Death in Summer Bay and reality TV favourites with new twists: here’s what to watch this week
There’s a death on Home and Away, a quality homegrown cop drama and some new twists on a couple of reality TV favourites coming to your screens 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.
CRITICAL INCIDENT
MONDAY, STAN
This new, gritty, psychological crime drama comes from the production house behind the excellent AACTA-winning Stateless and the Emmy-winning Safe Harbour and is inspired by creator Sarah Bassiuoni’s experiences working as a lawyer in Western Sydney’s (where it was shot), juvenile justice system. Akshay Khanna plays Zil Ahmed, a “poster boy” plain clothes cop who agrees to help out his former general duties colleagues by covering an additional shift on a hot night where trouble is expected. Following an incident at an out-of-control party where an officer is assaulted, Zil attempts to apprehend Dalia, the Asian schoolgirl who lives in a group home and is already known to police, who he thinks was responsible. But during the chase a 15-year-old is seriously injured and Zil’s troubles deepen during the “critical incident” investigation that follows when it turns out that Dalia didn’t do it. His Judgement is called into question as to whether he was well rested and clear-headed after working two shifts – or whether he was out for retribution for his colleague – and the pressure of the probe, public scrutiny, racial tension and profiling and the actions of his well-meaning fellow cops take a serious toll. Top stuff.
THE TIKTOK EFFECT
STAN
This fascinating and frankly frightening documentary will leave many wondering whether to delete the juggernaut social media app from their phones immediately – and certainly question the age at which children should be exposed to it. Through interviews with former TikTok employees and other digital experts, the BBC’s disinformation and social media correspondent, Marianna Spring, examines how its algorithm works by rewarding users – sometimes financially – who create ever more dangerous and disruptive content to get views and likes. As a result, and by encouraging active participation more than any other social media outlet, the platform that began as a seemingly harmless arena for synchronised dances has been linked to riots, the spread of misinformation and a spate of amateur sleuths speculating and even interfering in ongoing criminal investigations.
TALES OF THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES
PARAMOUNT+
Fans of the hit Spider-Verse movies will love this latest iteration of the heroes in a half shell that takes them back to their 1980s comic book roots, with sketchily-drawn 2D animation and an irreverent attitude that’s bursting with punk-rock energy and music. The 12-part series is a sequel to last year’s sleeper hit Mutant Mayhem – and features many of the same voice cast, including The Bear’s Ado Edebiri as aspiring reporter April O’Neil, as well as new additions including Rose Byrne, Post Malone and Timothy Olyphant – and finds the four sewer-dwelling, ass-kicking reptiles basking in the glory and celebrity of saving New York City. But now there are new foes to fight, including killer robots, shadowy crime kingpins and another group of malicious mutants known as the East River Three. It’s fun, fast, furious and frequently funny.
ANGEL
THURSDAY, 7PLUS
As far as TV spin-offs go, this Buffy The Vampire Slayer adjacent supernatural drama’s 110 episodes over five seasons (all now available free on 7Plus as well as on Disney+) are right up there with the best. Darker and more grown-up than Buffy, it’s centred on David Boreanaz’s 240-year-old vampire with a soul, who has moved to Los Angeles for a new life as a private detective. With the help of some new characters like the half-human, half-demon Allen Francis Doyle and returning Buffy characters – Charisma Carpenter’s Cordelia is a regular but Buffy, Willow, Oz and Faith also appear over the run – Angel offers help to humans plagued by supernatural problems, while seeking his own redemption. 20 years after its premature cancellation, the stories, effects and characters still stack up.
THE DECAMERON
NETFLIX
This odd mishmash of a comedy is very loosely based on a collection of stories by 14th century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio but retains a strange resonance in the post-pandemic and lockdown era. The basic premise is that ten strangers have been invited to wealthy Count Leopoldo’s villa in the country where they can live their best lives away from an Italy being ravaged in truly disgusting fashion by the Black Death. They are a mixed bag of nobles and their servants (in one case, a handmaid posing as her mistress), from a crafty, handsome doctor preying on his patron’s hypochondria, to a married couple consisting of a closeted gay man and his sexually repressed wife. In isolation, many of polite society’s rules go out the window in an ongoing cycle of hook-ups and shifting alliances. It’s neither as funny nor bawdy as it thinks it is, but there are some good laughs to be had.
HUNTED
MONDAY, 7.30PM, CHANNEL 10
As with the first two seasons of the hit reality TV show, nine teams of two must evade capture by some seriously qualified law-enforcement personnel for 20 days in order to win big money. The catch this time though is that first they have to steal it. In this week’s opening episode, one member from each team has to execute a bank heist (organised by a retired cop who locked up more than 20 armed robbers himself) in Ballarat – and anyone who gets caught is out of the game, along with their partner. There’s a change for the Hunters too, with former deputy Reece Dewar stepping up to the top job and while he doesn’t have quite the icy unflappability of his predecessor, after 20 years of tracking terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Australian Defence Force, there’s no doubting his credentials. Cue lots of furrowed brows staring at screens, shouting into walkie-talkies and running body-cam footage and obviously, don’t try this at home kids.
HOME AND AWAY
MONDAY, 7PM, CHANNEL 7
It’s shaping up to be one of those super-eventful weeks in Summer Bay, where the sun and sand take a back seat to doom, despair and, yes … even death. One of the idyllic seaside surfing haven’s residents is going to shuffle off this mortal coil but just who is tightly under wraps. Could it be Irene, whose ongoing battle with the bottle is sinking to new lows? Or Harper, whose tricky pregnancy secretly carrying Tane’s baby recently included a fainting scare? Or maybe even Felicity, or the soon-to-be-wed Eden and Cash, should a surprise beach engagement party go horribly wrong? So many questions …
PLAY SCHOOL SCIENCE TIME
MONDAY, 8.55AM, ABC KIDS AND IVIEW
What better way to start a new week than with snot? Kids will love this mucous-tastic episode of the long-running and much loved children’s show, which kicks off a week of programming for National Science Week. Parents might wince at irrepressible host Matt’s hands-on experiment to make the gooey, green fake snot – with the simple science of germs and disease explained by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki – but hey, whatever gets them off a screen, right? There’s ten episodes and experiments in all, covering off topics including stars, spaceships, cyclones and more, with a fun assortment of boffins dropping by to help out Matt and Miah.
THE BLOCK
MONDAY, 7.30PM, CHANNEL 9
In its 20th season, the award-winning reality reno show has headed to Phillip Island, a couple of hours southeast of Melbourne. This season though, the Blockheads have been tasked with resurrecting a resort on the beachy tourist destination that has clearly seen better days. In fact, it’s an absolute bombsite when they first arrive, with the basic structural work to turn two smaller villas into mega luxury holiday homes already done – but not much else. As always, it’s a colourful collection of couples – married, engaged and mates – from all around the country, whose wildly different tastes and approaches have to be corralled by the no-nonsense ringmaster, Scott Cam and governed by the $250K budget. Tears, tantrums, triumphs and tool-related tragedies ensue as they all turn it on for the cameras and a shot at a big auction payday.
THE SECRET LIFE OF OUR URBAN BIRDS – PERTH
TUESDAY, 8.30PM, ABC
After forensically following our feathered friends on the east coast, self-confessed bird nerd Dr Ann Jones now has her binoculars trained on the other side of the Nullabor. Even as a non-twitcher, it’s hard not to get swept up by her infectious enthusiasm and formidable knowledge of the flying finery we share our cities with in this exquisitely shot documentary. Whether she’s collecting black swan poo to help prevent an all-too-plausible flu apocalypse or helping to rehabilitate vulnerable species of black cockatoos being pushed out by urbanisation, Jones makes science and conservation soar. And if you ever needed another reason to love the mighty Wedge-tailed Eagle, it’s the knowledge that they have adapted to the refuse of city life by eating tip-scavenging bin chickens.
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