Television series

A Place to Call Home

Name: A Place to Call Home
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: 2013
Cast: Marta Dusseldorp, Noni Hazelhurst, Brett Climo, Craig Hall, Abby Earl

Period drama

A Place to Call Home is a sweeping Australian drama about a mysterious woman who arrives at a wealthy family's estate in 1950s Sydney, disrupting their carefully ordered world. It's a layered character study wrapped in period romance, exploring class, trauma, sexuality, and belonging. Emotionally intelligent and deliberately paced, it rewards patience with genuine human complexity.

TVMaze rating

3.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like long, sudsy family sagas where the romance and the class politics of a country town get equal screen time, and you don't mind a slow burn on the mystery of a newcomer's past.

Skip it if you want tight, self-contained episodes or a brisk plot; this runs to sixty-odd hour-long installments and lingers on domestic arguments, so it can feel padded.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a long haul: each hour moves at a leisurely pace, and the big picture of six seasons only pays off if you keep returning week after week.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Downton Abbey2010

A manor house drama with similar DNA—servants and employers, class tensions, historical upheaval. But Downton leans warmer and more generous; it's comfort watching with stakes.

But The ensemble is vast and sometimes diffuse. Some storylines resolve themselves through convenient timing rather than earned drama.

The Crown2016

Both use a family (real or fictional) as a lens to examine a nation in transition. Beautifully shot, formally composed, and unafraid of slowness in service of character revelation.

But The Crown's grandeur and historical scope are grander than A Place to Call Home's intimate focus. If you want restraint, this swings the other direction.

Picnic at Hanging Rock2018

Another Australian period drama anchored by mystery and mood. It shares the same unsettling sense that something precious and dangerous lurks beneath social surfaces.

But Hanging Rock is darker and more Gothic. Less concerned with family dynamics, more interested in psychological unease and the irrational.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from A Place to Call Home

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

La Bête Humaine1938

Both explore how inherited trauma and class structures trap intelligent, yearning people. Both suggest that some conflicts cannot be resolved by love alone.

Jean Renoir's masterpiece about passion, class, and violence in pre-war France. Like A Place to Call Home, it finds tragedy in the collision between desire and social order, but with noir's fatalism instead of romance's hope.

But A 1938 French film in black and white with subtitles. The pacing is deliberate by modern standards, and the ending refuses comfort.

The Miniaturist2017

A mysterious, beautiful period piece about a woman entering an unfamiliar household and slowly revealing hidden truths. Painterly cinematography and genuine strangeness.

But More supernatural and symbolic than A Place to Call Home. If you want grounded emotional drama, the mysticism may frustrate you.

Glitch2015

An Australian drama with similar emotional depth and willingness to sit with character over spectacle. Small-town mystery with genuine humanity at its core.

But Very different genre—science fiction rather than period romance. The tonal shift may feel jarring if you want to stay in the 1950s.

Above Suspicion2009

A British period drama that works in similar registers—quiet, character-focused, with secrets unraveling beneath respectable surfaces. Marta Dusseldorp also stars.

But Shorter and more tightly plotted. Some find it feels like a stretched feature film rather than a full series.

The Affair2014

Explores hidden lives, fractured trust, and the gap between how people present themselves and who they actually are. Formally ambitious and emotionally devastating.

But Contemporary setting and more sexually explicit. The fractured narrative structure (multiple POVs) is deliberately disorienting in ways A Place to Call Home is not.

Tidelands2018

An Australian mystery drama about a woman returning to her hometown with a dangerous past. Atmospheric, character-driven, and genuinely weird in the best way.

But Darker and grittier than A Place to Call Home, with less elegant restraint. Some plots veer toward genre territory that may feel tonally off.

The Killing2011

Both trust the viewer to sit with ambiguity and moral complexity. Both understand that the real story is always about the people, never the plot.

A Danish crime drama that uses a single murder investigation to excavate an entire society's moral architecture. Methodical, character-obsessed, and concerned with how secrets poison families and institutions.

But Grim and bleak in ways A Place to Call Home is not. If you're watching for warmth, this will exhaust you. Subtitled throughout.

Carol2015

Both feature queer characters navigating rigid social structures in mid-century settings. Both understand that repression and unspoken longing are as dramatic as any plot twist.

A 1950s love story between two women, shot like a painting, every frame composed for beauty and restraint. It's about the cost of living in the closet and the quiet rebellion of choosing yourself.

But A two-hour film, not a series, so no time for the sprawl you get in A Place to Call Home. Also devastatingly sad in a way that offers no easy resolution.