© ITVSo as we head towards a New Year, it's time to say goodbye to 2024.
And as we have been reflecting on the year in television, what are our thoughts about the best 10 shows we watched this year?
This is Pomona's Top 10 shows of 2024 and also our thoughts on the big thundering disappointment of the year and its biggest turkey.
Have a great 2025, folks.
10. THE BEAR, Season 3 (DISNEY+)
After two wildly different tones to its previous seasons, audiences were wondering what would be served up this year now that the fine dining restaurant at the heart of this Chicago comedy drama was in full flow.
Would it be back to the frenetic pace and stress of the first season or the Zen like calm of most of the second?
The answer was something in between during a season that felt like a show in transition, building to something much more momentous in season four.
At times frustrating, the show was still undoubtedly compelling and experimental.
Season three's opening episode was largely dialogue free featuring a collage of memories of Jeremy Allen White's Carmy Berzatto's previous experiences in various kitchens which helped inform the viewer of the forces that made him the character he was now.
However as the season unfolded, it became clear Carmy was haunted by the mistakes he had made on his way to the top and it was even suggested he may be doomed to repeat them.
Early on in the run, he obsessively and dogmatically created new dishes for his restaurant and alienated close colleagues - particularly Ebon Moss Bachrach's Richie - with his series of "non-negotiables" including a commitment to change the menu every night.
The third season was dominated by the imminent visit of a restaurant reviewer from the Chicago Tribune that could make or break The Bear, with Carmy and Richie often at loggerheads in the kitchen and Oliver Platt's Cicero warning that a bad review could force him to pull his financing from the restaurant.
As she tried to keep the ship afloat, Ayo Edebiri's talented sous chef Sydney felt the pressure and became disillusioned.
Wooed by Adam Shapiro to open her own restaurant, she felt guilty about the prospect of potentially leaving The Bear and this created an interesting dramatic tension.
During the season we also got an episode backfilling the story of Liza Colon-Zayas' line cook Tina Marrero, another where Carmy's sister Abby Elliott's Natalie found herself having to depend on their unreliable mum Jamie-Lee Curtis' Donna Berzatto and others where Olivia Colman's Chef Terry, Will Poulter's pastry chef Luca, and John Mulaney's Stevie returned.
As usual, the whole concoction was superbly directed and there were well chosen needle drops on the soundtrack from the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Eddie Vedder, Radiohead, Kool and the Gang, The Beastie Boys, Kate Bush, REM, Talking Heads, David Bowie, Tangerine Dream, Otis Redding and a wonderful use of James' song 'Laid' in the final episode.
Even though the third season didn't quite hit the heights of the previous two, the show remained a must watch with White, Edebiri, Bacharach, Colon-Zayas, Elliott, Platt, Curtis and its host of guest stars continuing to dazzle.
9. UNTIL I KILL YOU (ITV)
ITV has really cornered the market in true crime dramas in Britain but this one from Nick Stevens is among the best of recent years.
Anna Maxwell Martin is terrific as Delia Balmer, a nurse who met serial killer John Sweeney in a London pub and had a four month relationship with him, unaware that he had killed a young woman in Amsterdam.
Shaun Evans also turns in a stunning performance as Sweeney whose behaviour towards Delia in their home becomes increasingly aggressive and abusive until eventually he carries out a savage attack on her.
Stevens' show catalogues how the police failed Balmer several times and struggled to deal with a neurodivergent victim who understandably struggled to control her anger.
Despite her character's abrupt nature, Martin still manages to evoke sympathy for Delia in one of the most sensitive, victim centred dramas to ever hit British screens.
In addition to Maxwell Martin and Evans' impressive performances, Clare Foster and Kevin Doyle excel as Balmer's friend Eloise Chapman and her later boyfriend, David.
This is thought provoking British crime drama at its very best
8. ONE DAY (Netflix)
If 'Normal People' set the benchmark for stories of young love, then it's taken four years to find a TV drama that comes anywhere as close.
David Nicholls' 2009 publishing sensation had already got an outing on the big screen with a Lone Scherfig movie two years after publication, starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess as the frustrated lovers Emma and Dex.
However the film failed to fully satisfy those who had read the novel and had fallen in love with a story which follows how the characters develop over 20 years through chapters focusing on one particular date in the calendar - St Swithin's Day on July 15.
Nicole Taylor, Bijan Sheibani, Anna Jordan, Vinny Patel and Nicholls' 14 part Netflix adaptation was much, much richer, with audiences really investing in the ups and downs of a love that you felt was meant to be.
With episodes ranging from 19 and 38 minutes in duration, directors Molly Manners, Kate Hewitt, John Hardwick and Luke Snellin really allowed the plot to breathe and the characters to grow.
However the success of their adaptation was very dependent on Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall who both turned in what should be star making performances as Emma and Dex.
Rounded out by impressive supporting turns by Essie Davis, Tim McInerny, Jonny Weldon, Toby Stephens, Joely Richardson, Eleanor Tomlinson, Rebekah Murrell, Mark Rowley and Brendan Quinn, there was a great soundtrack too with tracks by of Orange Juice, Joan Armatrading, The The, The Pixies, The Fall, The Velvet Underground, Nick Drake, Portishead, Blur, Elastica, The Cranberries, The Verve, The Kinks and Cat Power.
But it was Mod and Woodall who dominated the show as the best small screen couple since Daisy Edgar Jones and Paul Mescal launched their careers as star crossed lovers in 'Normal People'.
7. MR BATES VERSUS THE POST OFFICE (ITV)
In a superb year for ITV drama, Gwyneth Hughes' four part limited series not only outraged British audiences but forced a Government into exonerating the victims of a major miscarriage of justice while embarrassing their former employers.
Toby Jones was a superb as Alan Bates, the former Llandudno subpostmaster whose doubts about the Post Office and Fujitsu's Horizon IT system uncovered dozens of cases where employees were wrongfully accused of mismanaging money and were made to pay it back or face legal action to recover it.
Astutely made by director James Strong, Hughes' drama witheringly exposed corporate arrogance, obstinacy and cover-up, with Lia Williams given the unenviable task of playing the Post Office CEO turned ordained Church of England vicar Paula Vennells and Katherine Kelly as a fellow executive.
Hughes's drama was given great potency by the heart tugging performances of Monica Dolan, Will Mellor, Amy Nuttall, Amit Shah, Krupa Pattani, Ifan Huw Daffyd, Lesley Nicoll, Claire Calbraith and Julie Hesmondhalgh as the victims of the scandal and their relatives who had to endure a lot of heartache and frustration to expose the truth.
Buttressed by excellent supporting turns by Alex Jennings and Ian Hart as the Conservative MP James Arbuthnot and Bob Rutherford, an independent investigator into the maltreatment of sub-postmasters, the show proved terrestrial drama still had the potential to sway public opinion and spur change.
After it aired, the real life Paula Vennells handed back her CBE and was reduced to tears while giving evidence to a public inquiry.
Whether the return of the influential TV drama is a one-off or will inspire more dramas highlighting miscarriages of justice remains to be seen.
Nevertheless it was still great that TV drama had the chance to once more wield enough power to force political change.
6. THE RESPONDER (BBC1, Series 2)
Tony Schumacher's Liverpudlian cop show returned to BBC1 for a second series with a real bang, with Martin Freeman's corrupt officer still struggling to do good on the streets of Merseyside.
Freeman's Chris Carson is like a Scouse version of Harvey Keitel's 'Bad Lieutenant,' desperately trying to keep his neck above water amid a rising tide of corruption.
Chris' main focus in the show is on trying to keep what remains of his family life close to him, as he faces the prospect of his estranged wife and daughter moving to London.
He does this by pretending that he is on the cusp of landing a daytime job in the police.
Sucked into the orbit of Adam Nagaitis' cunning drug dealer Franny Norton after a former police response colleague, Amaka Okofor's Deborah Barnes turns to him for help, it doesn't help that Warren Brown's Ray Mullen, who his estranged wife is dating, is obsessed with exposing Chris' corruption.
Schumacher's drama features the last screen performance of the great Bernard Hill as Chris' father but it is also notable for the downward spiral of Adelayo Adedayo's once idealistic rookie police officer Rachel who is still traumatised by the abusive relationship she had with Philip Barrantini's Steve.
As a consequence, she becomes obsessed with Steve's new girlfriend, Izuka Hoyle's Lorna and trying to keep her out of harm's way.
Josh Finan's recovering drug addict Marco is now a dad and is trying to go on the straight and narrow.
However his valiant efforts to look after his baby daughter are jeopardised by his fellow addict and friend, Emily Fairn's Casey and her vid to become a drug player.
Befriending Faye McKeever's Jodie who has taken over her husband's criminal gang, Casey puts her life and Marco's in danger.
Thrillingly directed by Jeanette Nordahl, Mounia Aki and Charlotte Regan, the show draws visual inspiration from Martin Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver' as its characters flounder in a choppy moral waters.
Freeman is superb but so is the rest of the cast in a drama that feels like a genuine slice of life on the margins of a decaying society.
5. THE DRY, Series 2 (ITV/RTE 1)
How do you raise the bar in the second season of a comedy drama about an alcoholic trying to avoid being triggered by her dysfunctional middle class family?
Nancy Harris' Dublin set show does that and then some.
Helmed by the seasoned Irish film and television director Paddy Breatnach, the second season of 'The Dry' amps up the sense of dysfunction as Roisin Gallagher's Shiv Sheridan gamely tries to shrug off being treated like a complete failure by her parents and siblings who we increasingly realise are even more flawed than she is.
Not only does her mother Pom Boyd's Bernie's behaviour at AA meetings wind her up but her father, Ciaran Hinds' Tom is now living in a shed in the back garden following the collapse of their marriage.
Tom has been usurped as the man of the house by Michael McElhatton's arrogant, pompous and vindictive academic Finbar who has moved into the family's suburban home as Bernie's lover and likes to regularly rub her estranged husband's nose in it.
Shiv's sister, Siobhan Cullen's Caroline is having a series of one night stands but is really beginning to regret breaking up with her doormat of an ex-boyfriend, Eoin Duffy's Rory who now has a fiery Latin girlfriend, Paula Lafayette's Luisa.
The sisters' gay brother, Adam Richardson's Ant struggles to hold down his estate agency job and a relationship with his successful lawyer boyfriend, Emmanuel Okoye's Max.
The one bright hope comes in the form of Shiv's unexpected relationship with Sam Keeley's barista Alex.
But with her self centred ex, Moe Dunford's Jack also knocking around Dublin and looking more vulnerable, will it cause Shiv to stumble and fall off the wagon?
A brilliant cast on top of their game revel in Harris' acerbic scripts to deliver one of the most perceptive and funniest comedy dramas about families in recent times.
No gag is wasted as Gallagher perfectly anchors the show as Shiv.
She is also terrifically supported by Boyd, Hinds, Cullen, Richardson, Dunford, Keeley, McElhatton, Duffy, Okoye and Janet Moran as her AA sponsor Karen.
A third series has yet to be optioned by ITV but surely, like RTE's other acclaimed co-production 'KIN,' this superb show deserves another chance to further grow?
4. GAVIN AND STACEY - THE FINALE (BBC1)
No British TV show this year achieved the levels of hype that James Corden and Ruth Jones' popular Anglo-Welsh sitcom secured in the run-up to its final episode on Christmas Day.
And boy, did the show live up to it.
Audiences finally learned that the proposal by Jones' Nessa to Corden's Smithy in the cliffhanger ending of the Christmas episode five years ago fell flat.
A special 90 minute episode was built instead around one last visit by the Barry contingent to the Shipmans' home in Billericay.
There were clever callbacks to running gags from the sitcom's 17 year run and also some surprises, with viewers shocked to discover that Julia Davis' Dawn Sutcliffe and Adrian Scarborough's Pete had separated.
Steffan Rhodri's Dave Coaches also had a new woman in his life.
Meanwhile Alison Steadman's Pam Shipman and Larry Lamb's Mick, Rob Brydon's Uncle Bryn, Melanie Walters' Gwen West and her gay son, Robert Wilfort's Jason and Smithy and Nessa's teenage son Ewan Kennedy's Neil all gathered in Essex to help celebrate his dad's nuptials to Laura Aikman's Sonia.
With Nessa attending the hen but not the wedding, the question begged: would Smithy suddenly snap out of it and realise Sonia wasn't the right woman for him?
This was a sitcom finale that hit every single mark you could have wished it to.
It also knew that despite its title, it never really was about Matthew Horne's Gavin Shipman and Joanna Page's Stacey West.
It was always about Smithy and Ness.
Interestingly we never got to the bottom of what happened in Uncle Bryn and Jason's infamous fishing trip but in a way that actually was perfect - some secrets are just worth preserving.
3. SLOW HORSES, Season 4 (Apple TV+)
The fourth season of Will Smith's adaptation of Mick Herron's Slough House spy novels was as much of a joy to watch as the previous three.
The story of a group of spies cast into a sort of exile by MI5 in a grotty London office, it remained clever, thrilling and very, very funny.
A lot of that remained down to Gary Oldman's sublime performance as their apparently cynical, hard drinking boss Jackson Lamb, a talented spy with hygiene issues who can run rings around the best of them and is more devoted to his team of rejects than he would like to admit.
It also has a lot to do with Jack Lowden's charismatic performance as River Cartwright, the once up and coming agent who can also get in and out of tight spots.
In this edition, River flees to France after a hitman turns up at the home of his grandfather, Jonathan Pryce's former spy master David who, suffering from Alzheimer's, shoots him and then convinces himself he has killed his grandson.
Eager to track down those responsible River feigns his death, while Kristin Scott Thomas' MI5 deputy director general Diana Tavernier and the head of her security team, Ruth Bradley's Emma Flyte try to discover who's behind a bomb attack on a London shopping centre.
The man responsible is Hugo Weaving's former CIA operative turned mercenary Frank Harness who also wants to settle old scores in the intelligence community and also ordered the hit on David Cartwright.
The usual cat and mouse games apply in this season, with Jackson, River and the Slough House gang having to stay several steps ahead of their more incompetent mainstream MI5 colleagues and also Harkness.
Violent, smart and at times very funny, the scripts are brilliantly directed by Adam Randall and universally well acted.
Weaving is the cunning villain you want him to be, while the chemistry between Oldman, Lowden, Scott-Thomas, Pryce, Bradley, Saskia Reeves, Rosalind Elizear, James Callis, Kadiff Kirwan, Tom Brooke, Christopher Chung and Joanna Scanlan is irresistible.
Roll on Season 5 because this show is developing into one of the best of all time.
2. THE PENGUIN (HBO & Sky Atlantic)
Having portrayed DC Comics' 'Batman' villain as a Mafia underling in Matt Reeves' terrific 2022 movie 'The Batman,' Colin Farrell returned as The Penguin for a gripping miniseries that charted his character's rise from the fringes of a gang to becoming a force to be reckoned with in Gotham City.
Landing somewhere between the operatic sweep of 'Batman' and the Mafia grit of 'The Sopranos,' the eight episode show seemed like a hell of a gamble but was wonderfully sustained by Lauren Le Franc and her team of writers.
Constantly underestimated by his peers, we see how Farrell's Oswald Cobb overcomes his disability and brutally betrays his Mob family and his real family as he plots his way to the top.
It's a superb performance, with the Irishman again unrecognisable with his thick New Jersey accent and changing his appearance under loads of prosthetics.
However his performance is more than matched in its ferocity by Cristin Milioti as Sofia Gigante, daughter of the Falcone Mob who Oswald works for and is warped by the discovery of her father's most disturbing secret.
Pitching Oswald against a vengeful Sofia, we see him school Rhenzy Feliz's homeless teenager Victor Aguilar on the art of survival on Gotham's decaying streets as they forge an unexpected bond.
Superbly directed by Craig Zobel, Kevin Bray, Jennifer Getzinger and 'The Amityville Horror' star Helen Shaver, 'The Penguin' brilliantly complements Reeves' film and is a textbook example of how to do a franchise TV spin-off.
With Michael Kelly, Clancy Brown, Carmen Ejogo, Michael Zegen, Mark Frost and Deirdre O'Connell as Oz's mum also impressing in the supporting roles, this is a gripping crime drama about a decaying city that you believe could really stand on its own two feet outside of the Batman franchise.
It has dramatic heft with moments of real tragedy.
And it also has Farrell, Milioti, Feliz and O'Connell to thank, in particular, for its heft.
1.RIPLEY (Netflix)
Has there ever been any other TV show as elegantly constructed as Steven Zaillian's gorgeous eight part adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's 'The Talented Mr Ripley'?
Stunningly shot in black and white on digital cameras by the Oscar winning cinematographer Robert Elswit, writer-director Zaillian's show is a masterclass of subtle, artful storytelling.
Andrew Scott is in mesmerising form as the cunning conman and murderer Tom Ripley who inveigles his way into the glamorous lives of Johnny Flynn's charismatic Dickie Greenleaf and his girlfriend, Dakota Fanning's Marge - only for events on the Amalfi Coast to turn horribly sour.
Impressively paced and wonderfully written, 'Ripley' reels its audience into a conspiratorial game where we watch Tom elaborately deceive those around him and keep two steps ahead to avoid detection.
With episodes in Rome, Naples, Palermo and Venice showcasing Italy at its best, this stylish series draws inspiration from the movies of Federico Fellini and Roberto Rossellini and the art of Caravaggio, Picasso and Sir William Orpen.
It also gives viewers the treat of Scott squaring off against an actor who previously portrayed Tom Ripley, John Malkovich who pops up as a forger in Venice.
'Ripley' is worth watching for its nailbitingly tense fifth episode in Rome which draws inspiration from 'La Dolce Vita'.
And while Scott dominates proceedings with his magnetic central performance, Flynn, Fanning, Eliot Sumner as the socialite Freddie Miles and Maurizio Lombardi as the detective Pietro Ravini bring a considerable amount to the show.
With more Highsmith novels to mine, surely Netflix will allow Zaillian and Scott to return to this material again?
THUNDERING DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR: BAD SISTERS, Season 2 (Apple TV+)
Sharon Horgan's follow-up to a hugely impressive first season of her Belgian crime series adaptation was always going to face an uphill battle matching the brilliance of its predecessor.
It was true the Dublin black comedy left a few narrative doors open for a second season but it still required Horgan to dream up a new plot and a villain on a par with Claes Bang's hideous John Paul.
That was never going to be easy and Horgan gave it a lash.
She also gave us a massive twist two episodes into the new series which amounted to a huge narrative gamble.
But not even that could disguise the fact that despite the best efforts of a decent cast, the show consistently fell short of the high standards of the first season.
That's not to say it was a terrible watch but the quality rapidly deteriorated despite the efforts of Horgan, Sarah Greene, Eva Birthistle, Anne Marie Duff and Eve Hewson as the Garvey sisters and the return of Michael Smiley, Daryl McCormack and Barry Ward's characters.
The show turned sour from the moment the big twist happened, despite the introduction of intriguing characters like Fiona Shaw's interfering pillar of the community Angelica and Owen O'Donnell as Duff's new husband Ian.
As the season wore on, the Garveys' attempts to cover their tracks became increasingly Scooby-Doo.
Thaddea Graham's dogged Garda detective and her efforts to expose their wrongdoing also became increasingly irritating.
There were definitely worse TV shows this year but given the high expectations around 'Bad Sisters,' it was hard to hide your dissatisfaction with a series that really lost its magic formula.
It was such a disappointment, you wonder if Horgan will really be able to find ways of ever resuscitating it and getting it to being anywhere as good as the first series.
TURKEY OF THE YEAR: THIS TOWN (BBC)
On paper Steven Knight's miniseries seemed to have loads going for it - a young cast, a period setting in the not too distant past and, of course, ska.
Onscreen, it was just terrible and that was down to a script that fell down on the basics.
Instead of celebrating a movement that gave us The Specials, The Selecter, The Beat and Madness, Knight gave us a far fetched story about a street poet called Dante who falls in with a band featuring a songwriter called Eve who wanted to use his lyrics, his cousin who is being forced into joining the IRA and a heroin addicted drummer.
Dante's brother is also in the mix after returning from Army duty in Belfast with the intention of becoming a crimelord and there's a dodgy nightclub owner too who is fixated about an astronaut's suit.
Full of ear-scraping dialogue, lazy stereotyping and just plain nonsense, there were many moments that were toecurlingly embarrassing including a sequence where a requiem Mass was interrupted for what was supposed to be a poignant rendition of 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow'.
An early sequence supposedly set on Belfast's Falls Road had a local woman rather feebly explaining she used an insult using the word black bevause she was referring to the Black and Tans - even though the British had disbanded them 50 years earlier.
Perhaps worst of all was a sing off between the band's IRA member Eamonn and his fanatical IRA commander father involving 'The Fields of Athenry' and 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' while they laundered diesel.
Full of plots that didn't so much stretch credibility as snap it in two, Knight hinted in April that he future adventures in mind for his characters.
Please no because that would make me want to watch a two hour biopic of The Wurzels.
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