The Newsreader is one of the best dramas of the decade, but have we taken it for granted?

After the final season opened on the aftermath of the 1988 Lockerbie terrorist attack, with Helen at her professional best as a foreign correspondent, the new episodes unfold in 1989. Once again, there are historic headlines breaking in the background. Once again, Helen and Dale are trying not to break in the foreground. Helen’s return to Melbourne, for a new show at a rival network that will compete with Dale’s, puts them back in close proximity.

There is insight and moments of relief in surrounding storylines, such as the romance turned marriage between footballer turned sports anchor Rob Rickards (Stephen Peacocke) and assistant turned producer Noelene Kim (Michelle Lim Davidson), but it’s hard to be away from Helen and Dale. You can see them trying to make sense of themselves, even if it’s not for the best. Reid has given Dale an august professional tone to mark his professional ascent. It makes his private contemplation all the more fascinating.

Given what The Newsreader has already achieved, you have to have faith in Lucas and his collaborators sticking the landing. A show that initially sounded like a time capsule feels utterly contemporary whenever you look at its protagonists and their melancholic duality. They’re made to compete with each other; they need to complete each other.

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