Provocative, unexpected, technically or creatively excellent, and otherwise boundary-pushing are not words you might think to associate with 2024’s TV slate.
This year a bumper cop of familiar fare on Broadcast brought us a steady stream of crime-solving lawyers, crime-solving doctors, crime-solving cops, and crime-solving FBI agents on shows with comfortable plot lines that often felt ripped from later seasons of previous juggernauts. However, among the very well-trodden offerings there were rare moments of pure TV genius. If you knew where to look.
Here are our top 5 choices for the best TV of 2024 — and not one crime-solving public servant among them (Honest!)
5. MR & MRS SMITH
(Prime Video)
When news broke that auteur Phoebe Waller-Bridge had parted ways with Donald Glover over creative differences on Action Comedy Mr and Mrs Smith (a TV adaptation of the 2005 movie for Prime Video) there were fears the show would tank. However, Maya Erskine dispelled any such doubts with her grounded and charming version of “Jane” opposite Glover’s “John”.
In fact it was the two characters’ insane chemistry that landed Mr and Mrs Smith a spot on our top 5 this year. Casting directors please take note!
The spy dramedy centered on two disillusioned and lonely spies recruited by a mysterious agency that sets the pair a series of increasingly difficult assignments. John and Jane (not their real names) are in it for the money, but must agree to live together under the pretence of marriage in order to present the best and deepest form of cover for their ops.
Part of the joy of the series came from observing a chalk and cheese pair somehow trying to reconcile their worst tendencies — rigid work routines, an innate lack of trust, lifestyle differences, a tendency to go it alone — all while learning how to be an effective team.
In some ways, the series was an allegory for marriage and all its delicate compromises. Both Glover and Erskine were perfect in their respective roles, and their at-first awkward chemistry was sweet and grounded.
If the goal of good TV writing is to place ordinary people in extraordinary situations then Mr. and Mrs. Smith has achieved that goal. Neither John nor Jane ever felt larger than life, whether they were discussing tea vs coffee or debating how best to fit a dead body in their rooftop composter. Their sweet everyman quality, coupled with their growing attraction to each other over the course of the show’s 8 episodes was handled with great care, and felt organic, subtle and very real.
4. INT. CHINATOWN
(Hulu)
A long long time ago (before 2019 if you can cast your mind back that far) TV was permitted to be challenging, ambiguous, and even perplexing. Think David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, HBO’s Carnivàle, Season 1 of True Detective, Legion on FX, or even ABC’s long-running juggernaut, Lost. But then came the Pandemic, and a writers’ strike, and an actors’ strike, and for quite some time TV execs were far more careful/nervous about how they felt they ought to engage a post-2020 audience.
But as 2024 comes to a close, the first green shoots of ‘weird’ have begun to reemerge (Hello, True Detective Season 4), thrusting blindly into a bland landscape of dull TV tropes, challenging our preconceptions with layers, and surreal elements, and puzzles that linger well after the credits roll.
Such a show is Hulu’s Interior Chinatown. This oddly titled delight makes more sense when you realize it’s an adaptation from a book titled INT. CHINATOWN, meant to be read as a location heading in a screenplay.
Both the book and the show are from Charles Yu, who also serves as showrunner on the series. Jimmy O. Yang stars as Willis Wu, a bored and disillusioned waiter in Chinatown who longs for adventure, and finds it when he is thrust into the spotlight after witnessing a crime.
But maybe that’s not what the show is about at all. Maybe the show is about a background character on a TV show, who is somehow aware of his lowly status, but longs to be one of the main characters. The show is a cop procedural, and pokes fun at just about every Broadcast crime procedural of the last 20 years.
But maybe that’s not what the show is about either. Maybe a mentally unwell young man struggles to find a way to deal with the emotional smoking crater that is his family’s new dynamic following his adored brother’s sudden and untimely death.
Interior Chinatown is not in any hurry to explain itself, and leans into the surrealism at moments that will catch the viewer off-guard, set as they are against a backdrop of tender family drama.
When Willis meets Lana Lee (Chloe Bennett), a detective who recruits Willis to investigate the disappearance of his brother, they meet to discuss the case inside a TV advert for hard seltzer. Willis is also unable to interact with the generically handsome detectives from the TV series Black and White: Impossible Crimes Unit (He’s got book smarts! She’s got street smarts!), and often finds himself trapped in place as a background character. This forces Willis to think outside the box, and find ways to establish himself as more than just “the waiter” character.
Episode titles also poke fun at Asian stereotypes on TV too, with names like “Generic Asian Man” and “Chinatown Expert” and “Tech Guy.”
There is however method in the madness. Interior Chinatown does an excellent job at slowly peeling back the layers of a young man’s hurts and insecurities. Willis is desperate to find himself, desperate to prove himself, but even more desperate to free himself from the long shadow of his dead brother and the weight of his parents’ grief.
What is real? What is not? Does it really matter?
3. BABY REINDEER
(Netflix)
Deeply uncomfortable, grimly compelling, and brutally unflinching, Baby Reindeer was like watching a car crash unfold in slow motion over 7 episodes. The Netflix mini-series was described as a black comedy but outdid itself as a study in control, need, obsession, and the complex nature of the human condition.
Created and starring Richard Gadd, and adapted from his autobiographical one-man show, the series focused on aspiring comedian Donny, who, down on his luck, ends up working as a bartender in a local pub in London as he waits for the tides of fortune to turn.
When Donny consoles a distraught customer with the offer of a cup of tea, the lonely Martha (Jessica Gunning) immediately seizes upon Donny’s unthinking kindness and makes him her singular obsession.
Relentlessly stalked by Martha, both online and in person, Donny flashes back to a similar experience where he also was the victim of a controlling and abusive antagonist in the form of predatory TV writer Darrien. Darrien promises Donny a bright future, but grooms and sexually assaults him instead.
As he struggles to reconcile his past with the increasingly abusive behavior from Martha in the present, we begin to see that some part of Donny’s broken psyche actually welcomes both Martha and Darrien’s attentions.
A poignant journey of self-discovery, coupled with painfully raw story-telling, and a depth of emotional honesty rarely seen on TV, made Baby Reindeer a brilliant and unmissable watch.
2. SHŌGUN
(FX)
Initially conceived as a mini-series, Shōgun was the subject of such widespread critical acclaim that show creators have since scrambled to produce a second, and even a third season.
Based on the 1975 novel by James Clavell, the series truly broke new ground with American audiences via the inclusion of a stellar Asian cast (including Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano, Takehiro Hira, and Fumi Nikaido) and with most dialogue, unapologetically, in Japanese. Consider how in 1972, Asian actor Bruce Lee auditioned for the lead role on the TV series Kung Fu but, per biographer Matthew E. Polly, was famously turned down by the studio on the grounds “You can’t make a star out of a five-foot-six Chinese actor.”
A sumptuous first season of Shōgun introduced us to three rigidly implacable characters whose lives intersect, and are subsequently changed forever: John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), a bold and fearless shipwrecked English sailor, Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), a powerful but cautious daimyo who finds himself pitted against numerous political rivals, and the loyal but suicidally-inclined Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai), a highly intelligent translator and politically savvy aide who is forced to tread carefully between opposing sides.
In a show with no real heroes or villains, these three leads, whose choices were often as inscrutable as their hidden agendas, wove a delicate thread of intrigue, mystery, romance and action that seamlessly encompassed a stellar cast of supporting characters.
Beautifully realized, faithful to the source material, brutally cruel at times, and brimming with cultural fidelity, Shōgun was simply unmissable TV.
1. ARCANE SEASON 2
(Netflix)
Billed as the most expensive animated TV series ever made, every frame of Arcane’s second season shows no expense was spared and no detail overlooked in the making of this epic Steampunk masterpiece.
Season 2 solidly built on the characters and setting established in 2021’s opening chapter, and this year spun multiple story arcs of redemption, revenge, forgiveness and courage from its source material.
We watched as Piltover and Zaun finally came together to fight a greater threat to humanity. There were major character deaths, an epic lesbian love story, a final battle for the ages, and at its heart, a deeply intriguing sci-fi/fantasy Steampunk mystery that gave us just enough to keep us wanting more.
Just about everyone clashed over something, from ideologies to past hurts, and from the use of arcane technologies to social inequalities. However these individual strands were handled with care, with no one thread dominating the story’s bold tapestry.
There were moments throughout the second season where the show could have gotten away with doing less and still have made its point beautifully. Instead every frame seemed to leap off the screen with inspired artwork, a deeply compelling story, and a cast that obviously loved what they were doing.
Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx’s (Ella Purnell) story may be over (or is it?) but Arcane will live in our memories as one of the best video game adaptations ever.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
THE BEAR SEASON 3: When compared to the creative and technical excellence of Season 2 of Hulu’s The Bear, Season 3 felt at times like a bit of an experimental hot mess. However the worst season of The Bear is still better than most other TV shows appearing on the “Best Of” lists this month.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER SEASON 2: The first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power aka the most expensive television series ever made, had a lot of heavy lifting to do. Massive amounts of exposition, a slew of new characters, and the patience-wearing mystery surrounding the identity of the confused wizard in the grey rags left some critics feeling the bloat. However Season 2 quickly settled down to give us some unforgettable moments of character drama. Hats off to Charles Edwards and Charlie Vickers as Celebrimbor and Annatar, whose electrifying scenes together prove you don’t need a $1 billion budget to draw an audience when two great actors in a room will do the job.
Follow us @TVPulseMag on X and TVPulseMag on Bluesky for more TV scoop in 2025.
