© NetflixTV viewers this year found themselves debating big issues like stalking and assisted dying, thanks to dramas on Netflix and Channel 4.
There were glossy series based on a popular hitman novel from the 1970s and a notorious Californian murder trial from the 1990s.
Documentaries shed new light on an Irish bishop shamed in a sex scandal, an infamous British murder case and one of London's most colourful neighbourhoods.
What were the 30 TV shows that grabbed Pomona's attention this year and where do they rank on our countdown?
Here is our list from 20 to 11.
20. CAMDEN (Disney +)
Think of Camden and you associate the area with breakfast television, fashion and vibrant music venues.
It was the latter that was the focus of this four part documentary series that told the story of the London district and its place in developing musical talent.
A head spinning ensemble of artists from Dua Lipa and Coldplay's Chris Martin to Oasis' Noel Gallagher, Nile Rodgers and Madness's Suggs to Yungblud and Questlove gave their own perspective on the formative influence of the area on their careers.
Celebrating pubs and venues like The Dublin Castle, the Roundhouse, the Jazz Cafe and The Good Mixer, inevitably some episodes were stronger than others and some contributions more entertaining.
Episodes focusing on the Queen of Camden, Amy Winehouse, Coldplay and the Britpop battles between Oasis and Blur may have drawn in the viewers.
However it was the stories of how the area shaped the careers of acts like The Libertines, Faithless, Little Simz and The Roots that really fascinated.
Chris Martin and Dua Lipa's contributions were much more bland in comparison to Pete Doherty, Boy George or Noel Gallagher's tales of reckless behaviour.
But that's always the risk in a talking heads format like this.
Camden may be a "Mecca of misfits" as The Libertines' Carl Baret colourfully describes it but it is also a unique place where gigs in pubs, houses and warehouses helped make the British music industry the vibrant powerhouse that it is and where US artists like Public Enemy also found their mojo.
And for that alone, it deserves to be celebrated.
19. SAY NOTHING (Disney+)
It takes a brave or foolish dramatist to wade into the stormy waters of writing about Northern Ireland's past - especially if they hail from another country.
But that is what Josh Zetumer and Clare Barron did alongside English screenwriter Joe Murtagh and Irish writer director Kirsten Sheridan on FX's 'Say Nothing' - a nine part drama framed around real life figures in the IRA and some of their victims.
Based on the controversial Boston Tapes, the show focused on the rise and fall of the Price Sisters through the ranks of the IRA, the disappearance of Jean McConville and others who fell foul of the Republican Movement and the subsequent guilt of those involved.
Impressively directed by Michael Lennox, Mary Nighy and Anthony Byrne, the limited miniseries was based on New York journalist Patrick Radden Keefe's acclaimed 2018 book and featured powerful turns from Lola Petticrew and Hazel Doupe as Dolours and Marian Price, Anthony Boyle as Brendan 'The Dark' Hughes and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as the same character in later life.
There were strong performances too from Rory Kinnear as the British Army General Sir Frank Kitson, Judith Roddy as Jean McConville, Laura Donnelly as her daughter Helen, Adam Best as another member of "The Disappeared" Joe Lynskey, Josh Finan and Michael Colgan as younger and older versions of Gerry Adams.
However not everything about the show was perfect.
While a lot of time was taken to explore the Price sisters' emergence in Irish republicanism as leading lights in the Provisional IRA, their role in the Old Bailey bombing, their hunger strike and force feeding in prison, later episodes covering Marian's post traumatic stress felt a bit rushed.
The show also wasn't helped by a jarring attempt at a Belfast accent by the normally reliable Maxine Peake as the older Marian Price.
Supporters of Gerry Adams will no doubt be annoyed by the depiction of the former West Belfast MP as a natural politician prepared to tell untruths and sacrifice his principles.
Critics of the IRA also might have qualms about the 'GoodFellas' style depiction of the organisation in the earlier episodes.
However the production also came under sharp criticism from the family of Jean McConville and other relatives of the Disappeared who accused the programme makers of exploiting their loss for entertainment.
While such criticism cannot be ignored, the fact is that if you judge it on its dramatic merits, for seven episodes 'Say Nothing' features some of the most gripping moments on a TV screen this year before descending into something a lot more patchy and disappointing in its final two episodes.
The debate on how the show depicts historical events and whether it should even have been made at all will rumble on beyond 2024.
However one thing is for sure - 'Say Nothing' will not be easily forgotten.
18. TRUELOVE (Channel 4)
2024 was the year that Britain finally engaged with the global debate about assisted dying, with a controversial Private Members' Bill winding its way through the House of Commons.
At the start of the year, Channel 4 showed real foresight airing 'The End of the F**king World' creator Charlie Lovell and Iain Wetherby's provocative six part drama on the subject - even if the debate it should have triggered was somewhat overshadowed by the furore triggered by ITV's 'Mr Bates versus The Post Office' over the Post Office and Fujitsu's handling of the Horizon computer system scandal.
Looking back on 'Truelove' 11 months on, its focus on the moral quandaries around friends asking friends to spare them from suffering by ending their lives at a time of their choosing looks really prescient.
Lindsay Duncan, Clarke Peters, Peter Egan, Sue Johnston and Karl Johnson are perfectly cast as five friends in their senior years who wrestle with the reality of ageing and whether it is more humane to end a person's life if they are facing an illness that robs of them of their dignity towards the end of their lives.
Forcing them to re-evaluate their lives, the decisions the friends in the show make bring them onto the radar of Kiran Sonia Sawar's diligent police officer Ayesha despite their best efforts to cover up their actions.
The pacts formed threaten Duncan's former Assistant Chief Constable Phil's marriage to Phil Davis' Nigel who begins to suspect she is having an affair with Peters' ex soldier Ken but they also raise questions about the motives of one member of the group.
Brilliantly performed by a cast thst also includes Fiona Button, Ben Bailey Smith and Sandra Janes-Young, Egan arguably steals the show in a drama that takes some delicious twists while also occasionally threatening to wobble.
As MPs continue to deliberate on whether the state should allow assisted dying and the parameters in which it should operate if it is sanctioned, you can't help but feel Lovell and Wetherby's show arrived at the right moment and deserves a second look.
17. BREATHTAKING (ITV)
Four years on from the shutting down of nations during the arrival of the COVID pandemic, people across the world are still trying to make sense of it all.
In Britain, the COVID Inquiry has focused on how the machinery of government coped in the face of the pandemic and it has highlighted some serious flaws.
Dramatists have zoned in on the impact too on those whose colleagues and loved ones were impacted by the Coronavirus which in April of this year was estimated to have claimed the lives of seven million people globally.
Some of the TV shows and films made about the pandemic - mostly in Britain - have been of varying quality, though.
Jack Thorne's 2021 care home drama 'Help' with Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham set the standard, shining a light on the crisis that engulfed a British health and social care system that was seriously ill prepared.
Written by Rachel Clarke, 'Line of Duty' creator Jed Mercurio, and 'Ballywalter' director Prassana Puwanarajah, ITV's 'Breathtaking' earned its right to be considered among the best of Britain's TV dramas about the pandemic by being frank and authentic about the challenges NHS doctors and nurses faced in the build-up to lockdown and also at its height.
Based on Clarke's 2021 memoir of the same name, 'Downton Abbey' star Joanne Froggatt turned in a career best performance as consultant Dr Abbey Henderson who finds herself thrust alongside colleagues into the medical frontline, battling a bureaucratic system that is slow and ill equipped to grapple with the Coronavirus.
Shot and acted in a realist style by director Craig Viveiros and his cinematographer John Pardue, the drama benefitted from Clarke and Mercurio's background knowledge as medics and also a committed cast that included Bhav Joshi, Lucy Montgomery, Donna Banya, Philip Arditti and Stephanie Street who did a superb job depicting the trauma that unfolded in the UK's hospital wards.
We await TV dramas and films of similar quality from the US, France, Italy and other countries that shed a light on the challenges their medical professionals and politicians faced elsewhere.
Those will undoubtedly help people learn valuable lessons should a pandemic like this ever happen again.
16. THE DAY OF THE JACKAL (Sky Atlantic/Now TV)
With its bombastic Celeste theme song and slick credits sequence, you could be forgiven for thinking this 10 part Sky Atlantic drama is an elaborate audition tape to make the next James Bond movie.
Based on the Frederick Forsyth novel with an adaptation by 'Top Boy' creator Ronan Bennett and directed with great pancake by Brian Kirk, Anthony Philipson, Paul Wilmshurst and Anu Menon, like the 007 films the show hops between locations in Munich, London, Belfast, Cadiz, Belarus and Budapest (although England, Croatia, Austria and Hungary actually double for some of the locations).
Eddie Redmayne takes on the title role, an assassin for hire whose gunning down of a far right politician in Germany attracts the interest of British intelligence.
Latasha Lynch's MI6 analyst Bianca Pullman deciphers the rifle was British made and through contacts in Belfast soon deduces the manufacturer is a former loyalist paramilitary, Richard Dormer's Norman Stoke.
When an MI6 snatch operation in Belarus to get Stoke goes wrong, it arouses suspicions that someone within MI6 is feeding him information.
At a cost to her own family life, Pullman is nevertheless determined to track down the Jackal whose constant travelling around Europe is also damaging his own marriage to Ursula Corbero's Nuria.
With its thrilling set pieces and twisty plot, the show, which also features episodes written by Jessica Sinyard, Charles Cumming and Shyam Popat, is an entertaining watch.
Redmayne has deservedly landed a Golden Globe nomination as the elusive assassin at the heart of the show.
Lynch is a good nemesis, though, while Dormer, Corbero, Lia Williams, Chukwudi Iwuji, Kate Dickie, Jonjo O'Neill, Patrick O'Kane, Nick Blood and Charles Dance all make strong contributions.
A follow-up season beckons and who can begrudge Redmayne, Lynch and their showrunner Bennett that attempt to go again?
15. LUCAN (BBC2)
Fifty years on from the murder of Sandra Rivett and the subsequent disappearance of the prime suspect Lord Lucan, the case is still gripping a nation.
There have been three TV dramas about the murder in the Lucan family home including a 2016 ITV show starring Rory Kinnear.
Sandra Rivett was the nanny to the peer's children but this three part documentary from Colette Camden is a stunning fresh take on the case which starts out like a sensational 'have we tracked him down?' documentary but actually turns out to be something much more surreal.
Following Hampshire builder Neil Berriman who believes he has tracked down the fugitive from justice, it tells the story of how he discovered with the help of his adopted mother that his real mother was Rivett, triggering a lifelong fascination with the case.
Camden's docuseries takes us on a bizarre journey from Hampshire to Australia and includes drag queens, a fake monk and Dr Timothy Leary along the way.
More questions are raised about the case and how Lucan eluded justice than are answered but what emerges is a fascinating study of one man's obsession with solving a case that refuses to fade away.
14. MONSTERS: THE LYLE AND ERIK MENENDEZ STORY (Netflix)
Ryan Murphy returned this year with another star studded drama ripped from the headlines of yesteryear - in this case, the 1989 murders in LA of Jose and Kitty Menendez.
In their biggest roles to date, Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch shine as Lyle and Erik Menendez who admitted murdering their wealthy parents but claimed they did so because they were the victims of years of sexual abuse.
Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny are also superb as their parents in the twisty nine part drama, while Nathan Lane as the Vanity Fair journalist and author Dominick Dunne, Ari Gaynor as Erik's attorney Leslie Abramson, Dallas Roberts as the boys' therapist Dr Jerome Oziel and Leslie Grossman as his mistress Judalon Smyth turn in strong performances too.
The show has rekindled huge interest in the case and as it unfolds, many viewers will find themselves rocking back and forth between the various theories about the brothers' motives.
Murphy and Ian Brennan's show doesn't pull its punches in its depiction of the highly performative nature of the US courts system and its ability to deliver justice.
The show reminds us that alternative facts existed long before Donald Trump and they still muddy the waters in a case like this, even to this day.
13. BISHOP CASEY'S BURIED SECRETS (RTE 1)
Irish Daily Mail reporter Anne Sheridan and director Birthe Tonseth's jaw dropping RTE documentary cast a disturbing new light on a larger than life figure in the Irish Catholic Church already tainted by scandal.
During the 1970s and 80s, the Bishop of Galway, Dr Eamonn Casey presented himself as a charismatic cleric with the gift of the gab.
However the Kerryman fell from grace when he hit international headlines in 1992 following the revelation that he had fathered a son with an Irish American woman, Annie Murphy.
While the scandal later seemed mild in comparison to the deluge of clerical sexual abuse and mother and baby home scandals that plagued the Church, Irish viewers were stunned to learn this July from Sheridan and Tonseth's 90 minute documentary that they were only the tip of the iceberg.
The programme revealed that in addition to fathering a son, the disgraced Bishop had four allegations of sexual abuse against him - three of them involving the rape of children.
The Church became aware of the first allegation in Limerick in 2001 - 16 years before his death - with two more relating to activities in the 1950s and 60s surfacing in 2005 and 2014.
The diocese made a €100,000 settlement to one victim, while the hierarchy also learned of rumours of affairs with other women.
The Bishop's niece Patricia Donovan was among those who came forward, alleging he abused her from the age of five.
Effectively stood down by the Church in 2007 following the allegations against him in England as well as Ireland and forbidden to say Mass, he nevertheless presided over a number of ceremonies including his sister's funeral.
Even more shockingly, in 2017 the Church authorities allowed his remains to be buried in the crypt of Galway Cathedral.
The programme prompted the Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Simon Harris to condemn the cover-up by the Church of the sex abuse claims against the Bishop and it led to demands for his remains to be removed from the Cathedral.
As well as highlighting disturbing allegations, the programme made a strong case for why solid, thoroughly researched, old fashioned investigative reporting on a public service broadcaster like RTE should be treasured and supported whether in Ireland, Britain or anywhere else in the world.
12. JOAN (ITV)
In what was a strong year for ITV drama, Anna Symon's six part miniseries told the true story of Joan Hannington, an abused woman turned savvy criminal.
'Game of Thrones' star Sophie Turner turns in a barnstorming lead performance as a woman who overcame a loveless childhood and a relationship with an abusive boyfriend but took several wrong paths trying to spare her own daughter a similar fate in life.
Based on Hannington's 2002 memoir 'I Am What I Am,' Joan tries to eke out a legitimate life but struggles to do so.
What she has is an ear and a gift for accents, enabling her to make money by fraudulent means.
But crime doesn't pay and when her daughter is taken into foster care, she struggles to get her back and finds it hard to accept she is actually being given a shot at a better life.
When Joan is not plotting about one day getting Mia Millichamp-Long's Kelly back, she is hatching get rich quick plans with her boyfriend, Frank Dillane's Boisie to thieve paintings and other valuables after successfully stealing diamonds from a jewellery store owner, Alex Blake's slimy Bernard.
Dillane impresses as Boisie along with Blake, Kirsty J Curtis as Joan's sister Nancy, Gershwyn Eustace Jr as Albie a criminal associate and Andrew Tiernan as another, Paul Fine.
But it is Turner who dominates the show with a performance full of heart that still doesn't soft soap the callousness and the foolishness of its central character.
This is a rewarding watch but mostly that is down to Turner's compelling performance.
11.BABY REINDEER (Netflix)
Winner of six Primetime Emmys, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Richard Gadd's semi-autobiographical black comedy drama stirred one hell of a hornet's nest when it landed on Netflix in April.
It sparked an immediate debate about stalking and a social media witch hunt, as members of the public tried to decipher who the woman who stalked Gadd in real life was.
A US lawsuit followed from the woman eventually identified on the basis that the show had defamed her.
Speculation was also rife about the true identity of the television writer who sexually abused Gadd's stand up comedian Donny Dunn in the show, triggering another witch hunt.
Against this backdrop, Gadd won a Best Actor Emmy for his performance as Donny and Jessica Gunning as well for Supporting Actress as Martha, the solicitor with a past whose infatuation grows out of a simple act of kindness from him in the pub where he works.
Nava Mau, Tom Goodman-Hill, Nina Sosanya and Thomas Coombes also impress in various supporting roles.
But what really makes 'Baby Reindeer' stand out is the way it explores the PTSD that some stalking and sexual abuse victims have, with Donny engaging in some risky and often inexplicable behaviour.
This puts the show in the same domain as Michaela Coel's BBC drama 'I Will Destroy You' - although arguably it's not as impressive due to Weronika Tofliska and Josephine Bornebusch's rather safe directing.
Gadd's show is a unique rollercoaster ride and it leaves you a bit disorientated after watching it.
Certainly it will have you thinking about the many issues it raises months after you have watched it and in that respect, it's a job well done.
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