and I absolutely can’t wait. 

Shōgun–If this one isn’t on literally every TV critic’s “best of ‘24” list, I’ll eat my kasa. A streaming adaptation of a book and TV miniseries that most people forgot about several decades ago might not scream “premiere television” but that’s exactly what we got, and it’s glorious. The casting, performances, costumes, sets, writing, direction, all of it works to seamlessly transport us to feudal Japan and all its beautiful, violent complications, and it somehow manages to avoid the boring “white savior” trope in favor of focusing on the Japanese characters, particularly Anna Sawai in a brilliant, star-making performance. 

Dune: Prophecy–It’s 2024, and we’re still talking about the Spice Girls? No, not them, the *other* spice girls: the Bene Gesserit witches from Frank Herbert’s Dune franchise, which I wrote all about here. It’s still mid-season, and while the reception has been mixed, if you’re a Duniverse geek like this writer, it’s a sci-fi nerdfest in all the best ways, with the quality you’d expect in a high-budget HBO project, putting Prophecy squarely on the same level as another familiar prequel series, House of the Dragon. Also, there are gorgeous young people having sex, because, you know…HBO. 

Dark Matter– I’ll admit, I was on the fence with this one in the first couple of episodes, mostly because I’m a fan of Blake Crouch’s novels and had a hard time fully believing that Joel Edgerton is somehow a mediocre, depressed college professor. But I didn’t give up, and my investment paid off when the sci-fi series goes to some bonkers places in the multiverse. True, the infinite worlds/quantum physics premise is far from fresh these days, but Dark Matter uses it to really explore the implications and consequences of what that technology could actually produce, and it’s both exhilarating and terrifying. Also, it has Jennifer Connolly in it, so by international law it immediately goes on the “best-of” list. 

X-Men 97–Oh yay, more retreads for Millennials and Gen Xers! This definitely seems like the year for it. In the dense glut of great animated series streaming right now (Arcane, Scavengers Reign, Invincible, amongst others), X-Men ‘97 is a masterclass in how to revive a beloved, long dormant series, tug at those nostalgic heartstrings, pay homage to the original and yet still, somehow, come off as fresh and diverting without falling headlong into to full-on pander mode. Maybe it’s because I’ve reached the member berries phase of my middle age, but I know I’m not alone when I say that seeing that mutant squad, in all their 90s glory, rise to battle the forces of evil once more was a welcome bright spot for me in 2024. And you have to admit, that theme song still slaps HARD. 

True Detective: Night Country–I missed a season or two of True Detective after the groundbreaking first entry with Matt and Woody, but for some reason I came back to it for Night Country, and it was very well worth it. This season is once more loosely based on Lovecraftian cosmic horror, this time way up in the dark, frozen hinterlands of Alaska, with Jodie Foster proving she’s still at the top of her game as a troubled cop investigating some seriously creepy murders in a scientific research station. It’s dark, foreboding, tense, and an utterly ripping addition to the series. Now excuse me, I have a Billie Eilish song to get out of my head. 

Agatha All Along–I think we’re all starting to get the feeling that Disney’s unrelenting content push in the last few years, particularly with Marvel and Star Wars, is beginning to produce some snooze-worthy results. Does anyone ever remember what happened in Echo? Does anyone really care? Fortunately, they bucked that trend this past fall with Agatha All Along, which might be the most genuinely fun non-Lego Marvel entry in ages, and the year’s most perfect Halloween treat. The cast is positively stacked with talent.

It also helps that the writers and producers clearly had a blast with the project, and that enthusiasm shines. Maybe not as brightly as Patti LuPone’s singing voice or a wicked glare from Aubrey Plaza, but it’s definitely infectious. The biggest problem here is that Katherine Hahn’s exuberant, scenery-chewing performance as the eponymous character is so captivating, it’s going to be difficult to imagine her as anyone else from now on. 

Neal Pollack

Colin From Accounts–Season 2 of the best romantic comedy on TV premiered in September on Paramount+, which means that for most viewers, it’s hiding in plain sight. Real-life married couple Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer play Gordon and Ashley, dysfunctional Australians who meet not-so-cute in Sydney when Gordon, distracted by Ashley flashing her tit at him when she’s walking to work, accidentally hits a stray dog. Circumstances ensue, they adopt the now-high-needs dog (who they name Colin) and they become a couple. That’s the premise, but by season 2, they’re a couple and are fully formed characters. The show is hilarious and occasionally heartbreaking, and Brammall and Dyer are both excellent comic actors and comic writers. Their relationship feels real and lived-in, with some of the best and most accurate couples chemistry ever put on screen.

Creature Commandos–Damned if James Gunn hasn’t come out of the gate roaring with his first official entry in the new DC Universe. This animated show, about a ragtag group of monsters send on an obscure government mission, is exciting, funny, scary, and even a bit tragic. Anyone declaring the comic-book genre dead will be disappointed that this show is so good. Everyone else will be thrilled.

Curb Your Enthusiasm–Larry David gave Seinfeld fans exactly what they wanted by offering up the complete reverse of the Seinfeld finale. Larry ends up in prison after completely botching a situation where he becomes a political hero for accidentally offering a Georgia voter some water while waiting in line to vote. But rather than repeat Seinfeld’s cynical ending, Jerry Seinfeld himself just bails David out of jail. And then the show just ends with the cast bickering in first class on an airplane. Farewell to the greatest sitcom that ever was.

The Olympics On Peacock–For those of us old enough to remember when the Olympics were three hours a night on NBC, half of which were boring “Up Close” athlete profiles, this year, the first real streaming Olympics, were a revelation. You could watch the Olympics any way you wanted. If you actually like the athlete profiles, they were available. But you could also watch the full NBC feed on Peacock, or an international feed, or full games of any sport of your choosing, or a full day of track and field, including all the opening heats and every javelin toss. After a while, it was a bit much. But for the first time, you could pretty much watch the entire Olympics if you so desired. That was an extraordinary feat, and Peacock handled it beautifully.

The Penguin–You would have thought me out of my mind if I’d said at the beginning of the year that the origin story of Batman’s fifth-greatest archenemy would somehow end up being 2024’s best drama. But this show featured pitch-perfect writing and incredible performances by Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti. The Penguin is a genuine tragedy that exists more in the neighborhood of The Sopranos and Breaking Bad than the usual DC TV superhero fare. It’s gritty and astonishing.

Freddie Freeman’s Grand Slam To Win Game One of the World Series–I watch this every day and will for the rest of my life. And now you can watch it too. Did you know the Dodgers won the World Series?