10.) Baby Reindeer (NETFLIX)
The actress that played the love interest was so good at being so creepy and disturbing. It really made this show of a failed joke turned obsession gone wrong into the best type of light horror. The actor central to it you could tell was so personally invested into the story in how carefully he went through each step. It isn't easy to tell a story like this in 2024 and have it come off fair and well drawn out rather than overly abrasive / anti-the woman in the story, so taht's another area of great praise for Richard Gadd's great show. Also, I really loved how carefully it told the story of unease and emotional distress resulting in his dalliance with a transgender woman, but telling it super fairly. This was a great show to say you can touch on dark subjects with aplomb in today's world.
9.) A Man on the Inside (NETFLIX)
Sue me, I think this was better than most seasons of The New Place. I like that Michael Schur went away from the gimmickry, the progressive silliness, and just went to doing a show with ridiculous heart. Ted Danson played that role so well - no, not the role of the undercover private detective, the one of teh caring old man in his twilight years mixing with so many others in their twilight years. Mike Schur filled that golden years home with so many incredible characters. So much emotional poignancy in all those stories, while still maintaining some levity. Mary Elizabeth Ellis was great also as the daughter, as was Stephanie Beatriz in a role so opposite to hers on Brooklyn Nine-Nine. There was no room for snark here, just heart and goodness. It's like Schur took Parks and Recreation, took half the humor out, but someone doubled the heart, and it still worked magically.
8.) The Sympathizer (HBO)
The story of a Vietnam refugee who turns spy but gets coaxed into not being a spy by becoming involved in a movie production about the Vietnam War - all of it sounds crazy. It was played as such, down to the point of Robert Downey Jr playing the five or six recurring non-Vietnamese characters. Describe it to anyone and it sounds insane - other than I guess the pull of Downey (who helped make the show happen in the first place). That said, if we get past all of that, this was a great story about everything from loneliness to the pull of home, to realizing how the other side is not too different, to propoganda from the war, both in Vietnam and in the USA. It was an award winning book turned show, and the show lived up to the combination of zaniness and poignancy of the book. The parts that didn't really work for me was teh spy stuff (including the CIA Agent played by Downey - easily the worst of his various roles). The best parts was the satire on the shallowness of some of the sympathizers in the US. All in all, it was a fascinating, thought-provoking, and weirdly complex tale.
7.) The Penguin (HBO)
It's funny, with Marvel series after Marvel series alternating between being largely forgettable or just bad, I was kidn of out on Superhero stories, but heard some early good press on The Penguin, and then buckled in for what was just a fantastic piece of television. Colin Farrell and Cristina Milloti were brilliant as the two leads, as were a bunch of the other character actor types. The story was told painstakingly, but with great backstory - like the semi-bottle episode of Sofia Falcone's childhood and time in the mental asylum. The darkness throughout gave such great gravity to it. It's rare you can combine so deftly the great fun that the actors were clearly having with teh darkness and seriousness of the tone of the story, but it worked perfectly well here. I don't know if there will be a season 2, or it's just a lead-in to the next Batman movie (ending it with the shot of the bat signal was just perfect), but wherever The Penguin and Sofia Gigante reappear next, I'm in. I just hope it's played with this same combination of humor, farce and drama.
6.) The Gentlemen (NETFLIX)
I don't know if the fact I've seen the movie helped or hurt in my enjoyment of The Gentlemen. Of course the plot is super similar (but more exhaustive and wider - makes sense given they have more time), but if anything I found this better. The added time let a complex plot from the movie breathe more, giving us more time with ridiculous side characters (the entirety of wrestling subplot, the hangers-on at the weed farm), and more time to watch the plot slowly unfurl. The acting was great as well - Theo James was better here than on White Lotus in my view, but if anything Daniel Ings as the coke-fiend brother and Kaya Scodelario as the crime lordess stole the show. I could watch another season of this easily. Sure, I put a bit of a demerit for basically rewriting your own movie to be a TV show, but hard to argue that the show was excellent.
