Ratings season is over, which means TV becomes a semi-wasteland, unless you want to watch a lot of sport. Fear not: whether it’s a hot new show or a streaming sleeper that slipped under your radar, we’ve got your summer viewing sorted.

Tidelands
In Australia’s first Netflix original series, ex-con Cal McTeer (Charlotte Best) returns to her home town, the fictional Orphelin Bay, to uncover the town’s murky mysteries. The supernatural drama features Elsa Pataky as a sexy siren.
Streaming on Netflix from December 14.

Bloom
In the six-part Australian original series, Bloom, (starring Jacki Weaver, Bryan Brown, Phoebe Tonkin and Ryan Corr) a plant with the power to restore youth appears in an idyllic country town after a devastating flood.
Streaming on Stan from January 1.

Schitt’s Creek
Canadian comedy legends Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy (Best in Show) star as the fabulously wealthy Roses who lose everything apart from one asset: An unfortunately named small town, bought as a gag for their son David (played by Eugene’s real-life son Daniel Levy, who also wrote the series).
Seasons 1 to 4 streaming on Netflix with a new Christmas special dropping on December 19. Season 1 airs on ABC Comedy.

Dogs
This six-part docuseries is about the universal love between man and his best friend, with stories spanning from Manhattan to the streets of Damascus in Syria. Spoiler alert: If you’re human, the emotional storylines may leave you howling, but nobody – including dogs – dies.
Now streaming on Netflix.

Succession
Ruthless and spoiled siblings fight it out after their ageing dad (Brian Cox) decides he won’t be stepping down as the head of the mega-rich family’s media and entertainment empire. Murdoch much? The blackly comic melodrama co-stars Australian actor Sarah Snook.
Premiering on Foxtel’s Showcase on December 6.

Like what you see? See more rich people misbehaving in Seasons 1-3 of the brilliant Billions, now streaming on Stan.

The Bold Type
Inspired by the life of a former Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief Joanna Coles, the frothy series follows three millennial women including Aussie Aisha Dee who work at a glossy title that – like the series – is fun and shallow on the surface (Friendship! Fashion! Female empowerment!) while tackling more meaningful issues on the sly. Easy, breezy and fun to watch.
Seasons 1 and 2 streaming on Stan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toE2I3K4oWQ

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
This modern reconsideration of the 1960s comic book character is a far cry from the upbeat 1990s sitcom starring Melissa Joan Hart. Mad Men’s Kiernan Shipka stars as the troubled teenage witch. Think Harry Potter meets Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
Season 1 is streaming now on Netflix and a Christmas special (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Midwinter’s Tale) drops on December 14.

Like what you see? Keep the spell going with the visually stunning A Discovery of Witches, starring Teresa Palmer as a scholarly witch whose relationship with a powerbroker vampire (Matthew Goode) creates deadly ructions in the world of ‘creatures’. Now on Fox 8.

The Little Drummer Girl
From the producers of The Night Manager, this intriguing and twisty spy thriller is based on the John Le Carré novel. It’s set in the late 1970s and stars Alexander Skarsgård, Michael Shannon and Florence Pugh.
Watch it on Foxtel’s BBC First.

Like what you see? A Very Secret Service is an intelligent and beautifully produced blend of spy satire and dry office comedy set in 1960s Paris.

2016’s Search Party is the definition of a sleeper hit.

Search Party
A little late to the party (it premiered in 2016), but this pitch-black comedy about smart-mouthed millennials (including Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat and a scene-stealing John Early) tackling a maybe-mystery is addictive, unpredictable and deftly plotted. Like a grittier version of Girls.
Seasons 1 and 2 streaming on SBS On Demand.

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
The Emmy and Golden Globe-sweeping series by Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino stars Rachel Brosnahan as a fast-talking housewife turned aspiring stand-up comic in 1950s New York.
Season two streams on Amazon Prime from December 5.

Patrick Melrose
Benedict Cumberbatch (who also is a producer on the hilarious and harrowing five-part series) stars as a wryly funny heroin addict haunted by his privileged but traumatic upbringing, mainly at the hands of his cruel father (played by Hugo Weaving in flashbacks).
Watch it on Foxtel’s BBC First.