Trying to wind down after a hard day's work? Don't turn on your TV
What is 'work'? Work is being asked to arrange numbers on a screen for eight hours a day and never being told why. Work is being pulled in so many different directions that the only relief you feel is from hiding in a room and crying. Work is being so enraged by professional sabotage that you throw a burrito at your co-worker. Work is feeling such pressure to perform that you stay up all night at your computer drinking energy drinks until you have a heart attack in a toilet cubicle.
Wait, is work like that? TV certainly seems to be telling us so.
When you consider the most talked about shows of the recent years – Severance, The Pitt, The Bear, Hacks and Industry, for instance – many of them seem to revolve around the idea that the modern workplace is a hellscape.
Hacks paints comedy (and making art) as a pursuit poisoned by money and personal betrayal. The Bear – particularly the most recent season – lets us know that hospitality is a game of Russian roulette, where the talented and kind burn out and the corrupt thrive. Industry tells viewers from its very first episode that working in finance kills your heart metaphorically and, sometimes, quite literally.
Whether you loved or loathed the second season of Severance, the reason it initially stuck to people's brains was the dark exploration that a home self and work self could exist at odds with each other; that bringing your personal baggage to work was detrimental to your tasks (even if those tasks were monotonous and nonsensical).
Does severing your home self and work self protect your soul? How much meaning should you find in work? You might argue that when Severance became less concerned with work boundaries and selfhood, and more concerned with goats and innie-outie love triangles, it lost its spiciest subject matter.
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The workplace as TV fodder isn't new, obviously. Mary Tyler Moore getting up to hijinks as a TV producer in the 1970s was probably the first workplace comedy – suddenly, a domestic setting wasn't the only way to tell stories. Legal and medical procedurals have dominated television for decades, with the Law and Order franchise, ER and Grey's Anatomy providing season after season of such rhythmic storytelling that audiences found (and still find) comfort in the familiar formula.
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ABC News
5 hours ago
- ABC News
The Pitt medical drama could easily be set in an Australian emergency room
I don't usually set my friends homework before I agree to catch up with them, but I had questions — many, detailed questions, and only someone who worked in the emergency room of a public hospital was going to be able to answer them. And to do that, my highly skilled, incredibly busy friend Nadine was going to have to sit down and watch all 15 episodes of The Pitt. The series depicts 15 hours of one shift in an under-funded, overcrowded emergency department of a Pittsburgh hospital, and it's the co-creation of the star, writer and co-producer of ER, the most famous TV emergency room of all: the actor Noah Wyle, R. Scott Gemmill and John Wells. The Pitt is riveting, real and unsentimental television, set in a time of fentanyl abuse, a national bed crisis and assaults against health workers. It's been lauded by many US emergency doctors as the most realistic medical drama ever. Watching it you ask yourself one question over and over — is this how it really is? Is this happening here in Australia? I needed my friend to answer this for me. Nadine is a specialist in one of the best-known emergency departments in the country. She has had the almost unbearable task of dealing with the aftermath of some of our most significant public tragedies. The day we made our plan to meet she had just finished a "rotten day: six trauma cases in the space of two-and-a-half hours." By the time we sat together for dinner, almost everyone she knew in her field had told Nadine she had to watch the show, and finally she did. In one go. Her verdict? "It's everything you ever see in emergency medicine all crammed into one day. And it's absolutely true." Nobody in Australia who enjoys this incredibly well-written and brilliantly acted show will want to recognise any elements in our publicly funded system, of which we enjoy being proud. The US hospital comparison is one we only ever make to land the point about the importance of our universal, public coverage. But increasingly, our intensivists, doctors and nurses will tell you that the experience is becoming the same. My friend talks of families of six children arriving early to her emergency room, clearly unable to afford or secure the multiple GP visits they need. The room is crowded by 11am and stays that way, with many cases better suited to the primary care that families can't afford. Noah Wyle, who played young doctor John Carter on ER, has said that one of the key differences between his time on ER and now, and one of the reasons he decided to revisit the subject, is that in 1994 around 40 million Americans were without health insurance and relied on emergency departments for primary health care; that figure, he says, has now doubled. This week both the ABC and the Nine newspapers have highlighted emergency department waiting times and bed shortages in NSW and Victorian public hospitals: wait times of up to 88 hours, no beds for admissions and deaths in EDs of untreated patients. Workforce shortages have forced mental health services to close and left staff struggling to keep the system functioning. All the while, primary care in this country has taken a beating. The Royal Australasian College of GPs has argued over the years that governments have tended to direct more funding to hospitals and emergency services rather than investing in primary care, despite strong evidence that primary care reduces hospital demand. According to the Productivity Commission, the average cost to the government when a patient visits an emergency department is $692 compared to $82.90 for 20 to 40 minutes with their GP for early diagnosis and preventative care. But you need enough GPs in clinics to make that a reality, and you need to fund Medicare well enough to make it worth the while of being a GP, which is one of the most important, complex and unsung roles in the medical system. Anyone who is lucky enough to have a good GP, and have them over the decades of their life, will attest. During the election campaign, the Albanese government promised an injection of $8.5 billion into Medicare, but GPs argue that the focus, and money, needs to be on funding longer consults for patients who increasingly have co-morbidities and complex health conditions that a bulk-billed 15-minute consult can't solve. The government wants "nine out of 10 visits to the GP to be free" but with complex medical needs, this won't help cover costs for a doctor's visit that will keep you out of the emergency room. If you have had the unfortunate need to turn up to an emergency department, I hope that like so many others you came away amazed and grateful for the generally excellent care that our public hospitals provide. If you get to see someone like my friend Nadine and her colleagues, you will be in exceptionally good hands. I just hope you don't find that you have to go see her because, in Australia in 2025, you can't afford to go anywhere else. This weekend, if medical dramas are your thing, check out The Pitt or read about how to remove the burr under the saddle of so many relationships — dividing household chores. If you can't afford a doctor, you won't be able to afford a cleaner. Have a safe and happy weekend and with the magical and otherworldly singer Marlon Williams in the country, have a listen to his latest album, Te Whare Tīwekaweka, performed in Maori. Here, he is collaborating with the singer Lorde. It's simply beautiful. Go well. Virginia Trioli is presenter of Creative Types and a former co-host of ABC News Breakfast and Mornings on ABC Radio Melbourne.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
The 18 TV shows we can't wait to see this year
It's been a busy first half of the television year, as demonstrated by the interim best-of list we recently put together. But as much as the likes of Adolescence, The Pitt and Andor delivered, you can make the case that the second half of 2025 has an even more promising roster. Here's a headline sample of the scripted shows still to come, from exciting debuts to highly anticipated return seasons. Romantic comedy New Too Much: Girls creator Lena Dunham is back, crafting this transatlantic romcom with her husband, British musician Luis Felber. The set-up has autobiographical leanings, with a New Yorker, Jessica (Megan Stalter, Hacks), moving to London, where she makes a connection with Felix (Will Sharpe, The White Lotus). Gotta love Richard E. Grant in the supporting cast. Netflix, July 11. Returning Nobody Wants This (season two): As Netflix's data team can tell you, nearly everybody wants more of Erin Foster's savvy show about a take-no-prisoners Los Angeles podcaster, Joanne (Kristen Bell), who finds a genuine connection, and much entanglement, when she begins dating a newly single rabbi, Noah (Adam Brody). The show's first season profited off a prickly, unconventional take on romcom conventions. Hopefully the new episodes double down on that. Netflix, October 24. Spin-off New Outlander: Blood of My Blood: As the romantic period epic Outlander prepares for its eighth and final season, this dual-timeline prequel focuses on the origins of its time-crossed lovers, Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall. The narrative will alternate between the meetings of his parents in 18th-century Scotland, and her parents in World War I-era England. Expect the show's trademark features: passionate longing, testing endurance and strong, shirtless men. Stan*, August 9. Returning Wednesday (season two): Star Jenna Ortega had to come to terms with the success of this 2022 supernatural mystery, in which she made the delightfully macabre Wednesday Addams iconic for a new generation, but she's finally ready to rejoin the outcasts of Nevermore Academy. Wednesday's magical mystery tour of romantic intrigue and spectral conspiracy gets a jolt with the addition of Lady Gaga as a legendary teacher. Netflix, August 9 (part one) and September 4 (part two). Action-thriller New Task: Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby keeps the setting in Pennsylvania for this intense limited series about a pair of battered family men and committed professionals – Mark Ruffalo's FBI agent and Tom Pelphrey's armed robber – who are on a collision course when the former hunts the latter. Ingelsby is a sure hand with complex characters, illustrating them in striking ways. This should be gripping. Max, TBC September. Returning The Terminal List: Dark Wolf: Chris Pratt's former US Navy SEAL, James Reece, left a long and bloody – so, so bloody – line of bodies in his quest for vengeance in the first season of this muscular drama. This prequel explores how serving in the US Army and then the CIA made Reece and his comrade Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch) into the show's uncompromising veterans. Amazon Prime Video, August 27. Comedy-Drama New Hal & Harper: Hal (writer-director Cooper Raiff) and Harper (Lili Reinhart) are co-dependent twenty-something siblings whose lives are going nowhere fast. Their imperfect father (Mark Ruffalo) may have something to do with that. Figuring out what to do next makes for a bittersweet comedy with an idiosyncratic outlook – in flashbacks to the brother and sister's childhood, the adult actors play their primary-school-age characters. Stan, June 26. Returning The Bear (season four): Gotta say, there's a lot of hugging in the trailer for the new instalment of this acclaimed kitchen drama about a barely-holding-it-together chef (Jeremy Allen White) trying to launch a fine-dining restaurant in Chicago. The new season looks as if it's setting up some resolution amid the emotional exchanges, something that was in short supply for the third season. Disney+, June 26. Horror New It: Welcome to Derry: HBO's gambit of blockbuster spin-offs – see Dune: Prophecy and The Penguin – continues with this horror prequel to the hit movies adapted from Stephen King's bestseller. The setting is once again the cursed Maine town of Derry, albeit in 1962, but evil never rests and the nightmarish Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgard) will torment a new cast. The movies' director, Andy Muschietti, helms multiple episodes. Max, TBC. Returning Stranger Things (season five): It's setting up to be the streaming event of the year. With some episodes reportedly each as long as a feature film, the conclusion of the Duffer brothers' heroic mix of pop-culture nostalgia, adolescent science-fiction and wide-eyed horror will release as a three-part epic. The young stars are all adults now – this series debuted in 2016 – but its interdimensional monsters are timeless. Netflix, November 27 (part one); December 26 (part two); and January 1 (finale). Animated New Long Story Short: One of Netflix's earliest and greatest triumphs was the tragicomic adult animation BoJack Horseman, which concluded in 2020 after six illuminating seasons. Now its creator, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, and designer, Lisa Hanawalt, have reunited for this family saga, which follows a group of siblings from childhood through adulthood. The voice cast includes Paul Reiser (Mad About You) and Abbi Jacobson (Broad City). Netflix, August 23. Returning King of the Hill (season 14): This is quite the comeback. Mike Judge's animated sitcom about an everyday Texan family last aired in 2009. The plot has propane salesman Hank Hill and wife Peggy returning to Texas after years working abroad, while their son Bobby is now a twenty-something chef. The show had fun with a traditional man in a changing world, but as a setting America has changed wildly. Revisiting Hank's conspiracy-theorist friend Dale looms as a challenge. Disney+, August 4. Science-fiction New Smilla's Sense of Snow: Danish author Peter Hoeg's 1992 mystery novel Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow was a literary hit and Scandi-noir precursor. There was a Hollywood film in 1997 but it's been reimagined here, set in a politically fraught near-future. Filippa Coster-Waldau (daughter of Game of Thrones star Nikolaj) plays the title role, a young woman unofficially investigating the suspicious death of a neighbouring Greenlandic boy. SBS, TBC Returning Foundation (season three): This galactic epic launched with the goal of turning Isaac Asimov's seminal Foundation stories into eight seasons that covered 1000 years of complex history. With Jared Harris as renegade scientist Hari Seldon, and Lee Pace as an emperor losing his grip on power, it's actually getting there. This season introduces a crucial book character, mutant usurper the Mule (Pilou Asbæk), which will up the conflict. Apple TV+, July 11. Australian New Dear Life: The creative team of Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope add to an already impressive CV – The Librarians, Little Lunch, Upper Middle Bogan – with this heartfelt series about grief and understanding. Brooke Satchwell plays a woman who lost the love of her life, sending her on a journey to track down the recipients of the organ donations, which sets off a chain of unexpected new connections. Stan, TBC Returning Austin (season two): Last year's debut of this Australian-British comedy proved to be a warm, witty hit, exploring the difficulty of change through the first-time meeting of a floundering British author, Julian (Ben Miller), and his adult, Australian, autistic son, Austin (Michael Theo). The show succeeded as gentle farce and representation for the neurodiverse. In the new season Austin faces the temptation of unexpected success. ABC, TBC. Dystopian New Alien: Earth: Creator Noah Hawley, whose previous successes include building the Fargo anthology off the Coen brothers' film, delves into the Alien franchise with this horror-primed prequel set two years before 1979's original movie. The story brings the terrifying xenomorph creature to Earth after a space vessel crash-lands, with only a unique young woman and a squad of misfit soldiers on hand to confront it. Disney+, August 13. Returning Squid Game (season three): Filmed back-to-back with season two, the third instalment of this South Korean blockbuster will conclude the warped survival tale of Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) as he attempts to bring down the macabre life-and-death games being run by a cynical syndicate. The show has made economic inequality and murderous giant dolls equally memorable, and you would expect creator Hwang Dong-hyuk to hold his nerve. Netflix, July 27.
The Age
2 days ago
- The Age
The 18 TV shows we can't wait to see this year
It's been a busy first half of the television year, as demonstrated by the interim best-of list we recently put together. But as much as the likes of Adolescence, The Pitt and Andor delivered, you can make the case that the second half of 2025 has an even more promising roster. Here's a headline sample of the scripted shows still to come, from exciting debuts to highly anticipated return seasons. Romantic comedy New Too Much: Girls creator Lena Dunham is back, crafting this transatlantic romcom with her husband, British musician Luis Felber. The set-up has autobiographical leanings, with a New Yorker, Jessica (Megan Stalter, Hacks), moving to London, where she makes a connection with Felix (Will Sharpe, The White Lotus). Gotta love Richard E. Grant in the supporting cast. Netflix, July 11. Returning Nobody Wants This (season two): As Netflix's data team can tell you, nearly everybody wants more of Erin Foster's savvy show about a take-no-prisoners Los Angeles podcaster, Joanne (Kristen Bell), who finds a genuine connection, and much entanglement, when she begins dating a newly single rabbi, Noah (Adam Brody). The show's first season profited off a prickly, unconventional take on romcom conventions. Hopefully the new episodes double down on that. Netflix, October 24. Spin-off New Outlander: Blood of My Blood: As the romantic period epic Outlander prepares for its eighth and final season, this dual-timeline prequel focuses on the origins of its time-crossed lovers, Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall. The narrative will alternate between the meetings of his parents in 18th-century Scotland, and her parents in World War I-era England. Expect the show's trademark features: passionate longing, testing endurance and strong, shirtless men. Stan*, August 9. Returning Wednesday (season two): Star Jenna Ortega had to come to terms with the success of this 2022 supernatural mystery, in which she made the delightfully macabre Wednesday Addams iconic for a new generation, but she's finally ready to rejoin the outcasts of Nevermore Academy. Wednesday's magical mystery tour of romantic intrigue and spectral conspiracy gets a jolt with the addition of Lady Gaga as a legendary teacher. Netflix, August 9 (part one) and September 4 (part two). Action-thriller New Task: Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby keeps the setting in Pennsylvania for this intense limited series about a pair of battered family men and committed professionals – Mark Ruffalo's FBI agent and Tom Pelphrey's armed robber – who are on a collision course when the former hunts the latter. Ingelsby is a sure hand with complex characters, illustrating them in striking ways. This should be gripping. Max, TBC September. Returning The Terminal List: Dark Wolf: Chris Pratt's former US Navy SEAL, James Reece, left a long and bloody – so, so bloody – line of bodies in his quest for vengeance in the first season of this muscular drama. This prequel explores how serving in the US Army and then the CIA made Reece and his comrade Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch) into the show's uncompromising veterans. Amazon Prime Video, August 27. Comedy-Drama New Hal & Harper: Hal (writer-director Cooper Raiff) and Harper (Lili Reinhart) are co-dependent twenty-something siblings whose lives are going nowhere fast. Their imperfect father (Mark Ruffalo) may have something to do with that. Figuring out what to do next makes for a bittersweet comedy with an idiosyncratic outlook – in flashbacks to the brother and sister's childhood, the adult actors play their primary-school-age characters. Stan, June 26. Returning The Bear (season four): Gotta say, there's a lot of hugging in the trailer for the new instalment of this acclaimed kitchen drama about a barely-holding-it-together chef (Jeremy Allen White) trying to launch a fine-dining restaurant in Chicago. The new season looks as if it's setting up some resolution amid the emotional exchanges, something that was in short supply for the third season. Disney+, June 26. Horror New It: Welcome to Derry: HBO's gambit of blockbuster spin-offs – see Dune: Prophecy and The Penguin – continues with this horror prequel to the hit movies adapted from Stephen King's bestseller. The setting is once again the cursed Maine town of Derry, albeit in 1962, but evil never rests and the nightmarish Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgard) will torment a new cast. The movies' director, Andy Muschietti, helms multiple episodes. Max, TBC. Returning Stranger Things (season five): It's setting up to be the streaming event of the year. With some episodes reportedly each as long as a feature film, the conclusion of the Duffer brothers' heroic mix of pop-culture nostalgia, adolescent science-fiction and wide-eyed horror will release as a three-part epic. The young stars are all adults now – this series debuted in 2016 – but its interdimensional monsters are timeless. Netflix, November 27 (part one); December 26 (part two); and January 1 (finale). Animated New Long Story Short: One of Netflix's earliest and greatest triumphs was the tragicomic adult animation BoJack Horseman, which concluded in 2020 after six illuminating seasons. Now its creator, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, and designer, Lisa Hanawalt, have reunited for this family saga, which follows a group of siblings from childhood through adulthood. The voice cast includes Paul Reiser (Mad About You) and Abbi Jacobson (Broad City). Netflix, August 23. Returning King of the Hill (season 14): This is quite the comeback. Mike Judge's animated sitcom about an everyday Texan family last aired in 2009. The plot has propane salesman Hank Hill and wife Peggy returning to Texas after years working abroad, while their son Bobby is now a twenty-something chef. The show had fun with a traditional man in a changing world, but as a setting America has changed wildly. Revisiting Hank's conspiracy-theorist friend Dale looms as a challenge. Disney+, August 4. Science-fiction New Smilla's Sense of Snow: Danish author Peter Hoeg's 1992 mystery novel Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow was a literary hit and Scandi-noir precursor. There was a Hollywood film in 1997 but it's been reimagined here, set in a politically fraught near-future. Filippa Coster-Waldau (daughter of Game of Thrones star Nikolaj) plays the title role, a young woman unofficially investigating the suspicious death of a neighbouring Greenlandic boy. SBS, TBC Returning Foundation (season three): This galactic epic launched with the goal of turning Isaac Asimov's seminal Foundation stories into eight seasons that covered 1000 years of complex history. With Jared Harris as renegade scientist Hari Seldon, and Lee Pace as an emperor losing his grip on power, it's actually getting there. This season introduces a crucial book character, mutant usurper the Mule (Pilou Asbæk), which will up the conflict. Apple TV+, July 11. Australian New Dear Life: The creative team of Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope add to an already impressive CV – The Librarians, Little Lunch, Upper Middle Bogan – with this heartfelt series about grief and understanding. Brooke Satchwell plays a woman who lost the love of her life, sending her on a journey to track down the recipients of the organ donations, which sets off a chain of unexpected new connections. Stan, TBC Returning Austin (season two): Last year's debut of this Australian-British comedy proved to be a warm, witty hit, exploring the difficulty of change through the first-time meeting of a floundering British author, Julian (Ben Miller), and his adult, Australian, autistic son, Austin (Michael Theo). The show succeeded as gentle farce and representation for the neurodiverse. In the new season Austin faces the temptation of unexpected success. ABC, TBC. Dystopian New Alien: Earth: Creator Noah Hawley, whose previous successes include building the Fargo anthology off the Coen brothers' film, delves into the Alien franchise with this horror-primed prequel set two years before 1979's original movie. The story brings the terrifying xenomorph creature to Earth after a space vessel crash-lands, with only a unique young woman and a squad of misfit soldiers on hand to confront it. Disney+, August 13. Returning Squid Game (season three): Filmed back-to-back with season two, the third instalment of this South Korean blockbuster will conclude the warped survival tale of Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) as he attempts to bring down the macabre life-and-death games being run by a cynical syndicate. The show has made economic inequality and murderous giant dolls equally memorable, and you would expect creator Hwang Dong-hyuk to hold his nerve. Netflix, July 27.
