Mercado on TV: More Total Control, Nakkiah Lui’s Preppers and that Frayed finish

Total Control (Sunday on ABC) and Preppers (Wednesday on ABC) begin next week, with both shows contributing to the haul of 60 AACTA nominations for the ABC. That is massive, especially when compared to Foxtel (15 nominees), 10 (8), SBS (6), Nine (4) and Seven (1).

Total Control (4 AACTA noms) picks up right where the first series ended, with Prime Minister Rachel Anderson (Rachel Griffiths) being dethroned, and Senator Alex Irving (Deborah Mailman) moving to a new party.

Rachel Griffiths told ABC Breakfast on Thursday that Total Control is “an ideal of how democracy should work”. She’s right, and that makes this show very timely, even though some bits of it aren’t anymore. Hamish MacDonald is no longer the host of Q&A, and Fran Kelly is about to leave Radio National.

Preppers (2 AACTA noms) is the hilarious new comedy from Nakkiah Lui. She plays a woman escaping her past and hiding out with some doomsday preppers. Everyone has a great time with the nutty material, particularly Meyne Wyatt, Ursula Yovich, Aaron McGrath and national treasure Jack Charles.

Total Control and Preppers are fictional shows, but Andrew Bolt regularly makes up fiction about Deborah Mailman and Nakkiah Lui. He quotes dialogue from these shows and makes out they are personal statements from the actors themselves. It’s nasty and disingenuous and is only done to female Indigenous actors.

Nakkiah Lui’s “crime” was playing a morning show host on Get Krack!n in 2019. Now she is playing another one in Preppers and that may not be a coincidence, with flashbacks suggesting Nakkiah isn’t quite finished with breakfast TV. Someone give Andrew Bolt a trigger warning.

TV shows about TV shows are very hot right now. As well as Morning Wars (Apple TV+) jumping the shark with its second season, there is also a morning show hostess in the first episode of the all-new Fantasy Island (Monday on Seven). More next week.

It was obvious, after that dreadful 2013 finale, that TV’s favourite serial killer (Michael C. Hall) would come back, and here he is. Dexter: New Blood (Sunday on Paramount+) has switched the Miami sun for Oregon snow, but lots is familiar, and a bit predictable. Nevertheless, it’s still bloody good fun.

Frayed (iview) just finished their brilliant second season with a real-life event I should have seen coming. The clue was when Sammy (Sarah Kendall) referred to TV series Dynasty being cancelled, just before the Newcastle earthquake hit. That leaves the show in December, 1989 so bring on the 90s for a third season.

Read more Mercado on TV columns here.