Best shows to be watching on streaming platforms, TV this week
The bodice-ripping soap opera of Bridgerton and the scandal of the Ashley Madison cheating website leak add a bit of steam to this week’s top TV picks.
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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 TEST
FRIDAY, PRIME VIDEO
History records that the 2023 Ashes series was drawn two-games apiece, with the Aussies retaining the trophy, but that doesn’t begin to tell the real story of arguably the most acrimonious series between visitors and England since Bodyline. In its third season, and with its usual astonishing access to players and commentators, The Test goes deep into the seesawing series, with cameras capturing the tense tactical moments on the field and candid exchanges in dressing rooms, as well as the lighter family scenes off the pitch. Particularly fascinating is the build-up to and aftermath of THAT moment in the Second Test when Alex Carey stumped the careless and clueless Johnny Bairstow, setting off a firestorm of fury from the home fans, rabidly partisan media, right up to the highest office in the land about what constituted the “spirit of the game”. It’s a joy to relive it, particularly through the eyes of the team’s impressive, unapologetic smiling-assassin skipper Pat Cummins, who quite correctly observes: “People use the spirit of cricket in whichever way suits them on the day”.
THIS TOWN
WEDNESDAY, 9.25, SBS
Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is back in Birmingham again, but in this gritty, compelling drama, it’s 1981 and England’s second biggest city in on fire, with disgruntled youths clashing with police and the threat of IRA violence never far away. Amid the chaos, four working-class young adults from broken families are desperately trying to escape the violence and the low expectations society has placed on them and just maybe music can show them the way. Dante is the arty weird one, whose talent for poetry is matched by an unwanted gift for violence, while his older brother Gregory has fled his criminal past for the British army in Belfast. Their cousin Bardon is vainly trying to avoid his father’s expectations of being in IRA volunteer, while skinhead Jeannie wants an outlet for her musical dreams. Inspired by Midlands acts such as The Special and The Beat, it also boasts a killer ska and rocksteady soundtrack.
BRIDGERTON
NETFLIX
Streaming’s most sumptuous soap opera has returned for another leisurely turn around our drawing rooms, this time with Luke Newton’s Colin Bridgerton and Nicola Coughlan’s Penelope Featherington to the fore. The third son in the titular dynasty has returned to the Ton after seemingly bonking his way around the Continent, setting hearts aflutter in high society. Meanwhile, Penelope, now estranged from her bestie Eloise after she discovered her secret alter ego of gossipmonger Lady Whistledown, is in her third season out in society and fretting at the prospect of being a spinster susceptible to the whims of her idiot older sisters. Together they hatch a plan to find her a husband before it’s too late. Will sparks fly? Absolutely. Will bodices rip and looks smoulder? My word they will. Will carriages be used for saucy reasons other than those intended by designers? You’ll just have to watch to find out – with the second half of the season arriving on June 13.
TASKMASTER
THURSDAY, 7.30PM, CHANNEL 10
Tom Gleeson showed in last year’s first season that he could transplant his acerbic, insulting Hard Quiz persona to another game show and bring something fresh to this local spin-off from the UK comedy hit. He’s back with sidekick Tom Cashman – aka Lesser Tom, the Smithers to Gleeson’s Monty Burns – setting ridiculous tasks to make Aussie comedians look foolish. This time around it’s Wil Anderson, Jenny Tian, Josh Thomas and real-life husband and wife Lloyd Langford and Anne Edmonds having to wrap their heads around projects such as building a scary scarecrow and making chess look cool. Inevitably they struggle with their natural instincts to entertain and actually successfully executing the task, but given that they are competing for a golden statue of Gleeson’s head as season’s end maybe winning isn’t the highest priority.
RESTORATION AUSTRALIA
THURSDAY, 8PM, ABC
Professor of architecture Anthony Burke is on a mission to return a wide range of remarkable but rundown Australian homes from the 1880s right up the 1960s to their former glory in this six-part series. In this week’s first episode, he meets Brisbane power couple Steve and Jane Wilson, who have bought riverside Federation Era mansion Lamb House – designed by revered local architect AB Wilson (no relation) in 1903 – for a staggering $13 million and are prepared to spend plenty more to rescue it from a garbage-strewn hellscape caused by squatters and vandals and make it once again a liveable family home and proud part of the city’s heritage. It’s deeply satisfying to see it slowly come back to life with the help of old-school artisans who painstakingly resurrect the stained glass, ceiling roses and delicate tile work.
STAX: SOULSVILLE USA
BINGE
This outstanding four-part documentary traces the rise and fall of Stax Records, the hugely influential record label that brought the Memphis Soul sound to the world with artists such as Carla Thomas, Sam and Dave, Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes. Founded by Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle in a converted theatre in Memphis, it defied the rampant racism and segregation of the time to become a melting pot of ideas and musical collaborations from artists united by a love of music. The dizzying highs of African-American artists breaking through to white America, the Oscar-winning triumphs of Hayes and the WattStax Benefit Concert are tempered by the premature death of Redding, legal battles and the money woes that brought it crashing down.
CALL ME COUNTRY: BEYONCE & NASHVILLE’S RENAISSANCE
BINGE, FRIDAY
When Beyonce announced she was making a country album, some eyebrows were raised but when Cowboy Carter was released in March is was a critical and commercial smash and proved that the R&B and pop great refused to be defined by genre. But it also provided an opportunity for the predominantly white and male genre to take a look at its complicated history with black artists – not to mention female and queer artists – as well as reflecting on what should be classified as country and who gets to decide. Through interviews with artists, labels and cultural commentators, this documentary examines the effect the Cowboy Carter phenomenon has had on the evolving musical landscape as well as spotlighting some of the more established black country artists who are bypassing the traditional gatekeepers through the internet and streaming.
A-LEAGUE GRAND FINAL AND FA CUP FINAL
SATURDAY, 7PM, CHANNEL 10, 10 BOLD, 10 PLAY; 11PM, PARAMOUNT+
It’s a veritable feast of football this weekend, in both Australia and England. In the A-League, the Central Coast Mariners earned the right to host the grand final and defend their champion status by squeaking past Sydney FC last weekend. In their way will be Melbourne Victory, gunning for their fifth title, which would draw them level with the Sky Blues as the most successful club. Then stay up for the decider in the oldest national football competition in the world. Current holders Manchester City will be looking to add to their record fourth-straight league title secured last weekend by taking on cross-town rivals Manchester United. As the great Danny Rojas says – football is life!
DREAM HOME
SUNDAY, 7PM, CHANNEL 7
This new renovation reality TV series, hosted by the affable Chris Brown, promises to make dreams come true for six married or sibling couples from around Australia, who own their homes but can’t afford to renovate them because of the current cost of living crisis. The catch is that they are renovating each other’s homes, with each given specific rooms to do in a two-week time frame. Their efforts will be judged by Lana Taylor of Three Birds Renovations, award-winning interior designer Rosie Morley, and top buyer’s agent Simon Cohen and with $100,000 up for grabs for the winning couple at the end of the season, you just know things are going to get spicy.
ASHLEY MADISON: SEX, LIES AND SCANDAL
NETFLIX
In July 2015, cheating website Ashley Madison was hacked in one of the biggest data breaches in history. The personal details and sexual proclivities of millions of mostly married users who had signed up with the intention of arranging an affair with like-minded souls were leaked, with the consequences of ending many marriages and sadly some lives too. By interviewing key company figures, tech journalists, police and cyber forensic experts and affected customers whose lives were torn apart, this three-part, stranger-than-fiction doco examines how some questionable tactics led to the rise of the controversial – and still operating – dating site, the devastating fallout from the breach and the ongoing mystery of who was behind it.
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Originally published as Best shows to be watching on streaming platforms, TV this week
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