Our pick for Netflix’s 2024 top series

This has been quite a year for Netflix. The streaming giant cemented its dominant position in the ongoing streaming wars, pouring billions into original programming. Much like life though, not everything can be a success. Some were huge misses; some were ok, and some were phenomenal. For the last column of the season, we are taking a look back at the best shows/movies Netflix served up in 2024.

Godzilla: Minus One

The ongoing Godzilla movie series has been getting progressively dumber and dumber, reaching a point where the plot can easily be summed up as “giant lizard punches giant monkey!” But that’s because those movies are made by an American studio.

Japan, on the other hand, has a significantly different take on Godzilla, an allegory for the nuclear disaster. For the Japanese, Godzilla is a reminder of one of the most horrific acts of criminal warfare that ever took place. It is a reminder of pain and suffering. And Godzilla: Minus One is a perfect encapsulation of that point of view.

Set in post-war Japan, this film dives deep into the societal and emotional aftermath of a nation grappling with destruction, only to face the terror of Godzilla’s wrath. The movie follows a young deserter kamikaze pilot traumatised by an early encounter with a monster in an encounter that decimated every other man at his base. The pilot goes on to live in a post-war Japan under the constant threat of the monster. Enraged that the government failed to deal with the threat, the pilot decides to do something about it.

Arcane Season 2

Based on the lore surrounding the popular MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) League of Legends, everyone thought Arcane would be a disaster. Everyone was then pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a heartfelt, action-packed animated series that both respected the source material and made it easy for people who had never heard of, let alone played, the game, to get right into it.

After a two-year wait, Season 2 picks up where the first left off, delving deeper into the fractured relationship between sisters Vi and Jinx while expanding on the political intrigue and magical innovations of the fantastical world they inhabit. The art style is unique, the animation cutting edge and the story-telling is gripping, filled with emotionally charged moments and complex character arcs.

The Gentlemen

I’ll be honest with you, I did not see this series coming. Guy Ritchie’s style has been quite outdated for some time and I thought The Gentlemen, a spin-off based on a 2019 movie of the same name, would just be a filler, a job Ritchie picked up to get in on that Netflix money.

The Gentlemen was much better than that. Seriously, just give the pilot episode a try and I guarantee you will be hooked by the outlandish, bizarre final scene. And that’s just the pilot. It follows a new ensemble of characters navigating the high-stakes world of British organised crime. The series tells the story of Edward, the second son of a duke who unexpectedly inherits both the title and his father’s estate. Upon learning how his father managed to keep the estate afloat (by allowing criminals to grow cannabis away from prying eyes) Edward decides to enter the drug game.

This series is classic Guy Ritchie. British to a fault, fast-paced, action-packed and bordering on the absurd.

Baby Reindeer

Yet another series we did not see coming but it took the world by storm. It’s the mostly true story of its creator Richard Gadd, a struggling comic who has hit a wall professionally and personally, wallowing in self-pity, drugs, meaningless sex and depression.

So, when he meets a woman who showers him with attention and compliments, Richard is initially glad but that joy soon turns sour. The woman turns out to be mentally unstable and begins to stalk Richard by sending him thousands of texts and harassing both him and everyone near him. Soon his life turns into a living nightmare made even worse by the shocking revelation halfway through the story.

It’s both harrowing and thought-provoking, exploring themes of obsession, vulnerability and the blurred lines of victimhood.

Ripley

Finally, my favourite series this year on Netflix, one that I thoroughly enjoyed watching, was the fresh adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s classic anti-hero, Tom Ripley.

Ripley offers a modern take on the cunning con artist, blending suspense with a deep dive into Ripley’s morally ambiguous psyche. Andrew Scott stars as Tom Ripley, a two-bit hustler in New York in the 60s, who manages to con his way into the social circle of a wealthy businessman. The elderly man tasks Ripley with travelling to Italy to persuade his carefree son Dickie to come back home.