Binge on a TV feast, from White Lotus to Yellowstone and The Bear

Feasting on TV series missed during a busy year is a perfect summer pastime. Here is Richard Ferguson’s pick of a fine crop.

Theo James in The White Lotus. Picture: Binge/HBO

La Nina keeping you indoors? Covid preventing you from enjoying the sun? A good ol’ TV binge is just what you need to cheer up.

With the first fully free summer in several years, it might seem a wee bit counterintuitive to look to the telly for entertainment this Christmas, but there’s just too much good stuff to devour.

The White Lotus (Binge), that blistering take on the vacationing super-rich, has to be at the top of anyone’s list. The second season has swapped Maui for Sicily, but it delivers everything you want: beautiful vistas, beautiful women, so many men baring their buttocks, and the sickly sense that money corrupts absolutely.

Then there’s that queen of comedy Jennifer Coolidge overlooking the splendour of Italy and saying: “What a beautiful view. I wonder if anyone has jumped from here.” It’s magical acting and writing.

Speaking of money and power, Yellowstone’s fifth season on Stan is a firm favourite for the year. Those scheming cattle ranchers of Montana – led by an imposing Kevin Costner and with a terrifically terrifying guest spot by our own Jacqui Weaver – make the glamour and gluttony of a Dallas or a Dynasty seem tame in comparison.

Kevin Costner in Yellowstone.

Jenna Ortega - and Thing - as Wednesday Addams. Picture: Netflix

You can’t avoid the latest offering from The Crown (Netflix). Yes, yes, it’s never been as good since Claire Foy left and there’s been enough real royal drama for anyone this year. But Aussie star Elizabeth Debicki’s performance as the doomed Princess Diana is unmissable, and Imelda Staunton is a worthy successor as the show’s latest monarch.

Royal fans should also be sure to check out the terrifying Samantha Morton in The Serpent Queen (Stan), as a scheming and vengeful Queen of France.

The real queen of the streamers though is Wednesday. Tim Burton’s reimagining of that really ooky spooky bunch, the Addams Family, is Netflix’s biggest ever English language hit.

Its success is due to its young star Jenna Ortega, whose Wednesday Addams takes the cold, sinister child the world has loved and feared for decades to a new, angsty, level in this rollicking fantasy series.

Wednesday may have beaten Stranger Things on Netflix’s charts this year, but the fourth season of the sci-fi horror sensation is its best yet and it gets extra points for putting Kate Bush on the top of every Spotify and iTunes list via her star turn backgrounding the most thrilling chase scene in recent TV memory.

If you’re still keen on 70s and 80s nostalgia, film buffs will eat up The Offer (Paramount Plus), the dramatic retelling of how Francis Ford Coppola (played by Dan Folger) and others brought The Godfather to the screen.

The Emerald Isle gave us two of the years best binges. Bad Sisters (Apple TV), a gang of sisters, led by the always brilliant Sharon Horgan, deal with the death of their horrible brother-in-law (a spine-chilling Claes Bang). We also saw the last series of the comedic masterpiece Derry Girls (Netflix), with this teen romp about Catholic girls living through the Troubles in Northern Ireland culminating in a beautiful finale centred on the Good Friday agreement.

The adolescent drama of the year is our own Heartbreak High (Netflix), a revival of the 1990s favourite that has gone global, with huge popularity with American audiences. These Sydney kids dabble in enough sex, drugs and rock’n’roll to make those tearaways in Euphoria, Gossip Girl and Elite blush. Full of heart, this series has great local talent, who seem destined now to be stars.

The other youth hit of the year – and its sweetest love story – is Britain’s Heartstopper (Netflix). Young stars Kit Connor and Joe Locke are fantastic as two school lads who fall head over heels for each other.

For older romance fans, Fleishman is inTrouble (Disney Plus) – about a recently divorced late 30s dude suddenly thrown into the world of dating apps – with Jesse Eisenberg and Claire Danes is a must-watch. And there’s a mysterious twist to boot.

If you’re seeking a bit more thrill and chase, try Mystery Road: Origin (ABC iView) which cleaned up at the recent AACTA’s, confirming that this prequel to the hit Aunty series starring dreamboat Mark Coles Smith as the younger version of Aaron Pederson’s Indigenous detective hero is a winner.

Slow Horses’ second season on Apple TV is also one for spy fans to sink back into, with Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott-Thomas leading a group of no-hoper MI5 spooks through intrigue and danger.

Fans of the more fantastical of course had the chance this year to go back to the dragons and incest-laden world of Westeros in House of the Dragon (Binge) with a great turn by Australia’s Milly Alcock as a young princess who desires the Iron Throne.

Amazon Prime’s multi-billion dollar Lord of the Rings: the Rings of Power is a bit slower – how many times can you introduce Lorin, son of Borin, son of Morin, son of oh, I give up. But it is stunningly made, and the twist with the Dark Lord Sauron is well done. If dragons and magic rings are a bit much, you won’t find a more human series than The Bear (Disney Plus), with Jeremy Allen White’s stunning turn as a young chef who takes over the family diner when his brother dies.

From witchy schoolgirls to adulterous royals, dashing detectives to tearaway teens, 2022’s streaming hits can provide more than enough fun if you can’t get out into the sunshine.