The Best Of What I Watched This Year.

Television and Film.

I started this Substack at the tail end of January 2022, which still seems a little strange, and in those first two years I didn’t even consider making a “Best Of” end-of-the-year list.

Maybe I just wanted to get as far away as possible from all the obsessive lists I did through the years as a TV Critic at the Hollywood Reporter and San Francisco Chronicle (and other places I’m too tired to dredge up).

Some of you no doubt remember those lists. I took them very, very seriously. They were extremely long — I scoffed then as I do now at anyone being able to do a Top 10 list when so much great work was produced through the year. (I kept it to a manageable 15 here for TV, with honorable mentions).

Those lists were detailed. I separated comedy and drama (in the earlier days I separated the networks from cable), and I had lots of rules and long introductions.

This year is the first time I’m doing such a thing again and it’s not even close to that other thing, for which we should all be thankful.

In the spirit of what this Substack is all about, I decided to write about the best filmed content I watched this year, with the very simple rule that it doesn’t matter to me when it was made or when it aired.

If I watched it this year and it was made in 2020, it counts.

Because I get you and you get me, which is why you’re here and we’re all trying to make sense of what content to spend our precious time on in the calendar year. We watch things on our timeline, all of us, when we can get to them. If you got to something in 2024 that was made in 1974, I think I love you.

Photo by Bruno Guerrero on Unsplash

So, here’s my list. I separated TV from Film because I wanted to number things. I mean, it’s a list. I should at least do that. I’ve never been a fan of not ranking something if I’m making a list. That said, I didn’t rank the films; I loved them all in different ways if they made the list. Just know that.

Honestly, I did not overthink this, even though I realize the preamble is growing. I decided to keep one or two series off the list if I felt like I talked about them in-depth in 2023 (“Fargo” S5, for example, which had a few episodes spill over into this year). I’m not including “Silo” on this list because there are still three episode left, but I do think it would have made it somewhere in the middle of the main pack.

Thematically, it was a very heavily Asian-centric year. That will probably continue in 2025, if I was into making guesses. Overall, it was a very international year, a trend I also see continuing.

One last thing: I wrote about most of these in-depth or repeatedly. So, you can check the archives if you want to know more. I’m going to touch just briefly on what they are about. If you want the lowdown, the archive awaits.

Here we go then:

The Best Television I Watched This Year:

1. “Moving.” Hulu/Disney+. This series aired 20 episodes in 2023. The beauty of our little collective here is that it’s a two way street — I tell you about series and then you mention other stuff, often related, in the comments, and I keep a list (it’s so, so long) that I eventually get around to watching. “Moving” was one of those, a show that came from the collective like a gift to me and I was completely bought in, impressed with the storytelling depth and style and non-American pacing. (And, after I finished all 20, it was renewed for a second season, so at least in this instance, life is good). “Moving,” from Korea (again, I recommend everyone watch in the native language and use subtitles if you can) almost defies description as a sci-fi series that is so much more human and emotional and nuanced than that implies for some people. What a great ride.

2. “House Of Ninjas,” Netflix. This Japanese series is emblematic of “The Incredibles” if it was live-action, set in Japan and all about shinobis, the stealthiest ninjas. It’s about family. It’s action-packed, dramatic, funny, touching and wildly entertaining. Like “Moving” and others on this list, a thing I kept saying out loud as I watched is “I’m not seeing anything like this on American television.” Probably why it was such an international year.

3. “Baby Reindeer.” Netflix. Now this is definitely a series where I thought, “there’s nothing like this anywhere.” Stunning. Funny, difficult, weird, magnetic.

4. “A Shop For Killers.” Hulu/Disney+. Another excellent Korean series, this one has so many great performances it’s unclear where to start but, like in “Moving” and in “House Of Ninjas,” some of the youngest actors turn in astonishing performances. For a series where there’s an almost non-stop collection of action scenes, it still manages to flesh out characters and make them real, making you care. Above all, massively entertaining.

5. “Shōgun,” FX/Hulu. Incredibly detailed to a granular level, with multiple well-developed characters and a more Japan-centric story (than the American TV version from ages ago), this was American prestige television really putting in the effort.

6. “Slow Horses,” AppleTV+. We can always wish for more episodes but that’s the streaming trend (and something the Brits have been doing forever), but are we ever asking for better episodes? No, because there’s no need. This series just constantly, season to season, delivers. “Slow Horses” is nourishing, goes down well, is addictive and never disappoints.

7. “The Frog,” Netflix. Part of the allure of watching international series is that all cultures behave natively, and if you’re not from there then actions might be mystifying. If this is ever remade into an American series it will be ruined (and they’d probably kill the main character by the third episode). Another Korean series, this one will no doubt have you thinking, “Why doesn’t character X just tell character Y to fuck all the way off…” Yes, I understand, but the answer is: culture; custom. That’s not how things are done. I give tons of credit to “The Frog” for understanding its cultural and generational tics so specifically and crafting a brilliant and riveting story around them.

8. “Sherwood.” BritBox. I’m talking here about S1 of the acclaimed British series, which came out in 2022. (The second season came out in 2024, was also acclaimed and I’ll watch that next on my own timeline — and you will probably as well, if you watch this first one). Six taut episodes. A deep, deep mystery, with twists. Excellent performances abound. And I will use this sentence to remind you that YES, you also need to keep the subtitles on for a series like this. We are two nations divided by a common language and this one is particularly regional (you should probably look up “owt” and “nowt” asap). I loved this series.

9. “Fallout,” Amazon Prime. I didn’t think I’d like this and ended up gorging on it like cake. Walton Goggins makes being one of America’s great character actors look way easier than it is. He’s a national treasure and this post-apocalyptic series not only went down easy it went down fast — all eight episodes are binge worthy.

10. “The Diplomat,” Netflix. Even though they shortened S2 (almost everything these days is being cut in half and aired later). “The Diplomat” not only improved on its strong first season but delivered some of the most pulse-pounding, smart, deliciously twisty storytelling this year and closed out with three of its best episodes yet.

11. “The Gentlemen,” Netflix. Guy Ritchie is hit or miss for me (and maybe you) but this was just clever and funny and entertaining as all get out and, well, credit where due. I couldn’t wait for each episode to devour and since it was Netflix, I was served those episode forthwith. They did not disappoint. Bravo.

12. “Kleo,” Season Two, Netflix. This German series had an excellent first season, with nods to “Killing Eve” and then, well, was just very German but also — cultural stereotype alert — oddly funny, which was unexpected. Well, guess what? “Kleo” leaned into its weirder and funnier aspects in S2 and it was wonderful.

13. “The Sympathizer,” HBO/Max. I’ll admit, I was in the wrong headspace when I watched the first episode, then shelved it and came back later. It still has a whole lotta Robert Downey Jr. in it (normally not a bad thing at all, but times like 5, well, maybe too much?). I restarted the whole thing and then got blown away. Excellent work here.

14. “Killing Eve,” BBC America. This is the perfect show for this list because it encapsulates a lot of the downside of what happens to TV critics (and lay people!) watching more shows than they can ever count, much less finish — sometimes you don’t finish (even if you think you did). No shame in that — it’s happened to a few shows for me (and counting, probably). I realized that I never finished the last half of S3 and almost none of S4 so it was a refreshing and delightful experience to go back and wrap it up. I loved this series from the start and though it did hit some rough patches it holds up so much better than others of its time (which, since we’re counting, was 2018-2022).

15. “Ripley,” Netflix. (If you’re keeping track, yes it was quite a good year for Netflix, which isn’t surprising at all). Gorgeous to look at and all the more impressive for taking something done well previously (“The Talented Mr. Ripley” movie, the great book, etc.) and making its own mark, thanks to Andrew Scott. I know this left some people cold, but I warmed to it as it went.

Honorable mention:

“Black Twitter: A People’s History (Hulu/Onyx); “Alice In Borderland: S2,” Netflix; “Jim Henson: Idea Man” Disney+, “Black Doves,” Netflix; “Citadel: Honey Bunny,” Amazon Prime; “The Tyrant,” Hulu; “Time Bandits,” AppleTV+; “Furies,” Netflix; “The Signal,” Netflix.

The Best Films I Watched This Year:

• “Return To Seoul.”

• “Asteroid City.”

• “Zone Of Interest.”

• “Anatomy Of A Fall.”

• “Perfect Days.”

• “Poor Things.”

• “The Lobster.”

• “May December.”

• “Past Lives.”

• “American Fiction.”

• “Hit Man.”

• “All Of Us Strangers.”

• “Rebel Ridge.”

• “The Shadow Strays.”

• “Train To Busan.”

• “John Wick” 1 and 2.

• “The Silent Hour.”

• “Wolfs.”

• “The Villainess.”

Those are all the movies that I loved/adored, truly enjoyed and/or made my life better. I mean, I did watch the directors cut of “Napoleon” so I know from bad.

I wanted to include but not go into detail here all the movies (granted, not that many) that truly moved me and meant something to me, because I’m going to be writing a lot more about movies in 2025, right here.

Some of the ones above I did review here on the Substack, others I watched without sharing. And hey, when things got really dark in November and I said I wanted to just check out and watch some of the “John Wick” franchise, well, I get a lot of points for getting the first two in before the end of the year. Starting JW3 on Tuesday.

In 2025, my poor, sad, Letterboxd pro subscription will be better used and I will fill it out and of course have a lot more to say here. In the same vein, my Criterion Channel subscription will be getting featured more here in 2025 as I ramp up the films.

As a final thought on that, I take my New Year’s Resolutions probably more seriously than 90 percent of the world and certainly people I know, and watching more films plus writing about them (and using my Letterboxd account) are all on there.

It’s truly happening! In aspirational, arts-before-news 2025.

Let me know what you think of this as usual, and also include your favorite TV series and Films, especially if I didn’t mention them.

Cheers to everyone.