'tis the season to be binging on all the great television people have raving about throughout 2016. The perfect time to catch-up on those shows you have been meaning to get around to. Thankfully, SBS On Demand is stacked with complete series for you to gorge on right now.
The Disappearance
What’s it about?
A teenager, Lea, goes missing on her birthday in a French town and everybody in her ridiculously good-looking inner circle gets super shady. Everyone is a suspect and Lea has more secrets than Edward Snowden’s hard drive.
Binge factor
A prestige soap that’s well below the 10-episode benchmark (it’s 8 episodes) for this kind of TV, you know the type: mysterious missing youths. There’s enough scandalous secrecy to keep the hooks in while being dazzled by all the attractive people who have probably never paid for a drink in their life.
Magnifica 70
What’s it about?
A mesmerising, humorous and stylish series focusing on a film censor who falls in love with a porn star, set against the fascinating political backdrop of Sao Paolo in the 70s. Think Mad Men meets Boogie Nights.
Binge factor
Slow and steady with this one, you don’t want to, ah, finish early. There’s a lot more to it than just period piece smut. Truthfully, it isn't even really that smutty. The political backdrop of Brazil in the 70s is lush with critiques about censorship and authoritarian government regimes.
Criminal Justice
What’s it about?
A young man, Ben Coulter (Ben Whishaw), is accused of murder after a drunken and drug-filled night out but he can’t remember committing the crime. With the evidence stacked against him, a lawyer steps up to defend Ben’s claim of innocence while he struggles to survive in the prison system.
Binge factor
HBO flipped the first season of Criminal Justice into an American adaptation this year called The Night Of, but both seasons of the original, BAFTA winning UK series are ready to watch if you want to see where it all began.
Millennium
What’s it about?
A 6-part Swedish mini-series based on the Stieg Larsson books The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.
Binge factor
Here’s where it gets complicated: the series was edited up and released as three separate films here in Australia. The benefit of the mini-series is that it runs roughly 110 minutes longer than the movies with extended scenes, adding more depth to the story and the characters. If you’re a fan of the books or wanted a little more from the film versions, this is the definitive adaptation of Larsson’s hit series.
Midnight Sun
What is it about?
The latest Scandi-noir from writers, Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein, the creators behind The Bridge. The brutal murder of a French citizen sees French homicide investigator Kahina Zadi (Leïla Bekhti) go to Kiruna, Sweden, a small town in the Arctic Circle where the sun doesn't set. Together with Rutger Burlin (Peter Stormare) she begins an investigation that soon takes on staggering proportions.
Binge factor
The grisly opening scene involving a man strapped to rotating helicopter blades implores you to push on and it’s a series stacked with polarising moments like this that demand you crack on with the mystery. Kahina is a great female lead in the Scandi-noir tradition; Kiruna is a town with the right amount of creepiness and the story get seriously twisted.
Great Minds with Dan Harmon
What is it about?
Creator of Community and Rick and Morty, Harmon, and his assistant, Spencer Crittenden (from the cult podcast, Harmontown), use a time/cloning machine to create historical figures. Once here, Harmon has only a few hours to interview them before they collapse into dust.
Binge factor
You won’t need a large chunk of time to knock this one over because each episode runs for 10 minutes. Space it out over a few days as light relief between the darker shows on your roster; think of it as the perfect chaser.
