If there’s a prevailing theme across television this year, it’s that we’ve seen an influx of shows best described as “mid”: well-made and competently acted but not reaching for greatness or pushing boundaries. But even if 2024 won’t go down as a banner year for television, that doesn’t mean there weren’t worthy series that stood out from the pack. These are The Ringer’s best shows of 2024.
10
Fallout
When HBO’s The Last of Us premiered last year, it was instantly hailed as the pinnacle of video game adaptations—a lucrative space Hollywood has continued to mine despite a long history of mixed results. But if The Last of Us proved that these kinds of shows can work, Prime Video’s Fallout took things to the next level. Set 219 years after Earth has been reduced to an irradiated wasteland, Fallout concerns Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell), a young woman who lives in a Vault—technologically advanced underground bunkers—before going in search of her kidnapped father. As Lucy encounters everything from mutated bounty hunters to opportunistic cannibals, Fallout feels of a piece with the sci-fi works of Paul Verhoeven—hilarious and disturbing in equal measure while underlining that humanity’s most existential threat is corporate greed. Let’s hope Season 2 radiates the same gonzo energy.
9
English Teacher
If Abbott Elementary is a love letter to our nation’s overworked and underpaid educators—a mostly feel-good sitcom in the mold of Parks and Recreation—FX’s English Teacher has more of an edge: an acerbic exploration of the never-ending bullshit they have to deal with. Following Evan Marquez (creator Brian Jordan Alvarez), an English teacher at a high school in suburban Austin, the series tackles thorny culture war topics like gun safety and drag performances that rile up students and parents alike. On paper, this might sound like the makings of an after-school special, but English Teacher never feels didactic. The show hits you with clever punch lines at a breakneck pace—even characters on the fringes make a lasting impression. (Shout-out to Kayla, who is suffering from “Kayla Syndrome.”) All told, English Teacher doesn’t just earn a passing grade: It’s the best new comedy of the year.
8
Expats
In the interest of transparency: I’m a former Hong Kong expat, so Prime Video’s Expats was always going to reel me in. Based on Janice Y.K. Lee’s 2016 novel, The Expatriates, the six-episode miniseries revolves around three Americans in Hong Kong—Margaret (Nicole Kidman), Hilary (Sarayu Blue), and Mercy (Ji-young Yoo)—whose lives intersect when a child goes missing at a bustling night market. While a traditional series might deliver answers to its central mystery, creator Lulu Wang is more concerned with what happens in the aftermath: the existential malaise and sense of displacement that hangs over the characters like a dark cloud. Best of all, Wang also turns her focus onto the “helpers”—live-in, do-it-all maids for the show’s wealthy protagonists—in a feature-length episode that’s among the year’s finest. Take it from this former Hong Konger: Expats is an immersive, multifaceted portrait of the city that hits close to home.
7
Evil
The simplest way to describe the Paramount+ series Evil is that it’s what you’d get if The X-Files were about demonic possession. But the real brilliance of Robert and Michelle King’s procedural is that everything about it—plot, tone, potentially supernatural phenomena—is so hard to pin down. In one moment, Evil can be genuinely unsettling (because of the demons); in the next, it’s uproariously funny (because the demons don’t know how to unmute themselves in a Zoom meeting). As forensic psychologist Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers), Catholic priest David Acosta (Mike Colter), and tech whiz Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi) investigate demonic activity for the church, Evil so often reflects the chaos of our own world, particularly the ways in which technology can do more harm than good. No less a horror authority than Stephen King is clamoring for more Evil. That Paramount has decided to end the series after four seasons is nothing short of sacrilegious.
6
Interview With the Vampire
AMC has seen better days: Its horde of Walking Dead spinoffs doesn’t hold a candle to Golden Age hits such as Mad Men and Breaking Bad, while the streaming service AMC+ has a much smaller footprint than its competitors. But after acquiring the rights to the works of Anne Rice, AMC finally has its next great genre series. Based on Rice’s eponymous novel, Interview With the Vampire centers on Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson), a 145-year-old vampire recounting his past with a journalist in modern-day Dubai. The second season picks up with Louis and his surrogate daughter, Claudia (Delainey Hayles), meeting a vampiric theater troupe in Paris at the end of World War II—all the while, Louis is tormented by his complicated feelings for Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid), the sadistic, seductive vampire who turned him. Interview With the Vampire has a bit of everything in its arsenal: humor, romance, heartbreak, gore, irresistibly catchy show tunes. The real highlight of the series, however, is Anderson, who inhabits Louis with a soulful weariness that belies his youthful appearance. With Season 3 set to bring viewers to Lestat’s rock-star era, don’t let Interview With the Vampire slip through the cracks: Once again, AMC is home to bloody good television.
5
Bad Monkey
Bill Lawrence has been the king of the hangout show dating back to Scrubs, and in recent years, he’s taken his talents to Apple TV+ with the sweet, sentimental comedies Ted Lasso and Shrinking. But Lawrence’s best series for the streamer makes a notable tweak to the feel-good formula: It adds a body count. Bad Monkey, based on the Carl Hiaasen novel of the same name, is set in the Florida Keys as former detective Andrew Yancy (Vince Vaughn) looks into a severed arm hooked by tourists on a fishing trip—an investigation that eventually uncovers an elaborate insurance fraud scheme. The details are grisly, but following Vaughn’s lead as a charming motormouth who never takes things too seriously, Bad Monkey manages to keep the good vibes rolling. In Lawrence’s hands, Bad Monkey is television’s version of the summer beach read: a pulpy, engrossing mystery populated with Florida men (and women) you love spending time with.
4
Tokyo Vice
Warner Bros. Discovery has suffered many setbacks since David Zaslav took the reins, including the underwhelming rollouts of several Max shows despite their impressive bona fides. For instance: Did you know Max is home to a Tokyo-based drama executive-produced by Michael Mann, my biological father and the king of male-bonding crime thrillers? Based on journalist Jake Adelstein’s memoir of the same name, Tokyo Vice begins by following a fictionalized version of the author (played by Ansel Elgort) after he’s hired as the first foreign reporter for one of Japan’s biggest newspapers in the late ’90s. What makes Tokyo Vice such gripping television, however, is that it quickly becomes an ensemble piece, exploring the ever-evolving relationship between journalists, police, and rival yakuza syndicates. In other words, Tokyo itself is the show’s main character, and the way Tokyo Vice digs into the city’s interconnected systems of power makes it feel like a spiritual cousin to The Wire. Sounds amazing, right? Alas, Tokyo Vice has been canceled after two seasons, and despite creator J.T. Rogers’s desire to find a new home for the series, a revival seems unlikely. If that’s all we get from Tokyo Vice, don’t follow Max’s lead: Give this excellent, criminally underseen drama the attention it deserves.
3
Ripley
Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr. Ripley has been adapted many times, and Anthony Minghella’s 1999 film starring the trifecta of Matt Damon, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow was so good that it appeared to close the book on anyone else tackling the material. But Netflix’s Ripley miniseries doesn’t just find a new way into the story: In the hands of writer-director Steven Zaillian, it may be the definitive interpretation of the text. The premise is the same: Con man Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott) weasels his way into the life of Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn), the charming heir to an American shipping fortune who’s decided his time is better spent gallivanting across Italy with his girlfriend, Marge Sherwood (Dakota Fanning). In this format, we get way more time to dig into the nitty gritty of Ripley’s never-ending schemes—watching the character attempt to keep his lies straight and cover his tracks never gets old. Ripley’s greatest virtue, however, is Oscar-winner Robert Elswit’s black-and-white cinematography, which makes every frame of the series a sumptuous feast for the eyes. By Netflix’s own admission, its ideal show is a “gourmet cheeseburger”; the highest compliment I can give to Ripley is that it’s a five-course meal worth savoring.
2
Industry
If any series would take the mantle of HBO’s most prestigious series from Succession, why not another corporate drama? In its first two seasons, Industry was on the short list of “the best shows you’re not watching”—a show that, in contrast to the über-powerful Roy clan, was at its most compelling following entry-level employees at Pierpoint & Co. investment bank. But as the young trio of Harper (Myha’la), Robert (Harry Lawtey), and Yasmin (Marisa Abela) advanced in their respective careers, Industry leveled up with them in Season 3. The series burned through plot at a record pace, finding time to skewer the hypocrisy of socially conscious capitalism, the corrosive effects of inherited wealth, and the expendability of employees at every rung of the corporate ladder. Industry was also responsible for the greatest episode of television this year, an anxiety-inducing hour centered around Pierpoint’s market maker Rishi (Sagar Radia), who proves there’s little difference between being a good trader and just being lucky. By the end of the season, Pierpoint as we know it is no more, sold off to an Egyptian sovereign wealth fund. For some shows, starting from the ground up is a daunting proposition; for Industry, it’s just another day on the trading floor.
1
Shogun
While so many streamers sought to adapt works of fantasy to create the next Game of Thrones, its true successor brought viewers back to 17th-century Japan. Based on James Clavell’s bestselling novel of the same name, which was previously adapted into a miniseries in 1980, Shogun began with English sailor John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) inadvertently landing on the shores of Japan before becoming a valuable political pawn for Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada). From there, the series expanded its purview with the introduction of characters bound by duty and a sense of purpose—none more engrossing than Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai), Blackthorne’s translator whose words cut deeper than any blade. Shogun can be appreciated on many fronts: for its political intrigue, historical detail, sweeping visuals, and dynamic battle scenes. By every measure, Shogun was a rousing success, becoming the most-viewed series in FX’s history, winning a record 18 Emmys, and scoring a surprise renewal for two more seasons. Hopefully, by pivoting from a miniseries to a three-season drama, Shogun won’t overstay its welcome. For now, though, there’s no dethroning Shogun as the best show of the year.
Honorable mentions: The Sympathizer, Hacks, Presumed Innocent, Pachinko, The Acolyte
