From streaming to cable to regular broadcast, there’s an overwhelming abundance of quality television this year. But for our money, these were the 10 best TV shows of 2024.

Honourable mentions:

15) What We Do In The Shadows, 14) Dan Da Dan, 13) Slow Horses, 12) Girls5Eva, 11) The Penguin

10) We Are Lady Parts

Nida Manzoor’s anarchic comedy about an all-female Muslim punk band called Lady Parts trying to make it in the U.K. was the sleeper hit of 2021. Although it took three years for its second season to come around, this show has not lost a step. Season two sees the band finally achieving a modicum of success - but with their fledgling popularity comes new issues that finds the girls grappling with timeless questions about art, commerce, feminism, and representation.

9) Shogun

A lavish series based on James Clavell's novel of the same name. Set in feudal Japan, Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), British sailor John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) and translator Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai) are brought together as a civil war threatens to rip the country apart. This sprawling, 10-part drama goes beyond a Westerner’s outside perspective to survey complex themes of faith, honour and culture clash through the lens of political intrigue.

8) Interview with the Vampire

Interview with the Vampire remains a sensual, gothic revelation in season two. Every frame is as florid as Anne Rice’s ornate prose, staying faithful to the book’s tone and spirit, if not always to its details. The story goes from New Orleans to WWII Europe as Louis (Jacob Anderson) continues to relay his biography to a reporter, detailing the harrowing events that occurred after he and Claudia (recast as Delainey Hayles) murdered their maker Lestat (Sam Reid).

7) Oshi No Ko

Oshi No Ko delivered one of the greatest anime debuts of all-time last year, and season two more than maintains that quality. While Aqua’s quest to find his mother’s killer remains the overarching plot, this season mostly deals with the challenges of producing a 2.5D Stage Play. Just as season one gave us an inside look into music and TV, season two offers sharp insight into the creative and commercial processes behind Japan’s theatre and manga industries.

6) Baby Reindeer

A devastating, dark and deeply upsetting portrayal of a man both traumatized by and dependent on his abusers’ attention. Based on Richard Gadd’s autobiographical one-man stage show, which was informed by his own horrifying experiences, Baby Reindeer finds Gadd starring as a fictionalised version of himself named Donny. This petrifying yet empathetic tale of a stand-up comedian pushed to the brink by a stalker is twisted, stomach-churning and totally compelling.

5) Somebody Somewhere

In the third season of this sweet and big-hearted series, Sam (Bridget Everett) finally settles into her tiny Kansas community and tries to navigate change without retreating into old habits of isolation and self-loathing. Just as magical as ever, the final season of Somebody Somewhere is a stunningly honest depiction of friendship and everyday courage. Beautifully capturing the quiet charm and monotony of small-town living, this life-affirming show is a compassionate gem.

4) X-Men ‘97

Continuing on from the acclaimed X-Men cartoon of the 1990s, many assumed that X-Men ‘97 would be yet another nostalgic cash-grab. Instead, showrunner Beau DeMayo went above and beyond to deliver the single best Marvel Comics screen adaptation ever. Though it retains the soap opera elements and aesthetic of the original kids series (including its iconic theme song), this updated sequel is shockingly mature - dealing with a story of genocide and oppression that feels especially relevant given the current political landscape.

3) Fantasmas

Coming from the incomparable brain of comedian Julio Torres (Los Espookys), Fantasmas is an off-kilter, absurdist triumph! Ostensibly about a young artist living in a dreamscape version of New York, this bizarre show takes a myriad of unbelievably funny (and simply unbelievable) left turns, stringing together abstract yet hysterical vignettes that feel like a THC-induced wormhole of tangents. Whimsical and wildly inventive, Torres uses his fantastical asides to repudiate and skewer the ludicrous demands of bureaucracy, capitalism and corporate greed.

2) My Brilliant Friend

Having adapted Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels over three sublime seasons thus far, My Brilliant Friend comes to a conclusion with its take on the fourth book, The Story of the Lost Child. Even with the recast older versions Lenù and Lila, (Alba Rohrwacher replaces Margherita Mazzucco while Irene Maiorino takes from Gaia Girace), this gorgeous Italian drama continues to be rich, sumptuous and delicate. Telling a half century tale of female friendship is a massive undertaking, which is why each episode of My Brilliant Friend’s final season feels like a film - taking confident, artistic approaches to depicting the passage of time.

1) Pachinko

Speaking of multi-generational sagas adapted from beloved literature, the only thing that rivals the chronological scope and emotional depth of My Brilliant Friend is Pachinko. Based on Min Jin Lee’s novel, this series deftly straddles multiple eras and cultures, distilling expansive historical events through the eyes of a resilient woman named Sunja (Minha Kim as a young adult Sunja, Youn Yuh-jung as the elderly version) and her impoverished Korean family. Season two finds Sunja’s family struggling as immigrants in 1940s Japan, and jumps forward to follow her grandson’s troubles as he navigates Japan’s real estate bubble in the 1980s.