The Top Five Best Australian TV Shows of All Time

April 6, 2023

For most people, their ideas about what’s best is subjective. However, I am not like most people. My personal taste is impeccable and cannot be challenged in a court of law.

For instance, I factually know which programmes are the best Australian TV shows of all time. My top three is beyond reproach.

Don’t believe me? Think that I’m being melodramatic? Well, fair enough. But let’s go through my list anyways.

Kath and Kim

If you want to hold a mirror to Australian culture, the original Kath and Kim is still the GOAT. From its obsession with netball to the line “this calls for BBQ shapes,” no other series has ever captured our suburbs so brutally. It highlights how Aussies want to be sophisticated while being the most daggy trash bags on Earth.

What’s more, Jane Turner’s Kath Day-Knight and Gina Riley’s Kim Craig-Kath have the perfect mother-daughter chemistry. If you’ve ever been beside a family fighting in a Spotlight, you know that this dynamic is all too accurate.

Kath and Kim is currently streaming on Netflix.

Q+A

Call me a debate pervert. Call me a politics goblin. I don’t care. Q+A slaps. It’s one of the best Australian TV shows.

Now, if you’ve been trapped in a ceiling since 2008, Q+A is a panel series where our politicians answer questions that have been submitted by the public and experts. Often, on this programme, our politicians are forced to deeply defend their political choices. Or, on the other hand, they trip over their media training. Either way, both of these results reveal some interesting truths about our current political climate.

One of my fave Q+A moments was when the English physicist, Brian Cox, confronted Malcolm Roberts, a One Nations MP, about his climate denial. And in this segment, Cox reveals two graphs proving that climate change is real. Roberts then responds by melting away in embarrassment. It’s beautiful stuff, folks.

Q+A is currently streaming on iView.

SeaChange

To judge SeaChange solely by its plot would be a disservice to this series. Sure, the story’s straightforward. It’s about a girl named Laura Gibson trying to settle down in the coastal town of Pearl Bay, after being a beast-mode lawyer in Sydney. However, this straightforward narrative becomes a canvas that nuanced performances are painted on.

Sigrid Thornton kills it as Laura Gibson. She’s comically frustrated at the lack of faculties in Pearl Bay. She’s truly heartbroken for having to leave Sydney. You feel everything she feels. You get swept up in the legit drama of it all.

Do yourself a favour, don’t ignore SeaChange. It’s truly one of the classics.

SeaChange is currently streaming on iView and Stan.

Love on the Spectrum

Love on the Spectrum is a reality series that follows folks on the autism spectrum going on dates, having long-term relationships, and trying to find love. Most importantly, it doesn’t make fun of autism. It doesn’t frame the spectrum as a peculiarity to be mocked. Instead, Love on the Spectrum just films people living their day-to-day lives and, by doing that, it gives them humanity.

But that’s not all Love on the Spectrum has done. This series has also helped some folks with autism score other opportunities. Take, for instance, Michael Theo. Since being on Love on the Spectrum, Theo starred in an episode of Hardball and did a talk for TEDxSydney.

As Theo told The Latch in a delightful interview, “If it wasn’t for Love on the Spectrum, I wouldn’t have achieved any of this.”

“It comes across as wholesome and genuine. Everyone who took part in that show is not trying to be anybody else, they’re just being their authentic selves. And for some reason, they found themselves falling in love with me.”

Love on the Spectrum is currently streaming on Netflix.

Black Comedy

I’m just going to say it, I’d really like another season of Black Comedy. This programme was a series of savage First Nations sketches, and it roasted Australia harder than a Woolies chicken. From its idea for an Indigenous-voiced GPS to its idea for a Platinum Race Card, every joke here is a gutbuster.

Black Comedy is pure magic. To call it one of the best Australian TV shows is somehow an understatement. Please just trust me and binge it. This series is currently streaming on iView and Stan.

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