Disclaimer: I only rank shows that I watch and I’m not a TV critic. Also, there may be some spoilers. Read at your own risk…
Last year I watched 11 shows from 2023. This year I watched 10 shows that aired new episodes in 2024, plus a TV special–pretty much the same. Last year I also watched 6 seasons of TV from previous years. This year I watched 16, which is back up to where this category used to be. Honestly, I did not really have a favorite show this year. I enjoyed much of what I watched, but there was nothing that I loved, and this really stood out to me as a consequence of the writers strike. The shows I used to love were canceled or ended, and nothing new has taken their place. This might be why I watched more older TV than new. I really hope I can find a new show I love in 2025, especially since six out of these ten shows were either canceled or have ended.
Here are my top 10:
1. Shrinking (Apple TV)
I watched both seasons of Shrinking this fall, but I’ll just talk about the second one as it’s the one that aired this year. Now that I’m watching Scrubs and Ted Lasso and have watched Cougar Town, it’s nice to see the latest show from creator Bill Lawrence and how it uses cast members and themes from those previous shows. It’s also interesting how Shrinking combines the therapy show with the hangout comedy as it walks the drama/comedy line. Every actor is fun to watch, especially Harrison Ford and Wendie Malick. The show can sometimes veer too much into hangout comedy for my tastes, and no one really has any boundaries, but I enjoy watching the characters navigate their relationships.
2. Sunny (Apple TV)
Sunny was the coolest half hour drama that no one was watching, and was sadly canceled. I caught some of the second episode on TV in the middle of the night, and it was so strange that I had to stop, sit down, and finally go back to the first episode and watch in earnest. I loved seeing Rashida Jones in a lead role, as an American expat in a futuristic Japan named Suzie who loses her husband and son in a plane crash. After their deaths, as she’s grieving, she’s given a helperbot named Sunny who was apparently made by her husband… and all this time she thought he worked in refrigerators. A mystery then unfolds as Suzie tries to find out who her husband was, and if he and her son are still alive. I don’t watch too many shows like this (I don’t think there are too many shows like this), and it was refreshing to watch a half hour drama, especially one that made me care so much about the main character and kept me guessing.
3. Abbott Elementary (ABC/Hulu)
I was not enjoying season 3 of Abbott Elementary, which aired in the spring, but the writers really turned it around with season 4 this fall. In season 3, Janine took a job at the district, which took her out of the Abbott Elementary School environment. Plus, the writers were treading water with Janine and Gregory’s relationship. I don’t care about their relationship that much, but they just needed to get out of limbo. Finally, they got together at the end of season 3, and Janine went back to teaching, and Abbott Elementary became funny and enjoyable for me again. The characters are all so specific and their humor comes so much from character. Plus, the writers really understand schools and Philadelphia (the show’s setting).
4. Life & Beth (Hulu)
This second season of Life & Beth went deeper into John’s autism, and I was happy to continue the story of a Jewish woman building a new life for herself while still dealing with the ghosts of her troubled family’s past. This season also dealt with her fraught relationship with her sister, and I’m glad both those storylines were explored before the show was canceled.
5. Echo (Disney+)
I am glad this character, Echo/Maya Lopez, from the show Hawkeye got a spinoff, one that was even darker. It was wonderful to see a deaf character using sign language in ways that were plot points in the story and in ways that showed character as well. I was also interested in how they weaved mutliple disabilities and the character’s Native American history together for the five episodes. I’m usually so behind in Marvel movies and television shows, so it was nice to finally be able to watch one as it came out.
6. A Man on the Inside (Netflix)
A Man on the Inside was a sweet show about a recent widower Charles, played by Ted Danson, who volunteers to go undercover in a senior residence to find out who stole a resident’s necklace. The show employs so many great older actors as the residents, plus the actors playing Charles’s family, that’s it’s fun just to watch them do their thing. I didn’t care as much about the mystery, but I was still curious enough to watch for that too. I was also curious to see what creator Michael Schur had done next because I loved his shows The Good Place and Parks and Recreation. I didn’t’ love this show as much as those, but there was still a lot to enjoy and laugh at. And the setting reminded me so much of where my grandfather spent his final years.
7. What We Do in the Shadows (FX/Hulu)
I’d read some good reviews about this finale season of the show, and I was happy to find myself agreeing with them and enjoying this season–probably my favorite since season one. I’m sure I liked it because they poke fun at corporate finance firms, and that was the strongest storyline, but the other storylines and bits were fun as well. And the series finale episode was just great–the perfect way to end a mockumentary.
8. Nobody Wants This (Netflix)
The Jewish women in this show definitely deserve better, but I thought they deepened by the end of the season at least. I hope they get even better in season two because I really like the brother’s wife Esther, and Rebecca, the Rabbi’s ex, has potential. Miriam, Esther and Sasha’s 13-year-old daughter whose Bat Mitzvah closed the season, is also great. But I guess I should talk about the main characters, Joanne, the Shiksa, and Noah, the Rabbi, whose star-crossed relationship drives the series. I do hope those crazy kids can make it, and it was nice to see growth for Joanne over the course of the 10 episodes. I also love Justine Lupe as Joanne’s sister Morgan and the attempt at a male-female friendship with her and Sasha (as long as they stay friends). This is the kind of light, fun show that I enjoy, and the copious LA exterior shots really hit the spot.
9. Not Dead Yet (Hulu)
I thought Not Dead Yet had really found its groove in the final few episodes, and then sadly it was canceled. I liked the addition of Lexi’s father to bring more humor and emotion into the storylines, and when one of the ghosts played by Jenifer Lewis had a stronger tie to the newspaper, it was clear to me she should have just been the main ghost all along. The rotating ghosts never really worked for me as a plot device, but all the other characters in this sweet workplace comedy were fun, and I’m going to miss them.
10. Unstable (Netflix)
Unstable was another show I started this year, but I’ll just talk about the second second season, which was stronger than the first. As in Not Dead Yet‘s second season, these writers brought in a couple new characters that juiced up the dynamics. I especially enjoyed Anna’s ex-stepdaughter Georgia, a gen-z agent of workplace chaos who didn’t actually end up being annoying. The main relationship, though, is father and son, and that got tested, and resolved, in the end. This series was also canceled, though that may be okay because I’m not sure how many more stories there were here to tell.
TV Special:
Alex Edelman: Just for Us
Compare to Last Year’s Rankings
Older Shows/Seasons I finished watching this year:
The Bold Type season 5
Up Here
The Americans season 1, season 2, and season 3 (rewatch)
The Imagineering Story
Andor
Moonlighting season 3 (rewatch)
Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Nashville Season 5
Grace and Frankie season 3
Unstable season 1
Superstore season 1
Shrinking season 1
Scrubs season 3
New Girl Season 6
Many episodes of shows on Dropout, episodes of After Midnight, and an episode or two of Living Single, Martin, Emily in Paris, Family Guy, and The Bear. Also, mulitple episodes of the Judith Light 1998 series The Simple Life. And on Pi Day we watched the 14th episode of the 3rd season of Seinfeld and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. And of course, various Moonlighting episodes aside from the ones I watched in season 3.