10 play’s pretty much the home of bingeable Aussie dramas. Romantic dramas, crime dramas, comedy dramas, drama dramas. Here’s a handful of the ones we’ve been neck-deep in lately.
Ooft. There’s a darkness to love that The Beautiful Lie drags into the light, illuminating its shadows, revealing its many faces - new love, old love, young love, mature love, unrequited love, foolish love, honest love, dishonest love.
A modern interpretation and adaptation of Tolstoy’s classic novel Anna Karenina, this six-part series stars Sarah Snook (who’s since gone off to play Shiv Logan in HBO’s Succession) in the role of Anna - a happily married (to Rodger Corser) former tennis star who falls in love and has an affair with a rakish musician that eventually ends in tragedy. (This is based on a classic Russian novel so “ends in tragedy” is hardly a spoiler).
While Snook’s amazing and Anna’s story’s compelling, the side stories really round this show out. And HYBPA? regular and DWTS winner Celia Pacquola is brilliant as Anna’s recently cheated on sister-in-law, Dolly.
When you think of Australian politics, you don't often think 'sexy and scandalous', but Party Tricks is here to change your mind.
This six-part series features national treasure Asher Keddie (Offspring, Love My Way) and heart-throb Rodger Corser (Doctor Doctor, The Beautiful Lie [see above]) playing opposing leaders running for the Victorian Premiere position. The two characters they play - Kate Ballard and David McLeod - share a passion for politics and a steamy past.
With the secret of their tumultuous affair hanging over their heads, it's a cat-and-mouse game on a grand scale. Once you start watching this one you will not stop!
This is a funny little soap. Not ha-ha-comedy funny – though there are bits of that – more “what is this strange vintage Australian soap opera filled with familiar faces that is bizarrely captivating?”
Set in the Sydney beach-side suburb of Manly, after almost a decade, a group of mates reunite for a thirtieth birthday, which also happens to be the same weekend as their High School reunion, which also happened to be organised by the chick who turned 30. This is the first time they’ve seen each other since a friend of theirs died and everyone went their separate ways.
Nine years after this untimely death - and just 3 days after reuniting – another member of the group dies.
Murder! Lies! Betrayals! Infidelities! Unwanted pregnancies! This is a soap opera with the lot.
Love My Way came along in 2004 and forever changed Australian drama. It stars acting heavyweights Claudia Karvan, Asher Keddie, Brendan Cowell, Dan Wyllie and, later on, Ben Mendelsohn. It’s won 25 awards and garnered 34 nominations and contains a dramatic event that no one’s ever recovered from.
But enough bragging!
The show centres around a group of thirty-somethings who are a non-conventional family. Single mum Frankie lives with her ex-brother-in-law, co-parents with her ex, is friends with her ex’s new wife. You know, all modern family stuff that we don’t see on screen all that much.
These guys have careers they’re trying to take in different directions, kids to raise, marriages to navigate, love to find, homes to buy. The drama is real, raw and relatable. And there’s heaps of sex, drugs and swear words.
This is a gorgeous show about five people of varying levels of acquaintance who, as individuals, can’t afford a house and decide to go in on one together.
A multi-generational, multi-cultural, sexually and class diverse household makes for compelling drama. This is not so much a story about a sharehouse, but about individuals coming to terms with who they were, who are they are, and who they want to be.
Starring Kat Stewart, Stephen Peacocke, Doris Younane, Katie Robertson, Roy Joseph and Hugh Sheridan, this show if full of genuine heartfelt moments that range from tear-jerker to laugh-out-loud.
Ben Mendelsohn loves to play a creep. He does it well, there’s something unsettling about him, like he might snap at any moment and torture you for fun. In Tangle, he plays wealthy Catholic builder Vince Kovak; a racist, intimidating, morally loose (possible sociopath) with a talent for dodging death (though one suspects, not for long).
This is about two generations from two different families who are tangled together. And it’s kind of dark.
Starring Kat Stewart, Justine Clarke, Catherin McClements, Matt Day, Don Hany and many other great Australian actors, this show’s about family, sex, politics, religion, love, marriage and a bunch of teenagers whose response to stumbling upon a corpse is pretty disturbing and probably indicates “issues at home”.
Browse Hours Of Entertainment for these dramas and many more.
