Pick of the Upfronts: 2022

Now that we’re into 2022 and ABC, Seven, Nine & 10 have held their Upfronts (SBS is due in February), what can we look forward to?

Here’s a few choice picks from me, plus a few others we know are coming in Subscription TV.

ABC:

Barons
Featuring a fantastic ensemble cast, dominated by Australia’s hottest young talent, including; Sean Keenan, Jillian Nguyen, Ben O’Toole, Hunter Page-Lochard, Sophia Forrest, George Pullar, Lincoln Younes and Vivenne Awosoga. Barons tells the story of a surf-crazed group of hippy friends who turn their backs on the world in search of their ideal patch of surfing paradise. Little do they know that their desire for ultimate freedom and the perfect wave will take them from the beach to the boardroom, creating billion-dollar empires. But in selling their surfing dream to the world, these best friends will become fierce rivals and the question for this found family is – once you sell paradise can you ever get it back again? Set in the 1970s hedonistic world of surfing and the cutthroat culture of entrepreneurship, Barons sense of adventure, fun and infinite possibilities, will appeal to both young and young at heart audiences.

Mystery Road: Origin
It’s 1999, and Constable Jay Swan, a charismatic young officer arrives at his new station. Fresh from the city and tipped for big things, Jay might be the new copper, but he’s not new to this town. His estranged father Jack lives here, as does the woman who will change his life forever, Mary. Mystery Road: Origin will explore how a tragic death, an epic love, and the brutal reality of life as a police officer straddling two worlds, form the indelible mould out of which will emerge, Detective Jay Swan. Proud Nyikina man Mark Coles Smith plays Young Jay leading a stellar cast including Toby Leonard Moore, Daniel Henshall, Lisa Flanagan, Clarence Ryan, Steve Bisley, Caroline Brazier, Hayley McElhinney, Dubs Yunupingu, Kelton Pell, Leonie Whyman, Salme Geransar, Nina Young and rising stars Jayden Popik, Grace Chow and Tuuli Narkle as Jay’s first love Mary.

Old People’s Home for Teenagers
The success of Old People’s Home For 4 Year Olds has paved the way for a bunch of bigger kids to join a bold ground-breaking experiment as Old People’s Home For Teenagers debuts. Presumed polar-opposites, older people and teens in fact have much in common. Both can experience loneliness and isolation impacting their health and wellbeing. Having seen how intergenerational care can impact the health and happiness of older Australians, we will witness a new perspective, and test if casting aside pre-conceived notions and spending quality time together can help both teenagers and older Australians live more fulfilling lives. Can sharing seemingly everyday tasks from cooking to technology build the connection needed to improve the overall wellbeing, confidence and mood of both age groups? There will be frustrations and short fuses. Will the teens gain tools for resilience? Will self-esteem rise as feelings of loneliness fall? This incredible social experiment is not to be missed.

Stories from Oz
Stories From Oz is an irreverent comedy documentary series where six of Australia’s most defining stories are retold as musicals. Written by The Chaser’s Chris Taylor and Andrew Hansen, and performed by an ensemble cast of dazzling triple-threats, this 6-part extravaganza breathes new life into some of the country’s most colourful stories, by giving them the full musical treatment they’ve always deserved. Produced by acclaimed comedy production house Princess Pictures, the series ingeniously swings between interviews with the real-life players and musical numbers that give Taylor and Hansen full rein to put their trademark satirical spin on the material. The stories receiving the full razzle-dazzle makeover are: the saga of Schapelle Corby, the unlikely triumph of Steven Bradbury, the political showdown of the Tampa affair, Melbourne’s cursed Ferris wheel, the fairy- tale of the young Tasmanian woman Mary Donaldson, and the international meltdown caused by Barnaby Joyce when he threatened to euthanise Johnny Depp’s pet dogs, Pistol and Boo. Billed as the world’s first documentary you can dance to, Stories From Oz is proof positive that some stories are so extraordinary that it’s not enough to simply tell them. You have to sing them as well.

MaveriX
With motocross in the red-hot heart of Australia, it’s all action, all the time. MaveriX follows a group of junior riders that make up the first intake of the MaveriX Academy. MaveriX is a bold experiment in next-level riding designed to push them to their limits, supercharge their talents and set them on a course to the big time. At the Academy the six gifted individual riders will spend six weeks in Alice Springs over the summer holidays in one of the hottest, dustiest, hostile, and yet beautiful environments known to humankind. Here they must learn to race as a team – or fail.

Seven:

Australian Idol
The television icon returns to our screens after a 12-year hiatus, travelling around the country to find the next music superstars. The show that gave us Guy Sebastian, Jessica Mauboy, Shannon Noll, Anthony Callea, Casey Donovan, Ricki-Lee Coulter, Matt Corby and many more will be back, bigger and better than ever. 

Claremont
The disappearance of young women launches a 25-year investigation by the police and one tenacious journalist, all in dogged determination to seek justice. From the creatives behind Seven’s compelling drama Catching Milat, this four-hour investigative mini-series is a Screentime production.

Around the World in 80 Days
David Tennant plays English gentleman-turned-adventurer Phileas Fogg, with French actor Ibrahim Koma as Fogg’s irrepressible valet, Passepartout, and Leonie Benesch as determined journalist, Abigail ‘Fix’ Fortescue.

Nine:

After the Verdict
To catch a killer, four everyday people go beyond the call of jury duty in the 9Network’s gripping new drama series After The Verdict, starring Sullivan Stapleton (Animal Kingdom, Strike Back, Blindspot), Magda Szubanski (Kath & Kim, Babe, Happy Feet) and Lincoln Younes (Doctor Doctor, Grand Hotel, Tangle). After The Verdict tells a story of four very different Australians who have just finished jury duty on a high-profile murder trial. As they return to normal life, they begin to question their verdict and take matters into their own hands, investigating the murder themselves as they juggle the pressures and impacts on their personal lives. Screen Australia’s Head of Content Sally Caplan said, “Creators Ellie Beaumont and Drew Proffitt have a proven track record of highly entertaining dramas and Screen Australia is pleased to support them, together with a talented creative team, on the distinctive new series After The Verdict. With an engaging storyline that showcases contemporary Australia, I’m confident it will appeal to audiences here and around the world.” 

Underbelly: Vanishing Act
Underbelly returns to Channel 9 in 2022, based on the real-life mystery that captivated the nation. Underbelly: Vanishing Act tells the story of the bizarre disappearance of Melissa Caddick, the high-roller who allegedly embezzled over $40 million before vanishing into thin air. It’s a mystery that has left Caddick’s family, clients and the police questioning everything they thought they knew about her.
Underbelly: Vanishing Act stars Kate Atkinson (Wentworth, Jack Irish, SeaChange) as Melissa Caddick, alongside Colin Friels (Water Rats, BlackJack, Mystery Road), Tai Hara (Madam Secretary, Home and Away, Hyde & Seek), Maya Stange (Love Child, A Place to Call Home, Wolf Creek, Rake), Ursula Mills (Out of the Blue), and Sophie Bloom (Love Child, Amazing Grace, Reef Break).

10:

Hunted Australia:
Arriving on 10 in 2022, the radical social experiment Hunted will take viewers on an intense, edge-of-the- seat journey where ordinary Australians go on the run, attempting to avoid a crack team of expert hunters. The stakes will be huge in this real-life thriller as we follow Australian fugitives, all facing the daunting challenge of remaining undetected. The fugitives will not be allowed any money to assist them and are unable to enlist the help of others during their desperate flight. To evade their pursuers, they’ll need to become invisible. But when every move you make can leave a trace, hiding in plain sight will be far from simple. The team of experts giving chase will consist of some of the world’s top investigators, each of them with access to cutting edge, targeted technology. If our ordinary Australians can outsmart and outrun the pros, they stand to win an incredible prize. 

Would I Lie to You Australia?
Host Chrissie Swan will direct two teams – captained by hilarious comedians Chris Taylor and Frank Woodley – as they navigate the far-fetched to the perfectly plausible. Trying to hoodwink each other with hilarious tall and twisted tales, it’s up to viewers to separate the truth from the fiction. Each week a stellar line-up of celebrity and comedic guests will reveal amazing and bizarre stories about themselves. Some stories, incredibly, are true. Other stories, amazingly, are made up. The aim of the game is to fool the opposing team into mistaking fact for fiction and fiction for fact.

SBS

First Wars
Presented by Rachel Perkins, this polemic documentary series reveals the extraordinary story of Australia’s First Wars. It will unearth the 100-year history of the frontier conflict that has often been buried, whitewashed, or ignored. By challenging our past, the series asks Australians who we are, and who we want to become as a nation. 

Foxtel / Binge

House of the Dragon
The Game of Thrones prequel features Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen and peeks of other characters. The cast also features Paddy Considine, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Rhys Ifans, Eve Best, Sonoya Mizuno, Fabien Frankel, Graham McTavish, David Horovitch, Matthew Needham, Bill Paterson, Gavin Spokes and Aussie Ryan Corr.

The Twelve
The Twelve tells of 12 ordinary people who are selected for jury duty in a murder trial as traumatising as it is controversial, in which a woman stands accused of killing a child. Behind the façade of their anonymity, these twelve ordinary people bring with them their own histories. Lives that are as complex as the trial, full of fractured dreams, shameful secrets, hope, fears, personal trauma and prejudice. Through the multiple lenses of these jurors, we see the fragility and imbalances of the law, and the chaotic and flawed way we attempt to determine justice in our society. The cast includes Sam Neill, Marta Dusseldorp, Brooke Satchwell, Kate Mulvany, Hazem Shammas, Brendan Cowell, Pallavi Sharda, Ngali Shaw, Catherine Van-Davies, Bishanyia Vincent and Damien Strouthos.

Netflix

Inventing Anna
In Inventing Anna, a journalist with a lot to prove investigates the case of Anna Delvey, the Instagram-legendary German heiress who stole the hearts of New York’s social scene – and stole their money as well. But is Anna New York’s biggest con woman or is she simply the new portrait of the American dream? Anna and the reporter form a dark, funny love-hate bond as Anna awaits trial and our reporter fights the clock to answer the biggest question in NYC: who is Anna Delvey? The series is inspired by the New York Magazine article “How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People” by Jessica Pressler.

Stan

Gold
Set against the backdrop of a vast, unique and unforgiving landscape, Gold is a taut thriller about greed and the lengths people will go to secure themselves a fortune. When two drifters travelling through the desert stumble across the biggest gold nugget ever found, the dream of immense wealth and greed takes hold. They hatch a plan to protect and excavate their bounty with one man leaving to secure the necessary equipment to pull it out of the earth. The other man remains and must endure harsh desert elements, preying wild dogs and mysterious intruders, whilst battling the sinking suspicion that he has been abandoned to his own fate. Stars Zac Efron, Anthony Hayes and Susie Porter.

Amazon Prime Video

The Lord of the Rings
The new epic drama brings to screens for the very first time J.R.R. Tolkien’s fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. Beginning in a time of relative peace, thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. Headlining this ensemble cast are Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman, and Sara Zwangobani.

Deadloch
A new Australian Original comedy series written by ‘The Kates’ (Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan) and produced by Guesswork Television, OK Great Productions and Amazon Studios. ‘The Kates’ latest creation is a feminist noir comedy set against a bucolic backdrop with a rising body count.

Disney

Hocus Pocus 2
Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy will run amok again as The Sanderson Sisters in “Hocus Pocus 2,” the sequel to Disney’s Halloween cult classic.

Obi-Wan Kenobi
Ewan McGregor returns in the iconic role of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi for a special event series on Disney+. Officially titled “Obi-Wan Kenobi”, the series begins 10 years after the dramatic events of “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith” where he faced his greatest defeat, the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker turned evil Sith Lord Darth Vader. The series is directed by Deborah Chow, who helmed memorable episodes of The Mandalorian, Season 1, and features the return of Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader.

Apple TV

The Tragedy of Macbeth
Based on the play by William Shakespeare and written for the screen and directed by Joel Coen. The film stars Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Bertie Carvel, Alex Hassell, Corey Hawkins, Harry Melling and Brendan Gleeson. The producers are Joel Coen, Frances McDormand and Robert Graf. The film features casting by Ellen Chenoweth, music by Carter Burwell, costumes by Mary Zophres, editing by Lucian Johnston and Reginald Jaynes, production design by Stefan Dechant and cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel.

The Sound of 007
A documentary film that “will go behind the lens into the greatest movie franchise in history from the genesis of Dr. No and the iconic 007 theme song all the way to No Time To Die, mixing heartfelt interviews with incredible James Bond archive material.”

BritBox

The Tower
The Tower is based on the acclaimed debut novel by Kate London, a former detective who spent eight years in the Metropolitan Police’s homicide squad. A long-serving police officer and a teenage girl fall to their deaths from an East London tower block. Left alive on the roof are a 5-year-old boy and a rookie police officer. DSI Sarah Collins (Gemma Whelan) sets out to uncover the truth around the two grisly deaths, and the investigation takes her into the dark heart of policing, which in turn, reveals horrifying truths. Starring Gemma Whelan.

AMC+

Kin
In eight-part Irish gang drama Kin, a boy is killed and his family embark on a gangland war with an international cartel – a war that is impossible to win. It’s David and Goliath. Out-numbered, out-financed and out-gunned, the Kinsellas find themselves holed up in their Dublin stronghold while their businesses fail, and family members and associates are picked off. But they have something the cartel does not: the unbreakable bonds of blood and family. Kin is a world where gangsters are treated like reality stars, with nicknames and celebrity status, where assassins dress up as women, and drug dealers keep exotic pets in their den. A world of drugs and guns and murder and loyalty and family and men… and a woman. Stars Charlie Cox (Daredevil, Boardwalk Empire), Clare Dunne (Herself), Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones) and Ciarán Hinds (Game of Thrones, The Terror). Peter McKenna (The Last Kingdom, Red Rock) serves as showrunner/executive producer, writer and creator, alongside Ciarán Donnelly (Altered Carbon, Vikings) who serves as executive producer.

Paramount+

The Last King of the Cross
John Ibrahim’s explosive autobiography comes alive in the gritty mini-series Last King of the Cross, the tale of brothers John and Sam, their ascent to power on Sydney’s mean streets, and the impact their expanding empire has on their relationship.

The Bridge
New Australian reality adventure program The Bridge Australia will offer up-for-a-challenge Australians the chance to work together to build a bridge to an island where life-changing prize money awaits. Once the team members have completed their feat of engineering, they’ll be forced to decide which of them most deserves the cash based on their contribution to building The Bridge.

Halo
And for all Halo gamers out there (80-million and counting, since its release in 2001), hold on to your controllers! The creators of the super popular video game series have ventured into TV. The live-action Halo series will take viewers into the world of the Master Chief, to see an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant.