In 1996, the premium cable channel Home Box Office launched a major advertising campaign promoting the idea that you were getting something special when you signed up for the service: The slogan: “It’s not TV, it’s HBO.” Call that fake news — after all, it WAS TV — but it was a great ad campaign and it’s a tagline that resonates to this day. Cut to 2024, and we’re living in an era where we can say, it’s not TV, it’s Netflix and Apple TV+ and Peacock and Prime Video and Disney+ and Max and AMC+ and YouTube and Tubi and Starz and FX on Hulu and Paramount+ with Showtime — and of course we still have HBO and CBS and NBC and ABC and Fox et al.
We have never had so many choices, to the point where it can be overwhelming and create Menu Anxiety. What do I watch! Where do I watch it! How do I watch it! This is one of the reasons why series such as “Friends” and “The Office” and “Seinfeld” continue to perform so well in the perpetual rerun afterlife; while some of the storylines might be dated or even problematic, the humor is still consistent — and when we’re unable to choose something new to watch because it feels like there too many options, we can always default to 22 minutes of comfort viewing. It’s impossible to come close to watching every single new series in any given year, but I try to gobble up as many as I can.
Here’s my Top 10 for 2024. 10. ‘How to Die Alone’ (Hulu) Creator, executive producer and headliner Natasha Rothwell le.
