Black Snow (Stan)
Black Snow: Season 1
If you can’t get enough of riveting crime dramas, then you won’t have to wait too long to get your first fix for 2023. Stan will drop all six episodes of this gripping murder mystery, filmed in the beautiful surrounds of Airlie Beach in North Queensland, on New Year’s Day. The local South Sea Islander community is devastated by the murder of a 90s high schooler played by brilliant newcomer Talijah Blackman-Corowa. Black Snow straddles the days leading up to her death, and leaps forward 25 years as Vikings star Travis Fimmel’s cold case copper shows up following a hunch.
Gold Diggers (ABC)
Gold Diggers: Season 1
If you loved the Rush-era plot twister that was SBS hit New Gold Mountain, then this comic take on the same time period from the other public broadcaster in conjunction with local outfit KOJO Studios and American production companies CBS Studios and Stampede Ventures sounds like buried treasure for the taking in 2023. Described as “Broad City meets Deadwood on a drunken night”, if you aren’t already sold (we are) then surely the idea of two very different sisters—wild drunk Gert and naïvely sweet Marigold—trying to make a fast fortune while fending off the worst of the many men who descended on the goldfields during the 1850s is a winner.
Boy Swallows Universe (Netflix)
Boy Swallows Universe: Season 1
Walkley Award-winning journalist Trent Dalton mined some of the darkest honours of his actual childhood in Brisbane for his semi-autobiographical novel that went on to storm the bestsellers list and scoop up a bajillion awards. Which means there’s a huge inbuilt audience for this eight-part dramatisation featuring Fimmel again, alongside Felix Cameron (Penguin Bloom) as Eli Bell, and Lee Tiger Halley (The Heights) as his brother Gus. The latest in a stepped-up Australian focus from American behemoth Netflix, they’re riding the wave of adulation off the global success of their Heartbreak High update, so we expect a lot of love for this one.
Safe Home (SBS)
Aisha Dee, star of The Bold Type and Australian Insta influencer slasher Sissy, heads up this four-part thrill ride as a young and ambitious woman who joins a family violence legal centre to do some good in the world, but finds herself drawn inexorably into the aftermath of a truly horrendous murder. Also starring the inimitable Virginia Gay and New Gold Mountain breakout Mabel Li, it’s directed by Stevie Cruz-Martin, who delivered the underseen but brilliant queer Australian movie Pulse. She’s working from a screenplay by lauded playwright Anna Barnes that draws on her time in a similar centre, so it should be hard-hitting stuff.
Strife (Binge)
It’s hard to wrap your head around the incredible reach of publisher Mia Freedman’s website Mamamia, but fans of her work were able to get some insight into how it all came together in her biography Work, Strife, Balance. She’s joined forces with good friend and Australian film and television super-producer Bruna Papandrea (The Nightingale) for a fictional spin on real life, with Logie-winning Offspring star Asher Keddie playing Evelyn, the founder of a similar-sounding website aimed at women dubbed Eve. Shooting in Sydney, the story traces her rise from bedroom blogger to media tycoon via plenty of triumphs and missteps.
While the Men Are Away (SBS)
While there are several shows detailing the exploits of women on the home front in the UK during WWII, it remains a relatively untapped but eminently rich narrative vein here in Australia. That’s why we’re super-pumped to check out this eight-part SBS series about Women’s Land Army recruits coming next year.
SBS confirms cast for new Australian dramedy series WHILE THE MEN ARE AWAY https://t.co/WrEUQO5J0H
— TV Blackbox (@TV_Blackbox) December 15, 2022
Billed as a revisionist historical dramedy set in rural Australia during the war years, it leans into that nudge-wink title with a sexily queer look at what happens when women are left to their own devices. The triumvirate of showrunners—Monica Zanetti (Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt)), Sissy producer Alexandra Burke and Wentworth scribe Kim Wilson—has us hanging.
Queerstralia (ABC)
Genre-bending comedian Zoë Coombs Marr’s award-winning shows are always must-sees on the festival circuit. Which means our funny bone is thoroughly tickled by the promise of this documentary series with the sweeping scope of covering the country’s queer history. That is A LOT to fold into three episodes, but if anyone can do it, we reckon Marr can. If you’ve never had the opportunity to catch shows like Trigger Warning or Dave – The Opener, trust us, you’ll want a piece of this, big time. With Sydney hosting World Pride in 2023, it’s the perfect time to celebrate the untold stories of our LGBTIQA+ heroes.
