The 15 Best TV Shows of 2024
From ‘Arcane’ to ‘The Boys’ to ‘The Penguin’ to ‘X-Men ‘97,’ these are our picks for the greatest shows streaming on television this year.
There’s really nothing like putting on a good show, is there?
Two thousand and twenty-four was a tough year, one marked by global conflict and political turmoil. TV can’t solve our problems, but it can, at least, entertain us during stressful times. And, wow, are these stressful times we’re living in.
That’s why we need good TV shows, and although 2024 wasn’t the best year financially or politically for everyone, we can probably all agree that it was a strong year for entertainment—especially television. With gritty period dramas like Shōgun, captivating reanimated classics such as X-Men ’97, hilarious video game adaptations like Fallout, and many others, there’s no shortage of something good to watch by yourself or with some company. Each show on this list did its damndest to transport us to new worlds and old places, and each one succeeded at delivering delight, despair, disgust, dismay, and a host of other complex emotions that kept us talking.
Before we get to the list, it’s worth going through some honorable mentions: 3 Body Problem, Agatha All Along, Dune: Prophecy, Dark Matter, The Gentlemen, and Sugar, to name a handful. The problem isn’t that these shows were bad. The problem is that there’s too many shows; if we included them all, you’d be scrolling here forever, and we’d much rather you scroll for a bit, then put something on the TV.
With all of that out of the way, this is our list for the best television shows of 2024. Let us know if your fave made it in the comments.
Happy New Year!
15.Presumed Innocent
Season(s): 1
Episodes: 8
Where To Watch: Apple TV+
Rotten Tomatoes: 78% (Critics), 79% (Audience)
Come for an update of the God Turow’s twisted legal thriller classic, stay for a dunk contest of coke-addled explosions from Jake Gyllenhaal vs. his more than formidable opponent, Peter Saarsgard.
At a time in which the legal series/film is nearly extinct, old master David E. Kelley revived the form for the streaming era with a taught, starry, eight episode pressure cooker that might be Apple TV+’s best series to date. (Give or take Slow Horses, of course.) It was a reminder of the primal, comfort thrills the courtroom drama can bring, as well as when he’s on his intense, twitchy, over-blinking, white-knuckle game. There are few who can hold a screen like Gyllenhaal. The season was one self-contained story that would’ve worked as a miniseries, but blessedly, Apple almost immediately announced they’d be back for more with a second season. Who doesn’t want more Gyllenhaal? — Abe Beame
14.Nobody Wants This
Season(s): 1
Episodes: 10
Where To Watch: Netflix
Rotten Tomatoes: 94% (Critics), 85% (Audience)
This show dropped out of the sky and into our laps on Netflix at a time in which the idea of “Jewish humor” as classically defined, and our relationship to it—even as American Jews—is shifting perilously. There are many ways it could’ve gone wrong (and some might say it did), but Nobody Wants This is a winning TV romcom that lives in good writing, both specific to the culture it’s focusing on and universal in its timeless “lovers from different worlds” premise.
And, of course, in its performances, both from its two perfectly paired charisma machines in Adam Brody and Kristen Bell, and in its deep support bench (but particularly Timothy Simons as a bro Shrek). It’s an instant Netflix classic, a perfect end-of the-day-half-watch-with-your-partner-while-you-scroll-and-catch-up-on-emails type of comfort television of the highest order. — Abe Beame
13.The Vince Staples Show
Season(s): 1
Episodes: 5
Where To Watch: Netflix
Rotten Tomatoes: 94% (Critics), 93% (Audience)
Every once in a while, Netflix drops a show that’s undeniably worth watching, and The Vince Staples Show is definitely one of those.
This show is a cultural conversation in real time, as well as a deep dive into the world through Vince’s unique lens. It doesn’t try to fit into any conventional box, and it sure as hell isn’t made to please the mainstream. Stop trying to compare it to Atlanta—it's its own thing! The brilliance of the show lies in its ability to balance absurdity and relatability. You might not have been to jail, gotten caught up in a bank robbery, had to keep your mom from throwing hands at a family function, or spent an entire day running from your opp, but there’s still something about the scenarios that hits home.
The show has this incredible ability to take outlandish situations and wrap them in layers of truth about the Black experience. Episodes like “Red Door” go completely off the rails into surreal territory, but then it’ll turn around and hit you with something like the “Brown Family” episode that’s pure, unfiltered, relatable realism. Throughout the show, Vince continues to break down family, relationships, success, and race in ways that are hilarious and real, using his unique mix of dark humor, satire, and raw commentary. Vince’s ability to weave his wit, intelligence, and cultural commentary into such a fresh format makes this series a standout. It’s a creative breakthrough, unapologetically him, and exactly what 2024 needed. — Unique Chapman
12.Mr. And Mrs. Smith
Season(s): 1
Episodes: 8
Where To Watch: Amazon Prime Video
Rotten Tomatoes: 91% (Critics), 67% (Audience)
Donald Glover's 2020 reinvention of the classic 2005 romcom action flick went through some difficulties in the early stages of development, with initial co-writer and co-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge ultimately exiting the project due to creative differences. His subsequent partnering with Maya Erskine has proved smoother sailing and most fruitful.
A man and a woman take on roles as secret agents with a catch. Strangers to each other, they must pretend to be husband and wife. Every episode, they grow a little closer on their missions, acquainting themselves with their locale, taking in the sights, and taking out their targets. Amazon's series is smart, slick, and sexy. The chemistry between its two fresh-faced leads crackle, and it deploys a refreshing light-of-touch in its charming coupledom comedy. And there's a healthy helping of explosions to keep things exciting. Mission accomplished. — Blake Simons
11.Baby Reindeer
Season(s): 1
Episodes: 7
Where To Watch: Netflix
Rotten Tomatoes: 99% (Critics), 81% (Audience)
“True crime” is a genre that's seen a major boom in recent years, with Netflix at the forefront of its rise. Baby Reindeer, while nestling neatly into the genre, is something more personal than that.
Comedian Richard Gadd fictionalizes his own real experiences of being stalked in this gripping limited series adapted from his one-man play of the same name. Its explorations of limerence, trauma, abuse, and ego are disarmingly frank and nuanced. The series has driven viewers to similar levels of obsession as its characters, with fans luring the real-life Martha (played by Jessica Gunning) out of anonymity. A fascinating ouroboros of a work, it leaves you much to chew on. — Blake Simons
10.House of the Dragon
Season(s): 2
Episodes: 18
Where To Watch: Max
Rotten Tomatoes: 86% (Critics), 78% (Audience)
House of the Dragon’s second season is quietly devastating.
Rarely has a series of miscommunications and petty squabbling felt as tragic and sad as it does here, as both sides of the Targaryen family plunge all of Westeros into war. As such, the body count piles up, showing that no one is truly free of sin in the conflict. The slower, focused tone to the season allowed House of the Dragon to dig deep into the emotionality and logic of its deeply compelling characters, showing that even if you didn’t agree with their decisions, you could at least understand the why that drove each and every choice. The result is a deeply melancholic season likely to age like a fine wine as the fires of war continue to swell and spread throughout Westeros.
Winter is coming? More like death is here, and we’re ready. — William Goodman
9.The Boys
Season(s): 4
Episodes: 32
Where To Watch: Amazon Prime Video
Rotten Tomatoes: 93% (Critics), 76% (Audience)
Superhero fatigue may be setting in for some, but The Boys are still going strong.
Eric Kripke's Amazon adaptation of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s, comic book series of the same name hit its fourth season this year, following its two spin-off interludes, Diabolical and Gen V in 2021 and 2022 respectively. As our antiheroes face political maneuvers and manipulation on all sides, Season 4 ups the ante with the show's most explicit political parallels yet, tackling the January 6 insurrection and the alt-right head-on. The Boys' penultimate season, major changes came in this year's finale. Kripke and team are flying high. Let's hope they can stick the landing. — Blake Simons
8.Arcane
Season(s): 2
Episodes: 18
Where To Watch: Netflix
Rotten Tomatoes: 100% (Critics), 93% (Audience)
An animated streaming series set in the world of popular massively online battle arena video game sensation League of Legends was a prospect that seemed destined for that forum-dwelling audience only, and yet Arcane surprised on every level when it hit on Netflix in 2021.
Produced by French studio Fortiche, Arcane tells the story of Vi (Hayley Steinfeld) and Jinx (Ella Purnell), two sisters caught up in the political and technological struggle between the steampunk utopia of Piltover and its oppressed underground, Zaun. Much like Sony's Spider-Verse films (also starring Steinfeld), Arcane is dazzlingly dynamic in its approach to animated worldbuilding. The series isn't rotoscoped, but uses an attractive comic book cel shading and soft lighting to conjure something far more than a mere cutscene.
Season 2 took the spectacle to new heights this year as the conflict expanded to new dimensions. The series’ queerness was more than acknowledged in the explosive finale as well, to the delight of the fans that waited with bated breath for more than signs. — Blake Simons
7.The Bear
Season(s): 3
Episodes: 28
Where To Watch: Hulu
Rotten Tomatoes: 96% (Critics), 79% (Audience)
This latest season of The Bear is proof that even an off-night from a legend is better than most at the very peak of their game.
Season 3 was a mixed bag, a story about how recovery from grief, deprogramming your bad habits and toxic traits is a non-linear process. It dug into how the restaurant industry can be a messy, abusive relationship some should potentially leave, but can’t because they don’t know how. Many haters and losers attempted to use this masterfully shot, harrowing season of television to retcon the first two brilliant seasons of The Bear—a dramedy that captured the kitchen with an accuracy and verisimilitude no other work of art across film or television has come close to and “well actually” it away as a cheap, common, joyless trauma plot. In other words, they showed their whole ass, because creator Christopher Storrer and company simply took a season to do what many serials must: reset the field of play before what we all hope and suspect will be a return to form with the next season shot concurrently with this one. — Abe Beame
6.Abbott Elementary
Season(s): 4
Episodes: 55
Where To Watch: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Max
Rotten Tomatoes: 99% (Critics), 86% (Audience)
This is top-tier television right here!
I’m probably exaggerating, but it seriously feels like it’s been forever since a comedy has brought everyone together to laugh, talk, and meme on social media like Abbott Elementary has. The way it’s creating that same community vibe we had with Scandal Thursdays and GOT/Insecure/Power Sundays—it just hits different! Series creator Quinta Brunson was really in her bag with this show, from the fresh take on the sitcom genre to the sharp social commentary, clever writing, and incredible cast. It’s no wonder Abbott is still dominating primetime TV; the show highlights the small victories of teachers and students while offering a real, heartfelt critique of a broken system, and it does all that while keeping you laughing every single episode.
The characters are everything. From Janine’s perfectionism to Gregory’s dry wit to Ava’s complete chaos, each one brings something special. Watching their growth and the way they interact feels so real. And let's not forget the writing, which is seriously unmatched!
That scene where Jacob reads Patricia’s letter—“Dear Mr. Hill, I know that's wrong. According to the district's website, my child doesn't have to be sent home until the end of the day. I'm not the one, or the two, so please send my child home at three. Try Jesus, don’t try me”—deserves an Emmy. The way the writers captured Black language so effortlessly, to subtly but loudly showcase the cultural differences in understanding with Jacob, completely lost, asking, “Is this a riddle?” is comedic gold. It perfectly highlights how Abbott mixes humor with cultural nuance. Abbott Elementary is a gift, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon! — Unique Chapman
5.X-Men ‘97
Season(s): 1
Episodes: 10
Where To Watch: Disney+
Rotten Tomatoes: 99% (Critics), 92% (Audience)
On paper, X-Men ‘97 is a high-risk, low-reward style project.
As the direct continuation of the beloved X-Men: The Animated Series—which single-handedly defined Marvel’s flagship property for a whole generation—the deck was stacked against the project from its inception. And while it’s fallen a few positions in our ranking since the midpoint of the year, ‘97 still managed to be one of the best shows of 2024 and met these sky-high expectations by using nostalgia to foreground stories that feel ripped from the present, not the past.
Bold and inventive in its storytelling choices with vividly kinetic action sequences, few shows this year felt like ‘97. Sure, the show is a throwback to the ‘90s, but in name only; with a renewed focus on issues of discrimination and moral complexity, the series was decidedly of our current moment. Returning to fan-favorite characters (and even rehabilitating them in the process) to put them through the emotional ringer made the show something you can’t miss, evoking the page-turning nature of the best X-Men comics. Furthermore, ‘97 felt provocative in an era where most Marvel projects feel assembled by committee to be as commodified as possible—an idea that then carried over to other MCU titles like Agatha All Along and Deadpool & Wolverine.
Radical and brilliant, X-Men ‘97 is more than a successful nostalgia play. It’s the template for which all revivals should study and aspire to be. — William Goodman
4.Industry
Season(s): 3
Episodes: 24
Where To Watch: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Max,
Rotten Tomatoes: 90% (Critics), 69% (Audience)
It’s difficult for shows to maintain a consistent upward progression of quality. Only the best of the best continue to improve with each iteration, and in its triumphant third season, HBO’s Industry managed to do just that.
Shiny new additions Kit Harington and Sarah Goldberg seamlessly fit in alongside the returning cast of Myha’la, Marisa Abela, Harry Lawtey, Sagar Radia, and Ken Leung, making the Mickey Down and Konrad Kay-helmed show richer and more complex as the series expanded its horizons deep into systems of power, class and racial dynamics, generational divides, and much more. This season proved Down and Kay have much more on their minds than just a simple character study in the world of London’s financial sector.
Kinetically directed and brilliantly written, you would never quite know what to anticipate from episode to episode. In a world where media can feel predictable and boring, Industry is anything but that. In short, the stock’s going way, way up. It’s high time to buy in if you haven’t already. — William Goodman
3.Fallout
Season(s): 1
Episodes: 8
Where To Watch: Amazon Prime Video
Rotten Tomatoes: 94% (Critics), 90% (Audience)
Fallout, more than any other series this year, arrived with a mountain of expectations.
A splashy adaptation of the tremendously popular video game series that wasn’t a one-to-one translation a la The Last of Us, the show carved out its own lane. By using the game’s setting as a jumping-off point to tell new tales in the world with memorable characters like Ella Purnell’s Lucy and Walton Goggins’ Ghoul, Fallout accomplished a rare feat in the world of IP adaptation: tell a story that fans, both old and new, managed to love in equal measure. — William Goodman
2.The Penguin
Season(s): 1
Episodes: 8
Where To Watch: Max
Rotten Tomatoes: 95% (Critics), 92% (Audience)
The Penguin is the TV equivalent of a mic drop.
In a landscape flooded with antiheroes and reluctant villains, HBO’s Gotham-centric series gave us Oswald Cobblepot—a man who doesn’t just flirt with the idea of moral ambiguity but dives headfirst into the darkness. Colin Farrell’s performance isn’t just acting; it’s villainy elevated to an art form. He takes you on a joyride through Gotham’s underbelly and dares you to root for someone who’d probably stab you in the back just to get ahead.
The brilliance of The Penguin lies in its commitment to the bit. This isn’t a show about a misunderstood man trying to navigate a harsh world. It’s about a criminal mastermind building an empire and burning anyone who gets in his way. No sob story, no moral complexity—just a cold, calculated rise to power that feels inevitable and exhilarating.
What makes the series unforgettable is how it seemingly makes you complicit. You’re not watching to see Oswald fail; you’re watching to see how he’ll outsmart his enemies. Each scheme is more twisted than the last, and by the time the credits roll, you’ll be questioning why you were cheering for him in the first place. And of course, how could we forget the incredible performance from Cristin Milioti, who gave an equally impressive and emotional performance as The Hangman. In a year full of great television, The Penguin earns its spot near the top for doing something bold: letting a villain be a villain. And not just any villain—a really, really damn good one. — Jacob Kramer
1.Shōgun
Season(s): 1
Episodes: 10
Cast: Hiroyuki Sanada, Cosmo Jarvis, Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano, Takehiro Hira, Tommy Bastow, Fumi Nikaido, Néstor Carbonell
Where To Watch: Hulu
Rotten Tomatoes: 99% (Critics), 90% (Audience)
Shōgun is GOATed TV, period.
I could just stop there because if you know, you know. This is seriously one of the best shows of this year, and not just because it’s in our number one spot. Shōgun is a series that keeps giving, one that’s always surprising with each plot point it introduces and narrative twist it takes. It’s excellently shot, captivatingly acted, and beautifully scored. It checks all the boxes of what makes a good show, then burns that checklist because it doesn’t care about your attachments. It’ll happily kill this person or embarrass that person for the sake of impactful storytelling. Basically, it’s got balls. We love shows with balls.
But what makes Shōgun so great isn’t its source material, shot composition, or storytelling prowess, though these all add to the series’ excellence. Really, what makes Shōgun so great is the cast, a talented roster filled with old and new names that’ll have you screaming, crying, throwing up. From the beautiful Anna Sawai as the introspective yet fierce Toda Mariko to the gruff Tadanobu Asano as the connivingly goofy Kashigi Yabushige, Shōgun has an impressive stable of Hollywood stars that really bring the words of James Clavell’s 1975 novel of the same name to life. And with it being a period drama set in 1600s Japan—namly, the end of the Sengoku period just before Tokugawa Ieyasu became a military ruler—you get to learn, too, even if it is loosely based on historical events. Who doesn’t like to learn? — Levi Winslow
