The 50 best TV shows of 2024: No 2 – Baby Reindeer
Intense, dark and raw, this harrowing tale of stalking and sexual assault was a sensitive and truly courageous piece of work – featuring not one but two astonishing performances
The 50 best TV shows of 2024
More on the best culture of 2024
Lucy ManganFri 20 Dec 2024 10.00 GMTShare208
Just about all of human frailty is here in the seven episodes of Baby Reindeer. Most are just half an hour long but so densely packed with emotional drama, so unrelentingly focused on awful truths about the ways we act and the ways we fail ourselves and each other, that if it were any longer you could hardly bear it.
Written, created by and starring Richard Gadd, the Netflix drama is based on the acclaimed one-man play he wrote about being stalked online and in real life by a woman called Martha. On screen, he plays unsuccessful comedian Donny Dunn and the part of Martha is taken by Jessica Gunning. Both performances are astonishing (and won Emmys) in an increasingly complex story that begins with Donny, in his day job as a bartender, taking pity on Martha when she comes into the pub upset and without money one fateful afternoon, giving her a free drink and letting her spin him not entirely convincing tales about being a high flying lawyer. Soon, she is in the pub every day and deluging him with emails when they are apart – some fantastical, some lustful, some simply complimentary about him. But he, at some level, likes (wants, needs? Baby Reindeer rarely allows you to settle definitely on a verb) the attention, even from someone as obviously unstable as Martha, whom Gunning makes vicious, vulgar and vulnerable by turns, though each only puts us more in touch with her damage and her humanity.
The drama deepens into a harrowingly detailed interrogation of the multitudinous weird and unwonderful ways we can mistreat each other and why we do so. It is an intense, dark, raw creation whose success you can only hope has paid Gadd back for what it must have cost him to write and perform. Every episode strips away another layer of characters’ facades, leading us towards ever messier truths. The pivotal, and particularly harrowing, fourth episode confronts the power of unresolved traumas to shape us and our responses not just immediately but for years and years after.
It is so much else as well – there are moments when you feel almost overwhelmed by the number of issues it is juggling (without ever dropping the ball on any of them), and grateful that we live in an age where immediate repeat viewings are possible. It’s a rare study of male sexual assault and its effects on a victim’s perceived masculinity, an examination of the corrosive nature of loneliness, of ambition, of how damaged people can find solace in each other and whether it must always lead to greater damage in the end, the tentacular creep of co-dependency. And of course it is an acute rendering of the suffering – the paranoia, suffocating oppression, marrow-deep fear – caused by the attentions of a relentless stalker. Even as we are asked to query how much Donny is culpable in his own misery, for enjoying the attention at first, for not reporting her earlier, for turning back obsessively to the material she has left him after the legal system eventually cuts off his supply, the underlying horror is always there.
Baby Reindeer is such a sensitive and courageous piece of work, in both form (refusing to give us a happy ending – a distant note of cautious hope is all we get) and content. And although of course it is Gadd’s story, Donny is never the hero and Martha never the villain. Both are examined with a pitiless eye.
Its achievements have been in danger of being overshadowed by the real-life drama that followed its release. Netflix – apparently against Gadd’s wishes – opened the first episode with the bald statement: “This is a true story”. Viewers quickly took to the internet and identified Scottish lawyer Fiona Harvey as Gadd’s supposed stalker, which produced exactly the effects you might expect. Harvey filed a defamation suit against Netflix which a judge ruled could go forward, essentially on the ground that the words “This is a true story” might well have led viewers to think everything in the story was true, when in fact certain key events – like Martha being sentenced to five years in prison for stalking – manifestly were not.
But let’s keep the real-life fallout separate from the art. Baby Reindeer is a punishing, troubling, beautifully nuanced and constructed thing, thought-provoking and valuable in a way few offerings are in any medium. It remains a fine testament to what can be achieved on the small screen, if only you have the courage to try it and the talent to pull it off.
20 TV shows everyone will be talking about in 2024, from One Day to the return of The Traitors
There’ll be plenty to hunker down and get stuck into over the next 12 months, with a stack of hearty comedies, hair-raising thrillers, and even a star-studded Jilly Cooper bonkbuster in the mix. Ellie Harrison and Katie Rosseinsky take a look
4 days ago
Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews
SIGN UPI would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice
The year 2024 is going to be quite the ride when it comes to what’s on television. We’ve got gun-slinging duo Donald Glover and Maya Erskine starring as married spies in the reboot of Mr & Mrs Smith, the movie where Brangelina was birthed. Then there’s the return of The Traitors, one of the biggest reality TV success stories of recent years, for a scheming second series. And an adaptation of Rachel Clarke’s poignant memoir Breathtaking, about working on the frontline of the Covid pandemic, is landing on our screens, no doubt with an emotional thud.
More bestsellers being brought to life are David Nicholls’ romance novel One Day, along with Heather Morris’s Holocaust story The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster Rivals.
And there are comedies in the form of Big Boys series two, which reunites fans with uni students Jack and Danny, and Truelove, which revolves around a group of septuagenarians determined to die gracefully. Here’s what we’re most looking forward to over the next 12 months…
Mr & Mrs Smith
Amazon Prime, 2 February
RECOMMENDED
The Epstein List: Full list of names revealed in unsealed court records so far
Emma Watson clarifies what being ‘self-partnered’ means to her
If you own a mouse, you have to try this game. No Install. Play for free.Combat Siege|
If you have a mouse, this game will keep you awake all night long.PanzerQuest|
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s slick 2005 thriller about a married couple who both happen to be assassins is getting the TV reboot treatment. This time, multi-talented Atlanta star Donald Glover and PEN15’s Maya Erskine will play two spies paired up in an extremely high-stakes arranged marriage by their employers. Soon, they’re taking on dangerous missions while grappling with increasingly real feelings for one another – what could possibly go wrong? Katie Rosseinsky
The Gentlemen
Netflix, early 2024
Get ready for swag. For geezers. And possibly some sweeping and suspect stereotypes. Guy Ritchie is releasing The Gentlemen, a TV series set in the same universe as his 2019 movie. This time, White Lotus hunk Theo James leads the cast as Eddie Horniman, who inherits his father’s sizeable estate… only to discover it’s part of a weed empire. EH
One Day
Netflix, 8 February
Banish all memories of Anne Hathaway’s questionable Yorkshire accent from the 2011 film version. David Nicholls’s funny, moving bestseller, which dips into the lives of friends Emma and Dexter on the same July day for 20 years, is being made into a mini-series for Netflix, with This is Going to Hurt breakout star Ambika Mod and The White Lotus’s Leo Woodall in the lead roles. Told across 15 episodes, hopefully, there’ll be plenty of breathing space for all the nuanced ups and downs of the pair’s relationship. KR
Trigger Point
ITV, January
Jed Mercurio – who brought the world Line of Duty, acronyms and all – is back with a second series of this thriller following a bomb disposal squad (produced by Mercurio, written by Daniel Brierley). Vicky McClure returns, pulling some very serious facial expressions, in the lead role as Afghanistan veteran turned cop Lana Washington. Many fans were unimpressed with the rubbish twist at the end of series one, so this might be the show’s chance to redeem itself. EH
The New Look
Apple, 14 February
A costume drama in the purest sense, The New Look follows the rise of legendary couturier Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn) against the backdrop of the Second World War. It’ll chart his rivalry with Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche) and explore his sister Catherine’s (Maisie Williams) stint as a French Resistance fighter, while also weaving in the stories of Dior’s fashionable contemporaries from Balmain to Balenciaga. Naturally, the dresses will be sumptuous. KR
Mr Bates vs The Post Office
ITV, New Year’s Day
This four-parter, about one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, stars Toby Jones as Alan Bates, the former subpostmaster who took the Post Office to the High Court after hundreds of his colleagues were wrongly accused of theft and fraud due to… wait for it… an IT error. Some public figures – including former cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi – will cameo as themselves. Allegedly, the sacked politician’s presence on set raised a few eyebrows among the cast… EH
Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video
Sign up now for a 30-day free trial
Breathtaking
ITV, March
This three-part drama based on doctor and author Rachel Clarke’s memoir of working on the frontlines of the Covid pandemic promises to be painful but powerful viewing. It’s told through the eyes of Dr Abbey Henderson, a fictional acute care consultant played by Joanne Froggatt, capturing the fears and frustrations of fellow medical staff along with stories of patients. Clarke has adapted her book with Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio and actor-writer Prasanna Puwanarajah, both former doctors. KR
House of the Dragon
Sky Atlantic, summer 2024
Our TV critic called the first run of House of the Dragon “bigger, bolder and bloodier” than Game of Thrones. Could this prequel series make the same scarlett splash when it returns in the summer? The trailer teases a fierce locking of horns between Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower, with Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke returning to play the two nemeses. Others reprising their roles include Matt Smith, Eve Best and Steve Toussaint, with new cast including Tom Taylor, Clinton Liberty and Jamie Kenna. EH
Mary & George
Sky Atlantic, March
Julianne Moore is heading back to the Jacobean era to tell the audacious true story of Mary Villiers. A tenacious minor aristo, Mary encouraged her handsome son George (played by Red, White & Royal Blue’s Nicholas Galitzine, no stranger to an on-screen royal romance) to seduce King James I. Once he was firmly established as the monarch’s favourite, the pair’s political influence and social status grew and grew. Brace yourselves for scandal and intrigue – and what a treat to see Moore on the small screen, too. KR
The Artful Dodger
Disney, 17 January
Thomas Brodie-Sangster (the cute kid in Love Actually! Feather Boy! Chess genius in The Queen’s Gambit!) was surely born to play a Dickens character, with his boyish energy and general sort of whippet-ness. In this spinoff of Oliver Twist, he plays the Artful Dodger alongside David Thewlis’s Fagin. This time, the action’s far from smoggy London, with the pickpockets up to no good in 1850s Australia. EH
The Traitors, series 2
BBC One, 3 January
Let the backstabbing begin. One of the biggest reality TV success stories of recent years is returning for a second series, with Claudia Winkleman on presenting slash extravagant-knitwear-wearing duties once again. Another group of 22 contestants will be thrown together in a Scottish castle, where they’ll try to win up to £120,000 in a series of weird and wonderful tasks – while attempting to work out which of them are “traitors” aiming to pinch the jackpot for themselves. KR
Masters of the Air
Apple, 26 January
Hollywood heavyweights Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are behind this drama following the true story of an American bomber group during the Second World War. Oscar nominee Austin Butler leads the cast, with other names from Callum Turner and Barry Keoghan to Ncuti Gatwa in the mix. It looks expensive and cinematic, with action hopping from the bucolic fields and villages of southeast England to the barren bleakness of a German prisoner-of-war camp. EH
Big Boys, series 2
Channel 4, early 2024
The first series of Jack Rooke’s Channel 4 comedy was a real gem, deftly tackling big topics with a side helping of vintage X Factor references. So thank goodness it’s back for round two very soon. This time they’re no longer freshers, but Jack (Dylan Llewellyn), his best pal Danny (Jon Pointing) and the rest of the gang are still dealing with the typical student dramas of sex, drugs and essay deadlines, while also confronting those weightier issues such as grief and mental health. KR
The Tourist, series 2
BBC One, New Year’s Day
Remember Jamie Dornan getting very dusty indeed and losing his marbles in the Australian outback last January? Well, 12 months have gone by, and his alpha male amnesiac is back. He spent much of the first series trying to figure out who he was (a man called Elliot Stanley, apparently), and why people were trying to kill him, and by the time the finale came, he’d figured out he was no angel. We can expect plenty more action and speeding trucks in series two. EH
3 Body Problem
Netflix, 21 March
Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss’s next act? An adaptation of The Three Body Problem, an ambitious sci-fi epic by Liu Cixin hailed as the 21st-century answer to The War of the Worlds. Astrophysicist Ye Wenjie witnesses her father’s murder during the Chinese Cultural Revolution; later, she is recruited to join a top-secret military project attempting to make contact with aliens. A decision she makes in the Sixties has major repercussions for scientists in the present day. KR
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Sky Atlantic, early 2024
Heather Morris’s shattering Holocaust novel was an international bestseller when it hit shelves in 2018. Now, it’s been adapted into a TV series, starring Harvey Keitel and Jonah Hauer-King as the younger and older versions of Lale Sokolov, a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp given the job of tattooing identification numbers on fellow prisoners’ arms. EH
Rivals
Disney, 2024
Sex! Money! Eighties hairdos! The TV adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster promises to be an absolute hoot. Its stacked cast features the likes of David Tennant, Aidan Turner, Danny Dyer, Claire Rushbrook and Emily Atack, with Alex Hassell playing legendary cad and Olympic horse rider Rupert Campbell-Black. According to Disney, the show will “bring a 2020s lens to the 1980s” – but let’s face it, we’ll probably be tuning in for the shagging and the show jumping, not the nuance. KR
Truelove
Channel 4, 3 January
With a core cast of septuagenarians (Lindsay Duncan, Clarke Peters, Sue Johnston), this intriguing drama is promising to break the mould for older characters on screen. It follows a crew of old pals who make a pact one night when they’re a few wines down: to help each other die when the time is right, rather than suffer a slow and undignified decline. Expect dark humour, philosophising and twists and turns. EH
Stranger Things, series 5
Netflix, summer 2024
Prepare to return to Hawkins, Indiana, for one last time, as Millie Bobby Brown and her fellow cast of former child stars, who now look a bit too old to be in high school, bid farewell to Netflix’s juggernaut. Will Eleven and the gang be able to see off the villainous Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) for good? And will the Duffer Brothers be able to tie up their wildly successful sci-fi saga in a way that satisfies the show’s legions of fans? KR
Eric
Good Omens•Jan 2, 2023
The Biggest TV Shows Coming to Streaming in 2023
Streaming had a rocky year, but there are still loads of exciting titles coming our way in 2023! Though we’ll have to wait until 2024 for the return of House of the Dragon, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and The Sandman’s continuation, nostalgic and original programming are bountiful in the new year.With the likes of Yellowjackets Season 2, The Witcher Season 3, and the return of Good Omens, horror and fantasy fans have tons of options! Meanwhile, MCU die-hards have plenty to look forward to in House of Harkness, Loki Season 2, Secret Invasion, and, of course, much more. Star Wars isn’t to be forgotten either, with The Mandalorian’s return and the long-awaited Ahsoka taking us through the year
Season 4 is coming Soon
As the season finale looms on the horizon Star Trek: Discovery attempts to begin pulling together its disparate Season 3 plot threads into something like a cohesive story. “Su’Kal” brings the villainous Osyraa and her Emerald Chain back into the picture, investigates the mysterious Kelpien ship that sent the distress call a few episodes back, and finally gives us an answer to what likely caused the Burn in the first place.
Coming Soon
#SaveGoodWitch
If you love a show that has romance, drama (but not too much), suspense (but not too much), happiness and quirkiness, and a beautiful town that makes you want to live there as well as great characters that you can fall in love with then this is the show for you. It’s one of those “feel good” shows
All in all, Revolution of the Daleks is a fun adventure that goes back to the basics of the Doctor and her friends vs the Daleks. Complete with heartbreaking moments, a legendary villain that’s almost impossible to disappoint, and the joy of Captain Jack’s return, it’s a safe but compelling return to the Doctor’s world. Revolution of the Daleks airs on New Year’s Day at 6.45pm on BBC One.
The main focus of the miniseries is, of course, the Bridgerton family, as widowed Lady Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) attempts to steer her eight children through growing up and the marriage market. From oldest to younger: Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) inherited his father’s title Lord but he’s shirking his responsibility. Benedict (Luke Thompson) is a spare heir and realizes he can forge his own life outside of the strict lines of the Ton. Colin (Luke Newton) is now exploring the marriage market. But all eyes are on the oldest daughter, Daphne (Phoebe Dyvenor), as this is her debut into society. Her younger sister, Eloise (Claudia Jessie), rejects the marriage market but still manages to pay attention to the society gossip.
Unlike Stranger Things, its appeal is likely to be limited to the age group of those whose lives it depicts; I would be surprised if it lands with adults in the way that it is clearly expected to with teenagers. Though it is funny, at times – “Have you ever heard of the male gaze?” / “We’re not entirely sure what it means, but we think you have it” – it lacks the crossover wit of its forebears (though there are nods to its heritage, with a cameo from Wilson Cruz, My So-Called Life’s Ricky, and some shots reminiscent of Heathers). It’s too tied up in conveying the message that terrible behaviour can have horrible consequences to deal in any subtleties or shades of feeling. It’s largely one-note – and that note is horrifying. “It has to get better,” implores one student towards the end, but given its fairly open ending, an apparent season two setup, it does not seem as if there’s much chance of that happening.
iZombie is a delightfully ironic take on the horror genre. While as a police procedural it’s far more Veronica Mars than Rookie Blues.
Away doesn’t reach the stratosphere as a spacetime adventure, but emotional earnestness and a strong cast help make this a compelling enough journey to the stars.
2020, Netflix, 10 episodes
The latest series marked an all-out departure from the show’s beginnings, and the one-crime-per-episode format was left by the wayside.
Instead, viewers were given a more action-packed format that aligned the Baker Street sleuth with Bond and Bourne rather than more cerebral crime-solvers like Poirot and Morse.
The X-Files‘ return to business as usual is a refreshing upgrade from the show’s underwhelming previous outing.
A new crew boards a revamped USS Enterprise in the first spin-off from the ’60s cult classic. Set some 70 years after the Captain Kirk era, the syndicated sequel follows the seven-year trek of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his colourful subordinates(including a Klingon!) as they encounter new life forms and foes.
Adapted from the classic novel by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale is the story of life in the dystopia of Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was formerly the United States. Facing environmental disasters and a plunging birthrate, Gilead is ruled by a twisted fundamentalism in its militarized “return to traditional values.” As one of the few remaining fertile women, Offred (Elisabeth Moss) is a Handmaid in the Commander’s household, one of the caste of women forced into sexual servitude as a last desperate attempt to repopulate the world. In this terrifying society, Offred must navigate between Commanders, their cruel Wives, domestic Marthas, and her fellow Handmaids–where anyone could be a spy for Gilead–all with one goal: to survive and find the daughter that was taken from her.LESS
Info-World-Hub 