I’VE WATCHED A LOT OF TV IN 2019 – HERE ARE MY FAVOURITE SHOWS
With more TV channels and platforms than ever before, there was a greater number of shows vying for our attention in 2019. I always say I end up watching two episodes of most series, but here are 10 shows I carried on with until the end – as sure a sign as any that they were my favourites for the year.
10. DEAD TO ME (NETFLIX)
Christina Applegate is never better than when she plays an unlikable character, like the prickly widow of a hit-and-run victim in this twisty series, which had one hell of a season-ending cliffhanger.
9. TOTAL CONTROL (ABC)
This Australian political drama was another perfect vehicle for MVP Deborah Mailman, who tore it up as a newbie senator.
8. SUCCESSION S2 (FOX SHOWCASE) Not quite as good as the first season, this HBO drama still featured brilliant actors portraying the most horrible people on TV doing the most horrible things to each other.
7. THE CRY (ABC)
In February, it became one of the year’s first great shows. This Australian-British co-production about the disappearance of a child kept me guessing right until the end.
6. MORNING WARS (APPLE TV+)
Timely and well executed, this #MeToothemed drama set at a morning TV show cleverly presented all sides of the conversation, but made its conclusions perfectly clear.
5. SEX EDUCATION (NETFLIX)
This teen dramedy that allowed its characters to act like actual teenagers was riotously funny one minute and incredibly poignant the next.
4. FLEABAG S2 (AMAZON PRIME VIDEO) Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s other show, Killing Eve, might have gone off the boil this year, but her Emmy-winning star vehicle was the most consistently hilarious thing on TV in 2019.
3. YEARS AND YEARS (SBS)
A few weeks back, I wrote about how this anxiety-provoking near-future drama perfectly captured the world’s precarious fate. If anything, it’s become even more prescient.
2. UNBELIEVABLE (NETFLIX)
True crime series – whether factual or fiction – rarely approach their subject matter with such sensitivity and respect for the victims as this dramatisation of a series of sexual assaults. 1. THE HUNTING (SBS)
Asher Keddie and Richard Roxburgh, who both gave career-best performances, were the big names attached to this high school sexting scandal drama, but it was the ensemble of four young actors who made this powerful and confronting viewing. •