Figuring out which films and teleseries are Australian and which are co-productions or some other hybrid is getting harder by the month.

When HBO and later Netflix started revolutionising TV styles and viewing habits, pretty much everything they produced and screened was American. A few years down the track it’s a far more global picture. That means, among many other things, that it’s increasingly common to find Australians in the leading credits, not only as actors but also sometimes producers, writers and directors of narratives set in the US or Europe. What’s getting harder to see is purely Australian work. Maybe its historical moment has passed, which is a thought that should give us all pause…

Last year’s Clickbait (reviewed in September) was an intriguing example. Although an apparently all-American Netflix thriller set in the US, it turned out to be the brainchild of two Aussies, veteran producer-writer Tony Ayres, and screenwriter-novelist Christian White, with only the occasional local face in the mostly US cast to give away the Australian connection before the final credits rolled.

The Tourist, a recent co-production between the BBC and local streamer Stan, is for my money one of the most entertaining series to debut in...