Melbourne's small screen output punches well above its weight; from gritty crime dramas to awkward comedies that make you cringe in the best way possible.
The city’s has been churning out quality television since the sixties, when Crawford Productions turned inner Melbourne into cop show central. Fast forward to today and we’re still delivering the goods, whether it’s Nina Proudman drifting into fantasy sequences in the inner north or Jack Irish collecting debts in scuzzy Fitzroy pubs.
So which shows really nail it? We’ve looked at the series that captured something distinctly Melbourne, made cultural waves, or just kept us glued to the couch for multiple seasons. Some sparked genuine phenomena (looking at you, SeaChange), others became international obsessions, and a few are criminally underrated gems.
Obviously we couldn’t fit every single show on here; there’s only so much space and we’ve got opinions. If your favourite’s missing, that’s what the comments section is for. Now grab the remote and settle in.
Check out our list of Best Melbourne films here, Best Melbourne Bands here, and Best Melbourne Albums here.
Kath and Kim
Look at moi. Look at moiii. Now, I’ve got one word to say to you: chardonnay, you pack of chunts!
Can you classify yourself as an Aussie if you haven’t cackled, cringed and binged your way through Kath & Kim? The series had a comeback during the lockdowns as we all related to the very bored Kath Day-Knight picking the stickers off her apples, but there’s something so iconic about the satire and it’s longevity. Plus, once you’ve watched your way through all the Kath and Kel pashes and Prue and Trude snootiness, you’ve got the movies to keep you company also. The series is shot through with hilarious cameos from Mick Molloy, Eddie Perfect, Eric Bana, Kylie Minogue, and Shane Warne. It’s a good time dressed in vinyl and parrot earrings. The fun only stops when you realise, you’re a bit tireeeed, actually.
Fisk
From the mind of Kitty Flannigan, this lawyer comedy has been a favourite of the Australian critics since its premiere in 2021, scooping up a record breaking 11 Logies this year. Helen Tudor-Fisk is the beige loving contracts lawyer who returns home to Melbourne after her life in Sydney blew up. Back living with her parents, she gets a job at Gruber & Gruber, hoping that working in contracts and wills, she won’t have to deal with people, because, well, they’re dead. Aaron Chen, Julia Zemiro and Marty Sheargold make up the office-ensemble that is a very Aussie combination of The Office and a real day at the office.
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries
1920’s Melbourne never looked so suave. The three-season series adapted from the books by Kerry Greenwood take you into the sexy, suave and wealthy world of Phryne Fisher, Lady Detective. With the elegant Essie Davis at the helm, you’ll find Miss Fisher speeding her way down Collins Street in her Hispano Suiza or fighting some low-and-dirty crims across the city. Armed with her charm and pearl inlayed pistol, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries is a glamourous trot through the rough and raunchy Melbourne of the 1920’s.
Underbelly
Aussies love their true crime – especially when it’s their own. The Underbelly series dominated our screens during the 2010’s, capturing the lives of notorious Australian criminals throughout the decades. The original underbelly follows Carl Williams, who became one of Melbourne’s drug kingpins in and his involvement in the gangland killings. Underbelly: Squizzy follows the life of Melbourne’s Joeseph ‘Squizzy’ Taylor from World War One through to the 20’s. Every actor in Melbourne worth their pennies joined the Underbelly crew, so you’re likely to spot a few familiar faces.
Picnic at Hanging Rock
The 2018 adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s iconic book takes on the legacy of Peter Weir’s iconic film. With locals & international talent alike (like Game of Throne’s Natalie Dormer), this interpretation of the text that has haunted year 11’s for decades takes the story for a new psychological spin. With time to explore the nuances of the book, this piece of gothic Australian literature brings back the mystery of the original work. The Australian landscape, menacing and dangerous, is captured for its eternal, quiet presence. With only six episodes, it’s a binge-session waiting to happen. It won’t be long before you catch yourself with a new vocal stim – Mirandaaaaa!
Round the Twist
If you can see a lighthouse without hearing -have you ever, ever felt like this- Are you really a child of the noughties? A staple of growing up Aussie in the 90’s and 00’s, it was a good day in the classroom when your teacher wheeled in the TV for an afternoon of Round the Twist. One of those shows that you watch back as an adult and realise how whacky the storylines were. Lemons with eyeballs? Ice-cream nose? That freaky scarecrow? This classic show is nostalgic, funny, and a little bit kooky.
The Newsreader
Anna Torv is a powerhouse in this series about Aussie newsrooms in the 80’s. We love our home-grown talent, and Anna Torv has been making us proud since McCloud’s Daughters through to The Last of Us. The Newsreader looks at the ruthlessness of the newsroom through an unconventional relationship between news anchor and producer, to the backdrop of our history’s biggest breaking news: Chernobyl, Charles and Diana, and the Aids Crisis. This drama-filled series is a combination of politics, ambition, and power dressed in shoulder pads.
Wentworth
Wentworth is an Aussie TV institution – literally. With eight seasons and 100 episodes, the contemporary adaptation of Prisoner follows the inmates at Wentworth Correctional Centre, the hierarchies, politics and passions. The gritty drama was a binge go-to during the pandemic, and it’s never too late to join the watch party and make yourself a prisoner to the binge.
Please Like Me
Josh Thomas’ comedy-drama-coming-of-age series ran for four seasons, following the twenty-something life of Josh following his breakup with his girlfriend and realisation of his sexuality. This sweet series is hilarious and heart moving as it navigates relationships, the awkwardness of dating in your twenties, and realising your parents are just people too.
The Secret Life of Us
St Kilda in 2001: crop tops and low-rise jeans, drinking on the rooftop at sunset as Pollyanna plays in the background. At least, that’s what life is like for the gaggle of twenty-something friends, roommates and lovers in The Secret Life of Us. Nostalgia for Melbourne of the 2000’s is evoked through the messy, ordinary lives of these friends as they weave their way through the tangle of your early twenties, finding out who you are with your friends by your side.
Blue Heelers
Us Aussies love a small-town cop-procedural. Blue Heelers hit the nail on the head, with the one-episode-crime-and-solution that sees all the characters end up at the local pub. The show ran for 13 seasons, filled with the home-and-away style drama and classic 90’s colloquialisms. Rural Australian towns are at the crux of our Australian gothic films and books. Blue Heelers brought the community, the comradery, and the crime to our screens
Neighbours
You may groan at this one, but can we really talk about classic Melbourne telly without mentioning Ramsey Street? The answer is no – and I’m sure we’d get some head shaking despite where you sit on the fence about the drama-filled lives of the Ramsey, and Robinson families. After almost 40 years on air, the show will wrap in December 2025. Many an Aussie icon made their humble beginnings on the soapy, with faces like Kylie Minogue, Margot Robbie and Chris Hemsworth. Neighbours solidified Aussie suburbia onto the world stage, and solidified our very own Kylie into world domination.
Wilfred
What happens when your girlfriend’s dog is a pot-smoking, manipulative arsehole in a dog suit? Adam Zwar’s depressed everyman finds out when he moves in with his new girlfriend Sarah and her dog Wilfred, who only he can see as a bloke wearing a mangy canine costume. Created by Jason Gann and Adam Zwar, this darkly hilarious SBS series ran for two seasons, winning three AFI Awards and spawning an American remake. Shot around Richmond, the series captures the absurdist humour and crude charm that made it a cult favourite. Wilfred drinks, smokes, schemes and generally terrorises the neighbourhood while Adam tries to keep his sanity intact. It’s uncomfortable, bizarre and brilliantly funny; the kind of show that makes you question whether your own pet might be silently judging you.
Jack Irish
Guy Pearce trades Hollywood glamour for scuzzy Fitzroy pubs in this gritty detective series adapted from Peter Temple’s novels. Irish is a former criminal lawyer turned debt collector, apprentice cabinet maker, punter and occasional private investigator, still haunted by his wife’s murder by a deranged ex-client. When cases pull him into Melbourne’s criminal underworld – from drug smuggling to corrupt politicians to dangerous religious cults – Irish relies on his street smarts, wry humour and the Fitzroy Youth Club, a crew of geriatric football tragics at his local.
The Box
Crawford Productions unleashed Australia’s raunchiest soap opera in 1974 when The Box hit screens, set inside the fictional UCV Channel 12 television station. Shot at ATV-0 in Melbourne, this scandalous series followed the professional and personal chaos of station executives, presenters and office staff with storylines packed full of sex, nudity, bisexuality and industry satire. Australian television’s first lesbian kiss aired in the premiere episode, alongside scheming journalist Vicki Stafford and bumbling actor Tony Wild. Characters were reportedly based on recognisable industry figures, with station owner Sir Henry Usher drawing comparisons to media moguls Sir Frank Packer and Reg Ansett. The series featured a gossipy tea lady Mrs Hopkins and flamboyant gay producer Lee Whiteman, breaking new ground for adult content on Australian television.
Prisoner: Cell Block H
Melbourne’s Wentworth Detention Centre became one of the grittiest addresses on Australian television when Prisoner launched in 1979, filmed at Network Ten’s Nunawading studios. Known simply as Prisoner in Australia but renamed Prisoner: Cell Block H overseas, this groundbreaking series focused on the inmates of a fictional women’s prison rather than the wardens, with storylines tackling feminism, homosexuality and social reform through the lens of incarceration. Top dog Bea Smith, gin-soaked Lizzie Birdsworth and thumb-sucking Doreen Anderson anchored the action alongside sadistic officer Vera Bennett and the terrifying Joan Ferguson, known as The Freak. Running for 692 episodes across eight seasons until 1986, the series became one of Australia’s most successful television exports, selling to 80 countries and developing cult followings in the US and UK. The series filmed almost exclusively in Melbourne, with exterior shots at the Channel 10 studios doubled as the prison facade, bars added to windows for authenticity.
Utopia
Working Dog Productions skewers government bureaucracy in this razor-sharp satire set inside the fictional Nation Building Authority. Rob Sitch, Santo Cilauro and Tom Gleisner created this comedy following Tony and his team as they attempt to turn grand political infrastructure dreams into reality while navigating corporate rhetoric, flaky wifi, endless meetings and projects that feasibility studies said weren’t actually feasible. Shot in East Melbourne with a stellar cast including Sitch, Kitty Flanagan, Celia Pacquola and Anthony Lehmann, Utopia has run for five seasons since 2014, winning Logies and drawing comparisons to The Office and Parks and Recreation. Anyone who’s worked in government or large organisations will recognise the painfully accurate depiction of bureaucratic absurdity. Known internationally as Dreamland, the series proves Australian political satire is alive, well and uncomfortably close to reality.
Offspring
Obstetrician Nina Proudman’s messy life plays out across Fitzroy’s vibrant streets in this romantic dramedy that became a national treasure. Asher Keddie anchors the seven-season series as Nina, a thirty-something doctor navigating her chaotic family, complicated love life and tendency to drift into fantasy sequences. Shot through Melbourne’s inner north, Offspring mixes conventional drama with flashbacks and animation, capturing the scruffy charm of the neighbourhood where Nina and her fabulously dysfunctional Proudman clan go about their unpredictable daily lives. Kat Stewart steals scenes as Nina’s sister Billie, while Eddie Perfect and Don Hany round out a cast that made Sunday nights essential viewing from 2010 to 2017. The show won Keddie five consecutive Logies for Most Popular Actress, and the series became appointment television for audiences drawn to its quirky humour, emotional depth and very Melbourne sensibility.
Seachange
High-flying Melbourne lawyer Laura Gibson trades the city for coastal bliss in this beloved dramedy that defined an entire cultural phenomenon. After her husband’s arrested for fraud and she discovers he’s been shagging her sister, Laura packs up kids Miranda and Rupert and heads to the fictional seaside town of Pearl Bay, where she becomes the local magistrate. Shot in Barwon Heads and St Leonards on the Bellarine Peninsula, SeaChange ran for three seasons from 1998 to 2000, becoming the most-watched Australian drama of its era. Sigrid Thornton leads a cast of eccentric townies including David Wenham as Diver Dan, John Howard as scheming estate agent Bob Jelly, and William McInnes as journalist Max Connors. The series sparked a genuine migration trend of city-dwellers escaping to coastal towns, with house prices around filming locations soaring as viewers fell in love with Pearl Bay’s sleepy charm.
Check out our list of Best Melbourne films here, Best Melbourne Bands here, and Best Melbourne Albums here.
