A claws-out comedy set in the chaotic offices of Australia’s “sixth most-read public affairs publication”, this web series is a promising showcase of satirical talent and an on-brand swipe at digital publishing’s thirsty click culture. Like a Millennial Utopia, these half-dozen micro episodes spotlight the point where the best of intentions are subverted by self-interest. Like an ill-judged hashtag, the show’s dual meanings can sting.

Strongly sketched, the characters sit either side of the divide between journalism and profits: editor Monique (Emily Taheny) pursues the former to advance her profile, publisher Max (Mike Mcleish) schemes for the latter. The subjects are timely, from AI-generated content to a kinky celebrity death hoax that no one verifies before publishing because it invokes the holy trinity of “death, sex, and nostalgia”.

The outcomes are farcical, as when Monique takes over the site’s TikTok account, but Nick Melin’s series has a sharply accurate take on the content – there should be some ears burning. Thankfully we’re past the point where a web series such as Monologue is judged on whether it could be scaled up to a half-hour on the ABC. Like a catchy headline, the show is succinct and successful. It deserves a like.

Mulligan
Netflix

Tina Fey is an executive producer and voices a supporting role in this middling adult animated comedy about the mishap-laden reconstruction of the planet after an alien invasion is thwarted, but it was created by her 30 Rock collaborator Robert Carlock and Daily Show writer Sam Means. Equal parts infrastructure absurdism and daft character sketch – the odd alien is still hanging around – the show has a less-than-stellar visual aesthetic and plenty of pleasing gags that don’t add up to much, despite the voice talents of Nat Faxon, Sam Richardson and Dana Carvey.

Ghosts of Beirut
Paramount+

A documentary-drama from Fauda co-creators Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff, this limited series recounts the rise and eventual fall of Imad Mughniyeh, a Lebanese activist who in the 1980s helped form Hezbollah and plotted the group’s prominence in the Middle East’s myriad conflicts. The four episodes mix dramatic strands and documentary testimony from those who studied or hunted Mughniyeh, a tactician who pioneered the use of suicide bombers, and while it is intriguing in parts it suffers from fleeting storylines and intermittent glimpses of the characters. There’s no core to grasp onto.

City on Fire
Apple TV+

In a notable miss for Apple TV+, Garth Risk Hallberg’s acclaimed murder-mystery novel, a sprawling, atmospheric tale that moved through the sometimes ruins of mid-1970s New York, was adapted by Josh Schwartz (The O.C.) and Stephanie Savage (Gossip Girl). Unsurprisingly, and unfortunately, the pair moved the setting to 2003, and while that’s their cultural sweet spot, the resulting series lacks a sense of place, a hodgepodge of characters seemingly inspired by different decades, and even a notable era-friendly soundtrack. The book’s page-turning pull is gone.

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Welcome to Flatch
Stan

The transatlantic success of The Office and more recently Ghosts means that there will always be remakes of hit British comedies by American networks. This one has an unlikely source, siblings Daisy May and Charlie Cooper’s This Country, a piercing and deeply specific mockumentary about life in a dead-end English rural town. Transposed to Ohio, the remake by Jenny Bicks (Sex and the City) works reasonably well on its own terms as cousins Kelly (comedian Holmes) and “Shrub” Mallet (Sam Straley) keep busy essentially doing nothing. It plays better if you haven’t seen the original.

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