The Best Shows on Streaming in 2024

Jubilee, Scoop, Trial by Fire, Kohrra, Dahaad, The Night Manager—2023 was a good year for the streaming space. The new-kid-on-the-block medium finally came into its own and brought narrative heft and technical refinement to a formidable mix of stories new and old. So much so that even the more middling offerings would make it tough to pick a top 10. When we sat down to do the same for 2024 and the OTT space, the job became tough for a different reason. Despite the grand architect of elaborate sets on screen, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, making a grand entrance on the streaming scene with Heeramandi, director duo Raj & DK bringing the Citadel universe to India with Honey Bunny, and an adaptation of the South Korean hit Signal (Gyarah Gyarah) coming to the Hindi OTT space—it was, arguably, an assemblage of more misses and less hits. Even so, when it did hit the mark, it gave fans and critics a lot to rave about. We pick our favourites, in no particular order.

IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack

The Anubhav Sinha show told a tale relived numerous times in popular imagination in the years following the 1999 hijack of the eponymous Indian Airlines flight. But it did so with a cast comprising some of the most redoubtable performers from Indian cinema, a director known for stirring takes on real-life incidents and some of the most nuanced depictions of conflict between the black and the white. Intense yet immensely bingeable, IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack invited hugely divisive reactions (around a controversy over the real names of hijackers) following acclaim from both critics and general viewers. Also, Arvind Swamy is back!

Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein S2

Even if Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein remains Tahir Raj Bhasin’s sole claim to fame (though we hope it doesn’t), it should be enough. That’s how enjoyably pulpy and middle-of-the-road noirish this crime thriller set in a small Madhya Pradesh town is. The second season dropped a little while ago, searching further and further into the romantic quagmire shared by Vikrant (Bhasin), Purva (Aanchal Singgh) and Shikha (Shweta Tripathi Sharma). What makes Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein continue to tick is its ability to go dark without weighing heavy on the viewer.

Call Me Bae

Unlike the other names on this list, Call Me Bae was one of this year’s most bingeable shows. Ananya Panday plays Bella, a blissfully naive climber among the rich—who falls upon hard times, relocates to Mumbai, gets a job at a news channel led by a smarmy Arnab knock-off (a superb Vir Das), makes new friends and finds love for real. If you can ignore oversimplified resolutions to serious issues like sexual harassment in the workplace and accept that Mumbai is mostly a friendly bed-and-breakfast with an endless supply of booze and board games—Call Me Bae will be guilty, frothy fun.

Shekhar Home

The very fine Kay Kay Menon plays an idiosyncratic charmer with the smug know-it-all’s airs in this Indian take on the Sherlock Holmes’ omnibus. Also starring Ranvir Shorey (Dr Watson), Rasika Dugal (Irene Adler) and Shernaz Patel as Menon and Shorey’s landlady (based on Mrs Hudson in Doyle’s universe), Shekhar Home, shot across Shantiniketan and Bolpur in West Bengal, doesn’t try too hard to wow you. But it is packed with narrative smarts and twists and turns to keep you busy in the lazy last days of December.

Poacher

Director Richie Mehta (Delhi Crime) delves into the shadowy underbelly of Kerala’s pristine wilderness, exposing the brutal ivory trade, in this stunning Malayalam show backed by Alia Bhatt. Roshan Mathew plays the quietly determined Alan Joseph, a forest officer clashing with the brazen ruthlessness of poachers and Nimisha Sajayan brings gravitas to her part as an environmental activist. Over eight episodes rich with investigative exposition and research, Poacher brings to light the nefarious networks engaged in keeping the ivory trade running, the plight of the animal increasingly under threat in these forests and the personal battles its characters are busy fighting on the sidelines.

Gullak S4

No other TV show had me sobbing as hard as Annu Mishra inching away from his folks during the family photograph at the end of the first season of Gullak. This slice-of-life and sometimes over-the-top drama about the very everyday Mishra family has been a consistent hit for half a decade now. In the fourth season, Annu and Aman (Vaibhav Raj Gupta and Harsh Mayar, respectively) and their parents (Jameel Khan and Geetanjali Kulkarni) navigate a new roster of melodramatic familial troubles, from chain-snatching and the threat of house demolition to the imminent rebellion of adolescence. Let it warm your cockles.

Bandish Bandits S02

In its sophomore season, this musical romantic drama that I binged during the dog days of the pandemic—lands the very notes that worked for season one. But slightly differently. As the trailer reveals, Panditji (Naseeruddin Shah), the patriarch of Jodhpur’s fictitious Rathore gharana, has passed away. A few skeletons tumble out of the closet, new characters enter the scene and old cracks and fault lines are tested afresh. What continues to keep one hooked is the tension between the lead pair (Ritwik Bhowmik and Shreya Chaudhary)—chalk and cheese and yet so in tune with their own pursuits of craft and life.

Freedom at Midnight

Wondering where Sidhant Gupta went after his superb turn in Jubilee and don’t mind a headlong dive into another chapter from history? Freedom at Midnight, starring the actor as a very scrawny Jawaharlal Nehru, could be your next jam. The seven-part series, based on Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins’ famous book of the same name, follows the events that led to India’s independence from British rule. The Nikkhil Advani directorial demonstrates that history isn’t always tedious; it can have hitherto unknown takeaways and benefit from engaging narrativisation.

Brinda

The wild-card entry on this list, Brinda lays bare moral dilemmas and human fallibility. The taut, atmospheric thriller features Trisha Krishnan as a police officer whose pursuit of justice cuts through societal rot. Set in the heart of rural Andhra Pradesh, the series combines the raw intensity of a crime drama with the mystique of local folklore, creating an experience that’s as cerebral as it is visceral. Brinda’s investigation peels back layers of corruption, superstition, and buried secrets, with Trisha’s controlled, commanding performance anchoring the show.