We’ve had elections, high-minded dramas, down-and-dirty comedies and more filling our screens in 2024, but somehow when a Christmas tree-transfixed Otis Heiss (Klaus Tange) uttered “we’re all in the Night Country now” in the fourth episode of the HBO series True Detective, he spoke for almost all of us.

Fans of the fourth installment of HBO’s anthology series will recall the line, the mix of pathos and mystique. The party trick is how applicable it is around the all-encompassing nature of the best new TV shows of this year. Perhaps you could say it was the throughline, on and off screen.

After all, 2024 saw the fabled Doomsday Clock stay at the 90 seconds-to-midnight spot for a second year in a row. That’s the closest it has been to the end of the day and humankind since its inception in 1947.

Closer to home in Hollywood, in this year where...