The binge-worthy best across TV, film, music and podcasts
These may have slipped under the radar, but they are some of the best movies, music, TV shows and podcasts going around that are worth a look, watch or listen.
Entertainment
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So you’ve already devoured all the shows which nabbed awards and made headlines at the Golden Globes — Fleabag, Succession, Chernobyl and Morning Wars – and fear there’s nothing left on the box to entertain, apart from celebrities eating entrails in the jungle or cricketers at the crease.
Well, all is not lost just because it’s non-ratings season. There are still plenty of shows worth binge-watching this summer.
The same goes for movies, music and podcasts. We’ve pulled together a best-of binge list to keep you chugging along this summer.
MUSIC – KATHY MCCABE
Prince – 1999 (Super Deluxe Edition)
This one may have slipped under your release radar as it came out in late November. There was a physical box set going for $400 but you can also take the streaming route and enjoy 65 songs – the final recorded versions, demos and live cuts – when you have a spare five hours and 53 minutes. This opus was a major crossover moment for the legendary artist courtesy of pop hits including 1999 and Little Red Corvette.
Monthly Mixtape by Zan Rowe
The regularly updated playlist from the respected Double J Mornings presenter is a something for everyone collection of new tunes. Her 2019 best-of mixtape is an awesome summer soundtrack while also turning you onto a host of great songs you may have missed during the year including the tribal chant of Only Human by KH and the Stevie Nicks-channelling Red Bull & Hennessy by Jenny Lewis.
Holy Holy, My Own Pool Of Light
The Australian duo scored their first ARIA Awards nomination with their third album, a complex, shapeshifting collection of songs which cemented the lofty creative ambitions of Oscar Dawson and Tim Carroll to be much more than a rock band. Standout songs include singles Faces and Teach Me About Dying, alongside the driving, multi-layered Sandra and beats and piano driven People.
Linda Ronstadt: The Sound Of My Voice
As Linda Ronstadt’s good friend and collaborator Dolly Parton says in this compelling documentary: “She could sing literally anything.” And she did. From her folk rock beginnings to west coast rock rising – future Eagles Don Henley and Glenn Frey played in her band – from Gilbert and Sullivan musicals to Mexican traditional songs, Ronstadt did everything her way, much to the chagrin of the industry gatekeepers. She was forced to retire her once-in-a-lifetime voice a decade ago when she was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy.
Broken Record podcast
You can find this one on all the usual streaming platforms and it’s a must-listen for music nerds. With the tag of “Liner notes for the digital age”, the podcast is three seasons in and features the artist-whisperer aka producer Rick Rubin chatting to singers and songwriters from OutKast’s Andre 3000 to Alabama Shakes frontman Brittany Howard about their creative process, sources of inspiration and works in progress.
TV – SIOBHAN DUCK
Upright, Foxtel
Tim Minchin is Lucky by name but not by nature in this quirky tale about a prodigal son travelling across the Nullarbor with his piano to pay one last visit to his mother on her deathbed. Lucky is a musician. He is selfish and as a result lives a lonely life until a car crash forces him to share his car journey with a teenager named Meg. Like Lucky, Meg is a loner who is keeping secrets about her family history. The pair begin to forge an unlikely friendship that will help both move on from their past. Upright was written by Minchin and the Chaser’s Chris Taylor, so expect lots of offbeat humour with a dark edge.
Why Women Kill, 10 Play
If you loved Desperate Housewives in its heyday then you will enjoy this black comedy about three dysfunctional marriages set across three different decades. Simone (Lucy Liu) is married to a closeted gay man in the 1980s, Beth Ann’s husband is having an affair with a waitress in the 1960s and Taylor is happily involved in a polyamorous marriage in the 2000s. The three seemingly have nothing in common except for the fact that they all lived in the same house when someone was killed. Just who was killed and why will unfold over the course of the series and make clear that you can never know what goes on behind closed doors.
Barry, Foxtel
EVERYONE in LA wants to be an actor but until they get their big break they must
find other ways to pay the bills. For some people this means washing dishes or parking cars but for Barry it’s a far dirtier job. You see, before he discovers his passion for the stage Barry (Bill Hader) has spent his days killing people for money.
The ex-soldier is pretty satisfied with his life until he’s hired to kill an actor who moonlights as a personal trainer. When Barry follows his mark into an acting class, he realises there may be more to life then shooting people. Both Hader and Henry Winkler (who plays Barry’s acting teacher) won awards for their roles in this dark comedy which pokes fun at life in LA in the same way the movie Get Shorty did.
Sex Education, Netflix
Season two of this quirky coming-of-age drama landed on Netflix on Friday (January 17). What’s it about? Well, people of a certain age bracket might liken Sex Education to The Wonder Years – if Kevin Arnold was in possession of the Kama Sutra. In this case, Otis (Asha Butterfield) is a socially awkward teenager who is uncomfortable with the forthright attitude to sex of his mother (Gillian Anderson). Despite his lack of personal experience, Otis finds his niche at high school as a sex therapist by drawing on his mother’s work as a counsellor.
The Bold Type, Stan
This show is Sex and the City for the new millennium. Instead of Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha we have Jane, Sutton and Kat, three young women who work at the same fashion magazine. Jane wants to be a serious journalist, Kat is a social media guru and Sutton is a PA who longs to do something more than fetch the coffee and take messages for her unappreciative boss. I’ll be honest, this isn’t award-winning television. The performances are mediocre and the storylines are predictable. It’s everything The Handmaid’s Tale is not. But that’s what makes it so fabulous. Season five lands on January 25.
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FILM – LEIGH PAATSCH
The James Bond Collection, Foxtel Now
Come April, the whole world will be going crazy over the arrival of the 25th James Bond movie, No Time to Die. So there’s no better time than now to go into training to be ready for the main event. Foxtel’s various platforms are currently holding every Bond film ever made, a 007 overload sure to leave you shaken and stirred for months!
Shazam! Foxtel Now, Netflix
This endearingly silly crowd-pleaser was one of the great surprises of 2019, both sending up and staring down every stale and stodgy superhero flick ever made. A spry, clever and unpretentious tale revolves around a 14-year-old kid (Asher Angel) who suddenly becomes a 35-year-old superhero (Zachary Levi) whenever he says the word ‘Shazam!’. If you missed it on the big screen, now’s the chance to catch up.
Three Identical Strangers, iTunes, Google, YouTube Movies
An incredible documentary, available once more as a streaming rental after a notable absence. Robert Shafran, Edward Galland and David Kellman were born identical triplets, only to be adopted out. Somehow, the brothers found one another as adults. This alone would make for a cracking doco. But there is more. So much more. The upbeat coincidence of this chance reunion is gradually overshadowed by the possibility there was nothing coincidental about their separation at birth. Amazing stuff.
6 Underground, Netflix
Ryan Reynolds and a few Deadpool key creatives recently convened to make an all-stops-out blockbuster. The first half-hour of 6 Underground is about as good as artfully aggressive action filmmaking can get in the modern era. It is here the team mount a brain-melting combo of a car chase, a shootout, high-altitude parkour and mobile medical surgery. All while weaving, swerving and skidding at top speed through the crowded streets of Rome.
The Australian Films Collection, SBS on Demand
The SBS online portal is forever rolling great Australian cinema in and out of rotation, and best of all, it is totally free. There are currently 27 local titles housed in the ‘Homegrown Cinema’ section, spearheaded by the best Australian film of the past decade (the eerie outback western Sweet Country), some proven classics (Lantana, My Brilliant Career, Death in Brunswick) and the odd wildcard pick (try That’s Not Me on for size).
PODCASTS – NADIA SALEMME
The Lighthouse
The Australian’s National Crime Correspondent David Murray joined the unofficial search party in Byron Bay, on the northern NSW coast, for missing Belgian backpacker Theo Hayez. At the request of Theo’s family, Murray spent three months embedded with the search, investigating the theories and clues, retracing his last known steps and discovering a surprising and secretive side to the idyllic coastal community.
Life and Crimes with Andrew Rule
The journalist behind the Underbelly and Chopper books has recently published his 100th episode of this compelling weekly true-crime series. Rule digs into his decades of experience as a veteran crime reporter to tell never-before-heard stories and personal anecdotes from victims, police and criminals.
After Work Drinks
Millennial journalists Isabelle Truman and Grace O’Neil host this weekly pop culture, news and entertainment podcast. The London-based Australians – formerly of Elle and Marie Claire magazines – have their fingers firmly on the pulse, tackling subjects such as “unpacking Megxit”, Instagram face, and why Harry Styles is almost single-handedly “setting a new precedent when it comes to style and sexuality”. With flair and a candid tone, After Work Drinks is finger-on-the-pulse pop culture commentary at its most relevant.
Catch and Kill with Ronan Farrow
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow played a huge role in exposing disgraced Hollywood mogul, Harvey Weinstein, through his ground-breaking reports published in The New Yorker. His gripping five-episode podcast, The Catch and Kill, goes behind Farrow’s investigation into sexual harassment in Hollywood, interviewing the whistleblowers behind his stories on Weinstein. He speaks to a private investigator, veteran TV news producer and the disgraced movie producer’s former assistant, as he paints a portrait of Weinstein’s alleged crimes.
This podcast is a sequel and commentary on Farrow’s best-selling book, Catch and Kill.
To Live and Die in LA: She wanted to be a Hollywood star but Adea Shabani ended up brutally killed in the City of Angels. The aspiring actor and model, aged 25, vanished from outside her apartment on Hollywood Boulevard — near the star-studded “Walk of Fame” — in February last year, never to be seen alive again.
Her murder is the subject of the addictive true crime podcast, To Live and Die in LA. Neil Strauss — the New York Times best-selling author of The Game and The Truth — conducted a year-long probe into the Macedonian native’s disappearance … as the story unfolded.
“What you’re about to hear is not a cold case, it is everything that I’m currently experiencing as the immediate investigation is unfolding — in real time,” Strauss says in the opening episode. In a word: chilling.