Year-End Wrap-Up: Best of 2024 (Small Screen)

Written by:
Andrew Osborne
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1. Somebody, Somewhere (HBO)

The only upside to Bridget Everett’s funny, heart-tugging ensemble dramedy ending after only three seasons is that Somebody, Somewhere now joins the exclusive Perfect Series Club of shows without a single bad episode.  That’s partly because the stakes and scale remained believably life-sized and intimate throughout with no “happily ever after” endgame for the story’s ensemble of layered, relatable small town Kansas misfits.  Relationships and personal growth ebbed and flowed, everybody kept working for a living without becoming rich or famous, and even the opportunity for a dramatic death was eschewed in favor of the sweet decision to keep a key character alive (and simply out of town) in the story even after the actor who played him passed away in reality — just as the egalitarian, open-hearted world Everett and her collaborators created provided a much-needed respite from the retrogressive red state realities of 2024.

2. The Paris Olympics (NBC/Universal)

From the bonkers beheaded Marie Antoinette chorus of the opening ceremonies, Raygun’s velociraptor dance moves and the breathtaking comebacks of Simone Biles AND Celine Dion to the Mission Impossible torch-passing from Paris to L.A. at the end of the Closing Ceremony, the 2024 Summer Olympics juggernaut was an absurd, inspiring, all-encompassing fortnight-plus of Choose Your Own Adventure viewing, complete with the fun of randomly sampling events and suddenly caring deeply about them for an hour or so (as well as the bittersweet biannual glimpse of a shared global community we could all share peacefully with Snoop Dogg if a few billionaire psychopaths weren’t standing in the way, ruining everything).

3. Baby Reindeer (Netflix)

Richard Gadd’s limited series adaptation of his own uncomfortably autobiographical one-man show transforms what seems like a simple stalker tale into something far more gripping and unpredictable thanks to a nuanced script and outstanding performances — particularly the writer/star’s troubled protagonist codependently aiding and abetting an alternately scary and sympathetic antagonist (memorably portrayed by Jessica Gunning as a visceral embodiment of the sentiment “hurt people hurt people”).

4. Everybody’s In L.A. (Netflix)

The unpredictable be-here-now energy of John Mulaney’s live Netflix miniseries was a breath of fresh smoggy air wafting through the isolation of 21st century streaming service bubbledom.  The modern update of the old school talk show trope wherein random experts and celebrities are thrown together on a couch led to delightfully unpredictable moments including Luenell (in town like many of the guests for the Netflix Is A Joke comedy festival) doing her best to seduce David Letterman while avoiding physical contact with Bill Hader’s icky eye infection.

5. The Curse (Showtime)

An all-star indie jam band of creators (including Nathan Fielder, the Safdie and Zellner Brothers, and their weird-positive movie star friend Emma Stone) presciently tapped into a deep vein of 2024 loathing for gentrification, nepo babies, influencers, and virtue-signaling hypocrites while concocting a viscerally uncomfortable comedy that veers from mere “cringe” into sheer existential dread.

6. Fantasmas (HBO)

Finding something new under the sun is a rare treat in the endless retread of America’s current media landscape — yet Julio Torres somehow managed to create a surrealist sitcom unlike any other show on TV as his fictional alter ego’s search for a missing earring spins off into a series of absurdist side quest riffs on the comedy and tragedy of dehumanizing technological ennui.

7. Black Twitter: A People’s History (Hulu)

A fascinating history of (and farewell to) yet another thing Elon Musk ruined: i.e. the pre-X freedom and creativity of the titular community where millions of (non-Nazi) people could gather in a (relatively) troll-free environment to discuss everything from serious topics like the George Floyd murder to #DemThrones and minute-to-minute updates from (and commentaries on) a guy traveling to fight some other dude in Temecula, CA.

8. Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)

Larry David revisited the Seinfeld finale template with more satisfying results in Curb‘s swansong season as a courtroom trial once again served as the jumping off point for revisiting years of comic misanthropy in a fond, foul-mouthed sendoff satirizing how the awful behavior of the show’s fictionalized ensemble pales in comparison to the daily outrages of 2024’s post-election headlines (some of them, ironically, featuring Cheryl Hines’s actual husband).

9. The Decameron (Netflix)

This oddly underloved adaptation of a 14th century story collection by Giovanni Boccaccio about nobles and servants fleeing the Black Death had everything from timely explorations of seething class resentment, religious zealotry in a world gone mad, and unpredictably tense, funny plot twists to Douggie McMeekin’s memorable performance as an obnoxious rich goofus learning to be a mensch.

10. Double Toasted (YouTube)

Sharp pop culture reviews, insightful current events commentary, and the simple pleasures of shooting the shit made this independent online series (helmed by the endlessly charismatic Korey Coleman, Martin Thomas, and a rotating cast of co-hosts) must-see viewing throughout the year at DoubleToasted.com (with edited clips of the full broadcasts available on YouTube and elsewhere).

Honorable Mention: Abbott Elementary, Hacks, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Survivor 47, Under the Bridge, Stax: Soulsville USA, the James Baldwin episode of Feud: Capote vs. Swans

Wildcards: potentially list-worthy shows as yet unseen by moi: Shogun, Skeleton Crew, Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, Agatha All Along, Slow Horses

Didn’t Get Past the First Episode: Franchise, English Teacher

Most Disappointing: True Detective: Night Country (HBO)

SPOILERS AHEAD:  Great performances (particularly by co-leads Jodie Foster and Kali Reis), a fantastic set-up (scientists found dead on the ice near an Alaskan research station), and the eeriest production design this side of Twin Peaks were sadly undone by terrible CGI caribou/polar bear technology and the simplistic belief that “patriarchy is bad” is some kind of a foolproof deus ex machina that magically erases any and all questions of emotional believability and narrative coherence.  Worse, the series pats itself on the back for saying you shouldn’t marginalize indigenous female workers even as the show itself literally marginalizes them as background players whose individual identities matter less than the Statement they make by murdering an equally faceless group of white male scientists (themselves an off-putting group to demonize in an era of surging anti-science rhetoric but whatevs) after it’s revealed (in a clumsy last minute spew of exposition) that the one-dimensionally EE-VIL scientists (except for one who…don’t ask) spontaneously switched from research to remorseless murder in the wake of a local activist woman discovering that their research has been covering up the corruption of a female mine boss who’s poisoned the indigenous community for years (even though the latter somehow doesn’t get murdered or arrested or referenced again once she’s discharged her role as a convenient plot device) because…girl boss good, patriarchy bad, problem solved, I guess?

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