The best TV shows of the year (so far)

While big hitters such as The Pitt delivered, there have also been a few genuinely delightful surprises.

Somehow – somehow! – we are at the halfway point of the TV year, and while there hasn’t been one show that has gripped the collective imagination, such as The White Lotus, for example, there has been a slow march of great shows. And while big hitters such as The Pitt delivered, there were also a few genuinely delightful surprises, such as Dog Park, Widow’s Bay and Margo’s Got Money Troubles. If you haven’t watched everything, don’t worry, our critics have got you covered. Consider this either as your guide for the next six months, or as a cheat sheet for whenever anyone asks, “What have you been watching?” Louise Rugendyke

It’s been 10 years since there’s been a genuinely great season from a show in the extended Game of Thrones fantasy realm – we’re talking season six of the original blockbuster series. That’s a long enough wait for audiences to lose hope. But it also meant that when the franchise did deliver, with this knotty, everyday depiction of life in the Kingdom of Westeros, it was a genuine surprise and an absolute pleasure. Downscaling considerably, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was essentially a bloody long weekend at a peacetime tournament for knights and aristocrats, where a pair of outcasts joined forces to be heard: the impoverished squire Dunk (Peter Claffey) and a chippy kid, Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell). Told with impeccably concise pacing and a feel for the characters, this self-contained season married an earthy sense of place with the lead’s desires to be heard on their own terms. Craig Mathieson

The second season of this dramedy/police-procedural starts off as scrappy, loud and messy as its detective Eddie Redcliffe (Madeleine Sami) but ends up as meticulously crafted as any of Dulcie Collins’ (Kate Box) police work. The pair are in Darwin, Eddie’s home ground, and it only makes her more chaotic, tightly wound and impulsive. Ostensibly, they’re looking into the circumstances of her former cop partner’s death, but as soon as body parts begin washing up in the river, they’re on the job. Croc-rustling, illegal hunting and family secrets all fester. But really, this is a brilliantly constructed – and very funny – poke at a much bigger subject: the dark heart of colonisation, displacement and policing in the Top End (and by a not terribly great extension, Australia as a whole). I bet they loved it over at Sky News. Karl Quinn

Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope have delighted us for decades with an eclectic array of shows (Upper Middle Bogan,