Rake has been quietly earning a loyal audience, and right now it is all available in Australia on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, and in the US on fuboTV and Peacock Premium. Richard Roxburgh leads a cast that brings something genuine to every episode. What sets Rake apart from the dozens of similar shows is hard to pin down in a single sentence — it is partly the writing, partly the performances, partly the way it commits to its premise without flinching. Genuinely funny in a way that holds up on rewatch: that is the shorthand, but it undersells how well Rake executes on it. An audience of 64 has voted with their time — and their score reflects a run without many weak episodes. The streaming access means you can form your own opinion tonight, without any barrier to entry.

Sharp writing and a well-matched ensemble are what separate Rake from the crowd. Cleaver Greene is not about politics or morality or even justice. Cleaver Greene is about the law. And it is his passion for the law that drives him to use his formidable intelligence to defend people whom society and the justice system might otherwise convict without a fair trial. Richard Roxburgh and Matt Day lead a cast that brings real weight to the material. The series ran for 5 seasons (2010–2018), building a story that gave its audience time to invest properly. It delivers reliably on what it promises, which is more than most of its competition manages. The real test of any comedy is whether it is still funny once you know all the jokes, and Rake holds up on rewatch in a way that separates it from one-season curiosities.

If you need a comedy that actually makes you laugh rather than just smile politely, Rake is a strong candidate — fans of Cracker will recognise the sensibility immediately. The writing is sharp without being exhausting, and the jokes land because they are grounded in characters you have had time to understand. The run is exactly long enough to let the relationships develop without wearing out its welcome. Put it on on a weeknight when you need something that is not going to demand your full concentration, then find it demanding your full concentration. This is what good comedy does.