This is Going to Hurt

It hasn’t exactly been a golden year for television. While there’s probably been more choice and new shows arriving each week than ever before, their quality has come under closer scrutiny, as subscriber numbers have faltered for traditional leaders like Netflix.

Dramatic adaptations of scams and decidedly dodgy business practices have dominated – The Dropout, Super Pumped, Pam & Tommy, Winning Time, Inventing Anna – and the hotly anticipated return of shows like Barry, Bridgerton, Atlanta, Stranger Things and The Flight Attendant have yielded mixed results.

However, after looking back over the past six months,

has come up with a list of the 10 shows we believe are worth seeking out.

Anne (Acorn TV)

Told across four-parts, this focuses on Anne Williams (a magnificent Maxine Peake), whose 15-year-old son was among the thousands of Liverpudlians who, in April 1989, travelled to Sheffield’s Hillsborough Stadium to attend a fateful FA Cup semifinal between their Reds and Nottingham Forest. A smart mix of archival news footage and searing intimate drama, Anne is a compelling, but not easy watch. It’s designed to evoke emotions. This is anger, grief and despair captured in the raw – to powerful, provocative effect.

Fires (Neon)

This is inspired by the stories of those who witnessed and endured unimaginable horrors and losses during the weeks and months that vast tracts of the Lucky Country seemed permanently aflame during Australia’s Black Summer of 2019-20. Each episode of this six-part anthology focuses on different characters placed in heartrending and impossible situations. Russell Dykstra, Sam Worthington, Noni Hazlehurst, Steve Bastoni and Sullivan Stapleton are some of the Aussie acting luminaries on display, but it’s the second instalment with heavyweights Miranda Otto and Richard Roxburgh who deliver the series’ highpoint.

The Gilded Age (Neon)

This 1880s New York-set drama features all the tropes you associate with Downton Abbey’s acclaimed screenwriter Julian Fellowes: power struggles, frowned-upon romances, characters who span the various classes within a single household and a scene-stealing, acerbic matriarch. Here, that’s Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski), a woman whose ‘‘family have been in charge since the Mayflower landed’’. The production design is outstanding, the costuming exquisite and the acting ensemble first-rate.

Ragdoll (TVNZ+)

Fans of Luther should check out this UK crime series. It shares the same macabre streak, gallows humour and character actor Michael Smiley as Neil Cross’ Idris Elba-starring beloved dark drama. Ragdoll focuses on Detective Sergeant Nathan Rose (Henry Lloyd-Hughes).

Two years after being suspended from the force for publicly trying to kill the infamous ‘‘Cremation Killer’’ in court after a trial goes awry, a still psychologically fragile Rose is confronted with his past when good friend Detective Inspector Emily Baxter (Thalissa Teixeira) and American newcomer Detective Constable Lake Edmunds (Lucy Hale) are called to a tower block adjacent to the one where Rose now lives.

Reacher (Amazon Prime Video)

Fans of Lee Child’s most famous creation rejoice. Free of (Tom) Cruise control, Jack Reacher finally has a physical form to match the author born James Dover Grant’s literary descriptions of him. In fact, if anything, Alan Ritchson (Smallville) almost seems larger than the 196cm exmilitary man depicted in 25 novels over the past quarter of a century.

He’s a winningly mysterious and charismatic mix of Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner, Christopher Reeve’s Superman and Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne. The show’s real secret sauce is its character interactions and light touch.

Ritchson has a wicked sense of humour and has terrific chemistry with Willa Fitzgerald’s Officer Roscoe, a smart, no-nonsense match for him, who might also just be the series’ unsung MVP.

Severance (Apple TV+)

Director Ben Stiller does a terrific job of bringing to life the futuristic, yet retro atmosphere of Lumon Industries and drawing the viewer into the mystery of what it does, in this evocative, intriguing nine-part sci-fi drama. He also gets the best out of a fabulous ensemble, although, this is Adam Scott’s show, magnificently delineating between the two disparate, separated parts of his character’s life. To say any more would spoil some of the delights, but whether you see it as an allegory for modern life or a piece of high-concept escapism, it offers plenty to think about – and enjoy.

Slow Horses (Apple TV+)

Gary Oldman’s first multiepisode