Take it from an old TV critic – these shows are brilliant

We are in era of Netflix, the major disruptor in the movie and telly businesses. And today I wish to plug a few of its shows – safely assuming you’ve got a subscription.

As The Australian’s second TV critic, Phillip Adams has some recommendations.

The first TV critic for The Australian? Kit Denton, dad of Andrew and author of an authoritative book on Breaker Morant. Kit wrote for the paper under the pseudonym of Janus, the two-faced Roman god. There was nothing two-faced about his reviews, though; they were always highly intelligent and well written.

Kit Denton, the first TV critic for The Australian.

A young Phillip Adams, the Australian’s second TV critic.

The second TV critic for the masthead? Me, a young advocate for an Australian film and telly industry. Now the most ancient columnist in the nation, writing for this magazine on all sorts of odd things.

TV has changed quite a bit over the decades – as seen in ever-larger screens, and the ever-growing list of streaming services that are hastening the lingering death of free-to-air.

Being a TV critic for Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper was a great gig. At the time the young Australian mogul had no television licences, so there was no need for me to be two-faced. Indeed, I used the opportunity to write on anything I fancied; TV shows were only a springboard. In the UK my friend and fellow critic Clive James took a similar view. At one stage, fellow hacks at News Corp’s Sydney HQ talked about taking up a collection to buy young Adams a TV set.

Cut to 2025. The era of Netflix, the major disruptor in the movie and telly businesses. And today I wish to plug a few of its shows, safely assuming you’ve got a subscription.

Top of my list ... its magnificent version of The Leopard. On my very short list of favourite novels, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s work about 19th-century Italian politics – published posthumously – was made into one of my all-time favourite films. So it seems almost heretical to say that Netflix’s multi-parter is far superior to Luchino Visconti’s 1963 movie.

Adolescencealso deserves its thunderous applause. My inbox is bursting with praise from folk in the film business. A work of genius in its writing, acting and one-shot narrative. Each episode comprises one continuous take. And it’s not a gimmick; somehow this technique adds to the almost intolerable intensity.

For light relief, my current favourite is The Residence, about a murder in the White House during a state dinner for the Australian PM, his foreign minister and our ambassador to Washington. (No resemblance to any PMs, ministers or ambassadors, living or dead.) Though created by a team with no known connections to Oz it is wickedly well-informed on aspects of our iconography – from Crocodile Dundee to Uluru. Indeed, one of our icons has a major role. Kylie Minogue. But spoiler alert: Kylie didn’t do it.

Taking centre stage in the show is “the world’s greatest detective” – not the tubby Belgian Hercule Poirot but a tubby African-American lady named Cordelia Cupp, who has a passion for birding. Which she pursues throughout the series, even in the White House foliage.

John Cleese and Connie Booth used graph paper to work out plotlines during the writing of Fawlty Towers. The Residence would require the Pentagon’s mainframe computer turbo-charged with AI. Forget Agatha Christie. This show has the most complex plot in history. As well as a who-dunnit it’s a why-dunnit and a how-dunnit and even a where-dunnit.

Enjoy.