Last year, our ABC produced a series called Glitch. It’s a paranormal TV show, but talks about interpersonal relationships in that inimitable style that our national broadcaster does so well. If you’ve seen it on TV, you might be surprised to know that it’s on Netflix now. If you’ve seen it on Netflix, you might be surprised to hear that it was produced with funding from the ABC.
I actually found out about Glitch a little while ago when The Australian and News.com.au parroted complaints from Channel Seven that taxpayer dollars were being spent to subsidise a production that would eventually appear on a commercial TV streaming service. (Maybe it was the fact that it wasn’t Foxtel that they were annoyed about.)
But it was those articles that gave me the impetus to watch Glitch — and it’s bloody fantastic. It’s an Australian production set in the fictional town of Yoorana in Victoria, and it stars streaming TV darling Patrick Brammall (who is brilliant in Stan’s No Activity), and it covers exactly what might happen if six dead people inexplicably came back to life in perfect health with no memory of who they are.
Sound tempting? It should. It’s a great show and it’s a great example of some of the excellent TV that Australia has been producing recently. And now that it’s on Netflix, you and every one of Netflix’s million other subscribers can watch it. The ABC is great, but it has a limited audience, and I happen to think that the co-financing deal with Netflix was a pretty bloody smart move.
A second series is in the works, and will be contributed to both by the ABC — that’s you! — and Netflix as well as Matchbox Pictures. You can find Glitch on Netflix here. [Netflix]