The 50 best TV shows of 2024

Nicole Kidman may be right about going to the movies — we do go to that place to laugh, to cry, to care, to see dazzling images on a huge silver screen. And then, all but inevitably, we go home. And it’s there we also find a place where stories can feel like magic. In fact, it’s the longevity and intimacy of television that can make reactions feel so visceral; turns out, heartbreak can feel even better or worse when you invite it into your home once a week (or for a marathon weekend, or a few nights in a row, or again and again for months on end).

It’d be impossible to tick through the bevy of great shows that dropped this year, either new or returning. The year isn’t even over yet, with a few big drops between now and 2025. Still, now that it’s the end of the year, the Polygon staff has come together to weigh in on our favorites and create a final ranked list. And now that’s what we offer you: the top 50 shows, as mathematically determined (“voted”) by the Polygon staffers. You’ll find everyone’s full ballots in the comments below. But between here and there you’ll be able to see our 50 favorites, a catalog of the TV offerings that made our hearts flutter and made stories feel perfect and powerful. Because here — or there — they are.

Everyone who works at Polygon had the opportunity to submit a ballot of up to 25 TV shows they liked this year. Those ballots could be ranked or tiered (and you can see everyone’s top 10s or top tier in the comments below). We then took the results of those ballots to make the list you see below.

Any TV show that was primarily released in 2024 (as in, aired most of its episodes during the calendar year) is eligible, but since we are publishing this in early December, some December releases are underrepresented. We hope you’ll find a new favorite here on our list of the best shows of 2024.

Where to watch: Hulu

We’ve seen stories like How to Die Alone before: Melissa (Natasha Rothwell) is broke, single, and lonely, and, after building furniture alone on her birthday, legally dies for a few minutes. When she comes to, she’s determined to live a more vivacious life, so her real final moments don’t seem so bleak.

What makes How to Die Alone so fun is that it doesn’t let Melissa’s change be so simple. She’s not merely trying on personalities or ventures each episode; her choices to live fuller create a cavalcade of knock-on effects, and it’s up to Melissa to find the place for those in her life. The drama — and the comedy; this is a show created by Rothwell, after all! — stems from how these changes alter her and impact the people around her. It’s surprisingly compelling for a sitcom like this, not only a thoughtful examination of what it means to really live, but also just a fun story to watch. How to Die Alone lets the two biggest changes Melissa could make hang over her, letting complications arise and outlooks soothe and hijinks ensue. Her next armoire might not fall on her, but that doesn’t mean life is going to be easy — but at least it will be fun. —Zosha Millman

Where to watch: Netflix

Series 15 of The Great British Bake Off was a return to form for Netflix’s leading comfort show. There was a charming group of contestants (shoutout to Nelly lighting up the camera every time she shows up), fun challenges that avoided the pitfalls of seasons past, and more of co-host Alison Hammond, who has elevated the show’s vibe and quantity of laughs since joining the show in 2023. —Pete Volk

Where to watch: Disney Plus

Pan-African studio Kugali’s long-awaited partnership with Disney absolutely delivered. In just six half-hour episodes, Iwájú presents a complicated and moving story about class differences in a futuristic Lagos. It’s incredibly ambitious, and pulled off in such a short episode order. The story centers on Tola (Simisola Gbadamosi), a privileged yet lonely young girl, and Kole (Siji Soetan), the clever boy who works for her father. But Iwájú expands the story beyond those two, weaving in intricate backstories for most of the cast and fleshing out the world-building. It does so much in such little time and is truly one of the best Disney Plus original shows in a long time. —Petrana Radulovic

Where to watch: YouTube, or TV Tokyo

The franchise follows two teenage girls who just want to do what teenagers do: play video games, eat junk food, and lounge around all day. They also happen to be two of the most lethal killers on the planet. The first episode of Baby Assassins Everyday! is a perfect microcosm of what makes the movies so fun — I just wish the series was more available to watch in the U.S. —Pete Volk

Where to watch: Netflix

The Three-Body Problem the book is dizzyingly complex, almost to a fault. 3 Body Problem the show smartly distills the source material’s most high-minded concepts and plot points into a compelling thriller series that zips along. Despite what the latter seasons of Game of Thrones suggested, 3 Body Problem shows that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss really do know how to make great television. —Ari Notis

Where to watch: Dropout

Very Important People is a highlight of Dropout’s considerable comedic offerings, combining a great premise with an excellent makeup team for hilarious hijinks. In the show, improv comedians make up a character on the spot after getting a ridiculous makeover, and then get interviewed by Vic Michaelis’ hilarious public access journalist character. Some highlights from the first season include Brian David Gilbert as a transhumanist scientist running for mayor on a platform of mind control, and Ally Beardsley as one of the Three Little Pigs. And the season 2 premiere with Anna Garcia as an 8-year-old boy who got turned into rocks is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. —Pete Volk

Where to watch: Hulu, Netflix, Crunchyroll

The latest addition to the Dragon Ball canon has polarized fans, who wonder if Toei really needed to Baby Yoda-ify Goku and his friends for a side quest in the Demon Realm. Is it really Dragon Ball if Super Saiyans aren’t clobbering each other episode after episode? With all due respect to the Super fans: not for me. Daima is a rousing success in slathering on the charm and drawing out of the spectacle of a 40-year-old franchise.

In using the dragon balls to de-age its cast, Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, who created Daimabefore his passing earlier this year, renews the series with actual youthful energy. The fantasy adventure is light on its feet. The comedy is cartoony as hell (praise to Gomah, dork villain). Masako Nozawa, who at the age of 88 is still voicing Goku in her high-pitched register, is a stronger fit than ever as the boy hero who doesn’t care about the physics of the Demon Realm and just wants to soar!!!!! In a year where Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero delivered high-octane martial arts and 15 Vegeta variants to the die-hards, it’s a relief that in his final act, Toriyama defied expectations. And, thanks to a backdrop like the Third Demon World, with literal flying colors. —Matt Patches

Where to watch: Peacock

It’d be easy for Hysteria! to feel too much like a metaphor show. The sort of thing that feels crafted around a message that ends up falling short, feeling trite instead of right. The title practically screams the invitation, with its frenzied, stylized exclamation point: a small Michigan town in the 1980s falling prey to the Satanic Panic, vilifying some kids just for daring to start a metal band. Hysteria! ensues.

But instead, Hysteria! ends up feeling like a small wonder. The show is careful with its plotting and character work, weaving together a series of confused choices until you can see how a whole town went basket case over this whole satanism thing. Hysteria!, blessedly, never abandons its characters to make archetypes or analogies out of them. Instead they can just be what they are — in way over their heads now that Satan might really be haunting this poor town. —Zosha Millman

Where to watch: Prime Video

The easiest description for Prime Video’s Outer Range is probably something like “Yellowstone by way of Twin Peaks.” But even that can’t fully convey the alluring strangeness of one of the most slept-on family dramas of the past few years – a true casualty of the overload of television streaming has brought to us.

Outer Range follows the Abbott family, ranchers in Wyoming dealing with normal family drama, rowdy rich neighbors, and also a giant mysterious hole on their property. Where the first season introduced us to both these conflicts and characters and let us watch as the family disintegrated, the second smartly inverts much of that format, following the Abbotts picking up the pieces of the first season and trying to put it all back together.

Series creator Brian Watkins brought together a fantastic group of fellow playwrights into the writer’s room, and it shows in the structure and strong dialogue. It’s also aided by an excellent cast – yes, Josh Brolin is terrific as the patriarch Royal, but it’s winners all the way down: Lili Taylor, Tamara Podemski, Imogen Poots, Will Patton, and the rest of the expansive cast all excel and build out real characters in this larger-than-life setting.

The show has been canceled after two seasons, which is a shame, because there were plenty of threads still left to tug on. But what we got in those two seasons was fascinating, and well worth catching up on. —Pete Volk

Where to watch: Max

Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen’s anime-ass adventures have built off a strong first season and continues to be one of the best screen Superman adaptations ever. It challenges expectations of what Superman can be, knows when to tug at the heartstrings, and looks really good while doing it.

The clear anime influences on the show paid off in this season’s stellar action sequences in particular, including a reference to the Itano Circus and a few magical girl-esque costume transformations. But at its heart, My Adventures with Superman is about the core friendship between Clark, Lois, and Jimmy – even the title of the show comes from Lois and Jimmy’s perspective.

This second season also brought Supergirl into the fold, with a different angle on her character than most screen adaptations, focusing on how someone can be brainwashed into serving a tyrannical government. And the casting of Professional Bad Guy Michael Emerson as the voice of Brainiac is a particularly inspired choice. My Adventures with Superman continues to soar up, up, and away from much of its superpowered competition. –Pete Volk

Where to watch: Crunchyroll

Kaiju No. 8 is a perfect show that makes total use of its anime form. Like its protagonist — Kafka Hibino, who mysteriously gets the power to transform between human and kaiju form, just as he is invited to join the kaiju defense force — the show is always ready to leap into action, volleying wildly (and marvelously) from intense fight scenes to total goofball antics. —Zosha Millman

Where to watch: Disney Plus

Russell T. Davies returned to Doctor Who this year and showed that he’s still got it. With the electric new energy of Ncuti Gatwa’s young, fashionable, pansexual 15th Doctor and the gung-ho chemistry of Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday as companion, the TARDIS practically vibrated with joy.

That positivity was a good offset to one-and-done episodes like “Boom” and “73 Yards,” both of which sit at the apex of Doctor Who’s reputation for tension and horror, and mind-bending adventures like “The Devil’s Chord” or “Dot and Bubble.” Davies knows that a great season of Doctor Who plays with as many emotions as possible as boldly as possible, and with his inaugural season, Gatwa has proven that he has the range. —Susana Polo

Where to watch: Netflix

You would hardly call it a comfort watch — it’s a discomfort watch if anything — but good luck tearing your eyes away from this bingeable, sad, funny, shocking, yet thoughtful miniseries. Part autobiography, part thriller, Baby Reindeer is the true-life story of a struggling comedian and his stalker, written by Scottish comic Richard Gadd, who also performs as a fictionalized version of himself. Jessica Gunning is astonishing as the stalker, Martha, a tragic and surprisingly empathetic figure. The show is as much about the mistakes Gadd made as the ways he was failed and tormented, and he’s excruciatingly honest about them. Baby Reindeer will leave you breathless — and not a little troubled. —Oli Welsh

Where to watch: Prime Video

The Legend of Vox Machina pulls off an impossible feat by distilling hundreds of hours of Critical Role actual play into digestible half-hour episodes — that are very damn good. Titmouse and Prime Video’s animated adaptation balances the high stakes with character downtime, but also never compromises the gags and dirty jokes. —Petrana Radulovic

Where to watch: Netflix

Dead Boy Detectives is the rare teen supernatural show that just has a lot of fun with its more wild elements. It follows two ghosts who run a detective agency and find themselves trapped in a small Pacific Northwest town for the foreseeable future. Teaming up with two teen psychics, they solve supernatural cases, which sometimes weave into a greater plot and their own backstories, but sometimes are just pure vibes and shenanigans. Though the show gets dark, especially when the ghosts trek to hell and back, it never forgets that it’s supposed to be a fun, paranormal romp with a host of charming characters. —Petrana Radulovic

Where to watch: Apple TV Plus

The cold, harsh reality of the infinite multiverse is explored in Apple TV Plus’ adaptation of Blake Crouch’s sci-fi thriller Dark Matter, in which physics professor Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton) is kidnapped by a Jason Dessen from an alternate universe. As Jason-1 tries to find a way back to his own reality, Jason-2 desperately tries to fit into his new circumstances as a devoted husband and father.

Like the book, Dark Matter is a breezy binge. Ostensibly about the road not taken, Dark Matter is more compelling because of the increasingly dangerous branches in reality that Jason-1 must experience before he can find his way home. Showrunner Crouch, in adapting his own novel, further fleshes out the world and characters of Dark Matter in intriguing new ways, leaving some open-ended alternate-reality threads that will be explored in a second season. The show falters at points and the brusque dialogue might be an early turnoff, but when Dark Matter gets going, it pays off its smart sci-fi premise while delivering plenty of mind-bending chase sequences and conflicts between a growing number of Jasons. —Michael McWhertor

Where to watch: Netflix

“Zack Snyder does Ragnarök” carries with it a ton of promise. The Norse end of times, the fall of gods, rendered with the same visceral brutality as something like 300 or Man of Steel. As an animated show, it was freed from the limitations of live action, able to soar over the uncanny valley into something more flush and vivid.

And all that is true — though upon finishing Twilight of the Gods, the thing that sticks out to me most is the way the characters are rendered with such precision. It’s almost a cliche at this point to say that everyone is the hero of their own story, but Twilight of the Gods unshowily makes sure it’s true. They’re lusciously drawn and even better rendered as the show slowly unwinds each player’s deep thirst for violence and explores how their relationship to the world changes as a result. At the top of the show, our heroine makes the promise that she’s going to kill Thor; here’s hoping Snyder and co. get to deliver. —Zosha Millman

Where to watch: AMC Plus

Interview with the Vampire season 1 was playing at a disadvantage: Even with the gorgeous expansions to the story, Louis’ tale of sordid, toxic love with Lestat de Lioncourt was something that many people were familiar with, thanks to the film from the ’90s. Season 2, however canon, was ground less trodden on screen. And my god was it fun.

In the 1940s, Louis and Claudia have decamped to Paris, while in the present day Louis has now roped Armand into recounting his messy saga. Across time, the dual narratives zig and converge and bloom, revealing a tangled affair and some damn good drama. In a world where so much IP development can be boring and lifeless, Interview felt like a breath of rare air, sumptuous, seductive, and delicious. Long live the undead. —Zosha Millman

Where to watch: Peacock

Look, let’s get this out of the way first: This was probably the weakest crop of Top Chef competitors in recent memory. But that doesn’t make it bad television. In fact, it’s outstanding to see longtime Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio have to stand in front of the contestants and practically beg them to cook better food. The show had to momentarily change its rules to take Quick Fire dishes into consideration in judging, that’s how bad it got. But while all of this made for some hilarious, uncomfortable, and excellent TV, the real reason for this season going on our list is that it’s the first for host Kristen Kish, and she proved to be absolutely fantastic at the job. —Austen Goslin

Where to watch: Hulu

The worst vampire coven in all of Staten Island returned for one final season, and they’re no closer to taking over the new world than they were in season 1. Their loyal familiar Guillermo has also left them (well, not literally; he still lives in their shed) for the corporate world. Anchoring Guillermo’s story into a workplace comedy has led to some of this season’s most hilarious moments as the vampires’ supernatural shenanigans collide with a part of the mundane world they haven’t really interacted with yet. —Petrana Radulovic

Where to watch: YouTube

Every series of Taskmaster is funny, but the right combination of contestants can elevate a series to the pantheon of the greats. And the hilarious series 18 nailed it: You have the people who take doing well at the tasks very seriously, but in different ways (Emma Sidi and Andy Zaltzman), the people who don’t take it seriously at all, but in different ways (Rosie Jones and Jack Dee), and, of course, the person who doesn’t know what show they signed up for (Babátúndé Aléshé). It all combines for an irresistible combination of funny gold, and one of the funniest Taskmaster seasons in years. —Pete Volk

Where to watch: Netflix

Does Ranma ½ need a new anime remake, decades after both the original manga and anime? Probably not. But with MAPPA at the helm, the series feels full of verve, and I found myself endlessly grateful all the same. After all, all is fair in love and war, so I guess you could say Ranma ½ is a delightful bit of fair game. —Zosha Millman

Where to watch: Hulu

Brian Jordan Alvarez’s sitcom about an English teacher at an Austin, Texas, high school pulls off some spectacular juggling tricks with political and cultural hot potatoes while keeping things light; in the current climate, that makes it both bracingly risky and warmly affirming. The show’s at its best when poking mercilessly at the morality gap between millennials and Gen Z/Alpha, and it has a fantastic cast (shoutout to the wonderful Enrico Colantoni as the put-upon principal). —Oli Welsh

Where to watch: Paramount Plus

It’s a long wait between seasons of Poker Face. Luckily, Elsbeth is here to provide some more howcatchem goodness.

A spinoff focused on the beloved quirky lawyer from The Good Wife and The Good Fight, Elsbeth is another procedural winner from showrunners Robert and Michelle King, who also killed it this year with Evil. Carrie Preston returns as Elsbeth Tascioni, now monitoring an NYPD precinct under investigation. She takes on the role of pseudo homicide detective after her Very Particular Set of Skills puts her in a great position to annoy killers into slipping up or confessing.

Preston is fantastic as usual as the singular Elsbeth, all eccentricities and tote bags but always the smartest person in the room. And as with any good howcatchem, Elsbeth season 1 features a great slate of guest stars: Jane Krakowski, Retta, Blair Underwood, and Gina Gershon, to name a few. The show may not reinvent the genre or reach the high heights of Poker Face or Columbo, and season 2 has lacked the consistency of the first, but it’s exactly the kind of light, fluffy television you’d want from a network procedural. —Pete Volk

Where to watch: Crunchyroll

The Apothecary Diaries is an Imperial Chinese court drama, told through the eyes of one person who doesn’t want to be dragged into all of this, thank you very much. While working as a servant, Maomao’s talent as an apothecary becomes recognized and she ends up basically becoming the forensic pathologist. She keeps getting pulled into court intrigue, but all Maomao wants to do is test out poisons. —Petrana Radulovic

Where to watch: Crunchyroll, Hulu, Netflix

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is usually all about its long, drawn-out battles and picture-perfect action animation, but the Hashira Training arc gave viewers a bit of a break from all that. This year, Tanjiro Kamado and friends took a detour to train up, and it gave us some adorable slice-of-life antics from the cast members. Personally, I just love to see Obanai Iguro fume with jealousy over Kamado’s budding relationship with Mitsuri Kanroji. —Ana Diaz

Where to watch: Crunchyroll

A Sign of Affection is a big-heart-eyes, super sweet anime love story between two college students. But its greater feat is actually being a skillfully told story of finding independence while living with a disability, while still setting our hearts aflutter wondering if Yuki and Itsuomi will get together. A Sign of Affection treats Yuki’s hearing loss with such care, diving into the challenges of daily communication, while still allowing her to dream big about her own life, inspired by Itsuomi’s frequent travels and multicultural upbringing. —Chelsea Stark

Where to watch: Disney Plus

The MCU exhaustion is real. It has infected most of my friends and peers at this point. And yet Agatha All Along is the panacea of which many seem yet unaware. A direct sequel to WandaVision that’s helmed by WandaVision creator Jac Schaeffer, Agatha All Along is nominally a star turn for Kathryn Hahn but turns out to be an ensemble dark comedy about a coven of witches dealing with a bizarre supernatural situation. Patti LuPone is one of them. Aubrey Plaza is another one. Three members of said coven turn out to be canonically gay, which as a longtime MCU viewer shocked me more than it should have and obviously delighted me. The finale does still leave a few plot threads dangling unaddressed (with no real sign of ever being resolved), but it’s such a fun roller coaster that you probably won’t mind — I know I didn’t. —Maddy Myers

Where to watch: Netflix

Physical: 100 is the most grueling, difficult, intimidating, exhausting, and genuinely kindhearted reality show on TV. Netflix’s Korean physical fitness series debuted its second season this year, and it was just as impressive as the first. One hundred contestants from a variety of sports and fitness backgrounds compete to see which one is the strongest and most fit of all, or as the show puts it, who has the most perfect physique.

But while the fantastic strength (and winning personalities) of the contestants gets you in the door, Physical: 100’s secret weapon is its excellent filmmaking. It’s not easy to convey the mind-boggling strength on display by every single one of the contestants, but Physical: 100 manages to do it wonderfully, giving us intimate looks at the strain on the participants’ faces, or the subtle flexes of their muscles as they dig deep to push just a little further in the competition. The series is shot and edited beautifully, adding tension and a sense of competitive uncertainty that makes every event a nail-biter. There’s no better evidence of the production’s genius than this year’s finale, which manages to communicate the phenomenal strength of its contestants, even as they’re locked in stalemates or making incremental progress. Physical: 100 is reality competition television at its absolute best: equal parts fun to watch and bafflingly impressive. —Austen Goslin

Where to watch: Hulu

Last season of Only Murders in the Building took most of the action out of the Arconia and most of the murder mystery plotline out of… well, the show, really.

But this season, OMITB went back to its roots, with Charles, Oliver, and Mabel exploring a new side of the building as they solve the murder of Charles’ trusty stunt double, Sazz. But the funky meta-leaning gags continue, since the trio is now involved in a movie being made about them. The colorful cast of characters expands wonderfully, and the mystery is the most interesting it’s been since season 1.

Still, at its heart Only Murders in the Building is about these three weirdos coming together, and season 4 has so much of that. —Petrana Radulovic

The Australian children’s show about a family of anthropomorphic dogs continues to pack storytelling punches in just under eight minutes per episode.

Bluey is all about the power of imagination, and brings the parents into the fold of Bluey and her sister’s little games — which often reflect real-life problems and anxieties. If you think you’re too old for Bluey, or you don’t have any kids to watch it with, you’re probably wrong! It’s some good TV! —Petrana Radulovic

Where to watch: Max

HBO’s The Penguin is rife with contradictions. As a franchise expansion of Matt Reeves’ The Batman universe, it is both inessential and worth watching; the series picks up immediately after the events of Gotham City being flooded and will lead right into The Batman Part II. The show is grim and grimy; The Penguin revels in filth, desperation, and violence, yet it can be lighthearted fun as we watch Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) scheme and slay his way through Gotham’s underworld, eking out wins against the power establishment.

The Sopranos it is not. It’s just not that smart. But Farrell’s commitment to playing a cartoonish, likable-against-all-odds gangster is fascinating to watch (though often distracting, under layers of latex and makeup). Cristin Milioti’s turn as vengeful Arkham inmate turned family boss Sofia Falcone is even more entertaining. Beyond that, the cast is stacked with scene-stealing character actors Clancy Brown, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O’Connell, and Rhenzy Feliz as Penguin protege Victor Aguilar. They make the best of a messy but compelling gangster drama that’s comic book-y in the most complimentary way. —Michael McWhertor

Where to watch: Max

Hacks is one of those TV shows where somehow every single season is good, with this year’s third season being no different. The two-hander starring Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, respectively portraying a veteran insult comic and her 20-something writing partner, remains an iconic commentary on the current state of comedy as an industry and the evolving challenges women comics face. This season features Jean Smart’s character dealing with “cancellation” as her younger viewers discover her early material, which is a storyline that I honestly didn’t think this show or any show about comedians would touch but which Hacks stares straight in the face. —Maddy Myers

Where to watch: Paramount Plus

The husband-wife TV duo of Robert and Michelle King make some of the finest episodic TV around, working within that structure while also challenging it, and this year they delivered two of the best in the final season of Evil and the first season of Elsbeth.

The show, about a trio of paranormal assessors who work for the Catholic Church but each have a very different relationship with the supernatural and faith, was given a final season on Paramount Plus with four extra episodes to end things on. It went out with a bang, giving the protagonists antichrists, psychic powers, and demons in courtrooms to contend with.

But the highlight of the last season was Aasif Mandvi’s Ben, always one of the show’s most fascinating characters but often playing second fiddle to Kristen and David’s will-they-won’t-they relationship. The final season gave him more to work with, as the professional skeptic starts seeing a djinn after an interaction with a particle accelerator that makes him question everything. Always goofy and fun, Evil also thrived because of its deep understanding of its central three characters and their relationships to each other and their work. We will sorely miss one of the most interesting episodic shows on TV (but look forward to its eventual status as a Netflix rewatch phenomenon). —Pete Volk

Where to watch: Crunchyroll, Hulu, Netflix

I set high expectations for Dan Da Dan because of its gorgeous manga, and the show managed to reach them. Animated by Science Saru, Dan Da Dan follows the joint story of Ken Takakura and Momo Ayase after Momo has an encounter with extraterrestrial beings and Takakura gets his penis stolen by a ghost.
Dan Da Dan feverishly sprints beyond its semi-absurd premise and delivers a show that demonstrates exquisite taste. Some of the frames in this show look more like something out of an independent film than a popular shonen series, and Science Saru brings an attention to color that finds new visual delight in a cult-classic manga. —Ana Diaz

Where to watch: Hulu

Abbott Elementary is a new staple show in my household, and for good reason. Show creator Quinta Brunson, who also plays the leading role of Janine Teagues, has carved out the perfect sitcom formula based on a public school in Philadelphia.

Just like any IRL community, Abbott is constantly dealing with new changes in its community. This time around, teachers at the school contend with the sudden appearance of ghosts (a white family) and a new golf course being built in the neighborhood. I consistently appreciate Abbott Elementary because it’s funny and makes for a light watch, but it also doesn’t shy away from addressing important social issues. —Ana Diaz

Where to watch: Dropout

This new installment from Dropout’s flagship actual play series Dimension 20 was one of the most fun and outrageous yet, taking an all-star cast of hilarious comedians and placing them in a Die Hard-meets-Jumanji concept that was absolutely to die for. The group played employees of a struggling video store who were pulled into the fictional, ridiculous ’80s action movie world of Never Stop Blowing Up, trying desperately to get back home while navigating the constant challenges that pop up in such an environment: gangsters, assassins, a White House that can fly, a talking jaguar — you know, normal stuff.

The setting (and GM Brennan Lee Mulligan’s inclination toward encouraging “freedom and joy”) allowed for a lot of playful expression from the cast, who picked hilarious and compelling character combinations inside and outside of the world of Never Stop Blowing Up. Endlessly entertaining, it’s a great entry point for anyone who’s been curious about Dimension 20 and the world of actual play but hasn’t taken that first leap in yet. —Pete Volk

Where to watch: Dropout

Game Changer, self-described as “the only game show where the game changes every show,” has a certain evolutionary nature baked into its concept, but the show’s sixth season has been marked by a quieter kind of escalation, though no less significant.

Certainly the season debuted good new formats that we expect to pay dividends when (OK, if, but we feel like it’s a good guess) they recur in later seasons — like “Second Place,” in which contestants race to the middle, and “The Newlyweb Game,” where they demonstrate their knowledge (or lack thereof) of their partner’s unread email count and photo roll.

But the biggest change to Game Changer season 6’s games has been behind the camera, as Dropout’s production crew leveled up in scope and aptitude in a way that’s paid immediate dividends. Editor Sam Geer, promoted to director starting this season, has overseen some of the series’ most logistically impressive episodes. “Bingo,” “Deja Vu,” “Beat the Buzzer,” and the two-part “Ratfish” finale have broken bad from the show’s podium format for games of greater scope in setting and simultaneity — while the editing of all that footage has pushed already unpredictable performances into expertly presented comedy. —Susana Polo

Where to watch: Crunchyroll

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is the rare fantasy show that slows down and interrogates mortality and the passage of time.

Frieren, an elf who’s lived for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, has witnessed empires rise and fall, magic evolve from impossible to routine, and people turn from peers to distant legends. She’s aloof when it comes to the relentless passage of time, but because of her old adventuring party, this time around she’s trying to savor the moments she has with her new companions and connect with them in a way she previously avoided. The show’s animation is gorgeous and the characters memorable, but it’s also deeply elegiac in a way that fantasy anime shows tend to skirt around. —Petrana Radulovic

Where to watch: Netflix

Season 1 of The Diplomat might be some of the best work that Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell have ever done, and season 2 picks up right where things left off. A bit of international espionage has gone very, very wrong, and the plot thickens almost immediately into something even more sinister. The six-episode season culminates in a finale so bizarre that I walked away from the television with my jaw on the floor.

I’m not actually sure this one’s gonna land with most viewers — it’s that out there. But given the political climate that we find ourselves in, the show almost feels like a throwback to a simpler time. Let’s just call it comfort food for those who still pine for The West Wing. —Charlie Hall

Where to watch: Max

In many ways, the second season of House of the Dragon picked up where the first left off: rich characters, intense political drama, moments of excitement, tension, and terror, and a whole bunch of dragons. Still, it’s hard not to feel let down by the finale, which teased a third season more than it closed a second one. There have been reports that the initial plan was for 10 episodes before being shortened to eight. If that’s the case, that was certainly felt by the season’s abrupt montage ending.

But House of the Dragon remains one of the most engaging shows on television because of its strong writing, acting, and attention to detail. The cast continues to expand and add engaging new stars, the family drama continues to be compelling, and the show’s immaculate production design of its Westerosi castles and halls remains unmatched. The second season also thrived on the ways it weaved the smallfolk into its story, gamely questioning the myth of Targaryen invulnerability and bringing more perspectives from outside the ruling class into the fold. The finale’s ending may not have been fully satisfying, and points were certainly docked among our staff for that. But it has set up one hell of a season 3, and there was a lot of fun to be had along the way. —Pete Volk

This take on the 2005 Brad-and-Angelina action comedy was perhaps the year’s most delightful bit of intellectual property renovation. Creators Donald Glover and Francesca Sloane kept the basic premise (a married couple of professional assassins) and the selling points of the movie: sexy stars, aspirational setting, action and jokes. But they junked the movie’s sour, marriage-is-hell divorced-dad energy and replaced it with an intimate, insouciant, and very modern take on work and relationships.

If anything, Mr. & Mrs. Smith feels too casual at first. But the lackadaisical eye-rolling at life-and-death situations is part of the fun. Once you get used to the fact the spies-and-killers stuff is an only half-serious wrapper for the dramedy, you can relax and soak up the show’s many pleasures: iconic guest stars like Ron Perlman and Sharon Horgan, cool fashion, gorgeous locations, and most of all, Glover and costar Maya Erskine’s electric chemistry. Then, as soon as you have relaxed into it, the ever-playful Glover starts moving the goalposts and breaking the format, and the show starts shifting into newer and even more interesting forms. —Oli Welsh

Where to watch: Netflix

Thank goodness Netflix scooped up Girls5eva and gave it a second chance to find an audience. The show had previously premiered on Peacock, but found new life after the streaming service canceled it. And that’s weirdly fitting, considering the show is about a one-hit wonder girl group that gets another shot at fame.

The new season sees the girl group on tour and trying to sell out a show at Radio City Music Hall (on Thanksgiving Day, no less). Their big personalities clash in the most hilarious ways, with Sara Bareilles, Busy Philipps, Paula Pell, and Renée Elise Goldsberry fully embodying their larger-than-life characters and playing beautifully off one another. Because the girls are on tour this season, the road trip format lends itself to some particularly great moments as they visit different parts of the country.

The entire show is a big playful spoof on the music industry, and this season brings a particularly good gag in the form of teen heartthrob Gray Holland and his sensitive boy songs. And of course, like previous seasons, the songs are hilarious and also infectiously catchy. —Petrana Radulovic

Where to watch: Apple TV Plus

There’s a double-edged sword in television: familiarity. Every season, every episode, a TV show promises a fresh and new installment in the show you know and love; too much can be a death knell, but so can too little. Add to that a genre element like spy thrillers, which thrive off uncertainty, and it’s tough to keep delivering.

And yet, four seasons in, Slow Horses has perfectly honed its formula. River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) and the other slow horses will do things right, but also wrong; Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) will figure it out on their behalf and be a total ass about it. Spies fight, die, betray each other, and definitely fuck up. But Slow Horses has refined its approach to espionage by way of being especially human. There are thrills, yes, and the sort of cloak-and-dagger twists you want from the genre. But it’s lovely to have a show that feels as much like you’re following the human interests as the global ones. Slow Horses can do more with a cafe meeting than a lot of shows can do in a season. And yeah, it’s fun to watch Jackson Lamb fart his way through high-stakes intelligence. —Zosha Millman

Where to watch: Max

The inexplicable abounds in True Detective: Night Country. Ennis — the town on the fringes of the Alaskan tundra, the Arctic Circle, and maybe even the fabric of reality — is a place where mysteries are everywhere, whether they’re big (a murder) or small (a ghost pointing the way to the body).

What makes Night Country such a blast is the way it refuses to settle those, even as it reckons with them. Everyone in this small town has a story, and Night Country won’t leave anyone behind. There’s the central murder, sure, but there’s the lingering injustice, the gnawing darkness that’s closing in at every moment, whether you’re getting a rare glimpse of sun or not. This isn’t a show about the police, it’s a show about investigating, a journey of questions as much as it is a quest for answers. That’s something Navarro (a fabulous Kali Reis) and Danvers (Jodi Foster) know innately, which is why they’ll fight each other and then just roll with the punches together. It’s True Detective at its finest, building procedural and paranormal into a swirl of horror, no matter which way it goes. —Zosha Millman

Where to watch: Disney Plus

In a sea of lackluster nostalgic throwbacks, X-Men ’97… shines like adamantium? Rises like a Phoenix? Hits like a bolt of lightning? Choose your metaphor, they all work. A Disney-sanctioned, streaming-exclusive, 30-years-later direct continuation of X-Men: The Animated Series simply could not have been expected to go this hard.

Returning members of the original voice cast were paired with a diverse cast of experienced newcomers for a set of great new performances. A classic animated look was thoughtfully updated for modern tastes. The writers room took classic X-Men stories that the original show left unexplored and seamlessly synthesized them with some of the most electrifying plotlines of post-’90s X-Men — ones the original show couldn’t have touched without the aid of a time machine.

X-Men ’97 isn’t just the nostalgia trip we deserve. It shows what can be achieved when you trust that the original artistic merit of the comics themselves can stand on its own two feet. —Susana Polo

Where to watch: Prime Video

Successfully adapting a popular video game franchise, especially one as beloved as Fallout, is no easy task. For every well-done adaptation like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners or Arcane, there’s a dozen or so other examples that miss the mark, failing either to home in on the qualities that make its source material unique or reconfigure them into a compelling serialized drama for television. Fortunately, Fallout is the rare example of a TV adaptation that not only does justice to the original games, but feels like a natural continuation of them.

Like many of the games, the new series from showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet begins with a Vault Dweller, an inhabitant of a technologically advanced bunker designed to protect its occupants from nuclear radiation, embarking on a quest into the wasteland of a post-apocalyptic America. Unlike the games, however, audiences are introduced to this world through the viewpoint of three characters with different worldviews, which when taken together create a bleak yet comical vision of a world forever clawing its way out of the crater left by its past transgressions. The characters are fantastic, the action is intense and memorable, and the way the series iterates on the lore of the franchise opens up enticing new possibilities and questions for both itself and the games going forward.

Fallout nails the overall tone and aesthetic of the franchise, organically weaving together the iconography and aesthetics of the games into a world that feels both grounded and extraordinary. With all that said, the true strength of the show arguably rests on its trio of lead performances, with Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins, and Aaron Moten serving as the perfect entry point for fans both new and old to explore this universe. Wagner and Robertson-Dworet have knocked it out of the park, and I couldn’t be more excited to see what else they have to bring to the world of Fallout. —Toussaint Egan

Where to watch: Netflix

Arcane didn’t have to be anything more than the League of Legends animated series. It could have been something simple and cheap, full of fanservice and a story that was way too big because it wanted to fit half of the game’s 160 champions in by the end of season 1. Instead, Riot Games and Fortiche spared no expense, delivering one of the most innovative, gorgeous, and complex animated shows of all time.

It’s been obvious from the very earliest moments of Arcane that it didn’t look like any other animated series. Fortiche carefully built the show’s visual vocabulary to encompass nearly any animation style the studio could imagine, freeing it up for quick transitions into 2D animation mid-fight, trips inside characters’ heads portrayed by charcoal or watercolor, or punchy music-video montages. Everything fit, but more importantly everything served the larger goal of showing us exactly who the show’s characters were and what they were thinking.

But the show’s greatness went beyond just the animation. Particularly in this second season, Arcane took the loose fantasy world of League of Legends and shaped it into a complicated and poignant story about cycles of vengeance, generational conflict, and the way fascism seizes on tragedy and hatred to take root in a culture. Around that larger narrative, it also found time for smaller, more personal stories of romance, forgiveness, and redemption. In total, Arcane’s narrative managed to be just as nuanced and complex as its animation, and for that it easily earns a spot among the best shows of 2024. —Austen Goslin

Where to watch: Netflix

Adapted by Studio Trigger (Promare, Kill la Kill) from the manga by Ryoko Kui, Delicious in Dungeon’s basic premise sells it short. Nominally, it’s an action-comedy cooking series about a group of dungeon explorers who are short on funds, and resort to cooking the monsters they kill into nutritionally sound gourmet meals. Each episode features lessons about the ecosystem of this endless dungeon, its monsters, and the delicious-looking food you can, unexpectedly, make from them.

Our heroes’ goal is to kill the Red Dragon and cut their fallen comrade from its belly, but just as the cooking manga rhythm starts to feel comfortable, Kui gathers all her foreshadowed threads in a rug pull for the ages. If Delicious in Dungeon is about much more than eating, it’s only because we rarely take the time to contemplate all the meaning imbued in that primal act. We must destroy to consume, says Delicious in Dungeon, but we must consume to live. But we should be careful what we’re living for. If we are what we eat, then what we eat is what we are, and we must love it in turn.

Delicious in Dungeon never stops being a comedy cooking show, but the miracle of it is that it also never stops being a show about how we fit into community and the cycle of life, and what happens when our relationships — with our food, our bodies, our loved ones, and the thought of losing them — break down. —Susana Polo

Where to watch: Hulu

Shōgun felt like the first TV show in years that deserved everyone’s attention at once. It’s the rare modern show that’s beautifully shot, excellently written, thematically complicated, endlessly meme-able, and tremendously fun to watch, all at the same time. It was like a brief glimpse back to the glow of TV’s golden age filtering its way through the muck of the streaming era, and we couldn’t be luckier that it exists.

Perhaps Shōgun’s most impressive feat is its attention to detail. The series’ terrific 10-episode run starts out like it’s building a fantasy world, not by exoticising its 1600s Japanese setting, but by assuming its audience’s ignorance. It carefully builds in explanations of the country’s political power structure, its history with outsiders and religion, and its culture. Shōgun showrunners Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo want us to fully understand the world of the show before they let their characters loose to shape the country in their own image and change its course, because even the smallest details about the country’s history matter here.

But the show’s attention to detail serves more than just its story; it’s also how Shōgun builds out its themes. For both Mariko and Blackthorne, the series is about the ways that our cultures, both the one we’re raised in and the ones we adopt, can shape and mold us in unseen ways. There’s no clearer place for this theme to come out than in the ways each character views death. For Blackthorne, death is an ending, a finale to life that means nothing after it passes; for Mariko it’s an act of resistance, a way of exerting her will in a world that otherwise makes no room for her; and for Toranaga it’s always been a tool, a means of maneuvering through the world and shaping it to his will. All that simmering under the surface of a show with tremendous action, palace intrigue, and gory cannon strikes. What more could you possibly ask for from a television show? —Austen Goslin