Mediaweek Podcast: Mercado & Manning on Best of 2021
The annual Mediaweek podcast listing of the best TV shows of the year drops a little bit later than usual in 2021.
Faced with a daunting number of shows released across the year the list is also a bit shorter than usual.
The list is heavy with excellent dramas series largely from Australia, the UK and the US. However, there is also a brilliant series from Spain.
Some of the programs we nominate include the Australian dramas The Newsreader, RFDS, Total Control and Unusual Suspects.
Neither of the podcasters has finished possibly the most-discussed program of the year, Squid Game, and they talk about why.
Four of the best: The Newsreader, Mare of Easttown, Annika and Veneno
Andrew and James are both big Suranne Jones fans and James lists her 2021 drama Vigil as possibly his best show of the year.
Some of the other programs on the list, in no particular order, are:
The Pact
Annika
Bridgerton
Halston
Ted Lasso S2
Mare of Easttown
Clarkson’s Farm
Guilt
Bloodlands
Time
Smother
Landscapers
Andrew’s candidate for best of the year goes to the Spanish biographical drama Veneno.
Suranne Jones in Vigil
Listen to the Mediaweek podcast on the LiSTNR app, stream from the Mediaweek website here or download via your favourite podcast platform.
Mercado on Firebite: Podcast with Warwick Thornton and Brendan Fletcher
Now available ahead of the series premiere, listen to Mediaweek’s Andrew Mercado talking with Firebite co-creators Warwick Thornton and Brendan Fletcher.
The AMC+ original Firebite premieres on Thursday 6 January on the new premium streaming bundle with new episodes to follow every Thursday.
Warwick Thornton and Brendan Fletcher at work on an earlier collaboration We Don’t Need a Map with Timmy Burrawanga
Created, directed and written by Australian celebrated Indigenous auteur Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah, Sweet Country) alongside his longtime collaborator Brendan Fletcher (Mad Bastards), with Tony Krawitz (The Tall Man, Dead Europe) joining as director, Firebite takes a new spin on the vampire genre, following two Indigenous Australian hunters, Tyson (Rob Collins, Cleverman, Extraction) and Shanika (Indigenous Australian star Shantae Barnes-Cowan), on their quest to battle the last colony of vampires in the middle of the South Australian desert. Also starring Yael Stone (Orange is the New Black) and Callan Mulvey (Avengers: End Game).
Firebite is an AMC Studios original production with See-Saw Films.
Rob Collins as Tyson and Shante Barnes-Cowan as Shanika in Firebite (Photo Credit: Ian Routledge/AMC+)
How to watch Firebite: Get AMC+
AMC+ is a new premium streaming bundle featuring a line-up of popular and critically acclaimed original programming from AMC Networks and other leading producers and distributors.
The service features a continually refreshed library of ad-free on demand content, including AMC+ Originals The Beast Must Die, Ultra City Smiths, Firebite and Anna. It also features a wide range of dramas, comedies, thrillers, true crime, and documentary series available to Australian audiences for the first time, including The Restaurant, Documentary Now!, Brockmire, Sherman’s Showcase, Ride with Norman Reedus and the True Crime Story franchise.
AMC+ also offers full access to targeted streaming services Acorn TV and Shudder at no additional cost, featuring new films and exclusive series such as My Life is Murder, Agatha Raisin, Whitstable Pearl, Creepshow, Horror Noire and V/H/S/94, among many others.
AMC+ is available in Australia for $8.99 per month on Apple TV channels on the Apple TV app and Prime Video Channels via the Amazon Prime Video app.
Listen to the Mediaweek podcast on the LiSTNR app, stream from the Mediaweek website here or download via your favourite podcast platform.
Yael Stone as Eleona in Firebite (Photo: Ian Routledge/AMC+)