THE weather remains chilly, so we’ve got you covered for plenty of shows to keep you occupied while trying to stay warm.
From the dramatic interpretation of the already whacky of Tiger King story to the return of Star Trek’s Jean-Luc Picard, there’s plenty of great viewing to choose from this weekend.
JOE vs CAROLE (Peacock)
When the first season of real-life docuseries Tiger King exploded into our lockdown-blighted lives back in 2020, it had all the ingredients needed to make it a massive hit.
There was a charismatic and eccentric central figure – Joe ‘Exotic’ Schreibvogel – a whole heap of endlessly outrageous behaviour and, of course, quite a few magnificent big cats. For the majority of viewers, though, the most intriguing element was the bitter feud between Joe and fellow big-cat keeper Carole Baskin – a feud that was to turn violent and eventually land Exotic behind bars.
Now, a new eight-part drama digs deep into the history of that hatred and the shocking way it played out, with John Cameron Mitchell becoming larger-than-life Joe, Kate McKinnon taking on the role of Carole and Kyle MacLachlan playing her third hubby Howard.
A kind of Pam & Tommy with less romance and glitz and way more tigers, the series is big, bold and brash – just like Joe himself. A pinch of salt is required at times but Tiger King obsessives will adore sinking their teeth into it.
The Boys Presents: Diabolical (Amazon Prime)
If you’re one of the many millions counting the days until the third season of blackly comic series The Boys lands – it’s due in June, in case you’re wondering – then Diabolical should make the long wait a little more bearable.
This exhilarating animated series is based in the same universe of The Boys but tells eight brand-new, bite-sized stories, written by an array of talent that includes Seth Rogen, Andy Samberg, Awkwafina and Ilana Glazer.
Be warned, though: Diabolical is violent, vivid and very anarchic. It’s also very funny and the episodes feature the voices of some big-name guest stars, with Jason Isaacs, Kieran Culkin, Kevin Smith, Don Cheadle, Simon Pegg and Christian Slater all getting involved. Awesome.
Available Friday
The Dropout (Disney+)
Amanda Seyfried stars as disgraced billionaire biotech entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes in this riveting eight-part drama based on the real-life rise and fall of Holmes and her health technology company Theranos.
A college dropout, ambitious Holmes’ fortunes changed dramatically when she developed some remarkable, life-changing blood-testing technology.
But when doubts begin to grow over the effectiveness of the technology, Holmes and Theranos’ COO Sunny Balwani (played by Naveen Andrews) found themselves being investigated for fraud. Anyone who enjoyed Inventing Anna will be gripped.
Available Thursday
Dear… (Apple TV+)
It’s the return of the show that tells the remarkable stories of some of the world’s most influential icons, by asking them to read letters from people whose lives they’ve changed.
This time, Jane Fonda, Sandra Oh, Viola Davis, Selena Gomez, Billy Porter, Andre Leon Talley and Malala Yousafzai are among the famous figures looking back over their lives and, as you might expect, it’s frequently tear-jerking and surprising stuff. Prepare for an emotional and inspiring ride.
Available Friday
Mare Of Easttown (SKY On Deman & NOW)
In the long and glittering career of Kate Winslet, rarely has she played someone so downbeat and characteristically unglamorous as Mare Sheehan. But maybe she should do it more often, because to say she is excellent in this gritty drama is a total understatement.
Never at any stage in the seven-part miniseries do you think you are watching Kate play Mare, so immersed are you in the detective’s traumatic unravelling of her personal life as she attempts to solve a murder that has touched the whole tight-knit community in Easttown in rural Pennsylvania.
Yes, we know, a troubled detective investigating a murder isn’t exactly ground-breaking. But Mare Of Easttown feels it. When Erin, a local teenage mum, is found dead after a party in the woods when she was beaten up by her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend, Mare wastes no time in interviewing her own friends and neighbours to get to the bottom of what happened to the victim, not afraid of ruffling everybody’s feathers.
Along the way, she has to deal with the backlash of her failure to find another missing girl, a new partner parachuted in to “help” and the deep buried grief she has never dealt with since her son committed suicide. Bleak, brilliant and unlike so many dramas on telly, it has a hugely satisfying ending.
Inventing Anna (Netflix)
Shonky German accents aside, this dramatic retelling of the real-life mystery surrounding fake heiress fraudster Anna Sorokin, who scammed New York’s wealthiest out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, is deliciously intriguing. Stars Julia Garner, Anna Chlumsky and Arian Moayed.
jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy (Netflix)
Genius is stretching it but there’s no doubting the huge impact Kanye West has had on popular culture since exploding onto the rap scene at the start of the century. His life and career are profiled in this intimate three-part biographical docuseries.
Snowpiercer (Netflix)
A thriller in which Earth has become a frozen wasteland and survivors shelter on an endlessly moving luxury train might sound like a hard sell, but Snowpiercer, which stars Sean Bean, has proved a runaway hit. Season three is currently rattling along, so all aboard.
Sweet Life: Los Angeles (hayu)
This coming-of-age reality series shines a light on what it means to be young, black and ambitious in modern day LA. At its heart is a group of likeable twentysomethings, including PR consultant Amanda Scott and singleton Briana Jones, who’s eager to start her own business.
Severance (Apple TV+)
Imagine a world where your work and home memories can be surgically divided. Thought-provoking and wonderfully strange, this eccentric black comedy drama starring Adam Scott and directed by Ben Stiller is one of the most original shows of the year.
Star Trek: Picard (Amazon Prime)
Good old Jean-Luc Picard is right up there with Kirk, Spock, Sulu and Bones when it comes to the best-loved characters from the Star Trek universe. So when the iconic Starfleet officer – played, of course, by Sir Patrick Stewart – returned to the small screen in 2020, 26 years after Star Trek: The Next Generation ended, it was cause for great rejoicing.
Unsurprisingly, the first series of Star Trek: Picard was a spectacular, planet-hopping treat, following our hero as he came out of retirement to protect the daughter of his old friend and shipmate Data. There was also the small matter of a terminal illness that looked set to finish Picard off at the end of the season. But fortunately, right at the death, his consciousness was transferred to a synthetic body. Phew.
In the second season, which starts this week, Picard finds himself thrown back in time to the 21st century – cue lots of timely humour about the age we’re living through – and taking on an old enemy, Q. Featuring appearances from Whoopi Goldberg, who reprises her character Guinan from The Next Generation, and most of the gang from the first series, it promises to be another galaxy-sized slice of sci-fi fun.
Available Friday
