The Contending co-founder Megan McLachlan lists her favorite TV shows of 2024.
When it comes to my favorite television series of 2024, one thing they have in common is the idea of “reimagining.”
Jennifer Lopez looks back on her love life, reimagining it as a musical video (maybe even something you’d see on TRL back in the day). Johnnie Ingram and Stephen Warren reimagine their own We’re Here drag-comes-to-small-towns docuseries to incorporate politics in a heated election year. Nobody Wants This reimagines the romantic comedy for single fortysomethings and what would happen if The OC‘s Seth Cohen became a rabbi. Chimp Crazy reimagines motherhood but for women with chimps.
Enjoy my Top 10 shows of 2024!
10. This is Me. . .Now: A Love Story (Amazon Prime)
Without going into Jennifer Lopez’s personal life, This is Me…Now stands on its own as an audacious move forward for a once-in-a-generation artist. Fun and at times incredibly moving, Lopez puts all of herself out there, examining her shortcomings while also celebrating them. Her hopeful Singin’ in the Rain homage shows that despite all of the heartbreak, she still believes in love, and you want to believe it for her, too.
9. We’re Here (HBO)
In its fourth and sadly final season, HBO’s docuseries highlights sections of America trying to outlaw drag, including Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Not only does We’re Here illustrate how strong the LGBTQIA population is across the United States (yes, even in small towns), but it also introduces trans individuals and their stories to a mass audience, which is more important now than ever. As real-life superheroes, Jaida Essence Hall, Latrice Royale, Priyanka, and Sasha Velour enter government buildings and risk their lives in the name of drag and freedom. You can’t get much more badass and beautiful than that.
8. Ted (Peacock)
Did we really need a prequel to Seth MacFarlane’s 2012 film about a foul-mouth teddy bear come to life? As it turns out, we did! Picking up in the early ’90s, Ted follows a teenage John Bennett (Max Burkholder) as he smokes weed for the first time and tries to hook up with chicks — all with his beloved teddy bear (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) by his side. But it’s not familiar hijinks that make this show work: It’s his dysfunctional family. The brilliant Alanna Ubach and Scott Grimes take what could be one-note characters and color them with nuance and hilarity. Giorgia Whigham’s Blaire is also a better foil for Ted and Johnny than any other leading lady they’ve faced off against.
7. Under the Bridge (Hulu)
The girls on Hulu’s Under the Bridge would scare the shit out of Showtime’s team of Yellowjackets, and that’s truly saying something. Based on a true story, this drama series depicts the 1997 murder of 14-year-old Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta) and the events surrounding her death, including how her strict family of Jehovah’s Witnesses process the loss. How Izzy G did not run the table with awards is beyond me, as her performance as Kelly is one of the most haunting of the year.
6. Girls5Eva (Netflix)
At only six episodes, Girls5Eva packs more laughs and character development into one season than most 22-episode series do. In Season 3, the girls go on tour and try to sell out Radio City Music Hall on Thanksgiving, all while tackling topics like women’s bodily autonomy, problematic songs from the early 2000s, and teeth-whitening MLM schemes. While Netflix didn’t renew it for Season 4, Girls5eva will be famous 5 eva in the hearts of fans.
5. Somebody Somewhere (HBO)
When thinking about the end of this HBO series, I think of Patricia Arquette’s quote from her Academy Award-winning role in Boyhood: “I just thought there would be. . .more.” In so many ways, it feels like we were just getting started with Sam (Bridget Everett) and her Manhattan, Kansas crew’s respective journeys, and its final season is truly its best. It’s a treat to watch these characters week in and out, from Joel (Jeff Hiller) grappling with what an adult relationship looks like to Tricia (Mary Catherine Garrison) coming into her own as a businesswoman while also dealing with an STD (one of the funniest scenes of the series). Of all the singing scenes of the show, Sam’s rendition of “The Climb” demonstrates a culmination for this character, with her truly reconnecting with her voice just as she reunites with Iceland (Víglundur Hjartarson).
4. Three Women (STARZ)
I’ve never seen a television series put women’s desires at the forefront like STARZ’s Three Women. Based on the non-fiction book by Lisa Taddeo, Shailene Woodley’s Gia stands in for the author as she travels across the country talking to women about sex (think: Shere Hite). She meets Lina (Betty Gilpin) who longs to be physically touched, Sloane (DeWanda Wise) who craves fulfillment, and Maggie (Gabrielle Creevy) who wants to be believed. These stories only connect because of Gia and yet for as unique as they are, they collectively speak to the singular mystery of what it is to be a woman.
3. Nobody Wants This (Netflix)
If we learned anything in 2024, it’s that audiences crave romantic comedies and Adam Brody — and who can blame them? Loosely based on her life, Erin Foster’s Nobody Wants This delivers a fresh, long-overdue take on geriatric Millennial romance with Brody as hot rabbi Noah and Kristen Bell as sex podcaster Joanne. And in addition to an against-all-odds romance with sizzling chemistry, Nobody Wants This also has a supporting cast and subplots that give everyone something to do, including standouts like Justine Lupe, Timothy Simons, and Jackie Tohn.
2. Chimp Crazy (HBO)
Eric Goode’s documentary series Chimp Crazy does something bonkers toward the end of its four episodes — and at this point we’ve already seen some pretty insane shit (Travis and Buck’s stories are gutwrenching). For much of the series, Tonia Haddix is the antagonist, the woman who kidnaps a monkey and tells PETA it died. But suddenly, Goode flips the switch, and we see Haddix as she sees herself: a mother who can no longer be with her “child.” You hurt for her as much as you fear her, and lesser series, like even Goode’s phenomenon Tiger King, would leave this larger-than-life persona on a laugh instead of exploring what’s beneath all that blond.
1. Shōgun (FX/FX on Hulu)
Epic in scale and execution, Shōgun has everything you could want from a historical drama series, led by show-stopping performances from Emmy winners Hiroyuki Sanada as Toranaga and Anna Sawai as Mariko. Shōgun draws your attention by demanding all of it, dropping you in and expecting you to keep pace. One thing that not many reviews have pointed out is how incredibly romantic the series is, especially watching Mariko and Blackthorne’s (Cosmo Jarvis) relationship develop and she becoming the hero he might never be. Pretty progressive for a tale set 500 years ago.
