Poll: What is the best Aussie TV show of the 21st century?
From comedies to dramas, Australia has proven to be a force for entertainment. But only the rarest of shows have become global forces.
TV
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The Australian TV landscape has come a long way since exec Bruce Gyngell launched the new medium here in 1956 with the famous words, “Good evening … and welcome to television.”
Since then, we’ve gone from broadcast to digital to streaming. But at the heart of it all lies the great TV shows and stories that continue to be produced on home soil.
To celebrate the launch of the new news.com.au app, we’re celebrating the people, places and events we’ll never forget from the first quarter of the 21st century by asking for Australia’s view. Our 25@25 series will finally put to bed the debates you’ve been having at the pub and around dinner tables for years – and some that are just too much fun not to include.
Between our comedies and our dramas, Australia has proven to be a force for entertainment – we’ve even rolled out one of the best children’s shows of all time.
Our beloved export Bluey is watched by millions across the globe. Here in Australia, the series has clocked up a whopping 96 million streaming hours on ABC iView alone.
Is it the best Aussie TV show of the 21st century? Take our poll.
Bluey
Homegrown Aussie animation Bluey is arguably one of the best TV shows to come out of Australia.
The popular children’s program follows a Blue Heeler puppy named Bluey and her family, whose everyday adventures are relatable and heartwarming.
Created and produced in Brisbane in 2018, the TV show has captured the imagination of households worldwide, with both parents and children watching in droves.
The storylines are a reflection of parenting and all its ups and downs as it encourages both parents and kids to connect and make the most of family life.
The viewership figures speak for themselves too, with millions of people inviting Bluey into their homes.
“In 2024, Australians couldn’t get enough of our favourite Blue Heeler with 96 million hours of Bluey content viewed on ABC iview,” Jennifer Collins, ABC’s Director of Screen, tells news.com.au.
“We’re incredibly proud that Bluey has captured the hearts and minds of audiences across the globe. The series is quintessentially Australian and has the remarkable ability to resonate across generations, making it a standout in children’s television content.”
Kath & Kim
You’ll be hard pressed to find any best TV list without the inclusion of Kath & Kim.
The comedy premiered in 2002 and became one of the ABC’s highest-rated shows.
The series is an ode to Aussie suburbia, with its comedy and commentary providing a hilarious insight into Australian culture.
Starring Jane Turner as middle-aged mum Kath Day-Knight and Gina Riley as her narcissistic daughter Kim Craig, the show follows the duo’s life in fictional Fountain Lakes with their “hunks of spunk” - Kath’s fiance Kel (Glenn Robbins) and Kim’s on-again, off-again husband Brett (Peter Rowsthorn).
Relationships and entanglements aside, the mishaps, fashion faux pas, exaggerated accents and catchphrases make this series “noice, different, unusual”.
The series also starred Magda Szubanski as Sharon Strzeleckibest, Kim’s “second best friend”.
(INSERT KATH AND KIM VERTICAL)
Australian Idol
Australian Idol significantly changed Aussie pop culture and the music industry when it launched here in 2003.
The singing competition searched the country far and wide for the next big voice, subsequently launching the careers of numerous musicians over the years.
Among them is Ricki-Lee Coulter who rose to fame in 2004 on the second season. Although she placed seventh in the competition that year, she has gone on to become one of the most successful artists to be discovered on Idol.
Fast forward 21 years and Coulter has released five studio albums and is now a much-loved radio host on Nova’s drive show, Ricki-Lee, Tim & Joel.
“Twenty-one years ago, Australian Idol changed my life,” she tells to news.com.au. “After walking through those audition doors, my life was never the same. I’ve been fortunate enough to have an amazing career releasing music, travelling the world writing and recording songs, and touring – and doing all the things I dreamed of as a kid.”
(INSERT STREET INTERVIEW VERTICAL)
In a full circle moment, Coulter is now the co-host of the rebooted Australian Idol series alongside Scott Tweedie, which airs on the Seven Network.
For her efforts, the singer has been nominated for a TV Week Logie Award for Most Popular Presenter, with Australian Idol also nominated for Best Entertainment Program at the upcoming awards ceremony on August 3.
“So many lives have been changed and careers kickstarted by this show and I’m so grateful that all these years later, I get to be part of that for a whole new generation,” she says. “We have so much untapped talent in this country, and Australian Idol gives the opportunity for young artists with huge talent and big dreams to have millions of people watch them on TV and hear them sing and get to know them and fall in love with them week after week.
“There is nowhere else artists are getting that kind of opportunity or exposure – and THAT is why I think Australian Idol is the best show on television.”
Summer Heights High
You are basically a genius when you seamlessly portray all the main characters on a TV show.
That’s what comedian Chris Lilley did on Summer Heights High.
Not only did he create and write the documentary-style sitcom which aired on the ABC and then Netflix, he also played the three leads: controversial performing arts teacher Mr G; posh private-school exchange student Ja’mie King; and disruptive Tongan-Australian student Jonah Takalua.
The series revolves around the trio’s high-school experiences and their different viewpoints, with Lilley nailing the idiosyncrasies of each character in a ridiculous yet believable manner.
Lilley also set out to make their fictional world as real as possible by recording the series like a documentary with non-actors playing supporting characters. Yep, the students and staff from the Brighton Secondary College in Melbourne, where it was filmed, performed as extras.
There was only one season of Summer Heights High consisting of eight episodes, but its boundary-pushing humour makes it one unforgettable show.
Mr Inbetween
Mr Inbetween has been praised as one of the best Aussie crime dramas ever produced. So good, when it began streaming in the US, it was claimed to be “better than Breaking Bad”.
Set in Sydney, the Foxtel series centred around Ray Shoesmith (played by the show’s creator and writer Scott Ryan), a hit man for hire with a specific moral code that often leads him down the wrong paths.
He appears like a regular guy trying to navigate being a father, ex-husband, lover and friend, all while juggling his criminal activities.
It was this realness that resonated with audiences, who embraced the morbidly-funny crime drama, which aired from 2018 to 2021 for three seasons
“The secret sauce of Mr Inbetween that’s essential is that the show is funny. You can’t have a dark heart like this without leavening it with humour,” The Hollywood Reporter noted in a previous review.
Wentworth
Although Wentworth was released in 2013 months before the similar prison drama Orange is the New Black, it was often said to have copied the US series.
While both are set inside a women’s prison and explore similar themes, the Aussie drama is arguably more grittier and doesn’t shy away from gripping storylines.
Loosely based on the hit 80s Aussie drama Prisoners, the series focuses on the lives of both inmates and staff at the Wentworth Correctional Centre.
The lead character is Bea Smith (played by Danielle Cormack), a woman jailed after being charged with the attempted murder of her husband.
Over eight seasons from 2013 to 2021, viewers watched Bea navigate life behind bars, before eventually finding herself at the top of the prison hierarchy.
Wentworth was a highly successful drama for Foxtel when it premiered in 2013, going on to become the most watched non-sports program in subscription television history at the time.
Underbelly
America may have had The Sopranos, but we had Underbelly.
The crime anthology series premiered in 2008 and ran until 2013, with each season telling the dramatised real-life stories of Australia’s biggest criminals.
The very first season received critical acclaim, thanks to the show’s realistic depiction of the Melbourne gangland wars between the Moran family and the Carlton Crew – the leading criminal figures were played by Gyton Grantley as Carl Williams and Vince Colosimo as Alphonse Gangitano.
There are six series in total and one mini-series released in 2022 titled Vanishing Act, which followed the story of conwoman Melissa Caddick (played by Kate Atkinson) who vanished from her luxury Sydney mansion in 2020 after swindling over $40 million from her trusted investors.
In its very first season, the Underbelly episodes drew in an average 1.3 million viewers for the Nine Network.
Offspring
You know a TV show has impacted your life when you’re still not over that death.
Offspring was much loved by Aussies that its leading star Asher Keddie won the Logie for Most Popular Actress five years in a row, from 2011 to 2015.
In the quirky seven-season drama, Keddie played neurotic obstetrician Nina Proudman, a loveable and flawed 30-something who navigates through the chaos of her romantic relationships and personal struggles.
And just when she finally feels like her life is in order, her partner Dr Patrick Reid (Matthew Le Nevez) is killed in gut-wrenching scenes, leaving a pregnant Nina to face life as a single parent.
An overthinker, Nina’s mind often played flashbacks, animations and fantasy sequences – and it’s this style of storytelling that really hooked viewers.
“My mind needs a lot of stimulation and maybe that has something to do with it. I like originality, I like things to feel unique,” Keddie previously told news.com.au of playing a chameleon of characters including Nina.
“I like all the many different facets of different characters, and I like exploring things I don’t particularly understand. So therein lies a challenge, I suppose. I guess it’s about challenge for me, but also understanding enough to be able to connect to an audience by delivering a performance that people can kind of understand.”
Love My Way
Top-notch acting coupled with arresting storylines makes Love My Way one of the best TV shows.
The series ran from 2004 to 2007 and followed the realistic portrayal of relationships and family dynamics between single mum Frankie (played by Claudia Karvan) and her loved ones: her eight-year-old daughter Lou, ex husband Charlie (Dan Wylie), his new wife Julia (Asher Keddie), and Charlie’s brother Tom (Brendan Cowell).
The show has been described as a slow burn, gradually pulling you inside the complex web of its characters. But by episode 8, you’re hooked after a tragedy unfolds.
The episode is titled A Different Planet, in which Frankie’s young daughter Lou falls from her scooter and suffers a fatal heart attack.
The plot twist is unexpected and the death deeply impacts the characters and their relationships.
Unlike in Offspring, Frankie confronts her grief head-on – there is no melancholy music, no flashbacks, nothing but intense grief and heartache.
While Love My Way has stayed with many viewers even after the series ended in 2007, Karvan says once she finishes portraying characters they “vaporise into a puff of smoke”.
“I suppose it might sound a bit disappointing, but for me, Frankie is words on a page,” she told Stellar last year of playing her famous characters.
“They exist for other people, but they don’t exist for me. I mean, they are very much facets of my personality. There’s a part of me in every one of those characters. But they don’t live beyond the camera when the cameras stop rolling. They don’t exist.”
Fisk
Comedian Kitty Flanagan’s much-loved series Fisk shattered records at the ABC when Season 3 premiered last October, attracting a total audience of more than 3 million.
The debut was the highest-rated, non-kids episode on the national broadcaster since the introduction of the total audience measurement back in 2016.
Giving The Office vibes but with Aussie accents, Fisk follows no-nonsense corporate lawyer Helen Tudor-Fisk (Flanagan), who is forced to take a job at a suburban law firm after her life in Sydney implodes.
Newly divorced, she finds herself downgrading to less glamorous cases while navigating her own divorce, family feuds and money matters.
The first two seasons are now available on Netflix, where it has entered the top 10 in countries such as the US, Kenya, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Argentina, Canada, Uruguay and the UK.
The series also stars Julia Zemiro and Marty Sheargold.
Not just a TV buff? Take part in the other 25@25 polls.
Originally published as Poll: What is the best Aussie TV show of the 21st century?
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