American Crime (Presto)
![Felicity Huffman, left, in American Crime.](http://web.archive.org./web/20161229161238im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/h/b/z/z/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1482828983066.png)
Felicity Huffman, left, in American Crime. Photo: Ryan Green/ABC
One would be mistaken to think that the best TV produced in these times is the exclusive domain of Netflix and other "disruptors". Along with Designated Survivor, this incendiary drama was made by America's ABC, with the polish and star-power one might expect of a mainstream network. The second season of the 10-part anthology is a ripped-from-the-headlines story of a student's rape at an elite high-school, an event that exposes the already-frayed bonds of privilege, race, gender, sexuality and class among the extended school community. Felicity Huffman, a knockout as the brittle, officious principal, Timothy Hutton, Regina King and Lili Taylor bring depth and ambiguity to what could have been one-dimensional roles. Best of all is the way American Crime refuses to shoehorn complex – and deeply confronting – subjects into a neat package. What it's ultimately about is culpability and responsibility, and it lets no one off the hook.
- Paul Kalina
Deep Water (SBS)
![Deep Water starring Noah Taylor and Yael Stone.](http://web.archive.org./web/20161229161238im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/h/c/3/2/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1482828508369.png)
Deep Water starring Noah Taylor and Yael Stone. Photo: Sean O'Reilly
We're good at embracing our own once they get the international tick of approval. Yael Stone had already carved a reputation for herself as a fine stage actor before moving to New York, but it was her breakthrough role as Lorna Morello on Orange Is the New Black that undoubtedly led to her nabbing the main role in this intriguing four-parter. What starts out as a fairly typical whodunit – young gay man is killed, his spurned lover is the obvious suspect – becomes an investigation into a series of historical hate crimes (based on actual events in Bondi in the '80s and '90s). Stone plays Tori Lustigman, the divorced detective mother of a teenage son, recently returned to Bondi from the country. It's refreshing to see a Bondi-based drama with a dark side. The solid supporting cast includes William McInnes as the doughy, dismissive Inspector Peel, Craig McLachlan as a sleazy nightclub owner and Jeremy Lindsay Taylor as a gay friend of Tori's late brother Shane.
- Annabel Ross
Garfunkel and Oates (Netflix)
![Garfunkel & Oates: Musical-comedy duo Riki Lindhome, left, and Kate Micucci.](http://web.archive.org./web/20161229161238im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/i/k/6/7/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1482828606074.png)
Garfunkel & Oates: Musical-comedy duo Riki Lindhome, left, and Kate Micucci. Photo: KYLE CHRISTY/IFC
While Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer have been deservedly accumulating plaudits for Broad City another formidable female twosome slipped on to Netflix with none of the fanfare but with most of the verve, candour and wry wackiness.Garfunkel and Oates is a comedic musical duo comprising singer-songwriter-actor comedians Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci. They might seem to specialise in dirty ditties, but they can also be sardonic or sentimental, and you never know what you're going to get next. It might be naughty; it might be nice. It might be absolute filth but it might be a genuine tear-jerker. There are consistent themes throughout. Not least among them are that it's still a man's world, and that men do much to make women's lives difficult – be that through indifference , objectification or outright misogyny. With supporting turns and guest appearances from the likes of Natasha Leggero, Tig Notaro, Busy Philipps and John Oates, it's well worth checking out.
- Brad Newsome
Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce (Presto)
![Girlfriends' Guide To Divorce (from left) Beau Garrett as Phoebe, Lisa Edelstein as Abby, Necar Zadegan as Delia.](http://web.archive.org./web/20161229161238im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/h/c/5/2/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1482828334037.png)
Girlfriends' Guide To Divorce (from left) Beau Garrett as Phoebe, Lisa Edelstein as Abby, Necar Zadegan as Delia. Photo: Bravo
Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce is a show for our times. It's a show for a world that often feels as though we live in spinning mouse wheels, surrounded by media white noise, unsolicited opinions and the too-perfect-for-words people who live on social media, apparently for the sole purpose of making the rest of us look inferior. Barely a few minutes into this series from writer/producer Marti Noxon (Glee, Unreal), based on the series of books by Vicki Iovine, the farce of that world is laid bare. It's all there: ticking biological clocks, gritted teeth and a whole pile of specific references that may have you reaching for the Girlfriend's Guide to Los Angeles. Abby McCarthy (Lisa Edelstein) is a self-help fraud who appears on TV with Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford (the first of several brilliant cameos) to reveal the secret of how to maintain the perfect marriage while her own, to director Jake Novak (Paul Adelstein), is collapsing around her ears. The series also stars Janeane Garofalo as Abby's smart-mouthed bestie, Lyla, and Carrie Fisher as Abby's agent, who bring a weary brilliance to the comedy and save it from the kind of poppy shallowness that might push this too close to things you've seen before, like Sex and the City.
- Michael Idato
Lady Dynamite (Netflix)
![Lady Dynamite starring Maria Bamford scheduled to stream on Netflix.](http://web.archive.org./web/20161229161238im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/u/b/w/w/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1482828263561.png)
Lady Dynamite starring Maria Bamford scheduled to stream on Netflix. Photo: Doug Hyun
Lady Dynamite stars Maria Bamford playing herself, or at least a contused, confused, scripted comedy version of herself. It's a show that follows the well-worn track of stand-up-comic-does-TV but it ambitiously seeks to subvert not just the sitcom genre, but more dangerously the stand-up-comic-does-TV sitcom genre. It's risky, but it pays off. Bamford comes complete with an agent, Bruce Ben-Bacharach (Fred Melamed) who is trying to juggle successfully selling a sitcom for his client with the uncomfortable truth that she has just returned to Los Angeles after six months away in a clinic trying to deal with her bipolar disorder. The writing is so crisp it almost crackles. The series does demand a little more attention from viewers than your average show but it's so worth it. This is a dazzling TV series, full of sark and silliness.
- Michael Idato
Love (Netflix)
![Love stars Gillian Jacobs as wrongdoing Mickey.](http://web.archive.org./web/20161229161238im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/h/c/a/m/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1482828862277.png)
Love stars Gillian Jacobs as wrongdoing Mickey. Photo: Suzanne Hanover/Netflix
Love examines the realities of romance for the twentysomething generation. Mickey (Gillian Jacobs) and Gus (Paul Rust) are newly single through depressingly dismal circumstances, residents of Los Angeles who have entered their thirties – he's 31, she's 32 – with a sense that everything they ingested from popular culture hasn't really prepared them for life's realities. Gus' nebbish persona is so extreme people assume he's Jewish, while Mickey has a flinty disregard for niceties that verges on the self-destructive. The show was created by Judd Apatow, Rust and his wife Lesley Arfin, a former writer on Girls. Jacobs was part of the marvellous comic ensemble on Community, but here her magnificent querulous glances are played for more than comic effect, and there's an untoward humour in watching Mickey double down on her wrongdoings. Love is about the realisation that what we want isn't always what we need, and that gives the sardonic humour a powerful foundation.
Craig Mathieson
Roadies (Stan)
![Roadies stars Luke Wilson (centre) as tour manager Bill together with production manager Shelli (Carla Gugino), electrician/rigger Kelly Ann (Imogen Poots), her twin Wes (Machine Gun Kelly), veteran Phil (Ron White) and money man Reg (Rafe Spall) among the cast.](http://web.archive.org./web/20161229161238im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/h/c/b/v/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1482828086753.png)
Roadies stars Luke Wilson (centre) as tour manager Bill together with production manager Shelli (Carla Gugino), electrician/rigger Kelly Ann (Imogen Poots), her twin Wes (Machine Gun Kelly), veteran Phil (Ron White) and money man Reg (Rafe Spall) among the cast. Photo: Stan
Sadly limited to a single, 10-part season, this affectionate account of the music business, created by Cameron Crowe and produced by J.J. Abrams, is a like a backstage pass. It allows access to the method and the madness behind the scenes on tour with fictional American rockers, the Staton-House Band, and grabs a seat on the bus carrying the group's devoted crew from town to town as they set up for each show. A loving ode to the music, the musicians and the technicians that enable them to perform, it relishes in the rituals, myths and superstitions of the world of the travelling community. Among its members are tour manager Bill (Luke Wilson), production manager Shelli (Carla Gugino), angel-faced electrician, rigger and skateboard wiz Kelly Ann (Imogen Poots), her coffee-king twin, Wes (Machine Gun Kelly), revered veteran Phil (Ron White) and suspiciously regarded English money man Reg (Rafe Spall). The motley crew is depicted with warmth, humour and an insider's keen eye.
- Debi Enker
The Americans (FX)
![Matthew Rhys, left, and Keri Russell in The Americans.](http://web.archive.org./web/20161229161238im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/6/b/n/a/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1482827760149.png)
Matthew Rhys, left, and Keri Russell in The Americans. Photo: Craig Blankenhorn/FX
While there's been effusive praise for a procession of US drama series over recent years, the relative silence about this gripping Cold War espionage thriller has been mystifying. Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell shine as Soviet agents embedded deep in the suburbs of Virginia, posing as Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, a couple running a travel agency and raising their American children. An ever-present tension stems from the possibility that their real identities will be discovered. Over four compelling seasons, The Americans has tackled complex questions of love and loyalty, probing the kinds of sacrifices that a sense of duty – to people, institutions or countries – demands. Phillip and Elizabeth are devoted to their homeland and can be ruthless killers. Yet they're also conflicted, by their love for each other, their responsibility to their children and a growing unease about the motives of their masters. It's an intriguing tangle of allegiances.
- Debi Enker
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