Critic Reviews

Though set in the ’80s, “The Newsreader” feels timely, especially in the way it portrays journalists wanting to do the right thing when it comes to holding power to account, only to be overruled by corporate bosses. It’s also a show attuned to the smallest details of an actor’s performance. .... Even the show’s writing is delicious.

Torv, a Melbournite, does more than bring the usual steely determination to the role of a female ladder climber in a man’s world. She also brings vulnerability, while mostly keeping it concealed from her colleagues. ... [It handles] universal topics in a low-key, immersive storytelling style that fans of thoughtful drama should enjoy, regardless of their country of origin.

It’s a well-told and engrossing drama, offsetting the franticness of a tumultuous industry with a dignified sensibility.

The Newsreader is the kind of solidly made and eminently watchable gem that could easily fly under the radar. It is absolutely worth seeking out.

The Newsreader was, is, a joy to watch, and this is mainly down to Anna Torv who plays with fabulous nuance Helen, a talented, takes-no-crap TV newsreader in an Australian newsroom in the 1980s, suffering sexism, male hostility and panic attacks.

Ravenous story-hound Helen remains the show’s moral and magnetic core – so much so that she often occludes Reid’s Dale.

I have watched the whole series and, apart from one jump-the-shark moment for Helen, it is a treat.

If this series feels a shade jerkier than the first – sometimes it’s as if it doesn’t know what to do with Helen and Dale as a couple – it remains classy, laser-focused and like nothing else on the box.

Initially seems to go out of its way to be dreary, not helped by a colour palette in shades of beige and brown. If you make it past the first episode, though, it improves.

The third season dips a little but there’s still more than enough to satisfy fans.