Vulture’s 25 Most-Read TV Recaps of 2024
The shows (and comment sections) our readers couldn’t get enough of.
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What makes a good recap show? That’s something we here at Vulture probably spend more time thinking about than anyone else does or should, but after nearly two decades in the recap biz and many shifts in the TV viewing landscape, we’ve gathered enough data to have a pretty good handle on the answer. As evidenced by our annual roundups of the site’s most popular recaps, readers still flock to shows that release on a weekly cadence rather than as binge releases — although there are always some notable counterexamples, most of them dropped by the big red “N.” That held true in 2024 as well, with both network and streaming shows that released one or two episodes a week composing the majority of our top 25. Returning shows, with their already-developed fan bases, tend to float to the top of the list as well — but once again, there are always outliers, with this year’s top ten featuring two brand-new shows (one of them a binge drop!) that became immediate viewer obsessions, with active comments sections to match.
This is the strange alchemy of recaps, one of the last remaining bastions of watercooler TV in the post-Twitter age: You never know when a show is going to defy the established patterns and break out on the strength of its own distinct qualities. Every year provides a mix of comforting familiarity and surprising variety, on television broadly as well as in the Vulture recaps section specifically. So here is this year’s mix, in celebration of the recap writers and commenters who are committed to continuing the conversation after the credits roll.
25. The Perfect Couple
Season 1, Episode 1: You want to know the exact moment I knew The Perfect Couple was right for me? That we were in for a sudsy beach read in TV form? It was the moment I saw those opening credits. A choreographed group dance number to Meghan Trainor’s “Criminals”? When you get Nicole Kidman and Liev Schrieber to gleefully perform a line dance for a show about secrets and murder, well, we’ve won, okay? Yeah, Nicole Kidman might be the “we come to this place for magic” lady, but she is also a fucking Academy Award winner; the woman commits, and it’s clear she is committing to this vibe. A vibe that says we are here to entertain. A vibe that says, “Yes, someone is dead and everyone is a suspect, but we are having fun.” And if that’s not your particular vibe, not to be mean, but you should get off this ride. Read the recaps ➼
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24. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Season 2, Episode 8: Inside Celebrimbor’s workshop, Sauron has decided to use the smith for target practice. Sauron promises his captive a swift death in return for information about the rings, but that’s not an appealing enough offer for Celebrimbor, who tells Sauron that he’ll never get the rings and that he should consider pounding sand (but in much more flowery terms). Then he goads Sauron into killing him with a string of insults he concludes by saying the rings will be Sauron’s ruin and mockingly calling him the “Lord of the Rings.” (That’s a catchy title. Someone should use it.) When the orcs arrive, he’s crying, though it’s not clear whether Celebrimbor’s insults hit home or if he genuinely feels bad about killing him. He quickly puts emotions aside, however, and sets about charming the orcs he wants to bring to his side. Read the recaps ➼
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23. RuPaul’s Drag Race
Season 16, Episode 16: I suppose I should talk about Plane’s episode as well. I’ll say this: She’s extremely talented, she was the main character of the season, and she did a great job performing her number. “Bodysuit” is funny and silly and entertaining all the way through. Her facial expressions in that number, along with how well she hid the reveal, show her to be a world-class queen. Still, no part of me was surprised when she got cut. In the performance, there was a strand of hair getting in her face that was a persistent issue (that kind of detail matters in the finale), but most damning was her inability to take the interview portion seriously. She never fully let her guard down and got serious. Is that a requirement for a good drag queen? Maybe not, but it is a requirement on Drag Race. Taken in combination with her interview from last week, it’s no surprise that she was not Drag Race’s version of America’s Next Drag Superstar. Read the recaps ➼
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22. Yellowstone
Season 5, Episode 14: The best thing that I can say about the series (?) finale of Yellowstone is that it’s bad in a comfortable, predictable way, rather than bad in a way that makes you feel like you’re going insane. Sure, there’s one last bit of Taylor Sheridan self-gratification in the first ten minutes, as everyone gathers around and laughs heartily at one last wacky story from Travis. But there’s nothing as brain-breaking as last week’s extended Travis segment. Then again … you ideally want to feel something when you’re watching the (most likely) last episode of a show, don’t you? Read the recaps ➼
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21. The Bachelor
Season 28, Episode 11: It has been a minute since I’ve had to watch the bizarre ritual of a Live Most Dramatic Ever Bachelor Finale. I forgot about all the longing looks off balconies in Tulum. I forgot about all the moments where the ladytestants hold their dresses up to their face like they’re doing the most busted color analysis in the world. Am I a Winter? Or a Bright Spring? Or a Neutral Jovani? I forgot about the moment when one ladytestant produces her own Bachelorette audition tape and completely hijacks the most unabashedly romantic proposal we’ve seen in years. Wait … that last one doesn’t sound right. Read the recaps ➼
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20. Dark Matter
Season 1, Episode 8: I’m deducting one full star for the absence of a cold open in an episode that clearly demands one, but otherwise this installment is pretty damn good, delivering fully on the premise the prior episode’s concluding scene teased: The conflict is no longer Jason A — or Jason One, as one of them refers to, uh, themselves in this episode — vs. Jason B. It’s a whole bunch of Jasons A (a flock of Jasons? A school of Jasons? A murder of Jasons?) who have branched off from the one Jason B abducted and exiled to a foreign universe about a month ago in story-time, versus the one Jason B. Read the recaps ➼
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19. Survivor
Season 47, Episode 4: Another episode and another 90 minutes dealing with an annoying, unnecessary, and frustrating preoccupation. No, I’m not talking about idol hunting; I’m talking about whatever the hell is going on with Rome, the sort of terrible player who is emboldened by the new era. But before we get to him, let’s talk about idol hunting. At the start of the episode, Gabe is talking about how he wants to work with someone just like Sue, an older woman and a mother. We see her lie about her age, saying she’s 45 rather than 58. They know she’s a grandmother, I’m just not sure how that math is mathing or that biology is biology-ing, but they seem to have bought it. Read the recaps ➼
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18. Presumed Innocent
Season 1, Episode 8: A courtroom drama operates somewhat like a sports match: The defense and prosecution teams are looking to score points against each other. Even Tommy puts it in those terms. “He beat me,” he tells Nico as his friend urges him to move on from this one defeat. However, there is another, higher level of competition in the legal-thriller industry. The story’s actors, writers, producers, and directors aim to outscore the audience, our theories and instincts. And regardless of how artfully it was done, I will say this: They got me. Read the recaps ➼
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17. 3 Body Problem
Season 1, Episode 1: The stakes still aren’t totally defined by the end of this pilot: We’re starting to get to know these people and what they’re dealing with, but the whole web of mysteries is so amorphous and free-floating at this stage that the show hasn’t quite achieved a sense of real momentum yet. But there’s more than enough to enjoy here if you can swallow the physics babble and just roll with the trippy sci-fi horror grounded by an unusual historical angle. If this show ends up prioritizing existential thrills over visceral action, that’s fine by me. Read the recaps ➼
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16. The Real Housewives of New Jersey
Season 14, Episode 13: This is the way the show ends, not with a bang but with a whimper. That whimper was Jackie Goldschneider as she tottered to her car, waiting to turn a corner because the opposite side of the epic battle of New Jersey was waiting around the corner and would curse her out for her behavior. Yes, this is the epic finale that has been hyped since the first trailer dropped for the season, but it didn’t seem epic. It seemed … the same. The same grinding of gears, the same talking in circles, the same hatred from the same people in the same direction. I mean, it was great reality television, but it is absolutely the end of the road for these women. Read the recaps ➼
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15. Summer House
Season 8, Episode 15: This conclusion was amazing because it wasn’t about the bust-up, it wasn’t about what we knew was going to happen, it was about some deeper miracle that motivated the women in this house to unite. This is about acceptance, this is about being a family, this is about loving someone in distress more than hating them for petty reasons. It also made me a little bit pissed that the cameras didn’t follow the whole crew to Mexico for what should have been Lindsay’s wedding trip. I wanted them to go full Sex and the City with Ciara sleeping with a bellhop and Gabby shitting her bathing suit because she wouldn’t drink the Mexican water or whatever nonsense Charlotte got up to. Read the recaps ➼
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14. The Boys
Season 4, Episode 8: So a messy but compelling season ends with a vision of America that is not so different from what was recently outlined in Project 2025. At this point in the show, the satire might not have the same punch as it did in the first couple of seasons, but even now, The Boys’s idea of dystopia still feels painfully familiar. Read the recaps ➼
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➼ Bonus recap! Don’t miss Keith Phipps’s weekly ranking of The Boys’s grossest behavior.
13. Love Is Blind
Season 6, Week 2 (episodes 7–9): Since day one, Laura has emphasized how important cleanliness is to her. But since Jeramey’s place — complete with a “More espresso, less depresso” sign — is so organized that it’s “giving serial-killer vibes,” she’s got room to focus on a different issue. Namely, Sarah Ann, who DM’d Jeramey to say she’d love to meet him “if there’s ever a chance” his mind is “shifting” in his choice. Bold! Laura isn’t happy that he double-tapped the message to like it. She brings this up when her family visits, but they actually are mostly on Jeramey’s side. In general, they just seem relieved that he can put up with Laura’s … unique personality. Read the recaps ➼
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12. The Real Housewives of Orange County
Season 18, Episode 1: God bless Shannon Beador. She has never had a good season on this show. Not even once. She’s either getting thrown out of Heather Dubrow’s house, getting cheated on, seeing a trainer who says “Wow” when he weighs her, having David break up with her again, alienating and realienating everyone around her. Yet she comes back. Although all common decency tells her not to, she returns, like the swallows at Capistrano or a herpes infection. Shannon always comes back. We thank her for her service and hope she never smartens up. Read the recaps ➼
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11. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City
Season 4, Episode 16: These are the awards Heather Gay should receive not only for her meticulous investigation but for crafting an iconic reveal: an Honorary Primetime Emmy Award, a Peabody, the J.D. Power & Associates Award, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, a CFDA Award, Elle’s Women in Hollywood Icon Award, and the Nobel Peace Prize. Read the recaps ➼
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10. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
Season 13, Episode 10: Now, onto our final convo, and boy, is it a doozy. Yes, it’s Garcelle and Dorit’s sit-down about race. First, let us say that it is a chic-off between these two. Dorit is giving me classic Yale prep with a sweater over a colored shirt, and Garcelle is giving me a winter-white editor’s cape over a chic black-and-white-patterned top. If you’re going to have an awkward conversation, you might as well look amazing doing it. And boy, does it start off awkward. It wasn’t just crickets between these two; it was a plague of locusts. You could cut the tension with a Hermès place setting. Read the recaps ➼
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9. Industry
Season 3, Episode 8: “Money tames the beast. Money is peace. Money is civilization. The end of the story is money.” So says Eric, quoting a Denis Johnson story called “The Largesse of the Sea Maiden.” … It’s a moment where I think we’re watching Eric talk to the traders, sure, but mostly, he’s talking to himself. Here is a man trying to steel himself after a midlife crisis, after the institution he has dedicated his entire working life to nearly crumbled. Ken Leung is stunning in this scene, delivering lines that I philosophically might disagree with in a way that makes one want to nod along and say, “Amen.” And the traders agree. Eric’s speech gets everyone through troubled waters. They live to see another day, even as Eric looks stunned and a little bewildered in the empty amphitheater after the speech is over. Read the recaps ➼
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8. Fallout
Season 1, Episode 1: The episode leaves the best until last. It’s the Ghoul, baby! That’s a rotting Walton Goggins (Ghoulgins, heh) in a cowboy hat, minus a nose, with a fierce trigger finger and Eastwoodian proclivity for scowling. Buried alive by some Big Cheese he’d pissed off, he’s pulled out of the mud by a trio of bounty hunters who seek his services in tracking down the aforementioned Enclave runaway, who has a retirement-level bounty on his head. He chews the scenery for a bit and blows a guy’s head off — it’s an instant win. Read the recaps ➼
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7. Vanderpump Rules
Season 11, Episode 15: The real dialectic here is that Ariana only considers her real life and Sandoval only considers the show. I think that, for these reality-television professionals, the only way forward is somewhere in between all real-life boundaries and all show theatrics. It’s not leaving everything on-camera, like Lala says; it’s not doing everything that’s good for your life, like Katie says. It’s a balance. It’s in between. But that is an ideal world in which everyone thinks these things out in advance and plans them. Reality TV is much messier — it’s people trying to live through the worst moments of their lives in public as we watch and judge them for it. It’s real-time reactions to real-life problems that we then sit around and consider as if they happen in an ideal world cut off from emotion. Read the recaps ➼
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6. Saturday Night Live
Season 50, Episode 2: Bargatze has quickly returned as a conquering hero. If he was at all surprised this time around that a single prior appearance may have vaulted him to the John Mulaney–level of hosting once a season even if he doesn’t necessarily have anything to plug, well, it certainly didn’t seem that way. Then again, one of Bargatze’s greatest assets is that it’s hard to tell what’s going on beneath that impenetrable veneer. Seldom has a comedian’s affect seemed so directly in conflict with the thrust of their material. Is he nervous? Amused with himself? Having the time of his life? Who’s to say. Read the recaps ➼
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5. Bridgerton
Season 3, Episode 8: Then, Penelope attends Francesca and John’s sweet little wedding ceremony in the Bridgerton drawing room. This means that not only is she privy to the toast of the century — seriously, where does John Stirling, president of the Wainscoting Fan Club, get off making us all weep with his lovely words about Violet Bridgerton? How dare you, sir — but she is once again reminded of how lovely the Bridgerton family is. They have been so warm and welcoming to her for so many years, and she is about to fuck their shit up big time. She just can’t do it. Read the recaps ➼
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4. The Bear
Season 3, Episode 1: Carmy’s whole culinary career has gotten him to where we find him now, unable to sleep after family and friends night and churning out what seems to be a whole new menu. (That’s a guess based on the trailer.) That’s unsustainable and, frankly, annoying for diners, but it’s also a sign that Carmy is flailing. The Bear is barely open and already he’s looking ahead to the next step. They don’t even have their feet under them in terms of service and he’s already trying to get a Michelin star. While you could make the argument that good, boundary-pushing restaurants probably do think about these kinds of things from day one, they’re also (hopefully) run by crack teams of people who aren’t leveraged to the hilt with stolen money or who desperately need therapy of literally any kind to deal with decades of emotional trauma. (And I’m not just talking about Carmy, either.) Read the recaps ➼
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3. True Detective: Night Country
Season 4, Episode 1: It’s hard at the start of a crime series to tell what’s going to be important later, even more so with True Detective, which doesn’t just focus on solving a crime but unlocking the psyches of the people solving it and the character of the place where a thing this awful could happen. How did Liz become the hard woman we meet in episode one? Leah offers up a clue, obliquely suggesting that her father was killed in a drunk-driving incident like the one they witnessed earlier that day. But something has undeniably been shaken open in Liz. She refuses to engage with Leah on the subject, but asleep at night, she loses her grip. She dreams about a small boy whispering, “Mommy,” his hand on her shoulder. She hears that same menacing incantation from Tsalal: “She’s awake.” Read the recaps ➼
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2. House of the Dragon
Season 2, Episode 8: War is like the horizon on House of the Dragon, receding no matter how (and how many times) you approach it. I’m so primed for battle at this point that I’m rooting against Alicent’s last-gasp plea for peace. Burn the innocents! Sink the recently rechristened Queen Who Never Was! This series’ most persistent flaw is that it is forever pulling back when it should run headlong, saving “story” for some imaginary later, taking for granted that we’ll keep tuning in. It’s so afraid of running out of gas that it never dares to floor it, which is especially damning for a show that insists its protagonists are reckless, twitchy, dangerous. We already know that the Targaryen tapestry being woven by an invisible hand in the opening credits will end up torn and tattered, the family and its dragons needlessly circling the drain of extinction. At some point, you have to show us. Read the recaps ➼
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➼ Bonus recap! Don’t miss Brian Grubb’s weekly House of the Dragon scorecard.
1. Shōgun
Season 1, Episode 10: There are two ways of looking at “A Dream of a Dream.” It can be seen as an anticlimax, one that offers only a fleeting glimpse of the battle that will bring Toranaga to power. (It is called Shōgun. It would have to end with that outcome, even if the James Clavell novel that serves as the source material wasn’t based on historical fact.) From another, and I suspect this will be the way most viewers who’ve stuck with the show will see it, it’s the finale the series needs, one more concerned with its characters and the overarching story of how nations get made than sword-clanging action (not that Shōgun has lacked that either). Read the recaps ➼
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