TV Of The Year 2024 - Part 3: 30 to 11 + Biggest Disappointment
We’ve looked at the Staples, the Podcasts, the Sequels: we’ve looked at the ones we couldn’t remember and the ones that Lost It. Now, before we run down my chart from number 30 to number 11, let us have a quick word about television’s Biggest Disappointment of the Year.
Biggest Disappointment: The Franchise (Sky/Now)
This show was the biggest victim of over-promise and under-delivery of 2024, largely as a result of the involvement of Marina Hyde. If she wasn’t the co-presenter of my favourite podcast of the year (see TV Of The Year Part 2), as well as being one of the funniest and most respected writers there is, I would have had no expectations for The Franchise, in fact I might have not even watched it.
But not only did Marina big it up by telling us all so much about the experience of The Writers Room (she is one of that number, and an Exec Producer), and use it as a constant reference point when giving us her insider knowledge on how TV production works, and her insights into the making of superhero franchise movies (the subject matter of the show), but also it is the work of top names, including Armando Iannucci who can usually do no wrong.
The Franchise mis-fired from the start by having stories that hinged on plot points that didn’t come across as convincing or realistic. They’re making a superhero movie but, for reasons of focus, they’re making it with just two actors and a stuntman, on one set. The characters making the movie have unclear jobs and even less clear characters, and then they are obliged to sort out situations that have you going “but that would never happen”. Every time.
The actors get temporarily blinded by lights that are turned up high because a producer think the set looks too dark. What? A cameo actor from another film is brought in at no notice. What? Script changes are made all the time, but there doesn’t appear to be a writer anywhere to be seen. What?
To to be fair to the actors, Himesh Patel, Lolly Adefope and Richard E Grant put in sterling work in underwritten roles, but poor old Jessica Hynes and Justin Edwards are hopelessly misused in a “will they won’t they” scenario which is much more “why would they/ who’d care if they did?”. There are other actors there, but you constantly wonder why.
The script is full of contrivances that must have seemed hilarious in this mythical Writers Room, but fall flat when put into a script. And the cast of characters have the least chemistry between them that I think I have ever seen in a British comedy in the last decade. The casting seems to have involved a lot of people being fitted into a role with a “they’ll do” approach, rather than the part being grown around them. The contrast between this and organically grown sitcoms Ghosts, Colin From Accounts and Fisk couldn’t be more stark.
It has a big budget, which hasn’t helped it. It’s meant that this much-lauded writers room could be brought about, though this has resulted in a show that feels Written By Committee rather than whatever genius effect the Americans make it render. But then it has led to the whole thing feeling overblown, yet under done, with big sets in which any laughter would be lost and evaporate, so it’s probably a good job they never generate any. It is a surprise that this team were involved in the excellent Thick Of It and Veep, but less of a surprise to learn they were involved in the woeful Avenue 5, from which little seems to have been learned.
My TV Of The Year 2024 - Numbers 30 to 11
30 = Inside No9 9 (BBC) / Colin From Accounts 2 (Stan/BBC) / Only Murders In The Building 4 (Disney) - These just squeaked out of The Sequel Zone by being so outstandingly good. Inside No 9 started its time on screen by being Number 6 in my TV Of The Year 2014 so it’s only right its 9th and final series gets noted. Colin From Accounts season 2 was as strong as season 1 (number 3 in last year’s chart), and Only Murders is maintaining a high standard (season 3 made last year’s Top Ten, only one place lower than season 1 did in 2021 - oh god, what have I become? I’m sorry, I do realise the quality of the show and its content is more important than how high or low I ranked it in the past. I’ve become some fevered hybrid of Nick Hornby in Fever Pitch and Brucie’s Play Your Cards Right.)
29 - Boy Bands Forever (BBC) - Only a little three part documentary, but a cracker. The boy bands of the 90s, it turns out, were exploited and had a hard time of it.
28 - True Detective Night Country (Sky/Now) - Only really a silly police procedural, but a cut above many, and definitely the coldest feeling show of the year.
27 - Mary and George (Sky/Now) - A silly historical drama, based on real life. Like Wolf Hall without the longeurs (which auto correct keeps insisting on changing to loungers, of which there were few).
26 - Rebus (BBC) - This was on at the same time as The Responder season 2, which was way better than this was (oh but I had to do that Sequel Zone didn’t I?) and they could easily swap places in this chart. Ian Rankin’s book was clearly written 25 years ago, and lots of bits, like peoples attitudes and expectations, had aged badly. Still great storytelling though.
24 - Douglas is Cancelled (ITV) - ITV only makes two showings in my chart this year, and it’s likely they are the only ITV shows I watched. Steven Moffat had written this as a stage play, and it would have worked better that way. On TV it fell slightly between comedy and social drama, but really was making the effort.
23 - Time Bandits (Apple TV) - The budget was all up there on the screen, and this probably has the most memorable special effects of the year. Underneath that it was really a kids series, not unlike the stuff I’d watch on ITV as a kid. Most outstanding contribution came from the brilliant child actor, with the best name of the year, Kal-El Tuck.
22 - Bad Monkey (Apple TV) - Another crime procedural, and another book adaptation, this time from a book by Carl Hiaasen, whose name I’ve heard often. He managed a couple of excellent twists, especially early on, and this had the best sense of humour of any of this year’s new crime shows. A bit over-extended, with way too many characters to care about, but splendidly done.
21 - Nightsleeper (BBC) - This took a lot of stick, not least because the company that made it (Euston Films, who’d started their lives making The Sweeney 50 years ago) went up the swannee just as this was released, branding it a flop by association. But it showcased the biggest and best Scottish acting line-up of the year, and was rollicking good fun. Yes, at times it illustrated how difficult it is to do action effects when you don’t have a Disney budget, but all the more respect to it for trying.
20 - Feud Capote and The Swans (FX / Disney) - Tom Hollander as Elmer Fudd as Truman Capote in a dream-laden unreliable memoir adapted from seems like an unadaptable book about stories, many of which are most likely true. Never have you spent so long failing to empathise with such a gaggle of dreadful people who deserved everything that came to them. Jolly good fun.
19 - Mr and Mrs Smith (Amazon) - Sort of a comedy, sort of a crime-of-the-week, sort of based on a movie, this was a quirky crime caper that was a surprise and a delight throughout. Maya Erskine (who I’ve not seen since Pen 15) and Donald Glover kill people for a living, and somehow you’re still willing them on all the way.
18 - Smoggie Queens (BBC) - A nice new discovery that’s proving more endearing than most BBC 3 comedies, which struggle to rise above the sophomoric, the worthy, or the gross. This is sweet. The Titanic episode is the funniest British sitcom episode of the year (which sadly isn't saying as much as it once might).
17 - Supacell (Netflix) - Not even five years ago this would have been a Channel 4 show. The cast (including Tosin Cole in the lead, finally getting a role that enables him to forget his years in Doctor Who) is a young, urban cast; the location is London; the vibe is sci fi with a social drama undercurrent. What bit of that is not Misfits, Utopia, or Humans? Sadly Channel 4 will never again have the money, the audience, or the wherewithal, to make dramas like this again, so we should be glad Netflix is doing it for them.
16 - Fisk (Stan / BBC) - Australia does it again. While the UK struggles to deliver a successful half hour comedy (after the demise of Ghosts it’s been tumbleweed out there in sitcom land. If you’re scrolling down this chart looking for the next great British sitcom, I’m afraid the remainder of this countdown is a desert in that regard) Australia has given us Colin From Accounts and now Kitty Flanagan (who I’ve introduced, as MC at the Comedy Box at sometime back in the day) writing and starring as Fisk. Somewhere between Miranda and The Office (but, my god, a hundred times better than the misguided Australian revival of the Office, see earlier) this was laugh out loud brilliant.
15 - Hacks (Amazon) - We’ve come late to this party, having only watched season 1, but knowing it’s been winning Emmys galore with two more seasons. It’s easy to see why. The best writing of relationships, and the most cringey of cringe-comedy we’ve seen this year. The half hour comedy isn’t dead, it’s just in another dimension is all.
14 - The Gentlemen (Netflix) - What is this nonsense doing so high in my chart? It’s Guy bloody Ritchie giving us old fashioned cockney blokes and your lordships shooting guns and flogging drugs in a cartoon landscape of privileged ponces and gormless gangsters, falling somewhere between Minder and a Mark Millar comic. Stonkingly good and surprisingly unpretentious fun.
13 - Fallout (Amazon) - Not having seen the video game, which would have necessitated me having ever played a video game ever in my life, which as you’ll probably have guessed, I haven’t, I came to this fresh. It reminded me more than anything of the dystopian sci fi I used to read forty years ago in 2000AD comic. Which is probably where the people who invented the video game got many of their ideas in the first place. The sort of show that really needed its big budget to work, and that made great use of it throughout. Not lease on Walton Goggins’ nose, or lack thereof, which needs more CGI for every scene than most TV shows used to have for a whole series.
12 - Traitors 2 + Oz 2 + US 2 + NZ 1 (BBC) - Should it be in Staples? Should it be in The Sequel Zone? Should I open up a new category of Guilty Pleasures for The Traitors? Whatever, we’ve loved it, and we don’t go into it uncritically. After January’s UK season 2, which was top notch, we almost bailed on Australia season 2, which seemed to have over-loaded itself with attention-grabbing show-offs. But Oz 2 went on to deliver the best twists so far, in the form of a great “villain” in the lead traitor, and a cracking surprise ending. Then USA 2 redeemed itself, after a floppy season 1 and a worrying celeb-laden start to this season. Not as good as Oz 2 or UK 2, but not bad. Then we ended the year with New Zealand season 1, and what a refresher that was, done on a fraction of the budget, and free from the celebs and show-offs, it was game play all the way. They don’t even have a castle, they have little more than a shed. And they pronounce that weirdly. Great stuff.
11 - Ludwig (BBC) - Quaint and loveable, this was the nearest to an old fashioned cosy crime-of-the-week detective show, that’s smart enough to be watchable, for ages. They call it the part David Mitchell was born to play, and they may well be right. You may remember, when I started trying to write crime novels, my first attempt was Breadwinner Hogg, in which I (mentally) cast David Mitchell as an insurance claims adjuster who winds up in a new crime everywhere he goes. This was, inevitably, better than that would have been, had I ever finished it.
Which only leaves the Top Ten TV Of The Year 2024
My Top TV of... 2021 2020 2019 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2011 • 2009
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy - Kindle
Midsummer Nights Dream Team - Amazon - Etsy
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