The TV and streaming shows we enjoyed this year but didn’t get around to reviewing are, in no particular order:
Best TV and streaming shows of 2024 (that we didn’t review)
Paul’s streaming picks
Babylon Berlin
It’s not new (it premiered in 2017, with a fourth season in 2022 and production for the final season currently underway) but it was new to me this year. Created and directed by a team including Tom Twyker of Run Lola Run fame, it’s ostensibly a cop show set in the Weimar Republic in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
It viscerally recreates that era of rotting walls and bohemian dance halls, with all its gruesomeness and glamour. And knowing, as we do, the Hitler years are just over the horizon only adds to the drama.
Electrifying performances by Volker Bruch and Liv Lisa Fries, a solid ensemble cast, and great music too – a stone-cold winner.
Babylon Berlin is currently streaming on SBS On Demand.
Only Murders in the Building
I have a predicament with my youngest (13-year-old) son. We like to watch shows together in the evening but find it nigh-on impossible to hit the sweet spot where we’re both (genuinely) entertained and excited to see the next episode. So I was very happy to arrive (slightly late) to OMITB.
The comedy is great, whether or not you buy the crime-podcast premise. The star trio of Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez works incredibly well, and the subtext – that people from different generations can get along and have a laugh despite their age gaps – pleases me as part of a father-son watching duo.
Also, with four seasons so far (2021 to 2024) and a fifth in the works, it’s not going to run out too quickly.
Only Murders in the Building is currently streaming on Disney+.
Slow Horses
Has there ever been a character quite as slovenly and charismatic as Jackson Lamb, played by Gary Oldman in this British spy thriller series? At a time when excellent shows (see Kaos) are canned as often as continued, it speaks volumes that this one was renewed for Seasons 5 and 6 before Season 4 premiered in September this year.
Slough House is essentially a purgatory for MI5 agents who have screwed up but not lost their jobs – which is where we find our unredeemed heroes and their underappreciated skills. Great characters. Tight writing. Tense (and sometimes funny) storylines.
Slow Horses is currently streaming on Apple TV+.
Silvi’s streaming picks
The Righteous Gemstones
From the city to the country, the Gemstone family are renowned as some of the wealthiest televangelists in the US, who run their empire of megachurches with a cheesy smile and a bejewelled fist. Led by patriarch Eli Gemstone (John Goodman), and much sought after by his three greedy children (Danny McBride, Edi Patterson, Adam Levine), the legacy of the Gemstone church (think Hillsong on crack) is constantly under threat from kidnappings, murder most foul, and scandal upon scandal.
The Righteous Gemstones emerged on HBO shortly after the searing Vice Principals (also by Danny McBride), a comedy about two self-absorbed high school teachers going head to head in a battle of egos – and both shows are exemplary of McBride’s ability to satirise in a way that’s on par with greats like Armando Ianucci. Plus, both have great performances from the chameleonic Walton Goggins.
Come for the take down of organised crime – I mean, Christianity – but stay for the oddly touching personal growth of the characters most affected by religious trauma. Season 4 is expected to premiere in 2025, and you have plenty of time to catch up before then.
Watch the trailer.
The Righteous Gemstones is currently streaming on Binge.
English Teacher
If you’re not familiar with Brian Jordan Alvarez’s TikTok antics – where he mostly moonlights as the singer-songwriter of unknown European/South American origin, TJ Mack – you’ve missed out on a real gem of internet weirdness. But never mind that for now, because I want to talk about Alvarez’s debut show as a star and producer: English Teacher.
Alvarez’s character is Evan Marquez, an openly gay English teacher in Austin, Texas, who struggles with balancing the personal, professional and political aspects of working at an American high school. Extremely witty and in-touch with modern society, the show gets at the heart of what it feels like to be an adult aiming to model good, progressive values to the youth of today – only for them to take and run a mile with it. The best example of this is the episode ‘Kayla Syndrome’, in which a student of Evan’s claims to requires special accommodations for an illness she invented and diagnosed herself with.
There’s also an incredible Trixie Mattel cameo in the episode ‘Powderpuff‘, in which Evan tries to update the school’s tradition of having male footballers dress in drag for mid-year entertainment.
It debuted this year with eight episodes on Disney+, so getting into it now definitely won’t feel like homework.
Watch the trailer.
English Teacher is currently streaming on Disney+
Delicious in Dungeon
Anime is an acquired taste – and so is monster meat, according to Delicious in Dungeon. Beginning life as the Dungeon Meshi manga by Ryoko Kui, Delicious in Dungeon is a Netflix-commisioned animated series about four travellers who must cook all manner of magical beast to survive.
Laios, the human knight, Marcille the elf mage, and Chilchuck the halfling rogue are searching for a lost member of their party when they suddenly run out of food. Fortunately, the eccentric dwarf Senshi is just around the corner, and he’s eager to teach them all the ways of cooking monsters (Roast Basilisk, anyone?). It’s a bizarre concept, but this series had me begging for seconds after its far-too-short first season – and the way those meals are drawn had my mouth watering, even for something as objectively gross sounding as ‘Giant Grilled Parasite’.
Season 2 is expected to premiere in 2025.
Watch the trailer.
Delicious in Dungeon is currently streaming on Netflix.
Rochelle’s streaming picks
Nobody Wants This
I’m not a particular fan of rom-coms, but the furore about this show’s perfect screen kiss made me check it out and I was hooked.
Kristen Bell plays Joanne, a whiter-than-white millennial ‘Shiksa’ (gentile) who hosts sex podcast about her disastrous dating life. Then she falls for a handsome young Rabbi, the very Jewish Noah (Adam Brody), and nobody wants this relationship to work, especially not his controlling mother or vicious sister-in-law. But the lovers are so obviously charming and complementary that we want to see their cross-faith relationship work out.
Snappy scripting, a savvy approach to the dilemmas of modern dating and a touch of genuine sincerity (sometimes too much) made these ten short episodes easy viewing. While I was annoyed that Netflix announced a second season of Nobody Wants This, instead of more of their groundbreaking and inventive Kaos, I had to admit that this made more sense. Special mentions go to the supporting cast, especially the siblings played by Justine Lang and Timothy Simons, who almost steal the show.
Season 2 is expected to premiere in late 2025.
Watch the trailer.
Nobody Wants This is currently streaming on Netflix.
Landman
I’ve only watched two episodes of Landman, set in the rugged and dangerous West Texas oil mining industry, but I’m already hooked on its authentic storytelling and believable characters – especially Billy Bob Thornton as the tough-as-guts oil rig fixer with a soft side for his ex-wife and teen daughter.
Written and directed by Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone), Landman is based on the notable 11-part podcast Boomtown from Imperative Entertainment and Texas Monthly. It’s described as ‘an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fuelling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics.’
The series also stars Jon Hamm, Mark Collie, Paulina Chávez and Demi Moore.
Watch the trailer.
Landman is currently screening on Paramount+.
Total Control, Series 3
The third and final season of the excellent Australian political drama Total Control premiered way back in January, but it still stands out as one of my year’s highlights. While the demands of narrative drama sometimes strain believability, this show is nevertheless as educational about Australia’s flawed political process as it is entertaining.
Set two years after the explosive finale of Season 2, this one sees outsider-turned-kingmaker, Alex Irving (Deborah Mailman) now at the centre of power, but grappling with the ongoing compromises of a two-party system. She also faces serious health and family issues. Watching her push-pull alliance with conservative politician Rachel Anderson (Rachel Griffiths) continues to be great fun right up until the satisfying conclusion.
Watch the trailer.
All three seasons of Total Control are streaming on ABC iview.
For all the shows we reviewed this year, see here.
