Well, congratulations Hollywood, you did it. You’ve fractured the landscape of television so completely that if you’re not watching something in the same room as someone else, no one has any idea what the hell you’re talking about anymore. And it’s not just about community: TV criticism has all but been killed off and with so many streaming services now (and the crackdown on password sharing), it’s too expensive to even try to keep up with everything anyway, so the sense of urgency when it comes to shows is just gone. It’s so bad, we decided to do top fives this year instead of 10 because this has become a futile and stupid gesture. And the saddest thing of all? While this is all happening, creatives are still making a lot of good TV, arguably too much good stuff!
I have got a long list of shows that are supposed to be great that I just never made time for, shows like Bad Monkey, The Diplomat, Jerrod Carmichael: Reality Show, Shrinking, Silo, and Slow Horses. And another list of franchise shows I definitely, actively want to watch like The Acolyte, Fallout, House of the Dragon, Penguin, Rings of Power, and Skeleton Crew. But fuck it, they just never happened for me in 2024 because I was too busy watching One Piece at the time or I wasn’t subscribed to the right streaming service at the time or I was still too burnt out on meaningless Star Wars prequel movies stretched out into miniseries.
Can we come back from this? I sure hope so. I still haven’t given up on my watchlist. Maybe we just need everyone in America/the world to start a blog and do annual top tens? Or suddenly all try to care about the Emmys at least as much as we care about the Oscars? Maybe putting some effort into thinking about the media we consumed all year instead of just letting an algorithm tell us (or an AI in Spotify Wrapped’s case) could be good for us all? In the meantime, let’s at least try to keep in mind that while the era of peak TV might be over, that doesn’t mean the medium has been reduced to just reality junk and mindless reruns.
Since I only had five spots, I really tried to think of each of my top picks as representative of categories of shows I watch. At number five are the foreign comedy/game shows no one in America has ever heard of. I am well aware of my reputation for adoring somewhat niche British shows, especially Taskmaster, but in 2024 I have chosen to flee the United Kingdom all the way down to its former prison colony, Australia. Fisk gets bonus points because I watched all three of its seasons in 2024, but you could definitely make the case that this year’s six episodes are among the strongest in its entire run. If you haven’t heard of Fisk yet, this is a show about an (extremely autistic-coded) middle-aged lawyer named Helen Tudor-Fisk who messily gets divorced and loses her job in Sydney and ends up moving back to her native Melbourne, where she hastily accepts a job in probate law at a firm run by a quirky brother and sister and their loyal clerk/webmaster. It all sounds very serious but actually by season three all the awkwardness and curmudgeon-y bits have been brushed away and now it’s just a goofy, feel-good sitcom. In a year that was so crushing, it was nice to have something that was so reliably comforting.
Also the name Fisk makes me remember the fact that Marvel had two live action shows last year, Echo and Agatha All Along, and still never got around to that Daredevil reboot. Is that ever coming out?
One of the most fucked up things the big studios have done is make the smaller streaming services feel less prestigious while simultaneously moving into their territory. Nobody bats an eye at indie movies making annual top tens but god forbid an obscure streamer make a top shows list! Well, as a longtime champion of Internet-based entertainment, I say boo! A show that debuts on Dropout is just as worthy as one on Amazon Prime, perhaps even worthier! Give Vic Michaelis an Emmy! Speaking of Vic, they really blew up this year, between two seasons of VIP (and plenty of appearances on other Dropout shows), all those “Comedy Bang! Bang!” appearances, and the epic Star Wars prequels live readings, it might have seemed like I couldn’t escape them if I didn’t find Vic so very funny. And the premise of VIP is just delightful: a satirical 80s/90s daytime interview show where comedians are put in professional makeup and forced to improvise a character. It’s like a professional version of a concept we tried a decade ago! Anyway, go Dropout! I appreciate how good a deal you feel compared to other streaming services!
There was plenty of animation to celebrate in 2024, from the good (but unnecessary) Batman: Caped Crusader to the surprisingly emotional new season of The Legend of Vox Machina, but in the end it came down to two of the biggest franchises in the herstory of my life: Star Trek and X-Men. Lower Decks put together a cathartic final season that wrapped up just a couple weeks ago, but I think I’ve got to give this one to X-Men ’97 for being some of the most potent nostalgia bait the world has ever known. Maybe part of the reason I didn’t care for Deadpool 3 is that we had this reminder of how X-Men stories can actually be really good? Disgraced creator Beau DeMayo explained that he made the show for people approximately my age, with the season-long experience roughly meant to recapture the feelings of our youth, from the relative safety of the 90s to the confusion and paranoia of the 2000s. It’s a helluva thing. They are also rushing through a lot of the best comic storylines, so hopefully this means they’ve got this whole run planned out and they’re not just gonna foolishly use everything up and keep spinning their wheels like another Game of Thrones. I guess we’ll find out when season two premieres… in 2026.
It’s weird to have a “comedy” category since most shows on my list are comedies, but cut me some slack, Jack, they basically don’t make funny movies anymore and it’s kind of my favorite genre. This also came down to two shows, one of which was in its final season, What We Do in the Shadows, and one that was just getting started, English Teacher (and no, The Bear isn’t eligible). Ultimately, What We Do in the Shadows felt like it kinda was spinning its wheels while English Teacher left me desperate for more, so I guess the decision wasn’t actually that hard to make. English Teacher is decidedly 2024, a show about how fucked up education has become after being beat to hell by No Child Left Behind, the pandemic, and a generation of kids growing up with smartphones. But also it’s just really funny. And a great vehicle for Trixie Mattel, what an amazing guest spot! If you’re interested in more Brian Jordan Alvarez and Stephanie Koenig, may I recommend their first show, The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo or their movie A Spy Movie?
When I was but a teen, my mom and I rented the tapes of 1980 Shōgun miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune, and my then-beloved John Rhys-Davies and had such a good time I even tried to read the book until I run into the same problem I always have when I do this: it’s boring to read a book that’s the same story as the show or movie you just watched. Anyway, many years later FX re-adapted James Clavell’s story and gave it the gritty prestige treatment it maybe deserved but definitely relished in. The story remains the same: a Dutch ship wrecks off the shores of Japan and its English pilot ends up falling in with one of the island nation’s warring lords and climbing through the ranks of society. Basically a white guy shows up in Japan, everybody thinks he’s awesome, and eventually he’s given swords, a sweet house, and even kind of a wife. Everything a growing weeb could ever want. This version decidedly makes Anjin much less of a white savior and much more of a hapless pawn and I’m here for it especially because it gave us Hiroyuki Sanada’s immaculate performance as the mastermind Toranaga. I’m also a huge fan of Anna Sawai’s even more tragic version of the Lady Mariko and Tadanobu Asano’s hilariously twisted take on Yabushige. I even got to relive my childhood a little bit by texting my mom about the show every week after the new episode dropped… and she got around to it because she’s a busy teacher. Anyway, this Shōgun was a blast, can’t wait for them to ruin it with a sequel!