Television is out of timeout. After a pitiful 2024 saw only eight entries on my usual top 10 list, I’m pleased to announce the return of a complete top 10. While the medium rebounded, its quality clustered around a handful of standout shows. Expect a lot of overlap with your own top 10 list.
Runners-up: Common Side Effects (Cartoon Network); Daredevil: Born Again (Disney+); King of the Hill (Hulu); The Lowdown (FX on Hulu); The Mighty Nein (Prime Video); Smiling Friends (Cartoon Network); White Lotus (HBO)
10. Task (HBO): It would be disingenuous to call Mare of Easttown scribe Brad Ingelsby’s Task a damn good procedural. It is—of course—but the Southeastern PA-set cat-and-mouse game is much more. It’s a tale of economic desperation, a splintering family, and how the right thing isn’t always clear-cut.
9. Slow Horses (Apple TV): The fifth season of Slow Horses didn’t show the best thwarted terror attack, involve the most intricate plot, or display our heroes’ finest spycraft. No, the real joy comes from Gary Oldman’s indignant Jackson Lamb, seemingly the only competent person in MI5. Lamb uses his wry wit to brute-force his team of fuckups into action. Through that wit, Slow Horses maintains a delicate balance between tension and humor, prestige and comfort.
8. The Chair Company (HBO): Like another entry on this list, comedian Tim Robinson has broken through the traditional boundaries of comedy. He operates outside of humor. Is it a cruel social experiment? Lynchian surrealism? Is our lead insane or unraveling a grand conspiracy? Whatever it is, it’s captivating television.
7. Dying for Sex (FX on Hulu): When Molly (Michelle Williams) is diagnosed with terminal breast cancer, it falls to her best friend Nikki (Jenny Slate) to care for her. More than that, it falls to Nikki to facilitate Molly’s last wish—to achieve orgasm with another person. Molly’s sex jaunts oscillate between farcical and painful. By the end of its stellar finale, the miniseries had changed my relationship to death.
6. Pluribus (Apple TV): I’ve been stung by sci-fi mystery box shows in recent years (you might note their absence on this list), but there’s no denying the craft in legendary Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan’s new work. The deliberately paced apocalypse procedural is unlike anything I’ve seen before. While sci-fi shows have a history of underdelivering on their premise, is there anyone you trust to land the plane more than Gilligan?
5. Adolescence (Netflix): Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne’s agonizing miniseries was the perfect confluence of subject matter, timing, and performers. The choice to shoot each episode in a single take was an inspired one, forcing us to endure every sorrowful, uncomfortable moment without flinching. The show’s straightforward plot made the tragedy even harder to stomach.
4. The Studio (Apple TV): Seldom does parody live up to the artistry of its source material. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s delightful Hollywood satire was as ambitious as it was funny. For 30 minutes at a time, The Studio emulated film noir or a frenetic oner. While movies about movies are often allergic to self-deprecation, The Studio gleefully poked fun at industry quirks like award season, studio consolidation, and soulless blockbusters.
3. The Rehearsal (HBO): If The Chair Company was the scripted version of taking the bit to its illogical endpoint, Nathan Fielder’s docuseries was its nonfiction counterpart… right?
Parsing fact and fiction is the magic of The Rehearsal. Fielder obfuscates reality, the show’s purpose, and its endgame. The unforgettable finale had me asking, “He really did that?” long after the initial shock wore off.
2. The Pitt (HBO Max): Shows like Task and The Pitt are a return to television’s roots. Both shows were able to find something new and powerful in rote settings. Creating drama in a hospital wing is easy; writing subtle stories and layered characters inside those walls is not.
1. Andor (Disney+): When fascism weasels its way into your country, you expect the fourth estate and opposition party to stand in defense. In classic American fashion, we got franchise storytelling instead.
In its final season, Andor minted the three finest character arcs in Star Wars; the indelible Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård), the banal and iniquitous Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), and the single-minded Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau). Before the season, I couldn’t have told you the latter’s name; by the end, she was my favorite Star Wars character.
Taken as a collective, Andor’s 24-episode run is a towering accomplishment; Andor sets the bar for Star Wars, franchise storytelling, and what’s possible on television.
amixedreview.com 