There may have not been as much television in 2024 so far as in previous years, but there was a Hell of a lot of great TV in the first half of this year.
The harsh beauty of FX’s Shōgun, the depths of Baby Reindeer and Big Mood, the wit of Diarra from Detroit, and the surprising scope of X-Men ’97 set a very high standard. The icy reset that is the Issa López created True Detective: Night Country was another such high. Add to that the historical script flip of The Sympathizer, the sometimes brutal honestly of Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show, Diane Lane and Jeff Daniels’ masterclass in A Man in Full, and the barrier drop kicking of Echo.
So, if you are looking for some true creative fireworks this Independence Day, may I suggest casting your eyes over our selection of some of the best new shows of 2024 so far. It is a binge-fest.
With that, we have to give nods to honorable mentions like Amazon Prime Video’s hit Fallout, the sometimes soaring Masters of the Air and the Cush Jumbo and Peter Capaldi co-starring Criminal Record from AppleTV+, Hulu’s Queenie, and HBO/Max’s still ongoing sketch show Fantasmas from Julio Torres. They didn’t make our Top 10 list this 4th of July, but they all fly the flag for TV at its best.
Now, holding the truth of the talent in our contenders self-evident, have a great holiday and check out some great TV. In no particular order, here are the shows that have debuted in 2024 so far that should are worth celebrating this holiday:
BABY REINDEER – Netflix
A $170 million dollar defamation lawsuit is certainly not the attention that the zeitgeist ruling miniseries based on Richard Gadd’s rue(ish) tale of a female stalker and the resulting psychological ravagement sought, but the legal move by real-life Martha Fiona Harvey only serves to establish how Baby Reindeer is a show you can’t and shouldn’t look away from.
DIARRA FROM DETROIT – BET+
Long a star waiting to happen, Diarra Kilpatrick made her own breakout role with the divorced Motor City teacher going down the dark roads of relationships and crime. Executive produced by Kenya Barris and Detroit native Kilpatrick, the eight-episode first season of Diarra from Detroit is a genre buster that’s fueled by a unique star power – and damn, funny too.
A MAN IN FULL – Netflix
In my May 2 review of A Man in Full, I wrote: Jeff Daniels and Diane Lane rarely put in anything less than stellar performances, but the Emmy winner and Oscar nominee are rarely as good as they are in Netflix‘s adaptation of Tom Wolfe‘s A Man in Full. The only change I would make to that is to double down on the stellar duo.
JERROD CARMICHAEL REALITY SHOW – HBO
Jerrod Carmichael is one of funniest and sharpest comedians of his or any generation. He is also by far the most honest, to a fault at times. Having come out as a gay man in his Emmy winning 2022 HBO comedy special Rothaniel, Carmichael turns the spotlight harshly on himself in the March 29 debuting eight-part docuseries that leaves little on the table – and I mean that in a very good way.
THE SYMPATHIZER – HBO
Take Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer-winning novel about the Vietnam War a.k.a. the American War, add Robert Downey Jr in a multi-role performance (and the Oscar winner’s a real EP too). Then mix in the brilliance of Park Chan-wook and Don McKellar as showrunners, with Sandra Oh starring too, What do you get? A mind bending and realpolitik bursting result that rests on the shoulders of Hoa Xuande. And let me tell you, those superstar-to-be shoulders are rock solid – just like The Sympathizer itself.
ECHO – Disney+
On the small screen and the big screen, it’s obvious Marvel is at a inflection point. Yet, as I said in my January 9 review of Echo: “Led by Alaqua Cox reprising her Hawkeye role assassin supreme Maya Lopez, the five-episode Echo strips away most of the endless teasing and cloying ethos of the past decade of Marvel films and shows and tells a complete story.”
Co-starring Reservation Dogs’ Devery Jacobs, The English’s Chaske Spencer, Tantoo Cardinal and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin return, Echo, as I also said in my review, “both breaks your heart and raises up your spirits” — and there’s a blood pumping cameo by Charlie Cox’s Daredevil.
TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY – HBO
Jodie Foster. Kali Reis. Alaska. An evocative mystery within a murder masterfully crafted by showrunner Issa López. A reset of a franchise that had been rightly left for dead, the six stunning and disturbing episodes stand entirely on their own. Did I mention Jodie Foster and Kali Reis?
BIG MOOD – Tubi
The creative process, not taking your meds, bipolar disorder, stupid shrinks and the limits of the patience of great pals are the foundation of the Camilla Whitehill-created Big Mood. Now take all that & some damn fine writing and put it in the hands of Nicola Coughlan and Lydia West. Are the Bridgerton and It’s A Sin vets good? No. Like the need to be more widely seen Big Mood, the big stars in the making are excellent.
X-MEN ’97 – Disney+
A revival of the classic ’90s animated series, X-Men ’97 was bubbling with drama from the drop with the sudden pre-premiere exit of show mastermind Beau Demayo. For a lot of shows animated or live, that would have been the takeaway, but on the 10-episode first season of X-Men ’97 it actually add to the sophistication and poignancy of a series that poses all the big questions without easy answers or Clinton Era nostalgia — and I’m not just talking about Episode 5.
SHŌGUN – FX
The latest adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 bestseller wasn’t supposed to be the scene stealer of 2024. However, in no small part due to several unforeseen circumstance and timing gifted by the small screen gods, the Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo penned and Hiroyuki Sanada starring saga of 17th Century Japan and a marooned Englishman has so complete swept all the pretenders to the throne away that FX transformed the epic the 10-episode Shōgun from a projected limited series into second and third season renewals – and that might still not be enough to satisfy the die-hards.