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Best TV of 2024 – what’s your POV?

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Follow on to the “Best TV from the first Half of 2024” thread from earlier in the year so have done my best – probably not always successfully – to minimize duplication.

As in previous years, there’s no poll (feel free to start a dedicated TV vote if you wish) – just a overview of what I – and hopefully you – thought was worthwhile watching.

BEST OF THE BEST

An excellent year for TV in general and for Netflix which began the year on a high with the Aussie series BOY SWALLOWS UNIVERSE, a captivating twist on dysfunctional family dramas. With RIPLEY and BABY REINDEER continuing to keep the standard high, the streamer ended the year with the one-two punch of a couple of very more-ish thrillers, THE MADNESS and BLACK DOVES.

ITV also had a pretty good year starting off with MR BATES AND THE POST OFFICE and climaxing with Anna Maxwell Martin (Motherland, Line of Duty) as the off-kilter female protagonist of UNTIL I KILL YOU.

With the channel having emerged more or less unscathed from its attempted euthanasing by Mad Nad, C4 delivered more than its fair share of bangers, too. Chief among them was Kiwi drama, AFTER THE PARTY, which featured stunning performances from both Peter Mullan and Robyn Malcolm. While not seen RM in the acclaimed but criminally little-seen OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE from a few years back, plan on rectifying my oversight in 2025.
Other strong C4 dramas included THE GATHERING and TRUELOVE.

C4 also broadcast a couple of excellent docs in the form of THE RISE AND FALL OF BORIST JOHNSON and 1984 MINERS STRIKE: THE BATTLE FOR BRITAIN. As good as the latter doc was, I think the Beeb’s own take on the Scargill/Thatcher smackdown just shaded it.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE TV

The Berlin Wall (C4 Walter Presents) If you liked Deutschland 83, 86 and 89 or The Same Sky, you’ll like this

Mirzapur (Prime) Third and final series of an ultra-violent Indian gangster show – well worth trying if you’ve not seen it.

State Of Happiness (BBC) – Latest outing for an unsung and understated but hugely enjoyable Norwegian series about how the coming of oil in the 1980s impacted a small fishing village.

STILL GOING STRONG

The Boys (Prime) Not the best of this scintillating satire’s four seasons to date, but the fifth and final season promises to be a cracker.

Colin from Accounts (BBC) Second series of very funny Aussie comedy

Last King of the Cross (Sky) Solid Aussie gangster show

Slow Horses (Apple)

GOING, GOING GONE (BUT NOT FORGOTTEN)

My Brilliant Friend (Sky) Fourth and final series of Italian TV’s magnificent adaptation of Elana Ferranti’s Neapolitan Quartet.

Alma’s Not Normal (BBC) Second and concluding series of this quirky Bolton-set comedy

Sherwood (BBC)

Responder (BBC)

GONE BEFORE THEIR TIME

Kaos (Netflix) – splendid modern update on Greek mythology. Inexplicably killed off after just one season.

OVERRATED

Masters of War (Apple) Overpaid, oversexed and over here – and all these years later the boys from the USA are still banging on about how they single-handedly won the war

Disclaimer (Apple) All the pre-broadcast hype in the world couldn’t save this confusingly pretentious steaming turd of a show.

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Comments

  1. Reason for the lack of shows from Disney and Paramount is that it’s been a while since I took out one-month subs and have a lot of catching up to do.

    Obvious suggestions aside (The Beatles, Beach Boys, Riders, etc on Disney, and Yellowstone on Paramount) suggestions as to what I should watch on either are welcome

    • Well we all have different views as I thought Disclaimer was excellent. Thought provoking and kept you guessing until the end.

      The series that was awful was Apples never fall Started with promise but fizzled out into a damp squib well before the last episode.

    • Was watching After The Party last night. Can’t quite see it myself – terribly boring. Lots of chewing of scenery but I’m only 2 eps in and hopeful of quickening of pace. At moment, its just everyone driving or biking around in a strop

  2. Think I watched 3 UK shows, EastEnders, Masterchef and Ludwig. All were ok to fine.

    Otherwise been watching The Bear, that’s good. And I watch sport on weekends and a fair amount of YouTube stuff. Oh and new Frasier is pretty bad

    Guess I don’t watch much TV these days.

  3. Far and away the best thing I’ve seen lately is Thou Shalt Not Steal, a riotous outback comedy/crime series directed by Dylan River, who’s Warwick Thornton’s son. Fantastic performances, especially from the young Aboriginal female lead. It’s a riot from start to finish, yet somehow manages to deal with real issues in a sensitive and thought-provoking way. Don’t know when or if it’ll make it to Blighty, but highly recommended if it does.

  4. Thanks for the tip

    Some terrific series coming out of Oz these last few years. Chief among them are Rake and Wilfred – both of them sadly undermined by shoddy US remakes that will deter anyone who’s seen them from hunting out the vastly superior originals.

    Underbelly was another goodie and event the Grand Guignol Wentworth had its fair share of moments.

    Have you seen Last Days of the Space Age yet, M? Believe it;s available on Paramount over here so will try and check out over Xmas

    • Last Days of the Space Age is Disney+ over here, from which I’m on a break – I’ll keep an eye open though, looks like a goodie. Anything with Deborah Mailman in is ok by me.

  5. Recent watches …

    Day of the Jackal has been excellent, if a little overstretched into too many episodes.

    We watched Moonflower Murders on BBC (mainly because Mrs. T likes a murder mystery), but I got caught up in it too. The conceit is intriguing, if a bit confusing at first. We then watched Magpie Murders, which was the first series from two years ago, and that was even better, possibly because it actually explained some of the set ups in the second series. Watch Magpie Murders first – very Agatha Christieish, but with a modern twist. Lesley Manville is great.

    Wolf Hall is just sumptuous and must be one of the best things this year.

    • We’ve just started watching Unforgotten – late to the party, I know. It’s terrfic – Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Baskhar are excellent.

      I enjoyed Day of the Jackal, although I have questions…it was a solo effort as Mrs thep wanted nothing to do with it.

  6. Given the comments on another recent thread I’m raising my periscope above the trench and declaring a love for Only Murders In The Building.

    Season 4, which aired from August, had the most preposterous plot which relied heavily on a major character from Season 1 doing an even more preposterous thing to keep the story going. But it did with such brazen cheek I had to give in to it.

    It’s all ham and scene chewing from absolutely everyone, not just Martin Short. It’s funny though.

    • We started on OMITB from the beginning only recently, and binged our way through until we reached the last few episodes of season 4 – only to find they were released weekly, so we had to wait for each one. Thoroughly enjoyed it – mad, but always entertaining.

      • This!

        I like Steve Martin so I was on board from the first season and watched them all up to Season3, as they were released over the years. My wife wasn’t interested at all. I was just about to begin Season 4 and called my daughter down from upstairs to watch the first episode of that with me. She was immediately tickled so I had to sit through all of the first 3 seasons again with her before we could proceed.

        I didn’t mind at all. Mad, daft and occasionally very funny. The female police detective and the grump Uma stole the show as far as we were concerned.

          • I like the story they’ve both told of their first meeting.

            Martin is showing Short his priceless art collection. Short’s opening comment: “How did you get this rich? Because I’ve seen your work …”

          • Well that throws the investigation into a whole new direction.

            😁

            Martin Short is playing Martin Short And a Bit More, I agree. I can live with that given the dialogue and how much the supporting cast all get a bite at the apple, too. Nathan Lane and Jane Lynch especially.

            I think I also heard Martin Short describe Steve Martin as so pale he looked like a white wig on a urinal.

  7. A few faves off the top of my head:

    The Boys – finally caught up with it, and binged it one episode after another. Frighteningly prescient re its satire. Unfortunately, it’s so out there and, erm, adult that it’s hard to recommend to anybody who isn’t really into that sort of thing.

    The Day of the Jackal – very good (although not as tense as the film, nor book – as others have said, it’s too long). Eddie Redmayne is convincingly cold, and the obviously high budget has been very well spent: Tallinn, Spain, Croatia, etc.

    Mr Bates vs the Post Office – the first TV drama that made me very angry indeed. It was also one of the first I’ve seen that while watching made me think “This show could actually change things.” (Cathy Come Home and its ilk was before my time.)

    Vienna Blood – terrific period crime drama, with a lovely relationship between the two leads, and some ingenious crimes/solutions. Juerger Maurer is wonderfully dry as world-weary cop Oskar. The final series was a worthy send-off.

    1883 – nicely done prequel to Yellowstone from the seeming one-man story factory Taylor Sheridan. I found the finale intensely moving.

    Lego Masters – E4 might have a relatively tiny viewership, but it does have some gems, and the latest series of LM (called Grandmasters, and featuring winners of previous series) is one of them. As I may be the only person watching this Aussie treasure, here’s a summary: two-person teams are tasked with building something out of Lego on a different theme each week, in, say, 10 hours. What they come up with is usually extraordinary, but the icing on the cake is the presenters: Hamish Blake has an endearingly wacky sense of humour, and expert (and professional Lego builder) Brickman is often moved to tears when he has to eliminate a team. The duo’s love of creativity, and the embracing of the power of imagination, is heartwarming. If only Lego itself wasn’t so ruinously expensive…

    I know that as soon as I post this I’ll think of many more, but there you go.

  8. How did Black Doves go down with others? I thought it largely quite entertaining, if drawn out too long at the end, after the hefty exposition required to explain it all.(Something many directors are doing too much of, these days, at the expense of allowing viewers to work it out for themselves.) I can’t stand KK but she didn’t annoy as much as expected, reserving that for Ben Wishaw, who was (deliberately?) rather unlikeable. Star, for me, was Ella Hyland, as Williams, she also given the best line in the whole 6 parter. (Spoiler alert: county in the far south east of England.)

  9. Couple of other continuing series that are worth checking out – DEVIL”S HOUR (Prime) and THE DIPLOMAT (NF). Former is a time travel crime show while the later started out as a comedy drama but has now gone full-tilt drama

  10. I’ve recently watched Cleddau on the iPlayer and can heartily recommend it. It’s a Welsh crime drama starring Richard Harrington who was also in the Welsh/English crime drama Hinterland a few years back.

    Also a big thumbs up from me for Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams. The most heartwarming piece of television I’ve seen for years.

    • Did you ever see A Mind to Kill with Philip Made which – IIRC – BBC Wales made in the late 1990s, @Smudger? Terrific series which never got the wide audience it deserved. Pretty sure a couple of eps are up on YT – including the one in which PM takes recenge on David Warner’s character who knocked down and killed his wife when he was pissed

      • It’s some time ago so my memory might be a little faulty but I have a vague memory of the continuous Welsh downpour relenting to a light drizzle for ten minutes on 6th August 1978.

        • If you couldn’t see across the valley to the chapel, it was raining.
          If you could see across the valley to the chapel, it was about to start raining.

  11. Lincoln Lawyer reliably fun and watchable.

    Tulsa King went a bit silly.

    The Agency has just started but is shaping up nicely.

    Day of the Jackal is too stretched out, agreed. And I think perhaps greenlighting a 2nd series may constitute a massive spoiler?

  12. Huge fan of Deutschland 8* here, so will give Berlin Wall (note: no ‘The’ when searching All4) a go.

    The Same Sky isn’t available to stream anywhere in the UK at the moment, and the DVDs have no English subtitles. My German language skills extend to travel and feeding myself, but not to cold war espionage.

  13. Across the other side of town, the laughably bad (IMO) True Detective: Night Country has just added a Golden Globe nomination to its Emmy nomination.
    That’s why I come here for my recommendations..

  14. Looking at the Golden Globe’s special award reminded me of one of my recent faves: A Man on the Inside (Netflix). Ted Danson in the true story of an investigation inside a sheltered living facility/retirement home.

    Much funnier than it sounds, and also beautifully moving and poignant. Danson, who I’ve liked since Cheers back in the day, absolutely nails his part as a man who’s out of his depth as a detective but still determined to do a good job. And the supporting cast of seasoned TV and film performers really gel. Thoroughly recommended.

  15. While I like a gritty drama with the best of them I do lean towards the trashy rather a lot. Top TV watching in 2024 has been :

    Only Connect
    The Chase
    Mr Bates and the Post Office
    Baby Reindeer
    A Man on the Inside
    Traitors NZ and UK
    Only Murders in the Building
    Chernobyl
    Colin from Accounts
    Married at First Sight UK
    90 Day Fiancé (USA)
    Celebrity Catchphrase
    The 1% Club UK (the Australian one is awful)

    The problem with the Australian 1% Club is the presenter. He’s a total bell end, making jokes about wanking and ramming in a leering sexual innuendo every few seconds. He makes Gregg Wallace look like Robert Robinson in comparison.
    The show’s UK iteration is exactly the same, but becomes a genuinely entertaining show thanks to the quick, good-natured wit of Lee Mack.

    • You watched MaFS:UK? No car crashes to watch nearer home? OK, it takes one and, yes, it was sorta compulsively awful. At least the Oz version has the distance to explain the ghastliness of the competitors. But the Brits seem way worse with no redeeming whatsoever.

      • As I am British, I tend to gravitate towards UK versions of things. With the Australian MAFS format, I heard that the dinner parties involve hours of drinking before the food arrives. Gets very messy.

    • 1. Loved the first series of Blue Lights and am very much looking forward to seeing the second.

      2. Was rather disappointed in the second season of Sherwood after rating the first season highly.

  17. I don’t have a subscription to anything other than Dodgers Prime so haven’t seen much of the TV described above. I grew up on television drama and comedy but just don’t watch it any more, although I do love a good documentary, particularly the sort that BBC4 used to excel at before their funding was cut.

    You’re more likely to find me searching the iPlayer or other catch-up platforms to binge on ‘lifestyle’ programmes. I enjoyed Michael Portillo’s Andalucia and his Long Weekends series earlier in the year. Jeremy Clarkson isn’t to everyone’s taste but Clarkson’s Farm was compulsive viewing. If you can stomach his bungling imbecile schtick this programme has done a huge amount to raise awareness of the plight of the British farmer, and seems to represent something that Clarkson is genuinely happy doing. I’ve also enjoyed George Clarke’s Remarkable Renovations and other series that he has fronted, alongside rediscovering Grand Designs after many years of not bothering with it. Although it’s not new I’ve really enjoyed the original Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares before he went to the US and the programme became more obviously stage managed. Ramsay is clearly on an enormous ego trip, but his straight talking effing and blinding at hapless incompetent chefs is strangely addictive.

    I’m a great believer in the power of gardening to succour the soul, so never miss an episode of Gardeners’ World, a show I would have spurned not that long ago. The programme has just got better and better under the stewardship of Monty Don, a true rock star of the genre. Mrs B and I went to see him in An Evening with Monty Don recently. He’s ferociously passionate about what he does and its power to heal. A very likeable and inspirational bloke.

    I’ve also binge-watched all the iterations of Masterchef this year. It’s sad to see that it’s become mired in the controversy of Gregg Wallace’s behaviour, but nothing seems immune these days.

    I’m a fan of Paul Merton’s deadpan humour, and have probably seen every episode of Have I Got News for You since the 90s. He has seemed more engaged with it recently, as for a time he seemed to be just phoning in his appearances and contributing little. Hislop is nothing short of a national treasure. I’ve enjoyed Room 101, which BBC Radio 4 has revived as a vehicle for him, and some kind soul has uploaded every episode of Just a Minute onto You Tube. It’s a show I listened to as a child, and still do, although its golden years were probably between 2000-2015. Sorry, I’ve moved away from talking about telly…..Deviation….

  18. Just finished Blue Lights season 2. Thought it was one of the best things this year despite stretching credibility at times. Definitely peaked as it reached it’s ending.

    Tokyo Vice season 2 still exceptional.

    Been some good comedies despite not as good as the first season syndrome. Comedies are still worth checking out anyway. I’m thinking Colin From Accounts and Somebody Somewhere in particular. The latter is unlike anything else, quite outrageous and touching.

    Diplomat 2 is well made and acted and entertaining. Felt a bit rushed. Often you want less episodes but not here.

    Currently coming toward the end of Robinson, the swedish Survivor that still returns every year. It’s one of the better reality series but too many twists. The Australian version is better, more action, more upbeat than the morose, irritable swedes.

    Baby Reindeer started strong then got too sordid but still gripping. Something original at least.

    American Nightmare on Netflix is a true crime documentary. A fuck up of a case from the police side. The victims treated terribly. An interesting examination of the weirdness of some criminals.

  19. I am using this thread to find some things to watch over the Christmas/New Year break. Could spoilers be possibly avoided, please? We all watch at different times and different paces these days.

  20. I’ll throw Until I kill you on ITV X into the ring along with The Walk In and the magnificent Arcane animated series on Netflix. Surprised nobody seems to have mentioned Fallout on Prime or the frankly preposterous and ludicrously violent Gangs of London formally on Now/Sky TV but currently showing on Netfilix at least here in the UK I don’t know about other territories. The Penguin has a pretty generic plot but two great central performances make it watchable. Slow Horses on Apple TV continues to entertain and I enjoyed Presumed Innocent far more than I thought I would. There are undoubtedly a few more I enjoyed but for now the titles escape me.

  21. My 2 favourite drama series of the year have both been Italian:

    – Everything Calls for Salvation (Tutto chiede salvezza).
    Really outstanding Netflix series. Two short seasons. I get the impression that it’s not very well-known in the UK. Give it a go. Unlike anything else on TV.

    – My Brilliant Friend (L’amica geniale)
    4th and final season of the scrupulously faithful adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet. The books simply could not have been rendered better on the screen. Hats off to everyone involved.

    My No.1 non-fiction series of the year was:

    Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland.
    A phenomenal series of interviews. Every second is gripping.

    • Not seen Everything Calls but as you share my love of MBF (mentioned in original post) and OUATINI (mentioned on post from first half of the year) will definitely give it a go.

      Have you seen Say Nothing on Disney. @duco01? Having read the harrowing Patrick Redden Keith book on which the series is based thought I was going to hate this. Stuck with it and ended up being glad I did.

      • I haven’t read the Patrick Redden Keith book, but I am interested in seeing the Disney+ series of “Say Nothing”. There’s so much to watch – one hardly knows where to go next!

        Diddley Farquar above mentioned “Somebody Somewhere”, and I’d just like to echo that recommendation. What a thoughtful, tender final season. It’s great when a series goes out on a high.

  22. Currently enjoying Day of the Jackal.

    Other TV highlights this year include:
    Mr Bates v the Post Office
    Slow Horses
    Until I Kill You
    Black Doves (good fun but became Christmas schmaltzy at the end)
    The Walk In
    Sherwood
    After the Party

    As ever I’m a sucker for Grand Designs and various of the George Clarke programs, but try and avoid Kirsty and Phil unless completely at a loss at what to watch.

    Absolute clunkers include the risible Nightsleeper and Harlan Coban’s The Stranger (made a while ago but popped up recently on Netflix) which was laughably bad.

    There will be many more, but am struggling to remember.

    • What is it about Harlan Coban, that every other Netflix Spain, France, Scandi etc etc is based on something by him? All largely the same story, too. It’s an automatic skip if we ever see his name mentioned.

  23. My top 10 for the year:

    1 Wolf Hall: The Mirror And The Light
    2 One Day
    3 Blue Lights
    4 Inside No.9
    4 Slow Horses
    6 Colin From Accounts
    7 Sherwood
    8 The Penguin
    9 Until I Kill You
    10 Baby Reindeer

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