Don’t listen to doomsayers who claim “the golden age of TV” is coming to an end. We’re only at the halfway mark and 2024 has already given us a ton of brilliant new shows and dazzling returning series. Here’s our guide to the crème de la streaming crème that you’ll want to binge immediately.
Words: Nick Levine
Baby Reindeer
Where to watch: Netflix
Netflix’s stalking drama isn’t just 2024’s most shocking TV series, but also the most talked about. That’s partly because Richard Gadd’s semi-autobiographical scripts flip from chilling to grimly hilarious, and partly because Baby Reindeer has prompted knotty conversations about the duty of care owed by creators to the people whose lives they draw from. Whatever your view, Jessica Gunning’s performance as obsessive Martha is an empathetic wonder.
Episode to remember: Four – seemingly out of nowhere comes an utterly gut-punching account of sexual assault.
Big Boys
Season: two
Where to watch: Channel 4
Writer-creator Jack Rooke deservedly won a BAFTA for his sitcom’s second season: a warm and witty triumph packed with deliciously niche pop culture references. It’s more of an ensemble piece than the first, but the emotional fulcrum remains the touching friendship between anxious baby gay Jack (Dylan Llewellyn) and his outwardly confident straight mate Danny (Jon Ponting). Channel 4 has just seen sense and commissioned a third season.
Episode to remember: Six – the season finale takes place in a hospital, prompting ruminations on birth, death and Grindr hookups.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Season: 12
Where to watch: Sky Atlantic and NOW
Larry David’s ingenious comedy of manners bows out after 12 seasons and nearly a quarter-century. There’s life in the crotchety old dog yet, though, as Larry becomes an unlikely activist after handing water to a woman waiting in line to vote. As always, his never-ending gripes are petty, ridiculous and (whisper it) a little bit relatable. Well, sometimes, anyway.
Episode to remember: ‘No Lessons Learned’ – the final episode is a meta delight featuring a mike-drop Bruce Springsteen cameo.
Fallout
Where to watch: Prime Video
Turning a video game franchise with 27 years of lore into a coherent TV series? That’s quite a task. But this lavish adaptation of role-playing fave Fallout succeeds because it mixes dystopian thrills with lashings of on-brand black humour. It’s a smart, stylish blast that really puts the rad in radroach – a reference you’ll pick up quickly thanks to the slick writing.
Episode to remember: ‘The Beginning’ – the rock-solid season finale offers a deft blend of answers, plot twists and groundwork for season two.
House Of The Dragon
Season: two
Where to watch: Sky Atlantic and NOW
The Game Of Thrones prequel returns a sleeker, more streamlined beast. With no messy time-jumps requiring actors of different ages to share roles, it’s easier to sink into the sharp, spiky human drama involving grieving Princess Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), influential courtier Ser Otto (Rhys Ifans) and sinister Prince Daemon (Matt Smith). If you still haven’t binged season one, make it your next project.
Episode to remember: ‘A Son for a Son’ – this poised series opener has moments that heat up proceedings like a blast of dragon’s breath.
Mary & George
Where to watch: Sky Atlantic and NOW
Produced and partly directed by queer filmmaker Oliver Hermanus, this period drama is more steamy than starchy. Based on the probable romance between King James I (Tony Curran) and conniving courtier George Villiers (Nicholas Galitzine), it’s a homoerotic romp packed with scheming, intrigue and threesomes. And as Villiers’ ambitious materfamilias Mary, Julianne Moore is quite literally Mother.
Episode to remember: ‘Not So Much as Love as by Awe’. A Hermanus-directed firecracker in which Moore’s Mary keeps an ice-cool head.
Masters Of The Air
Where to watch: Apple TV+
Produced by a couple of young upstarts called Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, this World War II drama is an immaculate companion piece to 2001’s Band Of Brothers and 2010’s The Pacific. Quibbles about historical accuracy aside, the adventures of an American-led heavy bomber unit nearly always hit their target, steered by sterling work from Austin Butler and Barry Keoghan.
Episode to remember: ‘Part Nine’ – an epic finale featuring a desperately poignant visit to a concentration camp.
One Day
Where to watch: Netflix
David Nicholls’ beloved novel previously spawned a flop film starring Anne Hathaway’s dodgy Leeds accent. Netflix‘s 14-part adaptation fares much better because it allows the 20-year relationship between cocky posh boy Dexter (Leo Woodall) and working-class grafter Emma (Ambika Mod) to blossom with warmth, authenticity and all the nuances of the novel. You will cry – and you will tell your mates they have to watch it, too.
Episode to remember: Six – as Emma finds meaning in teaching, a grief-stricken Dexter sabotages his vacuous telly career.
Shōgun
Where to watch: Disney+
Based on James Clavell’s revered novel, this historical drama is a culture-clash story set in 17th century Japan. When brutish British sailor John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) washes up on the east coast, he and his crew are taken captive by Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), a ruthless ruler with a brilliant tactical mind. Their ongoing battle of wills is told with riveting intricacy and stunning set-pieces.
Episode to remember: ‘Crimson Sky’ – a stealth thriller in which Toranaga eventually reveals his hand.
Solo Leveling
Where to watch: Netflix and Crunchyroll
This year’s biggest new anime hit is a stirring self-actualisation tale based on a South Korean digital comic. In a world where monsters can suddenly arrive from other dimensions, Jin-woo levels up from struggling hunter to the monsters’ strongest nemesis. It’s gripping, rousing and absolutely ravishing to look at.
Episode to remember: ‘A Knight Who Defends an Empty Throne’. Jin-woo really proves his mettle as he battles baddie after baddie.
The Boys
Season: four
Where to watch: Prime Video
TV’s best and bloodiest superhero show cranks up just about everything in its sprawling fourth season, not least the caustic social commentary. As neocon wannabe veep Victoria Neumann (Claudia Doumit) sneaks closer to power, she’s increasingly willing to use our semi-righteous supes as a punching bag. The Boys is rarely subtle, but it’s always raucously good fun.
Episode to remember: ‘We’ll Keep the Red Flag Flying Here’ – the pick of the three episodes streaming so far pings between heady hallucinations and devastating home truths.
The Sympathizer
Where to watch: Sky Atlantic and NOW
This seven-part adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is a dizzying delight. Co-created and partly directed by Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden), it tracks the adventures of The Captain (Hoa Xuande), a South Vietnam police chief who’s secretly spying for the North. With an ever-changing timeline, constant tonal shifts and Robert Downey Jr. playing different villains, it’s a tricky but rewarding watch.
Episode to remember: ‘Give Us Some Good Lines’ – The Captain consults on a Hollywood blockbuster – which has Downey Jr. as its Francis Ford Coppola-esque director.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Where to watch: Sky Atlantic and NOW
Adapted from Heather Morris’ fact-based novel, this historical drama follows a romance that blossoms in the unimaginable horror of a concentration camp. Melanie Lynskey and Harvey Keitel play journalist Morris and aged tattooist Lale, while Jonah Hauer-King and Anna Próchniak portray young Lale and his future wife Gita. It’s harrowing viewing, but also achingly human.
Episode to remember: Five – Lale and Gita’s bond deepens in this supremely moving penultimate instalment.
True Detective: Night Country
Where to watch: Sky Atlantic and NOW
The first True Detective saga in five years revives the flagging franchise by remoulding it with fierce female energy. Jodie Foster and boxer-turned-actress Kali Reis are riveting as frenemy detectives investigating the freakish disappearance of eight scientists at a remote Alaskan research facility. Showrunner Issa López keeps us guessing right until the clever, morally ambiguous denouement.
Episode to remember: Part five – the penultimate instalment climaxes with an unexpected death to make you gasp and wince at the same time.
We Are Lady Parts
Season: two
Where to watch: Channel 4
Nida Manzoor’s sitcom about an all-female Muslim punk band hits never comes close to a sophomore slump. This time around, our guitar-wielding heroines aren’t just grappling with their own identities, but their collective purpose as a band: do Lady Parts want to stay underground icons, or are they gunning for a record deal? Once again, the japes and scrapes are peppered with witty original songs including ‘Glass Ceiling Feeling’ and ‘Malala Made Me Do It’.
Episode to remember: ‘It’s Britney, Bitch’. A photo shoot pairing the millennial Lady Parts with a rival Gen Z band is, well, glorious chaos.
