Advertisement

Tired of TV? The best free original online series

Are you sick of subscription fees, complicated access instructions and dull, overwrought big-budget dramas that try too hard?

In a golden age of television, keeping up with the Joneses can mean spending most of your evenings watching lengthy, intense episodes of Downton Abbey or House of Cards and paying good money to do so.

• Ten TV shows to help make you feel smarter
Nine classic books you can get for free online

Thankfully, all you need to watch these original series is a computer and an internet connection.

Here are the best shows available online, completely free.

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

Jerry Seinfeld is famous for writing a show about nothing. So it makes sense that he would spend his post-Seinfeld days chatting to fellow comedians about exactly that.

Each episode, Seinfeld picks his special guests up in a vintage car and drives them to a coffee shop of his choosing to talk about life.

Of course, despite its lack of overarching subject matter or plot, much like Seinfeld, CICGC is insightful and hilarious.

Because Seinfeld is comedy royalty, the range of guests he pulls is also seriously impressive – from new Daily Show host Trevor Noah to comedy queen Tina Fey, to this season’s finale chat with Stephen Colbert.

With six seasons so far, this show is certain to keep you busy.

Where to watch: Crackle or YouTube

Woke Up Dead

If The Walking Dead is a little too intense for your liking, watch Woke Up Dead, which is essentially “Zombies for Dummies”.

Billed as a “zom-com”, WUD stars Napoleon Dynamite’s Jon Heder as Drex, a social outcast who miraculously becomes a member of the living dead overnight.

Frozen‘s Josh Gad also stars as Drex’s idiotic roommate who films the entire transition on a handheld camera.

The show came out a few years ago, but it’s still available online and Heder’s Napoleon Dynamite awkwardness is still as wonderful as ever.

No episode runs for longer than 10 minutes so it’s an easy digestible pop of hilarity and kookiness, perfect for an afternoon pick-me-up.

Where to watch: Crackle

Candidly Nicole

Nicole Richie was always the highlight of The Simple Life, her popular reality show with Paris Hilton. Sarcastic, sassy and unafraid to make fun of herself, she stayed in viewer’s minds far longer than her heiress best friend.

Seven years later and Richie is back in front of the camera with her own reality show, Candidly Nicole.

In each five-minute episode, Richie tackles various activities, from getting her “tramp stamp” tattoo removed, to helping her friend online date to experimenting with synchronised swimming.

She approaches each task with enthusiasm and a feigned cluelessness that’s particularly endearing.

The pint-sized, purple-haired socialite is surprisingly switched on and enlists a host of funny friends, including comedian Kelly Oxford, to boost the show’s laugh factor.

Where to watch: AOL Originals, Youtube

Blank on Blank

Created to “preserve and reimagine the American interview”, Blank on Blank finds lost interviews with famous names and sets them to animated illustrations.

It’s a quirky format but it’s brilliantly done and each five-minute episode packs a powerful punch. Watching a simple animation imbues the words of the interviewees with even more importance and poignancy than they originally had.

The conversations themselves are also excellent, like Joni Mitchell talking about becoming famous (“It horrified me”) and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman discussing the concept of happiness, an interview which now has a sad sense of irony to it (he says, “learning how to die is therefore learning how to live”).

A truly original take on a talk show meets a cartoon for grown-ups, Blank on Blank has heart and impact. You’ll catch yourself watching five in a row.

Where to watch: YouTube

Inside Amy Schumer

There’s a reason Amy Schumer scored her own movie (Trainwreck, out later this year), countless hosting gigs and the title of “the next big thing”.

A lot of it has to do with her skit show, Inside Amy Schumer, which produces what seems to be a new viral video clip every single week.

You can watch her skits online in bite-sized clips, where Schumer parodies various facets of modern life, like dieting, dating, celebrity culture and awkward elevator conversations.

She’s shameless, observant and not safe for work – purely because you’ll laugh too loudly.

Where to watch: YouTube

Stay informed, daily
A FREE subscription to The New Daily arrives every morning and evening.
The New Daily is a trusted source of national news and information and is provided free for all Australians. Read our editorial charter
Copyright © 2024 The New Daily.
All rights reserved.