Australian TV shows the entire world is addicted to

Hollywood may be on strike but global TV fans are discovering the genius of Australian shows such as Fisk, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart and Deadloch. See what else is in hot demand.

Kitty Flanagan, as solicitor Helen Tudor-Fisk, in TV series, Fisk. Picture: ABC

As Hollywood remains at a never-ending standstill due to the ongoing writers’ strike, a silver lining has unexpectedly emerged: Australian-made television shows have suddenly become must-see TV. And international fans can’t get enough.

Aussie shows such as Fisk, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Deadloch, Colin From Accounts and The Clearing are garnering massive international followings as audiences find themselves drawn to the authentic storytelling, quirky characters and very Australian stories.

Kitty Flanagan in the ABC comedy Fisk has already garnered a global cult following just one month after the series premiered on Netflix in the US. Picture: ABC/Supplied

Emma Faulkner, a New York-based Brit who works in the entertainment industry, said she stumbled upon our shows through good old fashioned word-of-mouth.

“Australian shows get at a level of authenticity that American shows can’t reach. There’s something unvarnished about Aussie TV shows that American television can’t do,” she says.

“Because Australian shows don’t have the overheads of American shows, they can take more risks – particularly with the humour – and you end up with a product that is much sharper, more surreal and original as a result.”

In fact, Faulkner is so obsessed with the current crop of Australian shows, she’s pushing Aussie TV onto all her friends.

Kate Box and Madeleine Sami in Deadloch. Fans of the crime parody are desperate for a season two. Picture: Supplied

“I’ve told everyone I know to watch Fisk and Deadloch,” Faulkner says with a laugh.
“A friend in London started watching Fisk and she messaged me and said she’d been drinking wine and snorting it through her nose because she was laughing so much – she said it’s the best thing she’s seen all year.”

Last month, Netflix added Kitty Flanagan and Vincent Sheehan’s side-splitting legal comedy onto the platform and, in its first week on the US streamer, the show hit the top 10 in seven countries.

Word-of-mouth hype also spread like wildfire and Americans latched onto the story of Helen Tudor-Fisk, the newly divorced lawyer who takes a job at a shoddy suburban law practice, parking the show in the US top 10 for weeks.

Sigourney Weaver and Alyla Browne in The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. Picture: Supplied.

Kate Bamboro, a New York high school English teacher and unabashed Fisk fan said that she was drawn to Australian TV shows because they “focus on story and character development”.

“And they don’t necessarily feel the need to keep going and going and going – like there aren’t five million episodes when they could do it in three.”

Then there’s the brilliantly hilarious Deadloch. Created by the “two Kates” – McCartney and McLennan – the quintessential Aussie crime parody has been a hit for Amazon Prime in the US. The show, starring Kate Box and Madeleine Sami, was the number one show in Australia and New Zealand when it premiered in early June, subsequently landing in the top 10 in the US (where it was the number four series), UK (number three), Canada (number five), South Africa, Ireland, Spain and France.

Asher Keddie in The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. Picture: Prime Video

Now, the show’s devoted fanbase is badgering Amazon Prime all over social media to green light a season two.

Australian dramas are also causing a stir overseas. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart – which is based on Holly Ringland’s novel about the shameful secrets and lies passed down in a family – recorded the biggest opening weekend audience globally for any Australian original launched on its Prime Video streaming service.

The New York Times called the seven-part drama “entertaining, moving and vividly atmospheric” and “the right kind of melodrama”.

Teresa Palmer stars in Disney Plus's first Australian original TV series The Clearing. Picture: Supplied

Since its launch last month, the series, which stars Hollywood icon Sigourney Weaver, Leah Purcell, and Asher Keddie, has reached the top five in 78 countries, and top three in 42 territories.

The show’s Australian producers, Bruna Papandrea and Jodi Matterson of production company Made Up Stories (which also produced the hits Big Little Lies, The Undoing, Pieces of Her and Nine Perfect Strangers), said they were “passionate about taking Australian stories to a global audience”.

“It’s incredibly rewarding to see The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart become a worldwide success,” Papandrea and Matterson said.

Celeste Barber in Wellmania. Picture: Supplied

“The talent and dedication from all the cast and crew led by director Glendyn Ivin and showrunner Sarah Lambert was unparalleled at every point.”

Disney+ also had a hit with its first original Australian drama, The Clearing. The eight-part series, which stars Miranda Otto and Guy Pearce, and was inspired by the real-life Melbourne cult, The Family performed “outstandingly well” in the US and has been successful in the US, UK, Brazil and Russia.

Anna Torv and Sam Reid in The Newsreader. Picture: ABC

Meanwhile, Scott Ryan’s hit man with a heart, Ray, in Mr Inbetween has found a devoted US audience on FX, and earlier this year Wellmania starring Celeste Barber, spent time in the US Netflix top 10 and performed well in other territories such as the UK, Sweden and Iceland.

The ABC’s excellent 1980s period piece, The Newsreader, which stars Anna Torv and Sam Reid, has also found a cult following on US streaming service, Roku.

The next homegrown product predicted to make a splash in the US is Foxtel’s most successful comedy or drama ever, Colin From Accounts, which airs on Binge.

Could Colin From Accounts, starring Patrick Brammall & Harriet Dyer, be Australia’s next big thing in the US? Picture: Supplied

The show, which was created by and stars real-life husband and wife team Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer, was the most popular comedy launch of the year on the BBC in the UK. It’s also done well on Amazon’s streaming services in France, Germany and Central Europe and industry reports have suggested a US sale is not far away.

Natasha Leigh, a New York-based HR manager says she enjoys the “refreshing honesty, realism and self-deprecation” of Australian shows.

“Australians are politely screwed up whereas Americans would rather not show that,” Leigh, who’s a huge fan of Scott Ryan in Mr Inbetween, said.

“I also think the Australian actors – unless it’s Cate Blanchett or Nicole Kidman – look like ‘normal’ people and I mean that as a compliment! They’re just more relatable. You wouldn’t see Sarah Jessica Parker in Helen Fisk’s brown suit.”