tv_talk | The Guardian's 50 best TV shows of 2024

I haven't even heard of some of those. I didn't watch a lot of TV in 2024 I guess, I was more waiting on upcoming shows.

What shows are you looking forward to?

Murderbot and new seasons of Stranger Things, Leverage Redemption and The Librarians.

I watched ten out of the fifty shows listed -- but I didn't finish all of them. I agree with KAOS and Somebody Somewhere. Only Murders in the Building wouldn't land on my personal best-of list, simply because it started a lot stronger than it ended. And while I thought Ripley was beautifully shot, it simply didn't leave any lasting impression on me.

Two of my personal TV highlights: Renegade Nell (sadly canceled, never got the love it deserved) and The Atypical Family.

Luckily I've been keeping a list on my own DW of what I've watched this year because I honestly couldn't even remember 10 shows off the top of my head... But after reviewing what I've watched, I'd go with the following, in no particular order, except for Shogun, which is definitely #1 and the most exquisitely perfect TV ever:

Shogun
Slow Horses
Fallout
True Detective: Night Country
Traitors UK
Colin from Accounts
Breathtaking
After the Party
Syndrome E
Day of the Jackal/The Diplomat (can't decide between these two -- the first was a bit too long, the other a bit too short)

Honourable mention: Rebus

(I wasn't going necessarily by what was on the Guardian's list, although there is overlap)

Edited 2024-12-25 19:44 (UTC)

Out of curiosity: What made Rebus "just" an honorable mention for you?

No real reason -- I just don't remember it as well. I saw it back in the spring/early summer, and the other two (Jackal/Diplomat) are fresher in my mind. These sorts of things are mostly just crapshoots anyway -- I'd likely come with a different list next week. Except for Shogun. That would always be #1.

I actually haven't heard of a couple of those. Shogun has been on my watchlist for a while but I haven't gotten around to it. I'll have to look some of the others up to watch over the holidays.

Here's a list of some shows I enjoyed this year. I tried to keep it short - I feel like there are a ton of shows missing off this list, it was hard to narrow it down more:

Slow Horses
Evil
The Red King
The Serpent Queen
Boy Swallows Universe
Ludwig
The Day of the Jackal
Man on the Inside
The Sticky
The Diplomat

Sunny
Fallout
Mr & Mrs Smith
The Old Man
Lioness
The Tourist
Black Doves
True Detective: Night Country
Only Murders in the Building
Time Bandits

Bad Sisters
SweatPea
The Sympathiser
Renegade Nell
My Lady Jane

Glad you enjoyed so many different shows! Was there anything that made a particular impression on you?

I only watched one of them from that list (Ripley which I loved)

I haven't heard about the majority of this list, to be honest. I only recognize a handful due to online friends posting about it (or know via other mediums, ex: Fallout) though I don't go venturing further than that, and I have only really truly watched (and enjoyed) was Slow Horses, and that was only within the last month or so.

Since I tend to watch a lot more Asian dramas than Western/Anglo-centric ones these days, my choice for best show of this year has to be Meet You At The Blossom.

Oh, I watched a couple of scenes from Meet You At The Blossom! The leads' dynamic was really entertaining and Huaien's otherworldly beauty blew me away.

Yes! Huaien is quite ethereal, isn't he?

It's quite a wonderful drama. The fact that it's an uncensored Chinese BL produced in Thailand made it even more amazing, and I'm just so thankful that we got it at all. :D

I've seen three of those (Shogun, Slow Horses, and Nobody Wants This), all of which I enjoyed. We DNF Baby Reindeer. Haven't heard of most of the others, but now I'm curious.

Is Baby Reindeer's subject matter too dark for you or do you have other reasons for avoiding the show? (Genuine question, but you don't have to answer, obviously!)

Ahahaha, actually I just looked at the trailer to refresh my memory, and it turns out I was getting Baby Reindeer (which I haven't seen any of) confused with Sweet Tooth (Netflix show about a kid with antlers). *facepalms forever*

Please disregard any and all previous statements. ;-)

Now I'm even more curious why you DNF with Sweet Tooth as I know next to nothing about it apart from the antlers stuff. :D

It's been a while, but iirc, I just really didn't vibe with the kid actor.

Hmm..me and television critics rarely agree, and so it continues. I've seen two of those, and loved one. Slow Horses (excellent, loved it to pieces), Nobody Wants This (it's okay, but not all that memorable and really annoying at times - watch The Man Inside or The Good Place instead). Tried Baby Reindeer - jumped out after 15 minutes, tried Shogun - couldn't get into it. Tried Industry - couldn't get into it. Tried One Day - didn't make it past the first episode. Never heard of the others.

Shows that make the top of my list?

In no particular order and that I watched this year, and more importantly remember?

Slow Horses
The Bear
Arcane
Scavenger's Reign
The Man Inside
Bridgerton
True Detective: Night Country
The Diplomat
Somebody Somewhere
Fallout
Doctor Who (I like the new Doctor a great deal)

And I'm now drawing a blank...and admittedly haven't watched that much television this year? And a lot of it isn't all that memorable, apparently.

Out of curiosity: Why do you recommend The Man Inside or The Good Place instead of Nobody Wants This? Are the three shows in any way similar? What do The Man Inside or The Good Place better than Nobody Wants This?

They aren't similar at all. Completely different shows. But the similarity is they are all situation comedies. And two worked for me as situation comedies, and one really didn't.

Nobody Wants This is heterosexual rom-com between two thirty-somethings, one is a Rabbi and one is a irreligious podcaster (no real religious affiliation) - who talks about dating and sex. And their upper-income dysfunctional families living in and around LA. [I don't think I'm the demographic for it? It felt like Friends meets Sex in the City by way of the OC, which, are were all a lot better. I find it cloying, and offensive in spots, and outside of the two leads? I didn't like anyone. The humor is heavy on "embarrassment", "raunchy" (not in a good way) and "slapstick". Also, I felt like I'd seen it before, it was cliche in quite a few places, and felt like a rehash of half a dozen raunchy rom-coms.]

The Man on the Inside is about a retired engineering professor who takes a job with a private investigator to investigate a theft at an independent retirement center. It has more of an anthology aspect to it, in that each season is a different set-up and investigation. The humor is more absurdist, and related to the quirky character interactions. And unlike Nobody Wants This - it seemed to actually love all the characters, and provided moments for each. Kind of similar to the film Thelma. And it was different? While it reminded me a little of Only Murders in the Building, it was new and fresh.

The Good Place (which is by the same guy who did Man on the Inside - and prior to these to series, I didn't like this writer at all - he did Community, and Parks and Recreation and the Office - none of which I stuck with or enjoyed. Although I didn't mind Community and stuck with it the longest, so my issues with Schurr's work may be more related to the documentary style). This is story about a woman who dies and thinks she's in the Good Place. (But apparently she isn't.) It has lots of twists and turns, likable characters, and is a metaphysical philosophical satire. It's different than anything else I've seen. Doesn't fall into cliche. And has a romance in it - that is at the center, but it works and has a slow burn. It also doesn't follow tried and true tropes, and actually has something to say.

Thanks for answering! I liked the first episode of Nobody Wants This well enough but quickly lost interest. There was nobody to root for and I didn't actually care about the two leads, their relationship, or their annoying family members.

Are you talking about Michael Schur? He was behind The Office and Parks and Rec but I don't remember him being involved with Community. Since I have

The Man on the Inside is definitely on my list. I'm not sure I'll ever watch The Good Place since I cannot remember it ever being available on any of my streaming services over here.

Yes, Michael Schur - but I was certain he did Community? Oh, you are right. I looked it up - it was written by Dan Harmon. Schur did Hacks, The Office, Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place and Man on the Inside. I only like The Good Place, Man on the Inside, and Hacks but it could partly be the documentary style nature of the others...

And I agree, the two leads of Nobody Wants This...weren't that interesting. I think I stuck with it for the actors who portrayed them more than their characters. But I won't be watching a second season.

Edited 2024-12-31 23:20 (UTC)

s. And unlike Nobody Wants This - it seemed to actually love all the characters,

Apparently the sisters were based on real-life sisters, one of whom created the show (and who Joanne - Joanna? - is based on), the other of whom I think has some involvement. And I wonder if that's part of the problem. Joanne/Joanna's sister is the worst, but if she's based on the creator's real sister, I can see that not being recognizable. Having been in writing groups, I can tell you that happens a lot, where someone portrays someone horribly, but it's based on them or someone they know, so they don't even... realize just how awful it is.

ETA: I did some googling, and apparently I may have been wrong?

"“The sister character is not like Sara at all,” Erin said during a September 2024 episode of her podcast. “That was intentional, too. I wanted to create a fun sister dynamic. I had written about our dynamic [and I wanted something different]. I don’t think people will feel like it’s you when they watch it. I really don’t think so.”"

I just wouldn't call that a fun dynamic. But what do I know.

The show's also been criticized for its portrayal of Jewish women, and in retrospect, I have to agree. I do think they missed an opportunity to have the sister-in-law and Joanna/Joanne's sister bond - if the show really dug deep, you could posit that both were afraid of things changing and so desperate to keep things the same, to keep their people, that they'd do anything. But I don't think it wanted to go that deep.

In any case, I agree that in both The Man on the Inside and The Good Place, the writers clearly like the characters. And it does have good twists and turns. Also, I like that the characters in The Man on the Inside aren't just portrayed as silly elderly people, but instead fleshed-out characters.

Edited 2024-12-31 03:15 (UTC)

I knew the show-runner based the series on her romance with her husband. But I didn't know the sister was based partly on her own, and that she'd gone out of her way to make her sister completely different.

That actually explains a lot. While we're all told to "write what we know" - there are pitfalls to that. I was once told not to write in the first person because - of the tendency to write oneself into the story, and you either make yourself horrible or great (Mary Sue). It's easier to distance yourself from the characters if you write in the third person. (Although this tactic doesn't work for all writers.) I think the writer in attempting to change various characters, may have exaggerated certain traits that well, less is more? That's the difficulty with writing comedy - it's best to underplay certain things.

It also helps if you cast against the trope, as opposed to into the trope - although not always.

At any rate, I agree with you. It wasn't a fun dynamic - annoying yes, fun no. By the end of the third or fourth episode, I wanted to smack her sister upside the head, along with the straying brother.

The show's also been criticized for its portrayal of Jewish women, and in retrospect, I have to agree. I do think they missed an opportunity to have the sister-in-law and Joanna/Joanne's sister bond - if the show really dug deep, you could posit that both were afraid of things changing and so desperate to keep things the same, to keep their people, that they'd do anything. But I don't think it wanted to go that deep.

Agreed. That's what offended me. The women were written in very broad strokes bordering on stereotype. The Rabbi's sister-in-law needed to be scaled back a bit. They appear to have figured out that pushing the Rabbi's married brother with his girlfriend's sister was not a good idea and a huge turn-off, so are remedying that in the second season. (It bothered me, and I can handwave a lot).

The difficulty with the rom-com genre is the writers don't do a good job of developing the side characters. They often just develop the leads. Bridgerton (which is really a satiric historical romance) is among the few that develops the side characters well, and doesn't use them as comic relief. Side characters are important, often as important if not more so than the leads - they pull in a wide audience. Nobody Wants This needs to do a better job with their side characters.

**

The writers behind Man on the Inside and the Good Place - did two things well, casting and development of characters. Those shows - put character above plot, and let the characters drive it.
Man on the Inside much like Nobody Wants This - is based on a true story. It was adapted from a documentary film about a man who goes inside a retirement facility to uncover elderly abuse, they just changed various things or lifted the general idea, and cut out all the negative bits. I think it helped that the showrunner wasn't writing about his own experiences and had some distance. It's very hard to see the flaws in a story and characters - if you are too close to it, I think?

I actually think they missed an opportunity with the SiL and with the Morgan (sister) character. Both of them seemed to be acting out of not wanting things to change, or to lose their sibling. It would have been interested if they'd banded together in some way, rather than the weird emotional affair between the Rabbi's brother and Morgan.

) I think the writer in attempting to change various characters, may have exaggerated certain traits that well, less is more? That's the difficulty with writing comedy - it's best to underplay certain things.

Definitely. Especially if a character is meant to be sympathetic. If Morgan had been intended to be more of a villain, then I think her characterization would have been... still cartoonish, but more justified.

You're right too that rom-coms run the risk of limiting side characters. It maybe works better in movies, where you don't spend much time with side characters anyway, versus a show where you have to have them.

s. I think it helped that the showrunner wasn't writing about his own experiences and had some distance. It's very hard to see the flaws in a story and characters - if you are too close to it, I think?

Yes! Agreed. I think that's very much the issue with Nobody Wants This. It's a little too close. Whereas the showrrunner here based it on a documentary. Interestingly, it seems the conclusion was the same, too. But the showrrunner also wasn't personally connected to the case, he just saw the documentary and ran with it.

The Guardian's 50 best TV shows of 2024

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