2024’s best films, TV shows and more, according to Times critics

Good morning. Here’s what we’re covering today:

• We compiled the best everything of 2024.
• Huge waves are back to battering California’s coast.
• A new wave of California sparkling wine is changing the bubbly game.
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper.

The best books, movies, TV and more of 2024

I hope you’re making the most (or least?) of dead week — this lovely slowdown between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

This is the time of lounging, leftovers and a glut of year-end lists. So of course, Times critics and entertainment writers have compiled several of their own, featuring their picks for the best films, music, TV shows, books and more over the last 50-some weeks.

Here’s a sampling of those, in case you’re looking for something to watch, listen to or read before 2025.

Kristen Stewart in A24’s “Love Lies Bleeding.”

(Anna Kooris / A24)

🎞️ The year’s best films

For her list this year, Times film critic Amy Nicholson focused on what felt fresh and in the moment as the movie industry struggles to rebound.

“Seven of the movies on my top-10 list come from first- and second-time filmmakers, a supermajority that augurs well for 2025 and beyond,” she wrote. “Talent exists and it’s getting seen.”

Below are a handful of Amy’s picks and honorable mentions. You can read through her full list here.

• “Anora”
• “Dune: Part Two”
• “Love Lies Bleeding”
• “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”
• “Nickel Boys”
• “Conclave”
• “The Brutalist”

From left: Lisa Kudrow, Rune Temte, Kal-El Tuck, Tadhg Murphy, Charlyne Yi and Roger Jean Nsengiyumva in “Time Bandits,” now streaming on Apple TV+.

(Apple TV+)

📺 The year’s best TV shows

This year’s top tier programming did not share some sweeping cultural throughline, according to Times television critic Robert Lloyd, who grouped his picks by themes.

“There are big historical dramas, avant-garde comedies, dual-reality science fiction series, cheeky period romps, true crime, personal tales in political frameworks, an eccentric comic mystery,” Robert wrote. “What they share is the sense that they have been made with evident commitment by people — people with a point of view, even a vision, not by an algorithm or artificial intelligence.”

Here are several series and how he categorized them.

A banner year for period satirical adventure comedies: “The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin,” “Renegade Nell” and “Time Bandits”

“Shogun” was “too big, too sumptuous, too grand, too Emmy-awarded, too popular to ignore,” Robert wrote.

Female-fronted mysteries in three keys: “Under the Bridge,” “Land of Women” and “Elsbeth”

Sci-fi series that play loose with reality: “Dark Matter” and “Constellation”

Explore Robert’s full best-of piece here.

The Cure perform at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday, May 23, 2023.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

💿 The year’s best albums

Times pop music critic Mikael Wood crafted a list of 20 albums that runs the gamut from inescapable breakout artists to returning legends from decades long passed. Here are several:

• “Brat” - Charli XCX
• “Songs of a Lost World” - The Cure
• “Cowboy Carter” - Beyoncé
• “One Hand Clapping” - Paul McCartney & Wings
• “Two Star & the Dream Police” - Mk.gee
• “Hardstone Psycho” - Don Toliver
• “Hit Me Hard and Soft” - Billie Eilish

📖 The year’s best books

Times book critics Mark Athitakis, Jessica Ferri and Bethanne Patrick selected 15 books (though some double picks) that were published or reissued in 2024.

“The diverse narratives tackle thorny topics such as illness, racism and the dissolution of marriage; one selection employs experimental storytelling that shouldn’t work but does, while another is positively Joycean in its length,” they wrote. Below are six of their picks and the full list is here.

• “Cahokia Jazz” by Francis Spufford
• “Martyr!” by Kaveh Akbar
• “Ours” by Phillip B. Williams
• “Liars” by Sarah Manguso
• “The Safekeep” by Yael van der Wouden
• “Small Rain” by Garth Greenwell

My picks

I don’t know about “best,” but here are some films, TV shows and albums I enjoyed this year.

Three films (I was disappointed by a lot of movies this year, plus I didn’t see as many as usual)

• 🪱 “Dune: Part Two”
• 💉 “The Substance”
• 🤫 “A Quiet Place: Day One”

Five TV shows (not necessarily new to 2024, but new seasons this year)

• 🍽️ “The Bear”
• 🗾 “Shogun”
• 🪨 “Shrinking”
• ✏️ “English Teacher”
• 🍰 “The Great British Baking Show”

Seven albums

• “Poetry” - Dehd
• “Tangk” - Idles
• “Only God Was Above Us” - Vampire Weekend
• “A LA SALA” - Khruangbin
• “All Born Screaming” - St. Vincent
• “GNX” - Kendrick Lamar
• “Mid Spiral” - BadBadNotGood

Also, here are some great newsletters (because I read way more of those than new books these days)

• Torched by Alissa Walker
• Garbage Day by Ryan Broderick
• Boiling Point by Sammy Roth
• Life Kit by NPR
• User Mag by Taylor Lorenz

We have more year-end lists to explore here:

• The 30 best songs of 2024
• 10 artworks that stole the show at L.A. museums in 2024
• Theater in 2024 — the silver lining of a challenging year
• Eleven bright spots in classical music during a dark, complicated year
• How youth orchestras delivered the three most powerful performances of 2024

Today’s top stories

The latest offensive from the ocean worries officials and some locals, who wonder how common such dangerously strong and frequent waves may become in Santa Cruz.

(Shmuel Thaler/AP)

Towering waves returned to wallop California’s coast again

• Destructive waves keep thrashing Santa Cruz, where a chunk of a historic wharf collapsed this week. Is it just bad luck that has left the coastal city vulnerable to dangerous surf?
• Powerful ocean waves are expected to return to the Bay Area for the rest of the week.

Healthcare is Newsom’s biggest unfinished project. Trump complicates the task

• As Gov. Gavin Newsom enters the second half of his final term, healthcare stands out as his most ambitious but glaringly incomplete initiative.
• Food, fluoride and funding: Here’s how a new Trump term might affect health in California.
• The governor is redefining the California versus Trump narrative.

Big goodbyes at LAUSD

• George McKenna and Jackie Goldberg, lions of LAUSD, have retired after fiery careers
• McKenna achieved fame as high school principal, but worked tirelessly long after.
• Despite her sometimes polarizing persona, Goldberg became a pragmatic, effective policymaker.

What else is going on

• He planned to propose to his girlfriend on New Year’s Eve. But he died trying to save the ring in a Christmas Day fire.
• A pre-Christmas shoplifting extravaganza was derailed for 117 would-be thieves, police said.
• Here’s how homes for quadriplegics lost out on a raise after Californians passed Prop. 35.
• A Los Angeles hotel that gained fame with a Doors album cover burned in fire.
• TSA officers were stunned by an “extremely concerning” discovery in a woman’s carry-on at LAX.

Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.

Commentary and opinions

• An Oscar-winning L.A. council member? Gov. Danny Trejo? Here are columnist Gustavo Arellano’s 2025 predictions.
• This is the trouble with Elon Musk’s debut as a federal budget negotiator, columnist Jonah Goldberg writes.
• Immigrants are California’s lifeblood. They need support now more than ever, The Times’ editorial board argues.

This morning’s must reads

(David Huang / For The Times)

Move over, Champagne. A new wave of California sparkling wines is changing the bubbly game. California’s new wave of sparkling wines is hitting its stride. These bubbles are rising to the top not because they taste like Champagne — but precisely because they don’t.

Other must reads

• “Babygirl” star Nicole Kidman could heat up the Oscar race.
• From living the RV beach life to World Series heroics: Our favorite 2024 Sports stories.

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

For your downtime

A mural of former Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela by artist Robert Vargas is on a building near the 1st Street entrance to the 101 Freeway in Boyle Heights.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Going out

• 🎨 Here are 11 Fernando Valenzuela murals to visit in L.A.
• 🍾 Don’t show up empty-handed: Here are 10 bottles of California bubbly that will pop your top.
• 🎉 Ring in 2025 with these 25 exceptional New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day meals.
• 🍿 Here’s where to pick up theater snacks for before, after or even during the movie.

Staying in

• 📺 ‘Squid Game’ is back for Season 2, and Player 456 is on a crusade to end it.
• 🎙️ These 20 essential music documentaries are streaming right now.
• 📚Here are this week’s bestselling books.
• 🧑‍🍳 Here’s a recipe for Knafeh Nabulseyeh.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

A question for you: What is your New Year’s resolution?

Aiming to read more books or hit the gym more often? Share what you hope to accomplish in 2025 and your response might appear in the newsletter next week. Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

And finally ... a photo of the day

Show us your favorite place in California! Send us photos you have taken of spots in California that are special — natural or human-made — and tell us why they’re important to you.

The bombed-out Los Angeles Times building.

(Los Angeles Times)

Today’s great photo is from the Los Angeles Times’ archives of the bombed-out L.A. Times building in October 1910.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Ryan Fonseca, reporter
Defne Karabatur, fellow
Andrew Campa, Sunday reporter
Hunter Clauss, multiplatform editor
Christian Orozco, assistant editor
Stephanie Chavez, deputy metro editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.