The 20 Best New TV Shows of 2024 So Far

First ordered in 2021, Amazon's series adaptation of the 2005 Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie action film was originally a collaboration between Atlanta's Donald Glover, Fleabag's Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and writer Francesca Sloane (Fargo), with the first two also starring as the title characters. Waller-Bridge dropped out of the project due to creative differences, but Glover remained as co-creator and star, with PEN15's Maya Erskine taking on the Angelina Jolie role opposite Glover. They play a pair of spies whose cover involves them posing as a married couple—though their living situation becomes more complex when a genuine attraction develops between them. John Turturro, Paul Dano, Michaela Coel, Parker Posey, Sarah Paulson, Sharon Horgan, Alexander Skarsgård, Ron Perlman, and Wagner Moura also appear in the series, which has been picked up for a second season (though it will likely convert to an anthology series and return with a different cast and characters).

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"Glover and Erskine's alluring rapport is the reason to come to Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but it's also the show's adhesive. Whenever the drawn-out, episodic missions threaten to drag, the actors snap the series right back into place, keeping this iteration of the Smiths a delightful, darkly funny couple to fall head over heels for." —Coleman Spilde, The Daily Beast

Andrew Scott (Fleabag) stars in an eight-episode adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley novels (previously adapted into the 1999 feature film The Talented Mr. Ripley). Directed and written in its entirety by Steven Zaillian (The Night Of)—and filmed, rather unusually, in black and white—the stylish, 1960s-set thriller follows the titular con man (Scott) as he is enlisted by a wealthy man to locate his son in Italy and return him to New York City. Dakota Fanning, John Malkovich, and Johnny Flynn also star in Ripley, which was originally ordered (and fully produced) by Showtime before that network offloaded the completed series to Netflix in a cost-cutting move.

Stream it at Netflix (8 episodes)

"If it's not an instant classic like the Damon version, it's much closer to one than it has any business being, and it's among the most exciting shows of the year so far." —Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone

Netflix's true-crime docuseries (from the team behind 2022's The Tinder Swindler) recounts the home invasion and kidnapping that ensnared Denise Huskins and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn. Their story captured the public's attention when many of the case's details turned out to match those in the Gillian Flynn novel Gone Girl, and local law enforcement quickly became as skeptical of the couple as the public. But the pair were ultimately vindicated—the kidnapper was caught and is now behind bars—and Nightmare recounts the many twists that their story took along the way.

Stream it at Netflix (3 episodes)

"What elevates this documentary above the normal schlocky true crime fare is how it makes the true crime audience complicit in the media storm in which Quinn and Huskins found themselves. But American Nightmare also has a hunger for the ghoulish details." —Leila Latif, The Guardian

A limited series adaptation of the David Nicholls novel (which was previously turned into a 2011 feature film) stars Ambika Mod, Leo Woodall, Joely Richardson, and Eleanor Tomlinson. The romantic drama begins in its first episode on a single day in 1988 and jumps forward in time by a year in each of its remaining 13 episodes to trace the relationship between Emma (played by Mod) and Dexter (Woodall).

Stream it at Netflix (14 episodes)

"It is a will-they-or-won't-they rom-com? Is it a friendship story? Is it a saga about moving into adulthood and figuring out your life and your priorities and enduring heartbreak and loss? Will it make you cry? Yes, it's all of those things, and it manages to capture all the muddled, complicated, aching emotions of them all." —Liz Kocan, Decider

The first of many British imports on this list—it originally aired in the UK last summer before debuting on PBS's Masterpiece in May—this three-part series tells the story of two estranged sisters who reunite after their mother suddenly dies—and leaves behind evidence that she was living a secret double life on the Isle of Man. Stockard Channing, Eve Best, and Suranne Jones (who also co-created the series) head the cast.

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"This is an intelligent, restrained drama about the ties that bind." —Francesca Steele, i

Rapper Vince Staples plays a version of himself in a scripted comedy series loosely based on his life from his childhood in Long Beach, California to the present day. (Additional actors play Staples at various points in his childhood.) Staples, whose prior acting experience includes a recurring guest role on Abbott Elementary, created the series alongside Maurice Williams and Ian Edelman (both veterans of Kid Cudi's Netflix series Entergalactic), while producers include Kenya Barris (black-ish). Once billed as a limited series, TVSS has just been renewed for a second season.

Stream it at Netflix (5 episodes)

"The Vince Staples Show is a dark, hilarious, intriguingly frank, and kinda-sorta-autobiographical story." —Kristen Baldwin, Entertainment Weekly

An ITV limited series that came to the U.S. this spring via AMC+ and Sundance Now, true-crime drama The Long Shadow recounts the lengthy 1970s manhunt for the serial killer known as the "Yorkshire Ripper" (real name: Peter Sutcliffe). Toby Jones, David Morrissey, and Daniel Mays head the cast, while the series comes from Lupin co-creator George Kay.

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"The Long Shadow was unavoidably harrowing and bleak, but it was also brilliant. It is set to be one of the dramas of the year." —Neil Armstrong, i

Joey King and Logan Lerman head the cast of a Hulu limited series based on Georgia Hunter's 2017 best-seller of the same name recounting the true story of a Jewish family's years-long quest to reunite after being separated in Poland at the start of WWII. The adaptation comes from The Morning Show and Julia writer/producer Erica Lipez.

Stream it at Hulu (8 episodes)

"So yes, the miniseries is challenging, and steeped in heartbreak, and unrelenting. But it joins a growing inventory of important, eye-opening, memorable, and timely TV takes on the Holocaust and World War II. Ultimately it is as rewarding as it is harrowing." —Matthew Gilbert, Boston Globe

Produced by the Safdie brothers, HBO's comedic docuseries follows a group of employees (including an elephant trainer and a kettle corn vendor) at the world's largest Renaissance festival as they vie to succeed "King George," the company's outgoing 86-year-old leader, following his retirement after 50 years on the job. Lance Oppenheim (Spermworld) directs.

Stream it at Max (3 episodes)

"Ren Faire has real breakout potential, with its juicy, borderline unbelievable story, its cast of larger-than-life character featured in those larger-than-life close-ups and its absolute cacophony of quirkiness." —Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter

Created by actress Diarra Kilpatrick (and also produced by Kenya Barris), Diarra From Detroit is one of the best under-the-radar comedies of 2024 so far. Kilpatrick plays a newly divorced schoolteacher who attempts to jump back into the dating scene by scheduling a Tinder date. When her date doesn't show, she attempts to track him down—only to be caught up in a decades-old mystery involving the Detroit underworld. Morris Chestnut, DomiNque Perry, and Phylicia Rashad also star.

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"The eight-episode blend of mystery and comedy occasionally struggles to find its footing, but damn if it isn't the funniest series this writer has had the pleasure of watching in quite some time." —Nandini Balial, RogerEbert.com

A three-part British limited series airing on Masterpiece in the States this spring (following an ITV debut in the UK late last year), Nolly comes from TV veteran Russell T Davies (A Very English Scandal, Years and Years, Doctor Who, Queer as Folk). It tells the true story of British TV presenter and actress Noele Gordon (played here by Helena Bonham Carter), whose stardom came to a crashing end in 1981 when she was suddenly fired after an 18-year stint on the soap Crossroads.

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"It is warm, thoughtful and gorgeous, and by the end of it, I was a little bit in love with Nolly myself." —Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

A24's seven-part adaptation of the 2015 Pulitzer-winning novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen comes from Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, Decision to Leave) and Don McKellar and stars Robert Downey Jr. in multiple roles. A mélange of cultural satire, dark comedy, historical drama, mystery, and espionage thriller, The Sympathizer follows a half-Vietnamese, half-French communist spy known as "The Captain" (Cowboy Bebop's Hoa Xuande) during the closing days of the Vietnam War and his later exile in the United States (and work in Hollywood) following the fall of Saigon. Sandra Oh also stars, and Park directs the first three episodes, with Fernando Meirelles and Marc Munden handling the remaining four.

Stream it at Max (7 episodes)

"There is a certain prestige quality to The Sympathizer that distinguishes it from most other current series, alongside its willingness to challenge viewers with complicated characters and stories. It's that same fearlessness that many HBO original series successfully captured in the late 2000s, continuing throughout the next decade of titles. To put it simply, The Sympathizer is a future television classic." —Nate Richard, Collider

Airing on Masterpiece in the U.S. in April after first debuting in the UK in January, this four-episode limited series is a fictionalized retelling of a true David vs Goliath story and a major British government scandal. From 1999-2015, hundreds of British postal service employees were charged with theft and fraud—with many imprisoned—after money started disappearing from local post offices. But all of them were innocent: It was actually a computer software error that caused the money to disappear. Toby Jones (Detectorists) heads the cast as Alan Bates, the subpostmaster who led the legal campaign against the government to secure freedom and reparations for the wrongfully accused postal workers.

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"Perhaps Hughes's main achievement is in making it so discomfiting to watch. It is still scarcely believable that this happened in modern Britain, that good people actually went to prison for things they hadn't done." —Carol Midgley, The Times

A new British series that now streams exclusively on the FAST service Tubi in the United States (after airing in the UK on BBC3 earlier this year), Boarders follows five inner-city students in London who win scholarships to an elite boarding school. Critics on both sides of the Atlantic found the series and its cast of newcomers very easy to like, even if the show doesn't break a lot of new ground.

Stream it at Tubi (6 episodes)

"It's a fun, funny and complex coming-of-age story that encompasses all the mess and joy of youth, where few people ever really feel that they fit in." —Leila Latif, The Guardian

Directed by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney (Going Clear, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room), this two-part miniseries examines the six-decade career of music legend Paul Simon while also focusing on his efforts to record his newest album, Seven Psalms.

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"People not already interested in Simon will probably want a different film. For anyone else, In Restless Dreams is fascinating and lively from start to finish. Running three and a half hours, it never feels padded." —Caryn James, The Hollywood Reporter

Need a cure for MCU fatigue? Disney's latest Marvel title offers comic book fans something a bit different than the streamer's somewhat lackluster recent MCU entries. In fact, it's not part of the MCU at all but instead a revival of Fox's 1990s cartoon X-Men: The Animated Series, picking up right where that series ended in 1997—with the death of Professor X—and returning some of the original voice cast. A second season has already been greenlit.

Stream it at Disney+ (10 episodes)

"X-Men '97 takes what worked so well in that first series and develops it into one of the greatest X-Men projects so far, quite possibly the best animated series to come from Marvel. It took nearly three decades to return to this world, but X-Men '97 makes the wait well worth it." —Ross Bonaime, Collider

So what does comedian Jerrod Carmichael do for a follow-up to his Emmy-winning stand-up special Rothaniel? Something very different: A reality series providing an intimate peek into Carmichael's personal life following his recent coming out as a gay man, billed as an experiment in "radical honesty." By design, it's not an easy watch, and Carmichael does not always paint a flattering portrait of himself. But that messiness and ambiguity results in a revelatory, unique series according to many reviewers.

Stream it at Max (8 episodes)

"Ultimately, Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show wears its flaws on its sleeve, and is as idiosyncratic, enlightening, and fascinating as so much of Carmichael's other work." —Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence

Finally arriving in February after six years of development, FX's new take on James Clavell's epic novel (previously adapted into an Emmy-winning 1980 NBC miniseries) is an even better successor to Game of Thrones than HBO's own GoT spinoff House of the Dragon, even if it involves a few subtitles. Shōgun is set in feudal Japan in the year 1600 as a civil war is brewing. While Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) is fighting for power (and his life), a potential ally arrives in the form of English captain John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), captain of a mysterious European vessel that has shipwrecked near a local fishing village. Uniting the two is translator Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai), a married Christian noblewoman torn between her faith, her loyalty to her disgraced father, and her new relationship with Blackthorne.

Critics raved, audiences tuned in by the millions, and the response was so positive that FX is now planning to turn the one-time miniseries into a three-season show.

Stream it at Hulu (10 episodes)

"Majestic. ... I never wanted to leave this world. Please, FX, never stop aiming this high." —Matt Roush, TV Guide Magazine

Do you miss HBO's quirky, canceled-too-soon Los Espookys? Julio Torres, one of that show's creators and stars, is back at HBO with a similarly surreal and colorful comedy series—though this time it is set in an alternate version of New York City. The English-language Fantasmas finds Torres (who also directs) playing a version of himself (but allergic to the color yellow) as he navigates a series of dreamlike vignettes filled with offbeat characters (and one robot)—including some played by guest stars like Steve Buscemi, Emma Stone, Aidy Bryant, Kate Berlant, Bowen Yang, Ziwe, Paul Dano, and more.

Stream it at Max (4 episodes so far, 2 to come)

"I loved it. It's a wild ride — absurd, disturbing, demented, hilarious, brilliant. ... Like the best TV, the product of a singular vision. If anyone complains there's nothing different out there, show them this. They can thank you later." —Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic

Metacritic's #1 New TV Show of the First Half of 2024. One of the buzziest shows of 2024 in addition to the best-reviewed, Baby Reindeer is a dramedy from Scottish comedian Richard Gadd, who adapts his own one-man stage play based on true life events. Gadd plays Donny Dunn, a struggling comedian (modeled after Gadd) who moonlights as a bartender at a pub where he meets Martha (Jessica Gunning), who begins relentlessly stalking Donny.

The real-life inspiration for the Martha character has since sued Netflix, but that won't stop the streaming service from celebrating Baby Reindeer as one of its biggest hits of the year. The series has already won a Gotham TV Award and collected five Television Critics Association nominations, with Emmy nominations likely to follow in a few weeks. There won't be a second season—it's a miniseries—but Gadd just signed a deal with HBO for a new drama series that will arrive in 2025 or 2026.

Stream it at Netflix (7 episodes)

"One of the show's greatest strengths is how it's able to balance such challenging subject matter with inspired flashes of humour. ... This is an early contender for show of 2024." —Jon O'Brien, Radio Times