From sitcoms to psychological thrillers to reality TV, 2024 will bring us plenty more of the shows we’ve come to love. But with so many options these days, it can be hard to know where to start — here are five great shows to look forward to in the coming year (and, in the meantime, binge all the previous seasons of).
Abbott Elementary (Hulu, Max)
With an exceptionally high 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and several award nominations (like the 2024 Golden Globe for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy) and wins (such as the 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series), Abbott Elementary will return for a third season on February 7, 2024.
The mockumentary-style sitcom chronicles the lives of teachers at the underfunded and mismanaged Willard R. Abbott Elementary School, including the ever-optimistic Janine Teagues (Quinta Brunson), her friend, Jacob Hill (Chris Perfetti), the strict Barbara Howard (Sheryl Lee Ralph) who — in Janine’s eyes — is her mentor, substitute teacher Gregory Eddie (Tyler James Williams) who applied to be the principal, and the under-qualified Ava Coleman (Janelle James) who actually got the job.
Together, the coworkers navigate the difficulties of teaching and help each other overcome challenges in their personal and professional lives. Whether Janine needs advice in her love life or Barbara can’t figure out the new technology, the characters are always there for each other.
This lighthearted sitcom brings to light issues of underfunding in schools in an empathetic way that resonates with audiences, and if it follows the trend of the last two seasons, we can expect nothing less than lots of laughs and even more heart.
Ghosts (Paramount+)
Married couple Sam “Samantha” Arondekar (Rose McIver) and Jay Arondekar (Utkarsh Ambudkar) are ready to live their dreams of starting a bed and breakfast at Sam’s newly-inherited country house when something unexpected happens: Sam has a near-death experience and gains the ability to see ghosts — of which the house has many.
Based off of the British series of the same name, Ghosts has a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and will be releasing its third season on February 15, 2024 after having to postpone due to the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes.
The show will continue to explore the eccentric characters and their backstories, including the ghosts of Continental Army officer Isaac Higgintoot (Brandon Scott Jones), Prohibition-era singer and small-time celebrity Alberta Haynes (Danielle Pinnock), travel agent and Pinecone Troop leader Pete Martino (Richie Moriarty), drama-loving Sasappis “Sass” (Román Zaragoza), womanizing stockbroker Trevor Lefkowitz (Asher Grodman), hippie Susan “Flower” Montero (Sheila Carrasco), dramatic Viking Thorfinn “Thor” (Devan Chandler Long), and Gilded Age-era, uptight Henrietta “Hetty” Woodstone (Rebecca Wisocky).
Together, Sam, Jay, and the ghosts — with the help of the recurring “cholera ghosts,” British Revolutionary ghosts, and the occasional bed and breakfast client — will navigate love, solve the mysteries of some of the ghosts’ deaths, and, hopefully, run a successful business.
Survivor and The Amazing Race (Hulu, Paramount+)
In 2024, the hit reality TV shows Survivor and The Amazing Race will be returning for seasons 46 and 36 respectively, and are bound to bring us even more drama and fun challenges.
Survivor has been a staple of reality TV since 2000, and there are sure to be many surprises in 2024, even if the premise remains the same. About 20 players go to an island where they have minimal food and no shelter and are split into two or more “tribes” to compete against each other in reward challenges (which grant them luxuries such as food, fishing gear, comfort, etc) and immunity challenges (which allow them to stay safe from a vote). After an immunity challenge, the tribe that did not win is forced to vote one person off their team. Eventually, as the tribes get smaller, they merge and the contestants begin to compete in solo challenges; at this point in the game, when someone gets voted off, they go to the “jury,” which gets to vote on who of the remaining three contestants at the end will win the title of Sole Survivor and $1 million. There are many more complicated rules to the game, but at its core, it is meant to test who has the social skills, strategy, and strength to win it all.
The Amazing Race began in 2003 and pits teams of two against each other in a race around the world. Each episode makes up a leg of the race in a different city, in which teams must follow clues and complete tasks to make it to the “pit stop,” where they will receive a new location to travel to, and the last team there to each stop is eliminated. The clues consist mainly of “route info,” a clue that may include a task and leads the teams to the next location or challenge, “detours,” in which teams must choose one of two tasks to complete, and “roadclocks,” where one person from each team must complete a challenge without the help of their teammate. There are many more rules and clues to learn, but the show isn’t too difficult to understand if you know the basics.
Severance (Apple TV)
While the release date is yet to be announced, it is suspected that the heavily anticipated — if the 97% on Rotten Tomatoes is anything to go by — second season of Severance will premiere in late 2024, as the production began on January 29th.
The sci-fi psychological thriller stars Adam Scott as Mark Scout, a worker at Lumon Industries, where the employees have undergone a procedure known as “severance,” wherein their memories at work and outside of it are completely separated. Mark’s “innie” — as people’s work selves are known — does Macrodata Refinement every waking moment; while his “outie” sleeps, eats, visits friends, and grieves the loss of his wife. But when one of his innie’s coworkers and friends is replaced without prior notice and the same person appears as an outie in Mark’s other life, a conspiracy begins to take shape… and it all centers around Lumon.
With the help of Helly Riggs (Britt Lower), an employee who wants nothing more than to leave Lumon, Dylan George (Zach Cherry), whose innie worries about nothing besides company incentives, and Irving Bailiff (John Turturro), a rule-follower who finds himself willing to break rules after meeting Burt Goodman (Christopher Walken), Mark starts to investigate Lumon in both of his states.
Severance questions our relationships with work in a gripping and suspenseful thriller that will make you glad you didn’t watch it when it first came out and only had one episode a week — or, if you have seen it, will make you even more excited for the next season.
