Sun and stars

Dedicated to the TV shows I’ve loved losing far too many hours to when I should have been reading

15. Happiness

Sometimes you just need a joy bomb tossed into the tempest of today’s world. That’s exactly what Luke Di Somma and Kip Chapman’s delightful musical theatre salute/send-up offers. An ace Harry McNaughton plays a Broadway wannabe sent packing back to small-town Aotearoa after an unfortunate incident with Sally Field, pressed into directing a jazz hands-up show based on the Iliad. A blooming ray of sunshine and silliness.

14. The Residence

Algos be damned, it’s dumb Netflix continually pours money into shows it mercilessly axes. Uzo Aduba’s withering slights detective, Cordelia Cup, deserved better after Shonda Rhimes’ murder in the White House romp. Props for using Kylie to perfection as a diva on edge, and pour one out for the late Julian McMahon as our PM. Even if Knives Out is referred to as fiction, in-universe, Cordelia so should have met Benoit Blanc.

13. Sherlock & Daughter

Speaking of detectives, Arthur Conan Doyle’s 221B Baker Street-based sleuth lends himself to myriad interpretations. Brendan Foley’s brilliant spin casts David Thewlis as a late-career grump on a losing streak, minus Dr Watson and Mrs Hudson, with an international crime ring to foil. The imposition of a possibly-maybe daughter in Blu Hunt’s kick-arse First Nations hero, Amelia Rojas, has him pissed. Take that, Empire.

12. Hal & Harper

Cooper Raiff’s lilting debut feature, Shithouse (screw the wimpy retitle), in which he also starred as a lonely freshman, bowled me over. Setting the mould for this teary dramedy, he again casts himself alongside Lili Reinhart as the constant liability, co-dependent siblings of the title, with Mark Ruffalo as their ruffled dad. The trick? They play both as 20-somethings and kinder kids, in a remarkable suspension of disbelief that works.

11. Invisible Boys

When West Australian author Holden Sheppard poured his guts into YA novel Invisible Boys, drawing on his own experiences as a working-class, once-closeted guy in a rural town, he captured lightning in a bottle. A fresh-voiced spark that Boys in the Trees director Nicholas Verso breathes punk spirit into this bittersweet show, perfectly led by Joseph Zada, Aydan Calafiore, Zach Blampied and Joe Klocek. It goes hard and glows.

10. Mystery Road: Origin

Beast of War star Mark Coles Smith is such an outstanding performer he somehow managed to make stepping into Aaron Pedersen’s shoes look easy, taking on the mantle of Ivan Sen-created, hard-edged detective Jay Swan in this gusty prequel series also starring Tuuli Narkle as no-nonsense partner, Mary. Heading back to her hometown to have their kid opens a world of trouble in this taut and tragic swipe at colonial ‘care’.

9. Reckless

Australia’s carving a solid niche in comic-leaning crime capers, with this year’s Sunny Nights a great addition. But the form peaked with this Beck Cole-directed spin on Scottish thriller Guilt, adapted by Kodie Bedford and Stuart Page. Featuring First Nations superstars Tasma Walton and Hunter Page-Lochard as squabbling siblings whose problems stack up after a hit and run, it had me hooting and hollering.

8. The Studio

Cynics could sneer at a show defending the beleaguered studio system from marauding streamers while being funded by one, in Apple. In practice, it’s tough to rail against star Seth Rogen and his co-creators’ abundantly anarchic, deliriously daft and oft-inventive love/hate letter to Hollywood. In a stacked ensemble with Catherine O’Hara and famous guests aplenty, the Globes ep with Zoë Kravitz had me pissing myself uncontrollably.

7. Mr Scorsese

Goodfellas king Martin Scorsese got the ball rolling with an exasperated send-up of himself in The Studio’s debut episode. The real real deal lays bare the ups and downs of an incredibly storied (in every sense) career in this almost (but not quite) exhaustive look at a life in cinema. Directed with punchy panache by Rebecca Miller, this detailed docuseries is an utter delight from start to finish and a film lover’s treasure trove.

6. Heated Rivalry

If you’re not across Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams’ relentlessly cute takeover of social media, chances are you have already crossed the veil. As closeted young hockey stars falling in lust, then love, in a tough sport that doesn’t make room for queerness, they are utterly adorable in Jacob Tierney’s gorgeous salve for sore souls. With the subplot featuring François Arnaud and Robbie Graham-Kuntz is even lusher, it’s a must.

5. Foundation

Josh Friedman and David S. Goyer worked wonders, capturing the essence of Isaac Asimov’s sweeping sci-fi saga that spans centuries and introducing smart fixes to retain a stellar core cast. Laura Birn, Jared Harris, Lee Pace and Terence Mann remain marvellous as our scheming players, with Lou Llobell sassy as our down and dirty hero and Borgen’s Pilou Asbæk a grand baddie. But it’s Aussie Cody Fern and Scottish-Norwegian actor Synnøve Karlsen, as kooky new social age influencers, that made this run so much fun.

4. Pluribus

Few first episodes have rattled me like Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan’s wildly unpredictable return to Albuquerque. Casting Better Call Saul’s Rhea Seehorn as jaded romantasy novelist Carol, that’s the least of her problems when a thoroughly weird alien invasion body snatches almost everyone on the planet, accidentally killing her lover. The lonely apocalypse that follows towers on Seehorn’s steely shoulders. Resistance may be futile, but she ain’t going quietly in this astonishing achievement that floored me.

Addendum: of course, I totally forgot Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s early-year highlight, Adolescence, which I’m placing in a tie with Pluribus. Matthew Lewis’ one-shot cinematography is, of course, stunning, as is the writing and Graham and Owen Cooper’s performances. But for me, the real knockout of this uncomfortably knotty show about incel culture, cyberbullying and the dark path we’re on is Erin Doherty’s unflappable, until she’s alone, forensic psychologist, one of the best performances on TV all year, right up there with Rhea Seehorn’s.

3. What it Feels Like for a Girl

Going to prison was exactly the wake-up call celebrated writer and proud trans woman Paris Lee needed. She pulls no punches in adapting her tumultuous yet triumphant story. Led by a mercurially impish Ellis Howard as her antihero stand-in, Byron, we see how this relentlessly bullied young person falls into sex work, finds their power and embarks on misadventures with a ragtag bunch of queer club kids. Refreshingly raw and honest, it’s a judgement-free zone that shows you can fuck up bad and still make it work.

2. The Narrow Road to the Deep North

Regular collaborators Justin Kurzel and Shaun Grant broke my heart at Berlinale, where the first two episodes of their devastating adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel debuted. Led by Frankenstein star Jacob Elordi and Ciaran Hinds, in the shared role of stoic soldier and medic Dorrigo Evans, it’s a monumental achievement that deals in the horrifying ordeal faced by POWs forced, by Japan, to carve the Thai-Burma railway out of treacherous jungle during WWII, without dimming luminous hope.

1. Andor

Speaking of new hope, it’s easy, in these ever-darkening days, to lose sight of the bright beacon that is crazy brave collective action. Of standing staunch in the face of genocidal authorities that would crush countless civilians under the boot of their malevolent atrocities. Tony Gilroy’s astounding conclusion to his Rogue One prequel series hit that harder than anyone could have expected from the Mouse House. Landing, like the Millennium Falcon, the best Star Wars spin-off since the originals, he and his valiant crew work wonders crafting these believable worlds and the little folks who rise up. As Diego Luna’s doomed Cassian strikes back against the Empire, including Mendo’s menacing Orson Krennic, it’s the women who really run this world, with Denise Gough and Genevieve O’Reilly almighty.

Here are my fave documentaries and features, part one, two and three.