You don’t get a good start to the streaming television year just because there are some great scripted shows on offer. What you need is the right viewing mix: a kick the doors in classic, an out-of-nowhere obsession, a surprise comedy success, a procedural that reinvigorates the genre, and something with killer costumes . As listed below, the first six months of 2024 have had all of those and more. Here’s my selection of the best new shows to date.
but she’s never had a role as compelling as the lead in this wrenching New Zealand drama. As Penny, she plays a teacher convinced she saw her ex-husband, Phil , behaving inappropriately with a minor. When he returns to her town, to live with their adult daughter, she tries to condemn him, causing divisions and calling her own objectivity into doubt.
Making a spin-off series about a supporting character who’s already featured in two shows sounds like a blood from a stone creative gambit, but this crime procedural is an unexpected pleasure. An eccentric lawyer in, Elsbeth Tascioni goes to New York and star billing when she’s assigned as an observer to the NYPD’s murder investigations and soon becomes a participant.