Complete Comedy Series
Wellington Paranormal
19 episodes - 3 seasons
There are some crimes normal cops can’t investigate. The spin-off series featuring characters from Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s film What We Do in the Shadows, Officers Minogue and O'Leary from the Wellington Police are back to investigate all things paranormal when they are invited to join the new Wellington Paranormal Unit of the Police with the help of Senior Sergeant Ruawai Maaka. Wellington Paranormal looks like a typical police reality show in the style of Motorway Patrol or Police Ten7 but with The X-Files-style paranormal events as the ‘crimes’ being investigated. The show is a perfect mix of understated Kiwi Comedy with the scariness of a found footage horror movies like Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project. Season 3 has just landed in full at SBS On Demand - don't miss this hilarious hidden gem.
Seasons 1 - 3 (plus a Christmas special) of Wellington Paranormal are now streaming at .
The Last Man on Earth
67 episodes – 4 seasons
Speaking of another comedy that needs more episodes, we have every episode of the Will Forte comedy The Last Man on Earth. The year is 2022, and after a deadly virus has swept the planet (eek), average guy Phil Miller (Will Forte) searches the country for other survivors, but finds no one. Phil comes to the painful realisation that he is almost certainly the last living being on Earth. All he wants is for someone - anyone - to find him - preferably a woman. A year ago this show seemed kind of far-fetched and now some of it is scarily relatable. The virus sweeps the planet in 2020 (creepy) and one of the first celebs to die from it was Tom Hanks. ()
Phil does find other survivors played by an incredible cast including Kristen Schall, January Jones, Cleopatra Coleman, Mary Steenburgen, Mel Rodriguez and Kristen Wiig. This dark comedy will make you laugh, cringe and also hit you right in the feels.
Atlanta
41 episodes - 4 seasons
This acclaimed, multiple Golden Globe Award-winning comedy drama created, co-written, produced by and starring musician and actor Donald Glover follows the lives of Earnest ‘Earn’ Marks (Glover), a young Princeton dropout with a two-year-old daughter, and his rapper cousin Alfred 'Paper Boi' Miles (Brian Tyree Henry), who break into Atlanta's music industry scene and try to get their lives off the ground. Their opposing views on art, commerce, success and race make their quest anything but smooth-sailing. Glover is brilliant and the show is, as says, “as excellent as it is eccentric”. (In case you were wondering, the ratings website gives the show’s two seasons 97% and 98% on the Tomatometer; they're right - season 2 holds up the promise of the show’s debut, and then some.)
You're the Worst
62 episodes - 5 seasons
If you are after an anti-romcom then You're the Worst is for you, and who doesn't love to watch two awful people fall in love! Narcissistic, brash and self-destructive Jimmy (Chris Geere) thinks all relationships are doomed. Cynical, people-pleasing and stubborn Gretchen (Aya Cash), knows that relationships aren’t for her. So when they meet at a wedding, it’s only natural that the two of them go home together and, despite their better judgement, begin to find themselves falling for each other. This show puts a dark twist on the romantic comedy genre, it's a modern look at love and happiness told through the eyes of two people who haven’t been very successful with either. It's the story of Gretchen and Jimmy, fear, heartbreak, romance, sex, food, Los Angeles, friendship, and the fact that sometimes the worst people make the best partners.
Complete Drama Series
Spooks
86 episodes - 10 seasons
This seminal UK spy drama ran for 10 incredible seasons and introduced us to a slew of players who would become the who’s who of British actors. Set behind the scenes of the modern-day British Security Service (MI5), Spooks shows what it’s like to be a spy, through the eyes of the spies themselves, balancing the personal life storylines with the intense and sleek action. The series became known for its shock twists, cliffhanger endings and the feeling that no character is safe (long before Game of Thrones killed off a lead character early, Spooks had already done so and in a completely brutal way).
Jump back to 2002 when in season 1 a young Matthew Macfadyen was the chief of Section D, a clandestine counter-terrorism division who work round the clock to safeguard the nation.
The X-Files
217 episodes - 11 seasons
You can’t go wrong (or run out of episodes) with 11 seasons of this sci-fi classic. FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are assigned to investigate the X-Files: those mysterious cases the government hasn’t been able to explain. With the conspiracy theorist in Mulder and the sceptic in Scully, the pair’s conjectures surely clash, building tension and delivering fascinating storylines that make it crystal clear why this series was such a huge and long-running success. Dive in: the truth is out there.
Versailles
30 episodes - 3 seasons
Liberté, égalité, nudité! Vikings’ George Blagden plays Louis XIV in the three-season box set of the historical drama full of sex, spying and political intrigue, Versailles.
When we first meet him, Louis is 28 and commissioning the construction of Versailles, his ploy to keep the nobles out of Paris and permanently impose his absolute power. Haunted by a traumatic childhood, he’s nevertheless an outstanding political strategist, manipulator and Machiavellian. We watch his transformation into the Sun King and meet a range of figures from history along the way, from the most well-known courtier to the most humble villager, all guiding us through this world of betrayal and intimate secrets, political manoeuvres and declarations of war, revealing Versailles in all its glory and brutality.
The Bridge
38 episodes – 4 seasons
Never watched any Nordic noir? You might as well start with one of the best in the genre with the cross country (Sweden and Denmark) thriller The Bridge. Season 1 begins when a woman is found murdered in the middle of the Øresund Bridge – right on the border between Sweden and Denmark. What looks at first to be one murder, however, turns out to be two. The body has been cut off at the waist and joined together - half of it belongs to a Swedish politician and the other half to a Danish sex worker. A team of inspectors from Sweden and Denmark join together in a desperate search for the killer.
With so many twists and turns, this series will keep you guessing, but what will keep you hooked is the incredible character of investigator Saga Noren portrayed by Sofia Helin. This series is so popular it's been remade four times (, , Russia/Estonia and Malaysia/Singapore) and inspired the German/Austrian series Pagan Peak.
Cardinal
24 episodes – 4 seasons
If you like Nordic noir, then this Canadian detective series should be next on your list. In this atmospheric thriller, demoted Detective John Cardinal (Billy Campbell) is brought back into Homicide when the hunch he wouldn't let go is proven correct. Now, as he relentlessly tracks a serial killer, he must keep a watchful eye on his new partner, Detective Lise Delorme (Karine Vanasse), who he believes may have a secret agenda, while managing family issues of his own.
Based on a series of books by Canadian author this thrilling series has a devoted fan base (who love the leads Cardinal and Delorme) and the critics love it too; it won 7 awards at the 2020 Canadian Screen Awards.
Broadchurch
24 episodes – 3 seasons
Oscar winner and all-round legend Olivia Colman stars alongside two Doctors Who (David Tennant and Jodie Whittaker) in this British crime thriller. When the body of 11-year-old Danny Latimer is found on the beach in Broadchurch, local police officers DI Alec Hardy (Tennant) and DS Ellie Miller (Colman) are called to investigate a case that will change the small Dorset community forever.
Created by Chris Chibnall (who is now showrunner for the Jodie Whittaker-led Doctor Who) this crime thriller features the usual twists and turns but also focuses heavily on the impact of the crime upon the community - not least the victim's family. It's also filled with incredible performances from the amazing cast and later seasons feature Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Charlotte Rampling.
The Bureau
50 episodes – 5 seasons
With 5 complete seasons now streaming at SBS On Demand, there is no better time to start your marathon of one of the best French series (or possibly just series) ever made. The Bureau is based on real accounts from French spies, and reveals what life is like for the deep cover agents that put their lives on the line in the so-called 'Bureau of Legends' (a clandestine branch of the French secret service). It features an all-star cast that's a who's who of French cinema including lead Mathieu Kassovitz (Amelie), Louis Garrel (Little Women), Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) and Florence Loiret Caille (Spiral), and two episodes in season 5 are directed by Palme d'Or winning director Jacques Audiard (Dheepan). This spy thriller will hook you in with its tense storylines and world-class cinematic quality.
Spiral
86 episodes - 8 seasons
Speaking of the best French series... Starting in 2005 Spiral is the award-winning series that follows a team of flawed but driven police officers and prosecutors as they contend with the most heinous crimes in modern-day France. Spiral covers both the investigative and legal elements of any given case, moving from catching the culprits to bringing them to justice in the courtroom. Think Law & Order, but darker, grittier and in Paris. The show has also been compared to The Wire, as it delves into the impact the work has on our heroes’ personal lives and the systematic corruption they have to face. Spiral is one of the best cop shows around and with 8 seasons to catch up on, your viewing schedule is well and truly sorted.
The Fall
17 episodes - 3 seasons
From Ireland comes this compelling crime drama starring The X-Files’ Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan (A Private War). From the outset, we learn that Paul Spector (Dornan) is not the loving husband and father he appears to be, but the serial killer preying on women in Belfast and surrounds. Enter, homicide detective (and now television icon) Stella Gibson (Anderson) who works out the string of murders are all linked to the same person. Because we’re in on whodunnit, the series gains in intensity as the drama unfolds, as the cat creeps closer and closer to the mouse.
Das Boot
26 episodes – 3 seasons
The name may be familiar but this show is not a remake of the classic 1981 film (re-released in a longer form in 1997), and don't worry about being confined to a submarine; the story takes place on land and at sea.
It's autumn of 1942 in occupied France, and U-612 is now ready for its maiden voyage, preparing to head into the increasingly brutal warfare with its young crewmen, including the new captain, Klaus Hoffmann. As the 40 men take on their first mission, they struggle with the cramped and claustrophobic conditions of life underwater. Their personalities are pushed to the limit as tensions rise and loyalties begin to shatter.
Meanwhile, at the port of La Rochelle, the world of Simone Strasser spirals out of control as she is engulfed in a dangerous liaison and forbidden love, torn between her loyalty for Germany and the Resistance. In the process, she begins to question her entire belief process. Could everything she thought to be true, in fact be a lie?
A story of choices and survival, Das Boot explores the emotional torment of life during World War Two, and the brutal reality of living within a senseless war.
'Das Boot' season 1 refresher
The five things you need to know before season two of 'Das Boot'
