By Six Colors Staff
December 30, 2024 3:44 PM PT
Our 2024 favorites: TV, books, movies, and podcasts
TV
Bad Monkey
A surprise hit, this Vince Vaughn vehicle on Apple TV+ is based on a Carl Hiaasen novel of the same name, following Florida cop Andrew Yancey—suspended from duty for…reasons—as he gets embroiled in a fishy case after a fisherman finds a severed arm. This is one of my favorite sub-genres of crime stories: darkly funny, wildly eccentric, and full of colorful characters. There is a monkey, but it’s not about the monkey…or is it?
Standout performances go to Jodie Turner-Smith (also electric this year in the much more uneven Star Wars show The Acolyte) as the Dragon Queen and Meredith Hagner as the “bereaved” widow Eve. There’s also a great sub-plot involving Saturday Night Live veteran Alex Moffat as a floundering real-estate agent.
While this season tells a perfectly concluded story, I’m glad to hear that the show will be returning for season two…my only question is whether or not the monkey will return too.—Dan Moren
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5
I do feel bad for Star Trek: Prodigy which had its second, and potentially final season this year, and Star Trek: Discovery which also came to a kind of sputtering finish, but Lower Decks is the one I love the most. Yep, a 2D animated cartoon by one of the Rick and Morty guys. Little did I know how much I would miss it. If you didn’t get the chance to check it out there’s five great seasons, with only a handful of episodes that could have been better. That’s an outstanding run for a Star Trek show, or any show for that matter. The fact that it’s an animated show means they can also do things that the live action Treks can’t. Something they’ve taken full advantage of over the years, and especially this season.—Joe Rosensteel
Silo
The first season of Apple TV+’s adaptation of Hugh Howey’s viral self-published “Wool” series was unexpectedly great. Season two is a change of pace, quite literally, as the outcome of the first season leads to a split storyline for season two. While some might resist the natural slowdown in pacing—parceling out two stories necessarily means slowing things down—the intrigue continued, new characters came to the fore, and the mystery of the Silo deepened. Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Robbins, Common, and Steve Zahn (!) all gave great performances this season.—Jason Snell
Superman & Lois
The fourth and final season of the CW’s take on the man of steel also marks the end of the Arrowverse, the twelve years of DC comics shows on the network. (Even though Superman & Lois itself is technically only Arrowverse-adjacent—don’t at me.) It seems appropriate that a venture that started depicting a B-level, powerless vigilante should culminate with the most iconic and powerful of superheroes.
The last season is heavy on the pathos and family drama, while also doing its own spin on one of the most infamous Superman storylines. But one of the show’s strengths is its humanistic portrayal of Clark, a refreshing antidote to the distant and seemingly unfeeling god of the recent DC movies. There’s also an excellent menacing performance by Michael Cudlitz as a decidedly different kind of Lex Luthor, and the show is, as always, anchored by fantastic performances from Tyler Hoechlin and Bitsie Tulloch as the titular couple. If you don’t find yourself getting weepy in the show’s closing minutes, then you may be carved of stone.—DM
Shōgun
The show of the year might be FX and Disney+’s Shōgun, a sprawling epic of feudal Japan. That it was this good is something of a miracle, given that it’s an American adaptation of a James Clavell novel previously adapted into a popular (but questionable) 80s ministeries starring Richard Chamberlain. But by leaning heavily into Japanese creators and collaborators, the show really blossomed. Hiroyuki Sanada’s character of Toranaga becomes the true central character, with the Anjin (Cosmo Jarvis in the Chamberlain part) and Mariko (the unforgettable Anna Sawai) not having to carry the weight that the characters did in the original adaptation. I read the book, watched the original miniseries, and wondered why they bothered trying to make this. But the creative team, led by Rachael Kondo and Justin Marks (the creator of all-time classic Counterpart) nailed it. What a wonderful ride.—JS
Monsieur Spade
A one-off miniseries following Dashiell Hammett’s iconic sleuth, Sam Spade, who has retired to France in the 1960s. Having taken up the pastoral life, he’s dragged back into his old profession after a brutal murder at a convent leaves him watching over one of the only witnesses, a teenage girl with whom he has a past. The story unfolds in traditional convoluted film noir fashion, interspersed with Spade’s own personal demons and—surprisingly enough—French politics of the era.
If all of that isn’t enough to get you in the door, the show’s anchored by a great performance from Clive Owen as the retired sleuth and the behind the scenes creators include Scott Frank (Oscar nominated for his screenplays for Out of Sight and Logan) and Tom Fontana (Homicide: Life on the Street, Oz). It’s an absolutely fabulous looking show too; shot with a cinematic look and feel to it. And with just six episodes, it’s tightly constructed—taut with not too many frills, appropriate for Spade himself.—DM
The Traitors U.S.
The Traitors is a reality competition show that’s shot in a Scottish castle, with a host who comes dressed in kilts, tartans and tweeds. How is that reality? Well, what we call reality TV is anything but, and I mostly give the genre a pass. But this show, whose second US season aired this year, is fun, suspenseful and delightfully campy. The Traitors divides contestants into “faithfuls” and “traitors.” No one knows who is who, and it’s the faithfuls job to find and evict the traitors, one by one, all while the traitors gather as a group to “murder” one faithful each night. It’s hosted by the spectacular Alan Cumming, playing his part as lord of the manor to the hilt. This year’s installment brought together reality contestants from Big Brother, Survivor, the Bachelor, the Real Housewives franchises, and more, to murder and be murdered, scheme and play silly games. The first season featured a mix of normies and reality stars, but leaving out the civilians this year turned the drama and charisma on display up several notches. I know it’s true because I was only familiar with two of the contestants, as they’re past players on the only other reality show I watch, Big Brother (which also had a great 2024 season). I had no idea I would be rooting for a Real Housewife to win the game. The Traitors is an international phenomenon, with franchises in the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, all reputed to be great fun. The new US season, with more reality stars already announced, debuts next month on Peacock.—Shelly Brisbin
Movies
Man’s Castle
The May release of Man’s Castle (1933) on Blu-ray says everything about why I collect physical media. I’m a classic film obsessive, and streamers can’t be trusted to show some movies I want to see. And when a rare gem like Frank Borzage’s Man’s Castle gets restored because an intrepid film historian found nine previously deleted minutes of the film, physical media is where I’ll be able to see those new scenes. It’s a 4K restoration from the original 35 mm nitrate negative, and it looks and sounds great. Man’s Castle is a precode film, so when it was rereleased in the post-code late 1930s, these minutes were very sloppily edited out, because of racy dialog and even some suggestive images of the leads skinny-dipping. The film is a Depression-era saga of a couple, living hand-to mouth, under a bridge. He is the youngest Spencer Tracy you’ve probably ever seen, and she is the winsome Loretta Young, who you will root for throughout. Beautifully and sensitively directed by Borzage, it’s a true discovery that you can’t see on your favorite streaming service.—SB
Books
Karla’s Choice
It’s one thing to fill the shoes of a literary giant—it’s another when it’s also your dad. Noted sci-fi author Nick Harkaway switches genres to pick up the mantle of his father, legendary spy scribe John Le Carré, who passed away in 2020. The result is Karla’s Choice, which brings back Le Carré’s most indelible protagonist, spymaster George Smiley (most memorably portrayed on TV and in film respectively by dual icons Alec Guinness and Gary Oldman).
Set in the previously unexamined period between Le Carré’s breakout hit The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and his equally acclaimed Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the book finds Smiley, haunted by the fallout of the former story, having left the employ of British intelligence agency the Circus and attempting to patch up his tempestuous marriage. When a would-be assassin shows up to kill a seemingly random literary agent, Smiley is pulled back into the shadows. The result is a labyrinthine tale of loss and secrets, conjured in an impeccable Le Carré style—with just enough of Harkaway’s own tone injected to play to his strengths. —DM
Service Model
I’m picking Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Service Model. It can be picked up as an ebook, which makes it technology, but I really wanted to highlight it for the subject matter, which is also technology. More importantly, the use (or misuse) of technology in a former, stratified society. The book is from the perspective of a robot valet that needs to go on a quest through the decaying, dystopian remains of human civilization. You wouldn’t believe it from that bleak description, but it’s also very funny.—JR
[This was also my favorite book of the year. —JS]
Penric & Desdemona series
This year I ripped through the 12 novellas and one novel of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Penric and Desdemona series. These are high fantasy stories, which aren’t usually my favorite, but Bujold is such a great writer—her Vorkosigan Saga series is must-read sci-fi—that I had been meaning to jump into this series, and I’m so glad I did.
The simple version: Penric is a young man who, largely by accident, ends up being inhabited by a demon, which he eventually names Desdemona. Demons aren’t fundamentally evil in this world, and Penric and Desdemona end up as both sides of an buddy action/comedy duo in a single body as they navigate a world of violence, magic, and tragedy. Just as Bujold sketched the lives of her Vorkosigan series characters from youth through old age, she also lets us watch Penric grow from callow youth to well-seasoned veteran. And since most of these stories are novellas, they’re bite sized, so you can read as many as you want. Me, I couldn’t stop. I read them all.—JS
Grave Expectations
I like a good mystery with some supernatural elements, and Alice Bell’s debut novel Grave Expectations manages to hit both of those genres with a solid dose of hilarity. Claire is ekeing out a paltry living as a medium, “haunted” by the ghost of her friend, Sophie, who disappeared when the two were in high school. She’s hired to do a seance at an English country house for a particularly eccentric family, and is surprised to discover the grounds are haunted by the ghost of someone murdered there the previous year.
Naturally, they investigate. If you were to wonder if hijinks would ensue, yes, yes they do. I honestly found this one of the funniest books I’ve read in years—it’s pretty rare that I laugh out loud while reading, but I did during this book. Several times. It’s the perfect cross of ghost story and murder mystery, not too dark despite its subject matter, and Claire is an appealing if flawed protagonist.—DM
Podcasts
A Very Good Year
How do you talk about movies from every era of cinema? If you’re the hosts of A Very Good Year, you organize each podcast episode around a guest and a specific year of moviemaking, from the ancient classic era, to modern times. Jason Bailey and Mike Hull are enthusiastic movie fans, but they rely on guests, who range from filmmakers and actors to critics and film bloggers, to choose five films from the year they’ve picked, and explain why they’re great, or just favorites. The top fives are surrounded by a short news segment for the chosen year, and a lightning round where the group chews over award-winners and other significant films of the year. The format is lively and engaging, and the hosts have lots of opinions, both good and bad, about the movies they cover. And they can be kind of foul-mouthed, too, if you care about that. The guys at A Very Good Year retired the show this year, promising a new show in 2025.—SB
The Rest Is History
Late last year I discovered Goalhanger’s The Rest is History podcast and the rest—well, you know. It became my most listened-to podcast of 2024. Hosted by two British historians, it’s podcasting exactly the way I like it: two personalities who feed off one another as they tell gripping stories from the past. Both Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook have good senses of humor (“That definitely happened, didn’t it?”) and pick a refreshingly broad range of topics, including wonderful series about Montezuma and the Aztecs, the roots of the French Revolution, Custer and the battle of Little Big Horn, and the conquest of Britain by the Romans. I can’t recommend it highly enough.—JS
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