The Best TV Shows of 2024 So Far

Miniseries by Richard Gadd adaptation of his acclaimed one-man show about an obsessive female stalker has not been without its share of controversy, including a lawsuit against Netflix filed by the woman who claims to be its real-life inspiration. But as much as this is fact versus fiction, Gadd tells a version of his own story in compelling fashion.

The Emmy-winning restaurant drama had more aspirations — and more plot — than it could contain in its third season, and as a result it sometimes felt incomplete, sometimes overly pretentious. But in its best moments — a flashback to Mikey and Tina’s first meeting, or Carmy confronting an abusive figure from his past — it offered potent reminders of why this incredibly stressful series has become so beloved.

This mix of Hard-boiled detective stories, romantic comedies and interpersonal drama made for an impressive, if under-the-radar, show for creator and star Diarra Kilpatrick, who plays a Motor City teacher who goes to extreme lengths to find the Tinder partner who seems to be ignoring her.

British science fiction institution reinvented itself, with Ncuti Gatwa becoming the first black actor, and the first openly queer actor, to play the iconic time-traveling Doctor. Gatwa and showrunner Russell T. Davies — back at the helm of the TARDIS for the first time since the late 2000s — have created a Doctor who feels both very much a moment and a much-needed throwback. The plot is just as shaky as it was in Davies’ first stint, but with a hero this fun, who cares?

Another delightful burst of surrealism from writer-star Julio Torres (The Spooky’s, Problematic). This series takes place in the SNL alum navigating a parallel reality where everyone needs an official Proof of Existence, interspersed with eccentric sketches where call center employees wage spiritual war on each other, a woman designs toilet dresses, and the Real Housewives are all part of a disturbing psychological experiment. Don’t try to explain it; just laugh.

Tricks Season two ended on a note that felt fitting for a series finale. Thankfully, that wasn’t the end. Season three was another triumph, giving Deborah and Ava a great excuse to team up again as Deborah continues her quest to finally get her own talk show, decades after that dream fell apart. Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder continue to get along beautifully. And unlike last time, this season ended on a note where we can’t wait to see what happens next.

Speaking of late at night talk shows, the Netflix Is A Joke comedy festival gave John Mulaney an excuse to gather as many of his famous friends as possible in one place for a week-long live stunt. In one fell swoop, a throwback to the free-spirited 1970s incarnation of The Tonight Show and a very postmodern animal — including hilarious sidekick Richard Kind who finds himself in an ongoing feud with a delivery robot — Everyone is in LA was so much fun, hopefully Netflix can convince Mulaney to make more.

When it was first announced, This reboot of the 2005 film that gave birth to Brangelina seemed to have no purpose other than an excuse to reunite multihyphenate superstars Donald Glover and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. But the final version was made without Waller-Bridge, who left over creative differences, replaced by Francesca Sloan as Glover’s co-creator and Maya Erskine as his co-star. Regardless of its origins, this Blacksmith — in which Glover and Pen15 alum Erskine plays strangers hired by a shady spy agency to pose as husbands — was an impressive mix of suspense, slapstick, and heavy relationship drama. Amazon has already ordered another season, though Glover and Erskine are rumored to be out of the title roles. For now, Mr. and Mrs. Smith has earned the right to show what it can do, regardless of the talent present.

Not every novelist is well-equipped to adapt their work to another medium, but Candice Carty-Williams has done a fantastic job of turning her acclaimed 2019 novel — about a young British-Jamaican woman (Dionne Brown) grappling with the trauma of her past and the difficulties of her present — into a smart, winning, gripping miniseries.

The 1999 movie version of The Talented Mr. Ripleystarring Matt Damon and Jude Law, is so great that another version of Patricia Highsmith’s novel would have seemed beside the point. Then writer-director Steve Zaillian turned the material into a riveting step-by-step procedural about how to be a sociopath, hired Andrew Scott to play an older, colder Tom Ripley, and recruited Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Elswit to deliver one stunning black-and-white shot after another. Beautiful, chilling, wonderful.

The epic of James Clavell a novel about feudal Japan was made for television back in 1980, in a version that focused almost exclusively on the white English sailor who gets caught up in a Japanese civil war. This new version still has a lot of that foreign invader (Cosmo Jarvis), but its heart is clearly with the local players, played spectacularly by Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawai and Tadanobu Asano. Showrunners Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks combined a grand sweep (that earthquake!) with intimate character moments and fascinating strategy in a way that harks back to the good old days of Game of Thrones.

Robert Downey Jr., fresh from his Oppenheimer Oscar won, many of the early Sympathizer publicity for playing multiple roles (under various makeup and wigs) in this tale of a North Vietnamese spy (played by Hoa Xuande) living among South Vietnamese expats in postwar California. But the real star was the work the creative team, led by writer-director Park Chan-wook, did to capture the satirical tone of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and use cinematic language to find a new way of looking at a conflict that had been committed to film many times before, but never quite like this.

Time is a flat circle, meaning HBO’s dormant mystery franchise would eventually have to come back to life, this time with a new showrunner (horror writer-director Issa López), new stars (Jodie Foster and Kali Reis) and a very different location (a small Alaskan town at the beginning of a period of eternal winter darkness) than in all the seasons that have gone by. Real Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto. López deftly balanced between visceral earthly violence and supernatural violence, wrapping up her story in a more satisfying way than any of the previous installments.

This Britcom about an all-female Muslim punk band received critical acclaim but little attention when it debuted in 2021. Despite an early renewal, it seemed like a season two would never happen. But the wait was worth it. Season two offered up some clever new earworms with titles like “Malala Made Me Do It,” leaned more heavily into the ensemble while still capitalizing on star Anjana Vasan’s comedic gifts, and even smartly asked whether a show about women making “funny Muslim songs” says enough about this particular moment in time. Please don’t make us wait so long next time.

The only possible complaint about the third season of the hugely charming docuseries about Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds owning a Welsh football club is that there wasn’t more of it, with far fewer episodes than in previous years. But even with that limited time, Welcome to Wrexham remains a winner with a good feeling.