When it comes to the kinds of stories that Hollywood was willing to bet money on, 2024 was a year dominated by franchises. If you look at the most successful films of the year at the American box office, the only film in the top ten that wasn’t a sequel was Wicked, but even that one was dependent on referencing a story you were already familiar with.

Disney and Warner Bros. were the most risk-averse and therefore the most egregious in this regard. For example, WB released follow-ups to Dune, Godzilla vs. Kong, Mad Max: Fury Road, Beetlejuice, Joker and The Lord of the Rings all in one year (while relegating Clint Eastwood’s critically acclaimed drama Juror No. 2 to their streaming service Max). Some of these films were more successful than others. Dune Part II and Godzilla x Kong were massive hits while Furiosa and Joker: Folie à Deux were massive bombs. But that does little to sway film studios from their misguided notion that franchises are automatically less risky than original films. Meanwhile Disney’s only wide releases in 2024 were Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, Moana 2, Mufasa, The First Omen, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Alien: Romulus, and similarly their one original film Young Woman and the Sea was only given a limited theatrical release. Not that the other major studios were that much better. Paramount also played it safe with A Quiet Place: Day One, Transformers One, Smile 2, Gladiator II and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 while Sony tried to appeal to people’s nostalgia with Ghostbusters, Garfield and Bad Boys and continued stumbling their way through the Marvel Universe with weak films like Madame Web, Venom: The Last Dance and Kraven the Hunter.

The most frustrating thing to me about Hollywood’s franchise fever is that when the occasional original film does get released, they either make it a streaming original like Juror No. 2, they give it a limited release like Young Woman and the Sea, or worst of all, they promote it heavily and treat it like a mainstream release but it bombs anyway because audiences don’t want it, like what happened with Paramount’s imaginary friend fantasy IF, Sony’s Harold and the Purple Crayon, Fly Me to the Moon and Saturday Night, and Universal’s The Fall Guy and Argylle, although Matthew Vaughn’s spy comedy might have had a fighting chance if it were a better movie that wasn’t getting absolutely trashed by critics. The only two original non-franchise films to really succeed on a blockbuster level in 2024 were Sony’s romantic drama It Ends with Us and DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot, although the huge success of Wicked does give me hope that maybe studios will stop treating live-action musicals like box office poison, but only time will tell how significant that moment was.

I’m not trying to say all franchise films are automatically bad. I loved Transformers One, Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 a lot. But this year, it kind of surprised me how many of the films I loved the most were original films from the likes of indie studios and I found plenty that made a huge impact on me, so despite the heavy emphasis on franchises from the big studios, the year was far from boring if you knew where to look.

As for the television shows and video games of 2024, thankfully many of those have also managed to surprise me. Longform serial narratives and interactive entertainment were at their peak in terms of creativity, despite those two industries having their own share of risk-averse corporate overlords. Even franchise-based shows like X-Men ’97 and The Penguin exceeded my expectations, while many of my favorite video games put new twists on old formulas with memorable results. Although I’m well aware that many things about the video game industry have gotten worse behind the scenes. According to Kotaku, over 14,000 people in the video game industry got laid off in 2024, and other ugly stories involving Game Pass, the PS5 Pro, Game Informer and the mishandling of the ambitious but short-lived PC game Concord also ticked me off. But amidst all that ugliness, many game developers shined through with passion and innovation.

But what exactly were these movies, series and games that I loved so much? Time to find out as I share my list of the best entertainment of the year.

Ted

Seth MacFarlane’s TV series adaptation of his 2012 film about an alcohol-drinking, pot-smoking teddy bear with a Boston accent not only made me laugh with its ridiculous plots and dumb jokes but it often went in directions that I did not expect. This series pays homage to old-fashioned comedies of the past while simultaneously subverting the genre in ways that are sometimes downright insane. Which is something I used to love about MacFarlane’s other series Family Guy before that show got less funny. Thankfully Ted proves MacFarlane has not lost his edge.

I Saw the TV Glow – Eli’s Favorite Movie of 2024

Last year I said Nimona was one of the best queer allegories I had ever seen in cinema. I Saw the TV Glow currently holds the top spot on that list. Jane Schoenbrun’s existential drama starts out as a movie about two kids bonding over their mutual love for a TV show, but once the sci-fi kicks in, it becomes something a lot deeper, a lot more heart-wrenching and a lot more compelling. It’s also my favorite film of the year so it obviously also touched me pretty deeply (I’m sure the nostalgic ’90s vibes also had something to do with that). It feels like a movie made for transgender people, but it’s so layered that really anyone can enjoy it. It’s been months since I watched this and I still can’t stop thinking about it. And I’ll also never read the sentence “There’s Still Time” the same way ever again.

Thelma

I liked the premise of this movie before I even watched it. Basically June Squibb plays a grandmother who hunts down the internet scam artists who pretended to be her grandson and scammed her out of ten grand. That’s a revenge tale I can get behind, but what really made me love this was its satirical Mission: Impossible influence, which it wears on its sleeve in clever and funny ways.

Hundreds of Beavers

Basically a live-action Looney Tunes cartoon and a perfect example of how silent comedy is timeless. I don’t know where the filmmakers behind this movie came from and why they are such slapstick comedy geniuses, but this is one of the most unique and hilarious films I’ve seen all year and it gave me hope that creativity is not dead.

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore

Seth Fulkerson’s homage to the notorious 1993 CD-i games Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon (which were not made by Nintendo) takes the most unintentionally hilarious things about both of those hugely derided games and makes a spiritual successor that is actually a full-on absurdist comedy. Fulkerson actually previously made unofficial remakes of the CD-i Zelda games, but he immediately made them unavailable to download to avoid getting sued by Nintendo. Perhaps Arzette‘s most impressive feat is redeeming the existence of games that many gamers would rather pretend do not exist.

Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin

All Peanuts fans know about the character Franklin, but we never really got to know much about him. This animated Apple TV+ special seeks to rectify that by giving us Franklin’s origin story in a way that cleverly retcons the Peanuts comic strip by explaining the reason why people know so little about him. The story is heartfelt and as usual the Peanuts cast is impossible not to love.

Shōgun – Eli’s Favorite Series of 2024

I was hyped for this historical drama long before the series finally premiered on FX and Hulu so I knew I would love it, but I had no idea it would be this good. Even though the Japanese Edo period is ripe for fascinating stories, I could have easily gotten bored watching this or lost in the political drama and the large amount of characters were this in the hands of less talented filmmakers, but what saved this and kept me hooked were the three main characters: Lord Toranaga, the warlord at the center of the power struggle, John Blackthorne the English sailor who is held captive by Toranaga, and Lady Mariko who serves as the translator between the two. I found this just as addictive as Game of Thrones, which is another political drama that similarly hooked me with its great characters.

Iwájú

Everyone’s talking about Moana 2 this year but that wasn’t the only thing Walt Disney Animation Studios produced. Made in collaboration with Kugali Media, this Disney+ miniseries set in a futuristic version of Lagos, Nigeria didn’t take the world by storm the way X-Men ’97 and Agatha All Along did, and to be fair it follows a pretty familiar formula, but it’s fun, the characters are likable, the animation is good and the filmmakers at Kugali were given a lot of creative freedom by Disney to tell an ambitious story that felt true to the spirit of Lagos. This was Walt Disney Animation’s first full series and based on how much I enjoyed it, I hope they make more series in the future.

X-Men ’97

As the title suggests, this picks up exactly where X-Men: The Animated Series left off back in the nineties and thanks to the move from Fox Kids to Disney+, the writers are given much more creative freedom, and the result is a show that pushes the boundaries of drama and the themes of bigotry into much more mature territory, which in my opinion makes this even better than the original series.

The People’s Joker

If you asked me if I liked a Joker movie this year, I would say yes, but it might not be the Joker movie you’re thinking of. This indie movie by Vera Drew that satirizes the DC Universe (and pop culture in general) as it tells a funny and surprisingly authentic story about a transgender woman trying to make it in the world of comedy is avant-garde and very low-budget, but it also has a lot of humor and charm, and the movie’s rebellious, underground spirit is perfectly in tune with the protagonist herself.

The Substance

This might be the body horror film of all body horror films. An aging celebrity (Demi Moore) desperately clinging to her youth by injecting a mysterious substance into her veins is an intriguing enough premise, but this ends up going in some wild directions that were creepy, crazy and sometimes weirdly relatable. This takes “It’s hard to be a middle-aged woman in show business” to a whole other level.

Ultraman: Rising

This animated entry in the Ultraman series takes an unexpected direction as the title character comes face to face with a friendly kaiju and rather than battle it, he ends up trying to protect it. This was better than any of the live-action superhero movies that came out this year.

Polkamania!

“Weird Al” Yankovic has never made a polka medley I didn’t like. So when I tell you his version of Cardi B’s “WAP” made me laugh harder than anything in his other medleys, that’s saying something.

Batman: Caped Crusader

X-Men ’97 wasn’t the only superhero cartoon from the nineties that made a comeback. While this Prime Video series isn’t a literal continuation of Batman: The Animated Series, Bruce Timm returned and his team does take the character of Batman into slightly more mature and less creatively restrained territory while maintaining the tone that I fell in love with from the original series.

Terminator Zero

Mattson Tomlin’s anime take on Terminator was the most I’ve been entertained by the Terminator series since T2: Judgment Day. Yes, the plot predictably revolves around a robot assassin sent from the future to murder someone (in this case a scientist working on an A.I. system that competes with Skynet) but it’s still riveting because the execution is flawless, the writing is whip smart and the art style and animation by Production I.G. is incredible.

Conclave

This drama about a cardinal (Ralph Fiennes) who uncovers the dark secrets of a Catholic Church kept pulling me in more and more as the controversy slowly revealed itself. The writing and the acting are superb but the film also has worthwhile things to say about faith, politics and public scandals.

Saturday Night

It doesn’t matter to me how accurate this dramatization of the making of the first episode of groundbreaking American variety show Saturday Night Live is because this was one of the most entertaining films I’ve seen all year. Based on how much of a comedy nerd I am I was always bound to be fascinated by this, but a bunch of amateurs trying to put on a live show that no one at the TV network believes in while at the same time it is one of the most radical TV shows ever produced just makes for an exciting story and it really made me root for the young Lorne Michaels (Gabrielle LaBelle) to pull it together. I was also pleasantly surprised by how many of the cast members absolutely nail the personalities of the celebrities they are portraying.

Astro Bot – Eli’s Favorite Game of 2024

The PlayStation 5 game Astro Bot is the kind of imaginative family-friendly platformer that for a while seemed only Nintendo was capable of making. This was simply fun, creative and addictive with some of the best world designs I’ve ever seen in a video game. And the fact that many of the Astro Bots that you are tasked with hunting down are dressed like video game characters from throughout the 30-year history of PlayStation added an extra layer of fun because you never knew who you were gonna see next. And every time I did see someone I recognized like Kratos, Aloy, Ratchet or Parappa the Rapper, it reminded me of all those characters’ games and why I love video games in general so much.

The Plucky Squire

A medieval adventure game in which you play as a fictional character in a picture book who is completely aware that they are in a picture book and literally uses the text in the book to solve various puzzles is a clever enough concept. But when I found out you could jump out of the book and interact with real-world objects as well, that was when I knew this was something special. One of the most original, fun and hilarious games of the year.

The Penguin

I know I already have Batman: Caped Crusader on this list but I could not make a list of the best entertainment of 2024 without also including the HBO series The Penguin because this show just blew me away. Colin Farrell (who reprises his role from The Batman) is hypnotic as the gangster who all the other gangsters underestimate and it is entertaining to watch him get out of trouble (that he usually put himself in) as he climbs his way to the top of the criminal underworld. Especially with formidable foes like Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) on his tail. These characters were so intriguing I kept forgetting Batman even existed.

Fear the Spotlight

Blumhouse’s first foray into video games was better than a lot of the movies they released this year. Fear the Spotlight is a survival horror game about two teenagers who sneak into their high school at night and encounter mysterious forces that turn out to be supernatural. It also pays homage to the 32-bit era of the nineties with PS1-style graphics which is a nice creative touch. The scare factor of this game isn’t quite on the level of something like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, and you also don’t actually fight the enemies in combat. But who cares? This is still fun and the atmosphere is still creepy.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Aardman’s feature-length sequel to The Wrong Trousers is one of Wallace and Gromit’s funniest films and I was pleasantly surprised by how it didn’t cheapen Feathers McGraw as a villain or The Wrong Trousers as a film. It felt like a credible and natural continuation of the story. Absolutely captures the magic of why I love these characters and these films so much.

Wicked

Even though I’ve been hoping for a film adaptation of the Broadway musical Wicked for a long time due to the fact that I have never seen it, knowing Hollywood I was almost certain I would not enjoy this movie because of how challenging I knew adapting it would be. Leave it to Jon M. Chu, the same director who impressed me with Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights, to totally deliver on the spectacle, the humor and the emotion. I see why this story was so popular on stage now. The friendship between Glinda and Elphaba is one for the ages. And it was also great to see a beautiful, entertaining, big-budget musical film in 2024 that is being adored both by audiences and critics, because it feels like ages since that happened and I wish it did more often.

Antonblast

Something about the platforming game Antonblast, in which you play as a demolitions expert named Dynamite Anton who goes on an explosive quest to stop a Satanic curse, just felt refreshingly goofy and energetic compared to most of the modern platformers I see. Many people are comparing this game favorably to Wario Land (including the developers at Summitsphere who made this game) and I grew up playing Wario Land so perhaps that has something to do with its appeal, but I mostly just love the unapologetic nuttiness of the concept, the characters and the gameplay here. Thank you Kickstarter for helping get this game off the ground and straight to my Best list.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

This game is to Indiana Jones games what Spider-Man for the PS4 was to Spider-Man games, in that it is the best one ever made. The Swedish developers at MachineGames really went all out in making this feel like an Indiana Jones film come to life, and not just because you get to play an interactive version of the opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark in a flashback sequence. Set between the events of Raiders and Last Crusade, this time the famous archaeologist is trying to stop the Nazis from harnessing the power of a number of sacred religious sites that form a perfect circle around the world. Troy Baker’s voice and motion-capture performance capture the character of Indy flawlessly, music composer Gordy Haab nails the John Williams-like score and everything else from the atmosphere to the writing feels like something Lucasfilm actually produced. And oh yeah, it’s also a pretty fun game with a lot of good puzzles to solve. They do such a good job immersing you in the game you’ll feel like you’re wearing a fedora.