This year I discovered TV Time, a well-designed app that makes it easy to keep track of the shows you’ve watched and want to watch. Thus, I can tell you with complete confidence that my favorite TV show of 2024 is Hacks…. or Black Doves … or The Diplomat. I CAN’T CHOOSE–2024 was a year of so many great shows!
Instead, here are my favorite ten small screen watches of last year:
Hacks. (Max) This razor-edged comedy pairs Deborah Vance–a sublime Jean Smart–a Vegas comedy icon desperate to stay relevant, with Ava Daniels–the equally great Hannah Einbinder, Laraine Newman’s daughter–a canceled millennial writer with superb comic instincts. Together, the two women proffer a masterclass in generational conflict, peeling back layers of ambition, regret, and resilience with blistering humor and unexpected emotional depth. I can’t wait for season four!
Fargo, Season Five. (Fox or Amazon Prime) The final season of Fargo follows Dot Lyon, a seemingly ordinary Midwestern housewife whose hidden past unravels. With stellar performances from Jon Hamm as a villain ripped from MAGA headlines and Juno Temple shining as the wife who escaped him once and who is determined to stay free, the season weaves its signature dark humor and intricate storytelling into a gripping exploration of debt, deception, and survival.
Blue Lights. (BritBox or Amazon Prime) In its second season, Blue Lights shows us officers Grace, Annie, and Tommy navigate escalating gang conflicts in Belfast, with a particular focus on the Mount Eden Estate, while grappling with the long tail of violence left in the wake of “The Troubles.” With its exploration of the blurred lines between law enforcement and community relations, the series continues to deliver gripping drama in a pitch perfect setting.
The Capture. (Peacock or Amazon Prime) If, like me, you’re obsessed with the power of AI, The Capture will be your jam. The show is a taut, thought-provoking thriller that explores the sinister potential of deepfake technology and surveillance. With its chilling plausibility and relentless twists, the show probes the moral and ethical boundaries of a world where seeing is no longer believing. I enjoyed both seasons–sadly, it doesn’t look like there will be more–each of which stand up well on their own.
Dark Winds. (Netflix) This gripping psychological thriller is set in the 1970s Southwest on the Navajo reservation. In its first two seasons, Navajo police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee carefully wended their way through crime, spirituality, and cultural identity. With its gripping storytelling and layered characters, the series blends mystery with an unflinching look at the complexities of life on the reservation. Special shout out to Zahn McClarnon doing the best work of a phenomenal career. Season Three drops in March. Woo hoo!
Slow Horses. (Apple TV) In the fourth season of Apple TV’s fab spy show, the beleaguered agents of Slough House confront a perilous conspiracy that intertwines personal histories with national security threats. Gary Oldman is again on fire as the grimy, irascible Jackson Lamb and the rest of the cast, especially Jack Lowden as River Cartwright and Jonathan Pryce as his dementia fogged grandfather more than hold their own. The series is intricately and intelligently plotted and routinely makes me laugh. Season Five starts filming this month.
The Diplomat. (Netflix) I missed the first season of this and so had the great joy of watching all twenty episodes in one fell swoop. I love this show. It’s funny, smart, believable, and sexy. Kerri Russell’s Kate Wyler–she plays a seasoned diplomat abruptly appointed U.S. ambassador to the UK–is a hoot as is Rufus Sewell as her very appealing Machiavellian husband. Throw in an absurdly sexy David Gyasi as the Foreign Secretary and Allison Janney as the American Vice-President we desperately wish we had and you’ve got a hell of cast having fun with a fabulous script. The next season will arrive in the fall.
Black Doves. (Netflix) What a great show! Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw deliver exceptional performances as complex spies entangled in a web of intrigue and personal vendettas. The series masterfully balances unexpectedly witty dialogue, an effortlessly diverse cast, and a wickedly propulsive plot. The fact that the great Sarah Lancashire is the one pulling all the strings is just icing on a delicious cake. Netflix is already working on Season Two and I can’t wait!
Silo. (Apple TV) I’ve not yet watched season two–I’m waiting for all the episodes to drop–but I so enjoyed season one. The cast is full of truly great actors–Tim Robbins, David Oyelowo, Rashida Jones, Common, and, of course, Rebecca Ferguson–and the story is a good one. It’s a show that made me think about how difficult governing is and how hard it is to trust others when every choice is literally about survival. My kids tell me Season Two isn’t quite as compelling but I’m still counting the days until January 16th after which all the episodes will be available to binge stream.
The Artful Dodger. (Hulu) I am so excited there is to be more of this little gem of a show. I loved everything about it! The setting, 1850s Australia, is super fun and the medicine–the premise is that 15 years after the events of Oliver Twist, the Artful Dodger is a surgeon desperate to hide his criminal past–is both entertaining and accurate. Plus, it has David Thewlis as a down on his luck Fagin and, really, I’ll watch anything Thewlis does. #RIPLupin
There were, of course, shows that let me down. The Bear felt dull, I still don’t understand all the fuss about Shōgun (although I could gaze at the planes of Hiroyuki Sanada’s face for hours), Miss Scarlett, sadly, needs the Duke for the show to sing, Reacher made absolutely no sense, Colin and Penelope had very little chemistry, so much so that I didn’t even watch the second part of Bridgerton, Season Three, I hated the last two episodes of The Penguin with a fiery passion (and I was already tired of Colin Farrell channeling Tony Soprano), and I will attest, to my dying day, that the leads in Nobody Wants This would be far better off with other lovers.
How about you? What TV shows made you happy in 2024? Which did not?
This list is in no particular order but these shows are ones that stand out .
On Disney +
Only Murders in the Building
What we do in the Shadows
Rivals
On Paramount
Elsbeth
Matlock
Ghosts
On Netflix
The Gentlemen
A Man on the Inside
The Diplomat
Nobody wants this
Fisk
3 Body Problem
HBO/Crave
The White Lotus…..season 3 coming in February
Somebody Somewhere
Hacks. I adore Jean Smart
Dune Prophecy
Bookie
Shoresy
The Penguin. I can’t say enough about this show.
Guilded Age
Dark winds
House of the Dragon
APPLE TV
SILO
Shrinking
Severance Returns this month
Prime
The Boys
Gen V
Fallout
What I could not get into is Doctor Who. I love Ncuti Gatwa as the doctor but the writing isn’t what I was hoping for. I was hoping for more Daleks, Cybermen, weeping angels etc. I’m a Whovian from the 70s and I miss those storylines. Ncuti brought all the exuberance and wonder of the Doctor but the writers failed him imo.
We tried to watch Squid games season 2 but we both lost interest.
My top 10 tv shows of 2024:
Fargo S5
Blue Eye Samurai (technically a 2023 show but I watched it in 2024)
Artful Dodger
The Gentlemen
Colin From Accounts
Shogun
We Are Lady Parts S2
Hacks S3
Slow Horses S4
Man on the Inside
Shrinking is my non-Top 10 must-watch. I can’t put it in the Top 10 because I really despise Jason Segel in just about everything he is in, but especially in this show. Harrison Ford is absolutely the best thing about this show with Jessica Williams being a close second.
I love Shrinking–I watched the first season in 2023 and didn’t start this season until 2025–I always wait until all the seasons of a show are available–so it’s not on this list. Bill Lawrence and Graham Yost are my two favorite showrunners! I so love the women on Shrinking!
Oh, I truly appreciate this column. It pushes me to watch something other than “Law and Order” reruns. I have one request, tho: can you please include which streaming service controls your nominees?
Done!
“Reacher made absolutely no sense” is just crazy talk Dabney ;), team Reacher getting back together was superb, a big jump on season one. (Admittedly I have a BIG thing for conscious friendship/loyalty/trust see Rogue Spy by Joanna Bourne for a reread that melted me).
I am halfway through season 2 of Shrinking and it remains a beautiful combination of funny and poignant.
The Diplomat is still shockingly good.
The first half of Nobody Wants This was a nice romance, the second half a blah families drama.
Well, I will confess that we will certainly be turning on Season 3 of Reacher if for no other reason that it is genuinely funny. Not as funny as Shrinking which regularly makes me laugh out loud, but funny nonetheless. I liked Season 1 of Reacher better in part because I love Malcolm Goodwin whom I crushed on in iZombie.
The Diplomat and Black Doves are my two faves of the year. People bitch about Netflix contributing to the demise of prestige TV but I think they are kicking butt!
There are a couple of sports that I watch – tennis, cycling and F1- so that takes up a lot of my TV watching time, as do cooking shows (live or catching up on older seasons -Great Canadian Baking Show, Great British Baking Show, Spring/Summer/Halloween/Holiday Baking Championships, Top Chef); but I also enjoy watching Elsbeth and Only Murders in the Building. I tried Shogun but the torture scene in the first episode was too much for me and I dropped it. I am watching the Wheel of Time, and still need to watch Rings of Power S2; I’ve watched a few episodes of S2 of The Bear but it hasn’t had the draw of the 1st season for me. I’m sure I’ve missed something, but that’s enough to have severely dented my reading time, which is why I only read 50 books in 2024, my lowest amount since I started keeping track on Goodreads in 2014. Australian Open starts Jan 11!
Mr Bates versus The Post Office was an ITV production with profound national effects in the UK. It is the story of perhaps the greatest miscarriage of justice ever in the UK. It starred the delightful Toby Jones. Mr Alan Bates was subsequently knighted and the public have been outraged by what the series showed us. It can be found on Amazon Prime.
Second favourite for me was the funny and clever Australian series Doctor, Doctor (The Heart Guy in the UK). The gorgeous Rodger Corser was the heart surgeon (naughty) hero. My friends and I binged the lot.
Just started on Sky is Colin Firth as Dr Jim Swire in a docu-drama Lockerbie, A Search For the Truth. I expect this to be very high on my 2025 list.
Doctor, Doctor–thank you!! Someone had recommended this earlier but I’d forgotten the title!
Shows I really enjoyed this year were (in no particular order):
Agatha All Along (Disney) – fabulous cast, perfect for peri-Halloween
Heartstopper season 3 (Netflix) – more emotional than previous seasons, the 2 main leads are just great
The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh (Amazon Prime) – hilarious comedy about an immigrant Indian family
Fellow Travelers (Showtime) – poignant story of the relationship between 2 men over several decades featuring the extremely handsome Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey
Bridgerton season 3 (Netflix) – 2nd half was considerably better than the first half and I loved the last episode
English Teacher (F/X, Hulu) – if you’re a fan of sarcastic comedy (which I am)
Nobody Wants This (Netflix) – I liked the leads and their interactions with their siblings
Cobra Kai season 6 (Netflix) – this show brings the 1980s nostalgia for me and the last episode of part 2 had the best fight scene of the series
Matlock (CBS, Paramount) – the first episode hooked me with a twist at the end and I am loving Kathy Bates
Ghosts season 4 (CBS, Paramount) – great cast, consistently funny, getting better each season
Frasier season 2 (Paramount) – it took a few episodes in season 1 for the cast to gel but now I am really liking this comedy revival
I am currently watching Laid (Peacock), which is a comedy with the unusual premise of a woman in her early 30s who finds out that her exes are dying off one by one. The main character is played by Stephanie Hsu from Everything Everywhere All at Once,.
I didn’t whatch anything new last year I have a few favourites X file’s, that I always Rewatch.I watched the spin off Millinieum early last year I guess it was new to me.
The X-Files is having a renaissance–I know several people who are rewatching the show. So 90s!
*Watch *Millennium
Ugh my spelling is terrible only just noticed my mistakes.
*of
I can’t quite remember everything I watched this year (I’m downloading that app you mentioned). We really loved Hacks (like, I cannot wait for the next season, where is it?!?), Nobody Wants This (although as a Jew, I have some questions), Brooklyn 99 (new to us), Man on the Inside (really just delightful, Ted Danson is in a great point in his career), Abbott Elementary, What We Do in the Shadows (haven’t watched this final season yet), AP Bio (really just the first two seasons), High Potential (just a solid procedural), Elsbeth (again, I feel like the first season was better but still enjoyable), Agatha All Along (one of the better Marvel projects in a while, plus Kathryn Hahn).
I agree with you about Miss Scarlett for sure, and I feel like I’ve already written about my issues with Bridgerton esp. Season 3 (how is this Colin? This Colin has absolutely nothing to do with book Colin. This actor is trying but man, no charm or charisma and that’s that whole point of Colin.) And we still have the last 2 episodes of The Bear to finish. The only high point of the season was the episode where Sugar gives birth, that was a really powerful two-hander with Jamie Lee Curtis.
Yes about that scene in The Bear but…. [spoiler title=”this made me crazy”] There is simply no way her husband wouldn’t have ended up being there. Like I get it’s a joy to say JLC do her magic but I just felt it was so out of character for Sugar and Pete–they move heaven and earth to get a spouse to a birth–that it dimmed the magic for me. [/spoiler]
As a non-Jewish native New Yorker, I have questions, too. Like, how could people in LA be so ignorant about Judaism???
I had MANY questions and I’m a raised Christian now agnostic from the South!
My sister and I watched it together and our main question is this: it’s one thing if a random guy who’s Jewish but not very religious decides to date/marry a shiksa (non-Jewish woman, just in case), no one cares, whatever. But he’s a *rabbi*, he is professionally Jewish. His congregation is not going to appreciate him going against one of the dictates of the religion, especially with a woman who seems to have no inclination to convert. It’s just crazy.
It felt to me as though their life goals were so incompatible–it takes a lot to make a long term relationship, let alone a marriage, work. I don’t believe those two are destined to happily support each other through older age.
RIGHT?!? I could not believe the whole thing with the charcuterie, how could you not know? Or what Shabbat means? If you live in rural Kansas, sure, but people in LA, in that socioeconomic group? No, that’s ridiculous.
The charcuterie scene was–and I rarely use this word–offensive. And dumb. I feel as if that’s when the show lost its mojo. Plus, I really think they’d be much happier in five years if he stuck with Rebecca–she’d be so proud of him and so able to support him–and she were dating someone she met as her own podcasting career takes off. They do not, to me, have what it takes to be happy over time.
I can believe it. I lived in a town with many jewish people for 25 years, and worked in an university with substantial jewish faculty, staff and students. The campus itself is situated in a town with many Hasidic jews. Yet, a critical faculty meeting that occurred every Fall, it was often set in the week of Rosh Hashanah. The chair of the committee was not jewish. And the jewish faculty would point out that Rosh Hashanah fell on that week and they would not be able to attend. After witnessing this three years in a row, I asked one of my Jewish colleagues: “Rosh Hashanah comes every year and how come they don’t check the calendar and make sure that the meeting date does not clash with Jewish holiday”? And he responded: “This is the way it has always been”. And food served at staff/faculty meetings held during Passover period would be always all non-kosher. It is not ignorance but indifference to the religious sensibilities of faiths that are not Christian. As a Hindu (vegetarian) I have experienced this many many times.
I thought Nobody Wants This was a stupid version of what gentiles think of jewish faith and life but it was a very accurate portrayal of the female character’s cluelessness.
I watch High Potential as well and agree with your assessment. My son and I watched AP Bio when it aired and found it hilarious. I am sad it was canceled. A Man on the Inside is on my list to watch. As for Miss Scarlett, I am upset about the Duke leaving the show but I will watch the first few episodes of the next season before deciding whether to continue.
I don’t watch a lot of TV (probably how I manage to read/listen to over 250 books a year!) But I’ve enjoyed Only Murders in the Building – although I’ve yet to watch the latest series, and I’m just getting around to Slow Horses – it’s on Apple TV which I don’t subscribe to, but I got a free trial recently so I’m trying to watch all 4 seasons before that ends.
I hear good things about The Diplomat so I might give that a go next. At least it’s on Netflix, which I do have – so often I’ll see a show advertised I’d like to watch, only to find it’s on a service I don’t subscribe to.
Wayyy too many. Only Murders was great this year; Manjari’s recs are close to mine, and I liked Luke and Nicola’s chemistry just fine for Penelope and Colin in Bridgerton?
We are TV “kindred spirits” (as Anne of Green Gables would say)! And I agree that this season of Only Murders was great, better than the season before.
I quit after a few episodes of the previous season–it was, to me, dull. I’m glad to hear it improved. Perhaps we’ll check it out again!
It definitely topped Season 2 for me; I liked Season 3 as much as Season 1, but I’m a musical hound.
This year, I have become addicted to Matlock — which I never expected I’d say. 😉 I’ve also started watching Elsbeth. (Michael Emerson fans will like to know that he has been hired on as a recurring villain.)
I’m still watching Found — even though the show had to change because of what happened at the end of Season 1.
Is anyone watching Brilliant Minds? Some people don’t like it because they think it’s a House wannabee. But I think it’s different from House — and that’s what makes it different. It’s not my favorite, but I’ve enjoyed some of the episodes.
You may already know this but Michael Emerson and Carrie Preston, who plays Elsbeth, are married in real life, and I think they’ve been married for 20+ years. There’s a sweet video of them talking recently on Entertainment Tonight.
Somebody pointed that out to me — but I didn’t get to see the video. 🙂
While I was watching him, I didn’t recognize him as “Zep” from the first *Saw* movie. (The Saw theme, Hello Zepp, is named after that character — but they added an extra “p” to the name for some reason.)
I was surprised to like Matlock too! I started watching Elsbeth last season and have continued. I liked her quirky character on The Good Wife but wasn’t sure I would enjoy a whole series about her. The mysteries stretch credulity for me as Elsbeth figures things out too easily but I do enjoy the relationship between Elsbeth and her partner Kaya and the show also gets some great guest stars.
Most recently enjoyed season 1 of Colin from Accounts described on Wikipedia as an Australian romantic dramedy television series created and written by husband-and-wife team Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer, who also star as the show’s main characters. My husband I watched the first three eps on a flight and bought season 1 from Amazon so we could watch the rest of it. I think it is available (as well as season 2) on Paramount+ which we don’t have and don’t wish to subscribe to any more streaming channels. I am hoping season 2 will eventually become available for purchase on Amazon so we can watch it. I think each season has 8 eps, so it isn’t too expensive to purchase and is very re-watchable. Recommended if you like romcoms with some drama as well.