More Romance, Less Brand Extension: Primetimer's Wish List for TV in 2024

The Group Chat is where Primetimer staffers and contributors share everything from first impressions to warring opinions on TV's biggest moments. Because everyone needs a group chat.

Danette Chavez: The end of the year is nigh, along with the end of "list season," thank god. We switched up our approach to ranking the best shows of 2023, opting to continue the juried or committee approach we took in rounding up our favorite shows of the year in the summer. And I think it was the right move — we had a great discussion about what our picks said about our own tastes and the broader TV landscape.

There was the added bonus of getting a jump on our new year's resolutions, and I thought we could keep that going. There's no telling just how the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes will affect TV in 2024, but I think we have to be prepared for anything.

Joe Reid: The last time there was a major WGA strike, in 2007-08, there was a kind of legend that grew up around what that meant for the TV landscape in the aftermath. Cancellations got blamed on the strike (sorry, Pushing Daisies fans, I should have included a trigger warning), Breaking Bad took another whole season to break out, et cetera. I’m not sure that’s going to be as much of a problem this time around, because it’s much more common these days for shows to take irregular hiatuses. Will we even notice if it’s 18 months before a new season of The Last of Us?

But if I’m making some new-year resolutions when it comes to TV, I think I’m going to start with letting go of the old. I think I’m finally done with Grey’s Anatomy. Ellen Pompeo is done, and while the door is open for Meredith to return, I doubt she will. I still mostly like the characters who remain, but I think the COVID season broke me, and the show I loved for so long ended somewhere amid that dark and depressing season.

DC: And just as I was starting to consider starting Grey's Anatomy! (I've watched the odd episode, but no real arcs.) Because if there's anything to take away from the Suits Awakening of 2023, it's that people want to watch a show with a backlog — one that lets them live with characters a while.

JR: And Grey’s certainly has a backlog! Honestly, watching a new generation re-experience the season where Izzy has sex with a ghost (The Walking Dead’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan, no less) would be worth whatever separation anxiety I go through this year.

DC: I will join you in giving up on the old by finally giving up on passively watching Law & Order reruns as they pop up on WeTV.

Claire Spellberg Lustig: “Be prepared for anything” is definitely how I’m approaching television in 2024. In many ways, this year felt like the end of an era — awards favorites like Succession and Ted Lasso ended, and we may finally be on the other side of Peak TV — but I’m excited about the possibilities for what’s ahead: new voices and new ideas, for starters.

This year saw an overwhelming number of adaptations hit the small screen, but with a few notable exceptions (The Last of Us, Percy Jackson and the Olympians), the vast majority either lacked the urgency of their source material, or hit the major beats of the original without adding anything new. While I obviously don’t have the power to call for an outright moratorium on book-to-TV adaptations, I’d love to see some more true “originals” next year — or at the very least, I’d like for creators to offer somewhat of a unique perspective as they translate the material from page to screen.

JR: Over-reliance on intellectual property — and thus running out of new ideas — is what’s caused the movie industry to hit such a snag right now, so I hear this loud and clear. It’s why I was so grateful that creative minds like Rian Johnson and Damon Lindelof were able to use their clout to bring forward original visions like Poker Face and Mrs. Davis. Even if Poker Face hearkened back to procedurals of old like The Rockford Files, there’s something genuinely new and interesting in the way it reinterprets that style for a modern audience, and gave Natasha Lyonne an opportunity to relish the role she was born to play: Columbo with better hair.

CSL: I do think there’s something to be said for your point about living with characters for a while, Danette. We’ve gotten so used to 10- or 12-episode seasons that we forget how enjoyable it can be to spend 20-plus hours with a group of characters — which is why I’m excited for Abbott Elementary to return for Season 3 in February (even if it is a shortened season). I’m particularly interested to see how the show navigates Janine (Quinta Brunson) and Gregory’s (Tyler James Williams) relationship moving forward, because theirs might be one of the last true will-they/won’t-theys on network TV.

DC: Oh, that's a great resolution we can suggest to TV writers: bring back the will-they/won't-they! And, if you're not going to do that more broadly, then someone please rescue The Company You Keep. Network TV needs romance!

JR: To that same end, in terms of personal TV viewing strategy, I’m making a resolution to not just give up on ever catching up on a show because too many seasons have gone by. This is the year I’m going to dive into shows like Derry Girls and Slow Horses. Big backlogs of episodes don’t have to be daunting, they can instead be an opportunity to lose myself in a show. I always complain about how a binge release gives me two good days to speed through a season and then it’s over, and I feel empty about it. Slow-watching Slow Horses in 2024!

CSL: I fully support you in your Derry Girls viewing journey!

DC: I do worry that the IP wave is just going to keep on cresting. There's a Billions universe on the way; a Harry Potter show, for some reason; and so many other signs that programmers are leery of green lighting shows that don't have a built-in audience.

This has been the case for a while, of course — I can't recall a time before I started covering TV when critics weren't despairing over the lack of support for original ideas. Because that's an important distinction to make — the original ideas are out there, they're just not getting the same backing or consideration.

JR: After a year where TV executives at the highest level could not stop antagonizing the talent — Bob Iger’s numerous ill-considered statements during the strike; David Zaslav’s tone deafness and his inability to stop canceling films and TV shows in production — I wonder if the IP is the only thing that CEOs can’t alienate. Because, as trite as it sounds, it’s the talent who are going to be the ones to pull us out of this IP morass, if indeed we ever are to be pulled out of it.

CSL: Absolutely — and it’s not that I’m against every adaptation or spin-off coming down the pipeline. (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, I’m ready for you!) But I don’t think it’s a coincidence that as IP has taken over television, I’ve found myself watching more unscripted content, from new competition shows like The Traitors to cult documentaries and true-crime series galore. It often feels like there’s more excitement coming from the unscripted end of the spectrum — even if I have issues with how some of these docuseries, like Waco: The Aftermath and Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife, treat their subjects with kiddie gloves.

DC: Well, that's another way we can do our part: Make sure we keep on highlighting smaller releases and more inventive series. I look forward to shows like The Acolyte and The Regime with as much excitement as Moonflower Murders and the return of Somebody Somewhere.

JR: Here’s where I pledge that for every IP brand extension I rave about — there were some great ones this year like Amazon’s Dead Ringers remake or, to my great shock and amusement, Squid Game: The Challenge — I will do my part to sit somebody down in front of Somebody Somewhere.

DC: I'll be right there with you, or maybe just here in Chicago telling people to watch Hightown already.

CSL: And for all our griping, 2024 may actually be off to a better start than we’re giving it credit for: Michelle Yeoh kicks some serious butt in The Brothers Sun, which comes out just a few days into January.

JR: And to round out my “follow the talent” exhortation, I can say that the best decision I made all year in 2023 was in following Shea Serrano, whose writing I always loved on sites like Grantland, to his first TV show in Freevee’s Primo, which was my favorite comedy all year.

CSL: While we’re on the topic of creatives who deserve our attention, I’d love to see Single Drunk Female’s Sofia Black-D’Elia get a chance to show off her range next year. Her performance as recovering alcoholic Sam Fink remains one of my favorites of 2023: She seamlessly flips from comedy to drama and back again, and her interplay with on-screen mom Ally Sheedy is so fun, yet so biting. Freeform unceremoniously canceled SDF after two seasons, but I can’t wait to see what’s next for the talented actor.

JR: I feel similarly about Ryan J. Haddad, who has shown in the back half of A Murder at the End of the World that he’s got depth in addition to some snap-quick gay-millennial snark. Haddad is also a playwright and one of unfortunately few disabled actors who have been cast in major TV roles, and every time I see him in something, I’m ready to see more.

DC: More than anything, I would like the TV industry and viewers to shake off the vise-like hold of "nice" comedies like Ted Lasso and Shrinking. TV comedies are an expansive lot, but in the last several years — really, since Schitt's Creek took off on Netflix — they’ve become way too focused on comforting viewers. The Curse and I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson showed just how discomfiting a comedy can be while never letting the humor slip fully away, so I hope we continue to see similar balancing acts in 2024. Maybe Curb Your Enthusiasm's returning (and leaving) at just the right time.

JR: The most unsettling thing Larry David could ever do would be to return with the “nice” season of Curb…

CSL: Or, on the flip side, Ted Lasso comes back for a surprise fourth season featuring Nathan Fielder. Actually… I’d probably watch that.

All jokes aside, I don’t think it’s asking too much for television — scripted and unscripted — to go a little harder in 2024. Give us unlikable characters, ask the tough questions, resist the urge to tie up storylines in a neat bow. Viewers can handle it, I swear!

JR: Be ambitious! Some of the best TV I saw in 2023 came from filmmaking talent who don’t currently have an outlet in the film landscape. Lorene Scafaria on Succession, Janizca Bravo on Poker Face, Ramy Youssef on The Bear, Karyn Kusama on Dead Ringers. There are visionary directors out there ready to do something different on your TV shows.

DC: And if all else fails, I will settle for at long last cutting the cord.