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Hollywood reporter critics pick the best tv shows of 2024.

Favorites include a surreal trip through New York, a sweet slice-of-life comedy, a heartfelt sports doc and a slew of sumptuous literary adaptations.

By Daniel Fienberg , Angie Han December 16, 2024 6:45am

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Daniel Fienberg’s Top 10

With the entire entertainment industry in a worrisome lull in the aftermath of years interrupted by COVID and the dual guild strikes, much of the conversation about television in 2024 focused on brands and IP, familiar titles presented to viewers with all of the strategy of an inebriated gnu playing darts.

Did we need TV shows ostensibly based on Dune and The Batman but really emulating Game of Thrones and The Sopranos ? Maybe!

Related Stories

10 arts and culture favorites from 2024, the 10 best albums of 2024.

Did we need a new version of Matlock built around the twist that it wasn’t really a new version of Matlock at all? Huh. We did!

It turned out, though, that 2024 might be better remembered as the year that put the “intellectual” back in “intellectual property,” as creators went back to the most venerable source material of all: books!

Looking at my Top 10 holistically, it jumps out that five of the 10 slots went to literary adaptations, several from dauntingly large books — in page number and in stature. It catches my attention almost as quickly that four of the shows in my Top 10 are in foreign languages, allowing the creators to mine untapped or under-tapped veins of talent on both sides of the camera in Colombia, Japan, Korea and Italy.

Or maybe (or certainly) what looked like a holistic trend on the morning I locked my Top 10 is a matter of perspective, since all I knew when I started was what my Top 3 was going to be. Every show on my honorable mentions list could just as easily have made my Top 10, shifting the narrative to “Half-Hour Shows That Make You Laugh and Cry” or “Shows I Nearly Forgot Because They Were Gone So Long, But Then I Remembered I Still Loved Them.”

For now, though, read my Top 10 list — and then pull yourself up a seat and read a good TV show.

2. Ripley (Netflix) In slightly aging up the protagonists of Patricia Highsmith’s oft-adapted novel, creator-director Steven Zaillian gave us a Tom Ripley more “desperate” than “talented.” Andrew Scott’s version of the character is driven toward reinvention as a compulsion, not because he thinks it will make him happy. It gives the series a beautifully melancholy and meticulous heart complemented by Robert Elswit’s astonishing black-and-white cinematography, which manages to be epic and claustrophobic, awe-inspiring and suffocating, postcard-pretty and iconoclastic all at once.

3. Fantasmas (HBO) In a year dominated, for worse and for better, by prestige adaptations and shameless IP chasing, let’s be sure to adequately celebrate the completely alien sensibility of Julio Torres. The HBO comedy’s blend of sci-fi quest, existential nightmare and silly sketch show is packed with memorable characters like Smurf-y social media manager Pirulinpinpina, wacky celebrity cameos like Steve Buscemi as the letter “Q” and too many weird detours to list. It’s a little Brecht, a little Kaufman, a little Buñuel and entirely Julio Torres.

5. Pachinko (Apple TV+) It all starts with the greatest credit sequence in television history (“Wait a Million Years” pointedly swapping in for “Let’s Live for Today” in season two), but Soo Hugh’s adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s novel remains a gold standard for capturing and expanding on acclaimed source material. All of the kind words gushed about  Shogun  this year also apply to  Pachinko — perhaps more so, owing to the multi-generational reach of the storytelling and the devastating emotional release when its thematic pieces come together. As of this writing, Apple hasn’t ordered a third season. It would be a travesty if the saga didn’t end on its own terms.

6. Shogun (FX) A tribute to creators Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks’ gutsy ambition and FX’s ample patience, this historical drama is as good an example as you’ll find of an adaptation that knows when to honor its source material — James Clavell’s 1975 novel provides nearly all of the plot and much of the nuanced depiction of Edo period Japan — while still making mostly smart and sensitive alterations as required. This is sumptuous, epic storytelling at its well-produced finest, and the casting and performances (special spotlight on Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano and Anna Sawai) could hardly be better. 

8. Hacks (Max) The third season of Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky’s Max comedy was its most consistent to date, using Deborah Vance’s (Jean Smart) attempted return to late night as a vehicle to deepen its commentary on mentorship, aging in the entertainment industry and shifting standards of acceptable humor. Carried by the always remarkable Smart and the ever-improving (and remarkable) Einbinder, the show crafted what could have been a perfect series finale in its penultimate episode and then, in its season finale, upended all of its power dynamics in a way that sets up a fourth season thrillingly. 

9. Evil (Paramount+) Canceled, but given a small extension to wrap up outstanding storylines, Robert and Michelle King’s spiritual horror-comedy had a near-perfect run of 14 episodes filled with Satanic babies, overlapping tween dialogue, grief demons, ominous “Skip Intro” warnings, Vatican conspiracies and metacommentary on what happens when Paramount+ cancels you, but you suddenly become a smash hit on Netflix, but Paramount+ still cancels you anyway. We may never see a broadcast drama as good as this CBS castoff again.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order): Baby Reindeer (Netflix), The Bear (FX/Hulu), English Teacher (FX), God Bless Texas (HBO), John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in L.A. (Netflix), A Man on the Inside (Netflix), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Amazon), Somebody Somewhere (HBO), We Are Lady Parts (Peacock), What We Do in the Shadows (FX)

Angie Han’s Top 10

Ask any TV critic you know, and they’ll tell you: There is a lot of mediocre TV out there. This is true every year and it was true in 2024. During the dry spells of the past 12 months (blame the unevenness of the post-COVID, post-strike landscape, or the end of the streaming wars, or plain bad luck), I might’ve even wondered if it was more so. Even your most optimistic reviewer can watch only so many lavishly produced bores or mirthless comedies in a row before we start to wonder what, exactly, it is we’re doing here.

My Top 10 list is a snapshot of the series that felt most prominent in my mind or closest to my heart as I reflected on a year in viewing. My Honorable Mentions are a scattered assortment of several more. There are yet others I regretted having to leave out, that might’ve made it on a different day but just didn’t this time around.

What they all have in common is that they left me feeling privileged to have been let in on something special. That’s worth slogging through some mediocrity for.

1. Somebody Somewhere (HBO) Call it the Joel Anderson Effect if you want, but the third and final season of HBO’s slice-of-life comedy was a balm. The fierce, funny, lived-in friendship between Sam (Bridget Everett) and Joel (Jeff Hiller) stood as a testament to the ordinary yet transcendent joys of love, community and really great karaoke.

2. We Are Lady Parts (Peacock) The long-awaited second season of Peacock’s British Muslim punk-rock musical comedy not only recaptured the first’s quirky spirit and ear for infectious tunes (“I’ll respond to your email at a reasonable hour” is surely a chorus we can all get behind), but matured along with its characters as they found their place within a larger community.

4. Ripley (Netflix) Honestly, Steve Zaillian’s Patricia Highsmith adaptation could probably earn a spot on this list for its jaw-dropping beauty alone. Combine that with the mesmerizing patience of its storytelling and a remarkably chilly lead performance by Andrew Scott (not to mention one very good cat), and the Netflix drama makes a familiar tale feel as bracing as an ice- cold martini on a hot summer day.

5. Interview with the Vampire (AMC) AMC’s sumptuous Anne Rice adaptation made for some of the most purely fun viewing I enjoyed this year, thanks to its intoxicating combination of fiery romance, blood-soaked violence, sly dark humor, ostentatious dialogue and even more delightfully ostentatious performances (looking at you, season two standout Ben Daniels).

6. Extraordinary (Hulu) Underlying Emma Moran’s screamingly funny Hulu comedy has always been a surprisingly relatable coming-of-age. And as 20-something Jen (Máiréad Tyers) has grown up ever so slightly, so too has the show around her, with a second season that leans even further into its irresistible blend of superpowered hijinks, earnest sweetness and off-kilter humor.

8. Manhunt (Apple TV+) Come for the breathless pursuit of a killer; stay for a smart, moving and almost uncomfortably timely portrait of a nation at a crossroads. As the steadfastly decent Stanton (Tobias Menzies) chases the petty, violent John Wilkes Booth (Anthony Boyle), the Apple TV+ drama fills in the historical context to illustrate all the paths that led up to this moment, and all the paths it could have taken us next.

9. True Detective: Night Country (HBO) In a year rife with murder mysteries, few gripped me like the fourth season of HBO’s crime anthology. Creator Issa López (taking over for Nic Pizzolatto) spun a persuasively spooky, often achingly sad tale, set in the Arctic chill and anchored by the prickly dynamic between Jodie Foster and Kali Reis. Was it supernatural? Was it not? Whatever it was, it was certainly haunting.

10. Shogun (FX) FX’s Edo-era drama was nothing if not grand: in scope, in ambition, in beauty and brutality. But it was the eye for detail, the nuanced writing (led by Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks) and the superb cast (beyond the leads, Moeka Hoshi deserves special mention for her sensitive work as Fuji) that elevated it to not just one of the splashiest epics of 2024, but the most transportive.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order): English Teacher (FX), Expats (Amazon), Hacks (Max), How to Die Alone (Hulu), Industry (HBO), Pachinko (Apple TV+), Penelope (Netflix), John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in L.A. (Netflix), The Traitors (Peacock), What We Do in the Shadows (FX)

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Review: 10 best TV shows of 2024

Critic Peter Travers shares his list of the best 10 TV shows of 2024.

It was pretty, pretty, pretty sad saying adios this year to comedy's top Scrooge Larry David on "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Likewise, the merry bloodsuckers of "What We Do in the Shadows."

And I'll really miss Tom Selleck and the Reagan cop family who began their 14th and final season on "Blue Bloods." Also, I'm still not over how Kevin Costner left "Yellowstone." That was evil -- and it was also another show that got the boot .

Review: The 10 best movies of 2024

Admittedly, series favorites like "Abbott Elementary" and "Only Murders in the Building" carried on in high style. Ditto to season 2 of "Squid Game." And what a bonus that "Hacks," "Industry," "Somebody Somewhere," "Shrinking" and "Slow Horses" actually stepped up their wily games. Even season 3 of "The Bear" was way better than its detractors claimed.

But let me ask you something: Don't you prefer something original to putting oldies on perpetual repeat? "Ripley," "Presumed Innocent," "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" and "The Day of the Jackal" are all based on better, less padded movies. I love seeing the great Kathy Bates take over the Andy Griffith role in a retrofitted "Matlock" -- but please! The same shows winning Emmys year after year is becoming a drag.

To change that stale mindset, I've tried to limit my "10 best" list to those shiny new things that made their debuts in 2024 and gave us something fresh to shout about.

10.'Fallout'

TV shows carved out of video games are usually boring, or worse. Not "The Last of Us," the exception that proved the rule, and -- woo-hoo! -- not "Fallout," a gem of an eight-episode series set in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, where survivors live in underground vaults and play dangerous games. All hail the reliably fantastic Walton Goggins in the dual roles of Cooper Howard, a former 1950s cowboy star canceled for alleged communist ties, and The Ghoul, the noseless, irradiated remnant he becomes 200 years later. Let Goggins be your guide for this wild ride of action, scares and giggles that springs surprises you don't see coming.

9. 'Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story'

You can pick at the flaws in Ryan Murphy's sensationalized 10-part limited series about the conviction of the Menendez brothers , Lyle (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) and Erik (Cooper Koch), for the 1989 murders of their parents, José (Javier Bardem) and Kitty (Chloë Sevigny). But the fifth episode in which Koch as the imprisoned Eric talks directly to the camera in one unbroken take for 33 minutes, detailing his alleged abuse at the hands of his father, is TV at its mesmerizing, muckraking best, a tour de force for Golden Globe acting nominee Koch and a persuasive argument to reopen the case against the brothers.

8. 'Black Doves'

Spy stuff has rarely been done with such delicious naughtiness and by such a dazzling cast. The six-episode series stars Keira Knightley, oozing class and sophistication as the wife of the U.K.'s secretary of state for defense (Andrew Buchan).

Keira Knightley reflects on the 'creep factor' in famous 'Love Actually' scene

When she's not raising their two kids or off with her lover, she's selling state secrets to the highest bidder with the help of a friendly, gay triggerman (the ever-fabulous Ben Whishaw) at the icy behest of one Mrs. Reed (the priceless Sarah Lancashire of "Happy Valley"), who heads a spy syndicate called the Black Doves. Intrigued? How could you not be. It's an action-fueled gem.

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7. 'A Man on the Inside'

The always welcome Ted Danson knocks it out of the park in this docu-sitcom -- if there is such a thing -- as a retired widower, still mourning the death of his wife, who goes undercover in a nursing home to help a detective (Lilah Richcreek Estrada) catch an in-house jewel thief. The story is inspired by a real case that happened in Chile, but Danson, 76, and show creator Michael Schur, who paired wonderfully on "The Good Place," bring laughs and touching gravity to this Americanized, one-of-a-kind series that respects the crime-solving seniors, played by a livewire cast that includes Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sally Struthers, and John Getz. It's impossible not to cheer them on.

6. 'True Detective: Night Country'

As a crime anthology series, "True Detective" always starts from scratch with new characters and stories. And the show hit the jackpot in season 4 under knockout showrunner Issa López by adding double Oscar winner Jodie Foster as a nail-tough sheriff in an Alaskan town that stays dark half the year. That adds chilling supernatural elements to the mystery when the sheriff and her deputy (Kali Reis) bring untamed female energy to the case when eight missing scientists from an Arctic research center show up crammed together naked and frozen in the ice, their faces contorted in terror.

5. 'Nobody Wants This'

Come on, everybody wants this. The year's best and most beguiling new sitcom (it concerns the unlikely attraction between a smarta-- LA podcaster played by Kristen Bell and a hot rabbi played by Adam Brody) -- comes from the skill deployed by show creator Erin Foster, daughter of pop maestro David Foster, to turn clichés on their cringey little heads. Above all, credit the sweet-and-sizzling chemistry between Bell and Brody -- they are just plain irresistible -- who radiate the rare kind of charm that keeps "Nobody Wants This" on full bubble over 10 half-hour episodes.

4. 'Disclaimer'

A great film director, Alfonso Cuarón, and two Oscar-winning actors, Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline, combine to create TV fireworks. The seven-part series pivots around a novel, self-published by a retired teacher (an Emmy-worthy Kline), that readers believe tells the real story (set 20 years in the past) of how Blanchett's filmmaker cheated on her husband (Sacha Baron Cohen) with Kline's teen son (Louis Partridge) and then turned her back when the boy drowns trying to save her young child. Treading the thin line between truth and fiction, "Disclaimer" raises the bar on what TV can do when it's firing on all cylinders.

3. 'Baby Reindeer'

Show creator and magnetic star Richard Gadd shook us all up with this spellbinding, semi-autobiographical series about how he, as a London bartender and struggling standup comic, was stalked and sexually harassed by a frumpy, middle-aged lawyer (an unnerving, unforgettable Jessica Gunning). Of course it's not a simple as that, even after the lawyer sends the man she calls "baby reindeer" -- a reference to her favorite childhood toy -- 41,000 emails, hundreds of tweets and 350 hours of voicemails. In seven half-hour episodes, Gadd builds one of the best and most audaciously original series of the year -- the kind you never forget.

'Baby Reindeer' creator urges fans to stop tracking down people who inspired characters

2. 'The Penguin'

Tired of "Dark Knight" overkill? Me too, until this high-style, high-octane series cut its own original path into the saga by virtually ignoring the Caped Crusader to focus on Oswald "Oz" Cobb, aka The Penguin. Oz's mob ties leave him little time to harass The Batman, as he did in the 2022 film blockbuster of that name.

Colin Farrell says transforming into the Penguin was 'utterly liberating'

Colin Farrell, who becomes unrecognizable in his character transformation, brings ferocity and feeling to Oz as he tries to cope with Sofia Falcone, the vengeful daughter of Gotham's top crime family. She's played for the ages by Cristin Milioti, whose virtuoso villainy is Emmy-worthy. Watching Milioti and Farrell tangle makes for one of the most potent and perverse pleasures of the TV year.

1. 'Shōgun'

Can 18 Emmy wins be wrong? Not this time. Based on the 1975 novel by James Clavell (it's not entirely new, as the novel was previously adapted into a 1980 miniseries as well), this historical epic emerges as the indisputable event of the streaming year. Set during a looming civil war in feudal Japan, circa 1600, this 10-episode series stars the great Hiroyuki Sanada as Lord Yoshii Toranaga and the luminous Anna Sawai as Lady Toda Mariko, the translator whose scandalous love for imprisoned British sea captain John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) threatens to topple an empire. From first scene to last, the scope and intimacy of this thundering odyssey leaves you breathless. That's what I'm talking about.

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2. the baby-sitters club (2020), 4. lady dynamite, 5. unorthodox, 6. monty python: almost the truth (the lawyer's cut), 7. the midnight gospel, 8. bojack horseman, 9. wormwood, 10. alias grace, 11. mindhunter, 12. dirty money (2018), 13. narcos: mexico, 14. the queen's gambit, 15. spotless, 16. wild wild country, 17. making a murderer, 18. she's gotta have it (2017), 19. peaky blinders, 20. julie and the phantoms, 21. lockwood & co., 22. queen charlotte: a bridgerton story, 23. naomi osaka, 24. marvel's jessica jones.

The Gold Standard in Critical Analysis

The metascore breakdown.

• We collect reviews from the world's top critics.
• Each review is scored based on its overall quality.
• The summarized weighted average captures the essence of critical opinion.

Upcoming Releases

Marvel's what if...: season 3, squid game: season 2, missing you, extreme makeover: home edition (2025), going dutch, lockerbie: a search for truth, cunk on life, the rig: season 2, animal control: season 3, vera: season 14, they call it late night with jason kelce, the way home: season 3, rupaul's drag race: season 17, mayfair witches: season 2, vienna blood: season 4, will trent: season 3, deal or no deal island: season 2, the rookie: season 7, lucy worsley investigates: season 2, latest videos.

2024 Primetime Emmy Winners

Shogun (2024), the bear: season 2, hacks: season 3, baby reindeer, the morning show: season 3, true detective: season 4, fargo: season 5, the crown: season 6, slow horses: season 3, the traitors: season 2, alex edelman: just for us, the daily show, last week tonight with john oliver, latest news in tv shows.

The 20 Best New TV Shows of 2024

Jason dietz.

We rank the highest-scoring new television shows released in 2024 (and tell you where you can stream them).

2024-25 TV Premiere Calendar

Find a frequently updated calendar of premiere dates for all upcoming new and returning television shows on broadcast, streaming, and cable, plus TV movies and specials and VOD releases.

Every Movie Based on Saturday Night Live, Ranked

We rank every feature film that has its origins in NBC's long-running sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from worst to best.

Every Marvel Cinematic Universe TV Series, Ranked

We rank every television series connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe from worst to best by Metascore.

The 20 Best Movies Based on TV Shows

With the arrival of The Fall Guy in theaters, we look back at the best TV-to-movie adaptations in film history.

List of Renewed and Canceled TV Shows for 2023-24 Season (with Metascores)

Below are all new and returning primetime and streaming shows expected to air during the 2023-24 television season (beginning with the summer of 2023). Metascores, premiere dates, and renewal status will be updated frequently throughout the season.