By Dan Skip Allen

My Honorable Mentions  In No Particular Order: Under the Bridge (FX/Hulu), Bad Monkey (AppleTV+), Manhunt (AppleTV+), Grotesquerie FX/Hulu, Dune: Prophecy (Max),  Cross (Prime Video), Star Wars: The Skeleton Crew (Disney Plus), Those Who Are About To Die (Peacock), We Were the Lucky Ones (Hulu, 3 Body Problem (Netflix)

10: Presumed Innocent (AppleTV +)

A horrific murder upends the Chicago prosecuting attorney’s office when one of its own is suspected of the crime, leaving the accused fighting to keep his family together.

 love a good murder mystery Presumed Innocent is just that. The wrong guy syndrome also applies here as well. Jake Gyllenhaal and Peter Skarsgard are both great as lawyers on the opposite side of the law. You can cut the tension in this show with a knife. Even the supporting cast, terrific Bill Camp, OT Fagbenle, Ruth Negga and Renate Reinsve all add interesting flavor to the story. The original film starring Harrison Ford was very good, but I think this series could be something special. Especially after seeing how good season one was.

7.7/10 IMDB 78% Rotten Tomatoes

9: True Detective: Night Country (HBO/Max)

This is the fourth season of True Detective an American anthology crime drama television series created by Nic Pizzolatto, which premiered on January 14, 2024, on HBO. The season is set in the fictional town of Ennis, Alaska, and follows the investigation of the disappearance of eight men from a research station. The season stars Jodie Fosterand Kali Reis as Detectives Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro. It is the first season to carry a subtitle.

One of the best shows I’ve ever seen was True Detective Season One starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. It was so good. This series wasn’t one of those that had a lot of seasons so many years later fans got a new season True Detective: Night Country.  It took place in Ennis, Alaska and I could feel the cold watching the show. The two main characters played by Jodie Foster and Kali Reis were fantastic. The cold backdrop lends itself to this mystery perfectly. I’m looking forward to more seasons of the show in the future

8.9/10 IMDB 93% Rotten Tomatoes

8: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 (Prime Video)

This series brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings,” and takes viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared reemergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.

The Lord of the Rings films by director Peter Jackson were a seminal moment for fans of JRR Tolkien’s works of literary fiction. The Hobbit films not so much. The latest series about the works of JRR set two hundred years before The Lord of the Rings is The Rings of Power.  About the forming of the Rings that Sauron would acquire and use to rule over Middle Earth.  Season One of the show was a set up of a lot of characters the viewers would see in Season Two. The second season though was more focused on a few main characters and stories that made the show better overall. Fans of the books and films will start to see the seeds of the future. I was much more interested in this season from the acting to the technical aspects. 

6.9/10 IMDB 84% Rotten Tomatoes

7: Fallout (Prime Video)

In a future, post-apocalyptic Los Angeles brought about by nuclear decimation, citizens must live in underground bunkers to protect themselves from radiation, mutants and bandits.

It has been documented that I don’t play video games. I do watch video game movies and television shows. Over the years most films and television shows haven’t been that good. Lately, though the video game genre has come back with some stellar films, the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, It Ends With Us, and Fallout. Fallout is a post-apocalyptic series where people have been forced to live in bunkers because the planet has been turned into a wasteland. This series has a terrific cast starring Walton Goggins as the Ghoul, a faceless Bounty hunter, and many others. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this shoe. The violence,  gore, and yes comedy all combined for a fantastic video game show streaming series.

8.3/10 IMDB 94% Rotten Tomatoes

6: X-Men 97 (Disney Plus)

A band of mutants use their uncanny gifts to protect a world that hates and fears them; they’re challenged like never before, forced to face a dangerous and unexpected new future.

As a comic book collector in my early life, I was a huge fan of the X-Men. It was a huge surprise to me to see these characters getting their own animated television series back in the early 1990s. After the show was over I always thought it ended abruptly. Needless to say, I was very excited when I heard the show was coming back and it would start back up where it left off. That’s where the title comes in. The series is Fantastically animated and the stories are well written. The voice-over work was exceptional. This is the kind of television I have always wanted regarding comic book characters. Kevin Feige delved into the archives of Marvel television and did a good thing in bringing these iconic characters back. 

8.8/10 IMBD 99% Rotten Tomatoes

5: Masters of the Air (AppleTV +)

Explores the aerial wars of WWII through the enlisted men of the Mighty Eighth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces.

Masters of the Air is the third series from producers Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg about the armed forces of the United States. The first two were Band of Brothers and The Pacific about the Army and Navy during WWII. This third series deals with the Air Force as the title suggests.  It has a fantastic cast that includes Callum Turner, and Anthony Boyle. Austin Butler and Barry Keoghan just to name a handful. The large cast portrays various parts of the Air Force from mechanics, engineers, cooks, and yes pilots that helped defend the country. The technical aspects of the series are all terrific, but specifically, the dog-fighting scenes throughout the show are phenomenal.  I was completely riveted to my seat during these sequences.  The Tuskegee Air Men episode was my favorite though.  The series as a whole does a great job covering every aspect of the Air Force during this time in history.

7.8/10 IMDB 85% Rotten Tomatoes

4: Penguin (Max)

The transformation of Oz Cobb from a disfigured nobody to a noted Gotham gangster.

One of my favorite parts of Matt Reeves’ The Batman was the portrayal of gangster Ozwald Cobb, aka The Penguin because of the way he walks with a limp. Colin Farrell gave this character a gravitas that other actors who played him didn’t. I’m not saying they weren’t good, I’m just saying Farrell made this character his own. The gangster elements were there as well. When I heard this character was going to get his own origin series I was ecstatic.  The show lived up to my lofty expectations. It truly reminded me of the gangster films I’ve seen in the past. Kristen Milliaty was also very good in the show. This was a fantastic building block for a character so many comic book and film fans have come to know. Where he goes from here nobody but Matt Reeves knows. I loved this show though. It was grounded in reality and gangsters I’ve read about and seen on the news. 

8.7/10 IMDB 95% Rotten Tomatoes

3: Sugar (AppleTV +)

Private detective John Sugar investigates the disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the beloved granddaughter of Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel. As Sugar tries to determine what happened to Olivia, he unearths Siegel family secrets, old and new.

As a kid, I was a fan of neo-noir films like The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, and Chinatown, two very good Humphrey Bogart films and one Jack Nicholson movie. Ever since I’ve been enamored with this genre and the various ways writers and filmmakers have tackled it. The latest neo-noir story is from the series Sugar starring Colin Farrell.  It, like most, takes place in Los Angeles and deals with an investigation of a missing person. The way the show is directed is straight out of a film from the forties or fifties. The car, clothes, and look of the series are fantastic. I was instantly brought into the world of neo-noir storytelling by the creator Mark Protosevich. There is a twist to the show that was very interesting and gave the series an extra fascinating nature. This was a fantastic series overall though especially the neo-noir aspects.

7.4/10 IMDB 81% Rotten Tomatoes

2: Ripley (Netflix)

A wealthy man hires down-on-his-luck grifter Tom Ripley to travel to Italy to urge his vagabond son to return home; Tom’s acceptance of the job is the first step in a life of deceit, fraud and murder.

The Talented Mr Ripley was one of my favorite films of 1999. Matt Damon was fantastic in the role of Tom Ripley. Anthony Minghella did a great job overall adapting that novel by Patricia Highsmith. I was very skeptical about the reboot on Netflix, but those apprehensions were unfounded. This is an amazing series and every shot was like the perfect shot to me. The Black and White cinematography is phenomenal. Andrew Scott does something different than Matt Damon or John Malkovich, who also played the character in Ripley’s Game, he was more subdued than Damon was. The show takes a different angle on this great literary character thanks to Strve Zallian. The supporting cast from Johnny Fynn and Dakota Fanning were also very good. The neo-noir psychological take on this character and story was superbly done. It is one of the best series of any kind that came out in 2024.

8.1/10 IMDB 86% Rotten Tomatoes

1: Shogun (FX/Hulu)

Set in Japan in the year 1600, Lord Yoshii Toranaga 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.

I’ve been a fan of samurai films for years. Seventh Samurai and Ran are two Seminole films from my childhood that I watched. Feudal Japan is an era in history that hasn’t been explored that much in America. The remake of Shogun based on the novel by James Clavell, of the same name, was made into a series in 1980, but the latest version of this story that came out this yearfrom Rachel Kondo  and Justin Marks has been the best thing I’ve watched all year. The acting, from Hiroyuki Sanada, Cosmo Jarvis and Anna Sawai to name a few, cinematography, production design, costumes, makeup, and hairstyling and score are all phenomenally done in the series. I was completely blown away by every aspect of this series from beginning to end. It’s the kind of television I want to see more of in the future. The cultural significance is very evident. 

8.6/10 IMDB 99%Rotten Tomatoes