The Bestest 2024: Television

I know I probably watch too much TV and don’t read nearly enough. That said, TV is much better than it has even been. I tend to gravitate towards crime shows, but occasionally there will be something funny mixed in. Unlike movies you can nip at these shows bit by bit, although it’s almost easier to binge out more episodes in a night than it is to watch a whole movie. Go figure.

1. Eric (Netflix) This show has everything I love about good television: great acting, a dark and brooding ominous plotline, and just the right amount of extreme weirdness to make it stand out. Set in the decaying New York of the 80’s Benedict Cumberbatch plays a kind of demented Jim Henson desperate to find his missing son. It is a mix of grim reality, magical realism and hope, and one of the most interesting shows of the year.
2. Dark Matter (Apple) In a sea of sci-fi parallel universe shows and films, Dark Matter was the one that left the deepest impression. Exploring the possibility of parallel lives intersecting in the present and the infinite simultaneous versions of that reality is presented in a complicated but beautifully accessible way. Bravo.
3. Baby Reindeer (Netflix) There was no show as vulnerable, uncomfortable and depraved than this unlikely sensation. That it is derived from a real story, and one most would be afraid to tell, makes the beauty and sorrow of this masterpiece the phenomenon that it deservedly became.
4. True Detective: Night Country (Max) The two best things about the latest installment of True Detective is that the show reminds us again how truly remarkable the first season was and that we get to see Jody Foster back in form as the joyless but earnest star we grew to love. This is a return to form for both.
5. The Bear (Hulu) I was surprised at how well received this artsy and slow moving season three was. I personally loved the rather plotless meandering, allowing the show to move rather slowly and abstractly through character and mood rather than its previously frenetic mood and pace.
6. Say Nothing (Hulu) I think I finally began to truly understand the nuances of the Northern Ireland violence after watching this show. In this stylized, decade-hopping story, focused on two sisters who choose to stay and fight for their country instead of going off to college and getting away from the violence. Cool as ice.
7. Slow Horses (Apple) It took a few years for me to even start this perfectly executed British crime show. As a sucker both for crime shows and British crime shows in particular, watching Gary Oldman’s rag tag army of good guys fight the system and the bad guys is an absolute joy.
8. Disclaimer (Apple) It would be easy to pick at the gaps in this addicting story of grief, redemption and surprise. Cate Blanchette is incredible as the hard driving mother and writer who seems to have failed as a mother, while a refreshing Kevin Klein plays a grieving father and vengeful teacher while Sacha Baron Cohen plays his best off character role of his career.
9. Ripley (Netflix) This is the best most faithful film noir show of the modern era. Shot in gorgeous black and white, the long form retelling of “The Talented Mr. Ripley” starts slow but boils to a raging climax.
10. Under The Bridge (Hulu) This is a story about a dead girl found in the bleak grayness of Canada, and the journalist (Kristin Stewart) who returns home and can’t get the case out of her head. It’s a low key kind of show, but gets slowly under your skin.
11. Black Doves (Netflix) The British will always be better at spy shows than anybody else, and this time with Keira Knightly and Ben Wishaw play the spy for hire assassins (Black Doves) slithering through cracks of a case tracking the murder of Chinese ambassador, his missing daughter and handful other dead bodies along the way.
12. Monsters: The Menendez Brothers (Netflix) I had no idea the details, nor did I know much about the Menendez saga until I watched this show and its companion documentary. Two things became incredibly clear: both the actors who play the brothers and the real life brothers are incredible actors. 10 hours later I still have no idea what to believe, but I guess that’s the point.
13. Missing you (Netflix) Another year, another Harlen Coben show. This time a police officer, played by Rosalind Eleazar from Slow Horses, is on the case for a slate of missing persons who have been disappearing in Northern England. This case coincidentally gets tangled up with her missing ex-boyfriend who had vanished years before. Standard, excellent Coben crime drama.
14. The Diplomat (Prime) I wasn’t blown away by the first season, but on this short six episode second season, Kerri Russell maintains her kind of highly intelligent, cynical but committed politician that we can only crave given the state of state of affairs. It goes by fast, ends on a cliffhanger, signaling an even spicier season three.
15. Nobody Wants This (Netflix) If there was a guilty pleasure on this list it is this charmingly predictable rom-com featuring two pitch perfect professional rom-comers in Adam Brody and Kristin Bell. He’s a Jewish Rabbi and she’s has a podcast show on sex, and of course they fall in love despite it all. Yup, not much more than that.
16. Bad Monkey (Apple) It’s hard not to want to love everything Vince Vaugn does, but occasionally he just picks cliché roles in mediocre projects. “Bad Monkey” is a funny, weird and sometimes sexy murder mystery played by Vaugn as the snarky Detective who just can’t get out of his own way … until he does.