Our Christmas planners are filling up with festive specials and the streamers are releasing tantalising teasers for the year ahead, which can only mean one thing: another year of televisual treats is almost over, and it’s time to look back on the best TV shows of 2024. As the era of ‘peak TV’ has continued to boom, we’ve been well and truly spoiled this year by a veritable smorgasbord of incredible new shows and returning favourites; some saying a final goodbye, some reinventing themselves, some just getting started, and some offering in a single limited run the kind of stories — and storytelling — we’ll still be talking about for years to come.
It would be fair to say 2024 has been a banner year for boundary pushing small screen offerings. From riveting historical dramas to conversation-starting, intensely personal stories, fresh takes on done-to-death genres, superior sophomore seasons, and contemporary shows that somehow already feel classic, compelling characters and virtuosic writing have been in plentiful supply over the past twelve months.
And so, as we wave goodbye to another year merrily spent streaming, bingeing, and organising our lives around those sneaky weekly droppers, the time has come again for Team Empire to get together and vote for the best TV shows of 2024. As always, this year’s vote saw our editors, critics, and contributors (for more on us and our team, head this way) submit their own Top 10 shows of the year, with each vote assigned points based on the rankings given. This is then aggregated into the official Empire Top 20 list that you find here.
Whether you’ve been bwa-na-na-na’ing along to shots of animated nineties nostalgia, diving deeper into the Second Age of Middle-earth, dodging the law with Andrew Scott, or finally discovering the brilliance of Industry, we can all safely agree that the era of peak TV hit new heights in 2024. And so without further ado, scroll down and join us as we run through the list of this year’s best telly, counting from 20:
Top 20 TV Shows Of 2024
20) X-Men ‘97
Streaming on: Disney+
Showrunner: Beau DeMayo
Starring: Ray Chase, Jennifer Hale, Cal Dodd, Lenore Zann, George Buza
With its electrifying synth intro, endlessly quotable catchphrases, and eye-popping Jim Lee-inspired aesthetic, X-Men: The Animated Series was peak ‘90s Saturday morning telly. And yet, thanks to its mature, serialised storytelling approach and complex character work, the show always felt ahead of its time. The arrival of X-Men ‘97 earlier this year saw the times finally catch up with our beloved mutants, and the results were beyond anybody’s wildest dreams. Neither remake nor reboot but rather a direct continuation of the OG show, this revival — bolstered by extended episode runtimes, claw-sharp animation, and ambitious plotlines carrying genuine stakes — transcends its forebear whilst honouring its roots. We may have come for the returning voice cast, the “Bwa-na-na-na naaaa na-na”, and the cereal-snaffling nostalgia, but we stayed for a trailblazing animated show that really spoke to the hot-button issues of our times while pushing the X-Men franchise in bold new directions.
Read the Empirereview of X-Men ‘97.
19) Black Doves
Streaming on: Netflix
Creator: Joe Barton
Starring: Keira Knightley, Ben Whishaw, Sarah Lancashire
The latest from Giri/Haji and The Lazarus Project creator Joe Barton, festive espionage thriller Black Doves may have only landed on Netflix just this month, but it’s already rocketed straight into our year’s best list — and deservedly so. A ridiculously smart, kinetically propulsive take on the spy genre that doesn’t so much subvert formula as take the tropes and figuratively balloon animal them from a puppy into a fire-breathing dragon, Barton’s six-part series finds Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw on phenomenal form as a spy and an assassin whose double-lives cross doubly dangerously after a murder close to home threatens to become their undoing. With its sardonicism and wry approach to spycraft, Slow Horses comparisons are inevitable, but make no mistake, this is a blistering Barton joint through and through. Roll on Season 2 — the first is a bona fide Christmas cracker.
Read Empire’s Black Doves review.
18) We Are Lady Parts: Season 2
Streaming on: Channel 4
Showrunner: Nida Manzoor
Starring: Anjana Vasan, Sarah Kameela Impey, Juliette Motamed, Faith Omole, Lucie Shorthouse
Nida Manzoor’s riotous comedy returned this year, and we caught up with Muslim punk band Lady Parts after their successful gig in the previous season finale. Frontwoman Saira (Sarah Kameela Impey), bassist Bisma (Faith Omole), drummer and eyeliner extraordinaire Ayesha (Juliette Motamed) and formerly reluctant, Don McLean-loving guitarist Amina (Anjana Vasan) are back together and writing new songs – including ‘Villain Era’, inspired by Amina’s new no-nonsense attitude at work. They’re touring and ready to record an album, but have already spawned such a following that a rival band of super-fans, Second Wife, is set to put everything they’ve worked for in jeopardy, and label execs are sniffing around, threatening to break the gang apart. The second season is every bit as glorious as the first, the band’s anarchic spirit expressed through Manzoor’s continued playfulness with form, genre, and magical realism, as well as the objectively kick-ass songs and performances. Long live Lady Parts!
17) Doctor Who
Streaming on: BBC iPlayer
Showrunner: Russell T. Davies
Starring: Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson
Having made a triumphant return to Doctor Who with last year’s spectacular anniversary specials, Russell T. Davies’ first full series back as showrunner breathed new life into the world’s longest-running sci-fi series. Driven by the magnetic central pairing of Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson as the Doctor and his companion Ruby Sunday, Davies’ new-look Whoniverse — now backed by a Disney-sized budget — took in Beatles, space babies, bird-brained cosplayers, and literal Gods, effortlessly switching up genres whilst telling an emotionally resonant tale of foundlings and belonging. Standouts ‘Boom’ and Welsh folk horror diversion ‘73 Yards’ offered up some of the year’s best episodes of, well, anything, while an ambitious two-part finale saw Davies take some impressively big swings – and stick the landing. What’s more, it still seems the regenerated show’s best is very much yet to come.
16) House Of The Dragon: Season 2
Streaming on: NOW
Showrunner: Ryan Condal
Starring: Emma D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke, Matt Smith, Ewan Mitchell, Fabien Frankel
After a strong first season that established the pre-Game Of Thrones Targaryen rule, and set up the fight for the throne between Team Black (Viserys’ daughter and named heir Rhaenyra, played by Emma D’Arcy) and Team Green (led by new Queen Mother Alicent Hightower, played by Olivia Cooke), the next stage of the fantasy epic unfolds. Thanks to several misunderstandings – including a cryptic death rattle, a beheaded baby, and the Targaryen’s insistence on calling multiple offspring Aegon – both sides are heading for a war doused in dragon-fire. The new season ticked all the boxes a successful return to Westeros requires, with the political moves becoming increasingly intricate, the character drama more intense, and the battle scenes taking things up a notch.
Read the Empire review of House Of The Dragon: Season 2.
15) Baby Reindeer
Streaming on: Netflix
Showrunner: Richard Gadd
Starring: Richard Gadd, Jessica Gunning, Nava Mau
A streaming sensation that dominated the cultural conversation months after its release, Baby Reindeer — adapted from writer-star Richard Gadd’s Edinburgh Fringe one-man show — may not make for easy viewing, but it’s an essential watch nevertheless. Based on Gadd’s own personal experiences being stalked, the series sees aspiring comedian and barman Donny Dunn (Gadd) forced to reckon with traumas past and present when vulnerable pub regular Martha (a magnetic Jessica Gunning) develops an unhealthy obsession with him. Effectively chilling on-screen emails from Martha, throat-clutchingly claustrophobic close-ups, and Donny’s propulsive stream-of-consciousness narration potently evoke the sheer inescapable horror of living with a stalker. But this isn’t only a gripping true-crime thriller. It’s a deeply personal exploration of cycles of abuse, shame, internalised homophobia, and the nature of victimhood that sees Gadd interrogate the morality of mining — even perpetuating — one’s trauma for art whilst simultaneously producing a truly unmissable piece of it.
Read the Empire review of Baby Reindeer.
14) Sherwood: Season 2
Streaming on: BBC iPlayer
Showrunner: James Graham
Starring: David Morrissey, Lesley Manville, Monica Dolan
Contrary to some corners of social media’s aspersions, James Graham’s BBC drama Sherwood is not a gender-bending contemporary take on Robin Hood (though we’d quite happily watch that show too!) Rather, it’s a compulsive, intricately plotted, and incredibly timely Northern yarn inspired by the brutal July 2004 murders of trade unionist Keith Frogson and hairdresser Chanel Taylor in the pit mining village of Annesley Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire. Every bit as dark, destructive, and yet wholly in thrall to the dramatic potential and dirt-beneath-the-nails reality of domestic life as, say, Happy Valley, the first season of Graham’s show was a masterclass in complex characterwork and world-building that shone a light on long-festering community tensions arising from the 80s’ mining strikes through the prism of an unspeakable atrocity. Its second season, boasting a fistful of episodes helmed by the brilliant Clio Barnard, builds on the first’s foundations, going darker and digging deeper into the lives of its core characters while, with the introduction of Monica Dolan’s conniving Ann Brennan, raising the stakes without compromising the show’s true grit. If you want British telly at its arse-clenching, watch-through-your-fingers best, then look no further.
13) Arcane: Season 2
Streaming on: Netflix
Showrunners: Christian Linke, Alex Yee
Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Ella Purnell, Kevin Alejandro, Katie Leung, Harry Lloyd, Toks Olagundoye
When Netflix announced they were teaming up with Riot Games and Fortiche to make a spin-off series based on MMORPG League Of Legends, let’s just say that Arcane had our curiosity more than our attention. But then the first season arrived boasting extraordinary animation, rich world-building, complex social commentaries and storytelling, and one of the all-time great screen sister relationships in the shape of Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx’s (Ella Purnell) and, well, yeah, that got our attention. Then, almost as soon as it began, Arcane reached its breathtaking climax this year with a three-act second season every bit as narratively audacious and dizzyingly beautiful as the first. If there’s an argument to be made that Season 2 at times feels overstuffed, the rebuttal is that everything it does cram in — from the one-shot multiversal stunner that is ‘Pretend Like It’s The First Time’ to the Jacksonian grandeur of the climactic battle in ‘The Dirt Under Your Nails’ — is just spellbinding. For anyone who dismisses animation as a somehow lesser art — show ‘em this. TV of champions!
Read the Empire review of Arcane Season 2.
12) The Penguin
Streaming on: NOW
Showrunner: Lauren LeFranc
Starring: Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Mark Strong
From the Riddler-enforced floods that washed away half of Gotham in The Batman has risen one of the most complicated, corrupt and compelling villains that the fictional city has ever seen. And without the caped crusader in sight. Lauren LeFranc’s spin-off series stands firm as a viscous and vastly entertaining crime show that sees Colin Farrell’s besuited Oz go to war with Sofia Falcone (a beguiling Cristin Milioti), having recently taken the crime boss mantle from her deceased father. It’s also a fascinating dual character study as we learn more about Oz’s self-made and ruthless charmer and Sofia’s evolution from Arkham Asylum survivor to respected criminal leader. Through their stories we see Gotham in a new light, without the series leaning too heavily on Batman lore.
Read the Empire review of The Penguin.
11) Ripley
Streaming on: Netflix
Showrunner: Steven Zaillian
Starring: Andrew Scott, Johnny Flynn, Dakota Fanning
With Ripley, Steven Zaillian (The Irishman) took Patricia Highsmith’s literary classic and turned it into an incredibly atmospheric, monochromatic eight-part neo-noir series. Stepping into the (stolen) shoes of everybody’s favourite chameleonic con-man, a criminally insouciant Andrew Scott perfectly carries both the debonair cool and ice-cold sociopathy of Tom Ripley in the level of his unblinking glare. After Ripley accepts an offer to track down millionaire malcontent Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, Zaillian’s lavishly done series follows Scott’s master manipulator as he embarks on a continental spree of murder, manipulation, and identity theft, tailed all the way by Maurizio Lombardi’s relentless Inspector Ravini. Immaculately shot by frequent Paul Thomas Anderson collaborator Robert Elswit, impeccably threaded together by an ace ensemble, and utterly intoxicating in its slow-burn approach, Ripley — like its namesake — is cerebral, sophisticated, and irresistible. In other words, a real killer.
Read the Empire review of Ripley.
10) True Detective: Night Country
Streaming on: NOW
Showrunner: Issa López
Starring: Jodie Foster, Kali Reis, Christopher Ecclestone
HBO’s anthology crime series returned in spectacular fashion with Night Country, which transported us to the cold, endless night of Ennis, Alaska, in a new season created by Mexican writer-director Issa López. Jodie Foster is as brilliant as ever as Liz Danvers, a grouchy, stubborn, somewhat chaotic police chief, tasked with finding out what happened to a whole team of researchers that were discovered dead, frozen in the icy wasteland, with hints at a somewhat supernatural cause. Kali Reis is an excellent foil-slash-teammate as Trooper Evangeline Navarro, who has a personal stake in the case, and confronts her own issues and past as they solve it. With a totally immersive sense of time and place, fascinating central mystery, prescient story threads on Indigenous issues and an ending you won’t see coming, Night Country is True Detective at its very best.
Read the Empire review of True Detective: Night Country.
9) Interview With The Vampire: Season 2
Streaming on: BBC iPlayer
Showrunner: Rolin Jones
Starring: Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid
While the first season of Rolin Jones’ adaptation of the sanguisexual Anne Rice novel wasted no time getting its fangs into viewers, this second instalment managed to surpass it entirely, going straight for the jugular. Placing Louis (Jacob Anderson) and Claudia (Delainey Hayles, replacing last season’s Bailey Bass) in post war France (Louis In Paris, if you will), they go from being alone in their immortality to swept up in the embrace of a troupe of theatrical bloodsuckers, led by the seductive Armand (a magnetic Assad Zaman). While the absence of Sam Reid’s scene-stealing Lestat boded ill ahead of time, his incorporation into this second season as part of Louis’ unconscious proved inspired: as did numerous deviations from and evolutions of the source material, ensuring that even seasoned fang-fans were left in shock by the time this sophomore run of episodes reached its end. This was stunningly-wrought gothic romance set amid the lights and pomp of the French Capital and one of the most captivating things to grace our screens all year.
Read the Empire review of Interview With The Vampire: Season 2.
8) Slow Horses: Season 4
Streaming on: Apple TV+
Showrunner: Will Smith
Starring: Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas
There’s something incredibly comforting about Slow Horses — this despite this fourth season beginning with a festive terrorist bombing at a crowded London shopping centre. Gary Oldman’s sweary, boozy, farty spymaster and his misfit band of MI5 rejects are as lovable as band of espionage underdogs as TV has ever delivered, their exploits impeccably adapted from Mick Herron’s drum-tight novels. This year’s instalment proved a standout one, with a French connection, a body in a bath, an unstoppable hitman, Hugo Weaving one spectacularly villainous form, and Roddy Ho handcuffed to a chair. Humorous and heartbreaking in equal measure, it ended with a bittersweet sign-off that left us equal parts stunned and hankering for more. With Season 5 already in the can and Season 6 in the pipeline, this horse shows no sign of flagging, and as the most consistently excellent show on television, long may it continue.
Read the Empire review of Slow Horses: Season 4.
7) Rivals
Streaming on: Disney+
Showrunner: Dominic Treadwell-Collins
Starring: David Tennant, Aiden Turner, Danny Dyer, Katherine Parkinson, Emily Atack
Star-studded as it is, with a cast including David Tennant, Danny Dyer, Aiden Turner, Katherine Parkinson and many more, the series adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s much-loved novel was one of the most pleasant televisual surprises of the year. Yes, there’s lots of sex, and garish 80s fashion, and soapy melodramatic conflict about winning the rights to a regional TV franchise that we still don’t really understand the mechanics of. But Rivals also delivered sharp writing, skin-tingling romantic tension, surprisingly hard-hitting moments, and one helluva cliffhanger. Not to mention the gentle chemistry and slow-burn start of an affair between Dyer and Parkinson’s characters Freddie and Lizzie, which catches you completely off-guard in the best, sweetest of ways. It’s brash, a bit silly, and riddled with bare arses – but it’s also an incredibly entertaining ride. We’re crossing our fingers for Season 2.
Read the Empire review of Rivals.
6) The Day Of The Jackal
Streaming on: NOW
Creator: Ronan Bennett
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Lashana Lynch, Chukwudi Iwuji, Eleanor Matsuura, Úrsula Corberó, Charles Dance
A story of 'analogue spycraft' based on Frederick Forsyth's 1971 novel (a book which previously inspired Fred Zinnemann’s same-named 1973 genre classic film), Ronan Bennett’s extraordinarily tense and taut ten-part thriller The Day Of The Jackal sees Eddie Redmayne on mercurial form as The Jackal, an elite assassin who — having just pulled off a spectacular kill in Munich — finds himself contracted to kill a tech billionaire with a God complex (Khalid Abdalla). At the same time, MI6 agent Bianca Pullman (Lashana Lynch) tails the hitman every step of the way, dangerously spinning the plates of her spiralling family life and increasingly desperate attempts to catch the Jackal. Reminiscent of David Fincher's The Killer in places, yet indelibly infused with Bennett's keen eye for exploring criminals existing on society's margins, this contemporary take on a genre classic brilliantly blends old-school spycraft with an intoxicating, in-depth character study of a killer that’ll leave you questioning where your loyalties as a viewer lie. A dead-eye masterclass in suspense.
Read the Empire review of The Day Of The Jackal.
5) 3 Body Problem
Streaming on: Netflix
Showrunners: David Benioff, Dan Weiss, Alexander Woo
Starring: Eiza González, Jess Hong, Benedict Wong, Liam Cunningham, John Bradley
The sci-fi book series Remembrance Of Earth’s Past by computer engineer-turned-fiction author Liu Cixin was once claimed to be “unadaptable”. Given there will soon be multiple adaptations (including a Zhang Yimou-directed film and an animated series), that word is increasingly and hilariously wrong. But it does not take away the considerable achievement from Game Of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss and True Blood’s Alexander Woo with this big-budget English-language take on the book. The eight-episode show streamlines and simplifies some of Liu’s hardest concepts but retains its sense of ambition and its wilder moments (Dehydrated aliens! Nuclear bombs in space! The entire universe winking!). It is not without its flaws, and there are some who prefer the original Chinese adaptation (now on Prime Video), but there is more than enough to whet the appetite for the — now-confirmed — next two seasons, which will take us up to the heat death of the universe. No biggie.
Read the Empire review of 3 Body Problem.
4) The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power: Season 2
Streaming on: Prime Video
Showrunners: J.D. Payne, Patrick McKay
Starring: Morfydd Clark, Charlie Vickers, Charles Edwards, Robert Aramayo, Daniel Weyman, Sam Hazeldine
Like the fledgling fellowship at the start of The Lord Of The Rings, the first season of The Rings Of Power — Amazon’s risky, billion-dollar, high-fantasy gamble on taking the marginalia of J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium and turning it into the next Game Of Thrones — took some time to find its footing. With its spectacular second season, however, the series experienced its Council of Elrond moment as its individually great parts cohered into a barnstorming whole. From Sauron’s seduction and torture of Celebrimbor, to the grand reveal of Daniel Weyman’s Grand-Elf identity, to the arrival of Rory Kinnear’s Tom Bombadil, the introduction of heavy metal into Middle-earth, and that extraordinary three-episode spanning Siege of Eregion, Rings Of Power raised the bar on every level with its sophomore outing. And as the fall of Númenor looms, Sauron’s influence grows, and Galadriel and our heroes brace for the last alliance of elves and men, you get the distinct sense that the best of this high fantasy romp is very much yet to come.
Read the Empire review of The Rings Of Power Season 2.
3) Industry: Season 3
Streaming on: BBC iPlayer
Showrunners: Mickey Down, Konrad Kay
Starring: Myha’la, Marisa Abela, Harry Lawtey, Ken Leung, Sagar Radia
One of the best shows that not that many people have been watching broke into the mainstream this year, with Industry’s third season garnering its biggest viewership numbers – and amount of online hype and conversation – yet. This new season found our Pierpoint people more divided than ever, with Harper (Myha’la) launching her own fund, Yasmin (Marisa Abela) and Rob (Harry Lawtey) finally confronting their feelings for each other, and Eric doing his best to retain his power. The introduction of Kit Harington’s obnoxious aristocratic CEO Henry Muck added a new dimension to proceedings, and a sort-of bottle episode dedicated to Rishi’s (Sagar Radia) troubling gambling addiction provided the kind of adrenaline rush that makes this show so addictive. We’re still not totally sure what ‘shorting’ is, but we know one thing for sure – we can’t wait to see where Industry goes next.
Read the Empire review of Industry: Season 3.
2) Supacell
Streaming on: Netflix
Showrunner: Rapman
Starring: Tosin Cole, Nadine Mills, Josh Tedeku, Eric Kofi Abrefa, Calvin Demba
With the MCU taking off into the multiverse in recent years and DC Studios preparing to relaunch with a phase dedicated to Gods and monsters, Blue Story writer-director Rapman’s brilliantly original Netflix joint Supacell brings superheroes back down to Earth. Set on the streets of Peckham, Lewisham, Brixton, and Camberwell, Rapman’s show — inspired by the likes of Heroes and Misfits — follows five Black South Londoners who inexplicably develop superpowers. Far from aspiring Avengers however, what makes Michael (Tosin Cole), Sabrina (Nadine Mills), Andre (Eric Kofi Abrefa), Rodney (Calvin Demba), and Tazer (Josh Tedeku) such compelling leads — and the show so unique — is that they really are just ordinary people trying to get by in modern London. Seamlessly blending familiar genre features — Superspeed! Superstrength! PORTALS! — with character driven, street-level drama, Supacell has given its genre fresh juice just at the moment it seemed the well was starting to run dry.
Read the Empire review of Supacell.
1) Shōgun
Streaming on: Disney+
Showrunners: Justin Marks, Rachel Kondo
Starring: Hiroyuki Sanada, Cosmo Jarvis, Anna Sawai
While the elevator pitch for this adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 novel might have been ‘Game Of Thrones in 17th century Japan’, the reality of this transportational 10-part series is nowhere near as cynical. A sonnet to Japan’s rich culture and deep beauty (despite being filmed entirely on location in Canada), Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks’ sweeping epic perfectly captures the clash of two vastly different worlds as English sailor John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) is shipwrecked in Edo period Osaka and taken into the service of warlord Torunaga (a magnificent Hiroyuki Sanada). It may be a historical epic, but set against customs and culture so alien to modern eyes (an aide who misspeaks in episode one offers as penance his own life and that of his newborn son, eradicating his entire line to absolve the shame) that it almost feels like a fantasy.
And while Shōgun has no dragons, the show plays its own game of thrones with delicate subtlety, executing an intricate chess game of political manoeuvring and brinkmanship as Japan’s five regents position themselves to seize absolute power. Shōgun’s secret weapon, though, isn’t its elaborate plotting or action set-pieces, but the human drama at its core. Whether it’s Torunaga’s inscrutable manipulation, Yabushige’s (Tadanobu Asano) shameless attempts at self-advancement, the quiet tragedy of Fuji (Moeka Hoshi), or the grace, poise and unfathomable inner strength of Lady Mariko (a show-stealing Anna Sawai) the depth of human drama here is mesmerising from first episode to last. That the story will now expand beyond the source material into further seasons is testament to the show’s impact and huge appeal — all in spite of being 90% subtitled. Who says the ‘one-inch barrier’ can’t be hurdled?
Read the Empire review of Shōgun.