Rescue: Special Ops

from the golden age of prestige TV, Rescue: Special Ops is currently streaming in Australia on Amazon Prime Video, and in the US on Amazon Prime Video with a 9/10 audience score that speaks for itself. 48 episodes — the right length to tell the story it is telling. Television that earns its era label is rarer than the number of shows attempting it suggests — most of what gets called prestige TV is really just expensive TV. Rescue: Special Ops is one of the genuine examples: the craft is there in the writing, the performances, and the way it handles its subject matter. Daniel Amalm's involvement signals the kind of production that attracts serious talent and uses it properly. Available now on streaming — no excuses left for not watching it.

Australian production values give Rescue: Special Ops a feel distinct from American and international alternatives. Rescue: Special Ops is an Australian television drama series that first screened on the Nine Network in 2009. Filmed in and around Sydney, the program is produced by Southern Star Group with the assistance of Screen Australia and the New South Wales Government. This drama series focuses on a team of experienced professional paramedics who specialise in rescue operations. Daniel Amalm and Gigi Edgley lead a cast that brings real weight to the material. The series ran for 3 seasons (2009–2011), building a story that gave its audience time to invest properly. The writing trusts the audience to sit with ambiguity rather than wrapping every episode in a tidy conclusion — it is the approach that separates good drama from great. Every episode repays the time invested, and the series as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The show you recommend to people who say they do not really watch TV. Rescue: Special Ops tends to convert them. The complete run is available and worth treating as a single long film if your schedule allows. The quality of the character writing is the reason it holds up on rewatch, when you can see the groundwork being laid in early episodes for things that only pay off much later. One of the more rewarding dramas of its era, and one that rewards the patience it asks of you. Daniel Amalm is the centre of it, and it is one of their strongest performances on record.