TV Week counts down the top series of the past year
Next year is poised to be a banner one for television, with Stranger Things returning for its fifth and final season, and Severance, The Last of Us and The Handmaid’s Tale finally providing us with closure after those long-lingering cliffhangers. But before we start devouring next year’s offerings, let us take a moment to digest some of the highlights of 2024. There were laughs in places you least expected it, and surprising depth in shows that appeared to offer just a quick reprieve from reality. So, get cozy for those final days of the year, because TV Week has assembled the 10 shows that celebrate the range of wonderful TV brought to us in 2024.
Shōgun
The historical drama set in 1600s Edo (now Tokyo) became the first Japanese-language series to win the Primetime Emmy for Best Drama, winning a total is 18 awards at the 76th Emmy Awards, for accomplishments both onscreen and behind the scenes. The story follows English sailor John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), who finds himself captive to the powerful Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), one of the five regents ruling Japan, who himself is at odds with his own political rivals. The two form an unusual alliance with the assistance of Toranaga’s translator Mariko (Emmy winner Anna Sawai). This visual and narrative feast was designed as a miniseries, based on James Clavell’s 1975 novel, but due to its numerous accolades more seasons are now in the pipeline. The standout episode is without a doubt the season’s penultimate, with its focus on Mariko as her storyline reaches its emotional zenith. Click here to watch trailer. FX
Baby Reindeer
Billed as a black comedy, the autobiographical limited series by Scottish writer Richard Gadd tells the story of an aspiring comedian whose customer at the pub where he works as a bartender morphs into his very own stalker. Any description of the relationship between professionally and emotionally struggling Donny (Gadd, who won an Emmy for outstanding limited series, lead actor and outstanding writing) and the effusive-yet-abusive Martha (Jessica Gunning, who won an Emmy for best actress), that doesn’t include spoilers, will sound both unfunny and reductive, but Gadd’s deep and intriguing dive into his past, and the circumstances that made this unbelievable relationship trajectory even possible, offers a heart-tugging glimpse at the impact of trauma and our need for companionship. Whatever your expectations of Baby Reindeer, the seven-episode series will far exceed it. Click here to watch trailer. Netflix
Pachinko
There was never any doubt that Min Jin Lee’s exceptional New York Times bestseller, about four generations of a Korean family, would make a great television show, but that the adaptation would elevate the brilliant source material is a feat that is rare. The first season holds a 97-per-cent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and the second season topped that with 100 per cent. In the season that continues to juxtapose the Baek family as immigrants in Japan prior to the Second World War with their lives in the 1980s, young Sunja (Minha Kim) is struggling with having to raise her two young boys alone after her husband Isak is sent to prison, while her brother-in-law takes a job in Nagasaki to help support the family. As the war rages on, showrunner Soo Hugh tackles the macro through the micro, letting larger historical events have an excruciatingly personal impact on the Baeks. The latter storyline serves to show that no matter how big the sacrifices of the generations that came before you, life continues present its challenges. Apple TV+
Black Doves
Nothing spices up your holiday programming like a good British spy drama, and this one from The Lazarus Project creator Joe Barton nails all the criteria for a classic in the making. Propulsive mystery with need-to-know twists and turns — check. Loads of dark humour — check. Actors that can kick butt and make you cry — check. Pirates of the Caribbean’s Keira Knightley returns to her action roots as Helen Webb, a patient mother, brilliant hostess and doting wife of prime minister-in-the-making Wallace Webb (The Crown’s Andrew Buchan), who also happens to be a spy delivering government secrets to a mysterious entity. When the man with whom she’s been having a secret affair dies, Helen and her old friend and spy colleague Sam (Paddington’s Ben Whishaw) — who also happens to be a rather pragmatic assassin-for-hire — must solve the case of his death before they, too, end up expired. The show was renewed for a second season before its premiere; the question is, who makes it all the way to see another day? Click here to watch trailer. Netflix
Shrinking
Imagine a show where a therapist, after losing his wife, copes with his grief by numbing himself with drugs and prostitutes, encouraging his clients to act on their impulses, while neglecting his own teenage daughter as she also grieves. Simultaneously, his boss and mentor, played by one of the biggest action stars in the world, discovers he is suffering from Parkinson’s disease. And, just as our leading man starts to come around again, rebuilding trust with his family and friends, he is confronted with the man who took his wife’s life. This is Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein’s comedy series Shrinking, where, despite the dark overtones, warmth and laughter somehow continue to prevail. The second season sees Jimmy (Jason Segel) lose his footing a little, after having finally reconnected with daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell). Meanwhile Jimmy’s boss Paul (Harrison Ford) faces all the challenges of falling in love later in life. Expect surprising and delightful cameos and generally good vibes throughout. Apple TV+
The Diplomat
The first season of Debora Cahn’s political drama left its viewers on the edge of their seats for a year and a half, with an explosion that possibly robbed the fans from one half of our bantering power couple. It was, thankfully, revealed that Kate and Hal Wyler (Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell) were both OK, and their clever bickering in the name of global security was able to resume. The Clinton-esque couple — she, the newly appointed American ambassador to the U.K., and he a former U.S. ambassador who is struggling with the idea of being a trailing husband — continued to investigate what or whom caused the attack that killed 41 sailors on the HMS Courageous, a British aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. The conveyor belt of shockers offered fans an addictive binge, ending in a cliffhanger that will change the nature of the show entirely, when it returns for an already confirmed third season. Netflix
A Man on the Inside
Based on a real-life case in Chile that inspired an Oscar-nominated documentary, Ted Danson stars as Charles, a retiree whose life after his wife’s death has ground to a halt when he’s unexpectedly hired by private investigator Julie (Lilah Richcreek Estrada) to find out if her client’s mother has been robbed at the Pacific View Retirement Home. Charles goes undercover as the retirement home’s latest resident, infiltrating the community made up of a stellar comedic cast that includes Stephanie Beatriz (Brooklyn Nine Nine), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Civil War) and Sally Struthers (All in the Family). What follows is the sweetest, funniest, most heart-warming four-hour binge of the year. If you missed Ted Lasso and need something to make you feel good about the world again, Mike Schur and Danson have created another Good Place (this one less ironic), where laughing at the process of aging is OK, as long as you are laughing with the characters. Netflix
True Detective: Night Country
After a few lacklustre seasons of Nic Pizzolatto ’s brainchild, True Detective, the anthology crime drama was handed off to Mexican filmmaker Issa Lopez, who delivered one of the creepiest experiences of the year. Starring Jodie Foster and Kali Reis as reluctant partners, these Alaskan police detectives set out to solve the mystery of eight men suddenly disappearing from a research station. Where the previous three seasons were described by the new showrunner as, “male and sweaty,” Lopez describes the fourth instalment as “cold, dark and female,” citing John Carpenter’s The Thing, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and Ridley Scott’s Alien as her inspiration. Foster won the Emmy award for outstanding lead actress for her performance, a role that she describes as “Alaska Karen.” We dare you not to be affected by what Lopez is trying to convey, even if you’re watching between your fingers. Crave (Stream)
Nobody Wants This
From the first weekend that Erin Foster’s romantic comedy series was released, everybody has wanted this: A now adult Veronica Mars’ Kristen Bell and The OC’s Adam Brody portraying an agnostic podcast host and a young rabbi falling in love and forming the kind of complex, grown-up — and really funny — TV union you can truly root for, even if no one onscreen thinks their relationship is a good idea. The series is loosely based on Foster’s own relationship with husband Simon Tikhman, for whom she converted to Judaism. Veep’s Timothy Simons and Succession’s Justine Lupe star as the duo’s scene-stealing siblings on a show that offers laugh-out-loud moments as well as heartfelt obstacles that we’re eager to see Noah and Joanne tackle. And the best news is, they shall tackle even more challenges when the show returns for a second season, hopefully in 2025. Click here to watch trailer. Netflix
Ripley
Anthony Minghella’s 1999 film, The Talented Mr. Ripley, was thought to be the ultimate and singular adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 thriller, until Andrew Scott (Fleabag) stepped into the shoes of Tom Ripley. The petty white-collar criminal is hired by rich kid Dickie Greenleaf’s (Johnny Flynn) father to persuade his son to stop wasting time and money and come home. He accepts the assignment, taking his relationship with Dickie — as most fans of either book or film know — too far. But this noir version, shot entirely in black and white by the cinematographer of There Will Be Blood, leans into the details of Ripley’s deceit, and if one has the patience for its slower burn, the reward is there in the details. Scott and Dakota Fanning, who takes on the role of Marge Sherwood made famous by Gwyneth Paltrow, may not have taken home trophies at this year’s Emmys, but that makes them none the less deserving of the accolades. Netflix.