Top TV shows this week: Wacky witches in Agatha All Along, grub prince in A Very Royal Scandal
From a fun and freaky new offshoot of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a grubby prince behaving very badly, there’s plenty to enjoy on the small screen this week.
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We’ve sifted through the latest offerings from TV and streaming platforms to find the best shows you should be watching this week.
AGATHA ALL ALONG
DISNEY+, NEW EPISODES WEDNESDAYS
It’s astonishing to think that – theoretically at least – any point in Agatha All Along the Hulk could pitch up and start smashing or a heavily armed Rocket Raccoon could drop by. But such is the breadth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that after 34 movies and ten spin-off TV series, it’s still coming up with new ideas and unexplored corners of its ever-expanding worlds. In this latest entry, Katherine Hahn reprises her role as the Salem witch Agatha Harkness, who had her powers stripped by Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlett Witch at the end of WandaVision – and a passing knowledge at very least of that show is highly recommended. After escaping from the spell she’s been trapped in with the help of a mysterious teenage boy, Agatha enlists the help of a new coven to walk the “Witches’ Road”, which will grant the heart’s desire of anyone who survives to the end. Hahn deftly balances the mix of action, comedy, music, and trippy drama as the funny, acerbic Agatha, alongside a terrific cast that also includes Broadway great Patti LuPone and the always watchable Aubrey Plaza.
MASTERS OF TASTE WITH GARY MEHIGAN
WEDNESDAY, 9PM, SBS FOOD
Former MasterChef star Gary Mehigan returns with a second season of what is basically his love letter to the colour, culture, traditions and robust flavours of Indian food, explored through one community and one cuisine each episode. This week he’s exploring Punjabi dishes and enlists the help of local celebrity chef and liquor baron Rocky Mohan, as well as taking to the streets to try delicacies such as the delicious looking chole bhature, with the smells and tastes almost bursting through the screen. As Mohan whips up a Punjabi gosht, with easy to follow screen instructions, Mehigan returns the favour with a pear and pecan trifle, just like the one his mum used to cook.
INSIDE OUT 2
WEDNESDAY, DISNEY+
There’s a good reason this superb sequel has become the highest grossing movie of the year to date and the highest grossing animated movie ever – it’s also one of the best. Amy Poehler returns as Joy, the leader of the mixed bag of emotions including Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, which live inside the mind of newly minted teenager, Riley. But this time she’s joined by a slew of new emotions, chief among them the unpredictable and chaotic Anxiety, voiced by Maya Hawke. As Riley adjusts to her social and emotional challenges as a teenager, the emotions once again have to traverse and negotiate the spectacularly rendered recesses of her mind. Brilliant viewing for the entire family.
THE HUNT
THURSDAY, SBS ON DEMAND
Inspired by a real case that fascinated and appalled the Netherlands for more than a decade, this Dutch drama kicks off in 1999, when the body of the 16-year-old Anneke, from a small farming village, is found in a field near an asylum seekers’ centre. Her schoolmate Fenne had been one of the last people to see her alive the previous night after a drunken bender where she witnessed an altercation with Anneke’s boyfriend, as well as a run-in with some of the young Afghan refugees who were also seen in the area. As a media storm descends on the tight-knight community struggling to deal with the tragedy – and with the police baffled – xenophobia and social media fuelled conspiracy theories begin to take hold.
A VERY ROYAL SCANDAL
PRIME VIDEO
If you’re getting deja vu about this dramatised account of Prince Andrew’s car crash interview with BBC journalist Maitlis over his association with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, it’s no wonder – the excellent Scoop with Rufus Sewell as the disgraced royal and Gillian Anderson as the newshound was released on Netflix in April. But the story is big enough – and grubby enough – to justify another look, especially when this one zooms out much further over its three episodes to more closely examine the Prince’s dealings with Epstein in the preceding decades. Michael Sheen, who has previously played real life figures from Tony Blair to David Frost, is suitably repellent as the arrogant, entitled Andrew, with Luther and The Affair star Ruth Wilson also shining as his ruthless interrogator.
AFL GRAND FINAL
SATURDAY, FROM 9AM, CHANNEL 7
It’s shaping up as a cracker of a season finale this year as the losing teams from the past two grand finals square off. But will there be redemption for Sydney for their shabby capitulation to Geelong in 2022 or will it be victory for Brisbane after their loss to Collingwood last year by less than a kick? Settle in for hours of analysis – not to mention a performance by Katy Perry – before the bounce at 2.30pm and then stick around for the presentations and post-match analysis. The Front Bar crew also farewell the season on Thursday night at 8.30pm, with help from Blues coach Michael Voss, AFL CEO Andrew Dillon and live performance from Birds Of Tokyo.
TWILIGHT OF THE GODS
NETFLIX
After taking on zombies in Dawn of the Dead, Greek legend in 300, superheroes with the DC Extended Universe and Star Wars with his shameless rip-off Rebel Moon, director Zack Snyder has turned his hand to Norse mythology. And it’s pretty much exactly as you expect his take to be – dark, bloody, full of sex and violence and definitely not for kids. At the heart of it is a love story between a fierce warrior (voiced by Sylvia Hoeks) and a mighty king (Stuart Martin), fuelled by vengeance when a psycho version of God of Thunder Thor (Game of Thrones’ Pilou Asbaek) turns their wedding into a massacre. The action and otherworldly environments and creatures look spectacular and the action rattles along through the half-hour episodes, but it’s probably best suited to the true Snyder believers.
OUTBACK CRYSTAL HUNTERS
MONDAY, 8.30PM, 7MATE
Next time you’re having a crappy day at work, spare a thought for the hardy souls who are trying to make a living extracting precious crystals from the ground in environments as diverse as the searing Outback to frigid Tasmania. To be fair, on the whole they look like there’s no place they’d rather be and the rewards can be alluring with some crystals in high demand to fuel a wellness/woo-woo industry worth more than $4 trillion a year. To cash in, Patrick Gunderson is defying 40C heat in the ancient Pilbara to safely remove an amethyst cluster potentially worth a million dollars, Pete and Kyle are working to a deadline to get their hands on fragile crocoite in a former silver mine on the Apple Isle and Ebriony and Frankie are literally picking up thousands of dollars’ worth of topaz from the remote Queensland soil.
MONSTERS: THE LYLE AND ERIK MENENDEZ STORY
NETFLIX
After the disturbing deep dive on serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in the first season of this crime drama anthology, creators Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story, American Crime Story) and Ian Brennan (Glee, Scream Queens) have focused on the horrific 1989 murder case when entitled, bratty brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez shot their rich, awful parents Jose and Kitty. After initially thinking they had got away with it by blaming the mafia, the brothers were arrested – they are both serving life sentences without the possibility of parole – and claimed decades of sexual, physical and emotional abuse for their actions. The cast is strong – Oscar-winner Javier Bardem a standout as the vile Jose – but with just about everyone so deeply flawed and dislikable, it becomes a bit of a slog by the end.
TAKE 5
TUESDAY, 8.30PM, ABC
Broadcaster and music guru Zan Rowe is back with her third series of her excellent music documentary, which gives luminaries a theme and asks them to pick out five songs that resonate deeply. Coming up this season are Bill Bailey, Claudia Karvan, Neil Finn, Bernard Fanning and Casey Donovan, but this week’s opening episode has Dannii Minogue opening up on the tracks that shaped her. With selections including Madonna and older sister Kylie, the pop princess and former Young Talent Time star reveals the huge influence the late Olivia Newton-John had on her life and career and gets emotional at the impact cancer has had on her family and friends – and the tunes that helped her through the tough times.
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Originally published as Top TV shows this week: Wacky witches in Agatha All Along, grub prince in A Very Royal Scandal
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