2024 saw the return to our television screens of acclaimed dramas and sitcoms.
There were devastating documentaries as well and an abundance of shows about spies, psychiatrists, murderers and miscarriages of justice.
But what were the 30 TV shows that caught the eye of Pomoma in 2024 and did they live up to expectation?
Here's our first countdown of the shows we watched, ranked 30 to 21.
30. BIG BOYS, Series 2 (CHANNEL 4)
Jack Rooke's award winning autobiographical sitcom about his experiences in university returned with Dylan Llewellyn's gay student Jack still struggling to lose his virginity after coming out to his kind hearted, platinum blonde mum Camille Codouri's Peggy.
Peggy has taken his best friend, Jon Pointing's Danny under her wing.
However when Danny takes it upon himself to find the gang a house in second year, he struggles under the weight of unrealistic expectations.
Turning to Katy Wix's Jules for help, Jack and Danny find themselves back in the makeshift halls of residence from the first series with Olisa Odele's fashion student Yemi and Izuka Hoyle's no nonsense Scot Corinne joining them.
This follow-up series saw Jack and Danny land work experience in a cringe inducing lads mag, Corinne getting involved with a pretentious spoken word artist and Jack acquiring a ping pong table from a lecturer he has a crush on.
In order to work, though, 'Big Boys' has to strike a balance between comedy and poignant drama.
Series Two was a bit hit and miss, however, with the first two episodes not hitting its marks in the way you'd hope but the last two coming good in the end.
Llewellyn, Pointing, Hoyle, Odele, Wix and Hoyle continued to amuse but it was Harriet Webb who emerged as the show's funniest character Shannon, thanks to her pregnancy at the hands of Shane Zaza's gormless delivery driver Tariq.
29. ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING, Season Four (DISNEY+)
You can understand why so many stars want to be in 'Only Murders In The Building'.
The show looks like a bit of a blast to make which is no doubt why we have seen Meryl Streep, Jane Lynch, Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Amy Schumer, Sting, Jimmy Fallon, Matthew Broderick, Mel Brooks and Shirley MacLaine falling over themselves to land supporting roles to Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez or brief cameos.
Season Four ramped up the celebrity quotient even more with Eugene Levy, Eva Longoria and Zach Galifianakis playing versions of themselves cast in a movie about the main characters.
Add to that appearances by Kumail Nanjiani, Melissa McCarthy, Griffin Dunne, Tea Leoni, Molly Shannon and Richard Kind as well as cameos from John McEnroe, Scott Bakula and Ron Howard this series and you couldn't help but feel the starriness of the show was becoming a bit of a distraction from its weaknesses.
Try as they might, this year's series just couldn't conceal its flaws.
Everything in the show seemed too padded out, with too many episodes that lacked comic consistency.
On the occasions when the gags did land, they remained laugh out loud funny - thanks mostly to the show's three leads as well as Lynch, Levy, Longoria, Galifianakis and Da'Vine Joy Randolph's permanently cheesed off Detective Donna Williams.
However those laughs just didn't come thick or fast enough.
The plot of this series was built around Charles, Oliver and Mabel investigating the murder by a sniper of Charles' stunt double Jane Lynch's Sazz Pataki.
As usual, there were many wild goose chases as the trio ruled in and out a host of potential suspects.
But the podcast team also had to juggle the demands of working with screenwriters, directors and actors on the movie while continuing to exasperate Detective Williams.
There were the ups and downs of Oliver's love affair with Streep's actress Loretta Durkin to also negotiate.
And while it is welcome that a fifth season is in the works, the show could undoubtedly do with being shorter, a bit sharper and much less starry.
28. OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH, Series 2 (HBO & BBC2)
After a charming first season, this 'Blackadder' style nautical sitcom about gay pirates returned once again to the high seas.
As it embarked on a new set of adventures, David Jenkins' follow-up was always going to find it a bit of a challenge outperforming the first series.
Unfortunately it couldn't do that and ended up being subsequently axed by HBO.
That's a real shame because there was plenty in Season Two to suggest the show could get back to former glories.
At the core of Jenkins' sitcom was an unlikely romance between Rhys Darby's head in the clouds gentleman pirate Stede Bonnet and Taita Waititi's much more savage pirate legend, Ed 'Blackbeard' Teach.
Season Two saw their romance hit the rocks after Stede returned to his marriage, only to leave it again by mutual agreement with his wife and set off on a quest to find Ed.
The object of his affections, though, returned to his bloodthirsty ways, behaving like a tyrant towards the crew of The Revenge which included his longtime first mate, Con O'Neill's Izzy Hands, David Fane's highly emotional Fang and two of Stede's old crewmates Joel Fry's Frenchie and Vico Ortiz's Jim.
The rest of Stede's crew - Samson Kayo's Oluwande Boodhari, Matthew Maher's Black Pete, Samba Schutte's cook Roach, Kristian Nairn's Wee John, Nat Faxon's The Swede and Ewen Bremner's spacey Scotsman Buttons - wound up stranded on an island having been turfed off the ship.
Charting a course for the Republic of Pirates in a rowing boat, Stede was reunited with his old crew and ended up working for Leslie Jones' Spanish Jackie in her tavern, hoping to earn money to buy a new ship.
This brought them back into the orbit of the former soup vendor previously known as Susan who had reinvented herself as Ruibo Quan's Pirate Queen, Zheng Yi Sao, conqueror of China.
But the real question hanging throughout the show was could Stede heal the rift with Ed once they were reunited?
Darby remained the show's strongest performer, enjoying the bulk of the best moments.
Waititi, however, appeared to go a little off the boil in this series, while Kayo, Maher, O'Neill, Quan, Jones and Bremner still shone in the supporting roles.
Like 'Only Murders In The Building,' when the jokes landed, they landed really big.
It's just a pity the cast will never get another opportunity to prove they can return to the consistency of the first series.
27. LOL: LAST ONE LAUGHING IRELAND (Amazon Prime)
2024 got off to a bit of a laugh with a competitive comedy show that pitted 10 Irish stand-up performers against each other in a Big Brother style house.
Hosted by Graham Norton and based on a Japanese format devised by the comedian Hitoshi Matsumoyo in 2016, the object of the game is for participants to avoid laughing, smiling or smirking at each other's quips or jokes.
Do it once and the contestant receives a yellow card. Do it again and they get a red card, expelling them from the game until one comedian is left standing.
Spread over the course of six 40 minute episodes, the Irish version brought together established stand-ups like Aisling Bea, Jason Byrne, Deirdre O'Kane, Paul Tylak and David McSavage with the actress Amy Huberman and four rising stars on the comedy circuit, Emma Doran, Tony Cantwell, Catherine Bohart and Martin Angolo.
The show divided Irish audiences and critics but it undoubtedly had moments of hilarity if you could get over Norton's excitable and occasionally irritating commentary from an adjacent room.
Part of the fun was simply watching comedians trying to keep a straight face while one knitted another giant woolly pants and a stand-up veteran put baked beans in his pockets in some kind of comic mental breakdown.
Another up and coming contestant brought along a puppet with an outrageous French Dublin accent while an established Irish comedy star intentionally mangled the 1990s Irish folk anthem 'A Woman's Heart'.
Some of the guest appearances by Jedward, Irish TV and radio personality Ray d'Arcy, Zig and Zag, Dustin the Turkey, Chris de Burgh and former RTE newsreader Anne Doyle sombrely reading the lyrics of Irish comic songwriter Richie Kavanagh's 'Aon Focal Eile' may have been culturally specific to Irish audiences but their appearances were still designed to crack up the contestants.
Versions of the show have been produced in Mexico, Italy, Iran, Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Russia, Nigeria, Colombia and France and with a UK version hosted by Jimmy Carr due to land in 2025, it'll be interesting to see how it compares.
26. BLUE LIGHTS, Season Two (BBC1)
Having impressed audiences with a blistering first series about the complexities of policing in contemporary Belfast, Declan Lawn and Adam Paterson's beat cop drama shifted its focus from dissident republican crime gangs to their equivalent in the loyalist community.
Sian Brooke, Martin McCann, Katherine Devlin and Nathan Braniff returned as Constables Grace Ellis, Stevie Neil, Annie Conlon and Tommy Foster who found themselves trying to keep an eye on the criminal activities of rival paramilitaries on the loyalist Mount Eden estate.
However it was the arrival in Mount Eden of a former soldier, Seamus O'Hara's Lee Thompson outside of the normal loyalist paramilitary structures that posed the real threat as he cunningly curried favour with the local community and manipulated them to cover up his own criminal ambitions.
As with the first series, the officers of Blackthorn Station had to battle those within their own system who sought to further their own ambitions at the expense of law and order.
In particular, the series saw Joanne Crawford's recently promoted Inspector Helen McNally being pitted against Des Eastwood's arrogant DS Murray Canning who had a new Constable, Frank Blake's Shane Bradley serving as a cuckoo in the police station's nest.
Fancying himself as a puppet master, Canning operated in the shadows as he tried to wield his influence over the various factions in Mount Eden.
While not as consistent as Series One, the follow-up series certainly had its moments with a big cliffhanger occurring in the penultimate episode when Grace and Stevie's car was shot at.
However a storyline about the legacy of the Troubles involving Hannah McClean's former Constable turned solicitor Jen Robinson, Paddy Jenkin's street character Happy Kelly and Derek Thompson's former RUC Special Branch officer disappointed and became a bit of a distraction.
Fringe storylines, however, about Blackthorn's officers investigating a suspicious death in a gay couple's home and a domestic disturbance involving an alcoholic ex-schoolteacher remained among some of its most powerful storylines.
As for the cast, Brooke, McCann, McNally, Eastwood, Blake, O'Hara, Jonathan Harden as Jonty and Andi Osho as Sandra Cliff stood out.
And with a further two series already commissioned, there's a sense that with recurring characters like Abigail McGibbon's Tina McIntyre and Happy Kelly, this slickly directed cop show may yet develop into a complex portrait of the city it portrays just like 'Hill Street Blues,' 'Homicide: Life On The Streets,' 'The Wire' or 'The Cops'.
It will only do that if Lawn, Paterson and their fellow writers embrace the show's darker themes more, continue to puncture it with occasional street humour and steer clear of the show's tendency to neatly wrap everything up each series with an 'All's Well That Ends Well' sequence.
There's still plenty of potential in 'Blue Lights' but can the writers fully grasp it?
25. THE GREATEST NIGHT IN POP (Netflix)
After giving us an entertaining documentary about Wham, Netflix plundered 1980s music folklore again for this film about the making of USA for Africa's single 'We Are The World.
Vietnamese American filmmaker Bao Nyungen's documentary about the recording in LA of the star studded charity single on the night of the American Music Awards was an amusing and surprisingly informative watch.
Interviewing Lionel Ritchie who co-wrote the song with Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, Huey Lewis, Dionne Warwick, Sheila E and Kenny Loggins, the 96 minute film unearthed some decent anecdotes.
Richie amused viewers as he recalled writing the song in Jackson's home surrounded by a chimp, a snake and the sound of an exotic bird telling a barking dog to shut up.
Lauper revealed how she almost didn't participate in the recording because her boyfriend didn't rate the song.
Sheila E confessed to feeling like she was only there as bait to lure her frequent collaborator, Prince.
However it was the archive footage from the recording that was the most illuminating, with country star Waylon Jennings in one sequence clearly losing his patience with Stevie Wonder when he started to sing in Swahili.
The most memorable moments, though, included images of an uncomfortable Bob Dylan, looking like a Martian who had just landed in a gospel choir.
In one scene, Nyungen shows Stevie Wonder and Quincy Jones disarming Dylan by mimicking his voice as he prepares for his solo.
Footage of Bob Geldof reminding a room full of icons like Tina Turner, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, Diana Ross and Billy Joel of the reason why they were there is a real testament to the Dubliner's powers of oratory and persuasion.
Forget the artistic merits of a song that many think is really syrupy. Nyungen's film was a fun documentary about a single that did a lot of good, raising $20 million to combat the famine in Ethiopia.
24. SHRINKING, Season Two (Apple TV+, Season 2)
After an impressive first season, Bill Lawrence, Brett Goldstein and Jason Segel's comedy drama about three therapists and their messy personal lives had a lot to live up to with its follow up season.
Did it succeed? Yes and no.
Segel, Jessica Williams, Harrison Ford, Lukita Maxwell, Christa Miller, Ted McGinley, Luke Tennie and Michael Urie all fitted comfortably back into their roles as the team of flawed psychiatrists and their troubled family members, neighbours and friends.
However the second season was patchy - oscillating from moments of genuine hilarity to dramatic scenes that were honestly a bit underwhelming.
Williams and Ford continued to shine as the practice's sassiest psychiatrist, Gaby and the grumpiest, Paul whose battle with Parkinson's took greater prominence.
Segel, at times, charmed as their widowed colleague Jimmy even as the character wrestled with his grief, while Miller and Urie expertly landed their gags as his next door neighbour Liz and his neurotic gay friend, Brian.
However Goldstein's regular appearances as Louis Winston, the man responsible for killing Jimmy's wife just dampened the mood.
While well intentioned, his introduction just made the show's dramatic scenes feel more of a slog.
Against all odds, Ted McGinley emerged as the show's MVP as Liz's loveably laid back husband Derek.
There was a surprisingly sweet and satisfying reunion too between Segel and a former 'How I Met Your Mother' co-star that opened up new possibilities for the show.
But if there was a big lesson from Season Two, it was this: we could all do with having a Derek in our lives.
23. STEVE (Martin): A DOCUMENTARY IN TWO PIECES (Apple TV+)
Morgan Neville's documentary about one of Hollywood's most beloved comedians really was a show of two halves.
Split into two parts entitled 'Then' and 'Now,' the first concentrated on his rise from an entertainer learning his craft in Disneyland to becoming a surreal stand-up sensation.
'Now' saw him reflecting as a seventy-something on fatherhood and his latter fame.
What emerged was a complex portrait of a comedian who had to work very hard to reach the top of his profession and who found it equally hard trying to feel truly comfortable in his skin.
With contributions from his wife Anne Springfield, Tina Fey, Eric Idle, his friend and frequent collaborator Martin Short and John McEuen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, it was a revealing portrait of a beloved comedian that was well worth investing your time in.
22. CHANGING ENDS, Season 2 (ITV)
Alan Carr's semi-autobiographical sitcom returned for a second series and continued to deliver big time on belly laughs.
Much of that was still down to Oliver Savell's spot on impersonation of the camp comedian as an 11 year old in Northampton.
However the show's nostalgic skewering of life in the 1980s, its amusing observations of pre-teen innocence and a superbly chosen cast cemented its claim to be the best sitcom to emerge out of the ITV stable in decades.
Storylines in this series included Alan's first foray into the world of fake IDs, a hunt for a pervert on the loose in the neighbourhood, a stray dog sending the Carrs into lockdown, sex education before a school disco, a caravan holiday in Great Yarmouth and Northampton Town FC's day of destiny.
While Savell continued to steal the show, Shaun Dooley and Nancy Sullivan amused as Alan's professional football manager dad Graham and devoted mum, Christine.
Special mention should also go too to Carr's co-writer Gabby Best as the Carrs' weirdly competitive neighbour Angela, Carriad Lloyd as his eccentric drama teacher Miss Gideon and Maggie Steed who guest starred as Alan's nan.
An uncomplicated sitcom with many simple pleasures, the show continued to regularly hit the back of the net and was worthy of promotion.
21. LUDWIG (BBC1)
We've gotten used to America giving us shows in recent years about amateur sleuths solving crime, with 'Only Murders in the Building' and 'Poker Face' leading the way.
So, why can't Britain get in on the act?
Step forward David Mitchell as a puzzle maker who finds himself having to pretend to be his identical twin brother, a detective who has gone missing.
'Ludwig' is a satisfying comedy drama series built around solving this overarching mystery while also getting to the bottom of a number of other police cases each week.
It helps the credibility of show that Mitchell's rather eccentric John Taylor is good at setting and solving puzzles.
His twin's wife Anna Maxwell Martin's Lucy is also in on the act, encouraging John in his new guise to look into any clues in the police station that could help them trace James' whereabouts.
However his unorthodox way of solving the day to day crimes as a fake detective also earns him the admiration of Dipo Ola's DI Russell Carter and Gerran Howell's DC Simon Evans.
Dorothy Atkinson plays James' boss DCS Carol Shaw, while there is also a whiff of suspicion around Ralph Ineson's Chief Constable Ziegler.
Izuka Hoyle also amuses as DS Alice Finch who had an alarming tendency to rush towards easy theories around suspects.
Karl Pilkington, Felicity Kendall, Paul Chahidi and Derek Jacobi turn up in guest roles in a series that was delightfully uncomplicated and frothy.
Nevertheless it is Mitchell who makes the show a joy to watch.
He's so good, you can't really imagine any other actor being as well suited to the role.
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