Advance Australian Fare: The Best Homegrown TV Of The Decade

Please Like Me

Josh Thomas’ Please Like Me is a timeless show for and about young adults, which holds up in a way shows like Skins or Girls have not. It discusses mental illness and modern sexuality with complexity and wit. It’s a stark portrait of what it’s been like growing up in 2010s Australia. There’s a reason that this program was nominated for an International Emmy. 

The Feed

If you want digestible news, without resorting to the dumpster fire that is Twitter, then The Feed is tailored for you. The reporting is solid, their features are deep-dives, and their rotating hosts are amazing. Maybe you should tell your gramps to watch this instead of Sunrise. 

Bluey

If you feel as if you’re too old to watch Bluey,  you’re wrong. Bluey has the creativity of Adventure Time and the charm of Sesame Street. This show starring a Blue Heeler dog has been embraced by families across the world. Speaking to The Music, Joe Brumm, the creator of Bluey, believes he knows why this program’s so beloved internationally: “It’s due to the way the kids are portrayed, which I've put a lot of work into getting as natural and true to life as possible.”

The show also features some rad Aussie-isms. Brumm says, “I think there is a few 'far outs' that work quite well. In an upcoming ep, Bandit uses 'bodgy' too.” 

Jack Irish 

Jack Irish is probably your mum’s favourite show – and your mum has impeccable taste. The mysteries are palpable, the theme song is a bop, and Guy Pearce acts the heck out of Jack. If you start binge-watching this, you’ll probably be up till the morning.

The Bachelor and The Bachelorette

The Bachelor and The Bachelorette are so iconic, they feel like they’ve always existed. From the Honey Badger's blunder to grown men making a ‘bro code’, the shows are excellent for melodrama. But most importantly, these shows have inspired a tonne of hilarious memes. And what could be better than that? 

SBS PopAsia 

To call SBS PopAsia a K-pop version of Rage would be a massive disservice. This show proudly programs artists of colour, non-English songs, and some great interviews. It introduced a generation of kids to multiple genres they might not have never heard otherwise. This program represents a shift in the music industry and what it means to love pop in Australia. 

Struggle Street

In Australia, more than three million people live below the poverty line. And Struggle Street tells some of these stories. This docuseries doesn’t pull any punches and bluntly presents the adverse conditions so many people live in. This show can be hard to watch, but that doesn’t mean that we should turn our backs on these narratives.

Black Comedy 

In a decade where sketch comedy scrambled, Black Comedy thrived. Not only did it star some brilliant First Nations actors, it featured some of the most topical jokes of the last five years. And who could forget Aaron Fa'aoso and Steven Oliver’s infamous Tiddas – those men are comic machines. 

Content 

Content is the future of Aussie TV, a show entirely set on and created for an iPhone. Its narrative is about millennials struggling with influencer culture, friendship, and feeling connected with others. And there’s not even a name for this genre. Daley Pearson, executive producer and co-director, tells The Music, “There was a term going around called screen-lives, and that does seem to sum it up… But to us it was just a drama that was funny, it was drama series just told through a phone.”

This show could also ignite a new era of programming. Pearson says, “We are planning to make more of this at Ludo, and we’ve just had an approach about a US remake.”