Just 9 bloody brilliant recent Australian TV shows that are worth a watch.

A couple of years ago, you'd have been hard-pressed to find a local Aussie series on your favourite global streaming app.

But that is definitely not the case anymore.

Each year, the streamers are pouring more and more money into developing a whole load of Australian content, which adds to homegrown shows from the likes of the ABC and SBS, to deliver a TV smorgasbord of Australian stories, humour and, uh, swearing, I guess.

We love to see it, because it leads to lists like this, where it really is hard not to include 579 recommendations documenting every single thing that's been released this year. 

But who has *that* kind of couch time available? So, I've narrowed it down. 

These are my favourite stellar Aussie shows from 2023 so far (plus one from December, because I couldn't not include the show that made me snort laugh), that you can watch in full whenever ya fancy:

While The Men Are Away - SBS.

Image: SBS.

Australia's at war, which means a lot of the men are away. For anyone who isn't a man, that's pretty damn exciting.

While The Men Are Away follows Frankie, played by Many Saints of Newark's Michela De Rossi, who enlists two Women's Land Army recruits (Max McKenna and Jana Zvedeniuk), a draft dodger (Matt Testro) and an Indigenous farmhand (Phoebe Grainer) to help her run her suffering apple farm after her husband is sent to war (or was he? There are plenty of secrets here to be uncovered).

The series is often (but not always) wildly historically inaccurate and explores what happens when people who don't normally hold the reins of power suddenly having them shoved in their hands.

It's full of humour, heart and some wildly sexy forbidden love stories.

With eight episodes ready for you to watch, While The Men Are Away should be at the top of your must-watch list. 

Stream While The Men Are Away on SBS On Demand.

Colin From Accounts - Binge.

Image: Binge.

Husband and wife duo Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer team up in this local comedy which is one of my favourite shows of the past 12 months. God, it's just so good. That aforementioned snort laugh? Yes, that was Brammall and Dyer's fault.

They play Gordon and Ashley, two single(ish) people who are brought together by a nipple, a car accident and an injured dog. 

Colin From Accounts does everything you want it to do in eight easy, breezy 30-minute episodes. It's packed with 'will-they-won't-they?' chemistry, snark and the most magnificent balance of high- and low-brow (read: toilet) humour. 

It also just won three Logies and has gone completely bonkers globally – ask any of your UK pals.

Stream Colin From Accounts on Binge.

In Limbo - ABC iview.

Image: ABC iview.

I watched In Limbo in one go, one afternoon in April. More than three months on, I still think about it all the damn time.

It's a show about friendship, love and grief, starring Ryan Corr and Bob Morley as besties who must face how hard it is to let go of loved ones - especially if they're taken too soon.

When Nate dies, Charlie must face his grief in a way he never expected. Because, uh, his dead bestie starts haunting him. There are no levitating tables or flying books, but confronting the loss is the scariest thing Charlie has ever done. The only comfort is that he is facing it with his best mate by his side - albeit in ghost form.

In Limbo offers a truly moving portrayal of depression, grief and male friendship, so it will definitely make you cry, but the central friendship and the side characters also offer ample laughs, I promise.

Stream In Limbo on ABC iview.

Deadloch - Prime Video.

Image: Prime Video.

Many shows are described as 'laugh-out-loud funny', meaning you might chuckle a few times. But Deadloch comes through with genuine, deep belly laughs.

Like, your abdominals will hurt.

It is a truly absurd crime comedy set in a sleepy Tasmanian town after a local man turns up dead at the beach. Local senior sergeant Dulcie (Kate Box), Darwin senior investigator Eddie Redcliffe (Madeleine Sami) and junior constable Abby (Nina Oyama) must put their (hilarious) differences aside to solve the case, as the rest of the quirky town prepares to launch an annual festival event.

Stream Deadloch on Prime Video.

Class of '07 - Prime Video.

Image: Prime Video.

Thought your high school reunion was chaos? I guarantee you it has nothing on Class of '07.

This eight-episode adventure begins with the 10-year reunion of an all-girls high school - now, that already poses some stakes. Decades-old drama? Here for it. But then, why not throw in an apocalyptic tidal wave? Just to really up the ante, ya know?

A group of women must now survive atop the island peak of their high school campus, where the greatest threat to their survival should probably be the impending end of the world, but might actually just be each other.

Class of '07 is absurd and hilarious and precisely what you need on a lazy afternoon.

Stream Class of '07 on Prime Video.

Totally Completely Fine - Stan.

Image: Stan.

We meet hot mess Vivian, played by the always brilliant Thomasin McKenzie, moments before she inherits her grandfather's coastal clifftop house. In this property market? A win! 

But then she meets Amy (Contessa Treffone), a stranger in a wedding dress who is very much in crisis, and realises why she's really there. Unbeknownst to her and her brothers, their grandfather was a local hero, who regularly saved lives from his backyard.

Totally Completely Fine tells the tale of Vivian's (reluctant) turn as a guardian angel, and how accidentally, unconventionally helping strangers in their most desperate moments teaches her how to save herself as well.

On one hand, it explores the complexities of family relationships, grief and trauma. On the other, it delivers constant silliness, laugh-out-loud moments and joy.

Seriously. You'll never look at hot chocolate the same again.

Stream Totally Completely Fine on Stan.

Wellmania - Netflix.

Image: Netflix.

A Celeste Barber-led dramedy about the often ridiculous 'wellness' industry? Yes, please.

Barber stars as Liv Healy in this series, based on Brigid Delaney's novel Wellmania: Misadventures in the Search for Wellness. Liv is a food blogger who experiences a health crisis that forces her to reevaluate her choices and inspires her to try various methods of healthy living.

Cue hilarity, of course.

Stream Wellmania on Netflix.

Black Snow - Stan.

Image: Stan.

Black Snow is a six-part, one-hour mystery-drama set in a small town in North Queensland, with deep ties to the Australian South Sea Islander community.

After a time capsule is opened, a secret about the death of teenager Isabel Baker 25 years earlier puts cold case Detective James Cormack (Travis Fimmel) on the trail of the killer.

Set in two time periods, Black Snow combines a coming-of-age story with a whodunnit, to solve the mystery of who killed Isabel.

It's gripping from the very first moment, right through to the end.

Stream Black Snow on Stan.

Year Of - Stan.

Image: Stan.

Stan's Year Of expands on its beloved Bump universe — while we're here, if you haven't watched Bump, consider this another rec! — with Year Of set at the same harbour-front Sydney school, Jubilee High.

The series follows a group of inner-city teens following a shocking event, as they experience that and all the other chaos that comes with the final years of high school, including identity, love, friendship, sexuality and belonging.

It's a quirky, raw perspective on teenage life in 2023, and ends up being surprisingly wholesome.

Stream Year Of on Stan.

Chelsea McLaughlin is Mamamia's Senior Entertainment Writer and co-host of The Spill. For more pop culture takes, recommendations and sarcasm, you can follow her on Instagram.

Feature image: Binge/Stan/Prime Video.

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