The third and final new drama from SBS / NITV Digital Originals, Moni, is set in Western Sydney and centres around a Samoan – Australian community.

Moni is the name of the lead character played by Chris Alosio, a hunky young gay man returning home from London for his sister Hana’s (Ilaisaane Green) wedding. But he arrives with considerable metaphorical baggage.

Not only does his deeply-religious family not know of his sexuality, but he is also arriving six months after the death of his mother Tina (Tina Leaitua). All of the family are unimpressed with his in absentia at a time of sorrow, togetherness and mourning. The “prodigal son” is shamed in failing to uphold Samoan family values.

But Moni gets a bigger shock when Tina appears to him,  first as an apparation before ‘physical’ form which only he can see. And mum is not happy, before even she is shocked into learning that she has actually passed over.

This leads to numerous scenes of Moni talking to a ghost in the presence of family members, a comedy of errors perhaps. As the family continues to prepare for the wedding he is humiliated by head of the family, Uncle Pika (Maua Fuifui) over his inability to live up to male traditions.

“Samoans are horrible people when you forget your place” -Tina.

It even takes Aussie-born groom Brandon (Julian Maroun) to show him how to properly wrap a Polynesian lavalava around his waist.

The drama also flashes back to his teenage years where 16 year old Moni (Maiko Taukafa) and younger sister Hana (Maila Latukefu) are shown growing up with single mum, now the very present, Tina.

Even in these scenes young Moni is frequently hounded by his demanding mum, although it is clear there is also love given she is raising her children as a single mother.

Where the story turns next is most unexpected, but it speaks to why Moni fled home when he was old enough.

These scenes by director Alana Hicks are the drama’s most powerful.

Other characters of note include (older) Moni’s trans friend Sila (Ella Ganza) offering some much-needed advice.

“I’d like to think God sent Samoan kids like us to see if our parents could love, unconditionally. To test them.” -Sila.

Chris Alosio handles the script by Taofia Pelesasa with sensitivity. While NRL has shown Pasifiika communities expressing homophobia in recent times, Moni raises questions about acceptance, religion and family traditions.

Yet I can’t help but feel the flashback scenes are more successful steeped in their ‘real world’ narrative then the device of a ghost to represent Moni’s unresolved issues. It also raises a few questions that didn’t quite tie up for me, but to expand on those would be something of a spoiler.

SBS NITV continue to visit communities largely unrepresented in local drama and Moni has its heart in the right place, for those ready to hear new viewpoints and stories embedded in personal experience.

Moni screens 8:30pm Thursday on NITV and SBS on Demand.

Often when I review shows I think to myself “I’m not really the target audience for this.” Dating shows, I make no apology.

And so it is with Kids TV as I gaze upon Do Not Watch This Show, the latest creation from Andy Lee, based upon his book Do Not Open this Book. At least we were all kids once.

There are 12×11 min episodes in the first season. Just one, “Frog” is available for preview.

Lee voices Wizz a tall, egg-shaped monster whose home life is interrupted by a television show invading his space and the thought of being watched by children at home.

Whilst undertaking his ironing, (monsters it seems have domestic chores, too) an announcer (the legendary Pete Smith) announces the arrival of Watch This Show, with Wizz plastering “Do Not” across the top of it.

“There are plenty of things you can watch but this show is not one of them…. you musn’t get to the end of this show for your own safety!” he insists.

Despite his gangly appearance courtesy of illustrator Heath McKenzie, Wizz is quite an eloquent chap, given a plummy British accent (Andy Lee) and adopting a pointed, bothered personality giving instructions to an audience which never turns off. No hiding the fourth wall here, Wizz pokes and prods it for all its worth.

“It simply isn’t worth stick around. The T Rex might eat you, or worse still, it might eat me,” he warns.

Enter Douglas the Scientist (Andy Lee) ready to impart all kinds of factoids on the T Rex dinosaur, which feels like the fun is getting educational now. I’m not sure it’s necessary in 11 minutes of fun, but the nonsense style of the show is maintained.

Wizz has a couple of resident pals including a Tortoise (Denise Scott), and two fruits Lime (Joel Creasey) and Kiwi (Kura Forrester). The interplay is limited in the opening episode but it has a promise of a fun supporting cast. There’s also a cute reference to an orange-haired insect saxophonist, Kenny Bee (Andy Lee).

It turns out Wizz has also had a spell cast on him by a witch when he was in a line for free cupcakes, which will turn him into a frog by the end of the episode, so when green legs appear it’s clear Wizz is losing the fight.

This may be the only show on television to actively discourage you from viewing, but it’s a clever reverse psychology given kids always want to do what they are forbidden.

“I’m a grown up and you’re a child, so you should be doing what I say,” Wizz reminds us.

Also coming this season is his neighbour Goblin (Dave Hughes) and cameos from Hamish Blake, Carrie Bickmore, Chrissie Swan, Glenn Robbins, Ben Fordham, Tony Armstrong, Mick Molloy, Broden Kelly and more.

I suspect kids will easily slip into Wizz’s world of fibs and fabrication ignoring his every demand, to partake of each escapade to see what becomes of our manic monster hero.

Do Not Watch This Show. All episodes 6am Friday ABC iview
7:30pm Monday -Thursday from July 7 ABC Family

SBS / NITV Digital Originals have a history of bitesized short films but which also screen consecutively on broadcast and SBS on Demand.

This year there are three new films, the first being Moonbird, a 6 x 10 min co-production between the first-ever Tasmanian Aboriginal screen production company, Kutikina Productions, and Sheoak Films.

It arrives as a poetic, indie-style story set on a remote Lutruwita / Tasmanian island. Essentially a two-hander story, it opens up a world I don’t recall seeing on screen before: muttonbirding.

‘Cracka’ Beeton (Kyle Morrison), who is approaching 12 months of remaining sober, brings his estranged 13 year old son Sonny (Lennox Monaghan) to an isolated windswept island to learn the Indigenous tradition of muttonbirding. He hopes by spending time together, before Sonny is whisked away to Alaska by his non-Indigenous mother and partner, that it will make up for lost time and instil some appreciation of his heritage.

“Our mob need these birds like Chinese mob need rice,” -Cracka.

But a week on an island which is home to little more than a few shacks, a dying generator and hundreds of mutton bird burrows, is not Sonny’s idea of quality father-son time.

When his dad shows him the practice of reaching into a burrow to pull out chicks to kill, Sonny’s modern sensibilities kick in.

“I don’t believe in murdering innocent seabirds!” -Sonny.

But it seems he won’t have to…. inexplicably, the burrows are empty. Cracka’s vision of a perfect week is fraying by the hour.

As the story unfolds, father and son will be forced to work together at the same time as a family history is uncovered by Sonny.

The metaphor of the ‘pilot bird’ with an unwavering drive to its home also underscores a sensitive story of family, indigenous culture and masculinity.

Director Nathan Maynard -who is also co-creator and co-writer- evokes a unique sense of time and place. You can almost feel the chilly winds howling across the grassy island, as the cinematography by Dan Maxwell captures some magical sunsets.

The story relies more on visual and the relationship between its two characters than on dialogue. When perfectly-cast Lennox Monaghan, whose talent belies his young years, confronts the unravelling of his father, it’s hard not to feel for a boy’s inner pain.

But the story is also somewhat uneven, and could do with more of the subtlety it finds in other places. So much is achieved from its gentle filmic qualities that a few large moves land more clunkily as a result.

Special mention must also go to the soundtrack by composers Matthew Fargher and Catherine Joy, adding to the atmosphere of isolation and a lost tradition.

If the idea of SBS / NITV Digital Originals is to uncover new talent then Moonbird has done just that, and I particularly look forward to the next project from Nathan Maynard.

Moonbird screens 8:30pm Thursday on NITV / SBS On Demand.

If you can find an old tape deck, cue up New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle ahead of screening Mix Tape to get you in the mood.

If not, yeah it’s available on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube. But it’s not the same thing, as any child of the ’80s will tell you, as holding a walkman or better yet, having the song chosen by someone special and handing it to you as a dedication. Whether it’s New Order, INXS, Noiseworks or Diana Ross & Lionel Richie, it bonds you.

That’s the sentimental point of new Irish-Australian miniseries Mix Tape.

Set across two countries and two eras, this is a slow-burn, intimate drama based on a novel of the same name by Jane Sanderson.

The action begins in Sheffield, 1989 (Dublin doubles for Sheffield) as teenager Daniel (Rory Walton-Smith) is drawn to Alison (Florence Hunt) at a house party. They meet over one of New Order’s classic songs, but Daniel will find Alison far more reserved than he.

Fast forward to 2015, older Daniel (Jim Sturgess) is now a music journalist but with a failing marriage to Marian (Helen Behan). Meanwhile Alison (Teresa Palmer) is a successful author living in Sydney with husband Michael (Ben Lawson) and somewhat rebellious teen daughter Stella (Julia Savage).

As Daniel remembers a first love the narrative flashes back to innocent times as working class teens navigated romance. It’s punctuated by musical memories via cassette dedications of The Clash, Primal Scream, Velvet Underground, Cabaret Voltaire, David Bowie and even Edith Piaf.

This chapter sensitively directed by Lucy Gaffy has echoes of Normal People, with a blossoming romance that never feels forced, however it’s not without its share of very real dramas.

In 2015 life is far more hectic. Daniel and Marian want different things and he is stuck in a rut. It forces him to hunt out Alison online at a time when she is struggling with parenting and a busy husband who fails to meet her halfway.

But Sydney life is also brighter, forward-looking and windswept than tired, industrial Sheffield. So when an opportunity presents for Daniel to head to the other side of the world for work, it’s no surprise he makes contact with Alison.

Alison, who has already told her daughter, “You never forget the boy who made you a first mix tape,” responds in kind. But is this a form of cheating given both have partners? It’s not exactly Ross and Rachel on a break…

At just 4 episodes Mix Tape is refreshingly not demanding, with an engaging cast who bring life to characters connected over time and place. Despite the constant shifts between younger and older versions of Daniel and Alison, whether in Sheffield or Sydney, it isn’t hard to keep up with sliding door scenes.

This is a sometimes lilting kaleidescope of emotions paired with a nostalgic, anarchic soundtrack. You’ll very possibly lose reminisce about your own first love and halcyon days, which is not an altogether bad thing.

Mix Tape is now screening on Binge / Showcase.

When Kieran Elliott (Charlie Vickers) returns to Evelyn Bay in coastal Tasmania after a 15 year absence, he lands with considerable baggage, figuratively speaking, in the new Netflix drama The Survivors.

The incident that locals with long memories remember well was the death of two young men in a boating accident whilst attempting to rescue him from drowning in stormy seas. One of those was his brother. It was also the same time when a young woman, Gabby, vanished without trace.

Now he returns with wife Mia (Yerin Ha) and newborn baby to the awkward home welcoming from mother Verity (Robyn Malcolm) who is caring for her husband Brian (Damien Garvey) who is suffering dementia.

But Kieran’s parents still have not forgiven him for the loss of his brother and that’s just for starters.

Resentment ripples through the town where publican Julian (Martin Sacks) also blames Kieran for the death of his own son that fateful day. His surviving sons are Sean (Thom Green) and Liam (Julian Weeks).

Meanwhile young filmmaker Bronte (Shannon Berry) is busily making a documentary on the disappearance of Gabby when another body washes up on the beach….

Both Kieran and Mia’s pasts are also tied up with Olivia (Jessica de Gouw), sister of Gabby, her boyfriend Ash (George Mason) and angst-ridden mother Trish (Catherine McClements) who holds fast to her theories on Gabby’s fate.

Then there is the police force led by Det. Snr Sgt Pendlebury (Miriam Smith), Det. Dan (Johnny Carr) and Sgt. Renn (Benedict Hardie). Don Hany also features as a local author.

Evelyn Bay sure is top-heavy in characters, set against ita scenic backdrop which belies its dark secrets, hostilities and pain.

“The moment anything happens in this town you all just turn on each other” -Kieran.

While this is Kieran’s story, it arguably falls to seasoned performers Robyn Malcolm and Damien Garvey as the nexus of emotional and procedural plots, anchoring the story based on Jane Harper’s book. Malcolm, who was devastating in the recent After the Party, is fiercely protective of husband Brian whilst yet to reconcile her anger with her surviving son. Damien Garvey is similarly moving as the fragile Brian.

The series by showrunner Tony Ayres really sings in the fractured relationship between mother, father and son. Swirling around all that are past and present procedural crimes -I found the fresh case of a dead body more involving than a unsolved case from the past, even though both take up similar screen time. The series requires investment in both, but there are plenty of intriguing threads for one or more to reel you in.

Indeed, there are many balls to keep in the air and directors Ben C. Lewis and Cherie Nowlan are adept at doing just that.

Ultimately Evelyn Bay is full of loss in both its foreground and background but I suspect resolution for all will not come easily.

Come for the scenery, stay for the emotional ties.

The Survivors is now screening on Netflix.

Dramas about organised crime syndicates may well be the stuff of US and Italian storytelling, but the Brits have their share too.

The latest, This City is Ours, centres around drug importers in Liverpool. And boy, does it pack a punch.

Sean Bean is Ronnie Phelan, the patriarch of an extended family of crims and husbands, who have been successfully importing from ‘the Amigos,’ a largely unseen mob of Colombians sending cocaine through shipping containers.

His right hand man is the magnetic and tough Michael (James Nelson-Joyce) who helps call the shots, but desperately wants to be a father with girlfriend Diana (Hannah Onslow).

“Why dont we just walk away, you and me?” – Diana

Waiting in the wings is Ronnie’s ambitious son Jamie (Jack McMullen), yet to meet his father’s tough standards. Julie Graham plays family matriarch Elaine, but with no active role in the criminality and desperate for Ronnie to pull back.

But when a container of cocaine goes missing after slipping through customs all hell breaks loose for the gang, with Ronnie and Michael convinced there is a rat in the ranks. Suddenly mistrust looms large and there are plenty of supporting characters who could easily be complicit, at least for our on-screen characters if not the audience.

All of this boorish behaviour, which quickly turns violent, is contrasted by creator Stephen Butchard (The Good Mothers) with family scenes such as a baby christening, and tender romantic exchanges as Michael and Diana pursue IVF.

One of the hallmarks of the show is its use of crooner songs by the likes of Matt Monro, Dean Martin, Andy Williams, Tony Bennett and Sammy Davis Jr. They evoke a nostalgic period and directors cleverly pit swinging songs against violent rumbles.

At its heart this is a dysfunctional family drama, where mobsters and thugs lie, sacrifice, kill their own for an ultimate prize. In its most scintillating scenes, which occur in early episodes, they amount to gripping, high-stakes death rattles. These also reel the viewer in to its world so addictively, you’ll be wanting to gorge them in a binge.

Sean Bean is always commanding in these kinds of roles, but this is James Nelson-Joyce’s story as the ‘lad’ with the tender heart. Forever looking cold and tight-lipped, he is magnetic on screen. He is amply matched by Hannah Onslow as Diana, who has her own backstory which adds layers to their relationship.

It can be hard to grasp some of the dialogue, due to thick accents, so I’d recommend considering subtitles on this one. These are never available on previews, but I still found myself invested in the shit that was going down. I don’t really get the title of the series, but I suppose it represents the power perceived to be at stake in this saga.

It’s not hard to see why this is the BBC’s most-watched new drama launch in 2025 so far, and has since been renewed for a second season. Can’t wait for more.

This City is Ours premieres Wednesday June 4 on Stan

You could look at the Utah mountains mansion which is the centrepiece of Mountainhead as property porn. It’s a sprawling, vista-fronted monstrosity of multi-million dollar proportions.

Or you could just call it as you see it, which for me was a “f**-off mansion.”

It’s here that the testosterone and arrogance of four billionaires is measured and discharged up against the wall, all fiddling while Rome burns, in Jesse Armstrong’s new feature film Mountainhead.

Cue the lear jets and choppers when these tech billionaires, Steve Carell as Randall, Cory Michael Smith as Venis, and Ramy Youssef as Jeff, fly in to the pad of Jason Schwartzman as Souper. The weekend man-camp is an annual tradition of this gang of bros.

The scenery is gob-smacking, or in the words of Venis, “So beautiful you could f*** it.”

This is Jesse Armstrong after all, he of the brilliant lines and diabolical behaviour of Succession. There’s going to be a lot of blunt, sarcastic, funny dialogue even if the plotting and character never manage to match it.

Glued to their cellphones when they aren’t unzipping and comparing the length of their bank balances, these 4 are also watching the world implode as a result of Venis unleashing image and video generation tools on social media so powerful that nobody knows what to believe anymore. Violence breaks out in multiple countries across the world, but hey let’s open another bottle of red and watch our shares skyrocket.

In between the deals to be done, and the plans to tell Presidents how to govern, are charcuterie boards to gorge and a ski-mobile and hike to the edge of the world.

When a global meltdown accelerates they head to their bowling-alley mancave to decide between buying Paraguay or Haiti, in between discussing new platform messaging features.

Not all the drama is off-piste however, with Randall dealing with a cancer diagnosis, and Jeff as the sole voice of reason challenging Venis on the new world order he is on the cusp of monetising. There is a constant fear of keeping friends close and enemies closer, as 4 buddies maintain a veneer of bonding whilst at risk of a board push, orchestrated by the guy in the adjacent bedroom.

If Venis is the ‘jock’ of this group, Randall is the father figure and ‘Soup’ is the nerdy underdog. The cast expertly spit out Armstrong’s dialogue without blinking, while hand-held cameras keep it alive, matching that Succession feel that half of this could well be improvised.

“We literally have the resources, the mental capacity, foresight …to take over the world… and unleash the AIs.”

But it’s very talky, and with essentially 4 actors in a room (is this theatre?) there’s very little relief. It doubles-down on its toxic, unlikable characters, which is clearly intentional by Armstrong. That would be fine if the characters were more interesting, more diametrically opposed.

By the third act the plot moves into farce, which becomes entertaining if clutching at credibility.

All of this is so uneven and disappointing given the depth of characters and power-plays of Succession which, at its heart, centred around a helluva dysfunctional family.

If an avalanche had swallowed up the four at Mountainhead it might have shortened the running time and saved the world all at the same time.

Mountainhead screens Sunday on Max.

She’s one of the world’s bonafide stars known by her first name alone.

In fact they even wrote a song about it.

Liza with a Z was penned by longtime collaborators John Kander & Fred Ebb, humorously referencing the way people misspelled Liza Minnelli.

“It’s Liza with ‘Z’ not Lisa with an ‘S’
‘Cause Lisa with an ‘S’ goes ‘sss,’ not ‘zzz’
It’s ‘Z’ instead of ‘S’, ‘Lie’ instead of ‘Lee’
It’s simple as can be, see, Liza!”

Born of Hollywood royalty, mother Judy Garland and father director Vincente Minnelli, she is half-sister to Lorna Luft and half-brother to Joey Luft.

Now aged 79, she recently participated in the feature documentary Liza : A Truly Terrific, Absolutely True Story by filmmaker Bruce David Klein. Still in control of her memories and humour, if not necessarily her muscles, this is a rare insight into an incredible career trajectory, blessed by interviews with some of her nearest and dearest.

They include archivist and performer Michael Feinstein, Ben Vereen, Mia Farrow, singer Jim Carsuo, George Hamilton, Chita Rivera, dancer Kevin Wilkson, Joel Grey, John Kander, make-up artist Christina Smith, Darren Criss and sister Lorna Luft.

Much is made of Liza emerging from the shadow of the tragic death of her mother at the age of just 23. She was guided by quirky godmother and veteran performer Kay Thompson.

“She taught me how to live life… how to appreciate everything we were going through” – Liza.

“Kay the mentor made Liza the superstar possible” – Jim Caruso.

But there had been years of pursuing dance, despite her non-dancer frame, competing co-performing with mother Judy, and learning from some of the greats including Charles Aznavour.

“What I was really good at was picking the people to be around. I had a good eye. I think I still do” -Liza.

One of those was choreographer Bob Fosse who cast her in Cabaret (on screen but not on stage) as Sally Bowles. It was her father Vincente who suggested a ‘look’ modelled on silent movie stars Louise Brooks and Lya de Putti. Liza also had to work against the perceptions of Hollywood beauty, and turned to American fashion designer Halston for iconic outfits.

“Halston gave her an entire sense of self” – Lorna Luft.

Halston even identified a proclivity to sweat, wrapping her in sequins to hide the moisture beads.

Cabaret became a sensation, catapulting her to global fame and headlines later fuelled by talent, romance, addiction and more.

The doco rifles through her relationships with men: Desi Arnaz Jr., Peter Sellers, Peter Allen, Jack Haley Jr., Merk Gero and David Gest -some are spoken fondly, others become a punchline but don’t expect any kiss and tell.

Her friends are equally protective of her, insisting she is a true friend, putting fame to one side for those most important to her. One occasion was in replacing an ill Gwen Verdon on Broadway in Chicago. Liza learned the entire role in a week and insisted on no billing. Audiences were shocked but elated when learning the ‘understudy’ would be taking to the stage.

“She did it as a favour and she saved the show,” – John Kander.

But there are also her demons, again like her mother, with addictions leading to rehab and press attention.

I felt the doco missed acknowledging Liza deliberately changing the lyrics of Cabaret after her recovery to “when I go I’m not going like Elsie.”

Other chapters not featured include her Results collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys, Broadway hit The Rink , the movie Arthur, The Main Event tour with Frank & Sammy, singing at Freddie Mercury’s AIDS Benefit and Arrested Development (some are glimpsed in video montages). Her status as a gay icon is also kind of accrued by association, rather than detailed for its true activism.

But that’s the ‘problem’ with Liza -you’d need a miniseries to catalogue it all.

Liza : A Truly Terrific, Absolutely True Story is indeed truly terrific for its focus on her talent, collaborations, flaws, family and friends. We are lucky this has been documented with her blessing while she still has the humour and humility to share it.

Liza : A Truly Terrific, Absolutely True Story Monday May 26 on DocPlay.

Combative, playful, resentful, guarded, verbose.. these are all words to describe Paul Reubens’ one on one interview with filmmaker Matt Wolf for Pee-Wee as Himself.

Wolf filmed more than 40 hours of interviews with Reubens for his 2 part HBO documentary. But the ‘reclusive’ Reubens challenges him every step of the way. Does he want to participate? Yes. No. Maybe.

What’s abundantly clear is he absolutely hates not having control over the final edit.

He resents being told he doesn’t have a persepective on his own life.

“I don’t want this to be a leagcy… I really want to set the record straight on a couple of things and that’s pretty much it,” he insists.

He threatens to walk. He asks for the right to interview guests and associates himself. Understandably, Wolf declines. Reubens seems to get off on provoking his director in exchanges which tell us plenty about his personality and need for creative control.

What was unbeknown to producers across the duration of filming is he had been also been fighting cancer for 6 years.

Pee-Wee as Himself is a long, indulgent portrait of a complex artist, from cradle to grave, with archival footage and key interview subjects giving context to the many highs and lows of his 70 years. It’s also produced by HBO, the same company which (as Home Box Office) produced his first TV as Pee-Wee.

As a child, living largely in Florida, Reubens was obsessed with TV shows The Howdy Doody Show, Captain Kangaroo, The Mickey Mouse Club, and I Love Lucy. Longing to jump into the TV set to escape his own existence, he even envisioned Lucy & Ricky as his own parents. After beseeching his father to build a stage in the family home basement, he went on to join local theatres and later CalArts in Los Angeles.

It was in California where he met his own kind, joining a performance art troupe which included David Hasselhoff and Katy Sagal, and his first long term relationship with a young painter named Guy who, as it would later emerge, was an inspiration for some of Pee-Wee’s voices.

Whilst his parents supported his gay relationship, it would later end badly prompting him to never embark on another.

“I was out as you could be, and then I went back in the closet,” he reveals.

“My career would have absolutely suffered if I was openly gay, so I went to great lengths for many, many years to hide it.”

There were successful appearances showcasing performance art on The Gong Show, The Comedy Store and as part of improvisation troupe The Groundlings, which offered him a late night slot to stage his own show. For Reubens it was the opportunity of a lifetime… a chance to host his own subversive Kid’s Show as Pee-Wee Herman, an innocent, bow-tied character who dreamt of flying. Together with artist Gary Panter and performers including a young Phil Hartman (Captain Carl) and Lynne Stewart (Miss Yvonne), it grew from a 99 person audience to packed houses at the Roxy Theatre -one show even with Andy Warhol in attendance. Its mix of zany nostalgia, twisted childhood innocence and double entendres proved a winner.

Reubens added to the meteoric rise by only ever doing interviews in character.

“I felt a freedom in having an alter ego… I can hide behind this or I can step away from this,” he said. He even appeared on The Dating Game in character.

“When I walked out of that audition I immeditaely walked out onto the street and felt changed… I felt like I had a super-power.”

New manager Rich Abramson secured TV deals with HBO. Pee Wee’s Playhouse (now with Laurence Fishburne as ‘Cowboy Curtis’ and sometimes a young Jimmy Smits) enjoyed 5 seasons on CBS while his ultimate dream of a Hollywood movie, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, would be realised by 1985. In it he envisioned Pee-Wee as a male Pollyanna, famously portrayed on screen by Hayley Mills. Two other films, Big Top Pee-Wee (1998) and Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday (2016) followed, but not always achieving the same success.

Privately Reubens had bought a Hollywood Hills home where he would care for local wildlife and enjoy “secretive relationships” with high profile men…..

Any anonymity was imploded when Reubens was infamously arrested for indecent exposure in an adult cinema in 1991. Mug-shots and headlines destroyed the Pee-Wee innocence, but he contends the charges did not reflect the incident. It left him more reclusive and artistically-deprived however the doco captures support, including from A-listers, and a public backlash to the removal of Reubens material.

Comebacks and other storms would follow, some of which attracted further notoriety but the doco endeavours to hear Reubens’ side of the story -if only he wouldn’t keep getting in the way.

Reubens’ own desires to micro-manage (or preferably post-produce) the documentary makes for a complex, fuzzy narrative. Added to the unnecessary length of the project (around 2 x 100 mins), it surely requires the fascination of a devotee to make it to the end.

The reward in doing such is in hearing audio Reubens recorded the day before he died. It helps place some perspective on his reasons for participating in, and rebelling against, the documentary. And in coming to recognise a man who brought performance art to mainstream media in the form of an iconic children’s television character.

Double episode Pee-Wee as Himself Saturday May 24 on Max.

I miss playing the piano.

It’s been a long time since I used to regularly play piano. I was only ever an OK pianist, but I could play by ear whether on an upright piano or an synthesizer. I spent several years as a restaurant pianist… but confession time… even through a month’s residency at Launceston Casino nobody ever knew I wasn’t playing live. I had sequenced every note of every bar of every song by ear (all my own work to be fair).

So I come to new ABC series The Piano with all the feels, completely understanding how a soul connects with the ivories. How it is personal, therapeutic, and a gift all at the same time. You step up to the piano with respect, but it will unleash creativity for all to bear witness.

This is a UK format in which upright pianos are positioned in public places – railway stations, markets etc – for members of the public to play before the cameras. In episode one a piano is located at Sydney’s Central Station, in episode two at Southern Cross Station in Melbourne. Amanda Keller serves as host as pianists young and old show what ‘hidden’ talent they have. In this most public of places it’s so much more endearing than on a Got Talent stage, as passers-by pause to appreciate the power of music.

But this is Reality TV, in a hybrid form, with two top judges secretly watching on. Harry Connick Jr. and classical pianist Andrea Lam are nearby scrutinising monitors, ready to invite one player per venue to perform in an end of series concert at Sydney’s City Recital Hall. Surprise.

Make no mistake, the real power in this series is the individuals who sit down at the keys. The styles range from Chopin and Beethoven to Taylor Swift and John Williamson. They play from 5 years old to 103 years young. There are original compositions. A quartet. A young man who, remarkably, even plays with one hand.

For 17 Dom of Naraween, it’s a most personal matter.

“It’s not a very masculine thing… so I tried to hide it,” he says, adding, “The piano gives me a purpose.”

For 103 year old Bill it evokes memories and memory muscle.

“Playing a piano I have something to hang onto,” he says.

Andrew, 29, spent time in a mental health ward … he gravitated to a lone piano every day, while Michael, 76, is grateful to play to his wife in her nursing home because music makes her smile. It’s a story that evokes tears in the eyes of Amanda Keller, who reveals her own challenges with husband, Harley. “You feel like you lost them in increments.” Dammit, I just wanna give her a hug.

The Piano provides such power from screen to couch. You’ll smile, you’ll fight back tears with Keller as the perfect host, warm, spontaneous, down to earth and genuine. Even judges Harry Connick Jr. and Andrea Lam are lost for words at the talent sitting down to the keys while The Ghan pulls into platform.

One quibble, it’s very obvious producers have cast our pianists from far and wide. It’s not candid camera where randoms who just happened to be catching a train paused to play. I guess we have YouTube clips for that.

ABC has had huge success with magical shows like Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds and Muster Dogs. These are big crowd-pleasers that show the face of Australia and warm your heart. The Piano is easily the next in that line. It had me smiling from beginning to end, and maybe even longing to reacquaint myself with my own ‘hidden’ talent some day soon.

The Piano screens 7:30pm Sunday on ABC.

In 2025 Free to Air is rabid for quiz shows.

Tipping Point, The Chase, Hard Quiz, The 1% Club, The 1% Club UK, Mastermind, have been joined by new ABC series Claire Hooper’s House of Games with Nine series The Floor set to screen. Seven is even dusting off old Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? UK episodes for primetime.

These shows are particularly popular with older viewers which FTA needs as younger viewers drift to premium drama on Streaming. Many of them will even watch repeat episodes, meaning their shelflife is particularly cost effective.

The Floor is based on a Dutch format, a nation which is especially prolific at game shows like Deal or no Deal. Eureka TV, which has successfully taken several formats to the USA, has already produced The Floor US with host Rob Lowe. Now it takes on the quiz for Australia with actor Rodger Corser in the host role.

Corser more recently hosted The Traitors for 10 but while I was somewhat perplexed by whether that was as a character or as self, he’s more amiable in The Floor. 

The gameplay sees 81 contestants on a large 9×9 grid, each as a specialist in a subject such as ’80s Blockbusters, Toys, Hit Songs, Flags, Bands, Anatomy, Capital Cities and more. The aim of the game is to possess as many of the 81 squares without getting eliminated, accrued through one on one trivia duels.

The duels are dazzingly simple. 45 seconds on the clock for any given subject such as Dogs, and two players, by turn, must name the picture they see. It leads to rapid-fire rounds where the answers are as simple as shouting: Corgi. Labrador. Boxer. Daschund…. A pause or pass will impact on someone’s time with the clock ticking down to 0 and a loss. These are do or die rounds. Once you lose a round you’re gone, and the 81 is whittled down episode by episode – last one standing takes home $200,000.

A duel win means you inherit their square, along with their specialist subject whether you’re an expert or not.

In a nutshell that’s the gameplay, although there is an additional bonus which appears in episode two.

Corser serves affable as ringmaster, chatting with contestants, highlighting the stakes (Play on or go back to The Floor?), and wincing at the camera when a contestant can’t name an episode of Doctor Doctor in which he was lead star. Fair enough.

The 81 range in age, backgrounds, ethnicity (Drag Queen Bok Choi is even competing) although there is a predominance of pop culture subjects. They have also really tzjushed up the wardrobe with gaudy patterns and those looking on are encouraged to react animatedly as duels proceed. With one do-or-die shot at surviving they are also intensely hungry, spitting out answers so fast I fear some of those older viewers may struggle to comprehend the answers. Gameplay on the couch is essential for these formats to work.

While shows such as Mastermind or The 1% Club draw upon your brain power and intellect, The Floor is see-it-and-say-it. If you couldn’t identify Costa Giorgiadis from his picture, too late, we’ve already moved onto Sonia Kruger…

At 1:15hr the gameplay could arguably do with more variation (30 mins would be short and sweet), but it does set the bar low for all-comers to participate. If you’re not an expert in one subject, chances are you’ll be king at the next. Likeable Rodger Corser is relaxed and welcoming as host on a super shiny floor filmed largely with expat Aussies in the Netherlands.

As for game strategy? It appears being chosen for later, rather than earlier, duels is advantageous because a win means you ‘inherit’ all the floor real estate they accrued. I’d prefer not to be chosen til Episode 9 thanks (to clarify, it’s the same 81 players across the season). It doesn’t promise any of the killer strategy of Squid Game‘s 456 players, for example, but hey, nobody is losing their life, either.

TV has often played with supersized quiz casts, 1 vs 100 anyone? And as titles go we’ve even had The Wall. Now we add The Floor, a show which aims for broad appeal without burning through your brain cells. It works as light entertainment, but if we get to The Roof, I’m out.

The Floor screens 7:30pm Monday & Tuesday on Nine.

When you’ve stood at Hellfire Pass, located in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, it’s impossible not to be moved by the excavation through the largest rock cutting on the Thai-Burma railway -also known as the Death Railway.

Today there are sleepers, poppies, memorial plaques, Australian flags and a nearby memorial centre built and maintained by the Australian Government.

More than 200,000 Southeast Asian civilians and 60,000 Allied soldiers as prisoners of the Japanese army built the railway. Sadly 90,000 civilians and 12,000 soldiers died in the process.

Prime Video’s new 5 part drama The Narrow Road Road to the Deep North, is based on the novel of the same name by Richard Flanagan. Adapted by Shaun Grant and directed by Justin Kurzel, it tells the story of Dorrigo Evans, a prisoner of war whose memory of his one true love helps him to survive the darkest of times.

Set in both Australia and Thailand, it spans several time periods, including with Jacob Elordi as the young Dorrigo before heading to war, as a surgeon aiding troops at POW camps in Thailand 1943, and Ciarán Hinds as an elder Dorrigo in the 1989, reflecting on back on his life.

Although betrothed to Ella (Olivia DeJonge), Dorrigo falls hard for Amy (Odessa Young), wife of his uncle and local publican Keith (Simon Baker).

Swinging between these time periods, the narrative is given a slow-burn treatment, and veers between a forbidden romance, the horrors of war, and a man remembering his one true love.

In 1989 Dorrigo is still married to older Ella (Heather Mitchell) and runs a clinic with partner Rick (Dan Wyllie), but is having an affair with Rick’s wife Lynette (Essie Davis). It points to a flawed life but one which encountered incredible duress. In 1989 he’s also expected to help launch a new history book, which is stirring conflicting emotions and whethe he has reconciled with failures in his life.

The most confronting, and significant, arc of the series is the torture and suffering in building the railway. Dorrigo may liaise with Japanese officers on behalf of his men, but he is also a prisoner, far from home and forced to survive in punishing, diseased conditions.

The recreation of war scenes, shot in New South Wales, is excellent if deeply confronting. Full points to the casting department for finding actors who have undergone weight loss, including Thomas Weatherall as Frank Gardiner, in order to depict realistic scenes of starvation and emaciation. That said, it was hard to discern between Jacob Elordi’s physique in Australia to those as a iPOW in Thailand.

But he plays the role of the young Dorrigo to great effect, with a presence befitting the lyrical direction by Justin Kerzel. There are scenes of stolen moments, with hand-held cameras and possibly improvisation, evoking a tone and connection with Odessa Young that must serve generations of the story.

At its most brutal -one particular scene in episode two- this is violent and distressing stuff. I would have liked the storyline to drive the plot more but there’s no mistaking this is a compelling work set against an equally important chapter of history.

It’s also worth noting Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop was a commanding surgeon on the Thai-Burma Railway, with parts of his ashes now buried at Hellfire Pass.

Although these characters may be fictional, the drama’s launch before Anzac Day is but a stark reminder of sacrifice.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North is now screening on Prime Video.

In the last decade or so Seven has had a great run with US medical dramas.

Grey’s Anatomy ran until 2020 before moving to Disney+, The Resident until 2022 and The Good Doctor until 2024.

The succinctly-named Doc could very well continue that success, landing as a broadly-appealing, clever premise first originating as Italian drama Doc – Nelle tue mani. That series was inspired by doctor Pierdante Piccioni, a former emergency room chief, who forgot the previous 12 years of his life following a car accident.

The US version pivots the lead character to Dr. Amy Larsen (Molly Parker), the chief of internal medicine at Minneapolis’ fictional Westside Hospital.

Whilst she has an abrasive bedside manner and easily gets offside with colleagues, she’s brilliant at her job, identifying obscure illnesses, saving lives, and proving a workaholic if sometimes at the expense of her family.

But she does find time for handsome young fourth-year resident Jake (Jon Ecker) even if it is in the back a car. Classy.

Life goes pear-shaped when a car accident on the way home lands her as an emergency patient in her own hospital. She survives only to learn she has partial retrograde amnesia -she’s forgotten the past 8 years of her life. Sorry Jake.

It’s a world of turmoil as she discovers she has also separated from her husband, her daughter is now a teenager, and her youngest son sadly lost a medical battle of his own.

The catastrophic change of events sees the Chief Medical Officer (Omar Metwally) parachute her rival Dr. Richard Miller (Scott Wolf) into her position, despite Amy’s desires to return to work as soon as she can.

But she has a lot of time to make up, so to speak, given 8 years of her memory is gone, and the advancements in medicine during that time.

Adapted by Barbie Kligman, the core of the Italian original looks to be intact. How do you process having the last 8 years wiped from your memory? While conversations seemed like yesterday to you, for everyone else they were ‘eons’ ago. Is it conceivable to pick up the pieces, or do you start anew?

In the hands of Molly Parker, who was so impressive in Lost in Space and is well-known for House of Cards, Goliath, The Firm, Deadwood, Amy is easily sympathetic. The amnesia premise offers just enough twists and turns for Amy and for audience alike. Relationships must be re-evaluated, in a workplace where life and death are already fragile.

One frustrating element of the show are the flashbacks which begin from episode two, with the show not making it clear enough whether they are Amy’s own memories, or information for the viewer’s discretion. After seeing Amy walk into one flashback mid-scene, I deduced it was the latter, but it would help to be clearer on that point.

In contrast to the intensity of Pittsburgh’s The Pitt, Minneapolis’ Doc is entertaining, sometimes earnest, without ever demanding too much. It should find a broad audience quick smart.

Doc screens 6pm 7plus / 9:05 Seven Tuesday April 22.

If the majority of robberies are considered ‘inside jobs’ then Andrew ‘Coop’ Cooper is your man.

It’s a path down which the sucessful hedge fund manager, played desperately by Jon Hamm, never expected to venture. But circumstance has him on his arse, facing financial oblivion.

Echoing his Don Draper success, Cooper lives the high life in New York’s financial circles. But after splitting with wife Mel (Amanda Peet) a tryst with an attractive colleague Liv (Kitty Hawthorne) leads to him being fired by boss, Jack (Corbin Bernsen).

Despite his pleas that sex was consensual, ‘Coop’ loses his job at a time when he has high alimony and child maintenance costs. He’s also subject to a 2 year non-compete with his business manager warning he will run out of money within 6 months.

At first he drowns his sorrows in more drinking and sex, with wealthy bored housewive Samantha (Olivia Munn) at the same time as upwardly failing his teens, son Hunter (Donovan Colan) and daughter Tori (Isabel Gravitt).

For much of the first episode our cranky, disillusioned anti-hero wanders aimlessly through affluent neighbourhoods, and a life slipping from his grasp, and who fails to take responsibility -until he does something that surprises him as much as us as audience: he steals from his own kind.

For if life has afforded him one thing, it is access … to lifestyles of the rich and famous, to homes where an outdoor bbq event is an access all areas to dens of fancy watches, designer handbags and literal rolls of cash.

At the same time his troubled younger sister Ali (Lena Hall) needs somewhere to live when she isn’t playing folk songs on guitar outside the home of her ex. At least it brings out the softer side to a character proving abrasive at best.

Jonathan Tropper’s 9 part drama is a slow burn essay on the wealthy in which one of its own falls from grace and begins to see his world through a new lens. That’s worth exploring and Hamm is easily up to the task as a convincing hedge fund manager and father in despair.

But is he also a convincing thief? Indeed, some of his early escapades seem far-fetched, striding into homes because he can without any alarms going off, leaving finger prints everywhere he turns, without fear of consequence. I suspect it is all part of the series set-up with easy heists likely to be short-lived.

There’s a faint whiff of Desperate Housewives, without the comedy, in the dark deeds of the privileged here. Some of the best scenes are fraternising with seedy pawn shops to offload his loot, and stepping reluctantly into a world he has only ever glided by in his black Maserati.

Even wife Mel, who works by day as a psychiatrist, is showing signs of discombobulation despite having her new athlete partner (Mark Tallman) and a fancy home.

Not to be confused with a 1998 movie of the same name with Amy Brenneman & Aaron Eckhart, Amy Your Friends & Neighbours holds a mirror to the haves (rather than the have-nots) and the turmoil that ensues from an implosion.

‘Coop’ is going to need to look deep into his soul before the final credits roll and he may not like what he sees. Therein lies the most appeal of a layered series.

Your Friends & Neighbours is now screening on Apple TV+

In 2007 Chris Lilley unleashed anarchic schoolgirl Ja’mie to huge popularity, followed by several breakout comedies including Jonah from Tonga which polarised for its use of black face.

Since then ABC has offered a number of more authentic comedies, where the premise comes from first hand experience, including Superwog, Ronny Chieng: International Student, All My Friends Are Racist and White Fever.

Urvi Went to an All Girls School is created by comedian Urvi Majumdar, who co-wrote with director Nina Oyama and is one of two Fresh Blood pilots supporting emerging comedies from ABC.

Majumdar also takes the lead role in a story set in the Grogan Girls High schoolyard in 2010 where fitting is anything but straightforward. Whilst her Indian father (Vipin Gaindhar) has hopes his daughter will become a doctor, Urvi desperately wants to follow in the footsteps of Nicole Kidman. After all she’s attending the same high school as her idol and has killer mimic skills.

She also has her eyes transfixed upon Grogan Boys High hunk ‘Hot Ryan’ (Josh Burton), who is auditioning for the school musical, Grogan Rouge!, directed by a former student who was an extra in Underbelly. It’s going to take some acting skills to land the female lead and the attention of ‘Hot Ryan’ without her father knowing what she is up to.

Meanwhile best friend Sara (Sashi Perera) is getting to know pimply teen Josh (Blake Pavey) and younger sister Maya (Shabana Azeez), who is herself badgered by her older sister, uses her smarts to be acepted into the ‘mixed race and hot’ girls clique, by pretending to be ‘Jindian.’

There are also several school staff in supporting roles including Suren Jayemanne and Alexis Porter in a scene-stealing cameo as school Principal.

There are some sharp lines in the script about the Indian-Australian experience, including between the generational experience of parents and daughters. Yet you’ll also have to suspend disbelief for some casting decisions in which, like Ja’mie, several actors seem a little too old to be passing off as teens. Shades of 90210 anyone?

Thankfully such suspension is well-invested for the pay-off of an authentic, 2010 immersion into cultural clashes and private school survival.

Whether its school crushes, boring teachers, schoolgirl hierarchy, or just avoiding your father taking the hinges off your bedroom door, Urvi Went to an All Girls School, is a flashback from someone who was there.

As the pilot for a potential series this student project shows promise.

Urvi Went to an All Girls School screens 9pm Wednesday on ABC.

If The Golden Girls was infinitely popular with gay men -and it was- is it time we got our own version?

Voila! Meet Mid-Century Modern, a traditional, multi-camera sitcom about a non-traditional family, living it up in Palm Springs, California.

Creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan had a smashing long run with Will & Grace with all but 1 directed by legendary James Burrows. Now they reunite for a new project produced by Ryan Murphy, starring Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer, Nathan Lee Graham and Linda Lavin.

The premise is dazzlingly simple: when retired Bunny (Nathan Lane), friends Arthur (Nathan Lee Graham) and Jerry (Matt Bomer) lose the 4th member of their close-knit circle, all three end up living together in a swank “Dinah Shore extravaganza” …where Bunny lives with his derisive Jewish mother Sybil (Linda Lavin).

Heck, even Nathan Lee Graham is named Arthur, which strikes me as a nod to a certain Bea…

It’s impossible to ignore that this presents as a tried-but-true (I’m being generous) multi-cam sitcom where every third line is a pithy punchline, peppered with a laugh track. You know the type, The Big Bang Theory, Frasier, Friends, umm Will & Grace. Mutchnick and Kohan can write this stuff in their sleep and still make us laugh.

When you have talent such as Nathan Lane simply dripping in comic timing, how can you go wrong?

The LGBTQIA+ punchlines come thick and fast. There are endless gags and double entendres about relationships, hot men, top / bottoms, measurements, dating apps, cross-dressing, Sugar Daddies, toyboys, with the required lashings of squeals and hands in the air. There’s the sitcom staple of a deep and meaningful moment shortly before the final scene, together with ensuring that everybody ends up back where they began, ready to do it all over again. It works for a reason, right?

Led by Nathan Lane, who proves truly irresistible with his flaming commitment, this cast zips along at a cracking pace. Nathan Lee Graham, aka the ‘bitchy’ one, is positively theatrical in his performance, while the hunky Matt Bomer appears caught in their jetstream, as an ex-Mormon flight attendant unable to resist the campiness and merriment.

Then there is Linda Lavin, the cynical, in-house matriarch, forced to endure the trio’s escapades, which vary from buying tickets to a Donny Osmond retro-concert to estrangement. Would that make her this show’s Estelle Getty perhaps?

For this dysfunctional -and chosen- family to work there must be unconditional love. Accepting your close friend for all their insecurities, bad wardrobe and disgusting search history, which is something this troupe demonstrate from the get-go.

Yet there will be those who find it dated, old-school, over-the-top.

I have a foot in each kamp. I adored the brillance of shows like Frasier and Will & Grace, but in 2025 I’m finding them nostalgic gems. Punchlines about desperately wanting to bed the latest hunk don’t do much to dispel stereotypes.

Yet you have to marvel at the panache of Nathan Lane, who is like a masterclass at comic timing.

Such is the power of Mutchnick / Kohan / Burrows that the show has guest stars including Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Judd Hirsch, Rhea Perlman, Pamela Adlon and more.

One final word from the creators: “Between the fires in Los Angeles and the devastating loss of our beloved Linda Lavin, this was the most challenging production any of us have ever experienced. It was also the most rewarding. The challenges didn’t divide this extraordinary cast and crew, it galvanized us. As Linda always said, ‘from shit comes flowers.”

Mid-Century Modern screens Friday March 28 on Disney+

Gogglebox families, do not adjust your set.

David Attenborough is not narrating a new BBC Natural History, The Americas. Instead that job falls to Tom Hanks for a new documentary series screening on Seven.

Filmed in association with Universal Television Alternative Studio, this showcases North and South America across 10 episodes: The Atlantic Coast, Mexico, The Wild West, The Amazon, The Frozen North, The Gulf Coast, The Andes, The Caribbean, The West Coast, and Patagonia.

Like any BBC Natural History doco it is full of spectacular shots, rare up-close animal moments, drama and majesty.

When Hanks reveals this to be “the untold story of our home” you get a good idea of whom this series is also directed at, and as the storytelling unfolds there are some shortcuts and snappy terms which feel at odds with BBC style. More on that shortly…

The series is 5 years in the making and in addition to the magical photography there is the added bonus of a Hans Zimmer score.

“The Atlantic Coast” episode spans the 200 square miles (321km) of the Appalachian Mountains. It begins with wild horses on the shifting sands of Carolina’s ‘Outer Banks.’ BBC always manages to showcase the drama and in this episode an ageing 15 year old stallion is about to be challenged by his younger ‘arch rival.’ Slow-mo vision of duelling horses is vivid, dangerous and primal.

From there we witness a gathering of sand tiger sharks “with teeth to die for” as scad become the prey of jack fish, amongst the wreckage of 2000 ships along the coast.

In the grand estuary of Chesapeake Bay a bald eagle’s quest to hunt fish is challenged by water-friendly osprey. It’s another scene highlighting the drama between quarrelling birds. When fish are snatched, Hanks’ script calls this ‘daylight robbery’ before referring to ‘North America’s comeback queen.’

In Maryland there’s a fascinating transformation by cicadas which become so bountiful and noisy “it’s like a rock concert in your front yard, with cicadas on vocals.” Ugh. Must we dumb this down? Does Attenborough adopt undertake hokey descriptions, or have I just not noticed due to his melifluous voice?

Over to New York (complete with an Alicia Keys melody) to the ‘street smart’ raccoon, who has become so resourceful in the city, that their urban upbringing has made them skilled at problem solving. Might come in handy for dealing with a nearby red-tailed hawk who has his eye on new offspring.

The opening episode also features some magical fireflies, a family of black bears in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and an elaborate explanation of the cycle of Autumn in New England. Never has leaves falling warranted such exquisite profiling, Tom Hanks, who narrates gently throughout, might be in store for an Emmy to overshadow Forrest Gump.

None of this detracts from the entertainment value and photography that BBC is known for. It’s access-all-nature brought into your big screen high definition TV -and that Zimmer score really enhances it all.

It’s not as ‘pure’ as Attenborough and the American-isms are kind of annoying. But The Americas is effortless television and there’s nothing wrong with that.

7:30pm Tuesday on Seven.

Knowing my luck The Studio will be lucky to last beyond one season.

After all, behind the scenes series about the world of film and television rarely succeed, right? The Franchise anyone?

But on that Sam Mendes series, which centred around a superhero film franchise, most of the lead characters were pretty unlikeable.

In Seth Rogen’s new series The Studio, our creator plays Matt Remick, a neurotic studio execeutive who’s just been promoted at Continental Studios.

“I’m honoured to be chosen as the person who gets to decide which movies get made and which ones don’t,” he reveals. “Now I have this fear my job is to ruin them…”

In the 10 part Apple TV+ series, Rogen and co-creator Evan Goldberg draw upon a cavalcade of stars playing themselves: Zac Efron, Ron Howard, Zoë Kravitz, Olivia Wilde, Ramy Youssef, Anthony Mackie, Charlize Theron, Steve Buscemi, Adam Scott, Greta Lee, Nick Stohller and even Netflix boss Ted Sarandos.

In the opening episode Martin Scorsese hilariously pitches a dark and expensive movie which tests the new studio boss on his nerve and creativity.

Bryan Cranston plays an over-the-top studio boss, Griffin Mill, determined to fill the coffers with more green even if it means exploiting brands to make it happen. His next deal? Kool Aid the Movie.

“We don’t make films, we make movies that people want to pay to see” – Griffin Mill.

After Hollywood’s success with Barbie, the sky’s the limit. But Matt is hoping to replicate its critical acclaim as well as box office gold.

Matt has also replaced fired studio exec Patty (Catherine O’Hara), who accuses him of stabbing him in the back before cutting a lucrative deal to plot her way back into the biz. Also featuring are Ike Barinholtz as a studio ‘Yes’ man and Kathryn Hanh as a swearing marketing exec, Maya.

If Tinseltown is characterised by people shifting blame and doing what they can to protect their jobs before being fired, a lot of that is on show here. In Matt’s desperation to succeed he lies to his boss, offends talent, makes empty promises to staff, and disrupts studio shoots. There are plenty of ‘in’ jokes and real life representations, right down to trade podcast The Town, which ultimately may be the show’s own downfall.

We need to care about our lead characters and it’s hard to do that with a highly-paid, narcissistic, studio exec no matter how clever the jokes are about compromising art for business.

The writing is sharp, drawing upon plenty of lived experience for its snark, punchlines and morally-compromised conflict … a lot of the latter.

Cute cameos are one thing, but this series’ future will be directly correlated to how successful Matt can be portrayed as a loveable loser and the audience’s desire to see him succeed.

Enjoy the fun while it lasts?

The Studio premieres March 26 on Apple TV+.

In 2002 when Russian Ark was released as a 96 minute continuous shot feature film, audiences were spellbound by the mechanics as much as the drama.

It wasn’t the first, but it certainly succeeded in execution. More than a few have followed including 1917, Birdman, and Boiling Point (although not all are actual single takes, so much as edited to appear as such).

Boiling Point director Philip Barantini, who helmed two of the series episodes, returns with a new work, Adolescence for Netflix.

The 4 part crime series is the creation of actor / writer Stephen Graham (This is England, Boardwalk Empire, Time, Peaky Blinders) and writer Jack Thorne (His Dark Materials, Skins, Shameless).

Each of the 4×60 min episodes is filmed as a single, continuous shot, making for incredible logistics, rehearsal, planning, and acting chops.

It does not disappoint.

Graham plays Eddie Miller, labourer father of Jamie (Owen Cooper), a 13 year old boy who is arrested for the murder of a classmate. From the moment the family household is subjected to a dawn raid led by DI Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters) and DS Misha Frank (Faye Marsay), the audience is thrust into a 24-style saga.

This means the camera never cuts away from the action, whether travelling in a vehicle from home to police station, or tracking from room to room at police station or school.

So clinical is the arrest that the family isn’t even privy to the details of the grim murder until well into the episode, with Jamie protesting his innocence and dad Eddie struggling to comprehend what’s happening. Working class mum Manda (Christine Tremarco) is equally at a loss as to the severity of the situation.

“You see it on the telly all the time. It’s a mistake,” she insists.

There are lawyers, nurses, appropriate adults, police, all processing facts, photos, swabs, blood samples, searches, fingrprints, whilst Thorne & Graham’s script leaves you constantly questioning guilt and innocence. As a father struggling with the system, Eddie even feels like he isn’t caring for his son in a system that overwhelms him.

“I haven’t got a clue what I’m doing here…. he’s a good kid, I’m a good dad,” says Eddie.

In episode two the action swings to Jamie’s school as Bascombe and Frank search for information. Once again the camera follows their every move (at one point even becoming an aerial drone shot!). It’s also the school where Bascombe’s own son attends, giving added emotional weight to his investigation of Jamie’s classmates.

Episode three is a powerful interrogation room scene between Jamie and psychologist Briony Ariston (Erin Doherty). Here to write an assessment, Briony sits face to face with Jamie in some of the drama’s most compelling exchanges. If you saw Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, and were gobsmacked by a single take episode with actor Cooper Koch, now try imagining the same with a 14 year old actor. I can only assume young Owen Cooper has a wealth of theatrical experience to have memorised roughly an hour of dialogue to perform alongside Erin Doherty. Both deliver an acting masterclass.

I won’t spoil the final episode, again filmed as a single take, but there are compelling performances, confronting themes and heartbreaking drama. What the series says of society, the family unit, masculinity and morality will leave you squirming on your couch.

I binged my way through all 4 episodes, -a special nod to cinematographer Matt Lewis for his choreography- the brilliant equally fascinated by the execution as much as the story and performances from a top-shelf ensemble.

Don’t miss it.

Adolescence screens Thursday March 13 on Netflix.

In the 1970s Australian governments under LNP Prime Ministers John Gorton and Billy McMahon relayed perfect images of the country to foreign nations.

Australia was a land of beaches, opportunities, aspiration and relaxation. The long-forgotten Commonwealth Film Unit, later known as Film Australia, was bestowed with the task of filming what amounted to propaganda. Public servants filmed a “portrait of Australia” seen on screens such as Expo ’70 in Japan, with cameras in the hands of white males.

New SBS documentary Australia: An Unofficial History is but one perspective on the 1970s, drawing upon rarely seen clips from the Unit, made available by the National Film and Sound Archive, and narrated by Jacki Weaver.

Weaver was a rising star in the 1970s, winning her first Logie for a Nine telemovie Do I Have to Kill My Child? The subject about post-natal depression would be lucky to get a Nine commission in 2025, I suspect. Weaver recalls being proud of the 1976 film, funded by Film Australia and directed by Donald Crombie.

But early 1970s short films from the Commonwealth Film Unit were much different, with bikini clad girls on the beach turning mens’ heads, and women in primary colours shopping for casserole pots. Australia. What’s not to love?

Alternative perspectives were seen as fringe opinions but as the doco reveals, renegade filmmakers would begin to borrow the same equipment on weekends to tell the stories they wanted to tell.

Together with new movements in the community, railing against expectations, other voices began being heard.

This included First Nations protests, including the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra caught on film. Filmmaker Ian Dunlop went to Yolongu to invite elders to tell their story in a film on land rights.

There were protests about Australian involvement in the Vietnam War.

The Women’s Liberation movement would begin to air views about abortion and domestic violence.

Gay Liberation would see activist Dennis Altman famously appearing on ABC’s Monday Conference (ok it wasn’t a Film Australia product).

By the time Gough Whitlam swept into power in 1972 on the back of the “It’s Time” campaign, multiculturalism was the buzzword, with Al Grassby becoming Minister for Immigration and ending a White Australia policy. Under Whitlam, the government would also back the Arts and use Film Australia to create empathy around important social topics.

Looking back on these time capsule clips are a range of mostly Gen X and Gen Y commentators including Benjamin Law, Zoë Coombs Marr, Jan Fran and Leila Gurruwiwi. They can barely believe their eyes at the vision they are seeing, and who can blame them?

But there are also veterans who were there including filmmakers Rod Freeman and Deborah Kingsland, former CEO of Film Australia Bruce Moir, legendary activist Gary Foley, Women’s Lib author Biff Ward, actor Rachael Maza, and iconic director Phillip Noyce while Historian Michelle Arrow also brings perspective to the narrative.

By the mid 1970s Australia was telling a more layered and more splintered version of who it was.

This begs the question, have we fulfilled the work of those early champions of social change, have we kept the flames brightly burning or gravitated to other concepts?

And heaven forbid, what will they think of the work produced now when they look back on us in 2075?

Australia: An Unofficial History screens 7:30pm Wednesday on SBS.

It was Lost that crash-landed a flight onto a Pacific island sometime in 2004 and slowly upended everything we had presumed about the passengers.

Kate, the love interest of the hero Jack, was actually a fugitive, Locke had regained his ability to walk, Hurley had won the lottery, Sayid was an Iraq Special Republican Guard. Backstory revelations were an inspired storytelling move that have been replicated in numerous modern dramas ever since.

Now 4 years after a planecrash in survival drama Yellowjackets, and 5 after The Wilds, a new plane has crashlanded on TV in the Mexican jungle, this time on the British-produced drama Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue.

The trailer signposts all the major moves of the premise: 10 passengers in a light plane from Guatemala City to Houston crash land. But authorities will recover 9 bodies, all located side by side in a pit. Answer: a missing 10th person must therefore be a killer. Even the first episode’s closing scene is in the trailer, so it’s not like I’m giving you a spoiler.

The six episode story takes place across two locations, the jungle and a run-down, remote Mexicon military facility in which the bodies are housed, eight days after their crash-landing.

Mystery surrounds the reason for the bodies being transported there, but it soon becomes clear it isn’t because it’s the nearest or coldest building.

Most of the action by writer Anthony Horowitz (Alex Rider, Magpie Murders), centres around the crash and survival of the passengers and pilot. How everybody presents as a stranger to their new-found society will vary.

Eric McCormack stars as Kevin, an ex-doctor dealing with his past; then there’s insurance guy Zack (David Ajala); British traveller Sonja (Lydia Wilson) who doesn’t care to disclose too much; there are MAGA-loving southerners Lisa (Siobhán McSweeney) and Travis (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), newlyweds Dan (Adam Long) and Amy (Jan Le) and Mexican fighter Carlos (Peter Gadiot)… and a dead flight attendant if you’re doing the maths.

Zack becomes self-appointed leader as the 8 stumble out of the light plane into the middle of 600 square miles of jungle. There’s barely much in the way of food and water, no evidence authorities are aware of their location, and some injuries they are nursing. Kevin is reluctant to apply his medical knowledge, Carlos is determined to protect his unopened suitcase, and Travis & Lisa quickly show their complete mistrust of anyone foreign… which is kinda ironic, given they were already abroad.

Horowitz plays with the conflict and mystery as his microcosm of society is forced to bare souls in order to survive. As they bicker and establish their new rules, there are also things that go bump in the trees and vines surrounding them.

With so much jungle-camp action at the centre of the story, its pretty clear that filming took place in a well-dressed studio. While that worked for Gilligan’s Island back in the 1960s it does lack the authenticity of Lost, in which you felt marooned alongside its survivors. Nighttime scenes also feel heavily like day-for-night and a Mexican army office reeks of studio dressing.

There are also several European actors donning accents to assume American or Latino characters. All of these creative decisions amount to a lack of authenticity. I didn’t feel like there was any insight into actual plane survival, so much as the idea of it.

But the Yellowjackets-inspired thriller element, in which the 9 turn on one another, at least provides some escapism if you’re prepared to forgo logic and credibility. Hopefully the chapter surrounding the Mexican morgue provides something new to the genre, because so far I kept feeling like I’d seen all this before, mostly in much better movies.

Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue screens Sunday on Stan.

Eden Vale in Washington state is a small town surrounded by mountains, big trees, quirky townsfolk and just enough crime for the local force.

For Chief Hank Hickman (Clancy Brown) it’s got a reputation to uphold as a slice of pristine paradise and a tourism / retirement destination. In TV terms, it’s probably just a few miles away from Schitt’s Creek or Northern Exposure, especially given the offbeat humour of new Stan series Good Cop, Bad Cop.

Hank’s daughter Lou (Leighton Meester) is the local detective who gets the job (mostly) done by being friendly and cheeerful but she’s also dealing with a lack of resources and a well-meaning, if not necessarily bright, team of local cops. She could really use a partner.

Enter Henry Hickman (Luke Cook) her estranged brother summoned by dad Big Hank from Seattle after 7 years away. Henry had a falling out with his family but will return to earn his shield even if it means being partnered with his older sister.

When it comes to crime scenes, and there’s one every episode of these 42 min tales, both brother and sister bicker over who’s in charge and the most effective form of policing. By the time the third act concludes they will have solved the crime despite their clashes.

The premise makes the series by writer John Quaintance (Will & Grace, Workaholics, Reboot) as part-workplace comedy and part-dysfunctional family.

The tone is light, engaging and likeable if not necessarily dripping in sitcom punchlines. The chemistry between the two leads Meester and Cook is terrific, and the casting has done a top job with its supporting and guest actors, most of whom are Australian. Filming took place on the Gold Coast, along with some Pacific Northwest exterior shots to look like moose territory.

William McKenna again shows his versatility as a peachy-keen US cop, alongside Scott Lee and Grace Chow. Blazey Best plays a Russian bride to Big Hank, whose life lessons were all learned from Family Ties and CSI Miami while Philippa Northeast plays Henry’s elusive love interest, Marci. Guest roles include Mark Lee, Tyler Coppin, Jeanette Cronin, Lincoln Lewis, Paul Tassone, Dustin Clare, Felix Cameron, Robert Coleby, Debra Lawrance, Rhys Muldoon and more.

US actor Devon Terrell also has a supporting role as Shane from the Sheriff’s dept, the apple of Lou’s eye.

It’s hard not to see the series as a FIFO comedy, dressing Queensland up as Washington state for US actors to shoot in the foreground with Aussies in the background. I confess to being a little perplexed at why it warrants a co-commissioning given all the accents have a twang and the script is effectively poured from a diner coffee jug by a nice old waitress (Gladys in this case).

But it’s an easy watch, drew jobs and expenditure to the local economy and again showcased the versatility of Queensland as a filming destination. It’s a bit of a shame Henry’s years in the wilderness couldn’t have been spent down under, to potentially parachute an Aussie into one of the leads.

Good Cop, Bad Cop screens Thursday on Stan.

Whenever I hear people question the need for Pride events I usually suggest there are still teenagers living in rural communities for whom visibility is incredibly important.

New Stan drama Invisible Boys, based on a book by Holden Sheppard, dramatises 4 young men -3 of high school age- experiencing just that.

The 10 x 30 min drama set in Geraldton isn’t quite a love letter to those searching for identity and connection as an act of defiance, raging against a tide of homophobia and oppression. It will burn brightly, sometimes earnestly, fuelled by a desperate need to bloom.

Of the four boys featured, not all will pursue the same path, nor with the same vigour.

“Deviant” teen Charlie (Joseph Zada) is convinced his only option at overcoming the suffocation of his hometown is to leave in a blaze of glory or die. While his local priest (David Lyons) wants him to remove his hair dye, Charlie is lead singer / guitarist in a local goth outfit. He also cruises dating apps where one encounter with a closeted local man ends with him outing himself on social media and becoming further outcast.

But Charlie also meets a handsome local farmer Matt (Joe Klocek) when he needs it most, and their intense tryst leads to a much deeper connection. It opens different opportunities for both which will rise and fall across the series.

Meanwhile teen Zeke (Aydan Calafiore), the Italian son of a conservative, privileged family, obstinately steered by mother Anna (Pia Miranda), is being bullied at school by ‘Hammer’ (Zach Blampied) and his gang. In the privacy of his own bedroom Zeke is watching porn, constantly fearing his demanding mother will uncover his secret.

Hammer, the son of Karla (Shareena Clanton), has a trophy girlfriend and his sights set on being chosen for an upcoming AFL Draft, which would represent a huge achievement in his Indigenous community. Promos and photos already give away that Hammer’s path is at odds with expectations of him, so I’m not sure there’s much point in me trying to avoid any spoiler of what lays ahead….

Not many of the adults are supportive of our 4, particularly early on. Charlie’s priest has him scrubbing the church pews, Hammer’s mum is dogged on him not ruining his chance at football glory, while Zeke’s mum Anna is homophobic -and racist- to the point of becoming series villain every time she enters the screen. I guess it serves a plot purpose, but her arc is very one note.

Set against this backdrop is the 2017 same-sex marriage vote, a volatile plebiscite which led to bullying in some sections of the community. Added to the drama adaptation, it ripples away in the background of four souls looking to belong.

Creator / Director Nick Verso draws some fine performances from his young actors, several of whom are emerging. Joseph Zada brings an unapologetic and unfiltered spirit to the story, contrasted by the grounded, romantic farmer played beautifully by Joe Klocek. First time actor Aydan Calafiore, better known as a finalist in The Voice 2018 has all the feels as the schoolboy railing against his family’s conservative traditions, and shows huge promise with the emotions he taps into. The camera loves hunky Zach Blampied, as the young and conflicted Indigenous teen.

The cast also commits to the candid romance and authentic sexual scenes, leaving little to the imagination.

The script wears its heart on its sleeve, full of angst, veering between zeal and melodrama, and sometimes testing logic. And while the ending may be divisive, the series improves with each passing episode. There are also some magical moments and shots, drawing upon a distinct landscape, especially at Hutt Lagoon’s Pink Lakes. The choice of music also elevates the series.

Invisible Boys will reel you in and leave you thinkng about equality, individuality and friendship with a young cast that deserves plenty of praise.

Invisible Boys screens Thursday February 13 on Stan.

Be relieved you’re reading this review ahead of watching new UK mystery comedy Ludwig.

I was so confused by the set-up I had to watch it twice.

Let me cut to the chase.

David Mitchell is mild-mannered, fairly reclusive, puzzle expert John Taylor, authoring books as ‘Ludwig.’ But he gets an urgent call from his sister-in-law Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin) when her husband and John’s brother, James, vanishes.

James has left behind an unconvincing resignation letter from his job as a Detective Chief Inspector in the Cambridge Police Force, but it’s of little help to Lucy and her teenage son, Henry (Dylan Hughes).

The kicker to the story is that John and James are identical twins, so Lucy gets the wild idea for John to masquerade as him and step inside the police station itself to get James’ notebook -a suggestion so outrageous he refuses point blank.

But hey, it would only be a day of faking-it-til-you-make-it. What could possibly go wrong?

Despite his complete lack of social skills, not to mention his bunny-hop car parking, the instant Inspector manages to fool everybody on the force via a fake ID, contact lenses and quick-thinking answers.

But the day also sees him seconded to the murder of a solicitor. Partnered with DI Russell Carter (Dipo Ola) and a team comprising DS Alice Finch (Izuka Hoyle) and DC Simon Evans (Gerran Howell currently appearing in The Pitt).

It’s at the crime scene that John’s puzzle-solving skills come to the fore, with his quirky, lateral way of looking at the world, proving invaluable (if somewhat basic to any logic puzzle player).

Even his superiors, DCS Carol Shaw (Dorothy Atkinson) and Chief Constable Ziegler (Ralph Ineson), are impressed by the day’s work, but there’s also unanswered questions within the force which may reveal more around the mysterious disappearance of James.

Mitchell is, as always, a delight in the title role, underplaying the plotting to create a character readily accessible to the audience. He’s matched by the dependable Anna Maxwell Martin, determined to get the bottom of her husband’s disappearance with her own home-grown kill board.

You do have to wonder at the skill level of the force, assigned with protecting the public and solving crimes when they can’t even detect one of their own is not who he seems to be…

But the series hums along with the crime of the week, a longer series arc and a range of quirky characters.

Against his better judgment, even John is won over by his new found job and the challenge of uncovering the truth about his missing brother.

“I have to. It’s a puzzle. Puzzles are meant to be solved,” says John.

Ludwig double episode 8:30pm Wednesday on Seven (6pm 7plus)

With a name like James Norton (Happy Valley, Grantchester, McMafia) attached to a new UK drama, expectations were high for Playing Nice, a new 4 part series to screen on SBS.

And while he steps up as the sympathetic hero of this drama based on a novel by J.P. Delaney, you really have to wonder, what was everybody thinking?

It’s a windswept Cornish coast that is the backdrop to this psychological thriller in which two couples discover their toddler sons were switched at birth.

Pete (James Norton) gave up his journalism career to be a stay-at-home dad and sometime local labourer while wife and skilled chef Maddie (Niamh Algar) keeps the kitchen running at a local successful restaurant.

But out of the blue wealthy architect Miles (James McArdle) comes knocking on their door to reveal that son Theo was swapped with his boy David, whom he shares with wife Lucy (Jessica Brown Findlay). It’s a mind-blowing mix-up that the local hospital confirms, whilst undertaking an investigation.

When the two couples meet at Miles’ fancy cliff-top house, it’s like the haves and the have-nots. Despite such alarming circumstances, the two couples agree to welcome the other child, and parents, into their lives over a nice glass of wine.

At first those shared parenting meetings are perfectly chummy, but it doesn’t take long before things turn and all bets are off… and we’re suddenly in another genre than one which might have explored very modern families, or the genuine trauma of dealing with learning your child is not your own.

Instead, deception, lying, mind games, threats, lawyers and fears get into the driver’s seat, combined with some spurious story moves designed to bring our hero down to zero.

Trust is also a liability in this tale as Pete and Maddie are brought to the brink… as if dealing with the true identity of your child wasn’t enough. But like any good protagonist, from hitting rock bottom the only way is up?

Norton can play the hot daddy (it had to be said) standing on his head, but for a supposed journo he’s a little on the naive side. He’s also deserving of much better material than this.

James McArdle at least gets a more interesting role as the new best friend bordering on sociopath. Niamh Algar is also juggling some demons from the past, which rear their ugly head… as if dealing with the true identity of your child wasn’t enough #2.

The twist and turns are there to prop up the running time (I reckon it could have been told as a telemovie) but are we to believe any of this is actually credible?

There’s also insufficient accountability on the part of the hospital in the greater picture. Cornwall hospitals will have to get on the back foot and do some good PR after this.

This one really needed to be grounded in truth and facts rather than being ramped up into a macho powerplay where the children are chess pieces for a pretty average plot…. just with a veneer of actually caring.

Playing Nice screens Wednesday, 29 January at 9.25pm on SBS.

Anna Maxwell Martin is always an interesting performer, whether in Line of Duty, The Bletchley Circle, Accused or her many other British dramas.

In her latest, Until I Kill You, she may not be particularly likeable, but it’s a compelling performance which is the reason to otherwise watch a true life show about domestic violence leading to attempted murder.

Delia Balmer (Anna Maxwell Martin) is Australian born, though you’d never know it from meeting her. She spent much of her adult life travelling, living in Canada and settling in London. When we meet her in 1991 she is a public hospital nurse, a loner save for a benevolent workmate Leah (Amanda Wilkin). She doesn’t make friends easily, speaks without a filter and lives in a spartan, bohemian apartment so that she can upend roots and travel like the free spirit that she is.

“I don’t really know where I feel I belong ” – Delia

When she meets carpenter John (Shaun Evans) in a bar one night, she invites him back to her pad. While it looks like two odd cats have connected on common ground, the viewer is already privy to the deception in John. But the time lapses which extend their relationship to over 12 months means he is either genuinely into her, or playing the long game.

Concurrently with their blossoming connection is a subplot based in Amsterdam where a father is searching for his missing daughter. It doesn’t take long for the viewer to piece together this jigsaw, it’s just how the parts fit that need resolution.

But the fact that this 4 x 60 series is based on a book by Delia Balmer signposts that somehow through whatever shitshow is coming, she managed to survive it all. And trust me, it is a shitshow.

As the series unravels over several years it will involve violence, policing, trials, hospitals, rehabilitation and wholesale failures in the system.

Delia remains an abrasive, short-tempered central character who makes a confronting 4 hours even more challenging. But it also sets it apart from dramas where the victim is readily sympathetic.

The series also features Kevin Doyle from Downton Abbey as a mild-mannered driver who befriends Delia in a fragile new relationship which tests her ability to trust again. Who can blame her?

Anna Maxwell Martin is suitably savage, bitter, dispassionate, socially awkward (and frankly I couldn’t detect any Canadian accent even though the characters could), but if it’s all true to the real Delia Balmer then it’s a study in character for any aspiring actor.

Shaun Evans gets the villain role and one which, by all accounts, was fairly inept.. making mistakes which left authorities in little doubt as to his part in these most unpleasant proceedings.

With its frank title, Until I Kill You isn’t exactly an entertaining way to spend two nights (it screens in double episodes) but Anna Maxwell Martin is at least commanding in her portrayal. And it reminds us that nobody is deserving of such treatment, whether warm and sympathetic or caustic and detached.

Until I Kill You 8:30pm Sunday on ABC (all episodes on ABC iview)

Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia.
Lifeline 13 11 14
Beyond Blue 1300 22 46 36

TV loves a medical drama.

It allows for high stakes, for fresh stories to land unannounced, for key cast to perform in heroic roles, and for interior sets to be used endlessly.

Over the years I’ve partaken of many including Emergency!, Julia, Quincy ME, The Young Doctors, The Flying Doctors, All Saints, Grey’s Anatomy, Nip / Tuck, House, Nurse Jackie, Shortland Street and more.

The Pitt is the first one I have to watch almost entirely through my hands, an intense experience that very nearly had me in the foetal position on my couch. I know, I know…. that says more about me than the show, right?

Welcome to the Emergency Department of the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital. Emphasis on trauma.

It’s 7am when Dr. Michael “Robby” Rabinavitch (Noah Wyle) returns to the ED -that’s ED not ER geddit? It’s the anniversary of a colleague’s death during the pandemic and Robby is dealing with a lot of guilt. He won’t get much time to dwell on it though. It’s non-stop in the ED with a bursting waiting room, incoming emergencies and student doctors who are quite a handful.

In The Pitt, as it is nicknamed, everybody is waiting for an available bed. Processing and caring for patients to go upstairs is a constant juggling act. Despite his most noble of duties, Robby is hounded by hospital administrator Gloria (Michael Hyatt) who wants better results drawing upon less of the budget.

“Step up your game or you can step aside.” – Gloria

Thankfully Robby has charge nurse Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa) at the centre of it all, like a calming flight controller of incoming cases, even though I struggled to comprehend much of her ‘mumblecore’ dialogue.

Robby’s very diverse team is extensive, but you learn to go with the flow and not dwell on names, rank and backstories, which emerge over time.

They include the chiselled if cynical Dr. Langdon (Patrick Marron Ball), a gun at diagnosing cases and multitasking, Dr. Collins (Tracy Ifeachor) who sometimes challenges Robby’s best intentions, Dr. Mohan (Supriya Ganesh) who appreciates the people in her chaotic workplace and Dr. McKay (Fiona Dourif) a caring and instinctive single mother.

Joining are student doctors Victoria Javadi (Shabana Azeez), nicknamed “Crash” after a fainting spell, Dennis Whitaker (Gerran Howell), nicknamed “Huckleberry” due to his farmboy roots, and intern Dr. King (Taylor Dearden), socially awkward but skilled where it matters most.

Then there are the patients. A lot of patients.

They arrive on stretchers, or from the overflowing waiting room, with all manner of wounds, bleeds, pain, mental trauma. There’s the woman whose foot was run over by a train, the elderly man whose children must make a life or death decision, the toddler whose state of unconsciousness is a mystery, the homeless man who collapsed, the man who was electrocuted, the mother whose teenage son is a high risk factor, the patient who ate something allergic, the athlete who is crashing… and that’s just the first two hours.

“As you can see, our house is always packed and our Dept is mostly clogged up with boarders, those are admitted patients waiting for a room upstairs, sometimes for days.” -Robby.

In the ED there’s no time for soapie workplace romance, no room for egos and no time to drop the ball. Hand-held cameras are used to swing from case to case, character to character, leaving the show as the sum of its parts.

For our doctors and nurses, black humour is sometimes the only thing that keeps them sane, but there will be stolen moments of silence to honour a person -briefly- should they not make it.

“Trust me we need to laugh, otherwise we’d never stop crying” – doctor.

Wyle is rock solid as the father-figure of this functionally dysfunctional TV family, and the show works hard to reflect their exemplary ability to focus in a sea of chaos. If it’s relentless for them, so too is it for viewers. Each episode of the 15 part series is one hour of hospital time. Not having seen them all, I fear little relief in terms of additional locations or personal storylines -but producer John Wells (ER, The West Wing, Shameless) is such a skilled storyteller he has the benefit of my doubts.

If only I can tear away the hands from my eyes to find out?

The Pitt screens Friday January 10 on Binge / 8:30pm on FOX One.

In 2014 Jerry Springer said, “I’d like to take this opportunity to frankly apologise for everything I’ve ever done in television. I have ruined the culture.”

Then he added, “And now I have to get on my plane.”

His talk show would run another four years.

The Jerry Springer Show ran from 1991 to 2018, making the former Cincinnati mayor and ex news anchor a multi-millionaire.

It was also the trashiest of the US talk shows, steered by a former tabloid journalist Richard Dominick making outrageous demands of his producing team in a salacious push for ratings.

“Richard was the svengali who controlled the show” – producer.

It worked. The NBC show would eventually surpass talk queen Oprah Winfrey with its “modern day version of the Roman Colosseum.” Guests with outlandish stories and personal grudges would come onto the show and unravel in screaming matches or even on stage fights.

In a new two part documentary series, Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action, Dominick and several of his team reflect -with varying levels of shock, delight or guilt- at what the show put into American homes across nearly three decades.

At the centre of it was Jerry Springer, who died in 2023, an agreeable chap who refrained from judging his guests.

“I don’t do a talk show, I do a circus” – Jerry Springer.

Dominick, who had a history of penning outrageous National Enquirer headlines, built a dull talk show lost in a sea of clones into something so sensational viewers could not look away. Episodes were titled, “Stripper Wars,” “I Refuse to Wear Clothes” and the gob-smacking “I Married a Horse.”

Show producers, looking back on their tactics, speak of coaching guests (known as “shaping the missile”) and withdrawing return flights if guests walked off set. Many guests were ambushed on set by a rival they did not know was coming. Most were drawn from a geographic area betwween Ohio, Arkansas and Georgia nicknamed the “Springer Triangle” and most had never seen the bright lights of Chicago were the show was filmed.

While producers bring some perspective to their darkest of TV arts, the elderly Dominick appears proud of his achievements and his mission to make the show #1.

“If I could kill someone on television I would execute them,” – Dominick

History will recall the show very nearly did just that, when an ex-guest was convicted of the murder of another guest, killed hours after an episode screened.

“Are ratings more important than the dignity of life? Shame on you, shame on you,” a judge would later observe.

While episode one of the doco centres on the rise and outrageousness of the Springer show, episode two looks to its downfall. I was hoping for some mention of Jerry Springer: The Opera which weighed in on the theatrics and morality of the whole damn thing.

And “my final thought” as Jerry would say… Television has been doing a fair bit of navel gazing and mea culpas in recent times, in documentaries about Nickelodeon, FOX News, Jimmy Savile, as well as in pop music, hip hop, RnB.

If it’s fitting that The Jerry Springer Show joins their ranks then perhaps like the Romans at the Colosseum we need to ask what part we played in it all by being a bloodthirsty audience or, perhaps, complicit bystanders, leaving a legacy that is now echoed in trashy Reality TV clashes ad infinitum.

Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action screens Tuesday January 7 on Netflix.

It’s been 36 years since Pan Am Flight 103 fell from the sky over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 passengers and crew, as well as 11 locals on the ground.

Yet in 2025 a new suspect is set to face trial in May. That gives you some idea of the complex path for justice which has plagued families of those who perished when a bomb exploded mid-air -years before the 9/11 disaster.

One man campaigning for justice has been British GP Dr. Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was on her way to the US to spend Christmas with her American boyfriend. She died aged just 23 years old on 21st December 1988.

As the disaster did for so many, it shattered the Swire family but in the new 5 part UK / US series, Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, we see the quest for justic through Jim’s eyes.

Colin Firth portrays the father and doctor driven by anguish and a lack of information, badgering government for answers and to discover who was responsible for his daughter’s death.

Lockerbie, with only a few thousand residents 120km south of Glasgow, was catapulted into the international spotlight that fateful night. It is tragically, and alarmingly, recreated here as a Boeing 747 comes raining down upon the town, as if resembling missiles. So large was the fuselage, it crushed three homes and created a crater in the middle of the town. The instant search and rescue -a cluster of dazed and confused farmers and villagers- is confronted by bodies in trees, strapped to airseats and even dead children.

“There’s more all over. Stopped counting after 50,” says one local.

After Jim Swire learns of his daughter’s death, but is frustrated by a lack of government accountability, he teams with a journalist, Murray Guthrie (Sam Troughton) to begin posing unanswered questions. Why did the US embassy dismiss an early phone call as a hoax yet warn their own staff not to take Flight 103? What information was being kept from families?

Central to his campaign is the desire for an independent inquiry, but it is rejected by the Thatcher govt, briefly represented by the Minister of State for Transport at the time, a younger Michael Portillo.

The unassuming Swire tests the patience of authorities, leading a victims group, challenging airport security and, at one poin, meeting Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi (Nabil Al Raee) to try and have Libyan suspects stand trial. But period politics surrounds the constant pursuit for justice and Swire’s path will face both victory and loss across the decades. It drags on so long, even Wikileaks enters the myriad of leads.

Swire’s obsession threatens the marriage with wife Jane (Catherine McCormack) who is grieving for her daughter, whilst trying to remain supportive of her husband’s stubborn campaign.

“I will never stop, not until we know the answer to everything,” Jim insists.

Colin Firth is outstanding as the mild-mannered GP, pushed into a spotlight he did not seek, but whose single vision is dogmatic and all-consuming. Catherine McCormack sensitively navigates a tenuous path between grief, devotion and frustration.

With the exception of Sam Troughton as a cluey journalist, and Ardalan Esmaili as Libyan suspect Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, there’s surprisingly little room for anyone else across the 5 episodes. Whether as Swire family members, Lockerbie locals, British, American or Libyan officials, most others are relegated to supporting players. But perhaps the performance by Firth and McCormackis so incandescent it suitably places them in their jetstream, pardon the pun.

The series, which draws upon newsreel footage, is produced by the well-regarded Carnival Films (Downton Abbey, The Day Of The Jackal, The Hollow Crown). In 2025 Netflix will also unveil a 6 part drama, Lockerbie, starring Connor Swindells, Merritt Wever and Patrick J. Adams. That will reportedly centre around the two investigations by British and American governments.

Until then, the focus is on the remarkable Dr. Jim Swire, now aged 88, and his most personal quest for justice.

Presumably the producers hope this will do for him what Mr Bates vs the Post Office did for Alan Bates and the innocent subpostmasters of the Brtish Post Office.

After 36 years, it surely deserves to.

Lockerbie: A Search for Truth screens weekly from Thursday January 2 on Binge / 1pm Showcase.

The tagline for Superman 1978 was “You will believe a man can fly.”

And thousands of cinema-goers did just that, transfixed by the sight of Christoper Reeve taking flight from the Fortress of Solitude for the first time, to the stirring music of John Williams.

Reeve was just 25 at the time and largely unknown outside of his emerging stage career. Trained at Juilliard School, he had his sights set on Shakespeare and Chekhov.

Director Richard Donner had already cast Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman in principal roles for his $55m movie, and every A-list star had either been seen or rejected for the title role. But Reeve attended, against his better judgment, turning up as a gangly young man -deemed perfect for the role of Clark Kent. Committed to his craft he bulked up in readiness for the red suit -there is nowhere to hide after all.

While the film hit major delays filming at Pinewood Studios in London, its reception was overwhelming. Reeve became a superstar overnight, booked onto Good Morning America, The Tonight Show, The Late Show, SNL, The Muppets.

Documentary Christopher Reeve: The Eternal Superman pivots around an unseen interview with Reeve filmed in 2004, the same year he died, aged 52.

“I was the caretaker of Superman, the one to hold the cup for a little while and then pass it on,” he reveals.

The French doco plays things very straight, with a reserved narration sticking to the facts. That includes how Reeve struggled against being typecast with a role the size of Superman. His next movie Somewhere in Time bombed, but at least he met wife Jane Seymour. Other films followed: Monsignor, Street Smart, Bump in the Night, The Sea Wolf (he rejected offers for Amerigan Gigolo, Body Heat, Mutiny on the Bounty).

But he would return to the red suit for three more features, no longer under Richard Donner, to mixed susccess.

The documentary draws parallels between the fictional superhero and the true life super-man who used his powers for good, first visiting Chile to campaign for actors being persecuted by General Pinochet. He would subsequently become an environmental activist for a range of causes, including scripting an anti-nuclear message in Superman IV.

But of course his career would be cut short by a tragic horseriding accident in 1995 when he became paralysed from the neck down. While it would have defeated most, Reeve again used his fame to establish the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation raising funds for research the world over.

The doco includes his Smallville cameo (who knew?) and hears from comic book authors, film producer Ilya Salkind, family friends and President of DC Comics, Jenette Khan.

They unversally praise Reeve’s talent, humility and achievements.

2025 will see a new man in the red cape on the big screen. David Corenswet is the next custodian of the title, with expectations the film pays homage to the 1978 classic. It’s a very tall order, after believing a man could fly and ultimately believing in Christopher Reeve.

Christopher Reeve: The Eternal Superman 8:30pm Sunday December 22 on SBS VICELAND.

In 2024 spy dramas are all about a work / life balance (see also The Day of the Jackal).

How do you keep the homes fires burning while taking out your latest target? And how do those family ties pull on your heartstrings when all you’re trying to do is extinguish another life without blowing your cover?

In Black Doves, poor Helen (Keira Knightley) is literally on the phone saying “mummy loves you” while hiding from enemies about to take her out. But she’s no slouch. Victory is all in a days work for one of the Black Doves team.

By day she’s the wife of Britain’ Secretary of State for Defence Wallace Webb, (Andrew Buchan), by night she is a stealth spy for Reed (Sarah Lancashire), the powerful, enigmatic boss of the Black Doves spies. This bunch are so shadowy not even MI:6 know about them. Just what their purpose is remains shrouded in secrecy, but Helen is one of their best and a gun at being gun for hire.

If she has any weakness it is falling hard for a civil servant, Jason (Andrew Koji), and finding time to squeeze in an affair on the side. Except when Jason is part of a string of killings, Helen is determined to get justice. When Reed tells her his death is connected to a wider political incident involving the Chinese ambassador, she has her way in…

Brought in to protect Helen is ‘trigger man’ Sam (Ben Whishaw) who has precision-like skills with guns and all things covert. He’s also moved on from his relationship with ex Michael (Omari Douglas) until an unexpected reacquaintance pulls him back to the perfect partner he let go. Dating is never easy when you’re a spy.

It’s also made worse when your former boss, Lenny (Kathryn Hunter), wants you to finish off a job or she’ll have Michael killed.

Against the backdrop of all this work / love Wallace is rising in political circles and diplomacy, some of which involves the Chinese ambassador thread, and constantly looking out for the family’s two small kids when Helen mysteriously vanishes at all hours of the night when Reed summons her.

Knightley, it has to be said, is panther-like at these occupational hazards, kicking arse in shoot-outs and fisticuffs, constantly winning the day and getting home in time to kiss the kids goodnight. Helen is clearly in this for the long-haul. I mean, she’s been married to the Defence Minister and had two kids, all for the sake of one of Reed’s missions? It’s a stretch. The action scenes are more convincing than doting mother.

Whishaw as Sam juggles the emotion and work to considerable effect. You believe he cares about Michael, and you believe that he believes his promises, all of which are impossible to keep -it’s torn on his handsome, hand-dog face.

Thank god Sarah Lancashire is in the role of Reed, because it is so underwritten that she slinks in and out of scenes, pouring a white wine and ordering a kill. Were it anyone less than her gravitas it would be a supporting player. Lancashire convinces with limited dialogue and even less backstory.

Flashbacks and timelines by writer Joe Barton can be mightily confusing (hint, keep your eye on Keira’s hair) but director Alex Gabassi never disappoints on the excitement scale. The action scenes pack a punch, courtesy of Knightley’s commitment.

The story is set against a Christmas backdrop. There’s lots of London streetscapes, decorations and snow, cheekily contrasting the sentiment of the season with the bloodlust executions going on in dark corners. It may not match a classic like Die Hard but Black Doves is a spirited twist on that most wonderful time of the year.

Black Doves is now screening on Netflix.

The USA has produced a number of movies based on songs to varying degrees of success.

Think White Christmas, Love Me Tender, Convoy, Eye of the Tiger, Earth Girls are Easy, Harper Valley PTA, Copacabana and, to a lesser extent, Mamma Mia (based on a British play).

Australia has barely ever done this, unless you count The Seekers’ Georgy Girl, written by UK songwriters and produced as a British film.

So it’s a huge leap of faith to adapt loose lyrics into a cohesive, satisfying story -which is exactly what Meg Washington and Nick Waterman (who also directs) have done, together with Warner Bros. Int, TV Production Australia and Speech & Drama.

How to Make Gravy is a remarkable first feature for the duo, following from Waterman’s short films, and Washington’s music career.

Music is the DNA of this film based on Paul Kelly’s iconic 1996 song. That told the story of a prisoner writing home to his brother Dan, lamenting that he would not be home for Christmas, and to please look out for those near to him. Many of the names are just that, names. Their relationship to the author is ambiguous. But there are fears for partner Rita that Dan make may a move on her…

In broadening out a four and a half minute song into a two-hour, three act narrative, we learn (in this version, anyway), why our anti-hero went behind bars, what happened inside, and how making gravy serves as a metaphor for his rehabilitation.

Daniel Henshall portrays Joe, who is separated from family following an incident and finds himself incarcerated for 12 months. But inside he keeps making mistakes which sees his sentence extended to 18 months.

Giving him grief is prison thug Red (Kieran Darcy-Smith) in a typical power game that gets the best of Joe’s temper. But veteran lifer Noel (Hugo Weaving) wields even greater power in the prisoner hierarchy, seemingly without ever raising a finger. Noel also runs the prison kitchen where Joe quickly learns they are hopeless at making gravy for muster. His family recipe could be a way into protection if only he is smart enough to see it…

The film also brings to life Joe’s working class family. While there’s very little confirmation of either time or place, you recognise it as quintessentially Australian nonetheless. There’s the heat, the cars, the tank tops and thongs and the arguments around the family Christmas lunch.

Agathe Rousselle plays wife Rita, trying to keep her family together without Joe, while handsome brother-in-law Dan (Brenton Thwaites) is helping out and resisting his growing attraction. Young Jonah Wren Phillips plays troubled child Angus, who misses his father terribly and resents Dan’s presence -his is another stellar performance from a child actor this year.

Crowded family members also include sister Stella (Kate Mulvany) and her awkward partner Roger (Damon Herriman) plus Kim Gyngell and Eugene Gilfedder as the “brothers” who drive down from Queensland, as the song suggests.

Much of the film takes place inside the prison -all of which is created by Washington and Waterman inspired by Kelly’s lyrics- and it works a treat. The relationship between Joe and Noel (a newly-created character) is part of the beating heart of the story. Weaving’s gravitas adds such convincing truth to personal growth sessions which might have otherwise elicited humour. Henshall navigates it all with sensitivity, in the lead up to penning his letter home.

There is also a prison choir, which includes cameos from Electric Fields’ Zaachariaha Fielding and singer songwriter Brendan Maclean. Waterman weaves together song and story into beautiful, uplifting moments. Grab the tissues for the moment Kelly’s voice rolls over the credits. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll think ‘how damn good is this?’

Debut features from first-time writer / directors really shouldn’t be this good. It has to be said, if the year began with Boy Swallows Universe, it is finishing with How to Make Gravy.

How to Make Gravy screens Sunday December 1 on Binge / 8:30pm Movies Premiere.

If, like me, you need a quick lesson in what defines Yacht Rock, allow me to help.

The genre is based on a 2005 web series of the same name which gently mocked a range of 1970s / 80s soft rock bands but in doing so spawned a sub-culture movement that came to revere them.

In short, these are now Yacht Rock music acts: Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, Kenny Loggins, Christopher Cross, Toto, Ambrosia.

These are not: Air Supply, The Eagles (West Coast sound), Hall & Oates, Jimmy Buffett, Fleetwood Mac -but there is some debate around that.

In the new HBO film Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary it is aptly described as “perfect sitting down music.” It is not just music heard in the elevator, dentist or shopping centre (although it definitely can be), but it has its roots in black musical influences.

In the doco directed by Garret Price and produced by Bill Simmons, the white bands are described as not just musical tourists …they were musical cosmopolitans who knew their stuff.

King of the Yacht Rock genre is Michael McDonald, a member of Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers, and whose voice is so unique he was an intermittent backing vocalist for Toto, Christopher Cross, and Kenny Loggins.

Wikipedia also described the characteristics of Yacht Rock as having:

High production value
Use of “elite” Los Angeles–based studio musicians and producers associated with yacht rock
Jazz and R&B influences
Use of electric piano
Complex and wry lyrics about heartbroken, foolish men, particularly involving the word “fool”
An upbeat rhythm called the “Doobie Bounce”

Think songs like What a Fool Believes, Sailing (the Christopher Cross not Rod Stewart song), Ride Like the Wind (which Cross reveals he wrote on acid), I’d Really Love to See You Tonight, Peg, Heart to Heart, This is It and even Africa.

Sadly The Captain & Tenille don’t make the cut, even though The Captain actually dressed like a sailor. Nor does The Love Boat theme. Too too twee.  I kept waiting for The Pina Colada Song and Key Largo, but they never came. Nor did Little River Band despite their stellar success in the US in the ’70s. So  much for that Las Vegas Hilton….

The doco features new interviews with Michael McDonald, who seems like a perfectly lovely bloke, Christopher Cross, Kenny Loggins, members of Toto (who knew Rosanna was named after Rosanna Arquette?), Steely Dan, Ambrosia, as well as music producers, DJs and current artists.

There is acknowledgment of other artists who had songs influenced by the pioneers including Boz Scaggs, Al Jarreau, George Benson, Pointer Sisters, James Ingram, Ray Parker Jr., Chaka Khan and more.

In archival footage you’ll spy Olivia Newton-John & Peter Allen, Countdown producer Michael Shrimpton and the voice of Molly -and even a glimpse of Don Lane.

The era ended with the arrival of MTV and Thriller. While some artists such as Kenny Loggins moved to soundtracks, others could not compete with the demands of video production. It indeed killed the radio star…

But what the Yacht Rock web series and movement has done is restore music appreciation for artists who were sometimes scorned or dismissed (to be fair there was chart success Grammy wins however). But it has been revived with bar singalongs with the audience decked out in yachting attire. Go figure.

For all but Steely Dan keyboardist Donald Fagen, Yacht Rock is here to stay. Wait for the closing credits for his opinion on that.

Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary 12:30pm Saturday November 30 on Foxtel / Binge.

Look to the British press in recent history and it’s easy to think there has been more drama off screen than on screen.

Phillip Schofield, Huw Edwards, Rolf Harris, Jimmy Savile…

Now fuelled by the obsession with social media and clickbait, Douglas is Cancelled draws inspiration from such scandals in a dazzling 4 part ‘comedy-drama’ from writer Steven Moffat (Sherlock, Doctor Who, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Jekyll).

Douglas is Douglas Bellowes (Hugh Bonneville), a respected broadcaster of Live At Six, whose life implodes when a rogue tweet from an obscure account refers to a sexist joke he made at his cousin’s wedding.

For TV producer Toby (Ben Miles) there is still time to minimise the impact, but first he must get his head around what happened. And what united front they will present to the public “once we’ve decided on the facts.”

Douglas insists he can’t remember the joke itself.

So determined to control the narrative is Toby that he disputes Douglas’ version of events, despite not even being at the wedding itself.

“We’re journalists we’re never there. Having opinions about things we didn’t witness is the entire point of our existence.”

Nevertheless, with the possibility of the public losing trust in such a high-profile anchor it’s a PR disaster on the brink of an abyss.

“Your voice is what makes famous people dead!” Toby insists.

But Douglas’ day is about to get a lot worse when wife and newspaper editor Sheila (Alex Kingston) learns of the news. She eats stories like this for breakfast, but now one is on the homefront and she proceeds to tear strips off her husband, adding, “Please delete these messages, I work with people who hack your phone!”

While Douglas seeks to dismiss the joke and tweet, more tabloid-fuelled claims will follow around the family living room from Sheila. “A newsreader’s arse can push a war off the front page!”

Sheila is also concerned about her husband’s younger co-host Madeline (Karen Gillan), with good cause, who presents a facade of support for Douglas, whilst tacitly manoeuvring behind the scenes….

Even Douglas’ doddery agent Bently (Simon Russell Beale) can’t seem to come up with a plan of attack other than an apology press release, and parting company with his client. Ouch.

Through it all Douglas is perhaps the most level-headed of Moffat’s delicious characters, but knee-deep in forces beyond his control, he can but only watch his career slip away from him.

Hugh Bonneville is outstanding in this role, as the blinking, trusting, old-school presenter being torn to shreds by those who feign his best interests at heart.

Alex Kingston, perhaps best recognised as Doctor Who‘s own River Song, is mesmerising in a cyclone of a role as wife and tabloid editor. Scenes with her self-absorbed PA Helen (Stephanie Hyam) could doubtless be ripped straight from Ab Fab were they not Moffat’s creation.

Ben Miles is ruthless as producer Toby, constantly trying to navigate from a position of neutrality and seizing upon “an opportunity to get ahead of the facts.” Just wait for a scene with ‘comedy writer’ Tom (Joe Wilkinson).

Karen Gillan is match-fit for the ambitious Madeline, whose role in all of this, I suspect, won’t be clear until the finale.

The real star of Douglas is Cancelled is Moffat’s script. The dialogue is ripping, rapid-fire brutal and darkly hilarious. It rests so wickedly on its ensemble, it could almost work on stage were it not on screen. The music also evokes feelings of Succession.

If this is truly where modern media is at in 2024 we are probably all doomed. Otherwise, enjoy this from the cheap seats as a glorious takedown behind the scenes of TV. Unmissable.

Douglas is Cancelled 8pm Sunday December 1 on ABC (all episodes on iview)

While a murder mystery drama is unfolding for the good folk of Queenstown in new drama series A Remarkable Place to Die, the drama of the surrounding landscape is undeniable.

The aerial shots and the vistas are truly captivating, so much so they upstage the whodunnit action led by Detective Anaís Mallory (Chelsie Preston Crayford).

Anais has returned to Queenstown from Sydney to become the local lead detective. Hmm sounds familiar. There’s a frosty reception from mum Veronica (Rebecca Gibney), who says ‘darling’ a lot but doesn’t appear to mean it very much. That’s because, in between pouring herself the red wines, she holds Anais partly-responsible for the death of her other daughter, which took place some years earlier.

Meanwhile there is a more pressing police matter to address with an SUV tumbling off a cliff with a body inside.

Local coppers Constable Jarrod Renner (Dahnu Graham) and Senior Constable Hoana Rata (Roimata Fox) have their work cut out to identify the badly damaged body but Inspector Sharon Li Feng (Lynette Forday) welcomes Anais to the team, partnering her with Detective Simon Delaney (Matt Whelan).

Investigations ensue with a range of locals including her ex Luke (Charles Jazz Terrier), who just happened to marry her best friend Maja (Indiana Evans). There’s also a wealthy importer and partner, a backpacker manager and some Brazilian food van operators.

We also meet handsome pathologist Ihaka (Alex Tarrant) who offers crucial clues and a little emotional support for our heroine when she needs it most.

Much of the extensive movie-length episodes see Anais questioning suspects, piecing together clues, and hitting obligatory dead ends. But the locations never stop, lakeside with mountain ranges at every turn. The shots, and the autumn colours, are amongst the better features of a fairly pedestrian crime mystery.

Anais also touches upon her backstory in which the death of her sister looms large. Expect this to roll out over the four episodes.

Chelsie Preston Crayford is in almost every scene, admirably carrying the load of the series, getting next to no help from her counterpart who is underwritten with no initiative. Rebecca Gibney serves as a support in a role she could phone in from mountain retreat while Dahnu Graham as a bumbling young cop is the sole comic relief.

The episodes are way too long which causes the pace of the show to drag and it might have worked better trimmed down to an hour. It’s hard not to think of Return to Paradise, in which a detective returns home to her ghosts and to solve new crimes, sticking to genre turning points, with lashings of quirky times and very little blood.

With such a magical landscape surrounding this tale, it really needed to match the setting better than this.

A Remarkable Place to Die screens 8pm Sunday on Nine.

If you ever saw The Day After in 1983 chances are its chilling story never left you.

If you never did, then Television Event is the perfect time capsule for you.

This Australian-made documentary by US born producer director Jeff Daniels transports back to a time when the Cold War between America and the USSR was on a knife-edge. A nuclear disaster of catastrophic proportions was seemingly right around the corner.

Enter film director Nicholas Meyer, hired to helm a project which would become The Day After for ABC’s Sunday Night Movie.

It was ABC’s movies exec Brandon Stoddard who decided rather than make an endless stream of forgettable telemovies the network should try to make a difference by tackling the nuclear threat. It would be a trajectory full of controversy, brinkmanship, fear and politics but also record ratings and even landmark changes.

Nicholas Meyer, fresh from directing Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, was tasked with the job along with producer Robert Papazian and writer Ed Hume, who reveals in this doco he fully intended to script for political change. Yet rather than craft a US vs Russian tale, it would be the impact itself that would drive the story. After all in the 1980s the world had enough nuclear arsenals to obliterate every man, woman and child on the planet 54 times over….

Nicholas Meyer also aimed for as much realism as possible in an era without CGI. This led to artistic differences with the network over the use of blood, fears of skin burning off humans, and the confronting nature of dramatising post-apocalypse victims. Nobody had ever attempted to put a nuclear war onto primetime television before in this kind of forum. While Meyer was fully aware of the responsibility before him, it unnerved execs, advertisers and eventually the White House.

Under the Reagan administration, there were moves to minimise the impact of the drama prior to its airing. I won’t spoil the rollercoaster Meyer and his associates endured trying to get this to air, suffice to say he became known as a “difficult” director.

Daniels’ doco draws from recent interviews with key players, including Meyer, Papazian, Hume, Stoddard, Associate Producer Stephanie Austin, Ken Adelman from the Reagan Administration, and veteran news anchor Ted Koppel. While the film featured Jason Robards, JoBeth Williams, Steve Guttenberg and John Lithgow, it is a former child actor Ellen Moore who revisits the shooting, and even the trauma it still brings her.

Archival footage of the original film is both compelling and kookily-dated, but there is rare behind the scenes vision of how scenes were constructed. One famous scene from Gone with the Wind was the inspiration for a basketball stadium full of apocalypctic victims on stretchers, drawing upon thousands of extras.

A key part of Daniels’ documentary is the impact The Day After had when it went to air in America: 100 million viewers, all at one time (a cinema release in Australia) confronted by the possibility of nuclear war on their doorstep. There were candlelight vigils, TV forums, protests and debate.

Years later -if not directly linked to the telemovie- President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev would agree to nuclear disarmament at their Reykjavík Summit.

Television Event is a captivating time capsule of creative compromises and passion hitting you right between the eyes from the 1980s. Mostly it’s a ripping yarn about the power of television. Don’t miss it.

Television Event 10:10pm Thursday on SBS VICELAND

Honestly, is there any cinema-goer on the planet not familiar with the work of John Williams?

Even in Africa, India, China and Brazil I’d wager many would know the themes from such movies as Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Superman and ET.

From a career that has spanned seven decades, his scores have transcended the screen to become symphonies and iconic anthems in their own right. Just how many there are is staggering -evidenced by his 54 Academy Award nominations, second only to the most nominated person, Walt Disney himself.

How lucky we are that, at 92 years of age, he is captured on film reflecting upon it all in the feature documentary, Music by John Williams.

The skivvy-wearing prolific genius sits at the piano where he created some of his most memorable works, to look back upon his body of work, and life as a father, in this Laurent Bouzereau-directed film. Even the names behind the production tell you how connected and revered he is: Imagine Entertainment, Amblin Entertainment, LucasFilm, Disney.

Similarly there are screen heavyweights sitting down for interviews: Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Ron Howard, Seth McFarlane, JJ Abrams, fellow composers Thomas Newman, Alan Silvestri, as well as Coldplay’s Chris Martin. There are also family members who help illustrate their father’s passion for work, as well as how he navigated fatherhood and family tragedy.

Williams was the son of a drummer who ended up becoming a musician at Hollywood studios. The gifted Johnny, one of 3 musical children, was playing, arranging and composing by his teens, gaining a gift for musical parts and instrumentation and very nearly chasing a jazz career.

In addition to playing for other composers, including Alfred Newman, Henry Mancini and Leonard Bernstein, he composed scores for television: Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants for Irwin Allen.

“I didn’t lose myself in Hollywood I found myself in Hollywood,” he says.

Film scores beckoned with The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno and Earthquake (all for Allen) plus Images, The Long Goodbye, The Reivers and The Cowboys.

It was the latter films which inspired Spielberg to lure him to The Sugarland Express -a meeting Williams would later describe as “the luckiest day of my life.” Their collaboration would deliver hits such as Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET, Schindler’s List, Jurassic Park, Catch Me If You Can, The Fabelmans -and all the sequels in between.

Spielberg remembers hearing the first notes of Jaws on a piano, at first not getting its power. In a loving reflection he goes on to say, “I see my movie the way he sees my film.”

The phenomenon of Star Wars (a project he very nearly declined for an offer to score A Bridge Too Far) also gives rise to the sheer popularity of orchestras performing works for audiences -something which was initially met with resistance when he helmed the Boston Pops.

But over time gifted soloists came to revere the chance to work with Williams conducting live, and the film highlights instruments including piano, harp, french horn, violin and bassoon for the different moods they evoke. Footage of a Hollywood Bowl Star Wars concert is one of the doco highlights.

Some argue the success of a good soundtrack can be measured by never noticing it was there in the first place, effectively rendering it as one with the action on screen. That’s really not something you can argue is the case with Williams. The first bars of Star Wars, or Jaws, or the Superman theme are unmistakable, instant classics.

This just makes you want to sit down and watch all those movies again.

Music by John Williams is now screening on Disney+.

Munich, London, Paris, New York, Seville, Belfast, Bavaria, Riga… new spy thriller The Day of the Jackal has gone all out to envelop you in bustling metropolises and sumptuous locations.

There’s money on the screen in the new series starring Eddie Redmayne as the conniving Jackal of the title.

The reimagining of Frederick Forsythe’s novel of the same name is expanded 10 episodes which, unlike a good ol’ James Bond adventure, demands much of its audience. Thankfully it delivers on several fronts.

The action opens with the Jackal heavily disguised and undertaking his first of many covert activites, first in Munich. While the original 1973 film centered around a plot to kill French President Charles de Gaulle, this time a target is a candidate for German Chancellor (review embargos forbid me from detailing if he is successful). Is that slightly awkward given recent events in the USA?

Suffice to say his actions attract the attention of MI6 intelligence officer Bianca (Lashana Lynch) who is both compelled by his finesse and determined to halt him in his tracks. Biance is both skilled MI6 officer and devoted mother to a teenage daughter, the first of several family characters to not know what their loved one is truly undertaking in their unique employ.

Meanwhile our anti-hero is secretly offered a multi-million dollar hit job on a software billionaire (Khalid Abdalla) who in a gift to the world is about to release new software known as River, which will effectively make all bank accounts transparent.

When he isn’t a master of disguise, aiming his high-powered long range rifle, or eluding authorities at every step, Jackal is chilling in his stunning Spanish villa overlooking the Meditteranean with equally-stunning wife Nuria (Úrsula Corberó) and baby son. Once again, the character lives a double life. The work-life balance of these characters is notably highlighted as an emotive tug-of-war, whether goodies or baddies….

Other key characters include Bianca’s Belfast asset Isabel (Lia Williams), a US corporate mogul Timothy Winthorp (Charles Dance) and go-between Zina (Eleanor Matsuura).

Amid the alluring city skylines, cat-and-mouse chases and spy tricks -all of which are pretty darn satisfying- we are left with moral choices and duplicitous actions which are increasingly similar on both sides of good / evil. It’s ok to lie, cheat, steal, kill as a means to an end, right? Who cares when there is another drop-dead gorgeous Euro-setting that looks sensational on the screen….. hmm.

Eddie Redmayne plays it completely cool, whispering dialogue and betraying his boyish charms with cold-blooded killer precision. This helps make the series unexpected fun.

Lashana Lynch is no shrinking violet as a smart, gritty MI6 officer, whose instincts must win the day. Just a pity that she missed parent-teacher night in order to save the world.

The series also oozes in sleepy, sultry pop songs which all sound like they have dropped off the latest Billie Eilish album. They are often dragged out for effect, just because.

The jury is out on whether this requires 10 episodes to tell its tale, but like the best of The Night Manager or Spooks, it hums along as a handsome, sometimes dastardly ride, all the same.

The Day of the Jackal 9pm Thursday on Showcase / Binge.

When Baby Reindeer became an international hit it was no surprise that addicted viewers would soon become couch detectives in their quest to uncover the real Martha, the stalker brilliantly depicted by Jessica Gunning.

New SBS documentary The Jury is also based on real-life events where names dates, locations and images have been changed “to protect identities in the original trial.”

But it took me less than a minute to find press articles on the actual case, given it was so high-profile in NSW a decaade ago. That’s because there were no less than three trials involved. No wonder its disputed result makes it a contestable case for this 5 part experiement, based on a UK series.

The premise is intriguingly simple: actors re-enact courtroom scenes based on transcripts of a manslaughter trial before 12 ‘everyday Australians’ who will assess all the evidence. As cameras watch the way juries work, will they arrive at the same outcome? For this to succeed, it presumably means Episode 5 will detail the original outcome (or at least all 3 trial outcomes). SBS has only supplied 1 for preview.

There are 12 jurors who meet as strangers in a juror room, adjacent to the disused courtroom used for filming purposes. They range in age, ethnic background, life experience. Being SBS, this is quite varied.

They include funeral home director Monique, logistics manager Audrey, music graduate Tahi, children’s entertainer Van, sex therapist Anya, SCG groundskeeper Michael, ex-prison officer Craig, mensa expert Guy and the most outspoken of the bunch, Mishelle, who brought everybody a knitted ’emotional support potato.’

First task is to appoint a spokesperson which they decide to do after some greetings, candidates and anonymous votes. But already they group is forming allegiances, cliques, leaders and followers. Just how will these rudimentary societal structures influence the arguments and outcomes to come?

The crime centres around an elderly Italian gay man found dead at the bottom of a staircase following an argument with his partner, a younger Asian man. Producers will re-enact scenes of the fatal day which involve a juicer, operatic singing, paramedics, police and a bloodied staircase banister. Further scenes will restage police interrogation.

Actors also assume the roles of judge, prosecutor, defence as well as first witnesses: forensics, paramedics, police and detectives. All their dialogue can be drawn from police and court records. Another actor will sit throughout the trial as ‘the accused’ whom the jury scrutinise throughout for his reactions to court evidence and testimony. Question: do courtroom records take note of an accused’s reactions too? Not so sure…

The unscripted factor takes place in the jury room as our 12 are left to their own devices to react to what they have heard. Without giving too much away it’s safe to say there is a fair bit of division. There are conspiracy theorists, and there are those more guarded and reserved as the trial proceeds. Others still are practically Jessica Fletcher attempting to solve it all in record time.

What the doco demonstrates is how even amongst a group as small as 12, people receive the same information, yet can arrive at different conclusions.

Television also condenses the experiment for viewing purposes. I’m pretty sure the trial/s took a lot longer than the 5 hours of viewing offered here. But you’d hope producers staged it all for the jury before retiring to the edit suite.

If The Twelve is a drama equivalent of jury duty, then this goes into more detail than other TV juries: Survivor, Jury Duty, We the Jury, After the Verdict and Judge Judy (where she is judge and jury!).

It’s a fascinating, if somewhat dry, TV experiment which avoids a Menendez Brothers, The Staircase or Jon-Benet Ramsay dramatisation. Those also ask the audience to become jurors, but this dissects the deliberation experience.

If the legal system is one that intrigues, this will be one for you.

The Jury 8:30pm Wednesday on SBS.

Territory is as big as Texas -but can it really be as big as Dallas?

Netflix’s ambitious new 6 part outback drama is loaded with big ticket items: a vast, captivating landscape, aerial photography, marquee stars, crocodiles, wild dogs, guns, brawls, melodrama and a helluva succession battle.

Life in the top end is fraught with danger.

“Everything up here is trying to kill you the climate, the land, the animals. You learn to live with it,” says Emily (Anna Torv), wife of Graham Lawson (Michael Dorman) whose father Colin (Robert Taylor) must decide who will steer Marianne, the largest cattle station in the world when he retires.

But Colin is left with a dilemma when favourite son Daniel (Jake Ryan) dies suddenly at the top of the series. Alas Graham lacks character, and buries his woes in booze, setting him further apart from his estranged father.

While Anna is convinced she can manage the station, her own family history, from the rival Hodge clan, leaves her at odds with her bully father-in-law. Meanwhile her daughter Susie (Philippa Northeast) has returned home with her own ambitions to succeed, while stepson Marshall (Sam Corlett) turns up unexpectedly.

But Marshall is also busy being a bad boy with pal Rich (Sam Delich) and has designs on Sharnie (Kylah Day) in a triangle that can only end in tears.

But wait there’s more.

There’s also Emily’s swaggering brother Hank (Dan Wyllie) who is but one of Colin’s adversaries on a neighbouring cattle station. There’s rising indigenous cattle boss Nolan (Clarence Ryan) trying to build a business the white fella’s way but finding himself rejected by his own elders. There’s mining magnate Sandra (Sara Wiseman) who wants to get her hands on Marianne’s land and her handsome, city-raised son Lachie (Joe Klocek) who is pursuing Susie.

Lastly (?) there’s also Jay Ryan as a local cattleman Campbell who yearns for Emily to rekindle their faded romance.

It’s a lot.

Colloquially described as ‘Dallas with Dingoes’ or ‘Succession in the Outback’ it surely aspires to the sprawling, family legacy melodramas of the ’80s but it does so with an Aussie eye. There are bad guys, shootings, helicopters, trucks, big toys, and high stakes.

Robert Taylor as the patriarch is perfectly detestable, spitting out misogyny and hatred without consquence. Anna Torv on the side of justice and good has plenty to rail against. Alas Michael Dorman’s character is fittingly insipid -I suppose everybody has a role to play in the scheme of things.

Graham: “I’m not who you think I am Dad. I just need a chance.”
Colin: “You don’t have the backbone.”

Despite the dialogue sometimes being mechanical it all hangs together fairly well, aided by a plot that keeps moving forward and the gravitas of performers like Torv and Taylor.

Territory is unmistakeably a man’s domain which Emily tries to crack but the younger females in particular are often ornamental. Thankfully the landscape is magnificent and director Greg McLean offers plenty of aerial shots of rugged gorges, diving crocs, bird flocks. Just the shots of thousands of wild cattle on the run in muster is pure Australiana and there’s even a Mad Max-inspired convoy of trucks burning down the highway.

Territory isn’t without fault but it has broad appeal with its sights set firmly on an international audience. On that front it deserves to do well.

Territory is now screening on Netflix.

Free to Air TV doesn’t make a lot of male-skewing dramas, unless you turn to true crime or the odd bio-pic. Home & Away may be full of bad boys and troubled types wandering into Summer Bay but soap is still dominated by female viewers last time I checked.

It takes Brendan Cowell and ABC to offer up something more thoughtful than cops and crims, as Plum centres around the important topic of head injuries from sporting careers, and how men ignore health warnings.

Cowell plays Peter “The Plum” Lum, also known as the “King of Cronulla” for his legendary rugby league career. It’s a status that affords him mates and admirers wherever he turns, even if he is retired and works on the airport apron.

Plum is a working class dad to 16 year old rising footballer Gavin (Vincent Miller) and lives an otherwise humble suburban life with Argentinan girlfriend Charmayne (María Dupláa). His ex-wife Renee (Asher Keddie) is now married to doctor Oliver (Jemaine Clement) whose affluent lifestyle is intimidating to Plum, even if it isn’t flaunted.

As he approaches 50, Plum is finding his world blurs, losing focus, forgetting things and even having visions of sage poet Charles Bukowski (Matthew Sunderland) needling him with warnings and advice shouted across bars. After he collapses on stage at a pub night, followed by another incident at work, he is taken by Renee for a full brain scan….

Plum is a labour of love for Brendan Cowell, who wrote the novel upon which his screenplay (co-written with Fiona Seres) is based.

The subject of sports brain damage is very real. Wally Lewis was diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in 2023. A recent survey suggested a third of former NFL players believe they have CTE, yet it gets little airtime in TV drama (if I’m not mistaken the short-lived Between Two Worlds also touched upon sports injuries from football). So it strikes me as fertile ground to highlight the complexities around the dangers of sport and indeed the reluctance by many men to act upon health warnings. Plum tries to ignore all the signs and isn’t ready to share the news with those closest to him.

As episodes proceed, Plum spirals with no capacity to deal.

‘Messing’ with the brain also allows Cowell to dip a toe into elements of fantasy, bringing to life poet Charles Bukowski and later Sylvia Plath (Charlotte Friels), contrasting the blokey world of football with more cultivated tastes. He also encounters trans bar manager Tatania (Janet Anderson) whose venue is home to local misfits, queers and poetry nights. Plum is slowly being challenged to embrace his sensitive side, if kicking and screaming.

In director Wayne Blair’s hands Plum is a slow-burn character essay which requires Cowell to never shrink from the story. He may stumble through his daily life, all thumbs and no fingers, but there is no escaping the diagnosis coming for him. Worse still, his precious teen is at risk of following in his footsteps.

The series also reunites key personnel from Love My Way in Cowell, Asher Keddie, writer Fiona Seres, director Margie Beattie and producer John Edwards as well as Susie Porter and Sara Zwangobani. Other cast include Jenni Baird, Matt Nable, Talijah Blackman-Corowa, John Tui and Josh McConville.

There’s a very “mate, mate” feeling in the series which may be confronting given where it goes. It feels like a recognisable universe where another kick of the footy or another tinny will resolve the day’s problems. But for those ready to confront matters below the surface, Cowell offers up a more considered viewing experience. Can’t argue with that.

Plum screens 8:30pm Sundays on ABC.

Writer / Director Dylan River, who created the excellent short series Robbie Hood before he was attached to Mystery Road: Origin, now serves up his next series, Thou Shalt Not Steal.

The 8 part series set in 1980s Central Australia has 4 co-writers, Tanith Glynn-Maloney, Sophie Miller, Samuel Nuggin-Paynter, Benedict Paxton-Crick and reunites River with Director of Photography Tyson Perkins.

While it’s more mature than Robbie Hood, it again throws together outcasts finding commonality in order to survive.

Robyn (Sherry-Lee Watson) has escaped from juvenile detention in order to help her frail grandfather Ringer (Warren H. Williams) flee a hospital to return to his community of Sunshine Valley before he dies. He also wants to return a racing trophy to her father — someone she always believed was dead.

They secure a lift from taxi driver Maxine (Miranda Otto) who moonlights as a local madam, exploiting young Indigenous girls for fast money. But nimble Robyn steals the taxi from Maxine and heads to Sunshine Valley. By now it’s clear this will be a road series where wild characters emerge from every corner.

One is Gidge (Will McDonald), the yodelling teenage son of a shonky missionary musician (Noah Taylor) who rips off those less fortunate with a bad song and a free bbq snag. In Robyn, Gidge sees a way for him to break free from the oppression and tyranny of his ragtag father.

But Robyn is now on the run from authorities and a pissed-off taxi driver and determined to return a trophy to her father. She’s got no time for Gidge, which is unfortunate given where the road takes her / them.

Thou Shalt Not Steal rings deep with the authenticity of its outback setting. If the world is steeped in abject poverty all of its participants still endure despite circumstance. Home is a broken down, shanty town caravan where running water is a luxury, or a cab that offers independence and the ability to move on from the worst of it.

Robyn serves as our biggest survivor of them all, at just 17 full of determination, resources, and street smarts. Sherry-Lee Watson has spirit, dexterity and rage in an unsettling role which refuses to accede.

“Thou Shalt Not Steal… bit rich from the Bible bashing bastards that stole our country…”

Will McDonald, who impressed as Heartbreak High‘s Cash, adds humour as the awkward teen seizing an opportunity to reject a future dragged out by his father.

Noah Taylor offers uneasy danger as a boozy missionary singing badly and Mirando Otto continues to surprise with her recent range of local roles.

The landscape is another unmistakeable character in River’s work, with arid, unforgiving locations coloured by clashing music choices of Country & Western and very possibly Spaghetti Western influences.

“I been in a lot of shit. But nothing like the shit I was in now.”

There are also clearly first-time actors as extras and minor roles but the series will also include William McKenna, Darren Gilshenan, Sharri Sebbens, Justin Rosniak, Damian Walshe-Howling, Emily Taheny, Geoff Morrell, Bonnie Sveen.

Who knows where this road will lead or the quirky, kooky, dangerous characters they will encounter, but the more Thou Shalt Not Steal unravels, the more interesting it becomes.

It’s another reminder that Dylan River is one of our more original storytellers mining from a history that has a lot to say.

Thou Shalt Not Steal is now screening on Stan.

If you’ve watched any of Marc Fennell’s recent documentaries by now you’ll have noticed a narrative style that teases, prods and grabs your intrigue usually from a story you’ve probably never heard about.

The Kingdom, The Mission, Came from Nowhere, Framed may all read investigative journalism on the tin, but Fennell rather cleverly presents them as detective stories, going down the rabbit hole of a tale you can barely believe…

Frankly, it’s a mystery itself why he hasn’t been snaffled by the likes of Netflix, Prime or Stan to make docos exclusively for the premium doco market.

The latest is Red Flag: Music’s Failed Revolution, a double-feature look into the rise and fall of Gold Coast-based music start-up, Guvera. Based on the Gold Coast it boldly landed upon a business model to solve the threat of music piracy giant Napster.

Swedish-Australian co-founder Claes Loberg conceived the idea that advertising could pay for “free” music downloads -years before Spotify.

It was a three-way model that depended upon consumers, music labels and advertisers. Loberg, who had long-flowing hair, wore cowboy boots, sported tatts and rode a Harley Davidson, co-founded Guvera with ex-bank employee turned computer expert, Brad Christiansen. While they were indeed an odd couple, it worked for the formation of the company in 2008 with plans to raise $50m. The company name, a riff on Argentinian guerrilla Che Guevara, and slogan ‘F*** Pirates’ were designed to disrupt the tsunami of MP3 file-sharing.

“What if you as the pirate could get your music for free without your artist suffering?”

Fennell speaks to Christiansen along with former Guvera staff about the giddy heights of corporate launches, splashy media coverage, big promises and an optimistic uptake.

Raising the money behind the scenes was Darren Herft, part of AMMA Private Investment, portrayed here as a rising entrepreneur / suit, who joined the co-founders in a Board of 3.

Both EMI and Universal came on board for the 2010 launch where the likes of Alice Cooper, Mos Def, and later Jessie J. would lend their starpower in US events. On the outside Guvera was going places with an app and streaming to follow.

But as Fennell documents there were deep problems behind the scenes, burning through money, struggling to get advertisers, unpaid bills and a thwarted attempt to float on the stock exchange.

There are ghastly tales of trying to distance Christiansen from his own company -he was given a false address for a principals’ photo shoot. Clumsy marketing ideas sent assets in a box that resembled a bomb, meaning many went unopened. And there were horror stories of what private investors were put through.

Also speaking are journalists linked to Rolling Stone, Australian Financial Review, musician Ben Lee, alongside archival clips from Australian and US TV all talking up the Aussie disruptor.

Absent is Claes Loberg who passed away in mid 2023, but also Darren Herft whose lawyers sent a brief statement. Ouch. SBS lawyers must have had a field day with this doco.

Fennell always peppers his narratives with energy, pace, humour, fast edits, cool music, and mystery which speak to a young/ish audience. Here that pace is frenetic to the point of most interviews being presented as single questions (I swear I saw him seated in one chair with two interviewees answering at different locations). The story and the material is strong, but it needs to take a little more time to linger on the unravelling before streaking off to the next plot point punctuated by skylines, partying, iPods and cool shoes.

At two episodes it is also on the long side, getting down in the reeds on the machinations of IPOs, regulatory compliance, shares. But Fennell is at his best when he builds up to a gob-smacking revelation, and there are quite a few in this sorry tale. He’s also insightful with left-of-field questions about people’s character or something to tap into their mood.

Red Flag: Music’s Failed Revolution takes you back to recent music history with a sense of gullible nostalgia skewered into audacious ambitions and business acumen (or the lack of it). It serves as a cautionary tale where hindsight offers us a rollercoaster ride from the safety of our sofa. Remember when next you are turning on Spotify.

Red Flag: Music’s Failed Revolution screens 8:35pm Tuesday October 15 / 22 on SBS

Life’s not exactly rosy for Rhiannon.

She’s working a dull dead-end job, ignored by shop assistants, battling pulic transport in the rain and suddenly facing the death of her father.

Dad had one parting piece of advice for his daughter before expiring: “You need to learn to stand up for yourself.. don’t let people walk all over you. Make them see how special you are.”

But life gets more complicated when sister Seren (Alexandra Dowling) decides she wants to sell the family home from underneath Rhiannon, with former school bully-turned-estate agent Julia (Nicôle Lecky) appointed as sales agent.

Julia represents all that Rhiannon is lacking: success, glamour, a circle of friends. So when Rhiannon’s only remaining companion, her pet chihuahua Tink is killed by a car -in front of a billboard for Julia’s agency- something in Rhiannon snaps.

From this point forward Sweetpea charts a path of revenge, gore, dark humour and malevolence. Along with it comes an invigorating if toxic coming-of-age path for our hero seemingly justified in her quest to act out her deepest, darkest thoughts.

I won’t spoil her first kill, but suffice to say it is unexpected, car-crash viewing. You’re at once shocked and cheering the TV at the same time. What has come over me in the last hour of viewing?

The answer is the magnificent Ella Purnell and the twisted, skilful writing of Kirstie Swain whose story never lets up, contrasting heightened kills with bland, working class Britain. If this isn’t escapism for Rhiannon, it sure is for us.

By episode two when it becomes clear her workplace is the local Gazette newspaper, Rhiannon is at the centre of dishevelled journalists trying to investigate her very crimes. If this feels a lot like Dexter Morgan -the blood spatter analyst killing under the very noses of the Miami Police Dept- you’re right. But this time it’s through a female lens in a deliberately drab British setting, not sun-kissed Florida.

Purnell is captivating in the title role, deftly juggling all the oppression, vulnerability and hunger essential to pull this off. None of it would work without winning us over to the dark side, however conflicted.

Special mention goes to some of the supporting male cast including misogynist boss Norman (Jeremy Swift), so condescending of his employee he constantly asks for “Coffees please, Sweetpea?” and new cadet AJ (Calam Lynch), who swoops onto a journo position she harboured, but demonstrates some empathy where so many had not.

Writer Kirstie Swain and director Ella Jones have denied Rhiannon any female pals, to the point of not even having workplace colleagues who befriend her. It’s a little far-fetched but part of the need to isolate the character in order to justify her extreme rise to new-found power.

All of the plot twists and turns are intoxicating, and like Michael C. Hall’s anti-hero hit, Sweetpea becomes deliciously satisfying very quickly, despite the fact she is a one-woman killing machine. Hey, it worked for Killing Eve, so why not here?

Ella Purnell is out for blood.

Sweetpea is now screening on Binge / Showcase.

There’s an often-referenced theory that TV shows about TV don’t work with audiences.

While there are the hits –The Mary Tyler-Moore Show, 30 Rock, Murphy Brown, Frontline– there are others with moderate success –The Morning Show, Episodes, The Larry Sanders Show, The Newsroom, Extras, UnREAL– and others that failed –Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Grosse Pointe.

The Franchise skewers the film industry, rather than television, but delves so deep into industry lingo and behaviour its appeal may be niche. Just as The Idol dissected the machinations of the music industry (to disappointing reception), The Franchise spills on the superhero movie-making. But at least it is framed as a dark comedy.

Which is just as well because these people are variously egomaniacal, selfish, neurotic, paranoid workaholics which, when added to the desperate, pressure-tank world of movie-making, is a recipe for disaster.

No wonder Sam Mendes (1917, Skyfall), Armando Iannucci (Veep), and Jon Brown (Succession) wanted to rip it a new one.

The hero of their universe is long-suffering First Assistant Director Daniel Kumar (Himesh Patel) who has the task of running the floor on Day 34 of upcoming movie Tecto.

The recreation of a film studio set is as real as it gets. There’s a lot of standing around, grabbing coffees, waiting for lighting, upset actors, demands from execs, schedules running late, union restrictions. Daniel is the go-to person for everybody from the Director to Crew to Talent. So demanding is the role that he refers to himself as “the everything man… the world’s most thankless suerhero.”

He is joined by new 3rd AD Dag (Lolly Adefope) who has less time for keeping everybody happy and is assertive, if less powerful.

Directing Tecto is the gifted Eric (Daniel Brühl) “I’m strange and I’m serious,” who has his hands full with the artistic side of the film and keeping stars Adam (Billy Magnussen) and veteran Peter (Richard E. Grant) in check.

Adam has the title role of B-grade hero Tecto alongside Peter, a thespian begrudging his villain role in their vacuous sequel. These two despise each other, approach with different methodologies and have uncontrollable egos.

Meanwhile the studio has sent its executive Pat (Darren Goldstein) to the floor and he is ready to cut costs or staff.

All Daniel wants is to get the shot in the can to avoid falling further behind schedule. Corralling all the manpower and technical elements is a major headache, all of which is later distilled into the private pleasures of vaping alone in his car -until the next phone call lands with another spot fire for him to douse.

Himesh Patel manages the stress of art / work with all the authenticity I’ve ever witnessed on set. The lines come thick and fast, full of cynicism and devoid of humanity. Much like UnREAL‘s contestant producer Rachel, he constantly saves the day when it is about to come crashing down.

Richard E. Grant is tailor-made for the veteran actor resenting having landed in some stupid superhero sequel. He gets all the best lines including one about who is packing the biggest penis on set.

There are also more then a few references to safety and post-MeToo in an industry constantly evolving and checking its conduct. In these half hour episodes there’s plenty of time to highlight such and the compromises that follow.

Like VEEP, these are not a particularly warm bunch of characters, but if you’re interested in the machine of movie-making it is about as real as it gets.

The Franchise screens Monday on Binge (8.30pm Oct 10 on FOX8).

There’s a lot to like about new Disney+ series Last Days of the Space Age.

An appealing cast, fab retro recreation, diverse storylines, a captivating soundtrack, and themes that are ripe for exploration.

The 8 part drama takes us back to 1979 when falling space station was dangerously crossing the skies ready to crash land anywhere without notice. It would come to land around Esperance, over 700km east of Perth.

Writer David Chidlow sets his series in the outer ‘burbs of Perth during WA’s 150th celebrations, in a cul-de-sac where three families are the series focus.

Tony Bissett (Jesse Spencer) is foreman at a local power plant where the workers are striking against management while wife Judy (Radha Mitchell) works on the other side of the picket-line, in administration. This makes for domestic tension despite both being devoted to one another. Teen daughter Tilly (Mackenzie Mazur) dreams of a career as an astronaut, rejected by her careers counsellor who suggests she set her sights on a future in retail. Youngest daughter Mia (Emily Grant) just wants to surf like her grandfather Bob (Iain Glen) who has parked himself in a caravan, uninvited, in the street.

Eileen Wilberforce (Deborah Mailman) is guardian of her teen son Bilya (Thomas Weatherall) who struggles with a staid high school with no inclusion of First Nations people. He’s also harrassed by the police force when there are local delinquency problems. Eileen is similarly pressured by her neighbours not to create problems during a street party.

The third family unit centres around Sandy Bui (Linh-Dan Pham) and Lam (Vico Thai) who run a beachside food truck but harbour deep sadness over the separation from an absent son, while another son, Jono (Aidan du Chiem), lives in his shadow.

If that wasn’t enough, the Miss Universe pageant arrives -for reasons which aren’t entirely clear- with a Russian entrant Svetlana (Ines English) and her manager Yvgeny (Jacek Koman) on the receiving end of local racism, while journalist Mick (George Mason), brother of Tony, is keen for a good story.

Cramming all the storylines into 37 minute episodes is a tall order. So whose perspective is this story? It feels like it wants to be Radha Mitchell’s, juggling marriage, motherhood, factory work and a meddling father. Yet it becomes diluted by so many other plots, or an edit forced to weave so many threads that her screen time leaves us unsatisfied. It’s a shame when Mitchell is certainly capable of more depth than is afforded. Jesse Spencer is similarly under-utilised.

This leaves the series with the ultimate feeling of soap, where all characters are given equal screen weight. Is it the sum of the parts? Perhaps…

There’s also no time for humour which could have complemented the overwhelming drama of marital strains, domestic dreams, misogyny, racism, teen angst, homophobia. Chidlow does weave societal tensions into a TV valentine, but any lightness is left to the visuals rather than the script and characters.

The costume, props, production design departments have certainly worked overtime to bring it all to life. There are lashings of brown clashing with gaudy ’70s colours while the soundtrack needle drops onto Olivia Newton-John, Plastic Bertrand, Chic, The Bee Gees, The Village People and ABBA. Some scenes, particularly those set around the factory, are also too thin with extras, suggesting the budget had to allocate spend on its excellent design and music rights.

Into the middle of the story a power blackout will also disrupt everyone as a major event. Yet I’m not sure the writers knew that Perth at that time always turned off their street lights by about 2am anyway (I know, crazy right?). A blackout is not that big a deal, even in the city of lights.

Despite all this, Last Days of the Space Age has a (luke)warm heart. It has gone to great lengths to recreate an era -including building most of the set in NSW to double for WA. If it falls short it’s not for lack of trying.

The Skylab story has fantastic potential (especially had this been set in Esperance). But sometimes less is more and a version of events doesn’t always hang together.

Last Days of the Space Age is now screening on Disney+

SBS has previously brought us documentaries about arranged marriages through documentaries such as Marry Me, Marry My Family and Indian Wedding Race but now it forms the backdrop of a new drama, Four Years Later.

Unashamedly, the series positions itself as a Romance. While Streaming seems to embrace them in shows such as Normal People, Heartstopper, Outlander, and Virgin River, it’s something of a rarity of late in the Free to Air space. Indeed as an SBS drama, I kept waiting for the issue-based plot to rear its head.

Refreshingly, while culture is ever-present in Mithila Gupta’s 8 x 30 min series, it isn’t overwhelmed by matters of politics, race or immigration.

Rather, the focus is on young couple Sridevi (Shahana Goswami) and Yash (Akshay Ajit Singh), how they meet, how they connect and subsequently disconnect.

The narrative traverses several time periods including when they meet in Jaipur via family introduction, then a 4 year reunion in Australia, and the time in between.

Despite parental approval, Sri and Yash do not exactly sizzle at first, but Sri’s quick dismissal of Yash gets the better of his curiosity. Further courting and dates address whether she is playing hard to get, ultimately leading to a traditional wedding.

But there has always been pressure on Yash to pursue his medical career for which the family has made great financial sacrifice. When he is accepted into a Sydney hospital it’s clear the newlyweds will be separated – it’s decided Sri will only serve as a ‘distraction.’ Charming.

“It’s important for my family that I succeed… I really have to succeed.” – Yash
“Isn’t there so much more to life than just work? For me I want love. Big love.” – Sri

From there the series fast forward to, well, Four Years Later, when a struggling Yash has summoned Sri to join him on the south coast of NSW -but what has changed in the intervening time?

There is excitement, fear, doubts, work pressure, isolation and much to explore. With characters as forthright as Sri and Yash this is also a torrid storyline that could pivot in any direction, and that’s just where Gupta leads….

Added to the human emotions of love, separation and dreams is the cultural clash of Australia and India. The beach backdrop is intoxicating (all the water scenes are beautifully shot) but there is isolation, a different set of values and social behaviour. Can you hold onto your ideals, or are there compromises to be made -and what of leaps into the unknown?

Under directors Mohini Herse and Fadia Abboud the series is held delicately together thanks to two very alluring leads all but baring their souls. Shahana Goswami as Sri yearns for family as well as independence, bringing passion, strength and resolve. Akshay Ajit Singh as Yash is full of ambition but there are flaws and flashes of pride and weakness.

The series also features Kate Box, Luke Arnold and Roy Joseph as part of the Australian ensemble.

While it is dressed in tradition and family expectations, the series challenges conventions with a very modern outlook. There is steamy sex before marriage, swimming in the ocean in underwear, and even a reference to a sl*t drop dance move at an Indian wedding. Marigold Hotel this ain’t…

But it’s also not a Bollywood perspective. Mithila Gupta’s script feels authentic to the Indian Australian experience whilst injecting premium drama twists and turns. This makes it one of SBS’ most satisfying dramas in some time.

Ultimately Four Years Later could be any of us, torn apart by a four year separation and how we evolve or survive such duress.

Four Years Later screens in double episodes 9:20pm Wednesday 2 October (all 8 episodes at SBS on Demand).

There’s a point early on in Monsters: The Lyle & Erik Menendez Story where you’ll be torn between voyeurism and credulity.

How could any of this outlandish story be real? Yet some of it is. It’s almost as if the viewer is challenged to determine between truth and TV excess, despite the fact none of us are jurors for America’s gruesome crime-of-the-decade.

It is a 9 episode car-crash in slow-mo where the drama is so compelling you can’t look away, even if you are sceptical of the whole thing.

The dramatisation of the 1989 murders of José (Javier Bardem) and Kitty Menéndez (Chloë Sevigny), at the hands of their sons, Lyle (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) and Erik (Cooper Koch) is the latest work by prolific producers Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan.

It surely is a bloody valentine to 1980s Beverly Hills where wealth and a loveless family imploded one night via sawn-off shotguns. The case was also one of America’s early media trials, where the accused behaved like rock stars and a nation was fascinated by arrogance, truth and heinous behaviour.

Murphy wraps the story in pastel ’80s colours, Dynasty-like fashion, and a pop culture soundtrack including Milli Vanilli, Vanilla Ice, Kenny G, Snap! and even Crowded House. It lures you into a Hollywood Babylon.

Yet it is the complex relationship between Lyle (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) and Erik (Cooper Koch) that drives the series. They exist within their own twisted fortress, forced into a man-child bond for survival due to the mental abuse of their parents.

As the series progesses it is clear there is no holding back on their devotion to one another, nor the abuse at the hands of their parents.

Mistakes made by two arrogant young men following the brutal slaughter of their parents make for compelling storytelling. How could they be so stupid? But it is equally conflicting to accept in this version of events, especially when the camera just loves their semi-naked, gleaming torsos in manspreading, homoerotic sequences.

Characters existing outside the mansion work hard to keep it real: psychiatrist Dr. Jerome Oziel (Dallas Roberts), attorney Leslie Abramson (Ari Graynor) and Vanity Fair journalist Dominick Dunne (Nathan Lane). They search for logic, motive, reality through seemingly tall tales from two young men whose selfish pursuit of vanity can’t be questioned.

Just when you are ready to reach for the remote at the theatrics of it all, Murphy wheels out episode 5, “The Hurt Man” in which Cooper Koch delivers a shattering one-take episode-long performance that is so remarkable it feels improvised. This alone is Emmy-worthy and it’s as if all the histrionics have been worth it.

For all the faults of the series, notably its inability to restrain, the performances of the ensemble rescue it from crumbling under its own weight. And because of this it ultimately succeeds. Cooper Koch offers many layers to Erik while Nicholas Alexander Chavez is equally magnetic as the domineering, erratic Lyle.

Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny are given more to do in the second half of the series, even if the point of view is from the two boys.

Ari Graynor and Nathan Lane are excellent at maintaining reason, if as opposing Greek Chorus perspectives.

The series takes too long to get to the media circus trial/s and to reach its conclusion.

But you’ve come this far. You’re in deep, if only to satisfy your own curiosity that Erik & Lyle deserve what they got, or that you deserved better for your commitment.

Monsters: The Lyle & Erik Menendez Story is now screening on Netflix.

TV nostalgia fans will surely feel some familiarity with the house belonging to Agatha Harkness in new Disney+ series Agatha All Along.

But you’re not having deja vu. The exterior set for her house was the same one used in Bewitched (sadly torn down a year ago).

There are all kinds of Easter eggs, nods and winks in this outlandish, theatrical series by writer / director Jac Schaeffer (WandaVision, Black Widow). It makes the series as much fun for its construct as its content.

Kathryn Hanh zealously reprises her role last seen in WandaVision but this time she begins as Detective Agnes O’Connor in Westview on the case of a Jane Doe body found dead in the woods. Complete with all the coffee-carrying, donut eating hallmarks of TV cops, she is tested by FBI agent (Aubrey Plaza as Rio Vidal). Playing all of the subtext, and little of the crime plot, it’s obvious these two know each other in past lives…

“Do you remember why you hate me?” -Rio Vidal.

Yet Agnes’ world will turn more upside down when she encounters a teen (Joe Locke) breaking into her home, before a full transformation into the witch Agatha Harkness in the local morgue.

It’s clear she has been under a spell for several years. With this, joyously, Hahn shakes off her tough cop facade for the driving force that is Agatha.

Yet she is also without her powers which is hardly a fair fight when Rio Vidal, aka the Green Witch, comes to battle. Agatha must walk the Witches’ Road to regain her powers, taking a coven of witches with her.

“Let me get my purple back” -Agatha.

Now with openly-queer Teen by her side, Agatha sets about recruiting her coven to embark on the Road ahead.

Those encounters, which I won’t spoil, involve legendary Patti Lupone as Lilia Calderu, Sasheer Zamata as Jennifer Kale, Ali Ahn as Alice Wu-Gulliver, and -returning from WandaVision– Debra Jo Rupp as Westview neighbour Sharon Davis (in something of a nod to Bewitched‘s Gladys Kravitz).

By now full-throttle as Agatha, Kathryn Hahn is a force to behold: relentless, outspoken, dry and delicious all at once. She steps into the role with energy and exuberance.

Joe Locke, who shot to fame in Heartstopper, demonstrates he is no one-trick pony, mastering a US accent with ease and shedding the vunerability of Charlie Spring for the streetsmarts of this Teen.

Having Patti LuPone and Debra Jo Rupp are further treats in this promising spin-off from the Marvel Universe.

There are also further pop culture witch references in the closing credits, everything from Snow White to The Simpsons (what no Witchypoo? Boo!).

In all of its spell-binding smoke and mirrors and wink-wink gags will it pause long enough for us to catch breath and care for the flaws of our characters? Or will we get to the end to discover it is but another masquerade?

Who knows? At least we’ll have fun finding out.

Agatha All Along is now screening on Disney+.

Who knew that the Batman universe could be given a Sopranos TV treatment?

That’s just what director Craig Zobel and screenwriter Lauren LeFranc have done in HBO’s latest drama based on the DC Comics character, The Penguin.

Star Colin Farrell is completely unrecognisable, and really rather spectacular, in the title role.

Forget about superhero action and stunts. This Gotham City is a dark noir metropolis, which The Riddler has nearly destroyed.

But Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot (Colin Farrell reprising his role from the 2022 Batman feature) is hungry for power, facing off against Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen), son of crime boss Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong), he lets nothing stand in his way.

Manoeuvering between rival crime gangs, Calzones and Maroni, Oswald acts as double agent with a tenuous, duplicitous relationship with Sofia Calzone (Cristin Milioti). But Sofia is fierce, deeply mistrustful and a match for any of Gotham’s worst adversaries.

Aiding and abetting Oswald is a stuttering young street delinquent Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) whom Oswald threatens if he doesn’t become his driver.

“I can help you. I got ambition…. I need a chance,” Victor pleads for his life.

Also featuring are Michael Kelly as crime underboss Johnny Vitti, Clancy Brown as jailed crime boss Salvatore Maroni and the enigmatic Shohreh Aghdashloo as Nadia Maroni.

There’s a lot to unpack here: Colin Farrell’s captivating Tony Soprano / De Niro-like performance, the unexpected and mutual friendship he has with Victor or Sofia’s sinister grasp for power.

There is also a deeper side to Oswald in scenes with his fragile but demanding mother (Deirdre O’Connell), whom he seems incapable of ever pleasing. This helps us to understand his motivations and flaws, if not necessarily becoming forgiving of them.

“This city’s meant to be yours, sweetheart. What are you going to do to get it?” she asks.

Director Craig Zobel also surprises with some lengthy dialogue scenes not usually characteristic in the comic book genre. One in the first 10 minutes of the series comprises around 7 minutes in total.

Yet The Penguin rises above its comic origins. Mafia-like violence would not be out of place in a Scorsese film. The production design by Kalina Ivanov fuses New York’s underbelly as Gotham with  modern demands, such as iphones, without jarring. Dark humour is sprinkled through the soundtrack -wait for Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5….

But this is Colin Farrell’s triumph, with his character, in almost every scene, so memorably protruding through the body suit and prosthetics. He will almost make you feel sympathetic to his cause. Almost.

The Penguin screens Friday September 20 on Binge then Mondays from Sept 30/ 1:30pm Monday Sept 23 on FOX8.

We are only year on from the thrill-ride of Hijack (and six months from Red Eye) and my heart rate has only just subsided. Now a new UK thriller wants me to fasten my seat belt for Nightsleeper.

This time the action is aboard a train, in ‘real time’ from Glasgow to London.

The genre is not without precedent: The Taking of Pelham 123, Unstoppable, Silver Streak and the aptly-titled Runaway Train.

On this occasion technology takes hold in a cyber ‘hack-jack’ when an overnight train known as the Heart of Britain takes off with no driver, doors locked and a handful of trapped passengers.

They include off-duty policeman Joe (Joe Cole), two train staff (Sharon Rooney, Scott Reid), a journalist (Katie Leung), a politician (Sharon Small), an oil rigger (Daniel Cahill), a retired train veteran (James Cosmo), a student (Lois Chimimba), a young boy (Adam Mitchell) and more.

The opening act is chaotic and tense but it only serves as a prescursor to the real game which thwarts the holiday plans of National Cyber Security Centre Acting Technical Director Abby (Alexandra Roach) and her girlfriend, Meg (Remy Beasley).

Convinced the threat to life is very real, Abby races back to her HQ, summoning Paul (David Threlfall), a skilled old warhorse back to his desk despite the fact he is disliked by colleagues and banned from setting foot in the building.

While the hackers have jammed all the mobile phones on the train, a sole satellite phone allows Joe and Abby to communicate in a race against time. Where is Jack Bauer when you need him?

Despite being a well-worn premise, this 6 part series still delivers. There are twists and turns that create high jeopardy and tension. Having two leads who are not A-List stars, and a cast of relative unknowns, only serves to make this all the more convincing.

Alexandra Roach never plays her part for heroism, while Joe Cole, perhaps leveraging off Lost, is not all he seems. Some of the passengers are given moments to expand, like a good ol’ Irwin Allen disaster flick.

Nightsleeper may not be entirely original, but it brings enough energy to the table to keep you aboard for the ride. Let’s hope we make it to the destination in one piece.

Nightsleeper screens Sunday September 15 on Stan.

Oh what a wicked web we weave….

TV loves a good dysfunctional family. Even better if they are cashed up to the eyeballs and horrible people, tearing themselves apart in a luxurious TV setting.

Welcome to The Perfect Couple, Netflix’s new 6 part murder mystery set on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

It’s here we find novelist Greer Winbury (Nicole Kidman) and playboy husband Tag (Liev Schreiber) on their sprawling Cape Cod estate. This is Revenge on an uber-budget, a house straight from Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

The series opens at a rehearsal -apparently- for the wedding of son Benji (Billy Howle) to Amelia (Eve Hewson). I say apparently because there is so much money, booze, gowns, and time invested in this catered event that everybody would have hangovers the next day and nobody would be gettting married. But I digress.

The family also includes eldest brother Thomas (Jack Reynor), his spoiled wife Abby (Dakota Fanning) and frisky younger brother Will (Sam Nivola). The players include maid of honour Merritt (Meghann Fahy), best man Shooter (Ishaan Khatter), family friend Isabel (Isabelle Adjani) and the see-all maid Gosia (Irina Dubova).

But when someone winds up dead in the shallows, into the scene arrives the gloriously droll Detective Nikki (Donna Lynne Champlin) with local police chief Dan (Michael Beach).

It’s a major spoiler to reveal just who dies but it is one of the many twists and turns in this excessive series by screenwriter Jenna Lamia and director Susanne Bier.

There are numerous flashbacks (some of which can be confusing) as new information is revealed to the audience. Lies are prevalent, fidelity is negotiable, but it all makes for delicious fun.

Nicole Kidman, complete with some sort of feigned British accent to reflect her character’s trajectory, is icily brilliant as Greer. All the kids are afraid of her and struggle to live up to her ideals, while Tag is torn by a push-pull desire for her, whilst shrinking in the shadow of her career. Schrieber is nowhere near as good as Ray Donovan, but who cares? They are the (im)perfect couple of the ironic title…

Donna Lynne Champlin as Detective Nikki disrupts the privilege with which this family misbehaves, given some of the drama’s best lines.

Nothing about this soapy diversion matches the maturity of Kidman’s earlier success with Big Little Lies. But it is shamelessly entertaining. Trash TV at its exquisite best.

And there’s nothing so wrong with that if it never seeks to rise above its station.

The Perfect Couple is now screening on Netflix.

Nine’s fortunes with returnable dramas has a somewhat chequered history of late.

Doctor Doctor and Love Child enjoyed strong runs of 5 and 4 seasons, with House Husbands also at 5. But there have been short-lived seasons of SeaChange, Amazing Grace, After the Verdict, and Halifax: Retribution which was unfortunate given its strength.

New drama series Human Error, from Roadshow Rough Diamond, has its legacy in the long-running Underbelly brand which, to be fair seemed to be tacked onto any crime series (Melissa Caddick was not exactly a gangster).

The new six part drama, co-created by Underbelly stalwarts Greg Haddrick & John Silvester, together with Samantha Winston and Gregor Jordan, was originally due to screen in 2023. Despite such concerning signs, the results are really rather good.

Plenty of this can be attributed to its lead performer Leeanna Walsman -kudos to whoever cast her as opposed to a shortlist of leading ladies frequenting this genre.

She plays Det. Snr. Sgt. Holly O’Rourke, young mother to Alice (Rosie Mitchell), wife to DPP solicitor Luke (Matt Day) and daughter to former detective Bear (Steve Bisley).

She is assigned to the brutal murder of a suburban mother by a hitman in her front yard, in sight of her stepson. The drama “inspired by real events” takes on its own narrative life through Holly’s eyes and which constantly intersect between crime, policing and parenting.

Holly faces much of it with measured caution and a pursuit of justice. Assisting her is Det. Sgt. Jarred Pines (Rahel Romahn), Det. Snr. Const. Maia Kirsner (Emily Joy) and Det. Const. Gabe Kihn (Ethan Lwin).

Also featuring in State Police HQ (shot in the former Age building) are Det. Insp. Dylan McKenzie (Stephen Peacocke), Sgt. Gavin Butterfield (Rob Collins), Police Chief Kirsten Leigh (Daniela Farinacci) and forensics expert Rose (Katrina Milosevic). Supporting roles also go to Anthony J Sharpe, Sachin Joab, Jane Allsop, Gyton Grantley, Jasper Bagg and a cameo from Debra Lawrance.

The crime is so brazen it shocks the force, the city, the media and Holly as a detective and mother. But digging into the crime she will learn it may have been a case of mistaken identity, and there are clues close to the force which ramp up the level of suspicion and imminent threat.

Meanwhile her home life is also challenged, whether in conflict with husband Luke, or pressure from doting dad Bear, and having to push back against his expectations. Even daughter Alice has an inquisitive mind beyond her years asking questions Holly would prefer not answer. Not today.

Walsman delivers at every turn, remaining understated through a veritable shitstorm of demands pulling her in all directions. Her performance never shoots for the “hero cop” so prevalent in the genre, but strives for a righteous path, and getting back on it when the day goes awry.

The diverse ensemble cast complement her tremendously, including Rahel Romahn, Matt Day, Steve Bisley and Anthony J Sharpe.

The writers navigate a range of twists and turns that help make this a satisfying Free to Air local crime series -it’s been a while. While crime writer John Silvester has doubtless drawn upon his knowledge of Melbourne’s criminal past, it comes with a female lens.

Director Fiona Banks and Mat King also capture Melbourne in a contemporary frame, not unlike the shine of Halifax: Retribution, but without the sensationalism of Underbelly‘s strip clubs and Carlton bars.

I would also encourage Nine to release further episodes on 9Now in advance of broadcast. Sure it may impact overnight ratings, but it would only build word of mouth.

Not everybody is likely to be comfortable with the narrative Human Error makes around its real event inspiration, but it does work as a springboard for an involving crime drama, and opens the door to a potential sequel around the talents of Leeanna Walsman. Surely long overdue.

Human Error screens 8:40pm Wednesday on Nine.

ABC is not just returning to the mystery genre years after abandoning Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and The Doctor Blake Mysteries, it is embracing and elevating it with a prized 7:30pm Sunday slot.

How far we have come since management distanced itself from successful whodunnit titles, determined to chase younger audiences.

I can’t say whether younger will necessarily check out a local adaptation of Death in Paradise, but we’ve gone from glamorous or noir period pieces to a blue sky sunny beach, somewhere in the Illawarra.

Return to Paradise‘s Dolphin Cove certainly looks inviting enough with its mountain-meets-sea backdrop, if only it weren’t for the body count. This is the riskiest place to live since Blue Heeler‘s Mount Thomas.

Every week someone is bumped off within the first few minutes of drama from writer Peter Mattessi. That’s because the formula demands it. We’re here trying to link the clues before the ultimate denouement where we learn how close we are / aren’t (in episode 2 I was pretty close).

I haven’t watched Death in Paradise in years but I recall, as one of Britain’s biggest exports, it has an escapist setting, quirky characters, a charismatic lead and baffling cases all resolved before the credits roll.

In this ABC / BBC production you get all that through an Aussie lens, if leaning into some areas more than others. DI Mackenzie Clarke (Anna Samson) is returning to Dolphin Cove -not to be confused with Porpoise Spit- after fleeing it six years prior.

“I can’t believe you came back after what you did,” Trevor, a local taxi driver declares.

We will also learn there is history in her exit from London back to Oz. She flees the scene more than a jewel thief, this one.

It helps she is skilled at her crime-busting occupation which comes in handy when a local Surf Club President or wellness influencer winds up dead. Snr. Sgt Philomena Strong (Catherine McClements) somewhat begrudingly seconds her to the skeleton offbeat, policing unit when she needs her most, although it’s not immediately clear how Mackenzie’s UK accreditation has jurisdiction in Dolphin Cove.

There’s also another Brit cop on the case, Det. Snr. Constable Colin Cartwright (Lloyd Griffith), who is living his Home & Away dream as a job on a surf coast. Can we say token Brit for the sake of Brit audience?

There’s also Constable Felix Williamson (Aaron McGrath) and retiree turned Community Police volunteer Reggie (Celia Ireland) plus forensic pathologist Glenn Strong (Tai Hara) with whom Mackenzie has history.

The procedural elements of red herrings and clues ticking alongside the sprightly humour and alluring backdrop are deftly handled by Peter Mattessi. By episode’s end when Mackenzie reveals the killer, Jessica Fletcher-like, you had seen all the clues all along, dummy.

It’s all very silly yet satisfying without tugging on your brain cells too much. There’s very little to tie this to the flagship series, but Ardal O’Hanlon will make a cameo appearance as DI Jack Mooney. Also featuring are Aussies Andrea Demetriades and the dependable Genevieve Lemon along with guests roles from other familiar faces.

Anna Samson brings irascible confidence to a central character where the plot is more important than the feels. Special mention goes to Celia Ireland for colouring every scene she is in and Catherine McClements for conviction in limited screen time.

Dipped in it aquas and pastels, this is a crowd-pleaser debut which deserves a shot at joining the Paraverse for an audience that demands a lot of the genre, without ever wanting to delve too deep.

On that front Return to Paradise surely stays in the shallows, and between the flags, as required.

Return to Paradise screens 7:30pm Sunday on ABC.

The Sopranos is widely regarded as the show that changed television.

David Chase’s 1999 drama, backed by HBO after it was rejected by network television, is also seen as the show that spearheaded cable television, although others such as The Larry Sanders Show, Oz and Sex & the City had come before it.

But The Sopranos was a critical darling, winning 21 Emmy Awards across its six seasons, making stars of its cast and leaving the stage in 2007 as boldly as it began.

A new two part documentary, Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos, by filmmaker Alex Gibney (Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley) dives deep into its origins, risks and success through its creator and showrunner David Chase.

Chase, now in his late 70s, sits down with Gibney in a face to face therapy session / interview which mirrors Episode One’s session between mobster Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco).

Even though this is produced by HBO, with all the necessary access to footage, Chase is a reluctant participant.

“I didnt realise it was going to be about me,” he tells Gibney, as he is forced to reflect on his upbringing in New Jersey and relationship with his mother.

Growing up around the New Jersey Meadowlands, visiting New York City, and having parents who ran a hardware store were influences that would shape his outlook, whilst seeing the films of Fellini and Polanski at University would ignite his screenwriting and directing ambitions.

His early television work included writing jobs on The Bold Ones, The Magician, The Rockford Files, and even Northern Exposure. But encouraed to ‘write what you know’ he turned back to his mother, serving as the inspiration for Livia Soprano (Nancy Marchand).

Chase reveals he originally wanted Robert de Niro and Anne Bancroft to play the show’s mother and son. Remarkably the doco includes original auditions for roles including Tony, Livia, Carmela and Christopher (see Jonathan LaPaglia’s audition).

There are interviews with Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Drea de Matteo (she thought it was a show about opera!) and musician Steven Van Zandt who was a contender for the role of Tony but ultimately written into a role by Chase as Silvio Dante.

Gandolfini speaks from the grave via earlier interviews, including with Inside the Actors Studio.

Also reflecting on the show’s phenomenal success are Robin Green, The Sopranos writer and producer, Chris Albrecht, former chairman and CEO of HBO, Carolyn Strauss, former president of HBO Entertainment, Alik Sakharov, director of photography and more.

There were fears around turning Tony Soprano into a killer in episode 5, the authenticity of filming in New Jersey instead of LA sound studios and Chase admitting he was ready to give up and write film scripts on spec.

Gibney features very little in the doco, no surprise given the entertainment giant that is Chase himself. The colour and character of the creator punctuates the doco with humour, anecdotes, fears and ambition. For any true fan of the show, or those of the “Golden Age of Television,” it is a glorious time-capsule.

As one creative sums up The Sopranos impact, “Television in the past is always about making you feel good.. .David was all about the opposite.”

Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos screens 8:30pm Sunday on Famous / Binge.

Attend any LGBTQIA+ film festival and you’ll soon see many queer filmmakers launch careers with Coming Out stories.

It’s a crowded sub-genre in the rainbow pantheon which, like the right of passage itself, is unique and valid in its own way. The key is to make it different enough from those that have come before, as well as bringing an authentic voice to the storytelling.

Filmmaker Jessica Smith, who completed traineeships on Neighbours and Ricky Stanicky, has already had impact with Videoland, 6 short episodes which won Best Series in the Comedy Competition at the prestigious Series Mania festival in France.

Netflix has now acquired the series (total running time 48 mins) for Australia / NZ, which centres around a conflicted 1990s video shop assistant, Hayley (Emmanuelle Mattana) who has a crush on customer Jennifer (Tahlee Fereday).

As Hayley tells bestie Tanya (Chi Nguyen), while she knows what she likes she hasn’t quite learned how to act lesbian. But she has a long list of movies which will hopefully offer enough self-help tips. They include Hope Floats, Higher Learning, and the mother of them all, Bound.

It’s a comedy of errors for Hayley, in between the demands of boss Mel (Smith), desires of hapless co-worker Daniel (Toby Blome) and encounters with Jennifer in the corner of the Action VHS rentals. Is it any wonder she struggles for role models when lesbians in Heavenly Creatures, The Hunger, Poison Ivy aren’t exactly ideal?

“I just need to see real women who are really into women, allowed to be into women, aren’t complete arseholes disguised as something else, trying to kill someone or dead!” she insists. “Is it too much to ask?”

Emmanuelle Mattana is sweet and persistent as Hayley, aided by a lively performance from Nguyen as best friend, Tanya.

The small ensemble, filmed entirely in one location except for one scene, are all in sync for the central girl-meets-girl narrative.

The production design by Shannon Biviano perfectly brings to life ’90s memories of Blockbuster, Video Ezy and aisle after aisle of plastic VHS cases (where did they source all the props?).

Smith’s script makes some cute cinema and video references, if taking a little long to reach its final act.

Videoland starts with heart and wraps as a promising start to an emerging screen career for Jessica Smith. Hit Rewind before returning.

Videoland premieres Sunday September 1 on Netflix.

No subject is out of bounds. No question is off the table. Anything might happen.

These are the rules of The Assembly interviews. But the room in which ABC’s pool of autistic journalism trainees probe their subjects is also a safe space with no judgment. The guest is generously afforded the same rights as the interviewers…. to fidget, move, or ask for a break as they need.

ABC’s new six part interview series represents a remarkable opportunity for 16 young Australians, all living with varying degrees of autism, to expore an interest in journalism. Under the auspices of the ABC they are given access to six well-known Australians (only two of whom I’ve ever interviewed).

The Assembly is based on a French program, Les rencontres du Papotin, and a subsequent BBC adaptation. The local version helped create Australia’s first autism friendly journalism course led by Dr Helen Wolfenden and Dr Tai Neilson at Macquarie University, in conjunction with Aspect Australia. The series by Helium Productions is also supported by Bus Stop Films, a leader in production in the disability sector.

Mentoring the students is Leigh Sales, a name so recognised it floors many of the students at how high-level this is all being treated.

“I’m trying to do two things. One is to give the students confidence,” she reveals, “…and to find the clearest way to ask what they want to ask.”

While autism has been highlighted through ABC shows such as Love on the Spectrum, we hear other views from student backstories.

“Autisim feels like crash landing on earth… I’m an alien from a different planet…. it’s like I don’t speak the language,” says Evie, who always wanted to pursue journalism but “I’m not sure if I have the skills.”

While there are no cameras for the Macquarie University course, Leigh Sales works with students in small groups to help them prepare their questions for the guests who will all be interviewed on site at ABC (not in a claustrophobic studio but in a light-filled, street-facing room).

But we are here for the interview and the arrival of Sam Neill is met with as much anticipation as staff meeting Kim Williams for the first time (I presume). There’s a nervous excitement rippling through the room when the A-lister takes his seat as part of a circle, abandoning any ‘press conference’ me-versus-you normally denoted by a desk full of microphones. Sales quietly gestures for each to stand and ask their prepared questions as exposed cameras encircle the group like a theatre without a fourth wall.

The questions -and I won’t divulge them all here- frequently disarm Neill, and one will even lead to tears welling up in his eyes.

They centre around the art of performing, growing up, health battles, his farm in NZ, romance, the future, his knighthood and more.

They will learn about a famous film he turned down, his struggle to accept being knighted and how he deals with nerves. No surprises, Sam Neill is all class for the generosity and humility he brings.

While Savannah, 19, loves his passion for chickens, Jackson is out to impress with his dinosaur collection. Anything goes here….

In episode 3 the guest PM Anthony Albanese speaks about growing up with a single mother, his top Spotify artists, upcoming wedding thoughts, and favourite other PMs. Even Albo will need to reach for the tissues when faced with disarming questions from the young journos.

Other episodes will feature Hamish Blake, Adam Goodes, Amanda Keller and Delta Goodrem (and if they are not careful, the stars could be upstaged by the spark of young newcomers).

Cleverly, the show is as intriguing for its insight into its subjects as it is for the way young people with autism see the world, the values they place on it and the way they navigate its various challenges.

Helium’s production keeps the experience authentic and deliberately low key, using hand held cameras, deconstructing the process. Access is the key, to the process, to the storytelling, if with a supportive hand to guide while letting the 16 students rise to the occasion.

This makes it the warmest TV of its kind since that other hit show, Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds. Don’t miss it.

The Assembly screens 8:30pm Tuesday on ABC.

TV may be getting overrun with quiz shows but you’ll need to make room for Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee from tonight.

New Zealand’s Guy Montgomery serves up a nonsense offering that is unapologetic in its whimsy and for that reason alone is a welcome addition to our schedules.

Firstly the set, is a gloriously nostalgic throwback to the 1970s (or is that the ’60s?) with gaudy orange and pink, classic music, huge lecterns, and a Romper Room bee.

Even host Guy Montgomery dwears a great bag of fruit while sidekick, the irresistible Aaron Chen, appears to have wandered straight from an Italian wedding. L-o-v-e it. All that’s missing is Pete Smith Speaking.

Guests for episode one are Urzila Carlson, Danielle Walker, Nazeem Hussain and Tom Gleeson.

The gameplay, which appears to be secondary to the banter, is built around several spelling rounds. The winner will become a returning champ, while the loser must don a Dunce’s camp.

Each must choose from three random pools of varying difficulty, the Coward’s Cup, Person’s Purse and Bucket of Bravery.

Some words prove so simple I can’t believe the players ask for Country of Origin or an example by way of a Sentence (D-r-e-a-m, really?). Are they complete numbskulls? Ok they are celebrities….

Round Two sees Chen highlighting Australian cash with related spelling questions. Again it’s very silly but these people could read the phone book and it would be entertaining.

Round Three brings in some creativity with contestants challenged to reinvent the spelling of a more complex word.

Round Four ‘Hometown Hero’ draws upon the town of origin of our players. Wait for the Townsville Girl Guides leaders as a video lifeline for Danielle Walker.

A Fifth Round (this is beginning to feel very long) adds audience participation with our trusty 4 expected to spell the name of a random audience member correctly. Choose wisely, Obi-Wan.

Other rounds will feature in other episodes.

Effortlessly linking this all together is the cheerful Guy Montgomery, who developed the format on zoom during the worst days of the pandemic. Like Don Quixote or The Pilgrim’s Progress, penned in prison, some good did come out of l-o-c-k-d-o-w-n.

There are a couple of baffling production choices however, which I feel could have made this even more enjoyable. The length at 46 mins without ads is very long for ABC, which has always erred on the side of brevity in panel shows where commercial television has proven greedy. Less is more, methinks.

The other -and I may be wrong here- centres around whether a laugh track has been sweetened to the studio audience mirth. Either that or there was a lot of red cordial in the ABC studio that day.

But these are moot m-o-o-t points. Guy Montgomery, you’re a very silly man with a very fun diversion.

Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee screens 8:30pm Wednesdays on ABC.

In the five years that Fam Time sat on the shelf at Seven it has become less of a sitcom and more of a curiosity piece.

How bad could the show be that the CEO refused to let it screen, after he ‘inherited’ it from the previous management in 2019?

The comedy was created and produced in-house under former Seven comedy boss Michael Horrocks. But during (another) round of cost cuts he was let go while the completed series was sent to the basement. Even Seven execs struggled to come up with a rational answer or future plan.

Fast forward to 2024 and a change in management has at least let the show see the light of day via 7Plus.

It arrives as somewhat dated, and not exactly a contender in the year’s annual comedy stakes. But did it really deserve this kind of treatment?

‘Mum-preneur’ Belinda (Michala Banas) heads up a family of six who are addicted to their screens. While she is building a following on “Belinda’s Blended Blog”, daughter Tahnee (Karina Banno) already has a huge following with her ‘aural sensations’ YouTube videos squishing lettuce leafs into a leather glove, son Rylan (Benson Jack Anthony) is addicted to online dating, and ‘adopted Filipino ray of sunshine’ Cherry (Chloe De Los Santos) is a demon on the gaming console.

That just leaves hapless dad John (Duncan Fellows) who spends inordinate amounts of time in his mancave / workshop coming up with wacky inventions such as the ‘hands free ladypee.’ Eww.

Belinda’s second marriage to John, which brings the teens together as a blended family, hints to Brady Bunch origins, but there’s probably ambitions to Modern Family too, especially with the (belated) arrival of cougar and grandma Viv (Rhonda Burchmore). Alas, despite the best efforts of the cast it’s nowhere near as sharp.

Banas and Benson Jack Anthony, in particular, work hard with the comic timing and punchlines that struggled to generate many laughs. Belinda’s obsession that “everything is content” is a little tiring without developing more of the core reason why everybody in this house prefers to spend time alone than apart. Are they all so insipid, or is Rylan avoiding his own Greg-Marcia crush on his new half-sister? I dunno.

Things certainly liven up when Rhonda Burchmore arrives in episode three with the great opening line, “Surprise f***ers! Someone order a sexy siren from Byron?”

If only it had been episode one…..

There’s also a standard sitcom ancilliary character who becomes an unofficial family member -you know the type, Fonzie, Nudge, Cousin Oliver, in the form of Kiwi handyman Bill (Tainui Tukiwaho), and bugger me, a young Aaron Chen in a recurring role as the Menulog delivery guy. Seven could have sold the show on that alone?

For all its rather underwhelming gags and often-dated tech humour, the final product is far from being the worst sitcom we’ve seen (Bullpitt! anyone?). Personally, I think it should have been animated and gone further to offend, and taken even more risks than this largely vanilla product.

But the idea of doing comedy (and let’s face it, Seven does stuff all that doesn’t include Paul Fenech or apparently Seven News) is to let the show find its feet and more importantly, an audience. Fam Time isn’t my cuppa tea, but with so many channels and timeslots I really think it at least deserved the respect to try and carve one out.

Sadly, the treatment by management means that the network will probably now take ages to commission a sitcom again, which is bad for both creatives and audience.

Fam Time will now always be remembered for what happens when a CEO decides what’s funny and what isn’t.

Fam Time is now screening on 7Plus.

Season Two of Foxtel / Binge drama The Twelve embarks on its own story, under an all-female writing team.

Belgium’s De Twaalf, the basis for season one, only screened 10 episodes. Now applying the format elsewhere it shifts to Western Australia and its own originally-created saga.

Sam Neill as lawyer Brett Colby is the sole returning cast member (given Marta Dusseldorp’s Prosecutor would not logically cross state lines). Colby is joined by colleague Meredith Nelson-Moore (Frances O’Connor) in what becomes a joint murder trial in the small town of Tunkwell.

For this the legal fraternity are on the ‘circuit,’ taking justice to rural communities, if still managing to find a rather imposing courtroom in existence.

But Tunkwell has lost one of its most polarising local characters, ‘battleaxe’ farmer Bernice Price (Kris McQuade) whose body has been found at the bottom of a well. As the story progresses, it will be clear she had made her share of local enemies, allowing -presumably- for plenty of red herrings.

On trial are her daughter Sasha (Amy Mathews) and charismatic farmhand Patrick (Erroll Shand) who have been getting hot ‘n’ heavy in the hay bales when Bernice wasn’t looking. Prosecuting this season, in place of Dusseldorp, is ambitious barrister Jude (Fayssal Bazzi).

Like the first season, the trial plays out in the present with flashback scenes providing insight to the TV obseervers, if not necessarily the jury.

Once again there is a diverse range of characters including Thelma (Tasma Walton), currently looking after her ageing mother, local footy legend Joey (Josh McKenzie), waitress Stefanie (Claudia D’Angelo), a flour mill owner battling health issues named Winston (Anthony Brandon Wong) and more.

Add to this list a judge, witnesses, town locals, family members, cops, business owners… together with facts and flashbacks, there’s a lot to take in. But the jigsaw puzzle of the case draws in the viewer and early flashbacks helps to connect us more to the victim than were offered in S1. This means we are more invested from the get-go and care more about the outcome.

Being on ‘circuit’ also allows for more cross-pollination between the legal eagles, and it’s clear Brett and Meredith are sharing more than just notes when not at the bar. Or at least the legal bar.

“What happens on circuit, stays on circuit” – Justice St. John Ross.

Yet there are also secrets between the jurors and part of the lure of the series is watching how personal prejudice and expectations sway arguments around the juror table. Producers are to be applauded for casting so diversely once again, while audiences have the pleasure of watching some fine ensemble performances and character actors. Anthony Brandon Wong and Josh McKenzie are amongst early standouts.

They contrast with the elegant performances by Sam Neill and Frances O’Connor, whose refined delivery and attention to process, reminds us they are from well-bred stock -until the moments they too are defined by passion.

The Twelve also includes cameos from Anthony Hayes, Shareena Clanton and the final performance by Keith Robinson as the trial judge.

Written by Sarah L. Walker, Anchuli Felicia King, Anya Beyersdorf and Anna Barnes, and directed by Stevie Cruz-Martin, Mark Joffe, Ben Young and Emma Jackson, The Twelve holds up a mirror to bad choices when flawed people are pressed to make the right ones.

The Twelve screens 8:30pm Thursday on Showcase / Binge.

In the opening sequence of Fake, food writer Birdie is arriving at a bar to meet her new dating app match, wealthy grazier Joe.

But just metres from the bar he awkwardly messages to say he’s bumped into a client and is hoping she can pretend to be his partner whilst he makes pleasantries and gets rid of him?

It should be enough to ring alarm bells, and to her credit, after meeting Joe, Birdie soon decides not to waste much more of her time.

But Joe is a charmer. Before long he has apologised and made his case for a second date.

With that, Fake, a new 8 part drama begins to reel Birdie -and the viewer- in. The series is the best local drama Paramount+ has delivered and is highly bingeworthy, if not addictive.

It’s also the best thing Asher Keddie has done since Offspring. Birdie is late 40s, with aspirations for more considered journalism than foodie articles, marriage, motherhood and living up to the ideal marriage of her demanding mother Margeaux (Heather Mitchell) and late father. Her friends, stable gay couple Anton (Nicholas Brown) and Tovey (Spencer McLaren) are about to get married. Birdie feels the pressure to land someone for herself.

Enter charismatic architect turned grazier Joe (David Wenham), a handsome, windswept romantic who can recite poets and authors, lives on a farm with his dog while juggling shared parenting and advising governments on solar and wind farms. What’s not to love?

He also messages Birdie nearly as much as Baby Reindeer‘s Martha, but with sweet nothings, insta shots of farm animals and rustic romance. The needy Birdie finds herself falling for his aura to the point of letting loose of logic for the sake of a weekend shack (it won’t be until much later that someone suggests a quick background check).

But the perfect picture is not without its cracks with his habitual cancellation and encyclopaedia of excuses. If the viewer is yelling “Wake up!” at the screen, Birdie is constantly wavering between devotion and doubts. Writer Anya Bedersdorf, drawing inspo from the book by Stephanie Wood, pulls you down the rabbit hole of Birdie’s blind obsession, skilfully guided by directors Emma Freeman, Jennifer Leacey and Taylor Ferguson.

Asher Keddie delicately swings between Birdie’s hopes and hesitations like a pendulum. If her misplaced logic drags on a little too long, then an intense drive to the airport will surely knock some sense into her. It’s one of the drama’s wildest sequences, with an integral cameo by Arka Das as driver.

The series by Kindling Pictures (which reunites Offspring’s Keddie, Freeman and producer Imogen Banks) also features supporting or cameo appearances by Freya Stafford, Janet Andrewartha, Anne Charleston, Ming-Zhu Hii, Greg Stone, John Stanton, Suzy Cato-Gashler, Suzi Dougherty and Louisa Mignone.

But it rests on the relationship of Keddie and Wenham, often as a two-hander, and here it does not disappoint.

In a world of scams, bad dates and ghosting Fake is a modern cautionary tale about trust and self-worth. It’s also a ripping yarn.

Fake screens Thursday July 4 on Paramount+.

Since the huge success of The Full Monty in 1997 Britain has turned to a number of feelgood tales of underdog battlers having their moment of unity and collectively overcoming odds.

Brassed Off, Calendar Girls, Bend it Like Beckham, Military Wives…. the latest is Men Up, a 2023 film about the origins of Viagra. Yep.

Inspired by true events, the story is set in the fairly chilly city of Swansea, Wales in 1994, a time of Tony Blair, Tovill & Dean and The Vicar of Dibley.

While the issue seems commonplace and solvable in 2024, thirty years ago some men were so distressed they took desperate, tragic steps.

40 year old Meurig (Iwan Rheon) is living with the stigma of impotence and it is quietly imploding his marriage to Ffion (Alexandra Roach), who has recently undergone a double mastectomy. She is convinced he is unable to love her. While this isn’t the case, Meurig is hopeless at articulating his feelings.

When he learns of a trial for a new pill by Pfizer at his local hospital, Meurig is dead keen to make the cut. But participants won’t know if they are given the real deal or a placebo.

Four other key characters join the trial. Peetham (Phaldut Sharma) whose wife begins to sell sex toys to her friends (as if to rub salt in the wound); loner Colin (Steffan Rhodri) who has struck up a phone friendship with a stranger but doesn’t have the courage to meet in person for fear of disappointing her; laborer Eddie (Mark Lewis Jones); and discreet gay man Tommy (Paul Rhys) who suggests an open relationship so his partner can have sex with someone else.

Of these other participants it is Tommy who is the most interesting, because the trial only welcomes heterosexual men. Desperate to participate, and not wanting to jeopardise the truthfulness required, he is desperate to keep his sexuality private.

But the story largely pivots around Meurig who learns that his impotency is linked to his diabetes.

“What was I suppseed to say? I was ashamed…This isn’t suppsoed to happen to men my age. I didn’t know what to do,” he tells Ffion.

Through the trial the 5 men bond over the discovery they are not alone, clinking beer jugs at the local pub and sharing stories like they are at a journey to manhood campfire.

There are some amusing tactics such as “talking” to your own penis and making preparations for the perfect big night with dinner and a VHS video rental. You get the drift…

Iwan Rheon, who is always watchable in shows such as Misfits, Game of Thrones and Vicious, perfectly plays the sad sack husband while Mark Lewis Jones, whose long list of credits includes Baby Reindeer, Game of Thrones, Chernobyl, The Crown, Outlander, is suitably boisterous as the working class bloke too proud to show his vulnerability.

Throughout Men Up you are rooting for the boys to have a breakthrough moment and do it for the team. Can’t argue with that.

Men Up screens Thursday June 27 on BritBox.

Music documentaries are a great way to lure potential new subscribers to streaming platforms and the latest, I Am Celine Dion, taps into the mega-fanbase of global superstar Celine Dion.

Director Irene Taylor also has extraordinary access to the singer through her recent illness, dropping out of the spotlight following a rare Stiff Person Syndrome diagnosis.

Confronting is the word for the most extreme scenes filmed here, when cameras watch Dion in a full seizure moment in her home, but surrounded by a medical team. True fans will watch in horror at what their icon endures -it’s distressing stuff.

The 90 minute doco captures Dion at home, complemented by archival footage on stage, and in a determined step back into a recording studio. There is also home movie footage of Dion as a young woman and teen, including her very early dream, “All I want to do is sing all my life.”

But with Stiff Person Syndrome, this is cruelly taken away. And there you have your dramatic premise for this documentary, which is echoed fleetingly in the demise of Maria Callas’ vocals.

Indeed Dion is seen recording her message to fans where she bows out from the spotlight to focus on her health. She concedes there were lies and excuses to cover for the diminishing health and vocal stamina, until it was time to come clean.

“The lie is too heavy now.”

Going on stage is easy, she insists. Cancelling a show is not.

“Music. I miss it a lot, but also people, I miss them,” she reveals.

“My voice was the conductor of my life. I was following it.”

The documentary looks to have filmed over an extensive period, including with diagnosis, leaving centrestage, recuperating and attempting first new steps.

It draws upon footage -but not too much- around the death of husband René in 2016. For one who sings power ballads, there is lot of lived experience to inject into performance.

Cameras follow her at home recuperating and in rehabilition trying to strengthen muscles, fighting against a debilitating nerve condition, relaxing with her children and labrador, and commentating on archival performance footage.

“When your voice brings you joy, you’re the best of yourself.”

This includes a substantial segment around John Farnham, generously included for his songs Help and You’re the Voice, including a duet performed in Australia. No other singer gets anywhere near the screen time of Farnham.

Whilst Dion is portrayed as very secure in stage managing her life and career, SPS pulls the rug out from under her. The doco makes the most of these contrasts, constantly reminding you of her sheer vocal strength and stardom, contrasted by a private hell, removed of costumery and even any basic make-up.

That Dion allowed cameras to film her at her most vulnerable is impossible to ignore.

The doco also comes as a soundtrack is dropped (sans Farnham duet) which shows there is still great stage management of merchandise, but you can’t help but want to dive back into her rich adult contemporary library and hope she is able to overcome all odds to give us all what she -and we- most desire.

I Am Celine Dion screens Tuesday June 25 on Prime Video.

Australia doesn’t dabble a lot in half-hour drama series (think Mr. Inbetween, The Surgeon, The End, Upright) which is a bit of a shame, given the opportunities for short, punchy storytelling.

Streaming platform Stan, which has found ongoing success with Bump, now brings us Exposure, a raw six part series set in Port Kembla (coincidentally 1987’s The Girl From Steel City was another 30 min series).

Make no mistake, it’s the most ‘arthouse’ thing Stan has offered locally since the controversial Nitram. The subject is heavy and introspective inspired by the ‘lived experience’ of writer and creator Lucy Coleman.

Jacs (Alice Englert) is a gifted young photographer who is into raves, binge drinking, drugs and random sex. Joining her for much of this Tune in, Turn off and Drop out behaviour is best friend Kel (Mia Artemis) who is also the subject of her latest exhibition winning photo. But it turns out the still photo of her eyes closed, peaceful friend, is also deceased.

When Jacs returns to Port Kembla family and friends are outraged at Jacs’ behaviour, including her mother Kathy (Essie Davis), confused, lost friend Angus (Thomas Weatherall), not to mention Kel’s mother Val (Victoria Haralabidou).

But Jacs can’t shake off her own feelings of guilt around her final days with Kel and the incidents that led to her death. Convinced that she was seeing a male who knows more, Jacs sets about following a trail of clues to Kel’s past. This entails a list of possible candidates, from a Bali holiday fling with Raffa (Sean Keenan), a local online journo Bronson (Thom Green), charismatic surfer Mick (George Mason) -and the party behind mysterious messages on Kel’s phone from someone called ‘Do Not Disturb.’

In between her feelings of remorse and snapping suspects with her tool of trade, Jacs wanders Port Kembla in a dreamy, angry state and becomes growing increasingly mistrustful of the men in her life. Who can blame her, most of them are fairly self-absorbed and adding little of substance….

It’s hard to find optimism in this tale but to be fair that also isn’t the proposition director Bonnie Moir is offering. Instead it is a character essay in shame, grief and love. This trades in loss and remorse but also in some grounded, raw performances from its cast.

Alice Englert completely underplays the role of Jacs with a brooding performance which springs to life alongside Essie Davis as her on-screen mother. These are amongst the strongest scenes in the series, and Englert could well elicit nominations for her performance.

Thomas Weatherall continues to show his range as the troubled Angus and Victoria Haralabidou achieves much with her select scenes.

Bonnie Moir brings a ‘indie’ feel to this series which is drained of colour, as if to match the industrial Port Kembla backdrop. The preview also had 4:3 screen ratio adding to its artistic feel, but it did confuse me as to what year it was set.

Fittingly this comes with a 1800RESPECT warning. It will be triggering for some, bleak for others, and authentically made for more still. Viewer discretion is advised. Watch it for Englert’s performance.

Exposure premieres Thursday June 20 on Stan.

Corrected.

First floor: Ladies Wear, Hats, Shoes, Gossip, Scandal, Petty Theft, Racism, Affairs and Wigs with More Bounce than Skippy The Bush Kangaroo.

Ladies in Black is the latest in a long congaline of period dramas which highlight women’s rights, societal change and multiculturalism encroaching on a White Australia Policy in post WWII.

That it does so with broad appeal, a loving visual eye, and a charming cast is but one of the reasons this will prove popular with ABC audiences.

It’s 1961 in Goodes Department Store, which prides itself on dressing Sydney’s finest ladies. ABC’s 6 part drama picks up 6 months after the film of the same name, and the novel by Madeleine St John which itself is loosely based on David Jones store.

Between the gloves and the cocktail dresses we find a microcosm of society through characters defined by class, background and race.

Polish-born Magda (Debi Mazar) is about to step aside from her shop floor position in Model Gowns to begin her own boutique store, with ex-Harrods doyenne Mrs. Ambrose (Miranda Otto) ready to usurp the role with all her conservative fashion advice.

But Magda’s dreams are thwarted when husband Stefan (Russell Dykstra) has foolishly offered a bridging loan to Rudi (Thom Green) to start his own trucking business, without consulting her. That also puts Magda at odds with Rudi’s new wife Fay (Jessica de Gouw) who also works at Goodes, but who wants to go on the pill rather than start a family in her first year of marriage.

Also working on the floor is Lisa (Clare Hughes) a budding journalist whose family circumstance means she must return to retail work. She juggles her university studies while railing against the expectation that males write the articles for the student newspaper, edited by handsome lothario Richard (Tom Wilson).

There’s also a rat in the store ranks in the form of Angela (Azizi Donnelly) who steals the Goodes ‘look book’ to copy designs for her Lebanese family store, headed by Dawud Mansour (Hazem Shammas).

A number of other key characters weave in and out of the series including Huw Hugginson, who has the perfect period face for Goodes CEO Mr. Ryder, Todd McKenney as store manager Mr. MacKenzie, Julian Maroun as Visual Merchandiser Ellias, plus Sacha Horler, Carlos Sanson Jr. Ngali Shaw, Kate Box, Hamish Michael -it’s quite a shopping list of fine Australian actors.

Visually this is a series that pops and swings, with sumptuous colours and elegant designs in the frocks and furnishings, store fixtures and accessories galore. The replicated women’s department is so large it can look a little thin of customers, but other location shots really bring a sense of history.

The drama hangs elgantly off the coathangers of staff private lives and workplace discontent. There is family pressure, personal dreams, power games, gossip, love and secrets. Interspersed throughout are songnotes of racism, repression and a time of change, seen largely through the eyes of its female principals. This makes the series not dissimilar to a range of others in the genre, from Brides of Christ to Love Child, or Paper Giants to 10 Pound Poms. Yet it succeeds by packaging everything up so handsomely and without preaching its social commentary.

Amongst the cast, Clare Hughes is a stand-out as Lisa, embarking on independence, sex and her own career, while Debi Mazar delivers as Magda, the woman trying to realise her dream but held back by a husband’s power. Miranda Otto relishes the role of the store snob and it’s great to see Heartbreak High‘s Tom Wilson and The Twelve‘s Ngali Shaw bring their charisma back to screen.

The real star of the series is the production design by Michael Rumpf. I fully expect ABC viewers are going to sink back into this ‘romantic’ era of elegant shopping and glamorous clothes. The music swirls while the colours burst. None of it looks like it has taken shortcuts and I had no problem with injecting No Doubt’s I’m Just a Girl alongside Brenda Lee (others may get picky).

The test for the series, aside from defining its purpose beyond the book / film, is in new observations around the experiences of its suppressed characters rather than the lightweight soap of stolen design books and locker room gossip.

Ladies in Black easily entertains with its window dressing, and is smartly, quietly, drawing back the curtain to reveal more raw workplace battles.

Ladies in Black screens 8:30pm Sundays on ABC (all episodes on iview).

Given it’s been 35 years since Presumed Innocent screened with Harrison Ford you’ll forgive me for not having a great recall on the film, other than it was a solid legal flick based on the book by Scott Turow.

So I entered the new Apple TV+ series Presumed Innocent, starring Jake Gyllenhaal with a high degree of scepticism. Why are we remaking this and for goodness sake why as an 8 part series of all things.

Turns out, it sucked me in enough to look beyond the original and embark on a new case where the hero again stands accused of murder.

Rusty Sabich (Gyllenhaal) is a top Chicago prosecutor, livin’ the dream with his picture-perfect wife Barbara (Ruth Negga) and family of two teens.

But life takes a major detour when fellow prosecutor Carolyn (Renate Reinsve) is found bludgeoned to death in her home.

District Attorney Raymond Horgan (Bill Camp) initially assigns him the case until the former is usurped by the unwelcome new DA Nico Della Guardia (O-T Fagbenle) after a state election who replaces Rusty with a new chief prosecutor, Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard).

None are privy to the history of Rusty and Carolyn, who were getting hot and steamy in the office, prior to her death. Rusty’s infatuation even went further, leading to plenty of after-hours meetings, all behind his wife’s back.

It isn’t long before the new DA’s office is pointing the finger at its own star performer, and Rusty is soon arrested.

That’s as much set-up as you need to know for this engaging legal thriller which puts its flawed hero firmly in the cross hairs. Did Rusty do it? Can he get to the bottom of what happened and solve the case before time runs out? Who do you believe?

When writer David E. Kelley nails his thrillers it’s a joy to behold (until those occasions he veers into melodrama) and this is one of them. Kelley loves a cliffhanger and each of these episodes will drop a bomb that compels you to dive into the next episode. But all roads lead to the courtroom for Kelley. He really hits his strides, of course, with the legal argument towards the back of the series. Chew the scenery, time.

Gyllenhaal is fantastic as Rusty Sabich, winning over your empathy despite all his failings as a parent. You want to believe he is an innocent man, you want to follow the story subterfuge to get to the truth. Even the excess of shirtless, beefy Gyllenhaal (when he isn’t diving into a pool, he seems to be showering and getting dressed a lot) is a distraction from what is clearly a bloody, violent crime.

Bill Camp (The Night Of, The Queen’s Gambit, 12 Years a Slave) is a brilliant casting inclusion, bringing plenty of gravitas as Rusty’s key confidante. But it’s a tempestuous relationship and they fight like dogs in the yard, railing against the politics of the case.

Ruth Negga is a stand-out as the wronged wife Barbara, who holds it together for family, although I could have done without one sub-plot which feels like a time-filler in the 8 part serialisation.

Kelley also dabbles in dream sequences (wait for the exploding head), which are there to tease the audience -I’m not sure they are necessary when the story fundamentals hold up so well on their own.

I’m yet to see the final episode which will directly impact whether this take on Turow’s book stands alongside the Harrison Ford telling, or lands with some distance. But until then, it’s been an unexpectedly enjoyable ride.

Presumed Innocent screens Wednesdays on Apple TV+

British children’s author Julian Hartswood (Ben Miller) is having a pretty bad day.

In Canberra as part of an Australian book-signing tour, he awakens one day to discover he has retweeted a post by a white supremacist.

Illustrator and wife Ingrid (Sally Phillips) is horrified by her husband’s stupidity and when a bookstore chain cancels plans for him to sign books of Big Bear, Julian quickly finds a local bookstore to host an event. Only problem is, it’s an extreme right wing store with copies of Mein Kampf in the windows.

But Julian’s day is about to get a whole lot more complex when a neurodivergent 29 year old, Austin (Michael Theo) turns up purporting to be his son from a brief encounter in London.

It’s a shock for Julian, and Ingrid -especially when she does the sums and learns Austin is younger than the three decade partnership she’s had with Julian. Just what has been going on?

Austin doesn’t want any cut of Julian’s literary empire, but insists, “I’m on a quest to understand who I am and where I come from.”

This spanner into Julian’s life is the premise for a bright new comedy from Northern Pictures and Miller’s own Lincoln Pictures.

Anchoring a scripted series around breakout Love on the Spectrum star Michael Theo is both bold and inspired. Despite having only an acting cameo in kids’ series Hardball, Theo nails his scenes alongside more experienced performers, with all the required comic timing.  The authenticity, warmth and humour that made him so beloved in Love on the Spectrum is on display as the neurodivergent, optimistic son, with the awkward one-liners.

Ben Miller and Sally Phillips are perfect as the two Brits attempting to keep up appearances in this life detour down under. Miller fumbles about with glee and embarrassment while Phillips apologises, suppressing her utter shock at her husband’s actions whilst holding him to account.

Added to the cast are Gia Carides, in a rare screen return as Austin’s mother Mel, alongside Bill (Roy Billing) as Austin’s laconic, football-loving grandfather.

The series co-created by Miller with director Darren Ashton, gently explores the relationships of its central characters who all click together like a seasoned ensemble. There are plenty of contemporary social touchstones challenging Julian on his lack of inclusion and grace, at one point even being challenged he is “sl*tshaming” Austin’s mother, Mel. Ouch.

Television in recent years has lovingly embraced those living with autism, mostly in unscripted content. Welcome to the world of comedy, Michael Theo. I hope you get an acting nomination next.

Austin screens 8pm Sundays on ABC.

I was pretty angry by episode two of Lost Boys & Fairies.

But what is drama if you don’t go through the conflict to get to the resolution?

At least it proves I was invested in the characters.

In a new 3 part British series you won’t see its twists and turns coming, but they will hit you like a gut punch where you are teary and smiling, sometimes at the same time….

Sion Daniel Young plays Gabriel, a young cabaret performer in Wales, who shares a perfect domestic life with hunky boyfriend Andy (Fra Fee) who are interviewed by Jackie (Elizabeth Berrington) as potential adoptive parents.

It’s a long process for the couple, who appear to be ready to settle down after their wild twenty-something days of partying to begin a family. Both have their heart set on a little girl, but Jackie encourages them to keep an open mind.

While Andy is balanced and responsible, if occasionally guilty of over-compensating for those around him, Gabe has a complex history. There’s a past history of hedonism and failings, and an upbringing with his father which leaves the relationship so strained he lies about it to Jackie. Not good where honesty and transparency are non-negotiable.

Even meeting his elderly dad (William Thomas) to share the news of their adoption plans does not go well.

“I just think a child needs a mother, that’s all,” his father reveals. Ouch.

But Andy & Gabe have enough love between them to forge ahead and share with a young child.

When they meet 7 year old Jake (Leo Harris) it’s a match-made in heaven. And so the adoptive process cautiously enters the next phase with nerves, hopes and everyone’s best intentions. In a three part drama, sometimes prone to melodrama, not all will run as smoothly as planned.

The series elicits some heartfelt, earnest performances from its leads Sion Daniel Young and Fra Fee as a flawed but true couple. They love, they fight, they negotiate and take leaps into the unknown with their heart on their collective sleeves.

Outside of the domestic scenes the series is theatrically complemented by nightclub scenes with drag queens and gay pals, peppered by musical numbers and luminous characters.

This is a series where the supporting roles, and even the cameos, weave a rich tapestry. Elizabeth Berrington, William Thomas, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Sharon D. Clarke, Arwel Gruffydd and Gwyneth Keyworth -who makes a late but notable appearance in episode 3- bring plenty to the table in their respective roles.

Daf James’ script is sensitevly steered by director James Kent making this an emotional viewing experience (the ‘Mad World’ sequence is a creative highlight) and which always feels grounded and utterly believable.

If you still have a lingering memory of It’s a Sin for all its British queerness, theatricality and confronting drama, then Lost Boys & Fairies is for you. Highly recommended.

Lost Boys & Fairies is now screening on Stan.

When I first heard of new Greg Davies comedy series The Cleaner, I couldn’t help but recall Shaun Micallef’s Mr. & Mrs. Murder.

After all, a comedy series about crime scene cleaning isn’t exactly commonplace.

Turns out, Davies’ series is based on a German comedy Der Tatortreiniger, which premiered in 2011 (two years before Mr. & Mrs. Murder hit screens).

Despite the common occupation, the two shows have quite a bit of difference. For starters, Mr. & Mrs. Murder saw married couple Nicola and Charlie Buchanan (Kat Stewart & Micallef) solving the crimes they were attending.

Greg Davies as Paul ‘Wicky’ Wickstead works solo, and his encounters are far more philosophical. He’s not here to solve the crime. He really just wants to be left alone to do a good job, but life -or rather- someone associated to the victim, invariably gets in the way.

This provides a very neat vehicle for guest roles, all of which adds up to a delightful diversion.

In episode one Wicky arrives to a blood-spattered kitchen where a husband was stabbed 38 times by his wife.

“Why? To piss me off? You only need 5 stabs. Anything else is showboating,” Wicky insists.

“I’m a cleaner, I’m not Jesus.”

This kind of mess means he also won’t get to his favourite Curry Night at the local pub.

First to interrupt is a nosy neighbour, who brings over a pie as subterfuge. It doesn’t go well.

But wait until ‘The Widow’ (as this episode is titled) shows up in the form of Helena Bonham Carter.

Just why she killed her hubby isn’t initially clear, but when she pulls a gun on Wicky, it’s pretty clear he won’t be making it to Curry Night anytime soon.

The joy of The Cleaner is in watching Davies and his guest star crackle along with all kinds of smart dialogue, puns and semantics. The towering Davies looms large over his diminutive guest star, yet she holds all the power in this kooky scenario. Where else would you catch Helena Bonham Carter on the toilet doing number 2s (sorry!)?

“What are you under the impression that women don’t” she quips.

There’s even a musical dream sequence… why not?

Episode two is a new crime scene, this time when pompous author Terence Redford (David Mitchell), has an expired grandmother in his living room.

But he’s currently suffering from writers’ block and doesn’t care for Wicky’s noisy cleaning equipment while he is trying to create.

That leads to some blazing rows between the two men, both trying to do their job, yet somehow needing each other to do so.

Mitchell is suitably delicious as the short-tempered, eloquent writer spitting out his syllables and consonants with razor-sharp precision. There’s definitely a love of language in this script.

Davies is delightful as the harangued, perfectionist crime scene cleaner who gives as good as he gets, and always taking great pride in his work.

Further guests across two seasons will include Stephanie Cole, Harriet Walter, Simon Callow, Zoë Wannamaker and more.

Gloves on, zip up, for some very messy fun.

The Cleaner double episode 8:30pm Tuesday on ABC Entertains.

New six part psychological thriller Eric is a curious beast, literally.

For starters it’s a British production populated by American characters in New York City in the 1980s.

It’s partly a descent into madness, partly a crime thriller, and partly an essay on period racism and homophobia.

It’s a bigfoot in each camp which is sometimes engrossing, and other times overshooting its ambitions, but always engaging.

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Vincent, a cantankerous, workaholic puppeteer employed on “Good Day Sunshine”, a dead ringer equivalent for Sesame Street. He’s cranky at staff meetings, never happy with new ideas, cutbacks and network demands.

He is also a helicopter parent to shy, 9 year old son Edgar (Ivan Morris Howe) who frequently loses himself in drawings and dreams of his own monster puppet, a towering fluffy beast he calls Eric.

Mother and wife Cassie (Gaby Hoffmann) often finds herself on the end of blazing domestic rows with Vincent, which feels imposed rather than justified in storylines. Because it is in the midst of their latest feud that an overlooked Edgar decides to walk to school alone one morning.

But when he never makes it to school, panic sets in and police are called. Enter hunky black Detective Mike Ledroit (McKinley Belcher III) who is tasked with heading up an investigation.

After quizzing a distressed Cassie and shellshocked Vincent, Mike has his own suspicions about about a local nightclub near Edgar’s home. That’s despite the cliche directions from his police boss to stop chasing pointless leads, as well as workplace pressure to get himself a wife soon. Yes really. But Mike has his own home life, even if he keeps things private.

The series sets up a range of suspects who could be linked to Edgar’s disappearance, and even introduces something of an affair for distraught Cassie.

But the series takes a wild detour when Vincent gets an idea to bring monster Eric to television, in the hope his son might see it and -I presume- realise Dad is not so bad after all.

Eric becomes tangible, at least to us as viewers, sharing the screen in all his towering, horned blue monsteria. Voiced by Cumberbatch himself, this alter-ego of our hero follows him around like a shadow, calling him out, misbehaving, and generally guaranteeing Vincent slowly loses his grip on reality.

The character essay stuff is intriguing, thanks to Cumberbatch’s talents, even though Vincent isn’t particularly likeable. More likeable is the understated performance of McKinley Belcher III as a detective committed to a case in a time of racism, homophobia and stereotyped police bosses.

The two parts don’t always go together and some scenes feel contrived. What could have been a standout from writer Abi Morgan (The Hour, The Iron Lady, Shame, Suffragette) falls a little short.

But the crowded story moves along at an entertaining pace, if you can equate the fantasy elements with the missing child plot.

Eric screens May 29 on Netflix.

If you’re missing The Block, Seven’s Dream Home is here to help.

Or if you’re missing House Rules, it’s also a TV substitute. In many ways it is also a clone. I really struggled to find the difference between Seven’s former renovation show and it’s new-look entry, save for cheerful host Dr. Chris Brown in place of Johanna Griggs.

There are six pairs who will renovate each others’ homes, dividing up rooms for reno and following the design requests of the owners. In the old version they were the house ‘Rules.” Here they come in the form of a fancy video from one architecturally-informed couple, or in a homely hand-written letter from another.

The series underlines the current cost of living (you could almost make a drinking game from the number of times it’s referred to) and our Aussie familes / homeowners have got themselves into a right rut with crumbling, unappealing, crowded spaces. But Dr. Chris Brown is here to make their day by telling them they have made it onto the show (I reckon they secretly knew), before we fast-forward to blindfolds off and OMG / tears as they see the finished products.

“Let’s go and make some dreams come true!” -Chris Brown.

In episode one two Victorian-based homes will be made over by three teams together, one in Watsonia and the other in Northcote.

Like The Block, we have to see couples driving in cars for reasons that escape me -is it product placement? Is it because couples feel they are in private and let down their guard? I have no idea.

A floorplan is divided up at each site -but oddly it leaves out some of the rooms without any narration from Dr. Chris to explain why. At one site there’s a whole second level I don’t know who is renovating. Maybe that’s still to come?

There’s not a lot of detail on budgets nor time frames, although I did hear a reference to 10 days somewhere in the mix.

Like other reno shows, there is a bit of inspo, bickering, shopping, negotiating, and tears under pressure. And those obligatory pop choons.

There’s also two foremen at each site, builders Nick and Luca, and a bunch of unnamed laborers who are here to do the lion’s share of the construction.

To Dream Home‘s credit, there are so many walls being knocked down in these shells, that it’s not just a case of slapping paint on a House Rules wall. In this sense they do feel like larger builds than Seven’s predecessor.

Dr. Chris book-ends the first episode, as well as narrating, by visiting with the three judges, Lana, Simon and Rosie. For now it’s a largely introductory visit, given the couples are still in the sledgehammer stage of renovation. Literally.

Whilst there are hints of bigger builds and property porn houses by the end, this format really needs more difference from House Rules, and less cookie-cutter storytelling from The Block. Other reno shows, such as Grand Designs take a much deeper dive into the DIY and overcoming ambitions, but the reality genre is focussed on competition and clashing personalities.

Some have also questioned the diversity on Dream Home, but to be fair there appears to be a mix of heritage in contestants Brad, Jacinta, Jordan, as well judges Simon and Rosie.

For a show that is all about building from the ground up, this one really needed more original format beats to distinguish itself from others in the genre.

Dream Home screens Sunday – Tuesday on Seven.

Having Vicky McClure’s (Line of Duty, Trigger Point) on a drama is enough to get my attention.

So much so, that when I sat down to begin Insomnia I didn’t know much about it at all. Which probably explains why the early scenes were a right ball of confusion.

Was I watching these loose fragments of a woman in real life, flashback or a dream sequence? Probably it was all of the above. In the six part series, UK mum Emma (Vicky McClure) is approaching her 40th birthday, whilst having constant trouble sleeping alongside husband Robert (Tom Cullen).

Making life even more confusing, the preview episode didn’t quite have all the ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) completed, which at least won’t be a problem for you, dear reader / viewer.

Emma has two kids, teen Chloe (India Fowler) and toddler Will (Smylie Bradwell), lives in a well-appointed property and works in family law for a successful law firm.

She also has a caustic relationship with her sister Phoebe (Leanne Best), who has a habit of turning up unannounced and pushes her to reunite with her elderly mother, who is dying in hospital. But there is so much history, for reasons which will become explained, that Emma refuses to see her mother and indeed, has completely lied about her existence to husband Robert.

Through flashbacks we learn that when mum was also turning 40 she lost her grip on sanity, warning Emma that “bad blood” runs in the family. It’s this ‘curse’ that revisits Emma around which Insomnia revolves. Does she have the same ‘bad blood?’ Will it ruin her perfect life despite all the work she has forged to achieve it?

All signs of increasing nightmares certainly point towards it, and Emma feels like she is fighting a losing battle…

The premise of this tale felt to me like it should probably be a psychological thriller film. While I wasn’t seeing where this would go for six episodes, an episode two conclusion did open it out into more complex terrain.

Vicky McClure is always engaging in her gritty, grounded characters and in Insomnia she has less control than some of her more recent work. The relationship with sister Phoebe upstages that of her on-screen husband, with Leanne Best as a suitable match.

Director Börkur Sigthorsson pulls off some unsettling scenes, such as Emma waking up in the middle of the night in her pond, and you’re often unsure whether you are watching Emma’s reality or non-reality.

Having the two children in the story feels like obvious territory for a drama with ‘bad blood’ invested. Hopefully it’s not as predictable as it feels early on and there are some decent twists ahead.

Yet if not for McClure, who is in almost every scene, I might not have stayed for the plot shifts which begin around halfway into the series, so I’m hoping it will ultimately be worth my time.

Insomnia premieres Friday May 24 on Stan.

Having the name Steven Knight on a new British drama is enough to make many drama connosieurs sit up and take notice.

After all his shows Peaky Blinders, Rogue Heroes and Taboo have all attracted serious audiences. This Town, is likely to do the same, albeit cut from a much different cloth.

It is 1981 in Birmingham, nearby Coventry and Belfast. There are race riots in Birmingham housing estates during the Thatcher years, and IRA uprisings in Belfast.

Dante (Levi Brown) is an aspiring black poet coming of age in a time of crisis. He has a head full of words in a cold, industrial city where walking the street can mean stumbling into a riot where police beat you to a pulp because of the colour of your skin…

“You look like somebody who could be somebody,” his friend Jeannie (Eve Austin) says.

“I want to be somebody…. I want to be a poet,” Dante replies.

Meanwhile in Coventry, dancer Bardon (Ben Rose) is collared by his bully Irish father (Peter McDonald) into shady acts which help finance the IRA but which also test their relationship. Bardon wants nothing to do with the fight against British rule, but his father expects his son to step up.

“I want to be my own man, Dad,” says Bardon.

A third principal character is Gregory (Jordan Bolger), a British sergeant fighting the uprisings in Belfast. In the middle of anarchy on the streets he hears birds singing, and wants warring factions to turn to music -reactions wild enough to see him considered for psychological consultation until a major incident unexpectedly links all three men together….

The pursuit of music from the dark corners of despair is one of This Town‘s best attributes. There’s a quirky soundtrack, juxtaposed with some creative cinematography.

The real skill is in the fragile relationships sensitively directed by Paul Whittington, drawing some magical moments from a gifted ensemble. Levi Brown is particularly captivating as the ambitious poet Dante, while Jordan Bolger is fiercely strong as Gregory.

But there are some rather wonderful supporting performances too -wait for Michelle Dockery as an alcoholic, chain-smoking mother down on her luck. It’s likely to land her some nominations I expect. David Dawson also plays an enigmatic nightclub manager and crime boss, Robbie Carmen.

This Town doesn’t always move with a driving pace, but the mix of art and anarchy leaves you feeling like you are watching a rough diamond being formed on screen.

This Town double episode 9:25pm Wednesday on SBS.

I couldn’t help but feel watching new UK thriller After the Flood that it might be traumatic for Australian flood victims.

The recreation of flood scenes, right at the top of the series, is so impressively constructed that it could be triggering for those who have experienced natural disaster.

The six part series certainly opens with a bang, smack bang in the middle of a fatal flood in Waterside, Yorkshire.

For local PC Jo Marshall (Sophie Rundle), part of the force rushing to help the locals, it is life and death when a baby is swept away in a raging torrent. When a stranger dives in to rescue the infant he is swept away, leaving a huge impact on Jo who, as it turns out, is an expectant mother herself.

The scenes of flooded streets and aerial shots are dramatic and convincing. In this town everyone pitches in, with Sophie’s mother Molly (Lorraine Ashbourne) helping out in the crowded shelter, and her husband Pat (Matt Stokoe) also doing his bit as part of the force.

When Jo stumbles onto a dead body in the lift of a car park the story takes a darker turn. Results will reveal he died before the flood took place. For Jo, who is about to join the local detective team, it is a mystery she is determined to solve.

With the flood having subsided 30 minutes into episode one, the series pivots into a good ol’ TV mystery, and subsequently loses what made it so unique in the first place.

Jo’s efforts to solve the crime are quashed by her superiors who are keen to lead the investigation internally. But ambitious Jo knows better and undertakes the first of renegade behaviour for the greater good. I guess that makes her actions acceptable, right?

Not even husband Pat, who seems to be frequntly at odds with his expectant wife, is across her secret steps to solve what she fears could be murder. Somehow mum Molly is let in on her surreptitious actions, giving her a necessary sounding board for a TV hero.

Also featuring in the townsfolk are Philip Glenister and Jonas Armstrong in supporting, but pivotal roles.

I struggled with some of Jo’s actions as clear-thinking and logic, but it rarely dragged as entertainment. Sophie Rundle drives the plot forward if to some unlikely places.

There also appears to be themes surrounding bureaucracy and municipal red tape, and hints of climate change directly impacting on the fate of some of our most vulnerable.

But essentially this is crime series, and the Brits have plenty of runs on the boards in this genre, to suggest an entertaining ride with just enough twists along the way.

After the Flood is now screening on BritBox.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably be watching some of The Tattooist of Auschwitz through your fingers.

It’s clear from the premise and the trailer this six part series will be confronting. With Auschwitz in the title how could it be anything other?

But it will seek to show how love grows in the most darkest of corners.

Based on a true-life book of the same name, it is set in Melbourne 2003 and in the Nazi Auschwitz camp of 1942.

Remembering his story is the elderly Lali (Harvey Keitel), sharing his dark secrets with an aspiring writer Heather (Melanie Lynskey).

“This is a love story,” he reveals before later adding, “I don’t have much time.”

Through flashback he recalls being taken as a Slovakian Jew to the concentration camps where all humanity was left at the gates. Thousands of prisoners are huddled in cold, stark barracks with little clean water and light. Such conditions leave prisoners riddled with disease, but the slightest sign of imperfection is reason enough to send them to the gas chambers -or even shoot them at point blank range.

In order to survive Young Lali (Jonah Hauer-King) agrees to duties tattooing his peers upon arrival, which leads to SS Guard Baretzki (Jonas Nay) giving him his own room, as well as establishing a closer -if dangerously erratic- relationship.

“You’re working for the SS now. You will need protection, trust me.” -Baritzky.

“I was 26 and I wanted to live.. I did a deal with the devil” – Lali

When Lali first encounters new prisoner Gita (Anna Próchniak) there is an instant attraction -but how do you fall in love when you’re forbidden from speaking? She is coy in sharing her story, and at first Lali only knows her as Prisoner 4562.

But with great risk there are stolen moments and, more importantly, a reason to live. Set literally against the backdrop of burning chimney smoke, this story is one of endurance and incredible hope.

For senior Lali, recounting his story to Heather, there remain demons and ghosts. Remembering the past comes with great pain and tears, but she is a patient and empathetic listener -even if Lali learns she is Church of England.

But the two form a trusted bond for Lali to share his story.

As a viewer there is great curiosity as to how Lali survived a hell on earth -indeed he is now living comfortably in a well-appointed apartment with some fairly trendy art. How did he come to be in Melbourne all these years later?

Harvey Keitel is the anchor for this story by writer Jacquelin Perske, bringing dignity and presence to the senior Lali. His scenes with Melanie Lynskey (whilst clearly not filmed in Melbourne) draw upon stillness and resolve, interjected with guilt and Holocaust ghosts.

As the Young Lali (Jonah Hauer-King) does all the heavy lifting, with a face deeply expressive to the pain and passion of his circumstance. Anna Próchniak is tender and playful as Gita while Jonas Nay delivers in a most-unforgiving role.

I’m not entirely clear on how Lali is recounting scenes to Heather where he was not present, and an obvious height difference between Hauer-King and Keitel requires suspension of disbelief.

The scenic recreations, shot in Slovakia, are immensely reproduced, and the series is scored by Hans Zimmer (with a song by Barbra Streisand). Director Tali Shalom-Ezer also finds a simple, yet indelible way to put faces to those who suffered at the hands of the Nazis, albeit dwarfed by the scale.

The series is necessarily confronting, harrowing and violent. Many will find it too traumatic to watch.

Yet while many WWII screen stories have ventured into the darkest torment of Nazi camps, I can only think of Martin Sherman’s 1979 play Bent that managed to find love beyond their walls.

To have one with an Australian link is a rare thing.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz screens Thursday May 2 on Stan.

Since Love on the Spectrum, and a handful of titles before it, television has embraced documentaries which centre around people on the autism spectrum.

Dramas too, such as The Good Doctor, Atypical, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay, Heartbreak High help create awareness of the nuances of neurodiversity.

Doco film This is Going to Be Big, which screens as a two part special on ABC, is the latest to focus on teenagers living with disabilities and neurodiversity as they prepare for their high school musical.

The students at Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Special School (there are two campuses) bravely allow cameras, under director Thomas Charles Hyland, into their world ahead of the project dirven by drama teacher, Lori.

It’s the first production in 3 years, set to involve 40 students, in an original presentation around the music career of the legendary John Farnham.

For this task, it’s decided to share the lead role across 4 students in a ’60s / ’70s / ’80s and ’90s Farnsy, encountered by three ‘time travelling students.’ With You’re the Voice as the big showstopper, everybody wants to be the ’80s Farnham.

Hyland profiles several charismatic students including 16 year old Chelsea, who became disabled following a road accident at the age of just 5.

“My dreams are being a motivational speaker or a business woman,” Chelsea reveals.

There’s Josh, a gentle giant of a kid who wants to become a pilot one day.

“I want to challenge myself to do something new… get my confidence up,” he says of the upcoming musical.

Halle would love the ’80s Farnham role as You’re the Voice was her late aunt’s favourite song, and she feels it might bring closure to the way their relationship sadly ended.

“Do I have to sing or do the script?” she asks at auditions. “Both” she is told.

“I’m pretty sure I’ll nail this one,” she will declare.

Elyse, who spends a lot of her time looking for bugs in the school yard, has generalised anxiety disorder, but being able to go to high school has been a blessing after years of isolation at primary school.

And self-taught DJ Andre, just wants to me able to say “get on the beers” when he is cast.

Drama teacher Lori, joined by music teacher Darcy and facilities manager Tony, are supportive of the audition process, which can be nerve-wracking, excitable and painfully shy experiences. But this is show business, it still requires students to step up and to learn that not everybody will get the role they are hoping for.

Rehearsals are another challenge yet again. “It’s like herding wild cats that don’t want to be anywhere near you,” Lori reveals.

Not every student copes well with the pressure of lines, attention and time required, but teammwork is constantly reiterated in a supportive atmosphere, whilst allowing students to shine and monitoring anxiety levels.

Cameras also follow our featured students home where parents share insights into home life and progress levels that the musical is abetting. For some, it is a godsend, with breakthroughs in confidence levels that might otherwise take years of struggles. Arts as an expression of self breaks down barriers that is a revelation for some…

The two part doco is a little on the long side at 2×60 mins (the doco feature is 20 mins shorter) and I was eager to get to the big night. I’m glad I stayed the distance because it’s a tearjerker performance, full of emotional achievements. And if possible, it will only leave you loving John Farnham even more…

This is a heartwarming, amusing, enlightening doco series (a shame Goggleboxers won’t get to review yet) full of expressive and optimistic characters. It reminds us we are all winners when we strive to be our best.

As Lori reminds us, “People don’t think they can be the centre of the story and they absolutely can.”

This Is Going to be Big screens 8pm Tuesday April 30 & May 7 on ABC.

There’s a scene at the end of episode one of After the Party that will provoke you and leave you questioning what you have seen.

It’s the intent of the producers to do just that, because the incident splinters the family of Penny (Robyn Malcolm), Phil (Peter Mullan) and daughter Grace (Tara Canton). It reverberates for years to come in the New Zealand community where Penny lives and works, yet for her there is no turning back.

The 6 part series, co-created by Malcolm and writer Dianne Taylor takes place over two time periods, being present and past.

When we meet Penny she is a high school teacher at a boy’s school who takes none of the backchat and miscreant behaviour endemic amongst adolescent teens. She cycles to work through the streets of Wellington and enjoys her free time as a loving grandmother to Grace’s three year old son. But there is history….

Ex-husband Phil (Mullan) lands back in the city to spend time with Grace and his grandson, which is a rude shock to Penny. While Grace wants her mother to move on, there are also those in the school community who do not support Penny’s stance, with one colleague even accusing her of spreading “false accusations (which) completely destroying innocent mens’ lives.” Ouch.

Penny cops none of that shit. She is staunch in her hatred of her ex-husband to the point of being incapable of being in the same room.

Through flashback scenes we will soon learn why, with an incident at an unassuming house party completely imploding the family dynamic some years earlier.

Meanwhile Penny is also part of a grass-roots environmental campaign against a local fishing operator, and directs her personal fury into graffiti, an act admire by colleague Simon (Dean O’Gorman). There is also time spent caring for her ageing mother (Catherine Wilkin).

All these character threads weave together to create a rich, dimensional character in Penny, who is stubborn, hot-tempered, loyal and flawed. She teaches with tough love but is also a born troublemaker. You’re cheering for her while worried sick about the ramifications of her actions.

In Robyn Malcolm Penny is a firebrand central character who performs with searing conviction, superbly matched by Peter Mullan who goes toe-to-toe in rivetting feuds. You could watch it for this alone and be satisfied.

It’s no wonder she won a top acting award from Series Mania in France for this role. Penny is up there with Sarah Lancashire’s Catherine Cawood (Happy Valley) and Suranne Jones’ Gemma Foster (Doctor Foster) as tour de force performances of recent years.

After the Party also reminds me of The Slap in part -an inciting incident which divides social opinion and the subsequent fallout as drama. Yet in this series, it’s only part of the context divulged to the viewer, raising the question… do you believe Penny or not?

As the series unravels, it’s an uncomfortable but utterly compelling ride.

After the Party 8:30pm Sunday on ABC (all episodes on iview).

Buckle up for the energetic, driving style of SBS’s latest drama, Swift Street.

The 8×30 minute drama is a force from emerging writer and director Tig Terera, a Zimbabwe-born, Aussie-raised creative determined to switch up our perceptions of how local drama can look on screen and about how black and brown characters can be portrayed.

Set in the northern Melbourne suburbs of Preston, Brunswick and Coburg, this is indeed a melting pot of communities, focussed here on Afrikan characters. There are flawed characters, bad eggs and those oppressed by the system.

Elsie (Tanzyn Crawford) lives in a low-rent home with her father, Robert (Cliff Curtis) whose wife left five years earlier. Elsie works at local whitegoods store when she isn’t selling fake IDs to school students for quick cash, and is saving her dollars for a bike stall.

But Robert is hardly the model father. Indecisive, lacking motivation and direction, he is now a shadow of his once-nefarious street hustler self. He has also accrued a $26,000 debt which local crime boss The Mechanic (Eliza Matengu) is now calling in.

It’s the push-pull tug of this uneasy father-daughter relationship that underpins where Swift Street will go. While Elsie calls her father by his first name, and yells at him like a bad housemate, it’s clear these two have stuck together through a lot. That’s about to be tested when Elsie learns of her father’s debts.

Opting to help him, Elsie will aid Robert as they embark on illegal acts (most of which would lead to jail time) to avoid Robert losing a body part or his life.

Meanwhile Tom (Keiynan Lonsdale), who trains at a boxing ring run by The Mechanic, has a new job working as security at Elsie’s workplace. He has a teenage brother (Daniel Wuol) being cared for by guardians but demanding him to help send financial support. Tom’s quickest way to get cash will be to squeeze it out of Robert.

The series also profiles Elsie’s current squeeze Tatenda (Alfred Chuol) and accomplice Aisha (Bernie van Tiel), with whom she sells fake IDs. Their inclusion helps illustrate that Elsie is also fluid in terms of attraction and identity -another of the welcome diverse touches from the series.

Dramatising a range of illegal acts will boldly dabble with audience sympathies. Is it possible to like characters that are so openly breaking the law, or do the means justify the end? Elsie is coming to the rescue of her hapless father, albeit begrudgingly, with tunnel-vision on succeeding no matter the cost.

There’s also much made of how hopeless Robert is as a father, yet I can’t quite equate that he was the one who stood by Elsie when their mother fled. So should she treat him with such contempt? I’m hoping those concerns become clearer as the series progresses…

Tig Terera directs with promise, allowing us insight into a community rarely brought to television. This Afro-Punk world pulsates in the back streets with raw energy and spirit.

Tanzyn Crawford and Cliff Curtis make for a dynamic, if unconventional, father-daughter duo, while Keiynan Lonsdale lights up the screen. The series is also notable for a number of first-time or emerging actors, creatively cast by Anousha Zarkesh.

Terera plays with whether the slippery slope of Elsie and Robert’s mission can bring them closer together or drive them further apart. Through a diverse lens, this is what SBS Drama is for.

Yet for me it is the promise of things to come. Early work of this strength is a sign of what’s to come, both from Terera and those he introduces to us. On that front Swift Street is likely to reverberate for some time.

Swift Street double episodes 8:30pm Wednesday on SBS.

Be warned.

If you partake of Baby Reindeer you will be sucked into its vortex.

The new UK drama from Netflix launched with little fanfare (and next to no publicity) but has quickly garnered word of mouth for its compelling story and riveting performances.

The fact that it is based on a true story makes it all the more gripping.

The 7 part series is written by Richard Gadd who stars as Donny Dunn, a fictionalised version of himself.

Donny is an aspiring stand-up comedian who was the victim of an obsessed stalker …and more. That he relives his own trauma for a television drama is mind-blowing, but one which he has since remarked on as a kind of therapy.

In the series, Donny works as a local barman, longing for a successful showbiz career in comedy. Bizzarely, he rents a room in the home of his ex-girlfriend’s mother while chasing his dreams. The ex-girlfriend, Keeley, is played by Aussie-UK actor Shalom Brune-Franklin, who is content with the odd arrangements having already moved out…

Into Donny’s life walks Martha (Jessica Gunning), a clingy, needing loner, who claims to be a lawyer but can’t afford a drink at his bar. Taking sympathy on her, he offers a cup of tea on the house, which is enough to ignite her interest in him. Soon she flatters him with compliments, returns daily, nicknaming him Baby Reindeer and openly flirting with him in his workplace.

To say that her interest escalates is an understatement…. Donny is soon subjected to endless (misspelled) emails waxing lyrical about a fantasy romance, to which our nice guy hero seems incapable of shutting down. Worse is to come when Martha turns jealous, hysterical, aggressive, unhinged by the slightest hint of rejection or another woman.

Donny tumbles down a rabbit hole of fears and paranoia, lacking the skills to take control of the situation, even when it jeopardises his local stand-up opportunities and a new relationship with Teri (Nava Mau).

There are also flashbacks which help fill in some of the gaps to help explain why Donny is so helpless at ending the ‘relationship’ with Martha -indeed Gadd’s script is candid in asking whether he encouraged it, and if so, why?

Gadd is mesmerising in the role of Donny, largely for the fact that you know he has lived through this experience and found a creative way to reconcile his torment. It affords us an absorbing insight into the world of the victim. You always want Donny to free himself from Martha’s clutches yet he keeps making mistake after mistake…

Jessica Gunning is magnetic as Martha, a manic force to contend with, whose obsession and capacity are freaking scary, flipping from doey-eyed sweet-nothings to violent threats in an instant. Her performance is simply the best of its kind since Glenn Close’s bunny-boiler in 1987’s Fatal Attraction.

Baby Reindeer doesn’t just ride shotgun through the plot of a demented stalker case, it delves much deeper into the psychology of it all and asks whether both sides played a part in its behaviour. Clearly that can’t be applied to every instance of stalker and victim, but in the case of Donny / Gadd it is a deeply personal and cathartic experience he is brave to share.

Baby Reindeer is now screening on Netflix.

With shows such as The Last of Us, television has really lifted the bar in adaptating video games for the small screen.

While Halo may not have lived up to its legacy, others such as The Witcher and Castlevania have forged audiences.

The latest is Prime Video’s Fallout, a post-apocalyptic role-playing video game created by Tim Cain and Todd Howard.

The big budget world realised by director Jonathan Nolan (Westworld, Person of Interest) is fabulously recreated on screen, combining futurism with 1950s retro duck-and-cover touchstones.

The opening sequence, which hooks around failed actor Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins) turned kids party entertainer, is resplendent in its 1950s costumes, retro TV sets and wireless radios -before annhilation literally explodes around him. This is The Day After times ten…

From there we fast-forward 219 years later to Vault 33, a community of optimists, who plan on becoming the future for America when it is safe to venture outside. In this inner sanctum, Overseer Hank (Kyle MacLachlan) is about to give away daughter Lucy (Ella Purnell) to a young man from an adjoining Vault.

But not everything goes as planned and Hank is kidnapped by a group known as raiders led by Lee Moldaver (Sarita Choudhury). This misfortune ignites the mission for Lucy to boldly leave the safety of the Vault and venture outside to the remains of post-apocalyptic world.

Meanwhile a young soldier Maximus (Aaron Moten), who lives outside, is recruited to hunt down a member of a scientific Enclave who has the power toradically change the power dynamic in this world. Maximus is joined by a giant gladiator in a fragile squire / knight relationship not dissimilar to Brienne of Tarth / Jaime Lannister.

When Cooper Howard resurfaces as a morally ambiguous bounty hunter known as The Ghoul, we pivot into a good ol’ western. By now the viewer has been bombarded with an array of characters and concepts yet to fit together as jigsaw pieces.

By episode two, when Michael Emmerson features as Dr. Siggi Wilzig who secretly develops a mysterious blue substance, more questions emerge. But there is also more focus and collision of storylines to help the viewer begin to distil its various layers.

Thankfully the action never drags, kept bubbling along with nostalgic tunes including Orange Coloured Sky, Some Enchanted Evening and Don’t Fence Me In, which all add to the black comedy that ripples throughout.

Special mention must go to the production design in realising a retro-future steampunk world, with echoes of Mad Max and Planet of the Apes.

Lead cast Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten and Walton Goggins are all solid in their performances, while the kooky nature of this world lends itself to character performances such as Dale Dickey as trader Ma June -even Leslie Uggams makes a cameo.

There is comment that the Vault Dwellers are privileged rich folk, who were able to exist in their sheltered safety while the poorer classes were left to exist outside, fending for themselves in a dangerous crumbling society. Through this Lucy will grow up fast, in pursuit of her absent father. Meanwhile a smiling motif of Fallout boy, belies the horrors and dangers of the real world.

There’s a lot to take in, but Fallout delivers in its wild characters, gory battles and sci-fi adventure to make for a very arresting pitch.

Fallout is now screening on Prime Video.

The 2019 BBC Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew was the trigger for the prince losing his position in Royal duties.

Such was the damage of this trainwreck interview that he lost whatever opportunity he had to salvage his reputation.

“An hour of television can change everything. It’s like magic,” says seasoned news anchor Emily Maitlis (Gillian Anderson).

Yet for Newsnight editor Sam McAlister (Billie Piper) there was a risk of the opposite happening. What if the interview was a dud? Or worse, what if it made BBC the headline instead of the prince?

Scoop, a new Netflix film with a knockout cast, dramatises how BBC secured the interview and pulled off the “scoop of the decade.”

Billie Piper is the central character as the ambitious editor seeking to make her mark in the pressure of the newsroom.

The ricochet of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and allegations of Andrew’s sexual assault of a minor will prove to be her big shot. The revelations land in her lap courtesy of paparazzo Jae Donnelly (Connor Swindells) but convincing the Prince’s trusted aide Amanda Thirsk (Keeley Hawes) to go on the record is like Ahab chasing a white whale.

Ready for the job at hand she has journalist Emily Maitlis (Anderson), whose power at the BBC is such that her pet whippet follows her everywhere without anybody questioning it.

Prince Andrew (Rufus Sewell) is deeply suspicious of the press, but the headlines are so bad that it’s enough to tear him away from his teddy bears and daughter Beatrice (Charity Wakefield) to agree to the sit down interview.

“It’s like a western,” remarks Emily upon learning of the Palace’s instructions for two chairs in a mostly-bare room for the big interview.

Gillian Anderson, as the ice blue Emily, really gets all the best lines in the script by Samantha McAlister, Peter Moffat and Geoff Bussetil.

Billie Piper delivers the emotion as McAlister… nervous, determined, passionate… with Amanda Redman as her mother.

Rufus Sewell is pitch perfect as Prince Andrew, convinced of his innocence, yet rudderless to control a growing scandal about his behaviour. Truth is stranger than fiction with his insipid responses and answers devoid of any responsibility, more compelling than anything a scriptwriter could concoct.

The interview between Emily and the Prince is the most riveting chapter of this movie, directed by Philip Martin.

Yet for all the marvellous recreation, particularly at Buckingham Palace, I found the film slim in telling me anything particularly new. We all know the outcome. Is securing the interview enough of a story for a satisfying drama? Thank goodness the top notch cast brig their all to the script.

Scoop is now screening on Netflix.

I’ve attended a number of Kid’s Choice Awards shows in Australia.

I’ve been on set and interviewed local Nickelodeon hosts and spoken to US talent.

The Nickelodeon brand in the 2000s has been a mega-force in Children’s TV. And while there is no suggestion of improprietry in Australia, that’s not the case in the US where a high-profile documentary Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kid’s TV has made allegations about the empire run by producer / showrunner Dan Schneider.

Schneider has been the golden child of Nickelodeon creating (or co-creating) and producing a string of hits including All That, The Amanda Show, Kenan & Kel, What I Like About You, Drake & Josh. iCarly, Zoey 101, Victorious, Sam & Cat, Henry Danger, Game Shakers. They spawned talent including Amanda Bynes, Ariana Grande, Jennette McCurdy, Miranda Cosgrove, Victoria Justice, Jamie Lynn Spears and more.

He was so revered, Jennette McCurdy, told me in 2012 she was proceeding to star in a new series without even having read a script:

“I agreed as soon as I found out Dan Schneider was part of it. I definitely would not have said yes so exuberantly if it had been a different showrunner. But knowing Dan is the showrunner literally put me at ease because I’ve never met anybody as hard-working or as creative as him. Knowing he’s on my side is the best thing in the world.”

That show turned out to be Sam & Cat in which she featured alongside Ariana Grande.

Schneider’s early success, as the Investigation Discovery doco by directors Mary Robertson & Emma Schwartz reminds us, was in the late 1990s. The workplace at sketch show All That (pictured,1994 – 2005) and The Amanda Show (1999-2002) is described, variously, as “a really fun set,” full of pranks and jokes amongst staff.

Looking through a 2024 lens, some of the Schneider-produced vision which aired does not age well. Squirting water and liquid goo onto scantily-clad pre-pubesecent teens, interviews in jacuzzis, pickles squeezed through holes in doors, and the supposed comedy of Fear Factor-style stunts to teens (one including a live scorpion) -what were they thinking?

So was it all good clean fun and have we lost our sense of humour? To the child actors, writers, writers and parents who speak on camera, clearly not.

“Working for Dan was like being in an abusive relationship,” says writer Christy Strratton, who agreed to share salary with another female writer just to get her start in the biz. She is less forthcoming about being asked to simulate a sexual act in the writers’ room while male staff laughed.

Another writer, Jenny Kilgen, claims she was asked to work for 11 weeks for ‘free’ leading to a gender discrimination lawsuit.

Former child actors talk of long hours, being expected to please the powerful producer -complaints not exclusive to this kid’s TV world of the past.

But the conviction of two production assistants on child sexual abuse charges is far more significant in the context of wider mistreatment.` One high profile Nickeloden star steps forward in the third episode in a candid interview.

Other actors describe a range of uncomfortable situations, scenes, costumes while concerned parents recall being discouraged from jeopardising their child’s career trajectory.

“It was a house of horrors,” recalls one mother.

Schneider would frequently ask for neck massages which, he has since conceded, was not appropriate. He has also denied having control over salaries, while a spokesperson says of the featured retro scenes, “Unfortunately, some adults project their adult minds onto kids’ shows, drawing false conclusions about them.”

Nickelodeon has subsequently stated they investigate “all formal complaints as part of our commitment to fostering a safe and professional workplace environment free of harassment or other kinds of inappropriate conduct.”

While the lessons of the American experience are profound, it is also impossible to ignore dark chapters in Australian television history.

First four episodes 9:30pm Friday, 5 April, Saturday April 6 on ID and Binge
Fifth episode 9:30pm Friday Friday 19 April on ID and Binge

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Support Act Wellbeing Helpline: 1800 959 500.

Given recent world events its a bold move, I suppose, to produce a series set in Russia.

But 8 part series, A Gentleman in Moscow, is based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Amor Towles and centres around Count Alexander Rostov, a nobleman who, in the aftermath of 1917 Russian Revolution finds his world turned upside down.

No longer the elite, or ruling class, Alexander (Ewan McGregor) faces a Soviet tribunal for a divisive poem attributed to him. Spared from execution, he is banished to a tiny attic room at
the Hotel Metropol, for the rest of his natural life.

“Life for you and your kind is over in Moscow. You must never leave this hotel. If you do, I’ll be waiting,” warns one Russian overseer.

Thankfully the Metropol is quite the opulent building, resembling something like the Grand Budapest Hotel. It has fancy restaurants, bars, its own barber and then some. But denied the outdoors and a piece of Russian sky is harsh punishment for Alexander, who loves his mother land.

Despite being under constant house arrest, Alexander remains optimistic and welcoming, maintaining loose threads of a charmed life with top dinners, even if the staff begrudge a fallen Count in the new society of the people.

He strikes up an unexpected friendship with nine year old hotel guest Nina (Alexa Goodall) and toys with the idea of escaping with former prince-turned-violinist Niolai (Paul Ready). Another acquaintance becomes actress Anna (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).

There are also many flashbacks to a life of privilege, devotion to his sister Helene, and history with the man she loved, Mishka (Fehinti Balogun). The Russian authorities regularly trash his room looking for information to which he simply requests they clean the dust while they upturn his belongings.

It’s hard not to think of the plight of Julian Assange who was given asylum at an Ecudaorian embassy for 7 years, but the author reportedly drew inspiration from permanent residents of Swiss hotels, giving the concept a lens via the Russian Revolution.

Ewan McGregor upholds the role of the Count with plenty of panache, gentle, agreeable, courteous to a tee.

The pacing of the episodes is somewhat uneven, at times turning a necessarily claustrophobic series into a slow-burn. The accents are almost universally clipped British, turning mainly to Russian for folk songs and supporting Boris-types.

But the bonus is the costumes and interiors (filmed in the UK) which the eye can drink in while engaging with Alexander’s plight.

This gentleman is perfectly agreeable, if not especially demanding of the viewer, and is in good hands with its leading man.

A Gentleman in Moscow is screening weekly on Paramount+.

Nine has tried for some time to land on a hit food reality series.

The Chopping Block, The Hot Plate, Family Food Fight, SnackMasters and their kind have come and gone. For the latest they bagged arguably the biggest name in TV food shows: Gordon Ramsay.

Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars, a format from his own Studio Ramsay, first screened as two seasons of Gordon Ramsay’s Future Food Stars in the UK before a retitled season in the US on FOX.

Australia is the first market to see Ramsay compete for bragging rights alongside a rival mentor, in Janine Allis (Shark Tank, The Apprentice Australia), although a second season in the US will take the same competitive approach… you know how it goes, my team is better than yours, nyah!

Allis is an ideal counterpart to Ramsay, given she is a highly successful Boost Juice entrepreneur, but also because Food Stars is totally Shark Tank meets The Apprentice.

Episode one was a pleasant surprise as food and drink innovators fronted up to the two bosses, pitching their ideas.

Of the 30 business ideas pitched in a blinged air hangar at Essendon Fields, just 7 will be selected for Team Gordon and Team Janine. Each has $250,000 to invest in a winning business idea, along with 12 months of mentoring. But first contestants have to survive the rigors of competition reality TV.

As ideas are pitched it’s a smorgasboard of food and drink concepts, from the brilliantly creative to the truly bizarre.

There are edible coffee cups, croc burgers, First Nations-inspired tea, hangover beverages, redesigned airline trolleys, and even a best-selling hot sauce called Shit the Bed.

If both Ramsay and Allis fight for an entrepreneur on their team then the power moves Voice-like back to the contestant to choose whom they prefer.

The creativity and spontaneity of this first episode was engaging and lively, even if Gordon Ramsay ate a vegan donut using a knife and fork. There was MasterChef-like camaraderie from everybody in the foodie holding pen …and an unexpected phone call to Madonna. Whoa!

Episode two however morphed into a food-version of The Apprentice as teams were charged with reconstructing a Chiko Roll at a football match. This involved creating a forward-thinking 2024 poster for a Chiko Roll marketing exec and feeding hordes of sports fans with their own take on a classic, if tired, product.

As these strangers clashed over benches it was clearly a case of too many cooks in the kitchen. I suppose that makes for conflict TV, but I really felt I’d seen it all before, and aside from teammwork challenges it bore little relevance to the imaginative concepts I’d heard an episode earlier. At least make the poster challenge about their own product?

By episode’s end a losing team was hauled into a boardroom to explain themselves where someone was sent packing -because food reality shows don’t yet know how to exist without eliminating someone before the credits roll. And did I mention the obligatory running and yelling, which are also tropes of this genre?

The other question for the show surrounds our expectations of brand Ramsay.

Is it a real Ramsay show if he doesn’t berate and swear at someone, cutting them down to size? Yes there is some censored swearing, but well short of his personal best, and some huffing and puffing in his stock frustration. Maybe it will increase as the season progresses, but I sorta feel Nine wants a show with family appeal, and it wants Gordon Ramsay. Can you have both?

Overall this lands as highly derivative despite some genuinely enticing product ideas. Would it work better as a food pitch contest rather than team challenges which look like every other TV team challenge? Yes, but then where would Ramsay be losing his temper?

Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars airs 7:30pm Tuesday & Wednesday on Nine.

Detective Andrea Whitford (Leah Purcell) arrives in Broken Ridge in the High Country as an outsider.

In town to succeed retiring local cop Sam Dyson (Ian McElhinney), she will face both policing and personal challenges in the new 8 part mystery from the Foxtel Group.

‘Andie’ will have first-hand experience of a spate of missing persons when she encounters an abandoned car on a mountain road. But this is unforgiving terrain, teetering on dramatic drops and brimming in thick mountain-ash vegetation.

Andie’s colleagues (Nicholas Bell, Luke McKenzie & Matt Domingo) will assist the new town cop with varying degrees of support and scepticism as she begins to piece together what’s happened to a missing local doctor (Frances Greenslade).

Local indigenous man Owen Cooper (Aaron Pedersen) knows the land well, but not much attention is given to old ways over new, at least just yet.

There is also a town outcast Damien (Henry Nixon), who is linked to unsolved previous cases, who seeks to win over Andie with his local ‘visions’ but is he telling the truth.

Meanwhile Andie’s partner Helen (Sarah Wiseman) has a teen daughter (Pez Warner) not happy about the move from city to bush, and struggles to fit into a hostile group of local teens. Helen will also take up work at a local artists retreat run by a glam Linda Cropper.

Before Andie can solve her first local crime, another will rise to the surface….

High Country, shot in and around Jamieson in the Victorian Alps, is certainly full of dramatic scenery. There are vistas and moody landscpaes that look captivating on a big screen TV, artfully contrasted by autumnal reds and yellows from the town’s trees -you can even spot falling leaves as actors are mid scene.

It’s fair to say the themes of High Country, being missing persons and associated crimes, have been explored in a range of other series, including Scandi-noir drama. Here it gets the First Nations treatment thanks to the fine talents of Leah Purcell.

It is up to Trisha Morton-Thomas, as a local elder, to question her as to her roots.

“If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” she says.

This search for belonging will add a rich layer to the series, which also features Geoff Morerll, Nathaniel Dean, Leah Vandenberg, and Travis McMahon.

Purcell is outstanding as a grounded, diligent cop, using her smarts and following the law, whilst being challenged spiritually. It’s also great to see Sara Wiseman as her partner (Sigourney Weaver was Purcell’s last in Lost Flowers of Alice Hart) in a domestic relationship treated as part of the fabric.

High Country was the final commission by Foxtel’s Brian Walsh and it makes a fine epilogue to a rich drama contribution.

High Country double episode 8:30pm Tuesday March 19 on Showcase / Binge.

Meet the Delaneys.

They’re an affluent, dysfunctional upper middle-class family from Miami who have grown up in the competitive world of tennis.

Mom Joy (Annette Bening) and dad Stan (Sam Neill) have sold off their successful coaching clinic for retirement, while their adult children stumble on in their assorted careers and love lives.

Their world is in upheaval with the alarming disappearance of Joy, which Stan explains as a marital spat, insisting she will return when she calms down.

But the kids are not so sure.

Venture capitalist and hotshot son Troy (Jake Lacy), brother and marina staffer Logan (Conor Merrigan Turner), life coach sister Amy (Alison Brie) and therapist and gay sister Brooke (Essie Randles) are trying to fend off their worst fears: that dad may have had something to do with mom’s absence.

Conspiracy theories ramp up when Stan is inexplicably sporting a large cut to his face, prompting the kids to finally lodge a missing persons case.

But the plot comes with a sour backstory via a flashback where a mysterious woman, Savannah (Georgia Flood), lands on Joy and Stan’s doorstep having fled a domestic violence incident whilst travelling in a car with her partner.

A benevolent Joy eventually invites her to stay over, which as you might guess, leads to Savannah embedding herself as a long-term visitor and surrogate third daughter….

Make no mistake, the narrative of Apples Never Fall swings like a busy pendulum between the present and the past requiring some attention from the viewer as to when any given scene is taking place (rule of thumb: if Annette Bening is present, it’s probably a flashback).

Two detectives (Jeanine Serralles & Dylan Thuraisingham) are summoned to the scene and there are a range of peripheral characters in the lives of the children including Amy’s landlord Simon (Nate Mann), Brooke’s girlfriend Gina (Paula Andrea Placid), Logan’s partner Indira (Pooja Shah) and assorted neighbours largely to escalate the red herrings.

Unlike her previous work, Big Little Lies, Liane Moriarty’s new mystery tale is littered with uninteresting characters who hit a lot of one-note tennis balls over the net.

Poor Sam Neill (who briefly acknowledges having moved to Florida from Queensland) is required to play the surly husband in order to point the finger of suspicion his way. The kids, who all take their mother’s absence far too belatedly, are an unlikeable bunch, but at least Aussie Conor Merrigan Turner holds his own alongside a top-heavy import cast.

So too does Georgia Flood, all grown up and very unrecognisable from her Tangle and House Husbands days. It’s as if she is channeling her best Laura Leighton Melrose Place work, charming her way into people’s lives without revealing her true character.

That sort of gives you a sense of where the series directed by Chris Sweeney lands: good trash telly. It falls far short of family crimes such as Bloodline or The Staircase in which the viewer is truly torn (and invested) as to the fate of the family matriarch. Instead we get clunky dialogue, logic potholes, and our sympathy failing to land on anyone of substance.

I’m also mindful that this is screening locally while a genuine and traumatic case of a missing mother is very real. As TV news reports a family and regional community is ripped apart, TV drama offers a melodramatic, sometimes histrionic, fictional alternative.

Filmed in Queensland, admirably doubling for Florida, Apples Never Fall promises much but struggles to reach its potential.

Apples Never Fall is now screening on Showcase / Binge.

When Andy (Ben Feldman) travels to remote Western Australia in search of his father he gets a little more than he bargained for.

For starters he encounters some of finest comedy character actors Stan has cast as small-town crackpots.

The local police cop (Katrina Milosevic) is determined to flirt and coerce with this out-of-towner in the series’ opening sequence on a red dirt road.

But it is the empty, rundown town of Bidgeegud where Andy will find himself in the middle of a Twilight-Zone-meets-Wake-in-Fright comedy. Its fraying community is a cornucopia of eccentrics and dropkicks.

“Everyone here is from somewhere else.. they all come here to runaway” – Cedric (William Zappa).

Andy is searching for his estranged Australian father Hugo (Darren Gilshenan) who has seemingly vanished whilst conducting local UFO tourist tours. As he tries to piece together a jigsaw mystery he encounters Bidgeegud’s very Aussie oddballs.

They include Genevieve Lemon as a local garage and accommodation manager, Emily Taheny as a bakery / Asian fusion restaurateur, Stephen Curry as a local hoping to claim his own principality, Rick Donald as a dateless bogan, plus Steve Le Marquand, Fiona Choi, Chai Hansen, Tony Briggs, Pippa Grandison and more.

But there are also mysterious phone calls back to the USA which hint at at Andy’s own secretive backstory…

Aiding his search on the ground is local traveller Cassie (Perry Mooney) enroute to moving back home with her mother. Instead she connects with Andy in a push-pull comedy of errors.

With Ben Feldman (Mad Men, Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, Superstore, Silicon Valley) in the lead, it’s hard not to see this as being pitched at American viewers, where everything is out to kill foreigners. Andy is the sympathetic fish-out-of-water in the middle of kooky redneck Australia, something explored as recently as the tense thriller The Royal Hotel.

Writer Phil Lloyd charts a much lighter mystery than that, and there are touches of Upright, Welcome to Woop Woop and The Tourist therein.

There are some quirky moments to be had such as Emily Taheny baking pies to the sounds of Leo Sayer, Stephen Curry’s smart-arse ribbing of an American accent, and anything involving Genevieve Lemon and Katrina Milosevic.

Feldman balances the sincere straight man deftly against the wilder locals, yet if the chemistry with Perry Mooney feels at time forced, at least it propels the plot forward to its next encounter with the talented supporting cast. And at just thirty minutes per episode, Population 11 is never too demanding, just as well given there are 12 episodes in total.

Stan this week unveiled a raft of local drama commissions upstaging the competition, and most Free to Air networks. Population 11 is another notch in its ample drama belt.

Population 11 screens Thursday March 14 on Stan.

During the pandemic Australia experienced a mini-boom in US productions filming in Australia.

It’s a trend that has continued with titles such as Apples Never Fall, Ice Road 2 and more. The latest to premiere is Ricky Stanicky a comedy feature from “gross-out” director Peter Farrelly (There’s Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber).

It begins grossly enough when three kids play an “exploding excrement” prank on some neighbours which, when it backfires leads to them leaving a telltale clue to a fictional kid, ‘Ricky Stanicky.’

Fast-forward by some twenty or so years and the three young men are still drawing upon the phony name to get out of a sticky situation.

That happens to be a pending baby shower for JT (Andrew Santino) and his wife, Susan (Anja Savcic). But Dean (Zac Efron) has plotted with Wes (Jermaine Fowler) to concoct an emergency story that Ricky has a cancer scare. In reality it’s just a ploy to get them to a boys’ weekend in Atlantic City. Charming.

There they encounter ‘Rock Hard’ Rod (John Cena), a beefy failed comedian whose stage act comprises singing ‘Jizz Jamz’ -masturbation-themed songs inspired by Billy Idol, Boy George and Britney Spears. Rod’s work has hit rock bottom and even the local barman wants him thrown out.

But the boys’ plans hit a snag when JT’s wife goes into labor, prompting a swift return, conflicting stories to partners and some suspicion if Ricky even exists. Rod is quickly hired to pretend to be the mysterious Ricky at a ceremonial bris for the new baby. It’s a device for a classic mistaken identity tale, which alas, is not so classic here.

Not even JT’s mum Leona (Heather Mitchell) is convinced of Ricky’s identity, although Mrs. Levine (Debra Lawrance) is more easily fooled. Dean and JT’s boss Ted Summerhayes (William H. Macy) is also bamboozled by the stories the loud and persuasive Ricky spins. Seemingly embraced by his new-found people, Ricky is keen to stay on and turn his life around, which is a big problem for out three heros.

In a fairly forgettable comedy, where the laughs are decidedly thin on the ground, it is John Cena who emerges as the surprise package, showing comic timing and a commitment to the buffonery of Farrelly’s world. It takes three ‘straight’ men just to match his foil.

There’s a handful of rude humour and slapstick scenes, but not even William H. Macy doing d*** jokes can save this soggy biscuit. Nor was I particularly impressed with Jermaine Fowler playing a gay character in the trio. There was nothing authentic about it, no chemistry with his partner (Daniel Monks) and the whole thing felt like Farrelly’s attempt to be more inclusive for the sake of being inclusive (almost as if someone at the studio had suggested one of the three could be gay?).

You will spot other Aussie faces Ryan Shelton, Sharon Johal, Marta Kaczmarek, Jane Badler, Nathan Jones, Jasper Bagg and bizarrely Stan Grant playing reporter Stan Grant. Along with identifying local locations including the Forum Theatre, Avalon airport, Richmond’s Royston Hotel, it’s arguably the most fun to be found in this disappointment, which completely falls apart in a badly-written third act.

It’s John Cena’s performance as the title character who is the best excuse for some down under jokes. Hopefully everybody else involved made a mint from their participation.

Ricky Stanicky is now screening on Prime Video.

Part-romp, part ‘history fiction’, part LGBT conspiracy drama, Mary & George is certainly easy on the eye while it pirouettes and teases its very loose history.

This 7 part British series, created by D.C. Moore (Killing Eve) is based on Benjamin Woolley’s The King’s Assassin and centres on the affair between James VI (England) and I (Scotland) of the 1600s and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.

George, played by the boyishly handsome Nicholas Galitzine (Red White & Blue, Cinderella, Handsome Devil), is son of Mary (Julianne Moore), an ambitious widow determined to raise her status by orchestrating sexual pleasures for the King (Tony Curran) with her second son.

The King is well-known for surrounding himself with “well-hung beauty” and participating in orgys in grand rooms. His favourite happens to be the Earl of Somerset (Laurie Davidson), a brash and powerful young man who pleasures the King for his own ambitions.

But the Earl of Somerset is not about to see his position usurped by the King’s latest plaything. He undermines George’s access to the King and ensures he is assigned duties for the lowest of servants. However Mary plots her own chess moves, variously engaged with a local harlot (Niamh Algar), a Lady in Waiting (Nicola Walker), and Francis Bacon (Mark O’Halloran).

All this cavorting takes place amid splendid scenery and Jacobean era costumes, yet director Oliver Hermanus brings a modern sensibility, not dissimilar to previous TV romp The Tudors. There is outrageous grand-standing, soapie plot moves and flashes of nudity.

Julianne Moore is delicious as a conniving, driven, woman moving silently like a puppetmaster. Her brief scenes with Nicola Walker are but one of the pleasures of the series.

Nicholas Galitzine continues to impress with every new project he appears in, demonstrating he is more than just a pretty face. Laurie Davidson takes on the resident villain role with gusto, but you know it’s a losing battle.

There’s a lot to like here with a fine ensemble and a rollercoaster of melodramatic highs and lows. Yet that leaves the mid-section a little wanting, as you await the next outrageous turn either in plot or visual shocks.

Mary & George is no Wolf Hall acting masterclass, and half of it may not even be true, but it knows its audience well and on that front surely delivers.

Dress up, plot your next move and get ready to play.

Mary & George premieres 8:30pm Tuesday on Binge.

Kate Winslet is having so much fun as Chancellor Elena Vernham, ruler of a Middle European republic, that The Regime is an instant delight for viewers.

Perhaps looking not too dissimilar to Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan or any other stan, this fictional state is in disarray at the top.

Chancellor Elena (Winslet), as if borrowing from the eccentric Howard Hughes, is largely reclusive and constantly paranoid about growing mould and moisture in the air.

She orders beefy Corporal Herbert Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts) to become her security and personal air tester, to the point of having him bizzarely walk ahead of her just to test the air. But Herbert, who has been freed from prison, has his own backstory surrounding a shooting incident at a local cobalt mine.

The mines are also at the centre of diplomatic negotiations with the Americans, led by a US Senator (Martha Plimpton), who are pressuring Elena for mining rights.

But Herbert, who wins the trust of the Chancellor, convinces her not to become an American lapdog.

Meanwhile senior advisors are alarmed by their grip on power being loosened by the Palace’s latest influencer.

Will Tracy’s script nods to all kinds of news and pop culture touchstones, including those premiers who lock up or eliminate political rivals, Queen Elizabeth’s bedside intruder, China’s belt and road initiative, North Korea, Friends and possibly even Groundhog Day.

The locations, filmed largely in Austria, are ravishing and stately, dripping in gold, statues and painted ceilings.

Winslet is sublime as Chancellor Elena, from being an ice-cold dictator to singing tone deaf Chicago tunes to wilting, grovelling underlings. If VEEP‘s Selina Meyer were ruling in an obscure corner of Europe, she might resemble someone as unhinged as Elena.

Matthias Schoenaerts plays it cool as the silent but powerful Herbert, subservient when it’s wise to be, but exerting influence through charisma.

“You are the only one who can tell me what the nobodies want” – Elena.

The series is directed by Stephen Frears and NZ’s Jessica Hobbs, with music by Alexandre Desplat and features Andrea Riseborough and even Hugh Grant as the Leader of the Opposition.

The Regime is a world away from Mare of Easttown, in tone, location and performance but Winslet is again an inspired series lead.

The Regime screens 8:30pm Monday on Showcase / Binge.

In the world of ABC’s House of Gods, Iraqi-Australian businessman Isa (Osamah Sami) life is a clash of conservative traditions and modern Australia.

The son of Sheikh Mohammad (Kamel El Basha), and brother to Batul (Maia Abbas) and Hind (Safia Arain), he runs a truck washing company by day whilst ambitiously hoping his father will win an election at the local Shiite Mosque. If his father wins, he becomes a ‘right hand man’ elevating his status within the community.

But his father’s opponent, Sheikh Shaaker (Simon Elrahi), and local elders are dismayed by an incident in which Sheikh Mohammad was photographed inadvertently receiving a kiss on the cheek from a young girl for a selfie. A local radio presenter (Antoinette Lattouf) drives controversy on air which divides the community and threatens to derail his chances at winning the votes, to be overseen by a visiting grand cleric Seyyed Modhaffer (Faris Daniel).

Under the Mosque roof there is more competition than an Australian Survivor win. The drama highlights the male rule while the women peer through a screen at proceedings.

But election divisions prove so vicious, it even bricks being thrown through windows.

Meanwhile Batul has returned home from Iraq several years after flying the coop, which is not so well received by her siblings who remained, being Isa and Hind.

“You think you can disappear for 3 years and return as some kind of saint?” – Isa

Batul is also escaping complex problems from her Iraqi husband, Bilal.

Also featuring is Batul’s friend Jamila (Priscilla Doueihy), daughter of rival Sheikh Shaaker, who is also dealing with marital problems whilst drawing attraction from Isa. Oh what a murky web we weave….

But Isa will find his own financial problems drive his ambitions and conflict to new lows.

ABC’s new drama series House of Gods begins with controversy, community and collision, created by lead actor Osamah Sami. Cameras take viewers deep into a world usually reserved for an SBS drama, and which screens at a sensitive time for the broadcaster. Yet regardless of real world conflicts, it’s important to represent multiple aspects of the community, which this attempts very authentically.

Sami has managed to capture how different generations linked to a Shi’ite mosque mix in modern Australia. There’s music, fast cars, football, make-up alongside prayer, hijabs, separation of men and women (including at the local pool), honour and corruption. There’s also some very Aussie accents which, if you closed your eyes, would not be out of place on Home & Away.

It’s also a very serious drama, finding little time for humour. I was surprised something as flippant as a kiss (and one in which the Sheikh Mohammad character was not a willing participant) deserved so much conflict focus, but at least episode one ends with an interesting twist.

When compared to another recent faith-based family, that of Stan’s Prosper, the House of Gods clan is almost saintly, and certainly a lot more measured. Where Prosper‘s characters break all the rules in the pursuit of power, House of Gods reacts to a lone outlier blinded by faith.

Episode two will also begin to highlight how women in modern Australia expect a greater role in their local community, and indeed as viewers expect in a contemporary drama.

All of the principal cast are first-rate in their roles, particularly the gentle Kamel El Basha, lead Osamah Sami (who is rarely out of his work fluros) and daughters played by Maia Abbas and Safia Arain -it can sometimes be a little tricky to discern between female players, such as conversations between Maia Abbas and Priscilla Doueihy.

Some Australian dramas have successfully embedded middle-eastern characters alongside caucasian performers, such as East West 101, Heartbreak High, Stateless or even led with fully-fledged comedies such as Here Comes the Habibs and Salma’s Season. But not so many have emerged from within its own community and embraced it with as much insight and authenticity as House of Gods.

House of Gods screens 8:30pm Sunday on ABC.

With the possible exception of The Twilight Zone, television hasn’t explored too many space psychological dramas, content to let the big screen lead the way with Gravity, Solaris, Interstellar and The Astronaut’s Wife.

Apple TV+ series Constellation has a premise not too dissimilar to the latter with an astronaut returning to Earth to find things have changed….

The series by Peter Harness (Wallander, The War of the Worlds, Doctor Who) stars Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, You Won’t Be Alone) as Swedish astronaut Jo, working on an international space station, apparently in the near-present.

Working alongside a small team of other international astronauts, she is thousands of kilometres from husband and teacher Magnus (James D’Arcy), with whom she has been having some difficulties, and young daughter Alice (Rosie Coleman).

But an accident in space throws everything into peril, prompts an abandon ship and runs the risk of Jo not making it back to Earth.

Meanwhile former astronaut turned senior NASA man Henry (Jonathan Banks), who liaises with mission control bases in Europe and Kazhakstan, is less concerned with the personnel in jeopardy than in bringing home precious cargo.

Just what is he up to….?

But Jo has undergone inexplicable experiences during her final hours in space which sees her hallucinating -perhaps- or living in alternate states. These play upon her emotions and longing for daughter Alice.

Back on Earth she is still shook from the incidents in space, trying to rationalise ghostly experiences in her daily life and restore missing pieces of her life. There are also clearly government secrets being suppressed, particularly by the Russians under a wily mission control leader Irena (Barbara Sukowa).

All the space station sets look very authentic with their gravity-defying tech, and Noomi Rapace is suitably moody and calm which lures you into her fragmented and unsettling world.

I have no idea if Jonathan Banks’ Henry is seeking some miracle of longevity from beyond, but the series does seem to highlight his mortality. With his brooding presence and richly, resonant voice he surely makes for an ideal antagonist.

Yet the storytelling is uneven and sluggish. So while the visuals and cast are present, it remains to be seen if the story will be worth the destination.

Maybe that’s why film is a tighter, big screen forum for this genre after all? I’m hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

Constellation three episodes Wednesday February 20 then weekly on Apple TV+.

Sure, you might learn something watching a series from the Australian Children’s Television Foundation.

But there is the reassurance that the driving ambition from ACTF is actually to entertain. Watching TV as a kid shouldn’t be a chore, and shouldn’t always be about lecturing and lesson-learning.

Eddie’s Lil’ Homies is also the first co-commission from NITV and Netflix, two bedpartners that logically should never be seen together.

Betts has written two children’s books drawing upon his own experiences in literacy and racism, and highlighting messages around inclusion, kindness, bullying, the environment, speaking out when you’re sad, helping out elders and First Nations culture.

In addition to their simple but colourful illustrations the books are full of raps and rhymes from the AFL footballer, which makes them ideal as a small screen animation. The short-form series (10x 13 mins) is produced by Highly Spirited with Betts Promotions,  animation by Vishus Productions.

Set predominantly in an inner-Melbourne playground you can see housing commission towers, gum trees and a skate ramp. Here our ragtag pals meet, play and bond.

They are Eddie (Hunter Page-Lochard), Junior (Billy Betts), Lottie (Miah Madden), Tal (Andrew Dang), Shanti (Leela Varghese), Lachie (James Smith) and Decks (Crystal Nguyen).

Representation is important here with First Nations, Asian-Australian and Wheelchair users all happily in the mix alongside a geeky Ranga. All of this is pushed to the background to focus on more daily distractions such as a science talent quest, a Rock Paper Scissors challenge and befriending new puppy.

Even through the colour and big faces of these kids there’s plenty of energy from the cast, giving this life and an Australian vernacular. The audio track subtley places familiar sounds such as the ‘ding ding’ of a city tram or a faint didgeridoo if you’re alert to it.

Eddie also regularly consults with a silent pal in a community medical centre who manages to impart worldly advice without saying a word, all while solving a Rubik’s Cube.

There were moments I found unexpected parallels to the Peanuts world… Shanti barges in with all the bravado of Lucy, and I suppose even ‘The Pyschiatrist is In’ is reflected elsewhere. Does that make Eddie our own Charlie Brown? He’s generally more successful, although episode 3 does sees him snubbed by the new dog… shades of Snoopy?

Nonetheless this world is bright, contemporary and reflecting our diversity without getting preachy. Like that other famous Aussie animation, you’ll enjoy seeing touchstones interspersed in the story, tapping your feet and grateful to have spent time in this playground.

Eddie’s Lil’ Homies screens 7:30pm Friday 16 February on NITV / from midnight on Netflix in Australia and NZ.

Prime Video’s very first Australian-made movie is a romantic comedy landing just in time for Valentine’s Day, Five Blind Dates.

Co-created and co-written by actor Shuang Hu (The Family Law), and actor / comedian Nathan Ramos-Park (As We Babble On) it is part of a growing slate of Asian-Australian scripted projects aimed at mainstream audiences. Perhaps borrowing a (tea) leaf from the success of Crazy Rich Asians -itself referenced in the story- it isn’t afraid to celebrate the bonkers collision of traditional China with contemporary Australia.

Lia (Shuang Hu) runs an authentic Chinese tea shop in Sydney, dedicated to the customs handed down from her late grandmother and refusing to jump on board the bubble tea bandwagon. Who can blame her?

But she struggles for parental approval and remains hopelessly single, all of which is highlighted at the engagement party of her sister Alice (Tiffany Wong) in the very true blue Townsville.

There she is challenged by the prediction of a fortune teller (Gabrielle Chan) who insists she will meet her future husband amongst the next five dates if they happen before the wedding.

While the first is former teenage beau Richard (Yoson An) another is a wealthy Sydney playboy (Desmond Chiam) arranged by father Xian (Tzi Ma).

Spurred on by her gay BFF (Ilai Swindells) she next meets teacher (Jon Prasida), this time as arranged by mum Jing (Renee Lim), before an encounter with a dreamy mediation guru (Rob Collins). Some of the dates, and I’d use that term loosely frankly, are so devoid of chemistry as to being a bit of a problem for a romantic comedy.

But more visits from Richard and the audience knows where this is headed.

The film directed by Shawn Seet offers sweet performances from Hu and An in the lead roles, with Swindells as a colourfully camp sidekick. It works best in Shuang Hu’s desire to honour traditions and in the unresolved moments with Yoson An.

Less successful are the moments of conflict where sisters tear strips off one another, literally, in outburts that might be more fitting in a Real Housewives episode, or in a tirade that predictably goes viral via someone’s uploaded video. But it is all designed to sink our heroine to deep lows before lifting her up. Does it qualify as comedy?

Points to the locations manager who has managed to show off every flashy Sydney backdrop for an international audience, although I can’t help but wonder what the story might have elicited if it spent longer exploring the cultural canyons in Townsville.

Five Blind Dates surely has its heart in the right place, and offers nuanced insight into a community usually the domain of an SBS drama. It’s a promising start for more local features to come.

Five Blind Dates is now screening on Prime Video

The success of Mr. Bates vs The Post Office is a triumph of the power of television.

Since the 4 part drama screened in the UK it has led to a backlash against the government, drawing front page headlines, compensation for victims, convictions quashed and a former Post Office CEO handing back her CBE.

But it is also a triumph of the power of brilliant casting.

Watching this true life tale, you never get the feeling of star actors overwhelming the material. The fact that they all feel like an ‘everyman’ fighting against bureaucracy only makes this all the more convincing.

At the heart of the story is Alan Bates (Toby Jones) a mild-mannered subpostmaster working in North Wales in 2003 who refuses to comply with government thugs -there’s not much other way to describe them- who are convinced his shortfall in his accounting is due to theft.

But Bates blames the discrepancy on a newly-installed computer software known as Horizon. Supported by wife Suzanne (Julie Hesmondhalgh), he resists bullying threats, convinced he is in the right.

Less forthright is Jo Hamilton (Monica Dolan), another subpostmaster, running a village business where she is cherished by the locals and serves with a smile. But she is silently panicking over problems with her balance which literally doubles in thousands of pounds before her very eyes. A Post Office helpline advises she will have to make up the short-fall until she can resolve the problem.

They are just two of the many small business owners isolated and in freefall as a result of Horizon’s faults -yet the company line is that there are no other complaints and the system is robust and in order.

Even when Alan and Suzanne pack up shop and relocate to their dream rural escape, the determination for justice never leaves them.

Eventually Alan issues a call-out for fellow aggrieved postmasters to a regional meeting, where stories of fear, devastation and solitude are shared. Such is the power of the Post Office that one even went to prison (many more it is revealed, followed). Amid pressure to repay supposed monies owed, some took drastic measures….

In the difficult role of CEO Paula Vennells is Lia Williams, determined to uphold the reputation of the British Post Office, while others more benevolent will include Alex Jennings as MP James Arbuthno and Adam James as Patrick Green QC.

While the cast is full of faces you may have seen in British dramas before, such as Katherine Kelly, Shaun Dooley, Pip Torrens, Lesley Nicol and John Hollingworth, these are all top-shelf character actors. Collectively they make the material so convincing, and at times incredibly moving.

Despite the fight for justice stretching on for years, producers have resisted the urge to drag out the story, instead clocking in at 4 compelling episodes.

In the lead role Toby Jones is understated, driven and stubborn. These are attributes Alan Bates held fast as the campaign for justice dragged on.

Remarkably, this is a story that drew media attention over the years, including with a Panorama documentary. But it took a drama on broadcast television to ignite widespread emotion.

You can read recent news stories to get up to speed on any outcomes as a result of ITV’s biggest new drama in a decade. Seven is screening these in double episodes across two weeks, alas with a late start due to Reality TV commitments.

Mr Bates vs the Post Office is the real TV drama and one not to be missed.

Mr Bates vs the Post Office double episode 8:55pm Wednesday February 14 on Seven.
Part II Wednesday February 21
Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The Real Story 9:35pm Sunday February 25

The story of Alex Kurzem is the stuff of a Hollywood movie.

During the Second World War, the five-year-old Jewish boy escaped his village to avoid certain execution by German Nazis. He claimed to have fled into a Belorussian forest until being found by a Latvian SS battalion. Instead of death, he was passed off as a Russin orphan, quickly becaming a child soldier, given a false name, fake birth date, uniform and even a rifle.

“I became a mascot for the Nazi army” – Alex Kurzem.

By 1949 he was living in Australia with his dark secret behind him.

Indeed the story was once drafted into a Hollywood script, it has been told on 60 Minutes, published in books and shared via newspaper articles.

But is the story actually true or was it a holocaust hoax?

Filmmaker Dan Goldberg, who once covered the story in 2012, forensically digs into a complex genealogy tale in Hitler’s Jewish Soldier? as part of the Australia Uncovered series.

This is a story spanning three continents, family relatives, holocaust experts and DNA detectives.

Kurzem arrived in Melbourne in 1949 when a Latvian family, who had subsequently fostered the boy, emigrated to Australia. There he grew up, once working in a circus and as a television repairman, and raising his own family.

His own sons were not privy to his past until fragments of his story emerged in 1997.

“I still feel like I’m two persons in one body, and they’re not getting along very well” -Kurzem.

After his son wrote a book in 2002, and a documentary was produced, doubts were raised in the media and Jewish community about elements of his story. Reluctance to take DNA tests did not help, some rebuffed with demands for large sums of money.

After so much scrutiny can the new SBS documentary possibly offer resolution?

If you thought Who Do You Think You Are? was full of ancestral twists and turns, then Goldberg’s narrative will surely keep you guessing. It is part detective tale, part Mythbusters, and part WWII time capsule.

There are also relatives at odds over the truth, in what feels like a bid to distance their family name from possible shame.

Goldberg has certainly travelled far and wide to meet with experts in pursuit of the truth. Sometimes it moves so fast as to require serious concentration. To dramatise the war chapter there are also re-enactments.

Yet the heart of the story is so incredible that you can’t help but see it through to the end.

If three other documentaries, Last Chance to Save a Life, The Carnival and Psychedelics: Stepping Into the Unknown, are as good as this, then Australia Uncovered will be appointment viewing.

Australia Uncovered: Hitler’s Jewish Soldier? screens 8:30pm Thursday on SBS.

If you have seen one of the promos for Feud: Capote vs The Swans you may have noticed it refers to “the original Housewives,” which struck me as a fairly simplistic take on Truman Capote’s delicate relationship with New York society women in the 1960s.

But I get it. From a marketing perspective it instantly communicates the tone of what you’re in for from Ryan Murphy’s second anthology season.

Now having commenced the series, it’s actually spot on for episode 3 under director Gus van Sant, who breaks from the naturalistic style of episodes 1 and 2, to adopt a kind of cinéma vérité approach as Truman plots a grand masquerade ball in NYC. It’s an event full of petty rivalries, glamour and mischief, presented through the lens of a documentary Capote was making with filmmakers Albert and David Maysles.

In Feud it is recreated with the spectacular cast, led by Tom Hollander as Capote, and the dazzling women who make up the ‘swans’: Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloë Sevigny, Calista Flockhart, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald. They have meltdowns, break the fourth wall to speak to camera, contain their jealousies (or at least attempt to), and dress in fabulous gowns. Yes, you could indeed be watching Real Housewives of New York Circa 1966.

Such is the fascination with Feud: Capote vs The Swans, that the execution and performances are so fabulously distracting that you can easily be taken out of its universe. The foreground often upstages the story.

Tom Hollander brilliantly undertakes the role of the American writer, previously portrayed on screen by the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toby Jones and Robert Morse. Capote is eccentric, camp, gifted and possibly polarising for many viewers unfamiliar with his place in modern American history.

Surrounding him are the ‘swans’ of the story, scripted by Jon Robin Baitz and based on a book by Laurence Leamer.

Naomi Watts stars as Barbara “Babe”, chain-smoking wife of CBS founder and philanderer William S. Paley (Treat Williams), to whom Capote is magnetically attracted for her beauty, mind, glamour and style. The two form an intimate bond built around society parties, alcohol, cigarettes, long lunches, gossip and scintillating advice.

“My God he’s dazzling. Invite him to everything we ever have” -William.

Babe’s society friends are equally besotted by Capote’s acidic humour and counsel. They include Slim Keith (Lane), C.Z. Guest (Sevigny) and Lee Radziwill (Flockhart).

Less captivated is socialite Ann Woodward (Demi Moore) who is under suspicion of murdering her husband, and whom Capote intends to expose. Molly Ringwald also features as Joanne Carson, wife of television’s Johnny, whose home is where Capote dined and wrote, if challenged by writers’ block.

Also featuring is Russell Tovey as a closeted encounter turned toyboy.

“Write about the world you’re showing me….that lunch is gold… all of it. Nobody can show us these women Truman, how they really are” – John.

The Feud of the title centres around Capote’s irresistable urge to write about the women and all their character flaws with his poisonous pen, some of which is published in Esquire magazine. It’s enough to turn the women against him and unleash their group revenge.

“He got it right about all of us, but mostly me…I turned to him for love, this homosexual court jester singing for his supper” – Babe.

“We stand united and we destroy him” – Slim.

Icing him out is devastating to Capote, denied his dance card to their society soirees.

“I keep trying to apologise but she won’t take my calls.” -Capote.

In addition to the star turns, notably Hollander, Watts and an unrecognisable Demi Moore, the production design is exquisite, recreating New York in the ’60s. Characters collide in the finest mansions and apartments, indulge in fabulous restaurants and ballrooms, dress in high fashions … yes it really is a Real Housewives forerunner.

Yet the performances become the reason to watch Feud, which wasn’t necessarily the only driver for the tempestuous first season of Feud: Bette and Joan. At 8 episodes I fear this could outstay its essay on why gay men are so drawn to glamorous women (and vice versa) and the consequences of betrayal. But damn, we will have some high times getting there.

Feud: Capote vs The Swans will surely be nominated for acting, direction, production design, if not necessarily a complete triumph for the sum of its parts.

Oh and there’s one more star cameo from Episode Two I daren’t spoil…

Feud: Capote vs The Swans is now screening weekly on Binge and 9:30pm Thursdays on Showcase.

You know that when Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and producer Gary Goetzman team up for a drama series they mean business.

All three produced Band of Brothers and the Australian-filmed The Pacific. Now they return to the trenches -or rather the skies- for Masters of the Air, based on Donald L. Miller’s book of the same name.

The 9 part series follows the men of the 100th Bomb Group (the “Bloody Hundredth”) who, during 1943 World War II, conducted bombing raids over Nazi strongholds.

Leading these combats are friends Maj. Gale ‘Buck’ Cleven (Austin Butler) and Major John ‘Bucky’ Egan (Callum Turner).

“We came from every corner of the country with one purpose, to bring the war to Hitler’s doorstep” Cleven tells us through his narration.

But their experience in the skies is limited, putting their wild days of women, gambling, drink behind them.

Skilled director Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective) brings the jeopardy early even just in negotiating flight landings in Greenland as the men travel from the US to Britain’s Thorpe Abbotts Air Base.

Anthony Boyle features as Lt. Harry Crosby a skilled navigator but one challenged by frequent air sickness. In these crude, uncomfortable mechanical birds it’s understandable. At such icy heights it’s easy to forget that a gunner’s hands can be ice-burned from placing his hands on the gun.

The top-heavy male cast also features Barry Keoghan, fresh from his star turn in Saltburn as Lt. Curtis Biddick.

While Maj Egan wants to be in the sky and not stuck behind a desk on the ground, it is Maj. Cleve who will have to command a perilous mission in the skies. Under such trying conditions Butler’s cool demeanour is well cast….

Warfare and dogfights are never far from the plot of this sweeping saga and the brutality is convincingly brought to bear in ways that are unforgiving, while putting money on the screen. The theatre of it all often upstages the acting in the foreground, but cleverly, there is also drama in each of the individual squads whether from human frailities or mechanical shortcomings.

There is room for levity in R&R and testosterone hijinks back at the base, as well as generously acknowledging the important of support crews such as those who are responsible for safe and functioning bombs loaded onto planes.

“In a way they were on every flight with us, and would not relax until we came home…”

When the Americans encounter the Brits there are clear divisions about -well- best bombing strategies. While the Brits bomb indiscriminately at night, the Americans stick to precision bombing at daytime, to the extreme point of even abandoning one attack for fear of hitting civilians and not a Nazi target. On this point the American storytelling by scriptwriter John Orloff adopts a fairly righteous position. Heck, even the theme music by Blake Neely is so red, white and blue, I feel like standing up and saluting.

Based on the two episodes available for preview without embargo, the series clearly dramatises the heroic American experience, of boys who were charged to become men, and some who never returned. On this front it is a striking achievement, if possibly at the expense of a wider lens.

Double episode premiere Friday, 26 January then weekly on Apple TV+.

When the name Suranne Jones (Scott & Bailey, Vigil, Doctor Foster, Gentleman Jack) is attached to a project it surely demands attention.

Throw in Eve Best (House of the Dragons, Fate: The Winx Saga, The Crown) and Stockard Channing (Grease, Practical Magic) and new BritBox drama Maryland is practically irresistible.

The three part series is even co-created by Jones, with plenty of female creatives behind the scenes, including director Susan Tully.

Jones and Best play sisters Becca and Rosaline, respectively, who are summoned to the Isle of Man when the boy of their mother washes up on the beach.

Problem is, they have no idea what she was doing there, nor the world they will soon discover she had secretly built for herself away from their father, Richard (George Costigan).

Had she been living a double life? If so, why and for how long?

Complicating matters more is the frosty relationship between the two sisters, who carry a lot of baggage over their upbringing.

“I don’t like picking at scabs,” says Rosaline.

While Becca (Jones) finds a lack of emotional support from her husband (Jim) Andrew Knott, Rosaline is privately awaiting the results of a possible resurgence of breast cancer. Can they overcome their differences to get to the truth and will their mother’s passing bring them closer together?

Stockard Channing plays a chilled American-born local Cathy, who knew their mother and has answers to divulge, while Pete (Hugh Quarshie) is protective of the woman he knew. Local cab driver Jacob (Dean Lennox Kelly) also offers a benevolent ear when he isn’t asking his passengers to say hello to the fairy bridge -these quirky touches are nice and highlight local ambience versus London’s pace. No wonder mum was visiting…

The initial premise may not be too disimilar to dramas such as Ireland’s Smother, but the tone is more gentle, at least when our two leads are not going hammer and tong over deep-seated rivalries. Let’s face it, with such skilled performers you do want some acting chops before the credits role and this is surely more thought-provoking than Midsomer Murders or Father Brown….

Watching Jones and Best on screen together is wholly satisfying, and there are also some inclusive casting touches for actors living with a disability. Maryland is a smart and emotional drama about sisterhood and forgiveness, which never outstays its welcome.

Fingers crossed Suranne Jones creates much more to come…

Maryland screens Thursday January 25 on BritBox.

Pastor Cal Quinn and wife Abi are about to celebrate their 40th anniversary, but first he has a little announcement.

The family faith, and booming business, evangelical church U Star, is embarking on expansion plans in the USA.

Outwardly the Quinn clan is a testifyin’, prayer-loving family wielding great power amongst its many devotees. But the inner sanctum is a dysfunctional family of egos and ambitions, led by its charismatic patriarch.

In Stan’s new 8 part drama Prosper, there are also dangerous links to politics, profit and pop music. If it all sounds familiar, it probably is, but this is strictly a work of fiction by creators Matt Cameron and Jason Stephens.

Cal (Richard Roxburgh) and Abi (Rebecca Gibney) are also hoping for a reunion with their ‘prodigal son’ Jed (Jacob Collins-Levy) who has turned his back on the family empire in pursuit of greater good, by running a local community kitchen.

More loyal is Cal’s “right hand man” eldest son Dion (Ewen Leslie), insecure of his father’s love yet devoted to the church. Daughter Issy (Hayley McCarthy) is musically gifted and married to US-born musician Benji (Jordi Webber), both enjoying the spotlight’s collision of music and gospel.

In reality Cal’s real right hand man is Eli (Jacek Koman), a shifty suit who cleans up after his boss and manoeuvres silently between the shadows for U Star.

Money is no object for this Church, as donated by desperate worshippers. In the early episodes there are black SUVs, an ocean mansion, a private chopper, a Blue Mountains retreat. Cal is also wheeling and dealing with a conservative politician (James Saunders) to ensure he has the ear of key players in Canberra. There’s a visiting American pop star (Alex FitzAlan) ready to convert and pose for press photos. And there is even a scandal involving Pastor Cal and one parishioner Rosa (Brigid Zendini) which threatens to bring down the entire church unless it can be contained.

Yes, fiction and truth surely collude in Lingo Pictures’ new drama.

Roxburgh as the charismatic, immaculate leader of U Star strides through these scenes with all the swagger of Rake‘s Cleaver Greene. Cal may be blinded by power and an utter desire for world domination, but he is convinced he has a direct line to his God -even if it means suppressing the spirit of his own offspring.

Rebecca Gibney’s Abi is every bit as warm and devoted as more famous TV mums she has played, but there is a self-preservation streak which will doubtless unveil a strong hand as episodes unfold -if not revealing her as the most powerful player in the room?

Ewae Leslie, who struck me as a little old to play Cal’s first born, is nevertheless fittingly restrained as the aspirational son. It’s also great to see Jacek Koman in a key supporting role.

The cast is decidely top-heavy and other characters played by Hayley McCarthy, Ming-Zhu Hii, Fayssal Bazzi, Andrea Solonge (who is particularly good), Alexander D’Souza, Matthew Backer, spread the story focus wide.

Given the subject matter and, dare I suggest, the Succession-esque approach to the world, not many of the characters are particularly likeable. Which means we have to care why they are as objectionable as they appear. Director Jennifer Leacey keeps things fairly cold, including colour grading out vibrant hues for a grey-blue look. It’s obviously a lot more serious than The Righteous Gemstones, but less intriguing than Messiah, albeit on a smaller budget.

However there is still a lot of potential given the themes in play.

One final observation, the building which doubles as the fictional U Star is the Sydney Coliseum Theatre in Rooty Hill, which works brilliantly as a centre for zealous showbiz. Last year it was even the home of Australian Idol. Touchdown.

Prosper screens Thursday on Stan.

Updated.