The best new TV shows of 2024 so far, ranked

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After a slow 2023 marked by historic writers' and actors' strikes, 2024 is already jam-packed with great television, including an impressive crop of brand new shows and limited series programs.

Whether you're counting down the days until "Bridgerton" returns — we feel ya — or just looking for something new to binge, there's a good chance one of the year's best and brightest new shows of the year (so far) will pique your interest. A whole lot of them have certainly piqued our, ditto, the interests of our favorite critics, whose reviews we've scoured far and wide so you can settle in and focus on the important business of pressing play.

So join us as we rank our way through the best new TV shows you'll want to add to your queue, pronto.

Let's take a look…

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No. 10: 'Feud: Capote vs. the Swans'

FX's gloriously campy drama "Feud: Capote vs. the Swans" looks back on the rift and ultimate destruction of writer Truman Capote's relationships with a group of New York City socialite-pals he nicknamed his "swans" in the '60s. The breakdown infamously began after he started publishing thinly veiled fiction pieces based on their real-life private escapades. It escalated with his equally infamous 1966 "Black and White Ball."

Starring Tom Hollander as Capote, the lavishly costumed series features a stellar cast of increasingly angry, hurt — and in some cases, vengeful — swans: Naomi Watts as Babe Paley, Diane Lane as Slim Keith, Chloë Sevigny as C. Z. Guest, Calista Flockhart as Lee Radziwill, Demi Moore as Ann Woodward and Molly Ringwald as Joanne Carson. Jessica Lange plays a ghostly would-be swan in the form of Capote's late mother.

Equal parts trashy fun and truly sad, the series earned a 76% critics rating on our favorite binge-worthiness barometer, RottenTomatoes.com.

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No. 9: 'Masters of the Air'

The gorgeous World War II drama "Masters of the Air," another new series based on a book, follows the airmen of the 100th Bomb Group of the United States Air Forces as they risk their lives to fight for their country and each other. The Apple TV+ series' rising-star cast includes Austin Butler, fresh off his "Elvis" accolades, along with Callum Turner, Barry Keoghan, Anthony Boyle, Rafferty Law, Ncuti Gatwa, Nate Mann and more.

The show's inspiration comes from Donald L. Miller's acclaimed 2007 book "Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany," but the producers behind "Masters of the Air" know their stuff, too. That would be Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, who also produced the award-winning series, "Band of Brothers." Rotten Tomatoes' critics rewarded their efforts with a 86% rating.

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No. 8: 'The Sympathizer'

If onscreen transformations are your thing, look no further than HBO's satirical spy thriller, "The Sympathizer," which sees Robert Downey Jr. transform into four different characters — all in one scene. If you prefer great storytelling to costume and makeup drama, however, this limited series could still float your boat, since it's based on Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name.

HBO describes "The Sympathizer" as "an espionage thriller and cross-culture satire about the struggles of a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy during the final days of the Vietnam War and his new life as a refugee in Los Angeles, where he learns that his spying days aren't over."

Directed by Park Chan-wook and starring Hoa Xuande, Scott Ly, Fred Nguyen Khan and Downey (x 4), the critics round-up from Rotten Tomatoes gives "The Sympathizer" a commendable 87%.

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No. 7: 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith,' season 1

More spies! Maya Erskine and Donald Glover take over for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt as the titular "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" in this reimagining of the 2005 blockbuster that was, shall we say, not worth busting a block over. The 2024 Amazon Prime series, by contrast, "starts over from scratch with a completely new set-up … as if the original doesn't exist," writes the Irish Independent's Pat Stacey, who goes on to praise the show as "clever, funny and exciting." Stacey's not alone. Other reviewers have gushed about Erskine and Glover's chemistry, while the New Yorker's Inkoo Kang says the rebooted characters — now "spies-for-hire posing as husband and wife" rather than assassins — "embody their generation's emotional and economic malaise."

Despite Kang's claims of more depth than meets the eye, the show's 90% Rotten Tomatoes critics rating is countered by a wildly lower audience score of 66% (womp womp), so we're knocking it down a rung or two in our list. Moving on…

No. 6: 'Expats'

"Expats," Amazon Prime's sprawling, six-part series about three women whose lives collide in Hong Kong, explores grief, loneliness and geographic displacement through the lens of how "a single encounter sets off a chain of life-altering events that leaves everyone navigating the intricate balance between blame and accountability." It sounds intense, and that's because it is, according to just about everyone who's sounded off on the show. That said, the storyline — it's based on Janice YK Lee's bestselling novel "Expatriates" — and acting are reportedly stellar.

"Expats" stars Sarayu Blue as a housewife struggling with fertility and career questions, Ji-young Yoo as a recent college grad looking for a change, and Nicole Kidman, seen here with her co-star Brian Tee, as a newly minted Hong Kong resident who's recently relocated with her family.

It snagged an 84% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, though as one RogerEbert.com review warns, it's "powerful but harrowing watch."

No. 5: 'One Day'

In other love-hate reviews … The Guardian calls it "a flawless romcom you'll fall for, hard," and Slate.com's reviewer says "it's excruciating to watch, I loved it." The "it" in question? Netflix's "One Day," a decades-spanning love story set during — uh-huh, one day — that racked up a rare 91% critics rating over on Rotten Tomatoes. (It was also reportedly the most-watched series worldwide in its first week on Netflix in February.)

Set in 1988 and starring Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall, the couple-to-be pictured here, the series focuses on Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley. According to the show's synopsis, they "have only just met" each other when we meet them, but there's clearly a shared horizon in their future. Per Netflix, "They both know that the next day, after college graduation, they must go their separate ways. But after only one day together, they cannot stop thinking about one another."

The source material here is both David Nicholls' original novel, "One Day," and to a lesser extent the 2011 film adaptation, but it's worth noting the full-length movie was nowhere near this well-received.

No. 4: 'Mary & George'

In "Mary & George," Julianne Moore is the Countess of Buckingham, who schemes her way into a better life by using her easy-on-the-eyes son, George (Nicholas Galitzine) as lover-bait to lure the king's favor in the early 1600s. It's yet another new series based on a book — in this case, Benjamin Woolley's "The King's Assassin," a historical account of King James VI and I's affair with George Villiers — and it's every bit as fun, quirky and gorgeous as its stars. Is it brilliant? Nah. But what "Mary & George" lacks in genius plot lines and intricate character development, it more than makes up for in fabulous costumes, dark humor and pretty scenes. Rotten Tomatoes' critics give the show a strong 95% rating.

No. 3: 'Fallout,' season 1

If "One Day" is the romance series you didn't know you needed, then "Fallout" just may be the post-apocalypse version of the same. Set 219 years after the world as we know has been nuked into obliteration, the story follows Lucy (Ella Purnell), a would-be newlywed who's spent her life in one of the underground vaults where humans are now able to live, if not thrive. Lucy's wedding day goes very, very wrong, however, and she finds herself trying to eke out an existence in a world she didn't know was out there — or, as Prime puts it, "the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there's almost nothing left to have." We quickly learn Lucy is among the "gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters" who've been "forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind — and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them."

No need to have any gamer tendencies for this one — just an affection for good writing, great performances and very creepy soundtracks. It's a wild ride, for sure, and an eye-popping 93% of Rotten Tomatoes' critics agree.

No. 2: 'Baby Reindeer'

Despite its cute title, "Baby Reindeer" is not for the emotionally faint of heart, but it is worth the investment. The Netflix series was reportedly inspired by the true, autobiographical story behind writer and actor Richard Gadd's 2019 Edinburgh Fringe play of the same name, which he penned about his "warped relationship with his female stalker and the impact it has on him as he is ultimately forced to face a deep, dark buried trauma," according to the streamer.

Critics have found the show so compelling it scored 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. "'Baby Reindeer' transcends its trauma drama to succeed as art," one Globe & Mail reviewer writes, "because it does what good art does: It holds up a mirror to human experience and makes us feel less alone."

No. 1: 'Shogun'

Without a doubt, the latest screen iteration of James Clavell's epic novel "Shōgun" — a tale of war, honor, love and culture in Japan circa 1600 — is among the most visually stunning dramas you can find on TV. FX's version also updates some of the problematic elements that prevented the 1980 movie from aging all that well, although critics have pointed out there's only so much you can tweak without changing the story.

Set "at the dawn of a century-defining civil war," Hulu's synopsis tells us, "Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) is fighting for his life as his enemies on the Council of Regents unite against him, when a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby fishing village." Things get dramatic, dark and complicated from there — in a mostly good way. Rotten Tomatoes gives this one 99%, with critics praising the incredible performances and "poetic storytelling."

"The breakout star, though," writes The Wrap's Brandon Yu, "is Anna Sawai as Mariko, Blackthorne's translator and a sort of right-hand to Toranaga, a meaty and sometimes unwieldy role that Sawai embodies with grace."