The best and worst TV shows of 2018, according to the Herald Sun’s TV critics

Our TV critics have spent the year suffering through some shocker shocks and revelling in the high-quality hits. See which shows Colin Vickery, Siobhan Duck and Cameron loved and loathed the most in 2018.

Tonightly got the axe by the ABC, but Cameron Adams has it as one of his best TV shows of 2018.

The Herald Sun’s entertainment experts have been tuned in all year, suffering through the shockers and revelling in the hits. As the year draws to a close, Colin Vickery, Siobhan Duck and Cameron Adams look back and cast their votes for best and worst TV shows of 2018.

COLIN VICKERY

BEST

THE ALIENIST (NETFLIX)

This psychological thriller set in New York in 1896 kept me riveted. Daniel Bruhl (Inglourious Basterds) is psychologist Dr Laszlo Kreizler, who is tasked by Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt (Brian Geraghty) to help track down a serial killer. Dakota Fanning (Effie Gray) is Roosevelt’s secretary Sara Howard.

Daniel Brühl as Dr. Laszlo Kreizler in The Alienist.

SUPERWOG (ABC COMEDY)

My fellow reviewers have vowed to shun me for including this raw Aussie comedy in by Best list but I don’t care. Nathan and Theodore Saidden’s tale of high school teen Superwog, his friend Johnny and parents Wog Dad and Wog Mum (all played by the pair) gave me more belly-laughs than any other show in 2018.

26/10/18: Theo (left) and Nathan Saidden are the brains behind ABC Comedy’s Superwog Picture: John Feder, The Australian.

BOSCH (SBS)

Four seasons in and this US crime drama, centred on Los Angeles Police Detective Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver), shows no signs of fatigue. Civil rights lawyer Howard Elias has been gunned down and members of the LAPD’s Black Guardian squad are suspects. Police Chief Irving (Lance Reddick) gets Bosch to head up the investigation squad.

Titus Welliver stars as Los Angeles Police Detective Harry Bosch in SBS’ US crime drama Bosch.

THE FRONT BAR (SEVEN)

Could there be a simpler concept than three blokes sitting around a bar chatting all things AFL? Yet Andy Maher, Mick Molloy and Sam Pang managed to create magic. The Grand Final show was flat but every other episode was a winner.

Andy Maher, Mick Molloy, Sam Pang created magic on The Front Bar. Picture: Seven Network.

BODYGUARD (NETFLIX)

A nerve-shredding six-part thriller from Jed Mercurio, the creator of Line of Duty. Afghanistan war veteran Sergeant David Budd (Richard Madden) must protect divisive British Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes) at a time of heightened terror alert. The twists are jaw-dropping.

Netflix’s Bodyguard had jaw-dropping twists.

HAVE YOU BEEN PAYING ATTENTION? (TEN)

If you want to know all the latest news, why not have a laugh at the same time? That is what Tom Gleisner, Ed Kavalee, Sam Pang and a range of special guest comedians provided throughout the show’s sixth season.

Tom Gleisner leads a cavalcade of funny people in Ten’s hit Have You Been Paying Attention? Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian

LOVE IT OR LIST IT AUSTRALIA (FOXTEL)

flip or flop’s Tarek and Christina El Moussa have divorced. Chip and Joanna Gaines have stopped making Fixer Upper. So thank heavens for Andrew Winter and Neale Whittaker’s fun show where couples must decide whether to sell or renovate a home that no longer suits their needs.

One of the homes featured on Love It or List It.

WORST

GAME OF GAMES (TEN)

I get a migraine just thinking about this raucous version of an Ellen DeGeneres format where everyone — host Grant Denyer, the contestants and the audience — was dialled up to 11.

Grant Denyer was dialled up to 11 on Ten’s Game of Games.

BLIND DATE (TEN)

Julia Morris hosting a dating show should have been a slam dunk but smutty jokes and way-over-the-top contestants made this a car wreck.

Smutty jokes and the contestants turned a Julia Morris slam dunk into a car wreck.

STREET SMART (TEN)

So let me get this straight — Ten commissioned this lame local comedy from the co-creators of Here Come the Habibs and not Dave O’Neill’s charming Dave? Go figure.

Tahir Bilgic and Rob Shehadie of Ten’s Street Smart. Picture: Jonathan Ng

AUSTRALIAN SPARTAN (SEVEN)

Australian Ninja Warrior has a lot to answer for because it was that show’s success that made Seven decide to commission this utterly charmless knock-off. A ratings bomb — the television equivalent of a ten pound weakling.

Australian Spartan bombed in the ratings. Picture: supplied.

SIOBHAN DUCK

BEST

SURVIVOR AUSTRALIA: CHAMPIONS VS CONTENDERS (10)

Olympic champion Shane Gould won the title of Sole Survivor but the real prize for this show should go to the casting department. Pitting unknowns (aka the contenders) against a team that included several well-known sports stars (including Gould, Brian Lake and Moana Hope) was a masterstroke. The only disappointment with Survivor are the ratings. It is a complete mystery why Aussies don’t embrace this show more than they do.

Shane Gould celebrates winning the latest season of Survivor Australiaover Sharn Coombes. Picture: Nigel Wright

PLAYING FOR KEEPS (10)

Glamorous, sexy and ever-so-slightly catty — finally a footy show that even the sports agnostic can enjoy. Madeleine West and Olympia Valance kicked goals in this soap about the power-broking women behind the blokes in a fictional AFL team. The show filled the void left by Offspring and Wrong Girl to become the new weekly guilty pleasure.

Playing For Keeps stars Madeleine West, Annie Maynard, Isabella Giovinazzo and Olympia Valance.

BIG LITTLE LIES (FOXTEL)

Shows like this prove once and for all that TV is no longer the poor cousin to cinema. Reese Witherspoon and our very own Nicole Kidman produced and starred in this gripping adaptation of Liana Moriarity’s novel. Any doubts people had about Kidman’s acting prowess after sitting through Days of Thunder were well and truly put to rest watching Kidman’s raw portrayal of a battered wife.

Not only did Big Little Lies deservedly net Kidman an armful of awards, but it lured Meryl Streep to join the cast for season two without so much as seeing a single script.

Meryl Streep is joining Nicole Kidman in season two of Big Little Lies.

THE CROWN (NETFLIX)

God Save the Queen of the small screen, Claire Foy. Part period drama and part soap, the acclaimed Netflix series stars Foyas a young Queen Elizabeth as she navigates her strained marriage to Prince Phillip (Matt Smith), deals with a wayward youngersister (Vanessa Kirby) and learns the ropes of ruling her kingdom.

Foy’s performance as QEII in the Netflix drama will certainly be a hard act to follow for Olivia Coleman, who takes over playing the monarch in the next two seasons.

Part period drama and part soap, The Crown is a Netflix hit.

THE ROYAL WEDDING (SEVEN, NINE, ABC)

Who could forget that dress, that tiara and THAT preacher? It was the wedding that brought together Hollywood and royalty. From George and Amal Clooney to the Beckhams — anyone who was anyone was at Windsor Castle to watch roguish Prince Harry finally get his happily ever after with Suits star Meghan Markle. Anyone, that is, except Meghan Markle’s spotlight hungry relatives.

The Royal Wedding was the most-watched — and one of the best — television events of the year. Picture: Ben Stansall, Pool, AFP.

WORST

STREET SMART (10)

The good news is Channel 10 invested in a locally-made sitcom. The bad news is it was totally unfunny. And humour is kind of integral to comedy. Sadly, the only people left smiling when Street Smart went to air were those who avoided watching it.

Casey Donovan and Rob Shehadie in Street Smart. Supplied: Ten.

DANCE BOSS (10)

Dannii Minogue has proven to be reality television’s lucky charm with everything the brunette beauty touching turning into ratings gold. Until this misstep. It’s not Minogue’s fault Dance Boss didn’t work. She was let down by the forms, which viewers moaned was “cringey” and left the host looking as though she was “being held against her will”.

Dannii Minogue alongside DJ Sketch on Dance Boss.

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN: HOPELESSLY DEVOTED TO YOU (SEVEN)

Everyone loves ONJ. But that doesn’t mean anyone (lest of all the Grease star herself) wants to see her life dramatised on the box — just yet, anyway. The timing of this miniseries couldn’t have been worse. Not only was appetite for the bio genre on the wane, but Newton-John was in the midst of her third battle with cancer. It’s hard for audiences to sit back and enjoy a show knowing the subject didn’t want it to be made and suffering such serious health problems.

Poor timing, and a lack of support from the subject herself, marred Seven’s attempts at an ONJ biopic. Picture: supplied

CAMERON ADAMS

BEST

KILLING EVE (ABC)

There hasn’t been a black comedy/thriller with a (hefty) bodycount quite like Killing Eve. That’s party because due to the fingerprints of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who also created Fleabag, another genre-buster. Jodie Comer played Villanelle, an assassin for hire killing her way across Europe, followed by cop Eve (Sandra Oh). But when their paths started to cross things got truly twisted and it started to tick off action, drama, bleak comedy, thriller and left you waiting for series two.

Sarah Oh stars in the black comedy/thriller Killing Eve.

SHARP OBJECTS (FOXTEL)

More evidence that TV is now often more creative for actors than movies, giving them hours to explore a character. Like Amy Adams here. From the team behind Big Little Lies (which it is way more intense than), Adams plays Camille, a journalist who goes back to her home town to investigate a murder. The return reopens old wounds and also the dysfunctional relationship with her mother who truly is a piece of work. There was a lot to unpack and it unfolds over eight parts leaving you exhausted at the end.

Amy Adams makes the most of creative freedom afforded in Sharp Objects.

BETTER CALL SAUL (STAN)

There is now a line of thought that Better Call Saul is as good as, if not better, than the show it is the prequel to, Breaking Bad. Let’s just say that Better Call Saul’s quality has been the ideal way to deal with the loss of Breaking Bad, which became an instant classic.

Each season has improved on the last, more Breaking Bad characters continue to be introduced as the timelines get closer to meeting and the hair and make-up department continue to work miracles.

Jonathan Banks and Bob Odenkirk reprise their Breaking Bad characters in Better Call Saul.

TONIGHTLY (ABC)

Clearly it wasn’t for everyone, which is precisely why it was on ABC2. Modern free to air TV survives on finding audiences through getting content discovered online and Tonightly did that over and over. It fostered new talent, in comedy writing, performing and presenting, as well as giving musicians somewhere to be seen on TV (a rarity these days). Not afraid to melt a few snowflakes, of course it ended up a victim of ABC internal politics. Classic ABC 2018.

Greg Larsen, Bridie Connell, Tom Ballard and Greta Lee Jackson of Tonightly. Picture: ABC

AMERICAN CRIME STORY (FOXTEL)

Who knew the guy that shot Gianni Versace was at the end of a serial killing spree? Indeed the Ricky Martin/Penelope Cruz factor was just a minor factor here, it was Glee star Darren Criss in a star-making role as killer Andrew Cunanan, who seduced a string of wealthy older men and went on a deadly rampage over four months in 1997.

Darren Criss reprises his role as Andrew Cunanan in a star-making performance. Picture: Ray Mickshaw/FX

EMPLOYABLE ME (ABC)

You want feel-good TV? How about this local program that followed Australians with autism and Tourette syndrome matched with employers who found jobs that where their conditions would be seen as strengths not weaknesses. There was even a romantic storyline thrown into the mix. This was the perfect antidote to every reality TV show polluting our networks.

Ben Warren, one of the heartwarming subjects on Employable Me.

BLACK MIRROR (NETFLIX)

Six episodes dropped without warning last December 29, once again all self-contained and all amazing in their own way, from robotic dogs to hologram museums to memory chips and everything just seems a little too close for comfort about how the future is about to pan out.

Netflix’s Black Mirror continues to be a little too close for comfort.

MAKING A MURDERER 2 (NETFLIX)

Netflix and thrill. This has set the blueprint for so many crime binges, including Netflix’s latest The Innocent Man, a doco from John Grisham. You know the team behind Making a Murderer 2 knew they’d hit binge gold when lawyer Kathleen Zellner took on Steven Avery’s case — she’s the star of this second series and is still keeping the case alive on her social media.

Making a Murderer 2 continues the momentum from the groundbreaking first season. Picture: Supplied

WORST

LOVE ISLAND (NINE)

All the people you cringe when Instagram suggests you follow them put on one TV show for the sole purpose of coming out to get a career flogging stuff on Instagram. Sophie Monk redefined the concept of host by barely being seen on screen. Couldn’t really blame her.

We could hardly blame Sophie Monk for staying off-screen for the bulk of Love Island. Picture: Supplied/Nine

TRIAL BY KYLE (TEN)

Could there be a more Sydney concept? Kyle Sandilands throws his weight around playing Judge Judy with some Z-list celebrities just happy to get their smooth scones on the box. Even Kyle said he didn’t really care if this got turned into a series because it’d just mean more work for him. It showed.

Trial By Kyle could only work in Sydney ... but probably not even there.

ALL TOGETHER NOW (SEVEN)

Frustrated singers judging frustrating singers. It really feels like we’ve reached the end of the karaoke TV talent show thing and need to find a new concept — this wasn’t it.

Karaoke TV talent shows are in need of something new, but All Together Now isn’t it.

FAMILY FOOD FIGHT (NINE)

Spare us from more imitation food and renovation and dating shows that just ramp up the same old cliches (villains, drama) and just feel like deja vu and make you not want to watch any more shows on food, renovation and dating.

Queensland sisters Rebecca and Nicole Giles won Family Food Fight. Picture: supplied.