Extremely Belated Top 12 TV Shows of 2024

A long tradition that's dated to 2009

1. Decameron (Netflix)-A group of nobles, servants, and a couple of in-betweeners escape the bubonic plague in a castle and hijinks ensure. Think of it as Downton Abbey on steroids. Plus, there is a 100% guarantee that all characters will be medically stupid because, well, medical science wasn’t that were removed from leeches and lobotomies. With Zoshia Mamet, Saoisre Monika-Jackson, and Tony Hale among others, this is a series that's also rich on characters.

 

2. Kaos (Netflix)-The modern reinterpretation of Greek myths swings for the fences with every stylistic choice it makes.
If you're looking for a plot guide, we'd be here all day because it's a combination of seven or eight Greek epics, but the storylines merge impressively enough together towards a coherent whole. It dawned upon me when I was approaching this write-up that Greek mythology might very well be history's first extended universe. If so, it's one I'd take over Marvel any day.

 

3. Ghosts, CBS- Utkarsh Ambudkar and Rose McIver star as a yuppie couple from the Big Apple who inherit a mansion that’s inhabited by eight ghosts of different eras. There’s a Viking who grunts a lot; a Native American; an effeminate Revolutionary War captain; a 19th Century schoolmarm with aristocratic roots; a sassy flapper from the Prohibition Era; a flower child who is permanently tripping through the afterlife; a square scout leader from the 80s; and a Wall Street playboy from the 90s. The octet makes for a brilliantly strange found family of people whose only commonality is that they died in the the same spot -- seemingly all of them in comic ways. Each year, the show does a solid job of finding ways to expand its world further out—whether through recurring characters or new revelations about the existing ten—while also balancing the need for the show to be maintained as popcorn TV.

 

 

4. Nobody Wants This, Netflix-The incompatibility between Jewish values (which discourages intermarriage, if not outright bans it in some sects) is never easy to reconcile with our modern-day conception of romance and free will. Kristen Bell plays a sex podcaster , Joanna, who falls into an unlikely romance with a hunky junior rabbi, Noah, played by Adam Brody. Although he seems more convincing as a yarmulke-wearing Sex and the City love interest than as a religious leader (he skips out on the sabbath to go on a double date, oy vey!), the series deals with his character inconsistencies well. He seems to be broadcasting entirely different things between his head and heart. It's an episode where we have no idea what's happening. Why is he following her into a car on the middle of Shabbat. Even crazier, why is Sasha going along? Is this a date? It's also the start of Morgan and Sasha as sublime third and fourth wheels to this pairing.

 

5. Krapopolis- Animated show set in a city adjacent to the glory of Athens. The show gets endless mileage out of reality-bending plots and mythology gags. There's plenty of amusing in-fighting within this clan, but it's more along the lines of a family sitcom, making it a kinder and gentler cousin to the nihilistic-leaning Rick and Morty and Solar Opposites.

6. What We Do in the Shadows-The show about vampires living a mundane ennui-filled existence in Staten Island closed out its run with a necessary change in direction. Guillermo, no longer a familiar, but a crasher in their guest house who’s giving corporate America a go? Sure. But add in Nadja speaking in bro-code, Nandoor as a meek janitor, and Colin Robinson as an employee with rage issues: Sign me up! And the best new addition was Michael Patrick O’Brien (who I’ve never has never really done it for me before) as Jerry- a straight man vampire awakened from a 30-year slumber who seeks to rectify the fact that they’ve never done anything productive. Like last year, the season ended in a debatable move for Guillermo. Was it forward progress for the character? I vote no, but it wasn’t enough to move it out of the top 12.

 

7. Bodkin, Netflix - I’m willing to concede that Will Forte fans might not even remember this charming Irish murder mystery years from now when their doing a retrospective of his career. It’s a shame because this moody piece does a great job of bringing equal parts regional quirk, character beats, and moving parts. Will Forte stars as the titular podcaster looking to tell a good story, and his two assistants make great foils as he tries to refine his values in the face of adversity. His co-conspirators serve as excellent foils and rich characters alike. 

8. Futurama (Fox——> Comedy Central ——> Hulu)- In it’s 12^th season over 25 years, Futurama hasn’t eased up on the visual spectacle in its retro-futuristic tale of a delivery company that seems to do everything other than actually deliver packages. It’s episodes are divided by day-in-the-limelight character pieces (Bender’s Mexican heritage and Hermes inheritance of a Jamaican coffee farm were highlights), trippy sci-fi premises (it was hard to top “The Temp”), and through-the-looking glass takes on today’s cultural flash points (this year touched on Fashion Week, AI chat bots, NFTs and the Squid Game) to a mostly successful set of ten episodes.

10 The Gentlemen (Netflix)-Theo James (White Lotus) plays Eddie, a member of the British idle rich -- complete with title and all - who finds himself in over his head when he inherits a drug empire at his father's funeral. The show’s villains are wickedly cultured (great character actors like Max Beasley and Giancarlo Esposito do the trick); the aristocratic family (Daniel Inge, Joely Richardson) is amusingly aloof; and there’s a great Remington Steele vibe between Eddie and an heiress to a mob dynasty (Kaya Scodelario) for whom the flirtation is off the charts. The series is masterminded by Guy Pierce so there’s a definite visual touch with a lot of playful graphic overlays.

 

11 Cobra Kai (You Tube Red —-> Netflix) cobra Kai made the mistake of tying up so many loose threads before its final season. As a result, we had to endure a painful episode revolving around Johnny Lawrence throwing a girls sleepover complete with a Cyndi Lauper soundtrack. With the detente among warring dojos, Cobra Kai devolved into more of a hang out show, but by those standards, the show still succeeded in juggling a large cast of characters. Besides in the world of Cobra Kai, there is always adolescent anger out there in the world to be tamed (via increasingly epic karate battles) and new enemies to face. Maybe it’s my sentimentality over a show coming to an end that has consistently delivered at a transcendent level for its genre but the show deserves its victory lap and a place in my top 12 this year.

 

12. Tires, Netflix- Shane Gillis it is certainly a lightning rod that will equal parts hate and admiration (often for unjustified reasons with both camps). From a pure aesthetic perspective, Gillis’s comedy is not easy to decipher beneath the surface. His persona is of an overgrown sloth-ridden frat boy, there’s a lot to be said for how he uses that persona as a sledgehammer against political correctness. If you’re going to read the show solely as a manifesto against watching your words, however, you stand to miss that the show has a solid cadence and makes for good popcorn TV.

Runners-Up: Bad Monkey (Apple), Life and Beth (Hulu), Mulligan (Netflix), Thank God You're Here (Australian Channel 10), Baby Reindeer (Netflix), Death and Other Details (Hulu), X-Men 97 (Disney), Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (Disney), Manhunt (Apple), Resident Alien (SyFy)

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Top 25 Characters of 2024

 Another delayed listicle. I have long loved doing this 25 characters list.

You can see a couple of them here and another one here

1 Andrew Yancy (Vince Vaughn), Bad Monkey- Like the hard-boiled detective or the steadfast cowboy, Yancy marches to the beat of his own drummer. Yes, he would love to get it on with a hot detective, get his badge back, or enjoy tormenting his waspy neighbor (he’s more chaotic than lawful good), but not if it means letting a white collar criminal go free. It’s the archetype of the wayward American hero across multiple genres, but not many characters can walk the walk,  and talk the talk with such gusto. And it’s Vince Vaughn playing the part, so we know right off the bat, this guy can at least talk that talk.

2 The Goddess Deliria (Hannah Wadddingham) Krapopolis-Let’s face it. Most Gods have a hint of vanity. It’s sort of a requirement for the job, isn’t it? The difference between Deliria and your run-of-the-mill p is that she exists on pure vanity. And enough motherly instinct to make her recognizable for those of us with tough-love mothers. But not too much or the show wouldn’t be as riotously funny.

3 Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott), If Matt Damon’s snub at the Oscars for the 1999 film was one of the biggest tragedies of that era, it’s pretty remarkable that Scott can come in and fill those shoes with such fearlessness. Scott’s Ripley is somehow both more forcefully vindictive, and more understated than Damon’s creepy leech interpretation.

4 Jerry (Mike Patrick O’Brien), What We do in the Shadows-The key to adding a character late into the mix of a show’s run is they have to be rough around the edges. Jerry is a perfect foil in that he has the nerve to call out his fellow vampires on their sloth. Every character choice that went into to Jerry was a winner from his outfit as a Transylvanian butler, to his Pinky-and-the-Brainesque casualness about the task of taking over the world, to his aloofness to his role in a Nandoor-induced love triangle


5 Rogue, X-Men 97- If I were to rewatch an old episode of X-Men, it would be for the cringey puns based on ridiculous regional stereotypes. In other words, the Cajun Gambit, the Canadian lumberjack Wolverine, the Black Pantheresque Storm, and Southern Belle Rogue are the caricatures worth ironically laughing at, with a little bit of 90s child Jubilee adding some seasoning. In this attempt to mature the season to accommodate the aging of its primary fan base, the show has miraculously managed to keep Rogue cringe while giving her an actual arc.

6 and 7 Morgan (Justine Lupe) and Sasha (Timothy Simons), Nobody Wants This- I’ve been slowly learning that the difference between a romantic drama and a romcom is all in the supporting players. If there’s laser focus on the leads, then it’s the Richard Linklater Before series. Add the leads’ social circles as stand-ins for their romantic values, and add an extension a dose of quirk and it’s a party. That’s what you have here with a will-they-won’t-they-oh-no-they-can’t….can-they?

8 Amanda LaRusso (Courtney Henggeler) Cobra Kai- The bizarreness of a modern-day high school environment (with its emphasis on anti-bullying compared to the ‘80s), in which teenagers have to learn karate just to survive a Mad-Max-like dystopia of constant bullying, has had a strong need for a deadpan skeptic like Amanda. But at the end of the series run? Screw it. Amanda as the karate equivalent of a soccer mom feels like a more apt direction at this point.

9 Tindaro (Dougie McMeekin) The Decameron-My favorite show of the year was an upstairs-downstairs comedy set in a century where both sides of the societal divide were equally at the mercy of plague-carrying rats. And the bumbling hypochondriac Tindaro would probably not get very far in the “who lives longest” betting pool. But this rotund ball of delight proved full of mettle in a relatively dynamic arc.

10 Eddie Horniman (Theo James)The Gentlemen-In an era when nepobaby is a bad word, it’s not easy to root for anyone with such generational privilege. But it certainly helps that Eddie is never more than a couple false moves from having his head, the heads of those he cares about, and those under his employ blown off. As the title suggests, he’s a sly operator but also a class act.

11 Rufus Coatesworth, Death and Other Details-Considering there are so many takes on the eccentric, tunnel-vision. detective — whether modeled after Hercules Poroit, Sherlock Holmes or whatever the hell Daniel Craig is doing in Knives Out — it’s pretty remarkable for Mandy Patinkin to come up with such a unique creation here, as the detective entrusted with solving the murder of his protégé’s mother.


12 Dove Maloney (Siobhan Cullen), Bodkin- Fitting squarely in the category of female firecrackers who won’t let anyone put them in a box, Dove is the best of the trope. Of course, it helps for a hard-core journalist to have a great foil, in the hapless podcaster Bodkin (played with aplomb by the introspective Will Forte): A directionless and obtuse foreigner particularly with what she sees is a naive kindness.

13 Principal Cinnamon Scuttleworth (voiced by Phil Lord), Clone High- It was thrilling to see my favorite one-season wonder return to the airwaves but the sharp edges of these characters had been filed off and the new additions were pure vanilla. Except Scuttleworth. He has the hamminess of a cartoon villain with a couple ounces of pathos for good measure. You might enjoy seeing him blown up like a Looney Tunes villain, but you root for him to piece himself back together for his next crazy scheme.


14 Nadja, What We do in the Shadows-The best thing about the “Guillermo and the vampires become tech bros” arc is how enthusiastically Nadja assimilated. Her treatment of Guillermo and most other humans as pesky miscreants who are mostly useful for menial labor and meals, so she was always a good fit for the world of passive aggressive one-upmanship of Wall Street.

15 Dexter (Leo Woodall), One Day- What’s this, the thug from White Lotus is a sensitive heart throb underneath all those tattoos? Well, even as a straight guy, I thought Woodall was pretty hunky. But watching him sell this gender-flipped beauty and the geek romance. I’m impressed.


16 Dr Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) , Evil-The show gets a lot of mileage out of this extremely charismatic actress who telegraphs so much with her face.
17 The Bleacher Creatures, Clone High-We all know that the cool kids in school are never the most interesting. Giving Christopher "Topher" Columbus villain friends was the best thing the second season ever did.  
18 Det. Helen Chamberlain (Danielle MacDonald), The Tourist-A brilliant detective with a heart of gold. That successfully sets up a labyrinthine plot to get away from an evil captor and can't pull it off. That's an interesting choice.
19 Mr Beast (James Donaldson), Beast Games-The Beast Games were a disappointment, but it was an interesting glance into the mind of history's most successful YouTuber. Despite attempts at cancellation, he's one to root for.
20 Ethan Crum (Greg Larsen), The Tourist-Helen, Elliot, meet your comic relief. Now that that's out of the way...
21 Beatrice Worth (Brooke Lena Johnson), Cruel Intentions-If the show (like the movie) is centered against the two amoral step-siblings, then Beatrice is your sidelined hero. She had casual sex with one sibling (let's applaud her for sex positivity) and tried to pledge three times to the sorority of the other, but adolescents are complex and conflicted. She's still the right person to take down the elitism in my book.
22 Android SM 33 (voiced by Nick Frost), Star Wars: Skeleton Crew- Confession, I just li
23 Frank the Temp (I can't even remember; that's the point), Futurama-At long last! Someone who's less respected among the crew than Zoidberg
24 Colin Robinson (Mark Porsch), What We Do in the Shadows-Colin has always been a wonderfully jagged fit to the rest of the vampires, and I'll miss him tremendously. Who ever thought of a villain who's super powers were based off boringness. 
25 Heather (Edi Patterson), Resident Alien-Heather, the avian alien who visits Earth for a bureacratic check-up, has a resistant courtship and an epic whirlwind romance. It's thanks to Heather, we now know how Harry's gills are cleaned. We are eternally greatful.