TV report card: The best shows of the year so far (2024)

You don’t get a good start to the streaming television year just because there are some great scripted shows on offer. What you need is the right viewing mix: a kick the doors in classic, an out-of-nowhere obsession, a surprise comedy success, a procedural that reinvigorates the genre, and something with killer costumes (quite possibly worn by killers). As listed below, the first six months of 2024 have had all of those and more. Here’s my selection of the best new shows to date. I urge you to catch up if you can, because there’s more to come.

AFTER THE PARTY

Kiwi actor Robyn Malcolm has been a familiar face on television screens here for years now (Rake and Upper Middle Bogan), but she’s never had a role as compelling as the lead in this wrenching New Zealand drama. As Penny, she plays a teacher convinced she saw her ex-husband, Phil (Peter Mullan), behaving inappropriately with a minor. When he returns to her town, to live with their adult daughter, she tries to condemn him, causing divisions and calling her own objectivity into doubt. ABC iview

Another like this? After the Flood (BritBox)

BABY REINDEER

I don’t own a water-cooler, but for a few weeks in April I felt like I needed to carry one around with me to further the discussion with everyone who had binged, with increasingly alarmed compulsion, this black comic horror story about an aspiring comedian (creator Richard Gadd) who is obsessively stalked by a woman (Jessica Gunning) he encounters in a London pub. Based on documented events in Gadd’s life, it’s a scything show and very much R-rated, about dealing with trauma and facing up to the bitterest truths about who you are. Netflix

Another like this? Eric (Netflix)

DARK MATTER

I am a sucker for mysterious boxes in science-fiction thrillers, and the one in this knotty, speculative tale was big enough to hold not only some wild theories, but thankfully also the painful personal ramifications. Joel Edgerton plays Jason, an everyman whose life in Chicago with his wife Daniela, played by Jennifer Connelly, is lost when he is kidnapped by his doppelganger, who takes his place, and sends Jason a parallel world where he is successful but single. Jason’s quest to get back opens up a grim Sliding Doors scenario that keeps expanding. The finale is something else. (Apple TV+)

Another like this? 3 Body Problem (Netflix)

ELSBETH

Making a spin-off series about a supporting character who’s already featured in two shows sounds like a blood from a stone creative gambit, but this crime procedural is an unexpected pleasure. An eccentric lawyer in The Good Wife and The Good Fight, Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) goes to New York and star billing when she’s assigned as an observer to the NYPD’s murder investigations and soon becomes a participant. This is an endearing case of the week series where you see the crime happen, and then follow Elsbeth’s idiosyncratic unravelling of it. Paramount+

Another like this? Death and Other Details (Disney+)

MARY & GEORGE

The historic British drama gets torn apart and put back together with queer intent, slap-to-the-face dialogue, and sharp reckonings in this power and the passion update of 17th century court life. As a noble’s wife who has dragged herself out of poverty, Julianne Moore is a charming manipulator who aims high by dangling her handsome and willing son (star on the rise Nicholas Galitzine) in front of a most randy King James I (Tony Curran). Historians are still debating the textbook events that inspired the show, but this version is hugely entertaining. Binge

Another like this? Manhunt (Apple TV+)

MR & MRS SMITH

For starters, it looked gorgeous. The houses, the holiday destinations, the stars. Everything about this wide-ranging remake of the 2005 Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt action comedy about married assassins had a luscious glow. But with co-creator Donald Glover (Atlanta) and Maya Erskine (Pen15) as a pair of corporate spies posing as a married couple, the series turned out to be a skilful mix of espionage set-pieces and intriguing personal dynamics. There were genuine stakes at play, it’s just that that got revved up by an all-star supporting cast that pour petrol on the many fires smouldering. Amazon Prime Video

Another like this? Population 11 (Stan)

RENEGADE NELL

The Irish actor Louise Harland, who was a daffy delight in Derry Girls, gets another stand-out role in this 18th century romp which mixes the fantastical with exciting adventures. She plays Nell Jackson, an 18th century war widow who for reasons unknown has been granted superpowers by a less than equitable fairy, which turns her into a Robin Hood-like rogue on the run from the cruel authorities. It’s great fun throughout, and works as a family show suitable for adolescents and parents alike. Disney+

Another like this? The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin (Apple TV+)

RIPLEY

Every moody, exquisitely framed black and white image in this sinister psychological thriller added to the story. I’ve rarely seen a show made such distinct, unrelenting intent. Nothing was extraneous is this tale of a New York grifter who travels to early 1960s Italy and discovers his true self through increasingly brazen identity theft, and that begins with the lead performance of Andrew Scott (Fleabag) as the acquisitive sociopath Tom Ripley. The character takes menacing shape before our eyes, with much telling (and blood-soaked) detail. An absolute classic. Netflix

Another like this? There honestly isn’t one

SHELVED

I’ve been talking up the terrific Disney+ mockumentary Abbott Elementary for several years now, and it’s wonderful to see that it now has a worthy successor. This Canadian workplace comedy is set in a Toronto public library complete with a people-pleasing boss, a newcomer trying to make sense of the institutional hiccups, a flinty provider of much lip, and a co-worker who definitely needs less political podcasts in his life. The 22-minute episodes – a perfect length for this show – are funny and timely. Let’s make our shared spaces work for all! Binge

Another like this? Swift Street (SBS On Demand)

SHOGUN

Historic epics are often lavish but staid, because they’re weighed down by the burden of their accuracy. But this remake of the 1980 miniseries about an English sailor (Cosmo Jarvis), forging alliances in an unknown 1600 Japan with a great lord (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his watchful interpreter (Anna Sawai), is gripping, and deeply motivated. It has the political machinations and bloody punctuation of a Game of Thrones, but there’s also a crucial illumination of Japanese history and, unexpectedly, great outsider humour from the boorish but determined newcomer. Seasons two and three are on the way. Disney+

Another like this? Shardlake (Disney+)

SUCH BRAVE GIRLS

Kat Sadler announced herself as one of the next leading voices in British television with this corrosive comedy about a dysfunctional family where the setbacks and stings encompass a single mother (Louise Brearley) and two daughters (Sadler and her real-life sibling Lizzie Davidson) each struggling with their issues. It is brutally funny, sometimes just brutal, and in a delirious state of flux. A show that truly can leave you wondering whether to laugh or cry – if you’re not distracted by memorising the best lines. Stan

Another like this? Big Mood (Stan)

THE SYMPATHIZER

Near the start of this elaborate 1970s black comedy where identities shift, but certain truths remain painfully fixed, a Vietnamese character refers to the “American War”. It’s a 180-degree view of western history, and this show – co-created by the masterful South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) – makes the most of that perspective shift. With Australian Hoa Xuande as a North Vietnamese spy whose mission extends into American exile, this intricate limited series is a perverse puzzle-box of culpability. The finishing touch? An unchecked Robert Downey jnr playing multiple madcap roles. Binge

Another like this? Bodkin (Netflix)

FOUR TOP DOCS

There are is a deluge of questionable documentaries on streaming – true crime, I’m looking at you and your exploitative ways – but the best, like these four 2024 releases, shine through.

American Nightmare For once a pretty accurate title. A woman’s kidnapping from her Californian home is a terrifying ordeal that extends to intense police and media scrutiny after she returns. Netflix

Conan O’Brien Must Go Send funny person overseas to meet the locals is an age-old genre, but when the comic in question is a boisterous Conan O’Brien, then you get sustained laughs and real warmth. Binge

Ren Faire It’s like a real-life Succession, but with a vast mediaeval fair run by an octogenarian Texas multimillionaire (with relationship aspirations) as the prize and his staff as the competing children. Binge

Steve! Told in two reflective parts that match his 1970s comic ambitions to his current satisfaction, this portrait of comedic legend Steve Martin is detailed, full of funny business, and ultimately quite moving. Apple TV+

Three to watch out for

Want a head-start on the second half of 2024’s viewing? Here are three shows on their way with real potential.

Sunny A blackly comic mystery where a grieving widow (Rashida Jones) in near-future Japan investigates her husband’s death with the family robot he programmed. July 10, Apple TV+

Black Doves Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw play old friends reunited when intelligence work crosses with London’s underworld. Creator Joe Barton’s last Netflix series, Giri/Haji, was an underseen gem. TBC, Netflix

The Franchise Veep creator Armando Iannucci’s new satire, conceived with filmmaker Sam Mendes (Skyfall), will have fun with the crises and egos on the set of a beleaguered superhero movie. TBC, Binge

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.