Our critics supply their TV favorites of 2024.

Sarah Osman

English Teacher: Brian Jordan Alvarez’s English Teacher is a snarky sitcom about what it means to be a public school teacher in America today. Silly, sardonic, but also sweet, English Teacher was an unexpected pleasure. Considering that the series only received eight episodes, it should hopefully rate a second season.

Palm Royale: A clever take on the formulaic “eat the rich” trope, Palm Royale is a fun and sassy ’60s version of The White Lotus. Despite taking place over 50 years ago, the show’s themes remain apt today. Every cast member (but especially Ricky Martin and Carol Burnett) has a blast camping it up, and the art design, costumes, and sets are a vibrant feast for the eyes.

The Vince Staples Show: While most audiences know Vince Staples from Abbott Elementary or his music, they should check out his surreal satire, which follows his absurdist adventures, from a mac and cheese cook-off to wrongly being put in jail. The series is full of oddball background details, like a family fighting over who wins in a game of musical chairs.

The Woman in the Wall: This Irish thriller takes on the horrors of the Magdalene Laundries, hellish facilities designed to rehabilitate “fallen women.” Ruth Wilson commands the screen as Lorna, a woman who was subjected to the laundries as a teenager. She now may have killed someone. But she doesn’t know if she actually did murder someone, or if it’s just a fantasy born of past trauma. Few TV shows or films have so perfectly captured the abuse of these religious “asylums.”

St. Denis Medical: From the creator of Superstore, St. Denis Medical follows the nurses and doctors at a rural emergency room in Oregon. While the series is lighthearted and amusing, it also serves up a realistic look at the current medical crisis, particularly what health professionals have to deal with on a daily basis. The cast is stacked with sitcom veterans including Allison Tolman, David Alan Grier, and Wendy McLendon-Covey, alongside newer comedians Mekki Leeper (Jury Duty) and Kahyun Kim (Fire Island).

Chimp Crazy: Quite possibly the wildest docuseries to be released in 2024, Chimp Crazy shows what happens when women decide to make chimps their children. Helmed by Tiger King director Eric Goode, the show follows Tonia Haddix, a woman who is truly stranger than fiction, whose business is to own and sell exotic animals. Her personal favorite: a chimpanzee. When PETA raids and rescues the animals in Haddix’s care, this particular chimpanzee is nowhere to be found. What follows is a chronicle of Haddix’s unbelievable maternal actions, stories of other chimp moms, and the unfortunate consequences of deciding to keep a wild animal as a pet.

Hacks: Now in its third season, this series continues to prove it isn’t run by a bunch of hacks (sorry, couldn’t resist). Deborah (Jean Smart, brilliant as ever) decides to go for her dream of being a late-night talk show host, while Ava (Hannah Einbinder) is writing in Los Angeles on a Daily Show-type series. Predictably, their codependency gets the best of them. The season finale sets up the question that will inevitably be answered in season four: what happens when the student surpasses the teacher? Side characters were also given standout moments, but my personal favorite is Damien (Mark Indelicato)’s realization that he might have to handle finances.

We Are Lady Parts: Season two of this series had our favorite British Muslim lady punk band facing a new adversary: a rival group. At the same time, guitarist Amina (Anjana Vasan), one of the most relatable protagonists on television, enters her “villain era” except that she’s not that great at being a villain. The songs slap, the band struggles, and the series proves that Muslim women are far more than outworn stereotypes.

Feud: Capote vs. the Swans: Delightfully campy, the limited series follows the infamous feud between writer Truman Capote and his fabulous New York socialite gal pals. Yes, the camp is turned up to 11, but the actors bring considerable nuance to their roles, especially Naomi Watts and Chloe Sevigny. Tom Hollander, who plays Capote, has the most fun embodying the physicality of the writer, nailing everything from his indelibly identifiable way of talking to his mannerisms.

Abbott Elementary: Obviously

Honorable Mentions: Shogun, Masters of the Air, Somebody Somewhere

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Peg Aloi

I’ve had a busy year and haven’t been able to watch as many series as I’d like. I am saving some of the noteworthy possibilities for winter-blues-post-holidays binge watching. But I saw some fantastic new TV in 2024. Here are my favorites, and I will be posting more TV columns in 2025, I promise.

Baby Reindeer: A brilliant debut by writer-director Richard Gadd, who plays the lead role. A struggling comedian and bartender is relentlessly stalked by a lonely woman (Jessica Gunning) as he also deals with the aftermath of sexual abuse. This autobiographical story is riveting, moving, and often hard to watch, but is one of the best TV series of the year. (Netflix)

Ripley: This excellent limited series based on the novels of Patricia Highsmith features a stellar cast, including a white-hot Andrew Scott as Tom Ripley, a young grifter whose greed and sociopathic wiles allow him to charm a wealthy expat living in Italy (the always wonderful Johnny Flynn). Plenty of erotic undertones and noir atmosphere in this masterful thriller. (Netflix)

Feud: Capote vs. the Swans: Tom Hollander (who was great in Season 2 of The White Lotus) as Truman Capote is my pick for performance of the year. Adapted from the book Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era, this Ryan Murphy production blissfully relies on writers and directors other than Murphy (including Gus Van Sant) to deliver a witty, often dark, and thoroughly entertaining portrait of Capote via the society dames he kept in his orbit, played by marvelous mavens including Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloe Sevigny, Calista Flockhart, and Demi Moore. (Hulu)

Industry (Season 3): This high-quality series from HBO has finally caught on and boasts many new fans. I guess the financial industry lingo was a turnoff for some who didn’t stick around for the hot sex and lurid lifestyle antics of the employees of an investment bank in London. But binge-worthiness aside, the outstanding cast and top-notch writing and directing make this one of my favorite series of recent years. (HBO Max)

True Detective: Night Country: The well-loved detective series created by Nic Pizzolato returns with women at the helm. Issa López directs Jodie Foster and Kali Reis as two mismatched cops with deeply flawed personal lives working to solve a grisly multiple murder in a remote Alaska town. The excellent cast also includes Fiona Shaw, John Hawkes, and Christopher Eccleston. (HBO Max)

The Gentlemen: Guy Ritchie, known for his clever crime caper films that all started to look the same after a few years, helms this smart, funny, suspenseful story of two brothers (Theo James and Daniel Ings) who are suddenly tasked with running their family’s huge English estate. Their new responsibilities include working with the longtime tenants who run one of the biggest cannabis operations in the country. (Netflix)

Griselda: Sofia Vergara is absolutely brilliant as Griselda Blanco in this intense biopic series from the producers of Netflix’s Narcos. Blanco ran one of the biggest drug empires in Colombia and Miami, amassing wealth and becoming legendary for her business acumen and often ruthless leadership. In Spanish and English, this stylish series features a fantastic cast and great direction. (Netflix)

Agatha All Along: I’m not a huge follower or fan of the Marvel universe, but I got caught up on it to watch this series about witches. Kathryn Hahn (one of the best actresses working today) is terrific as Agatha, a powerful witch caught up in the time-warp spell of witchy enemy Wanda (aka the Scarlet Witch). While there’s plenty of witchy humor and compelling visuals, not to mention a powerful cast featuring Patti Lupone and Aubrey Plaza, I found this one uneven, though it starts out with a brilliant homage to HBO’s Mare of Easttown. (Disney+)

Under the Bridge: This well-written crime procedural stars the excellent Lily Gladstone (whose electrifying debut in Certain Women won her a Best Supporting Actress award from the Boston Society of Film Critics) and Riley Keough (The Lodge, Daisy Jones & the Six) as two detectives working to solve a horrifying murder of a teenage girl in a small town. Based on a true story (and Rebecca Godfrey’s book of the same title), the series was developed by young powerhouse Quinn Shephard, whose excellent film debut at age 22, Blame, was obviously the start of something big.

Expats: Nicole Kidman had a very busy year. In Expats, she plays Margaret, a woman whose family suffers a tragedy soon after they move to Hong Kong. Directed by Lulu Wang, adapted from Janice Y.K. Lee’s novel The Expatriates, the story is told in shifting time periods and perspectives. Intriguing subplots weave the lives of wealthy expats in Hong Kong with the cultures of people who work for them. (Amazon Prime)