Although this is predominantly a movie blog, as we start the New Year, I wanted to take a moment to recognise some of my favourite stand-out moments from 2024’s ‘event’ TV. I don’t claim to have seen everything, but these are my personal (largely spoiler-free) Top Ten favourite TV moments from the last year (for the most part, I’ve tried to be a bit more imaginative than simply choosing the season finales of everything!).

Honourable Mentions:

It was a good year for quality TV, with a return to form for True Detective: Night Country (the best season since the original one, with a tone that recaptured the paranormal undercurrent of the first season), a couple of very interesting adaptations in The Gentlemen and The Day of the Jackal (which are both returning for second seasons), a thoroughly enjoyable pulpy spy thriller in Black Doves (which I’m enjoying but haven’t finished yet), and the very topical Douglas Is Cancelled (which managed to walk the fine line between being laugh-out-loud funny and unflinchingly honest about uncomfortable truths).

10 – Fallout: “The Beginning” (season one, episode 8)

Having not ever played the videogames, I didn't really know what to expect from this show, but as a big fan of Walton Goggins I gave this a fry, and thoroughly enjoyed its blend of dark humour and dystopian mystery. You could argue that this first season focused more on the characters and world building than on moving the actual plot forward, but that's not necessarily a bad thing when you're having to set up a new fictional universe for viewers, and the finale, The Beginning, left me very excited for what comes next.

9 – Inside No. 9: “Plodding On” (season nine, episode 6)

I only discovered Inside No. 9 quite late in the day (during lockdown), but it was a fantastic half-hour anthology series that always found interesting ways to blend dark comedy with unexpected dramatic twists. I did wonder how they could possibly do justice to the show in its final ever episode, but the meta-finale Plodding On was a delight.

8 – House of the Dragon: “The Red Dragon and the Gold” (season two, episode 4)

The second season really benefited from not having to deal with the multiple time-jumps and cast changes that the first season had, and the end result was a much more cohesive and satisfying progression of the storyline. The episode The Red Dragon and the Gold was a particularly standout episode, as we witnesses the start of the all-out civil war dubbed ‘the Dance of the Dragons’.

7 – The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: “Doomed to Die” (season two, episode 7)

With a lot of the world-building taken care of in the first season, season two gave more momentum to Sauron’s machinations, and the standout performances from Charles Edwards (as Celebrimbor) and Charlie Vickers (as Annatar) were a particularly tragic highlight. The siege of Eregion in Doomed to Die was easily as epic a battle as anything seen on the big screen this year.

6 – Doctor Who: “73 Yards” (season one, episode 4)

As the showrunners seem to have ‘reset’ the series by calling the 2024 run ‘season one’, who am I to argue? Ncuti Gatwa's debut season was a very impressive one, with a strong finale (The Legend of Ruby Sunday/Empire of Death), an episode with an incredible, layered performance from guest star Callie Cooke and a gut-punch of an ending (Dot and Bubble), and another episode with an entirely immobile Doctor (Boom) – but Millie Gibson’s solo performance in the creepy 73 Yards may have been my favourite one.

5 – Star Wars: The Acolyte: “Night” (season one, episode 5)

The cancellation of The Acolyte after one season was one of the bitterest pills of 2024, as the show had so much potential for where the storylines could have gone in a second season, and it was telling a story that genuinely felt fresh and different from anything else we’d already seen in the Star Wars universe. This was clear from the episode Night, which was an action-packed half-hour that featuring some very well-choreographed lightsaber fights and several very unexpected surprises that I didn't see coming. The series’ central mystery was engaging and provided us with a morally nuanced perspective on the Star Wars universe that is sometimes lacking – it was a show that wasn’t afraid to throw out the rule book, and it’s just a shame that it didn’t get the viewing figures to earn itself a second season.

4 – Shōgun: “Crimson Sky” (season one, episode 9)

This was a series that got better and better as it went along, with stunningly realised world-building, complex political machinations, and a great cast led by the legendary (but criminally underrated) Hiroyuki Sanada. The direction the show took in the penultimate episode, Crimson Sky, was not at all what I was expecting, and the poignant finale was the polar opposite of how I would have expected the show to end if you'd asked me after the first episode (and was all the better for it).

3 – 3 Body Problem: “Judgment Day” (season one, episode 5)

Not having read the books, I had no idea what to expect from this show, but I absolutely loved it. I've seen dozens of alien invasion sci-fi shows in my time, but this one went in directions I genuinely didn't see coming. The season finale definitely subverted genre expectations, but it was the episode Judgment Day that really showed how uncompromising the show could be. It had a great ensemble cast, but for me, Benedict Wong and Liam Cunningham were particular highlights whenever they were on screen And best of all, Netflix have already confirmed a second and third season to conclude the storyline, so there’s no risk of a mid-story cancellation.

2 – Agatha All Along: “Death's Hand in Mine” (season one, episode 7)

No one really knew what to expect from this spin-off from WandaVision (possibly my favourite MCU TV show so far), but Agatha All Along somehow managed to recapture the emotional impact and surprise factor of WandaVision without ever being a simple retread of what had come before. In particular, the finale took some impressive creative risks and went in directions I wasn't expecting at all – and the revelations in that episode were not only heartbreaking, but also cast the entire season in a different light (making me want to go back and watch it all again). Before that, Death's Hand in Mine was the episode that featured some particularly brilliant non-linear storytelling, and a memorable performance from Patti LuPone.

1 – The Penguin: “Cent'Anni” (season one, episode 4)

For me, this was the best show of 2024, and there wasn’t a bad episode of among them, with each episode arguably improving on the previous one. But it was Cent'Anni, the episode that explored Sofia Falcone’s backstory, which was the first one that really blew me away with a tour de force performance from Cristin Milioti. As a huge fan of Matt Reeves' The Batman, I was arguably predisposed to enjoy The Penguin – but even so, I thought this spin-off was fantastic, with amazing performances from Colin Farrell and relative newcomer Rhenzy Felix, and a finale that built on the earlier revelations and took some truly unexpectedly dark turns.