It took a bit, but here are my top “everything but movies” of 2024. The rules are simple: any media that I consumed in 2024 is eligible, with the exception of movies that were first released in 2024. So that includes all television, video games, musicals, books, albums, older movies, sporting events, or podcasts. Here were my favorites of the year!
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Hazbin Hotel S1
TV season (2024), Amazon Prime
Let me start by saying this show is far from flawless. I watched it the same way its teenaged-audience did: on my phone while doing other things. The humor is frequently crass and extremely juvenile, to the point of being pretty cringeworthy at times. The characters are largely one-note and the plot straightforward.
So why do I have this as an honorable mention? Well first of all, the show is a musical and the music is really, really fun. The show runners prioritized getting a full orchestral accompaniment for the score, and it shows. The songs ape Broadway musicals and the result is a sense of excitement and emotion lacking in similar projects.
The second reason is simple: this show isn’t really meant for me. It is created primarily for pre-teens and teenagers who are learning about the world and think basic jokes about sexual innuendo are hilarious. The themes directly touch on questioning authority and the hypocrisy of moral righteousness in a way that aren’t necessarily new, but are perfectly packaged for the youth of today. This is a show I would have become obsessed with when I was 13 years old, and I appreciate it as a gateway to musical theater.
Killer Sudoku
The premise here is simple: it’s regular sudoku, but with math. You start with a complete empty sudoku board, but with small boxes labeled with the sum of the numbers in those boxes. Rows, columns, and sudoku squares always sum to 45 (1+2+3…+9).
This game is extremely addictive and has become our go-to sudoku game as it opens up new paths to figuring out the core puzzle. In my opinion, it must be played on “expert” mode to get the true experience, as otherwise the puzzles are just too easy (since there are more ways to find the answer than in traditional sudoku). And best of all, you can make the app with unlimited rounds ad-free for like $3. You can’t find much better value than that.
Adventure Zone: Vs Dracula
Podcast season (2024), Spotify and podcast apps
My wife and I have been really into Dungeons and Dragons podcasts for the last few years. The storytelling style is just perfect for the disposable audio medium, and very conducive to talented improv artists doing their thing. The Adventure Zone is a long-running D&D podcast by three brothers (Griffin, Justin, and Travis) and their father (Clint), and it has quickly become my favorite.
D&D lives and dies by its Dungeon Master, and for my money they don’t get too much better than Griffin McElroy. Vs Dracula returns Griffin to the DM chair, and introduces a world full of public domain monsters and ghouls, with a very simple motivation for all three main characters: they all want to kill Dracula. The core concept is rather silly, and the season treats it as such. The emotional heft isn’t as strong as some previous seasons (such as Ethersea), but in its place lies a stage on which the other McElroys can be as goofy as they want and really shine in their improv skills. If you’re looking to get into D&D podcasts, this is a pretty great and self-contained place to start, with entirely fresh characters and world peppered with characters from famous literature.
TOP FIVE
5. THE FRANCHISE – Season 1
TV season (2024), HBO/Max
The Franchise is a simply scathing satire of modern Hollywood, specifically the creation of a middling film in a superhero franchise. Daniel Kumar (Himesh Patel) serves as the first AD of Tecto: Eye of the Storm, the latest in a long line of Centurios films (an obvious analog for the Marvel Cinematic Universe). Surrounding him are a supporting cast that ranges from the extremely vain actors Adam (Billy Magnussen) and Peter (Richard E. Grant), the pretentious director Eric (Daniel Brühl) who insists on making something with vision at the expense of actually executing the project, and the obstinate and controlling producers Pat (Darren Goldstein) and Anita (Aya Cash) who have a “my way or the highway” mentality. Aiding him is his and sarcastic assistant AD Steph (Jessica Hynes), the only person willing to point out the ridiculousness of the whole process and project.
This show is hilarious as a pitch-black comedy about the ins and outs of the industry. Similar to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, all of the characters are narcissists on one level or another. While that makes it difficult to root for them at times, what you get in return is the permission to laugh at their misfortunes. And there are many, MANY misfortunes to laugh at. If you are even obliquely aware of the going-ons at Comic Con, have followed Marvel slates as they get announced, moved, and canceled, or are interested in a skewering of how the sausage gets made, I highly recommend The Franchise. And, unlike most prestige television, it’s a breezy 30 minutes per episode. Sadly the show has been canceled, which is a shame because it had a lot of Season 2 potential. But even as a stand-alone, Season 1 is extremely fulfilling and entertaining.
4. PARIS OLYMPICS 2024 – GOLD ZONE
Sporting event/coverage, Peacock
Every cycle I watch at least some of the Olympics, and while they always capture my attention to some degree, I’ve never really understood why people get obsessed with it. I’ve always felt that there’s more commercials and talking heads than actual sports, and that the coverage was far too “America-centric”. This was the first year I really “got” the Olympics, and I have Peacock’s coverage to thank for that.
The streaming era has opened up the option to watch not just the popular sports and athletes, but any sport. Skateboarding? Got it. Kayak cross? Got it. Artistic gymnastics? Got it. Our favorite was turning on the “Gold Zone,” which served as an n-way multiview of 2 to 16 sports happening simultaneously. The coverage would shift to the “biggest” moments that were happening live (much like NFL Red Zone), and in a way that was surprisingly global in its approach. A team of producers and a couple of hosts would provide the necessary context to follow the most exciting moments of the events as they were happening live. The result is a product that cuts out all the fat of talking head interviews, removes the commercials, and replaces both with well thought out commentary to so you can follow the moments you’re watching. Obviously the Olympics were months ago, and no one reading this will want to go back to the coverage (if it is even still available), but come 2026 I highly recommend watching the Olympics streaming on Peacock.
3. SHOGUN – Season 1
TV season (2024), FX/Hulu
As far as prestige television goes in 2024, there’s no topping Shogun. In many ways, it’s reminicent of the heyday of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. The show is basically entirely political/palace intrigue: Lord Yoshii Toranaga is being ousted as the head of as part of a power grab that will reshape Japanese politics in Osaka. Meanwhile our entry into this world is from a westerner’s perspective: a British sea captain John Blackthorn (Cosmo Jarvis) constantly used as a pawn both in the political coup, but also in the hidden war between Protestants and Catholics. Meanwhile Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai) serves as the Portuguese translator, and is arguably the central figure of the show.
Shogun really succeeds in two places. First, in spite of its source material, it is unwilling to view the story primarily from a westerner’s viewpoint. Blackthorn’s fate is consistently in someone else’s hands, and while he is a major driving force in the show, it is almost always to someone else’s end. It also involves minimal audience hand-holding. The majority of the dialogue is in Japanese. Words and actions are frequently laced with subtle hidden meanings, which the show frequently conveys visually through framing and editing rather than spelling out the meanings in words. It demands the audience’s attention in a way that very few shows do in 2024.
Another piece of media I experienced in 2024 is the video game Ghost of Tsushima. While the two take place in different eras, they both feature (somewhat) historically accurate takes on feudal Japan. Ultimately Tsushima gets a bit repetitive in its gameplay, but is still an excellent companion piece to Shogun. I am nervous about what a future Shogun season looks like (the narrative in this season wraps up so nicely), but Season 1 is nothing short of excellent.
2. GAME CHANGER – Seasons 1-2, 4-6
TV Game Show seasons (2019-2024), Dropout TV
After watching dozens of clips on YouTube, my wife and I finally caved and subscribed to Dropout TV (a streaming comedy network from the College Humor folks). The subscription is genuinely worth it for Game Changer alone. Game Changer is a game show in which the rules are kept a secret from the improv comedian contestants until the start of the game. Hilarity ensues. The show started with simple premises: make the noise described by the host (a premise so evergreen it’s become a spinoff show Make Some Noise), or play a slightly elaborate version of “hot or cold.” But since the first season, it has become an exercise in topping itself, and there are no “dud” episodes beyond season 1 (though, full disclosure, we skipped the all-Zoom quarantine season 3).
In its best episodes, the games can broadly be categorized into three buckets:
1) “Mimic” episodes – These involve Game Changer attempting their own version of a popular existing game or reality show. There is a Catfish send-up, as well as a comedy parody of The Bachelor. And, of course, the recurring Battle Royale is the show’s own version of Survivor, essentially giving all of the fun drama of a season of Survivor while cutting out all the fat and adding a lot of comedy. These episodes allow the actors to really embrace caricatures of themselves and have fun giving a sheer performance.
2) “Showcase” episodes – these episodes feature performers outside of the main cast that are excellent improvising something specific. Many of these involve musical elements, either singing “karaoke” versions of non-existent songs or creating a whole musical out of thin air. These are always great because they feature performers in their element, and it almost always has a “how do they do that?” element that showcases just how talented they are.
3) “Sadistic” episodes – These are by far my favorite. Because the game’s premise is kept from the contestants until they’re rolling, it leaves an enormous amount of room to torment them mid-game. Maybe the contestants are secretly locked into an escape room. Maybe they have to follow increasingly elaborate commands and rules. Or maybe they literally don’t know what game they are playing until the very end. These are always the most fun because you get to witness the frustration first-hand, and it makes for some of the most hilarious television you will find.
At this point the show has gone so big with their production that I’m not sure how they can continue to top themselves. But they have found a way to do so so far, and I imagine they will continue trying in Season 7 later this year.
1. BALDUR’S GATE 3 – Couch co-op
Video Game (2023), PS5/XBox/PC
Of all the media I consumed in 2024, none of them were more fun and engaging than Baldur’s Gate 3. I attribute this entirely to its multiplayer mode which allowed my wife and I to play the game together.
For those not familiar, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the video game version of Dungeon and Dragons. The game serves as its own Dungeon Master (the narrator of the game), allowing the player a very impressive array of choices of how to tackle situations while role-playing as various characters.
Normally you control a party of four characters, one of whom is your own custom character. However, the game also features the ability to play with another person, making two custom characters. This is where the game really shines in my opinion. I don’t know if I would have the patience to sit through and think out the truly mind-blowing number of choices the game provides, everything from what armor and weapons each character should have, to how best to respond to a nearby NPC, to what spell should be learned as a character levels up. With two players, however, suddenly the option opens up to discuss all of these choices, and strategize effectively together.
The game is also absolutely enormous. My wife and I dumped well over 100 hours into it and are still only at the beginning of Act 3. I cannot believe how much care and effort went into the details, and how well thought-out the interactions and consequences are for our choices.
I also want to commend the Larian Studios team for allowing a “split screen” mode on console. While the console controls are a bit janky for a game obviously designed for a mouse and keyboard, it is our preferred way to game and it was so excellent that we didn’t need to buy two copies of the game or work out how to find two separate gaming systems. My wife and I have had so much fun playing this game, and if you’ve ever wanted to learn Dungeons and Dragons, this is an excellent place to start. I know I am a year late on Baldur’s Gate 3, but it is more than worthy of my top media of the year.
Backseat Directing 