The best television shows of 2024
From Wolf Hall to House of the Dragon, a look at the top new and returning series coming up this year
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House of the Dragon
The hotly anticipated follow-up to HBO's well-received first season of "House of the Dragon" is finally here. The prequel to "Game of Thrones" had massive shoes to fill but is doing so admirably. Author George R.R. Martin described the opening episodes of season two as "very dark" but "powerful, emotional, gut-wrenching, heart rending" in a blog post.
House Targaryen's family feud continues – and it turns out that the "homicidal gaffe" by Aemond One-Eye during the season one finale was "merely the first salvo", said Empire. Above all else, the show "remains a spiky, acidic human drama; an astute, timely and well-performed study of the way power and wisdom are so often mutually exclusive".
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Shardlake
It's been 20 years since the British novelist C.J. Sansom, who died in April, sold the screen rights to his first Shardlake mystery, said Vicky Jessop in the London Evening Standard. Now, Matthew Shardlake, his "Tudor lawyer-slash-detective", has finally "made it to the screen" – and the four-part series proves "worth the wait". This is "tightly plotted, gorgeously atmospheric" television.
The story unfolds in 1537. Thomas Cromwell (Sean Bean) has been given the job of dissolving the monasteries, and calls on Shardlake (Arthur Hughes) for his legal services. But, seeing that he is capable of more, Cromwell then sends him to a monastery in Sussex, where an envoy has been found decapitated. "There isn't a lot of joy to be found here", but the series is satisfyingly tense.
Bean only pops up briefly, and the drama "never quite kicks into a higher gear", said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. But on the plus side, it avoids "the current vogue for period dramas to be arch"; and Hughes imbues Shardlake with a sense of decency "without making him too much of a goody-two-shoes". Hughes is good, agreed Rachel Cooke in The New Statesman. But the series is "tediously anachronistic". A part of the monastery is "'closed for repair', as if it were a National Trust property". A woman talks about the harassment she has to "deal with", as if she's just finished Laura Bates's "Everyday Sexism". And there is a lot of CGI. We don't get "Merrye Englande", but the "Grand Anywhere we've come to know all too well in the age of streaming, and it bores me to death".
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Feud: Capote vs. The Swans
"Bold. Super stylish. Intelligent. Luxuriously made and unhurried." It's hard to watch Disney+'s "Feud: Capote vs. The Swans" "without reaching for hyperbole", said Anna van Praagh in the London Evening Standard. "In an age of algorithm-inspired" TV, "this eight-part, eight-hour series feels like one from a bygone Hollywood era". Based on real events, and directed (mostly) by Gus Van Sant, the drama tells the story of Truman Capote (Tom Hollander) and his bevy of "swans": the New York socialites who welcomed the writer into their inner circle, and then iced him out when he exposed their secrets in a 1975 magazine piece. He'd assumed that they wouldn't recognise themselves in a thinly veiled fictional account of their lives (an extract from a novel he never published); but they did – and it precipitated his social downfall. Hollander embodies Capote with "total mastery", and he is nicely supported by a cast that includes Calista Flockhart, Demi Moore and Chloë Sevigny.
Hollander is a fine actor, and he vividly captures the tragedy of Capote's decline, said Ed Power in The Irish Times. But the drama assumes you're already invested in the writer; if you are not, it can be hard to care what happens to him.
With its cast and fabulous story, this should have been a surefire hit, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. So how did star producer Ryan Murphy create such a dry, lifeless dud? There are enough good lines scattered about to keep you hoping that the Murphy magic will arrive. "But it never does."
This Town
"This Town", the new BBC drama from "Peaky Blinders" creator Steven Knight, is above all a love letter, said Singh in The Telegraph: to ska music, to the Birmingham and Coventry of Knight's youth, and "to youth itself with all its possibilities, heartbreak and comedy". Set in 1981, it stars Levi Brown as Dante, a young man with a gift for poetry whom we meet accidentally wandering into a riot in Handsworth. He eventually forms a band with his friend Jeannie (Eve Austin), and his cousin Bardon (Ben Rose), a talented dancer who keeps being "commandeered into helping his IRA-member dad raise funds for the cause". The BBC has billed the series as "a high-octane thriller", which is rather misleading, as it's not tense enough to be a thriller. Instead, it moves at its "own pace", and ensures you really care about its main characters.
I was, frankly, astonished at how much Knight had tried to stuff into the series, said Cooke in The New Statesman. "The IRA, Thatcherism, inner-city riots, the rise of ska, gangsters, skinheads, family breakdown, alcoholism, racism, the Catholic Church..." It's all here, yet the result isn't an enticing "fat novel of a show", but an over- egged mess. Well, I found it "an ingenious piece of work", brimming with "intelligence, ambition and heart", said Mangan in The Guardian. It's true that it takes some "getting used to", but it is "compelling from the off", and all the actors dig deep to bring out of this "bold, brilliant work all the profound heartbreak and wisdom that lies in it".
A Gentleman in Moscow
"Ewan McGregor is that rarest of things," said Hugo Rifkind in The Times: "a once perfectly acceptable actor who has grown into a brilliant one." For evidence of that, look no further than "A Gentleman in Moscow", based on Amor Towles's novel, in which he delivers a mesmerising performance as Count Rostov, an aristocrat living through the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. As a Tsarist "big nob", Rostov ought to have been one of the first "against the wall" – but he has been credited with the authorship of a revolutionary poem. So the Reds don't kill him, and instead place him under house arrest at Moscow's "swanky" Metropol Hotel.
"For many people, this fall in circumstances would be distressing", said Terry Ramsey in The Telegraph. "But Rostov – charming, witty, sanguine – takes it all in his well-heeled stride." And as he settles into his new life, we meet various fallen aristocrats, communist intellectuals, and a glamorous actress (played by McGregor's wife Mary Elizabeth Winstead). It must be said, there is not a great deal of drama in the first two episodes – but the story comes alive as he starts to plot against the country's new leaders. The revolution provides a "fantastic dramatic playground", said Jack Seale in The Guardian, and McGregor is in his element as Rostov – "a gourmand, a thinker, a drinker, a reader and a fighter". The drama may be too "lightweight" to be called "essential". "But your stay at the Metropol will be a pleasant one."
The Gentlemen
"The Gentlemen" is Guy Ritchie's first TV series, and is loosely based on his 2019 film of the same name; "but it takes a little while for the Guy Ritchie-ness to kick in", said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. The Netflix series begins with Army officer Eddie (Theo James, from the second season of "The White Lotus") being summoned home to the family seat, where his father, the 12th Duke of Halstead, lies dying. Also present are Eddie's haughty mother (Joely Richardson) and "cocaine-addled" older brother Freddy (a scene-stealing Daniel Ings). "So far, so 'Saltburn'." It's at the reading of the will that everything changes. To everyone's surprise, it is revealed that Eddie has inherited the estate, news that sends his brother into a foul-mouthed tailspin. "I've been stabbed in the heart. I've been London Bridge-d. I've been f**ked in the face," rails Freddy.
Soon, via a convoluted plot involving Freddy's drug debts and the discovery of a cannabis factory on the family estate, we're back in the larky world of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels", said Hugo Rifkind in The Times – a fictional land of "Cockneys on the make", "Vinnie Jones with big guns" and "tangential scenes in boxing rings"; plus, this time, a cool "gang princess" (Kaya Scodelario) and a drug lord played by Ray Winstone ("obviously").
Actually, I enjoyed it, said Carol Midgley in the same paper. Yes, it is all "too shouty" and twisty, and at times you may wish it would "dial down the slapstick" – but it's quite entertaining, and "it will make you laugh".
One Day
Were you ambivalent about the prospect of the new adaptation of David Nicholls's novel "One Day"? "I don't blame you," said Carol Midgley in The Times. The film version in 2011 was dire, not least because Anne Hathaway was fatally miscast as Emma – the clever, unglamorous, working-class young woman from Yorkshire whose relationship with handsome, public school-educated Dexter is at the heart of the story. But this TV adaptation, which tells the tale in 14 episodes, is a triumph: "tender, funny, heartbreaking" and "gorgeously shot". It stars Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall as the two friends, who meet and almost sleep together on their final day at the University of Edinburgh in 1988. We then revisit the pair on the same day – 15 July – for the next 20 years, tracking "their career ups and downs, their romances, their miseries".
The series isn't perfect, said Barbara Ellen in The Observer. "The Em-Dex connection sometimes feels less sexual/amorous, more mutually needy emotional vampirism"; the decades "barely register bar a busy soundtrack and asides about mobile phones"; Emma's ethnicity is scarcely mentioned (the character was originally written as white). But it's "riveting and moving", and superbly acted: Mod and Woodall excel, and are brilliantly supported by the likes of Eleanor Tomlinson, Jonny Weldon and Tim McInnerny. "I ended up much more invested than I thought I'd be."
"'One Day' has little new to say about love", and its portrayal of Emma and Dexter as total opposites attracting is perhaps a bit neat, said Dan Einav in the FT. "But what sustains it over 14 episodes is the intense, irresistible sense of fate that builds through the show. Only it doesn't lead where we might expect."
Tell Them You Love Me
"Louis Theroux is not one to shy away from a difficult story," and his latest film – made by his production company but not featuring him – is about the controversial relationship between a white American academic and an African-American man with severe disabilities, said Daniel Keane in the Evening Standard. Anna Stubblefield met Derrick Johnson in 2009 when his family contacted her, hoping that she'd be able to help Johnson – who had been born with cerebral palsy, and couldn't speak or walk or feed himself – to communicate. Soon, Stubblefield had him "talking" via a method called "facilitated communication", in which she would hold his arm as he pointed to letters on a keyboard. Their relationship became physical. She said they were in love – but his family claimed he was incapable of consenting to sex, leading to her being prosecuted for sexual assault. The documentary is strikingly balanced, but it is not for the "faint-hearted".
The film doesn't sensationalise the story, said Carol Midgley in The Times. But it does leave you with questions. What did Stubblefield's children make of the affair? Does she still love Johnson? It's a "memorable" documentary, but not a very rigorous one. Still, its breadth is remarkable, said Leila Latif in The Guardian. "Beyond consent, disability and race there is space given to reflect upon the nature of language, the 'white saviour' complex, the purpose of justice and what constitutes unconditional love." It's a "hard watch" to be sure, but "also a vital one".
Masters of the Air
"Masters of the Air" is an "epic Second World War drama" with a host of movie stars in its cast, including Austin Butler and Callum Turner, said Rebecca Nicholson in The Guardian. Yet this nine-part drama, produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg at a reputed cost of $250 million, "has arrived quietly and politely", on Apple TV. Still, the buzz will surely grow from here on in, as this "is truly fantastic television". Serving as a companion piece to "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific", it follows the men of the 100th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, who from 1943 undertook a series of highly perilous daytime bombing missions over Germany from a base in Norfolk.
This is "grand, traditional" TV that is so tense, you may have to watch through your fingers. "Masters of the Air" is "not perfect", said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. Predictably, it creates the impression "that the Americans won the War, with just a little help from the Soviets in the final furlong"; but this is one of the best-looking dramas you could hope to see (with a cast that is sometimes ridiculously handsome). The unit suffered such devastating losses it became known as the "Bloody Hundredth"; and you get a distressingly clear picture of what it must have been like to be a gunner on a B-17 bomber under fire. But ultimately, it's the quiet moments before the missions that get you. The special breakfast the men dub "the last supper"; a pilot making the sign of the cross before saying, "Here we go".
I found it a bit "syrupy and jingoistic", said Barbara Ellen in The Observer. But the aerial combat scenes are extraordinary: "sky ballets of death that place you with the men, inside the blood-spattered cockpits, breathing in their valour and terror".
The Artful Dodger
Are you in the market for "something escapist that will require little in the way of close attention or emotional investment", asked Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. If so, "walk this way" to Disney's sequel to Oliver Twist. At the end of Charles Dickens's novel, Oliver of course goes to live with nice Mr Brownlow while the Artful Dodger is sentenced to transportation to Australia for theft. This eight-part series picks up his story 15 years later. We find Dodger (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) now all grown up and making a name for himself as a trailblazing surgeon conducting gruesome operations in the penal colony of Port Victory. Then Fagin (David Thewlis) turns up among a shipment of convicts – "was he ever really going to let himself be hanged at Newgate?" – and blackmails Dodger into taking him on as his personal servant, and so their old partnership is resurrected. "Fast and great fun", the series has buckets of charm, and "a script that is admirably better than it needs to be".
I'm afraid it didn't charm me, said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. It's shot in the now ubiquitous style for period pieces – "hectic editing, a rock soundtrack" – and your tolerance for it will partly depend on your response to Brodie-Sangster's performance. I found him a "peevish smart alec". The tone is "light as gossamer", and it can be hard to care as the "plot twists its way along," said James Jackson in The Times. But the series has wit; Brodie-Sangster and Thewlis make a "fine double act"; and "it's all so breezy you barely pause to consider how unlikely the whole romp is".
Avatar: the Last Airbender
The first live-action adaptation of the iconic animated series came in 2010 and was critically panned. This 2024 Netflix offering seeks to make up for the sins of that flop and benefits from low expectations: Paul Tassi at Forbes went in with a "mountain of skepticism" and came out having "genuinely enjoyed" it.
Adapting "one of the most beloved" series of all time was always going to be a challenge, but this remake's changes don't "overwhelm the whole" and it comes off as a "love letter" to its source material. While some of the visual effects can be "too green-screeny", parts of it are "gorgeous" and the fights are "really quite good".
Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light
It's hard to believe that the BBC's adaptation of "Wolf Hall" first appeared on our screens nearly a decade ago, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. That series, which covered the first two books in Hilary Mantel's trilogy, followed Thomas Cromwell from the end of Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon to the king's "break with Rome, the crowning of Anne Boleyn and finally – though you ludicrously kept hoping otherwise – her execution". "Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light" covers the last volume and final four years of Cromwell's life, "and it does so as beautifully, movingly and immaculately as before". The script is a "miracle of compression and architecture", the story "never flags"; it is, in sum, "six hours of magic".
The story picks up a few days after Anne's execution, with the king (Damian Lewis) marrying Anne's lady-in-waiting Jane Seymour (Kate Phillips), said Chris Bennion in The Daily Telegraph. Mark Rylance returns as Cromwell, and here, we start to see him fray as he "begins to understand the limits of Machiavellianism". There are new cast members, including Harriet Walter as the scheming Lady Margaret Pole, and Timothy Spall as a "gratifyingly pugnacious" Duke of Norfolk. But in other respects there is no great departure – thank goodness. The pace might "challenge attention spans used to the churn of streaming content", said Dan Einav in the FT. This is "decidedly not bingeable. But it is appointment weekly viewing, just as it was back in 2015."