Television

Year in Review - 2024

The List

(new to me in 2024)

2024 was a strange year in TV for me.

There was a time in the not too distant past when a television show would consume me. I fondly remember high school nights on my laptop, binge-watching seasons of the X-files; obsessions in college with House of Cards and Boardwalk Empire; even as recently as the pandemic, gathering with my friends in our bubble to watch Dark and Ken Burns.

The reality, as streaming service executives will be quick to tell you, is that television just competes with so many other forms of entertainment - video games, reading, even just surfing the web. Though there’s still more tv than any one person could possibly watch, the amount of content is shrinking as viewers like me start to lose attention.

A bit paradoxically, I’m ending 2024 feeling like I want to reaffirm my commitment to watching more shows, while simultaneously recognizing that TV may occupy a more narrow slice of my free time. The key to this seeming juxtaposition is intentionality, making the moments where I do sit down to watch something more meaningful by sticking to shows that I trust will be worth the payoff.

I’ll be the first to admit that too many nights in 2024 ended lamely, with my tired brain mindlessly scrolling through YouTube, jumping between videos with very little attention span. The reality is that so many of those moments could have been channeled into an engaging show that would have left me more fulfilled. Where that did happen in 2024 - Hacks, Shogun, Welcome to Wrexham - I came away feeling satisfied and wanting to share my love for these shows with others. In too many other cases, though, I was only partially investing in what I was watching. Halt and Catch Fire is the key example, a show that I greatly appreciated being able to watch with Mara, but that I spread out across far too much time. To really feel the beats of the show at their most powerful, I needed to commit to finishing the show more urgently.

I hope to look back on 2024 as the low point of this sort of “loose television watching”. It’s not just television, of course, these sort of habits tend to rear their head in other areas as well (taking 6 months to finish Deaths’ End for example). In looking at upcoming shows for 2025, I’m really excited about the diversity of content coming out, and ready to invest more of my focused time to these shows.

5 years later, Chernobyl stands apart as the greatest show I’ve ever watched.

Since it was first released in May of 2019, the HBO limited series Chernobyl has loomed large in my mind. The fascination is multi-dimensional, adding to its staying power in my consciousness.

On one hand, the story is both a lesson and a warning. It tells the urgent story of how denialism, misinformation, and lies can undermine even a deeply entrenched society. Not even 3 years on from the release of this show, the political descendants of failed Soviet leadership have invaded Ukraine on the basis of lies, a catastrophic result for all involved and a grim reminder of how history often rhymes.

As a political allegory, Chernobyl no doubt influenced shows that came after it, such as my favorite of 2023, Andor. It was also an

excellent lesson in adaptation, making measured choices and careful bets on where to extrapolate from true events while staying true to the individuals who were actually there and events that actually happened. This was my first exposure to showrunner Craig Maizin, and his contributions to the later Last of Us HBO show clearly show the same attention to detail regarding adapting source material to a television drama. In other words, the legacy of Chernobyl lives on amidst other shows.

Fundamentally, it is still a surreal show to watch knowing that these events actually happened. The resolution carries added weight knowing that the Soviet Union would actually collapse a mere five years later. And there’s a mystical quality represented by the power of nuclear energy; both the awe of how such a powerful and complex technology must be treated with respect, but also how it mirrors the political forces emerging in Soviet society that if not properly understood, have the potential to subsume their practitioners.

Depending on your perspective, it could be a morally satisfying conclusion - truth wins and bad guys lose - or a murky lesson on the fragility of the human species - a lesson we’re bound to repeat? Both are likely to be true to some degree, but for me the satisfaction from watching Chernobyl is in recognizing the powerful paradox that we are all at the whims of systems far greater than us - political, economic, and technological - but that only through indomitable and principled individual will can we ever hope to change these systems for the better.

And my 2024 Show of the Year is…

Is this the most toxic relationship on television? The most productive? Probably both, which is what makes it so hard to look away.

Three season on, Hacks continues to deliver. I enjoyed reading this piece from NPR, which argued that part of the reason Hacks has stayed compelling into its third season is that character arcs have had time to develop to finally start paying off in major ways. It’s not that the show wasn’t brilliant in its first two seasons (it absolutely was) but rather that character traits that were clearly ephemeral comedic bits couldn’t last forever. The writers’ ability to develop these complicated characters over three seasons and keep them funny is truly laudable.

Part of the allure for me is that the side characters shine as bright as lead performers Hannah Einbinder and Jean Smart (pictured above). My personal favorite duo is Jimmy and Kayla, played by Paul W. Downs and Megan Stalter, whose entire relationship encapsulates the sentiment I just expressed. Kayla, in particular, was hilarious as an aloof sorority-girl type. Expanding her character and layering in depth via her career journey easily had the potential to flop and lack a sense of earnestness. But the writers pulled it off, and it’s clear that Jimmy and Kayla have great chemistry, even when their characters aren’t always on the same page.

Ava and Deborah’s dysfunctional relationship is the highlight of the show. Just when you think they’ve hit their breaking point, there is some force that brings them back together. It’s not even yet clear that it is in each other’s best interests to maintain this relationship, though it has inarguably brought fame and commercial success. When the dust finally settles, though, the writers will have to decide whether the ultimate takeaway is that you can work through your differences and find symbiotic success, or whether the obsessive drive for fame at all costs destroys all. Whatever the case, I’ll be tuning in.

What I’m Most Excited For in 2025…

Stranger Things: S5
Netflix

Stranger Things Season 4 was appointment television, and I wouldn’t have predicted that. I love all of Stranger Things, but no doubt Seasons 2 & 3 were weaker, choosing to retread too many plot lines rather than introduce original ideas. Season 4 dramatically changed that, and finally started to dig into the deeper lore. If Season 5 can conclude that lore expedition in a compelling way, it will go out with honor.

Wednesday: Season 2
Netflix

It’s a shame that Andor’s writers weren’t given the full complement of seasons they initially envisioned to complete this series to its full potential. That being said, it ups the stakes and my anticipation for this season knowing it will be the last we get of these characters and this arc. Given the overtly political themes and the prospect of another 4 years of Trump politics, this could be especially resonant for our time, providing a relevant boost to a show already stacked with talented actors and brilliant set pieces.

Severance: S2
Apple TV

Severance Season 1 had one of the best finales to a tv show I’ve ever seen, right up there with Lost Season 1. It was all the more insane that my friend and I watching together thought there was another episode left (surely who would be so mad to write a nine episode season?!?!?!). I’ll be rewatching season 1 this month ahead of the release of Season 2. Fingers crossed it can keep up the level of quality and insanity.

If all goes according to plan, prestige dramas could well define the television high points of 2025

The Last of Us: S2
HBO

As an enormous fan of video game studio Naughty Dog and their work on the Last of Us IP, I largely ignored the lead-up to the release of the television adaptation, not wanting to get my hopes up given the high bar that the source material set. It was an extremely pleasant surprise, then, when the show largely delivered on representing the game’s emotional story and complicated characters. Neil Druckman’s involvement no doubt helped steer the ship. The second game pivots the story in a hugely controversial way, and I’m very excited to see how the showrunners handle the new story beats and what message they ultimately decide to leave the series on.

Alien: Earth
FX

I was only recently made aware of this show, but my excitement is predicated on 3 factors:

  1. FX shows have been killing it lately

  2. I love the Alien films and universe

  3. Noah Hawley has earned my deep respect via the Fargo TV reboot

Will those 3 ingredients be enough? I’m certainly intrigued!