Each week, when I come to review the latest big television shows, I find the task of assigning a star rating the most challenging part of the process. Three stars feels like a cop-out, but the measures on either side – the nuclear two-star, which will prompt defensive accusations from fans, or the glowing four-star recommendation that you will have to stand by – feel so extreme. And most television is worth three stars: either not especially good nor especially bad, or a curate’s egg built of some excellent parts and some rubbish ones.
So, as you can imagine, the task of ranking the year’s television is not something I relish. But here, as 2024 draws to a close, are 20 shows that I can, unreservedly, recommend. Shows that hurdle over the three-star threshold while their contemporaries limbo under it. These are the 20 best shows of the year – with apologies, in advance, for your favourites that didn’t make the list.
