After being postponed due to the devastating California wildfires, Meghan Markle’s aspirational lifestyle/cooking/interview series finally arrives on Netflix. Promising to prioritise “playfulness over perfection” (whatever that means), it’ll tell the “secrets” of the Duchess of Sussex’s home life, by which I mean her favourite flower arrangements and her best focaccia recipe. She’ll be joined in her impossibly clean farmhouse-style kitchen by her famous pals, including chef Roy Choi, actor Mindy Kaling and – never one to miss the opportunity to hang out with his wife – Prince Harry.
Martin Compston and Anjli Mohindra both have impressive CVs, the latter starring in Doctor Who, Vigil and Bodyguard and the former synonymous with Line of Duty. In this new three-part thriller, they play Martyn and Rebecca, a couple who move from London to Glasgow with their two young children. At first, their new neighbour Jan (Solly McLeod) is friendly, but he soon turns creepy, writing letters to Rebecca telling her that he “likes watching” her. Things take an even more sinister turn when he accuses Martyn and Rebecca of abusing their own children. To make the story more terrifying, it is loosely based on the real-life experience of German author Dirk Kurbjuweit, upon whose 2018 book Fear is based.
The long-awaited sequel to the Marvel superhero series finally arrives seven years after the original came to an end. Charlie Cox is back to play blind lawyer Matt Murdock, who transforms into the crime-fighting, red catsuit-clad Daredevil at night. In the elapsed years, mob boss Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) has wormed his way to becoming mayor of New York – something neither Murdock nor his heroic alter-ego can abide. Showrunner Dario Scardapane promises this new version will be much “darker” than the original with “elements of The Sopranos”. We shall see.
The presence of Stephen Graham in a cast is usually a reliable sign of quality (see A Thousand Blows, Boiling Point, Time). He leads Netflix’s new crime drama as Eddie Miller, a father whose teenage son Jamie (Owen Cooper) is accused of murdering one of his classmates. Whether he is guilty or not remains to be seen, with the first of the four episodes – shot continuously and in real time – starting with a terrifying raid on their home before launching into an unforgiving, relentless interview process. What follows is an intense exploration of masculinity, misogyny and how the two have become intertwined for boys at a critical age.
If you are not very well versed with the world of fantasy series The Wheel of Time, the synopsis to the third installment will sound like nonsense. To fans, however, the fact that Rand (Josha Stradowski) has defeated Ishamael to be retitled as the Dragon Reborn is big news. It is far from the end of the Light’s troubles however, with the sect of the Aes Sedai, who serve the Dark One, and Moghedien (Laia Costa) releasing the rest of the Forsaken. And then there’s Lanfear (Natasha O’Keefe), whose relationship with Rand threatens to push him towards the Dark. What could possibly go wrong…
After a rather successful diversion to Regency era England in Bridgerton, superstar producer Shonda Rhimes is returning to the White House – and good news for anyone missing Scandal, there’s going to be murder. In her new screwball comedy-meets-murder mystery series, Uzo Aduba is Cordelia Cupp, a sardonic detective who will stop at nothing to find the culprit lurking in the corridors of power. But with political ambition and mounting lies getting in the way, it won’t be a simple job – even for the best detective in the world.
In the 90s, serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson – nicknamed the “Happy Face Killer” after signing his confession letters with the symbol – terrorised the United States with a spate of disturbing murders. In this true-crime drama, he’s played by Dennis Quaid, but he’s not the main character – Happy Face focuses on his daughter, Melissa Moore (Annaleigh Ashford). When Jesperson contacts her out of the blue to admit to another murder, Melissa is dragged into the police’s investigation and forced to reckon with having a ruthless serial killer as a father.
Think a job in Hollywood is all swanky parties and rubbing shoulders with the stars? Well, you’d be right – but it’s also inane meetings with clueless money men and soothing the bruised egos of egotistical actors. That’s the point of view that Seth Rogen’s new comedy drama The Studio takes, at least. He is Matt Remick, the newly appointed boss of a flailing movie studio, hired to turn its fortunes (and profit margins) around. It’s an uphill battle and the ever-changing entertainment landscape proves fertile ground for a sharp satire. “I got into this because I love movies,” he says. “But now I have this fear that my job is to ruin them.”
Mythic Quest – a comedy about the creators of the titular video game from the brains behind It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – is one of Apple TV+’s quieter successes, but apparently popular enough to warrant a spin-off. Side Quest is a series of four standalone stories, each of which go deeper into the lives of the employees, players and fans whose lives revolve around the game. There is plenty of crossover for those who love the original, including Rob McElhenney, who leads one of the anthology episodes.
The second series of Gareth Evans’ uber-violent gangland drama suffered from the lack of head honcho Sean Wallace (Joe Cole), who missed most of the action held captive by a rival faction. Now he’s back on the streets and ready to reclaim his title as the king of London’s criminal underworld. But he faces tough competition from former undercover policeman turned hardened criminal Elliot (Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù), who has teamed up with the Dumani crime family to overthrow the powerful Wallaces. And then there’s the election of a new tough-on-crime mayor (T’Nia Miller), intent on bringing the city’s turf war to an end once and for all.
Comments
Leave a Comment