From a Celine Dion doco to a fun-filled fantasy, these are the TV shows to check out this week
From Celine Dion to the Loch Ness monster, as well as a fun fantasy that takes pleasure in re-writing history, it’s a feast of top documentaries this week.
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From a confronting documentary on a pop superstar to a fun and freewheeling rewriting of history, these are the shows to check out this week.
I AM: CELINE DION
PRIME VIDEO
Near the beginning of this compelling music documentary, a young Celine Dion shares her two life dreams – to be an international star and to sing all her life. With more than 250 albums sold, there’s no question she achieved the first goal, but whether the 56-year-old French-Canadian chanteuse can manage the second remains to be seen. As well as tracing Dion’s stellar career from being the youngest of 14 children in Quebec to a lavish Las Vegas mansion as one of the most popular stars of her era, I Am also explores her battle with stiff-person syndrome, a very rare neurological condition that affects the muscles and has robbed her of her extraordinary instrument. The scenes of her at home with her children are interspersed with concert and studio footage – and a tribute to her old friend John Farnham. But most affecting – and sometimes very difficult to watch – is her sorrow and suffering not being able to record and perform to her own exacting standards, and harrowing episode that renders her unable to move.
STATE OF ORIGIN
WEDNESDAY, CHANNEL 9, 7PM
One of the biggest sporting rivalries in the country heads south for game two to the neutral territory of the MCG, with more than 90,000 fans expected to turn out to see a bunch of big, boofy blokes go toe-to-toe with state pride on the line. The NSW Blues are already deep in a hole having been smashed 32-10 in the first match on home soil and the Queensland Maroons can win their third series on the trot by repeating the feat tonight. There’s also an almighty comeback story for Blues utility Connor Watson who spent 18 months on the sideline after a serious knee injury and was in a wheelchair this time last year. Injured Maroons playmaker Cameron Munster will also join the team as a guest commentator and ARIA-winning rockers The Temper Trap provide the pre-match entertainment.
THE LAND OF WOMEN
APPLE TV+
Latina powerhouse Eva Longoria executive produced and stars in this multilingual dramedy, inspired by Sandra Berneda’s best-selling novel. The Desperate Housewives actor plays a well-heeled New York wine enthusiast who discovers her husband is $15 million in the hole, when hired goons crash her brand launch demanding payment. When he skedaddles, she must bust her ageing mother Julia out of her nursing home and spring her teenage daughter Kate from her fancy school and flee the country with what little cash she can rustle up taped to her body. Their destination is La Muga, the small Spanish winemaking village that Julia left years before under dubious circumstances – and not everyone is pleased to her return.
LOCH NESS: THEY CREATED A MONSTER
WEDNESDAY, 10.50PM, SBS VICELAND
Along with Bigfoot and the Yeti, the Loch Ness monster – or Nessie – has been one of the most enduring and beloved mythical creatures to ever enter popular culture with everyone from The Goodies to The Simpsons paying homage. This documentary is less about the serpent-like creature that supposedly inhabits the long, narrow and deep lake in the Highlands of Scotland, and more about the motley band of enthusiasts in the 1970s and 1980s who considered discovering proof it existed to be the “zoological Mount Everest”. Foremost among them was former English soldier Frank Searle, who devoted himself to finding photographic evidence … all of which turned out to be absolute fakery.
MY LADY JANE
THURSDAY, PRIME VIDEO
History purists will be having conniptions at this retelling of the life of Lady Jane Grey, the 15th noblewoman who sat on the English throne for a grand total of nine days before being beheaded. For anyone else though, it’s a whole lot of fun, thumbing its nose at both the history books and the male dominated royal machine. Creator Gemma Burgess has described it as The Princess Bride meets Buffy meets Blackadder and has come up with a world full of mirth, machinations and magical creatures in which the feisty title character escapes the headsman’s axe and is determined to forge her own path.
TOUR DE FORCE: UNCHAINED
NETFLIX
Arriving just in time for this year’s event, the second season of Unchained takes views behind the scenes of the world’s greatest cycling race with incredible access to the top riders and teams, as well as journalists and commentators. Beginning a couple of weeks before last year’s tour, all eyes are on the two favourites Jonas Vingegard and Tadej Pogacar and the sport is still reeling from the death of a rider in the Tour De Suisse. The tragedy is a stark reminder of just how dangerous the sport can be and it’s fascinating to watch how high stakes it is too, with big money and prestige in play, giving rise to some spectacular swearing fits and tantrums.
THE TOUR DE FRANCE
SATURDAY, 8.30PM, SBS
It’s the world’s biggest annual sporting event and it’s getting a bit of a makeover this years. For starters, the 111th Tour France will actually begin in Italy, kicking off in Florence before heading to Bologna, Torino, San Marino, Monaco – across nearly 4000km and 52,340m of vertical gain – and finishes up in Nice rather than Paris for the first time. Not that that will matter in the slightest to the diehard tour fans of the Tour and the Tour De France Femmes, who be burning the midnight oil for the next three weeks accompanied by Aussie cycling experts Matthew Keenan and Bridie O’Donnell. Realistically, there are no Aussies in the mix for top spot sadly, despite Jai Hindley’s 7th place last year.
NINE LIVES OF …
SATURDAY, 8.30PM, SBS VICELAND
It’s all too easy to get cancelled this days – getting uncancelled is another matter entirely. This 10-part documentary focuses on celebrities of all stripes – from Paris Hilton to Tiger Woods to Joe Rogan – who have had spectacular falls from grace but have somehow managed to rise from the ashes. This week’s first episode features Arnold Schwarzenegger and his rise from Austrian bodybuilder to the biggest movie star in the world before taking charge of the fifth biggest economy in the world as Governor of California. But as his star rose, so too did the rumours of Nazi father, sexual assault allegations and fathering a child with his housekeeper while his wife Maria was also pregnant under the same roof.
HARD QUIZ KIDS
SATURDAY, 7.30PM, ABC
Tom Gleeson’s spin-off aimed of his hit trivia show is proving to be fine weekend family entertainment. This new version follows the same rules but has with teens and tweens for contestants, who often prove to be wise (and sometimes cynical) beyond their years. This week’s batch of young smarties include capital city expert Max, Hello Kitty enthusiast Ayesha, aviation disasters student Rav and The Wizard of Oz guru Connor. And if you think the acerbic host goes easy on them just because they kids, then think again, but they dish it right back, hilariously and with interest.
MURDER IS EASY
SUNDAY, BINGE
Agatha Christie fans will love this two-part adaptation – and reimagining – of the revered author’s serial killer thriller that begins with a chance encounter on a train in 1950s England between Luke Fitzwilliam, a young, ambitions Nigerian attache bound for a job in London and the kindly, elderly Miss Pinkerton. After offering him some handmade fudge, she reveals that there is a killer on the loose in her sleepy village of Wychwood Under Ashe. When Miss Pinkerton meets an untimely end, he resolves to investigate the mysterious deaths and is met with a rogues gallery of suspects, as well as suspicion, racism and class prejudice from the snooty residents.
Best of TV and streaming this week
From a fun family remake of a 1980s classic to a documentary featuring Stormy Daniels’ account of her tryst with Donald Trump, these are the shows that you don’t want to miss this week.
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