The best TV shows of 2024: Small-screen sophistication
Summary
Scattered across myriad channels and platforms, many of the year’s best series—including ‘Disclaimer,’ ‘Babylon Berlin’ and ‘The Penguin’—were both smart and cinematic.
Any “best of" list is intended to start arguments. A rock magazine could catalog “The 5,000 Greatest Accordion Players of Norwegian Death Metal" and some reader would likely find an omission. But given the balkanized state of television, listing the top programs of 2024 poses a particular problem: Few readers will likely have seen all the shows you list, not because they don’t have the time (which they don’t), but because the shows were scattered across myriad channels, venues, platforms and services.
Readers might wonder why this columnist frequently reviews PBS shows. Sometimes it is simply because they are good. But sometimes it is because most Americans have PBS. They might not have MHz Choice, which carried the entirety of the phenomenal “Babylon Berlin" after Netflix dropped it prematurely. They might not have MGM+ (“In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon"), or Paramount+ (“A Gentleman in Moscow"), or FX (“Shōgun") or even HBO (“The Penguin," “The Regime," “STAX: Soulsville USA"), where Lisa Heller and Nancy Abrahams have been maintaining the platform’s documentary standards despite the insidious encroachment of the Discovery/David Zaslav aesthetic. “Breath of Fire" was a particularly fine HBO nonfiction series, and that service retains its Cadillac status. But at the risk of sounding like a sports “journalist" plugging FanDuel, I think the best single purchase one can make these days is Apple TV+—where one could find “STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces," “Disclaimer," “Omnivore," “The New Look," “Pachinko," and the unbeatable “Slow Horses."
It isn’t a runaway; this column isn’t Consumer Reports; I’m as conflicted about Greater Apple as anyone. But its TV service does seem to have the highest standards and a consistency in bringing intelligent and even sophisticated content to an audience that used to go to the cinema for such stuff. Which brings us to that salient point.
One of 2024’s major arrivals, “Disclaimer," was not just a terrific series, with a serpentine narrative and a novelistic approach to how long-form TV can be done. It seemed to mark one of the more dramatic instances yet of major talent sidling away from theatrical films. Based on the Renée Knight novel, it had at its helm Alfonso Cuarón, generally considered among the better directors at work right now. The cast included Kevin Kline, Cate Blanchett, Lesley Manville and Sacha Baron Cohen. Each of its seven parts was entertaining; the Kline performance was both poignant and puckish. But it was also a comprehensive whole that justified its length, the ambition of its production and all the perplexing plot points that seemed not to make sense along the way but ultimately coalesced. One major publication ran a review by someone who seemed not to have watched the entire series. All the complaints were valid—if a viewer bailed out early. It would have been like leaving a seven-course meal after the soup. Of course you weren’t satisfied.
It was a year of standout performances that elevated the series they were in, notably Liv Lisa Fries and Volker Bruch in “Babylon Berlin," which has the sexiness and historical sweep all such period series should have; Kate Winslet, surpassing even her usual glorious self in “The Regime"; and married stars Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth Winstead in “A Gentleman in Moscow." Gemma Arterton was a delight in “Funny Woman," a “Star Is Born"-inspired U.K. import on PBS that seemed, incongruously enough, made for adults; Hiroyuki Sanada was rightfully lauded for his role in “Shōgun." As good as “The Day of the Jackal" is, it wasn’t the acting as much as the perpetual motion that kept me glued, though on reflection both Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch were icily charismatic, in a series that constantly toyed with one’s scruples.
Colin Farrell’s transformation in the Batman-free “Penguin" was miraculous, but so was his performance—he may have disappeared, physically, into the prosthetics, but the role was all-consuming, too. So was the character of Sofia Falcone, portrayed with genius by Cristin Milioti, without whom the show wouldn’t have been nearly as gripping as it was.
The swans of “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans" were playing real people. The real people playing themselves this year, including Mr. Martin, Mr. Simon and the titular capo of “Wise Guy: David Chase and ‘The Sopranos,’" were all treated like princes by filmmakers Morgan Neville and Alex Gibney. Also, in the case of “The Incomparable Mr. Buckley," Barak Goodman. Jamila Wignot did more than justice to the history of STAX records and the people who created it. The final frontier, being penetrated and exploited by a passel of entrepreneurial wannabe-Musks, was explored in “Wild Wild Space" by documentarian Ross Kauffman, who knows a billion-dollar boondoggle when he smells one.
Elsewhere, “Hacks" and Jean Smart were consistently hilarious; I am fond of “The Diplomat"; “Bad Monkey" was a romp. “The Bear" continues to conform to the concept of being nonconformist, by which it can and did get in trouble, and “Jeopardy!" is a mess: When no one knows the answers, Ken, maybe the questions are too obscure, or sophomoric, or, worse, clever. Since I can no longer watch the news, or whatever masquerades as such, I watch “Milk Street" and learn how to make a bête noire or za’atar flatbreads. Most cooking shows are cookie-cutter, pun intended, and most reality TV comes out of a programming pasta machine that hasn’t been cleaned since Mamma Leone’s closed. Which, sad to say, eliminates much of what is on—mediocre drama, quiz shows hosted by celebrities, profiles of serial killers and Renewal by Andersen. But no one can watch it all anyway.
Mr. Anderson is the Journal’s TV critic. Check back each Monday for more Best of the Year coverage, and find a complete collection of it online at wsj.com.
