In 2022 I had a bumper Top 20 Television Shows, whilst in 2023 I had a measly Top 10. This year I think I am going to land in the middle with a Top 15 because I want to talk about all the shows I saw this year that I think are worth catching.

>>STOP THE PRESSES<< This is now a Top 16 following a late entrant in the last days of the year.

As usual though, the “2024” aspect of this Year in Review is going to get abused a little as I try and catch up on some shows that I have missed. So these are the best shows that I watched in 2024…

1. Shogun – Season 1 (Disney+ & FX)

Shogun was exceptional in every facet.

Based on the 1975 novel by James Clavell that had previously been adapted into a TV Miniseries in 1980, this new adaptation sets out to adapt the story more fully. Set in Japan in the year 1600 at a time when a number of Japanese Lords are vying for power this is a fictional historical story inspired by real figures.

The three main characters are an English ship captain named John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), a Japanese Lord named Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) and a highborn woman loyal to Toranaga named Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai) who acts as a translator between both men. These three characters are deeply fascinating and their relationships are constantly evolving and changing as the complex events of the show playout.

The show, set across ten episodes looks like a high budget prestige movie and completely transports you to Japan in the 1600’s. The villages, palaces and costumes all look completely authentic and only when the larger scale scenes feature special effects that are not quite perfect do you really feel like you are watching a television show.

The plot, acting and set pieces are all thoroughly engrossing as well. Whilst personally I felt particularly intrigued by the fact that as a young man I considered the Japanese honour system to be incredibly “cool” and interesting, where as now as a middle aged man I find it entirely ridiculous and wasteful.

Exceptional stuff.

2. The Penguin – Season 1 (Sky)

Set immediately after the events of The Batman this eight-part show charts the rise of The Penguin (Colin Farrell) as he fights for power on the streets of Gotham with the Falcone and Maroni crime families.

As with Shogun, The Penguin feels like a prestige movie and essentially acts as a sequel to The Batman. I am sure when the sequel to that film does arrive we will see The Penguin as the King of the underworld and anyone who has seen this series will understand the nuance and effort involved in the journey from his position in The Batman to crime lord.

This show also features a believable world and a triumvirate of superb performances. Gotham is grimy and damaged following the events of The Batman and the three leads are all damaged as a result of its events. Oz Cobb, bruised by his involvements sees a gap in the market following the death of Carmine Falcone (played by John Turturro in the film and in flashback here by Mark Strong). Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) is just released from Arkham to find her father and brother dead and challenging for leadership of the family. Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) has lost his entire family to the floods at the end of The Batman and has now resorted to petty theft before Cobb takes him under his wing. As their stories intertwine an epic crime story is presented set within the world of DC comics.

Performance wise this show is a real feast. Colin Farrell under vast amounts of makeup and prosthetics is sensational. A sociopath you will find yourself rooting for even as he does diabolical things. Whilst Milioti, probably best known for comedy is mind-blowing as the sinister “Hangman”.

Forget any qualms you may have about superhero shows – this is a superb crime story grounded in reality.

3. Scavengers Reign (Netflix)

Scavengers Reign released in 2023 and was cancelled after one season. Which frankly is devastating news for someone coming to it late and discovering just how special it is.

An animated science fiction film that follows the survivors of a damaged cargo ship trying to survive on an alien world where all flora and fauna seems hostile. We follow three separate groups of survivors whose escape pods have jettisoned them to different parts of the planet.

Across twelve episodes we will encounter truly alien species as we see flashbacks to how the Demeter Cargo Ship came to be damaged, learn about the survivors struggling to find a way home and wonder what might become of them.

Regardless of its cancellation this is a beautifully animated and endlessly inventive show worth watching.

4. Shrinking – Season 2 (Apple)

Last year Shrinking’s first season was my number five show of the year. This year, after completing the show in late December I have decided to push it all the way up to the number four position.

Shrinking is a superb blend of drama and comedy. It will genuinely make you laugh and cry within seconds of each other and features a superb ensemble.

This season the addition of Brett Goldstein in front of the camera (he is a creator/writer for the show) gives the show an added dimension. Goldstein plays the drunk driver who killed the main character’s wife and his need to speak to the people whose lives he impacted is one of the big focal points of this season’s story.

Elsewhere Harrison Ford is doing some of the best work of his career as a man coming to terms with Parkinsons and Jason Segel knocks both the comedy and the drama out of the park.

5. Slow Horses – Season 4 (Apple)

Last year I got to name Slow Horses as my favourite TV show of the year after watching Seasons 1-3 back to back. This year Gary Oldman and his Slow Horses return in another engrossing season.

This one focuses on River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) and his Grandfather David (Jonathan Pryce) who is slowly slipping away as dementia takes hold. There is also a cameo from Hugo Weaving as an incredibly tough terrorist leader.

The same plaudits apply. Oldman is spectacular and the story is superb. If you have never seen the show I would highly recommend getting a trial and watch all twenty-four episodes ASAP.

6. Fargo – Season 5 (Amazon Prime)

The Fargo Television series created by Noah Hawley and inspired by the Coen Brothers film of the same name in my opinion should sit firmly in the conversation around “Greatest Television” ever made. This fifth season stars Jon Hamm and Juno Temple and is another perfectly formed piece of entertainment.

It is also the only TV show that I have chosen to review on this site to date, so you can read my full review here – Fargo – Season 5

7. Perry Mason – Seasons 1-2 (Sky)

How on earth did I miss this show? Season One aired in 2020 and Season Two in 2023 before it was cancelled. A decision I find hard to fathom.

Any fans of the 1950’s/1960’s TV shows or 1980’s/1990’s films starring Raymond Burr as the titular Perry Mason should think of this series as the gritty origin story. Perry Mason here is played by Matthew Rhys and is a hard bitten investigator working for an experienced lawyer named E.B. played perfectly by John Lithgow. Alongside E.B.’s secretary and aide Della Street (Juliet Rylance) Mason helps investigate cases and later defend clients. Other key characters are police officer Paul Drake (Chris Chalk) and investigator Pete Strickland (Shea Whigham) who work for and against Mason and Street at various moments.

Whilst all the performances are fantastic Juliet Rylance really stands out as the show’s star.

Each season consists of eight episodes and one case for Mason to investigate and is about as far away from the “episode of the week” format that most crime shows follow as it can be. It feels like Boardwalk Empire meets True Detective and it is a wonderful show.

8. The Resort (Apple/Amazon Prime)

The Resort is an eight-part mini series that originally aired in 2022 and you now need to purchase if you want to stream in the UK but it is well worth it. It is also the second show to star Cristin Milioti in this list.

Noah (William Jackson Harper) and Emma (Cristin Milioti) are a couple who are slightly jaded with each other and head out on a holiday to try and generate a spark. It begins a little like The White Lotus and then turns into an existential mind melting science fiction series about time and inner sadness.

Milioti is again fantastic and plays a role reminiscent of the one she played in Palm Springs. Her character is the catalyst for the story as she discovers a mobile phone that was lost fifteen years ago and decides to solve the missing person / murder case that goes along with it.

Difficult to explain, easy to love.

9. Fallout – Season 1 (Amazon Prime)

Fallout may have been the biggest surprise of the year for me just because of how low my expectations are when it comes to videogames being translated to the screen. After all we also got the incredibly average Borderlands this year as well.

Perhaps I should have paid more attention to the creative talents involved as this show was brought to us by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy who were behind the superb Westworld. It seems the Nolan family husband/wife teams are particularly brilliant across film and television.

Fallout does a stellar job of bringing the look and feel of the videogame to life perfectly and features three intertwining storylines following a vault dweller (Ella Parnell), a ghoul (Walton Goggins) and a member of the Brotherhood (Aaron Moten) giving you three different perspectives of the Wasteland in which the story takes place.

Across eight episodes that are at times funny, tense and exciting a puzzle is unravelled just enough to feel satisfied and still want to know more. Roll on Season 2.

10. House Of The Dragon – Season 1 & 2 (Sky)

House of the Dragon is another show that I came to late resulting in my being able to watch two full seasons in the same year and I think my viewing experience was better for it because House of the Dragon is a show that packs an awful lot of plot into every single episode.

Season 1 spans approximately twenty years of story across its 10 episodes and I was very grateful that my decision to binge the opening 6 episodes in one day meant that I could see the transition of the two main characters from young actresses to adult actresses.

An unpopular opinion that I hold is that A Game Of Thrones was a superb television show from start to finish. So I was slightly nervous how a spin off might fare. House of the Dragon is by no means the fast paced “page turner” that A Game Of Thrones was in its opening episodes and season. But if you give it a chance it certainly seems to deliver a richer canvass to tell its story on.

A huge budget also means superb effects, sets and costumes. Whilst the cast is diverse and brilliant.

11. Inside No. 9 – Series 9 (BBC)

For anyone unfamiliar with Inside No. 9 it is an anthology series where every single episode is a complete story told in under thirty minutes and features the number nine somewhere within. Fittingly the creators/stars of the show, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton have decided to end the show on series nine which means that these are the final six episodes of a show that has been quietly brilliant for a decade.

This series saw an episode told entirely from the fixed perspective of doorbell camera, an episode showing a man in a coma that manifests as an escape room and fittingly a final episode that is a wrap party for a television show. Shearsmith and Pemberton’s inventiveness never seemed to have an end and the ability to create fifty-five short films over the course of a decade straddling every genre you can think of is an exceptional feat.

12. Agatha All Along (Disney+)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe may be struggling of late to deliver as consistently as it used to but when it works it really works.

Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) is a witch under the spell of The Scarlet Witch. When we meet her she is a detective in a police procedural show which is really just the illusion that she has been trapped in. Then a mysterious young man whose name Agatha can not utter (Joe Locke) breaks her from the spell and they set out on a mission to travel across the “Witches Road”. Gathering a coven of witches from different magical disciplines they set out on a series of themed escape room like challenges each taking them a step closer to greater power.

Kathryn Hahn and Aubrey Plaza are brilliant and both having lots of fun in a show that seems to be entirely focused on it. Plus anyone who has watched it will no doubt enjoy playing the rock song that tells the story of the “Witches Road”.

13. True Detective Night Country

Season four of True Detective is the best since season one. Once you begin you will want to watch all six episodes as fast as you can so that you can find out the answers to the mysteries it presents.

Controversially dropping series creator Nic Pizzolatto from writing duties in favour of Issa Lopez who would write and direct all six episodes has given the show the jolt in the arm that it needed. As with the first season there is a strong supernatural element mixed in with the police procedural related to the native people of Alaska and their beliefs.

There are so many other films that came to mind due to to its setting such as John Carpenter’s The Thing, Insomnia and 30 Days Of Night. Whilst stars Jodie Foster and Kali Reis anchor the multifaceted elements of the show with strong leading characters.

14. Sugar – Season 1 (Apple)

Sugar, played by Colin Farrell in his second appearance in this list, is a private detective who specialises in missing persons cases. After wrapping a case in Japan he heads to Los Angeles to investigate the disappearance of a Hollywood Producer’s granddaughter. Which is fitting given Sugar’s obsession for classic movies.

The show is shot in a woozy fashion with blurry close ups and overlapping scenes. Sugar appears like someone from one of the old fashioned movies he reveres, always appearing exemplary in a suit and tie and entirely focused on the well being of others over himself.

Farrell is ably supported by Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Amy Ryan in pivotal roles and creator Mark Protosevich has a few surprises up his sleeve that switch up its hard boiled detective genre roots.

15. Lessons In Chemistry (Apple)

Lessons in Chemistry is an eight-part mini series based on the book of the same name written by Bonnie Garmus starring Brie Larson and Lewis Pullman.

Set in the 1950’s it follows chemist Elizabeth Zott (Larson) as she struggles with gender bias in the workplace, falls in love, suffers adversity whilst staying true to her own values and ultimately learns to adapt to change. Which of course is a lesson in chemistry which teaches us that change is inevitable and that we must adapt to and understand it.

Larson is wonderful and really shows the talent that was on show in her 2015 breakout film Room. Whilst the 1950’s setting is perfectly captured and the creative team are even willing to make inventive choices such as setting one episode entirely from the perspective of Zott’s dog.

16. 3 Body Problem – Season 1 (Netflix)

Game Of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss could have been forgiven if they wanted to go into hiding after the reception to that series’ final season and their Star Wars project being placed on permanent hiatus. Instead they chose to make another prestige show based on a series of novels. This time though, they chose a series that is complete. Cixin Liu’s “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” trilogy is the basis of this story of which 3 Body Problem is the first book.

The show is set in two time periods. China in the 1960’s/1970’s during the events of a social uprising where a young female scientist finds herself witnessing the death of her father at the hands of a mob before she goes to work for the state. And England in contemporary times where scientists are committing suicide or giving up their research efforts for mysterious reasons.

Of course those events are connected but finding out how is one of the many interesting parts of the show. Alongside what in fact the scientific 3 Body Problem actually means. Otherwise our leads Eiza Gonzalez and Benedict Wong and the large supporting cast provide enough human drama to keep us interested.

I really am looking forward to how this series pans out and am going to stay away from the novels this time until the series finishes at least.

And What About..?

So whilst I only have a top fifteen I do want to mention some others. Either because they were good but not quite able to break into this list or they were massive disappointments that just make me want to vent.

• Bluey – The Sign (Disney+)

This 28 minute special episode of Bluey is another wonderful outing in what is possibly the best children’s Television show ever made. There are plenty of moments to make you cry as it gets under the skin of family life. I was honestly very close to including this in my list but as it was just a feature length episode in a larger series I decided I could not justify it going in. It is still brilliant though.

• The Witcher – Season 3 (Netflix)

Another show that aired in 2023 but I could not bring myself to watch this for so long after they announced Henry Cavill would be leaving the show. This season was just as good as the previous two with the rather complex plot rewarding watching the episodes closer together than most shows. How will Liam Hemsworth fare as Geralt of Rivia when they release season 4?

• Baby Reindeer (Netflix)

Baby Reindeer is the epitome of a streaming show. Thoroughly addictive with a “what’s next?” quality that makes you just want to watch the next episode. And with only seven episodes of roughly thirty minutes in length you could easily find yourself at the end of the season before you know it. The “based on a true story” aspect of this keeps you hooked as well as you scream at the screen to just walk away.

• The Acolyte (Disney+)

What in the world has the Star Wars “fandom” (or any fandom) come to? Met with derision and hate this perfectly acceptable show has already been cancelled after one season. Personally there was nothing much that grabbed me about the show and it felt like it was aimed at more of a teen/young person audience. But the hatred poured on it seemed very disproportionate.

• The Umbrella Academy – Season 4 (Netflix)

An unmitigated disaster! The Umbrella Academy is based on a superb comic book series written by Gerard Way (also known as the lead singer of My Chemical Romance) and drawn by Gabriel Ba. Every single season of the TV show has promised much but ultimately under delivered. They all felt bloated at ten episodes long with plots meandering instead of being punchy. But then they always featured great actors and visuals which tried to match Ba’s superb style. I always hoped it would eventually capture the spirit of the books so this final season shortened to six episodes and promising an ending was the final chance to do so. And they missed so wildly that even Nick Offerman joining the cast could not save it. Legitimately painful to watch as a fan of the comics. Avoid.

• The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power – Season 2 (Amazon Prime)

Amazon have thrown all the money in the world at this show and it looks spectacular. But they still can not seem to get it quite right. This season was much better than the first. They have made the number of plotlines smaller and cut a number of excess characters which has focused it a lot more. But they still fail to really muster a villain or threat that feels as scary as it should and some plotlines feel dragged out (yes we know it is Gandalf, get on with it) whilst others are rushed (how many rings has he made already!). I wonder how much longer they will continue to spend on it.

• The Day Of The Jackal (Sky)

This was close to being brilliant but never quite made it. Lashana Lynch never puts a foot wrong and her presence and the opening credits sequence really make this feel like a “Bond” like spy show. Eddie Redmayne on the other hand seems erratic as The Jackal. Sometimes brilliant and sometimes wooden. The scenes he really seems to struggle in are those with his Spanish wife. Good. Not great.

• Only Murders In The Building – Season 4 (Disney+)

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Sometimes shows have dips and sometimes they outstay their welcome. I hope this is a dip because this season of this once brilliant show was painful to watch. From a show I once watched as soon as it aired to one that I actually dreaded the next episode of. Hopefully Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez can return to form in the inevitable season five.

So that is my 2024 of TV – what have I missed? What did you love?