The little shows that could

ONE thing this year has shown is, it’s not the size of your budget that counts, it’s what you do with it, writes Colin Vickery. For me, small shows are shining brighter than those with the cash to splash.

SMALL is beautiful.

That is one takeaway as I look back on the best TV shows I’ve seen so far in 2018.

For me it has been the lower budget, more intimate programs that have truly shone this year while the upsized blockbusters have disappointed.

Take Channel 7’s The Front Bar. What could be simpler than three guys — Andy Maher, Mick Molloy and Sam Pang — sitting in a pub clutching a beer and talking AFL?

And guess what — The Front Bar is winning the David versus Goliath ratings battle against the way-bigger-budgeted The Footy Show on Nine.

Another winner for me is Back Roads. The set-up couldn’t be more basic. Heather Ewart travels to remote towns in rural Australia and chats to the locals.

Yackandandah, Karumba, Mundulla, Ceduna, Mallacoota, Cygnet, Oodnadatta, Canowindra and more have been on Ewart’s road map.

Back Roads is now in its fourth season and is an absolute gem. Ewart is a wonderful guide — genuinely curious about the issues and personal stories of the townspeople she meets. I’m hooked.

In a similar vein is Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery. The sometime RocKwiz host grabs an old car and a celebrity and talks life as they revisit past homes and schools.

Maggie Beer and with Julia Zemiro in an episode of ABC’s Home Delivery.

Early seasons featured comedian Dave Hughes, Olympic champions Ian Thorpe and Cathy Freeman, publisher and television identity Ita Buttrose, and actor Miranda Tapsell.

This year’s series could be the best. Actor Rebecca Gibney made headlines when she revealed that her maternal grandfather had tried to sexually abuse her at age 12. The trip back in time with runner and cancer survivor Raelene Boyle was deeply moving.

Contrast those shows with Seven’s big budget Australian Spartan, hosted by Edwina Bartholomew and Hamish McLachlan which boasted an enormous multimillion-dollar obstacle course and sixty teams of three competitors.

No amount of hype and money could disguise the fact that it was one of the most soulless pieces of television seen in recent years.

Viewers voted with their remote controls. Australian Spartan tanked and was dumped from prime time after two episodes.

Seven hasn’t learned its lesson and is set to roll out bloated dating show Take Me Out, with a panel of 30 single women hoping for a perfect match, in coming weeks.

Seven is also set to screen upsized All Together Nowwhich is trying to be The Voice on steroids. Forget four spinning chairs — Seven’s talent show has hopefuls singing to a panel of 100 industry experts.

Doesn’t anyone at Seven remember that Nine tried the same tactic with quiz show 1 vs. 100 which bit the dust after two seasons?

Netflix’s Lost in Space reboot is another offender.

Andrew Maher, Mick Molloy and Sam Pang showed three blokes chatting about footy could outgun the big budgets of The Footy Show.

The 1960s version had cheap cardboard sets but what kid wasn’t addicted to the outer space adventures of the Robinson family, their robot, and the wily Dr Zachary Smith?

The Netflix version has a reported US$100 million budget. It has amazing special effects but none of the charm of the original.

The Crown, also from Netflix, gets the balance right. Yes it has a big budget. Yes it has impressive special effects to recreate history — but at heart it is an intimate family drama.

Watching the abdication of Edward VIII (Alex Jennings), the early death of George VI (Jared Harris), the young Princess Elizabeth (Claire Foy) thrust into power, the weekly meetings with Prime Minister Winston Churchill (John Lithgow), the strained marriage to the Duke of Edinburgh (Matt Smith), and the ruction with sister Margaret (Vanessa Kirby) is riveting.

I remember Bert Newton telling me that “television shouldn’t be Cinemascope” and he is absolutely right.

Newton saw first-hand how Graham Kennedy could manipulate an audience with the smallest of gestures on In Melbourne Tonight.

Kennedy was a master who would draw viewers in and then leave them in stitches with a simple gesture or words.

The best television shows have viewers leaning forward — we get deeply involved with the characters in The Crown, an interview on Back Roads or a footy legend on The Front Bar.

No frills needed — but that seems to be a lesson lost at a time when so many television shows want to be bigger than a Marvel movie.

Colin Vickery is a Herald Sun TV writer.

@colvick