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The 6 best TV shows you probably didn't even realise you can watch in Australia.

 

With an influx of new TV shows pouring onto our screens each week, the majority of Australians feel a sense of FOMOOGT (Fear Of Missing Out On Good TV)  in their bones each day.

There’s always at least one flashy ‘must-watch’ series making its debut each week, which is why it’s easy to miss the more under the radar shows that quietly premiere throughout the year or the misplaced classics that finally find their way onto streaming services.

With that in mind, here are the six best TV shows you probably didn’t even realise you can watch in Australia right now.

The Arrangement

Here’s a juicy, slightly trashy watch to get you through the weekend.

The Arrangement is about aspiring actress Megan Morrison (Christine Evangelista), who lands an audition for the female lead role in a blockbuster film opposite movie star Kyle West (Josh Henderson). While she ultimately doesn’t land the role, she’s offered a different sort of part to play by Terrence Anderson (Michael Vartan).

Terrence is the leader of the Institute of the Higher Mind, a self-help organisation of which Kyle is the prominent public face. In order to boost his public popularity and ward off rumours, Terrence offers Megan $10 million if she marries Kyle and agrees to play the part of his wife.

The show creators say the series is inspired by a number of Hollywood rumours about arranged celebrity relationships and is not hooked on one particular couple. However, fans of the series have long believed that it was inspired by Scientology and the rumoured “arranged relationship” between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.

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Watch it on 9Now.

How To Stay Married 

If you’re a fan of brilliantly made Australian comedy, here’s a treat for you.

In a surprise move, Ten Play has just dropped the full second series of How to Stay Married, starring Lisa McCune and Peter Helliar, months ahead of schedule, so fans can have access to it while they are self-isolating.

In How to Stay Married the lives of Greg and Em Butler, who have been married for fifteen years, change forever when Em returns to work, Greg is made redundant and is tasked with raising their two daughters and an unexpected family member moves in.

Watch it on Ten Play.

For the biggest entertainment news of the week and a guide to the best new TV shows to watch, listen to The Spill. 

One Tree Hill 

Ok, so this is not exactly a new release, but it’s still a vital public service announcement so it has to be included.

One Tree Hill is one of the most popular teen TV shows to ever grace our screens, which is why it ended up running for nine seasons, and for a long time, it was one of the few shows that was not easy to find on an Australian streaming service.

Until Channel 7 did us all a favour and added it to their service.

The series focuses on the lives of a group of teenagers in the small town of Tree Hill, in North Carolina. Season one kicks off when estranged half-brothers Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) and Nathan Scott (James Lafferty) both vie for spots on the school basketball team, and the drama (and eventual romances) between their two friendship groups intensify from there.

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Watch it on 7 Plus.

Manifest 

If you have yet to get sucked into the TV mystery that is Manifest, then now is the time.

When a flight from Jamaica to New York City, which carries a cast of characters including detective Michaela Stone (Melissa Roxburgh) and her brother Ben (Josh Dallas), experiences a brief period of severe turbulence, nobody thinks much of it.

That is, until they land and the passengers and crew discover they have actually been missing for five-and-a-half years have and all were presumed dead by their families.

While they try to come to terms with what their lives have become, and also attempt to solve the mystery of where they have been, the passengers all start to have visions of what is to come next.

Watch it on 9Now.

Why Women Kill

As the title of this trashtatsic comedy-drama would suggest, this show is all about women who have a desire to kill, and what leads them to it.

Why Women Kill takes a darkly comedic look at the lives of three women living in three different decades. There’s Beth Ann Stanton (Ginnifer Goodwin), a housewife in the 60s.  Simone Grove ( Lucy Liu ) a twice-divorced socialite in the 80s. And Taylor Harding (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) a bisexual, feminist attorney in an open marriage in 2019.

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Each of the different story threads deals with infidelity in these marriages, and even the costumes are to die for.

Watch it on 10 All Access.

Keeping Up Appearances

The ultimate British sitcom, Keeping Up Appearances, is the delightful comfort watch we all need right now and thankfully you can find it in Australia on Stan.

The series, which ran for five years, stars Patricia Routledge as an eccentric middle-class social climber who dreams of being upper class, named Hyacinth Bucket.

Although she insists that her surname is pronounced “Bouquet”.

Much of the humour from the show comes from her dismay at the hilarious antics of her lower-class family and the fact that she terrorizes her whole neighbourhood.

Watch it on Stan

Couples Therapy

A new addition to the SBS 2020 lineup, Couples Therapy takes an unflinching look into real people’s relationships. The series does this by planting a camera crew in the weekly therapy sessions of four couples.

Each episode focuses on a different issue between a couple. In one episode, Elaine and DeSean argue about the impact of racism on their marriage, while in another Sarah wants a baby, but Lauren isn’t ready. No topic is off the table in Couples Therapy.

Watch it on SBS On Demand


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