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!
Did we need a college-set version of Cruel Intentions comparing fraternity and sorority life to fascism? Nah.
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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.
1. My Brilliant Friend (HBO)
After planning to binge my screeners for HBO’s Elena Ferrante adaptation, I had to stop and watch it one hour a week, because the last installments in the evolving friendship-rivalry-symbiosis between Lenu (Alba Rohrwacher) and Lila (Irene Maiorino) became too intense. Although the fourth season included murders, infidelities and a missing child, the drama was only a thriller in the emotional sense, an astonishing culmination of 30-plus episodes of selfishness, altruism, devotion and betrayal. Filled with waves of joy and well-earned devastation, it carried a weight and a substance no other 2024 show could match.
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.
4. Welcome to Wrexham (FX)
I contemplated giving this slot to “Peacock Finally Getting the Olympics Right” or “Every Single Shohei Ohtani At-Bat.” Instead, I went with the third season of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s astonishingly empathic soccer saga. While this season focused on Wrexham A.F.C.’s ongoing Cinderella story (if Cinderella had unlimited financial resources and ubiquitous FX cameras), what truly made it special was the way it weaves in secondary stories, including portraits of an anxiety-prone photographer, a 100-year-old superfan and the Welsh ex-pat community in Argentina.
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.
7. Shrinking (Apple TV+)
A case study for comedies growing to fully realize their potential, Bill Lawrence, Jason Segel and Brett Goldstein’s Apple TV+ series delivered a hilarious and heartbreaking second season of bad choices and good hugs, deemphasizing the bad behavior of Segel’s Jimmy and spreading the poor decisions around the spectacular ensemble. Tune in every week for the career-making performance by Lukita Maxwell, the career-redefining performance by Ted McGinley and — I’m not saying this lightly — the career-best performance by Harrison Ford.
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.
10. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Netflix)
In a year of big adaptive swings, José Rivera and Natalia Santa’s take on Gabriel García Márquez’s unadaptable landmark of magical realism is perhaps the biggest. Does it always work? No, it does not. The more concrete the decade-spanning storytelling becomes, the less memorable it feels. But when directors Alex García López and Laura Mora find ways to let the camera mirror Márquez’s poetic language, this Netflix drama achieves more moments of breathtaking beauty than anything else this year. That imperfect audacity is more than Top 10-worthy.
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.
But we’ll stubbornly maintain that the converse is true as well — that no matter how much dreck is floating around, there will also always be works of meticulous artistry and breathtaking originality. I was reminded of that when I caught up with the third and final season of HBO’s Somebody Somewhere, shortly before starting this list. Despite having seen the first two seasons already, I found myself caught off guard anew by the vibrancy of its humor and the bigness of its heart, marveling yet again at how lucky I was to get to bear witness to such a singular work.
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.
3. Fantasmas (HBO)
Leave it to star-creator Julio Torres to take a search for a lost earring; wind it through a surreal New York of hard-partying hamsters and mind-controlled reality stars; fill it with off-kilter cameos from Steve Buscemi to Kim Petras; end up at a shrewd reflection on class, creativity and our semi-dystopian reality; and put the whole thing on HBO.
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.
7. Baby Reindeer (Netflix)
I don’t think I literally watched the entirety of this semi-autobiographical Netflix miniseries in a single sitting with my hand over my mouth the entire time. But it sure felt like I did. Creator-star Richard Gadd excavates the deepest fault lines of his psyche with unsparing, even brutal honesty — but also with profound empathy for himself and the woman (breakout Jessica Gunning) tormenting him.
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)
