This article is updated regularly with the most recent, well-reviewed Australian drama series at the top. Last updated 27 September 2024.
Here’s our selection of the best Australian comedy series and shows from 2024, according to ScreenHub critics, and where you can stream them.
Some of these titles are game shows, chat shows and travel shows – and ScreenHub critics like Anthony Morris often bemoan the dearth of Australian scripted comedy in the mix. We’re looking forward to checking out upcoming scripted shows like The Office Australia on Prime in October, and in 2025, Optics – the ABC’s comedy about spin doctors – and the Australian adaption of BBC supernatural sitcom Ghosts for Ten/Paramount+.
Here’s what’s on offer for now. Enjoy and stay tuned for more as the year progresses.
Best Australian Comedy Series 2024
Shaun Micallef’s Origin Odyssey, SBS on Demand – ramshackle authenticity
Premiered 24 September 2024.
Six Australian comedians explore their heritage with Shaun Micallef in this SBS series that goes beyond laughs to combine travelogue and Who do you think you are?-style emotional reveals. The comedians featured are: Aaron Chen, Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli, Lizzy Hoo, Dilruk Jayasinha, Nina Oyama and Arj Barker.
In his four star review, ScreenHub critic Anthony Morris says: ‘If you’re looking for a solid mix of travel facts (there are even on-screen pop ups with useful information) and history of both the personal and national kind, Origin Odyssey delivers everything you’re looking for. Fortunately it’s clear from the start – with an opening scene featuring Micallef and Chen delivering duelling Donald Trump impressions reminiscent of travelogue parody The Trip, quickly followed by Micallef bemoaning the fact that pigs can’t understand the concept of national borders – that this show isn’t interested in merely trekking across the same old territory.’
‘The comedians’ own stories are interesting in and of themselves, but beyond that there’s an authenticity to the program itself. Delays, missed connections, getting lost, running for a bus: they’re all left in, giving things a ramshackle feel that boosts both the comedy and the sense of watching something real.’
Read the full review or watch Shaun Micallef’s Origin Odyssey on SBS on Demand.
The Inspired Unemployed (Impractical) Jokers – Season 2, Network 10 & Paramount+
Premiered 14 August 2024.
Laddish prankster antics by may not be for everyone, but ScreenHub critic Anthony Morris gave four stars to the second season of The Inspired Unemployed (Impractical) Jokers.
Morris describes the setup like this: ‘Each scenario has a similar basic structure: three of the Jokers are in a back room watching via hidden camera, while the fourth is out in public and is required to do everything they say via earpiece. If he refuses to do something, he loses the challenge: the loser overall at the end of the episode is stuck with a particularly gruelling challenge, usually involving being a dickhead in front of a crowd that’s not going to be happy about it.’
‘The goal here is always to come up with the most embarrassingly silly thing to get someone else to do, so the laughs are two-fold: first when you hear the idea, and then when you see it executed (or not)… the team’s joy at getting to humiliate each other is infectious – there’s always cutaways to the backroom three jumping around in joy at the stupid ideas they’ve inflicted on the fourth member.’
As Morris says, ‘nobody’s watching this for character development. Season 2 hits the same notes as the one before. It’s half-an-hour of well thought out mutual embarrassment, a harmless prank show where it’s all just a bunch of mates messing around. Unless they’re ruining a private concert, then it’s no wonder the fans start getting a bit riled up.’
Read the full review or catch up on The Inspired Unemployed (Impractical) Jokers – Season 2 on Ten or Paramount+.
Shaun Micaleff’s Eve of Destruction, ABC iview – more like this please
Premiered 14 August 2024
Not everyone loved this mix of comedy and chat show, where comedian and actor Shaun Micallef asks his guests what they’d rescue from their house if it was seconds away from destruction. (Personally, I couldn’t get through the first episode with Stephen Curry and found it stilted and awkward.) But Anthony Morris, writing for ScreenHub, gave the show four stars and called it ‘very funny indeed’ – while hoping that Micallef might get to work with scripted comedy again one day.
Morris said that despite the low-budget format, the no-frills set and the flimsy ‘what possessions would you save’ angle, Eve of Destruction is ‘enough for Micallef to go to town. And it doesn’t hurt that his…guests are more than happy to come along for the ride.’
Morris said: ‘The first guest is Stephen Curry, who Micallef has worked with off and on for a number of years and who occupies a slight similar space in that he can be both funny and dramatic to good effectThe interview is engaging, though hardly insightful: what makes it work is the constant, building side jokes and digressions. They’re both comedians who can sell a joke with an expression, making this a rare chat show segment that you need to watch as well as listen to.’
Read the full review of Shaun Micallef’s Eve of Destruction or watch on ABC iview.
Colin From Accounts Season 2, Binge – there’s more to the story
Premiered 30 May 2024.
The second series of the hit romantic comedy about flawed, funny people choosing each other and embracing the all-too-relatable chaos of modern life, created by and starring Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer.
In his four star review of the second series, Anthony Morris praised the credibly annoying urban Australian characters, and the genuine tension between the leads, with the very real question of whether they’ll stay together.
Morris writes: ‘There are plenty of dramedies where we’re expected to find the leads lovable despite all the evidence to the contrary. To this show’s credit, it’s clear that Ash and Gordon really are the kind of people who often do rub others the wrong way. Ash’s hospital job usually involves annoying her supervisor; Gordon’s not quite a doormat at the brewery he co-owns, but he does seem to be the kind of guy that lets other people step on him so he can complain about it.’
Read the full review or watch both seasons of Colin from Accounts on Binge.
Taskmaster Australia, Ten: a comedy game show polished to a high sheen
Premiered 23 May 2024
TaskMaster Australia is based on the successful and long-running UK format where five comedians are given a series of weird and hopefully funny tasks by a stern and ruthless Taskmaster. In Australia’s case, the Taskmaster is Tom Gleeson and he’s accompanied by a more subdued sidekick, Tom Cashman.
Reviewing the second season of the comedy game show for ScreenHub, Anthony Morris gave it four stars said it stays fresh and works well, even if the excellent comedy cast have all been funnier elsewhere.
Morris said: ‘Sometimes the tasks are practical, such as ‘build a scarecrow’; other times they’re more conceptual, like ‘make chess cool’. Comedians, being the type to come at a problem from a weird angle, often overthink things. Sometimes this can be to their advantage. Other times, it turns out there’s more to the task than initially revealed and trying to be funny has ensured their defeat (which can also be funny). There’s also a fair amount of sitting around chatting before and after the tasks, which makes this, at times, closer to a panel chat show than a collection of wacky stunts.’
Read the full review of Tasmaster Australia, Season 2 or watch on Ten and Paramount+.
White Fever, ABC iview – more than ‘maybe I need to bang Asian dudes’
Premiered 10 April 2024
This 6×30 minute drama series with a comedic slant follows Jane Thomas, an Asian Australian woman who knows what she wants: hairy white men. When her friends call her out for having a white man fetish, she sets out to reprogram her libido, reigniting a connection with her childhood friend Yu.
Writing for ScreenHub, Anthony Morris gave White Fever four stars. He says: ‘It all makes for entertaining, engaging viewing. Jane is a likeable protagonist on a journey that’s a lot more complex and thoughtful than the initial ‘maybe I need to bang Asian dudes’ premise. It’s a story told with warmth and insight, featuring a range of characters that are treated with depth and empathy.’
‘Questions about race, identity and belonging are front and centre here: once past the initial concept, this is a series that’s fully invested in treating Jane’s search seriously. Which isn’t surprising, as in some ways it mirrors [creator and lead actor] Ra Chapman’s own personal journey exploring her identity as a Korean adopted by white parents.’
Read the full review or watch White Fever on ABC iview.
Population 11, Stan – a comedy-mystery winner
Premiered on 14 March 2024.
Stan’s new 12-part, WA-shot series is beautifully paced and extremely bingeable, says Mel Campbell in her ScreenHub review.
Campbell wrote: ‘… rather than lampooning rural Australians as ocker caricatures, Population: 11 seems primarily interested in roasting the Yanks. Indeed, it leans in to stereotypes about outback serial killers and deadly fauna – Andy survives a kangaroo, a dingo, a venomous snake and a saltwater crocodile in just the first few episodes …
‘Rather than pulling against each other, the comedy and the mystery push the show forward… It helps that the show is beautifully paced and very bingeable. Each episode is only half an hour long and always ends on a key revelation; the next episode picks straight up afterwards. Luckily, Stan is releasing all episodes at once – this is definitely a show you could tear through over a weekend.’
Read the full review or watch Population 11 on Stan.
Triple Oh!, SBS On Demand – short and sweet and wryly funny
Premiered on 8 February 2024
Episodes in this new Australian comedy show about ambulance paramedics are short and punchy – and when the jokes appear they’re worth the wait.
Anthony Morris, wrote: ‘It’s smartly written (by Erica Harrison) and engagingly directed (by Poppy Stockwell), but perhaps its most obvious strength is that there’s a lot packed into each episode.
‘There’s the ongoing – sometimes charming, sometimes awkward – relationship between Tayls (Brooke Satchwell) and Cate (Tahlee Fereday), plus the medical emergency that sometimes turns out to be a real emergency, plus some deftly sketched supporting characters (the angsty firefighters were a personal favourite). Not bad for seven-to-eight minutes.’
Read the full review or watch Triple Oh! on SBS On Demand.
