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BLACK BIRD (APPLE TV+)
Those who have followed Taron Egerton’s career on the big screen are in for a shock.
The British actor most famous for playing Elton John, Eddie the Eagle and Kingsman’s Eggsy has significantly bulked-up for his latest role in this six-part, true crime drama . The 32-year-old looks chiseled and buff as he portrays the series protagonist – and author of the 2010 autobiographical novel on which it is based – James Keene.
Initially sentenced to 10 years in a minimum-security prison for drugs and firearms offences, he is given “the choice of the lifetime”. Either serve out his full sentence with no possibility of parole, or enter a maximum-security prison for the criminally insane and befriend a suspected serial killer.
While the directing is split between former directors of The Wire and The Drop, it’s veteran crime writer Dennis Lehane’s (Mystic River) script that really shines. Memorable dialogue abounds, while mystery and intrigue deepen with every scene and you find yourself drawn into both the investigation and Keene’s conundrum, until you’re completely engrossed by it all and pushing yourself to watch “just one more episode”.
FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL (APPLE TV+)
It was the storm some long feared. A Category 5 hurricane that would leave more than 1800 people dead and cause around US$125 billion worth of damage.
Almost two weeks after Hurricane Katrina’s devastating arrival on August 29, 2005, and it was still easier to navigate many of the neighbourhoods of New Orleans by outboard-motor-powered dinghy than car.
As John Ridley and Carlton Cuse’s haunting and sometimes harrowing adaptation of Sheri Fink’s Pulitzer Prize-winning non-fiction book opens, health officials arrive at the now abandoned Memorial Medical Center.
However, amongst the expected debris and water damage is a shocking discovery – 45 bodies, split between the chapel and the second-floor walkway. As the investigators subsequently quiz veteran internal medicine specialist Dr Horace Baltz (Robert Pine) as to how this could have happened, he recounts the nightmarish 120 hours staff, patients and the thousands sheltering their endured as one of the worst storms in US history took its toll on the 80-year-old building.
Criss-crossing between various departments, crises little and large and the growing chaos around them, Five Days at Memorial reminds of you of perhaps the greatest US medical drama of all-time – ER. Ridley and Cuse quickly establish the disparate personalities of their main characters, making sure to humanise them, all while still keeping the emphasis on the unfolding disaster.
VARIOUS
Eight great shows to stream this week.
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* Five fabulous, under-rated Melanie Lynskey performances (and where you can watch them)
* Nope, Bullet Train and Disney+’s Prey among August’s must see movies
* Disney’s She-Hulk, Neon’s House of the Dragon, Netflix’s Sandman among August’s must see TV
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Hunter Moore was The Most Hated Man on the Internet.
THE MOST HATED MAN ON THE INTERNET (NETFLIX)
Three-part docu-series which follows one woman’s mission to take down the self-styled “King of Revenge Porn” after nude photos of her daughter were posted online.
A self-proclaimed “professional life ruiner”, Hunter Moore was particularly notable in refusing any and all takedown requests and was dubbed “the most hated man on the internet” in a 2012 Rolling Stone article. He was also known to hack email accounts, seeking out nude photos to post on the site.
Charlotte Laws conducted a two-year investigation, compiling evidence from more than 40 victims, before handing it over to the FBI.
“The series successfully frames the entire story as one about a bully and boaster who tangled with the wrong mom,” wrote The Globe and Mail’s John Doyle.
PAPER GIRLS (PRIME VIDEO)
With its tween protagonists, 1980s setting, American Mid-West backdrop and sci-fi stylings, it’s hard not to view this as Amazon’s answer to Stranger Things.
And indeed, the eight-part adaptation of Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang’s comic-book series Paper Girls definitely leans into any comparison, filling its initial surroundings of 1988 Cleveland, Ohio with a plethora of pop-culture references, from Freddy Krueger and Teen Wolf costumes to walkmans and the ever-present threat of nuclear war.
An appealing mix of The Goonies, Stand By Me and the Terminator and Back to the Future series, Paper Girls delights with its diverse characters and twisting of traditional ‘80s teen and tween movie tropes. Our central quartet are all more than one-note characters, displaying plenty of sass and chutzpah, while also laying bare their hopes, fears and respective brushes with racism, anti-semitism and other forms of abuse.
While perhaps not as slick – nor scary – as the Duffer brothers’ world-conquering Netflix series, Paper Girls is maybe a more inclusive, thought-provoking coming-of-age tale – and all the more impactful for it.
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With its tween protagonists, 1980s setting, American Mid-West backdrop and sci-fi stylings, it’s hard not to view Paper Girls as Prime Video’s answer to Stranger Things.
PLAYERS (TVNZ+)
Ten-part mockumentary which follows a fictional pro-Leauge of Legends e-sports team, as they set their sights on their first championship.
After years of close calls and heartache, Fugitive Gaming believe this will finally be their year. However, to win it all, they’ll need their 17-year-old rookie and their 27-year-old veteran to put their egos aside and work together.
“You don’t have to be a gamer to enjoy Players, even though the inside references will likely give gamers a smile,” wrote Collider’s Joel Keller. “It’s a classic story about the veteran being displaced by an overconfident rookie, and it’s one that’s executed well.”
RAP SH!T (NEON)
Insecure’s Issa Rae created this eight-part comedy about two estranged high school friends from Miami who come back together to form a rap group. Shawna Clark is stuck in a dead-end job at a hotel, while solo-mother Mia Knight is struggling to support herself and her four-year-old daughter. But when Shawna surprisingly invites Mia out for a drink, the unexpected happens.
“The jokes here pack a punch even when they tiptoe into corny territory, the visuals are smooth and the chemistry between the performers feels warm and familiar,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter’s Lovia Gyarkye.
THE SANDMAN (NETFLIX)
It’s the comic-book adaptation many thought would never see the light of day.
The one whose author once remarked that he would rather “no movie” made of it, rather than a “bad movie”. A project that, when first mooted, was being considered around the same time as Warren Beatty played Dick Tracy, Jennifer Connelly was dating The Rocketeer and production on the first big-budgeted Bat-sequel had hit the skids.
But despite a more than three-decade wait and a change in format to, an initial, 10-part TV series, Netflix’s take on Neil Gaiman’s beloved Sandman is an evocative, atmospheric and sumptuous-looking triumph.
Based on the first two volumes – Preludes & Nocturnes and The Doll’s House – Gaiman and his fellow writers The Dark Knight’s David S. Goyer and Wonder Woman’s Allan Heinberg initially do a quite brilliantly succinct job of world-building. Filled with impressive visual effects, top-notch production design and a gloomy aesthetic that may well give you nightmares, Sandman offers first-rate fantasy, for both avid fans and more casual streamers.
VICTORIA’S SECRET: ANGELS & DEMONS (PRIME VIDEO)
As this fascinating, enlightening and sometimes shocking three-part documentary series highlights, behind the “tits and glitz” of the mega-popular annual runway show was a darker side, as the infamous Jeffrey Epstein used his connections to CEO Les Wexner for his own nefarious ends. Posing as a recruiter, his behaviour was the subject of numerous complaints from as early as 1993, with Wexner accused of either ignoring them, sweeping them under the carpet, or both.
However, while just like the 10-part Secrets of Playboy series earlier this year, Matt Tyrnauer’s investigation rightly exposes the seedier side of this business empire, this also provides a fascinating look at the rise and fall of an iconic fashion brand. How did an Ohio businessman turn a faltering husband-and-wife passion project into a $7.5 billion enterprise and how did an apparently female-focused company fail to adapt and get so out of step with the times and women’s demands for them to look outside the “narrow band of beauty” they were seemingly selling?
Through new interviews with employees, fashion experts, designers and models, as well as extensive archival footage which includes internal videos and a 2017 sit-down with Wexner himself, you’ll learn about the intriguing history of both the man and the brand.
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