In no particular order…
‘Fleabag’ & ‘Killing Eve’ — Phoebe Waller-Bridge
The busy scribe might have stumbled lately with her work on the last Bond film and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” but she’s still a rising star. Yes, “Fleabag” and “Killing Eve” are epic, but you could also add the beloved “Crashing” to this list.
‘Station Eleven’ — Emily St. John Mandel
The timing of “Station Eleven” wasn’t great.
The show debuted December 16, 2021 right in the middle of COVID-19. It proved a tough watch, especially if you were sick or knew people sick and/or dying. A similar fate met Prime’s version of the BBC smash hit “Utopia,” which is also about a pandemic.
It’s a realistic, post-apocalyptic show combined with a brutal but loving deconstruction of theater: The arrogance, the magic and the healing nature of art.
‘The Expats’ (The Expatriates)— Janice Y. K. Lee
Likely to be in my top five of best shows this year, Nicole Kidman and cast are fantastic and the Hong Kong setting proves sublime. It’s a fantastic exploration of what it means to be human, and the difficult path of self forgiveness when you’ve made a horrible mistake.
‘Sex Education’ — Laurie Nunn and Sophie Goodhart
Gillian Anderson is funny, kind and flawed playing a sex therapist raising a son in rural England. The show does in fact contain a lot of actual sex education but it’s Anderson’s tender performance that takes this show into greatness.
‘Teenage Bounty Hunters’ — Kathleen Jordan
Netflix will never be forgiven for canceling this show. You can read my review on HIT here.’
‘Catastrophe’ — Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney
If you’ve not watched this dramedy about an American guy who falls in love with a British school teacher and then moves to London to start a family you really should. Funny. Heartfelt. Worth your time.
‘Beforeigners’ — Eilif Skodvin and Anne Bjørnstad
This made my “Best of” list in 2022 and this is what I wrote back then:
“I love this little show from Norway. What’s it about? Well groups of immigrants are arriving on the shores of Oslo only the hook… they’re from different time periods in Norway’s history: the Stone Age, the age of Vikings, and the late 19th century. If that doesn’t hook you… well. you lack imagination.
It’s a meditation on the impacts of immigration even though all the immigrants are from the same nation, just a different period of time.
The clever device takes away issues found in immigration such as multiculturalism and ethnicities. Or does it? That’s part of the show’s joy. It’s fascinating to watch Stone Age, Vikings and Victorian Age peoples navigate our present day.”
‘Yellowjackets’ — Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson
This show also made my best of list for 2022…
This show caught a lot of people by surprise and while it’s hard to put a finger on exactly what elevated it into the top five… (was it the acting, dialogue, story… each comes to mind) it just had a feel about it. Of old secrets coming out and to unravel everything seemed to capture the mood of 2022 to perfection.
It shouldn’t go unnoticed that Christina Ricci was in two of the top ten shows of 2022, here in “Yellowjackets” as the deliciously incase Misty Quigley and in “Wednesday” as Marilyn Thornhill. “
‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ — Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble
I really like this show which says something since I absolutely loathe Kaling’s other show “Velma.” That Max re-imagining of the “Scooby-Doo!” gang made my “worst show” list in 2023. “The Sex Lives of College Girls” despite “sex” in the title is actually about friendship and about four girls figuring out how to navigate university. If you have a daughter at university this is must watch.
‘Ripley’ — Patricia Highsmith, Steven Zaillian
The latest adaption of Highsmith’s work on Netflix, featuring Andrew Scott and Dakota Fanning, is one of 2024’s best shows. The black and white photography of Italy was an inspired creative choice and everything about this telling clicks in a way that the movie with Jude Law and Matt Damon never did.
‘The Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ — Holly Jackson
I like detective shows that are deconstructed and put into strange places like “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” and the excellent movie “Brick.” Here, we have an origin story of sorts for Mrs. Marple in Pip (Emma Myers) solving her first case in her sleepy England town. “Murder” offers entertainment with a few fun twists I didn’t see coming.
‘Mrs. Davis’ — Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof
This can never be said too often. Betty Gilpin makes everything she’s in better. That holds true for this odd little show about a nun married to Jesus who is on a quest to find the Holy Grail and defeat a rogue A.I.
It’s become clear just how tedious the rough A.I. storyline has become. “Mrs. Davis” boasts enough humor and, of course, Gilpin to carry the day.
So what do you think, what have you seen of this list that you loved, any that I missed? Let me know in the comments, I do read them.
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