The Finest TV Moments of 2024

A character death you’ll be able to’t get out of your head. A wild reveal that leaves you reeling. A killer fight, a bit of longstanding lore defined, or only a actually nice musical quantity: these are the easiest TV moments io9 noticed this 12 months, on all of the sci-fi, horror, and fantasy exhibits we watched in 2024.

Oz strangles Vic – The Penguin

By way of everything of The Penguin, we knew Oz was able to some critically horrible stuff. He was doing a lot horrible stuff, in truth, he needed to recruit and practice a right-hand man, Vic, to assist him. However when Oz’s enemies discover his mom, he realizes anybody he cares about can be utilized in opposition to him—which is when Oz does the unthinkable and strangles Vic to loss of life. It was a stunning second crammed with that means. To change into the crime kingpin of Gotham, you’ve acquired to surrender every little thing, together with those you’re keen on.

The apocalypse begins – Fallout

What if the apocalypse started on the precise second you have been at a kids’s celebration—entertaining whereas wearing a cowboy costume, no much less—having simply defined to your younger daughter that if she sees a mushroom cloud, holds up her thumb, and gauges that the cloud is greater than her thumb, that’s the top of the world. Then it occurs: a flash, and a large cloud begins to take form… greater than 100 thumbs put collectively. It’s a horrible, hypnotic sight. Then one other one drops, and one other, and there’s no working away from what occurs subsequent—and that’s the opening scene of Fallout.

Battle at Rook’s Relaxation – Home of the Dragon

Season two, episode four looks as if excessive time to get the struggle your present is constructed round—the Dance of the Dragons—out onto an precise battlefield, or reasonably, excessive above the battlefield, because of an unbelievable dragon combat. It’s Targaryen versus Targaryen, however the sides change into muddled when Prince Aemond activates his personal brother, King Aegon. They each survive to proceed their sibling rivalry, however Princess Rhaenys (alongside along with her dragon) is misplaced endlessly—and the viewers is left breathless because the credit roll.

Genoshan genocide – X-Males ’97

X-Males ’97 began out sturdy, nevertheless it actually stepped into excessive gear with “Keep in mind It,” which pivoted its nostalgic revisit to the X-Males‘s recognition growth within the ’90s to indicate us it had the chunk to supply a up to date lens on the Mutant metaphor. In a surprising, tragic second, we see the work of the Mutant nation of Genosha undone in a brutal Sentinel assault that sees Rogue, Magneto, and Gambit rise to the event… and solely one in every of them get again up from it. It’s the second the sequence went from one thing good to one thing unbelievable, and as Remy commanded, we can be remembering it for a really very long time.

Maddie’s loss of life – Arcane

Arcane isn’t a comedy, nevertheless it likes to be humorous throughout in any other case tense moments. Simply as you’re questioning if it is sensible for Cait’s work fling Maddie to be a Noxian agent, she’s about to execute Cait herself. And then… properly, thank Mel Medara for giving Mads an all-time, Looney Tunes-ass exit.

Gandalf’s identify defined – The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Energy

From the primary episode of The Rings of Energy, when the thin dude with magic powers and a beard confirmed up from the sky, each single particular person watching thought “I ponder if that’s Gandalf.” And so, after two seasons of teasing, when that character lastly will get a workers and a function, he additionally will get a reputation. You guessed it: Gandalf, an evolution of “grand elf.” All of us noticed it coming, however the second of the reveal was cathartic.

Bruce Wayne vs. carnies – Batman: Caped Crusader

We’ve all accepted that Bruce Wayne can’t take 5 steps with out accumulating an orphan baby of Gotham. Batman: Caped Crusader doesn’t give him a Robin, nevertheless it presents the long run sidekicks to be in a totally Bruce-free context for a single episode. When these children find yourself kidnapped at a carnival, Bruce tries to research below his common id, and the carnies kick the crap out of him. It doesn’t totally matter whether or not they assume he’s a weirdo, or are simply making an attempt to cowl for one in every of their very own; it’s a pleasant character second that exhibits how traditional components of his character could be met in an earlier time interval. 

“To me, my X-Males!” – X-Males ‘97

X-Males ‘97’s first episode showcases how a lot cooler Cyclops is than you keep in mind from the live-action motion pictures and then-comics. Even when he’s freefalling towards the bottom, Scott Summers will get an opportunity to indicate off he’s cool as hell. And Scott nailing his touchdown earlier than rallying the crew to motion in an amazing, crowd-pleasing second in an amazing begin to an amazing revival.

Stranger slaughter – Star Wars: The Acolyte

With the cool masks and double lightsabers, the Stranger was already fairly scary. However when he comes throughout a crew of Jedi and systematically kills virtually all of them, together with two of The Acolyte’s essential characters (RIP Jecki and Yord) it was concurrently very thrilling but in addition completely terrifying. Actual stakes and penalties in Star Wars? What an idea. And now,  with The Acolyte canceled, one thing we might by no means see once more.

Acro-Silky’s Origins – Dan Da Dan

Dan Da Dan has largely excelled up to now with its exaggerated absurdity, the zany motion of its mish-mash of sci-fi and supernatural genres giving us over-the-top motion and gags week in, week out. However readers of the manga knew that quickly sufficient the anime would dive right into a second that will present folks what the sequence was able to—and it acquired there in its seventh episode, telling the tragic backstory of the yokai Acro-Silky. Sumptuously animated, it’s the second Dan Da Dan proved it may actually do greater than the sum of its style mixups and provides a extremely compelling coronary heart to what it was exploring about these characters, and did so with its personal mixture of shock and tragedy that left us reeling (whether or not we’d learn the manga already or not). 

All of Sofia’s backstory – The Penguin

That is dishonest a bit however we’re going to rely episode four of The Penguin, “Cent’anni,” as one second as a result of—holy crap. What an episode. Not solely can we see the tragic backstory that’s been propelling Sofia, however its stunning revelations utterly flip The Penguin on its head. You thought Sofia was one factor, nevertheless it seems she’s one other, and immediately your loyalties as a viewer change. A lot wild stuff occurs that, sure, the entire episode deserves its personal spot on this checklist.

Blood and Cheese – Home of the Dragon

The Recreation of Thrones prequel kicked off its second season by giving followers a source-material second they’d been longing to see—the brutal homicide of a kid in line for the Iron Throne. The scene was suitably ghastly, however what made the “Blood and Cheese” incident reverberate much more got here weeks later, when creator George R.R. Martin aired out his frustrations with the modifications made to his story within the adaptation course of. 

Mansion assault – X-Males ‘97

We’ve seen the Xavier Institute attacked earlier than, however not fairly like this. With Rogue out of fee, it falls to Wolverine and Nightcrawler to defend her from a horde of Prime Sentinels as their dwelling burns down. It’s equally tense and harrowing, whereas additionally an amazing reminder of how lethal these two particular X-Males could be when compelled to return to again.

Sekai Taikai finale – Cobra Kai 

A number of seasons of Cobra Kai had all been resulting in the largest, baddest karate event on the planet: the Sekai Taikai. And the occasion lived as much as the hype with all method of nice fights and competitions, each on and off the mat. Actually, you had no thought the way it may all come collectively in a pleasant, clear means and it didn’t. The ultimate matches changed into knock-down, drag-out, no-holds-barred royal rumbles of karate with each dojo combating for his or her lives. Actually. Ultimately, one in every of Cobra Kai‘s captains, Kwan, is killed. Mistakenly, certain, nevertheless it made for an unforgettable flip of occasions. 

Durin fights the Balrog – The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Energy

A lot of Rings of Energy‘s sophomore season targeted on the story of the Elven rings, and the ability and hazard they represented as Sauron performed his hand in Eregion. However its secret greatest story in regards to the corruption of the rings of energy, and the hope that such temptation may very well be thwarted, was discovered not among the many Elves, however within the caverns of Khazad-Dum. Durin and his selfnamed son had probably the greatest emotional arcs of the season, with their broken relationship offering a first-rate crack for Sauron’s present to use, however its climax with a father sacrificing himself for his son—realizing too late the price of the greed the rings had stoked inside him—was what made all of it hit so properly, even past the splashy spectacle of a quick entanglement with shadow and flame.

The William Hell Overture – Dan Da Dan

Dan Da Dan has managed to toss stuff exceptional and excessive at us virtually each week because it began airing, however Okarun and Momo’s tag-game-to-the-death with Turbo Granny is likely one of the sequence’ early animation highlights. The absurdity of all of it, the communication of the chase’s momentum, it’s the spectacle of the sequence at its greatest—elevated by Kensuke Ushio’s impressed resolution to attain all of it to a weird, electro-poppy remix of Rossini’s operatic traditional. Weird and hilarious in all the suitable methods.

“The Ballad of the Witches’ Street” rock band jam – Agatha All Alongside

As soon as Agatha All Alongside established that “The Ballad of the Witches’ Street” was a smash-hit single within the present’s in-world popular culture, it was solely a matter of time earlier than we acquired a full efficiency. Episode 4 delivered, with a Nineteen Seventies-flavored model that includes members of the coven on devices and Agatha on the mic (plus hearth and a demonic curse), and solid a spell on audiences within the type of an earworm we nonetheless can’t do away with. “Down, down, down the highway, down the Witches’ Rooooaaaad!”

Antichrist baptism – Evil

In Evil’s closing season, the forces of darkness are simply beginning to see their sinister plan start to repay once they piss off the fallacious follower. What’s the worst factor that would occur to the Antichrist? How about baptizing the little man? Regardless of loads of demonic interference, child Timothy does certainly get his blessing, in a creepy but intelligent scene as surprising because it was satisfying.

Sugar is an alien? – Sugar

Whereas everybody was marveling at Colin Farrell’s efficiency on HBO’s The Penguin, deservedly so, we have been nonetheless making an attempt to wrap our heads across the large mid-season reveal in his different streaming sequence this 12 months: Apple TV+’s Sugar. Ostensibly a neo-noir about an LA non-public eye wrapped up in a missing-person case, issues took fairly the style flip when audiences realized Farrell’s character was really… a blue-skinned alien in disguise.

Judgment Day destruction – 3 Physique Drawback

We study one in every of 3 Physique Drawback’s characters has created a high-tech nanofiber in episode one. However we don’t understand how terrifying the invention has the potential of being till episode 5, when it’s used as a part of a determined plan to acquire some much-needed however well-guarded info. The wire is so superb and sharp slices although a whole ship, together with its very shocked passengers, in a special-effects marvel that was 3 Physique Drawback’s most audaciously visceral accomplishment.

“Secret Agent Man” – The Umbrella Academy

If The Umbrella Academy’s fourth and closing season had hassle residing as much as the heights of the seasons that got here earlier than, one second did seize the goofy enjoyable that first made followers fall in love with the sequence: Diego and Luther battling their means out of a CIA workplace whereas “Secret Agent Man” blared on the soundtrack. It begins in an elevator, Luther instantly loses his pants, Diego loses his shirt, staplers and forks are weaponized, and alongside the best way the siblings joyfully rediscover what’s enjoyable about being superheroes once more.

The return of Jackie Daytona – What We Do within the Shadows

Within the finale, we acquired a flashback to the Nineteen Fifties that confirmed Laszlo’s been perfecting his “common human” disguise for many years. It’s the toothpick, after all! Works each time.

Every time Laios is on one – Scrumptious in Dungeon

Scrumptious in Dungeon is an completely ridiculous present, and its solid is a giant cause why. Principal character Laios is a closet freak that’s managed to rope in adventurers to assist save his kidnapped sister Falin—and has additionally satisfied them to take pleasure in his long-desired dream to cut up the dungeon’s monsters and eat them. Whether or not he’s rattling off monster info or geeking out over seeing one thing utterly new, he’s the Most character, and his respective Japanese and English actors Kentaro Kumagi and Damien Haas do an amazing job capturing his unbridled, usually exasperating pleasure. 

The Voice origins – Dune: Prophecy

Earlier than there was the Bene Gesserit, there was the Sisterhood—and because the Dune prequel sequence has proven us, that’s the place loads of the group’s signature abilities have been refined. That features “the Voice,” which we study in a flashback first emerged when Valya Harkonnen used it to avoid wasting her brother from drowning. However within the present, we first see her use her startling present in a extra alarming means: to compel a rival Sister to take her personal life.

Garak and Bashir, collectively ultimately – Star Trek: Decrease Decks

It’s not our universe’s Garak and Bashir, nevertheless it doesn’t matter. Decrease Decks‘ multiversal setup to its impending sequence finale supplied loads of alternatives for self-referential gags and riffs on the tiring tropes of interconnected parallel realities, however its biggest justice was one a long time within the making: bringing again Deep House 9‘s Andrew Robinson and Alexander Siddig to voice variations of Garak and Dr. Bashir that acquired to be in a relationship collectively, as they and legions of Trek followers had advocated for because the present thrust the unlikely duo collectively. And it wasn’t just a few quiet, background factor, however an important arc of the entire episode!

Agatha and Rio/Dying’s love story – Agatha All Alongside

The MCU lastly has a pair which can be believably sexy for one another! Dying aka Rio (Aubrey Plaza) and Agatha’s (Kathryn Hahn) dance round one another in Agatha All Alongside supplied Marvel with an on and off romance that oozed off the display. That they had a previous, they positively laid with each other and broke one another’s hearts. And that construct to the ultimate battle with large reveals broke the stress and our hearts too—sealed with a kiss.

Qimir within the lake – Star Wars: The Acolyte

The Darkish Facet has by no means been so seductive because the second that Qimir (Manny Jacinto), previously generally known as the Stranger, lays all of it naked to indicate Osha (Amandla Stenberg) there’s nothing to be afraid of with him with reference to her energy… by skinny dipping in a lake and leaving her to take his lightsaber. We may have actually had all of it. 

Who’s the daddy? – Bluey

In Bluey‘s season finale, we get a glimpse at the way forward for the present and the reveal that Bandit is being focused by his grandchild, Bluey’s child. The body has the fandom divided with arguments over the id of the newborn daddy: French Labrador Jean-Luc (in the event that they reunite from their meet cute summer season trip episode after changing into pals)—or childhood buddy Mackenzie the Border Collie. 

Fates and Zeus confrontation – Kaos

When Zeus (Jeff Goldblum) realizes that his prophecy is self-fulfilling, the specifics of it are introduced by the Fates essentially the most petty means—they let themselves be burned to remodel the realms of the Gods. Led by Suzy Eddie Izzard, they have been among the most iconic and pleasant characters of Kaos—however too dangerous we received’t see what was deliberate subsequent, because the bold sequence was not renewed. 

Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to count on the most recent Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and every little thing you might want to find out about the way forward for Doctor Who.