What you should be watching on TV and streaming platforms this week
From a political thriller with an Oscar-winner to pampered pooches and two Gold Logie winners trading insults, these are the shows you don’t want to miss 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.
THE EMPEROR OF OCEAN PARK
BINGE, NEW EPISODES MONDAYS
Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker is the main reason to tune into this political thriller, based on author and law professor Stephen L. Carter’s best-selling novel of the same name. The character he plays – controversial but respected conservative Judge Oliver Garland who is forced to decline a nomination to the US Supreme Court because of his longtime friendship and association with shady former CIA operative Jack Ziegler – meets an early demise but looms large over the present day intrigue through flashbacks, as does Whitaker. Garland leaves behind three children – rebellious firstborn Addison, bookish law professor Talcott and Mariah, a former investigative journalist and sometime conspiracy theorist. Mariah is convinced her father, who reinvented himself as an outspoken right-wing firebrand, was murdered rather than suffering a heart attack, especially when the mysterious “real life Bond villain” Ziegler shows up at the funeral demanding information from Tal. After a slow-burn start, all three children start to realise all it not as it seems – and the body count starts to rise as politics, wealth and power collide with devastating consequences.
MAFIA SPIES
WEDNESDAY, PARAMOUNT+
Thomas Maier, who wrote the best-selling book on which this new six-part documentary is based says that working in a world of liars and fabricators made trying to make sense of the stranger-than-fiction American plot to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro like putting together a jigsaw. Thankfully, the release of 2800 secret files in 2017 gave him some concrete information of how the fledgling CIA planned to use the Mafia – still smarting from being kicked out of their lucrative casinos in Havana – to bump off the cigar-chomping revolutionary and leave no trace of their involvement. Using flashy recreations and interviews with boffins and ex-spooks, this is a doco with the lot – girls, guns, gambling and gangsters.
STATE OF ORIGIN
WEDNESDAY, 7PM, CHANNEL 9
Sporting assignments don’t come much tougher than beating the Maroons on their home turf to win a State of Origin series and it’s a feat that the Blues haven’t managed in nearly 20 years. In fact of the 13 series deciders played in Queensland since the advent of Origin in 1982, the southern invaders have won just two. So no pressure then. But despite all that, the bookies say there is not much between the teams – the Blues will still be riding high on their record breaking first half at the MCG in game 2 and their opponents will be desperate to make amends. Should make for a classic match with biff, blood and big hits. Bring it on!
PLAT DU TOUR
THURSDAY, 8.35PM, SBS FOOD
Now in its fifth season, Guillaume Brahimi’s cooking roadshow has become as much a part of the annual Tour de France bike race as spectacular stacks and rider tantrums. And with this year’s Tour starting in Florence and winding its way through Bologna and Turin, it’s given the effervescent French chef a chance to celebrate Italian cuisine as well as that of his homeland. And he takes full advantage by demonstrating how to cook the perfect bistecca with a 1kg T-bone, upholding 1000 years of tradition with a simple but mouth-watering mortadella panini and gleefully playing second fiddle to an 83-year-old nonna and her homemade silverbeet and ricotta agnolotti. And that’s all before he even gets to France!
ARCTIC ASCENT WITH ALEX HONNOLD
DISNEY+
Master rock climber Alex Honnold’s Free Solo – documenting his epic ascent of Yosemite National Park’s formidable El Capitan alone and without ropes – was one of the most nailbiting and anxiety-inducing documentaries ever made. He has now set his sights on another peak that’s just as formidable – a 1.1km high sea wall in Greenland called Ingmikortilaq that’s never been climbed before. This time he has company to help him through the snow, glaciers and “lesser” climbs along the way as he and his climate-change-concerned colleagues collect valuable data about snow melt by rappelling into deep, icy holes and drilling into sheer cliffs from half way up.
STARSTRUCK
THURSDAY, 8.30PM, CHANNEL 7
Reality TV music competitions don’t get much more over the top – or cheesily fun – than this offering from the UK, with more sequins and glitter than Mardi Gras, more fireworks than New Year’s Eve and back-up dancing energy not seen since the days of Solid Gold. The premise is that groups of three enthusiastic amateur singers – with the help of costumes and sometimes dodgy wigs – transform into their musical heroes, with their efforts judged by The Voice Australia’s Adam Lambert, singer-songwriter Beverly Knight, comedian Jason Manford and new addition, Shania Twain. The winning trio goes through to a sing-off, with one of them going through to the final. This week’s artists are Tom Jones, Taylor Swift, Sam Smith and Chaka Khan – and the quality is surprisingly good.
BRATS
DISNEY+
As the star of beloved 1980s movies including St Elmo’s Fire and Pretty In Pink, Andrew McCarthy is a card-carrying member of the Brat Pack, that band of young, hot actors that defined a good chunk of that decade for their impact on youth culture. But even 40-odd years later he’s still not sure how he feels about the term and sets out to find fellow Brat Packers including Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy and Rob Lowe (Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson are conspicuous in their absence) to get their thoughts on how the whirlwind affected their careers. Their varied responses make for fascinating viewing, but the most interesting – and sometimes uncomfortable – exchange is between McCarthy and the mostly unrepentant journalist who coined the term for a magazine article, having no idea it would still resonate decades later.
DEAL OR NO DEAL CELEBRITY JACKPOT SPECIAL
MONDAY, 7.30PM, CHANNEL 10
Gold Logie winners Tom Gleeson and Grant Denyer make quite the double act as the acid-tongued Hard Quiz host flips the switch to contestant by observing “all I have to do is stand there and be an idiot”. The odd couple look like they are having a grand old time trading barbs about the set quality of their respective shows, ratings and success. Joining Gleeson in his quest to win $250,000 for Feel the Magic, which supports children who have lost a parent, are Aussie comedians who mostly look a bit clueless about the rules, but it’s a joy watching the chrome-domed contestant squirm as he has to say something nice about each of them to raise extra cash for his chosen charity.
DINOSAUR
MONDAY, SBS VICELAND, 10.15PM
This sweet, low-key comedy tells the story of two Glasgow sisters, Nina and Evie, whose close-knit relationship and sacred Takeaway Tuesday ritual is threatened by a sudden engagement. When the outgoing, impulsive and wildly-in-love Evie announces she’s getting married to her new beau, her parents are thrilled but Nina loudly and awkwardly exclaims that “you’ve only known this man for six weeks – you’ve had thrush that lasted longer”. Compounding the disruption is that the forthright and funny Nina has autism (as does the actor that plays her, Ashley Storrie) but refreshingly the frequent laughs to be had as she comes to terms with her new situation feel authentic to a well-drawn character rather than at the expense of the condition. Lovely stuff.
DOGS BEHAVING (VERY) BADLY
TUESDAY, 7.30PM, CHANNEL 10
Those of us with pampered and sometimes problematic pooches will know all too well that often the owners (guilty as charged, Your Honour), are just as much to blame as the animals for poor behaviour. But master dog trainer and cravat enthusiast Graham Hall is here to set everyone straight in this new season of the reality that aims to correct cantankerous and crafty canines. This week’s opening episode kicks off with Old English sheepdog Angus, who is 38kg of barking and licking exuberance who goes bananas when he has his picture taken – a big problem when he’s a local celebrity. Then there’s Slinky the dachshund who can’t help but get involved when owner Jenny does the housework and a crack squad of crazy Chihuahuas who think they run the local park. Cuteness overload alert.
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Originally published as What you should be watching on TV and streaming platforms this week
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