Shows not to miss: rugby league under the microscope; Tom Hanks’ nature spectacular
It’s all about the documentaries this week, with a thought-provoking look at the state of rugby league, Tom Hanks’ nature spectacular and magician David Blaine putting his life on the line.
TV
Don't miss out on the headlines from TV. Followed categories will be added to My News.
We’ve sifted through the latest offerings from TV and streaming platforms to find the best shows you should be watching this week.
SKIN IN THE GAME
SUNDAY, 8.30PM, NITV, SBS
This documentary hosted by commentator and self-described “rugby league tragic” Marlee Silva makes for both sobering and inspirational viewing for fans of the sport. Having grown up around the game – her father “Rocket” Rod Sliva scored the winning try for the Canterbury Bulldogs in the 1995 grand final just three weeks after she was born – she’s seen both the good and bad effects that the code can have on society more broadly. She’s observed first-hand how embracing the game helped her Indigenous father break his family’s cycle of poverty, but through covering league professionally has also watched scandal after scandal involving NRL players, often involving violence and sexual assault against women. By talking to players, coaches, law enforcement, academics and, eventually, NRL boss Peter V’landys, Silva investigates whether rugby league’s traditionally hyper-masculine culture – and the code of silence and sense of brotherhood within teams – reflect a wider problem of women being treated as second class citizens or whether evolving attitudes and the rise of the National Women’s Rugby League can affect real change. The conclusions aren’t always pretty, but they are important conversations to have.
BELOW DECK MEDITERRANEAN
WEDNESDAY, 8.30PM, 7BRAVO, 7Plus
Those already on board with the best looking reality TV franchise going around will know that the first episode in any season is all about getting to know the new crew – who they are, where they are from, and, most importantly, are they single? Rejoining the formidable Captain Sandy on board the 180 foot Mystique for luxe trips out of Athens is Kiwi Chief Steward Aesha, back on the sparkling Aegean after a couple of seasons crewing in Australia. Together they wrangle the impossibly good looking collection of humans including South African bosun Iain, self-taught Antiguan chef Jono, Gael the Aussie deckhand and Irish hunk Nathan, who just about needs subtitles, as they cater to the every whim of a social influencer from London and his posse of content-creating mates, who all look way too young to afford a super yacht.
LONG BRIGHT RIVER
STAN
In the vein of the magnificent Mare Of Easttown – but not as good – Amanda Seyfried is the best thing about this eight-part suspense thriller adapted by author Liz Moore from her best-selling novel of the same name. The Emmy-winning actor brings a tenacity and world-weariness to her central role Mickey, a police officer who now patrols the rough Philadelphia neighbourhood she grew up in and which is now depressingly riddled with homelessness, crime and opioid addiction. When some of the women she has sworn to protect – including her addict sister Kacey – start turning up dead, Mickey is horrified by the indifference of a system that’s all too prepared to write them off as victims of their own choices, and is convinced there are darker, murderous motives in play.
SECRETS OF THE ZOO
THURSDAY, 8.34PM, ABC FAMILY
If viewers can make it through the opening few minutes of his behind-the-scenes look at the Columbus Zoo, with a knocked out orang-utan repeatedly soiling itself on the operating table, they will be rewarded with a series that celebrates the knowledge, skill, passion and compassion of the vets and animal handlers who work there. Apart from the 45-year-old Dumplin – one of the older apes in captivity, who is struggling with arthritis – there are affectionate penguins, baby deer and absurdly cute beavers to marvel at. Most delightful though is the attempt to integrate five orphaned dhole (wild dogs from Asia) puppies into the zoo’s pack, a stressful and fraught exercise that literally leaves the zoo staffers in tears.
THE ELECTRIC STATE
NETFLIX
Swedish writer Simon Stalenhag’s 2018 illustrated novel of the same name deserved a better adaptation than this pedestrian one starring Millie Bobbie Brown and Chris Pratt. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo – who are yet to follow up their mighty achievements on the last two Avengers films with anything remotely as good – seemingly can’t decide whether they wanted this to be a Spielberg-esque (his similarly themed Ready Player One is much better) family adventure romp or smart sci-fi with something to say about artificial intelligence and reportedly spent half a billion dollars coming up with neither. Brown is fine as the determined sister trying to find her genius brother in a walled off part of post-Apocalyptic America now populated by sentient robots and her co-star is in peak Pratt-mode as the cocky black market trader helping her out, but it mostly feels like pointless mishmash of movies you’ve seen before.
MASTERMIND AUSTRALIA
MONDAY, 6PM, SBS
The seventh season of the homegrown version of the long-running quiz show kicks off with a twist – a themed week of Generation Wars. There’s a broad array of topics on offer for the first episode with Joshua showing off his knowledge of sports cars for Gen Z, Victoria repping the Millennials and her self-admitted nerdiness with the finer points of the Monsters Inc universe, Gen X writer Michelle doing a deep dive into Anne Of Green Gables writer L.M. Montgomery, and tour host Paul playing for the honour of the Boomers with UK comedian Tony Hancock as his specialist subject. Marc Fennell handles the hosting and banter duties with his usual aplomb and it’s nice to see the beleaguered Gulf of Mexico get a shout-out in the general knowledge round. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
DAVID BLAINE: DO NOT ATTEMPT
MONDAY, DISNEY+
American magician David Blaine has put his body through the wringer for decades in the pursuit of his mind-bending tricks, but some of the people he meets in his new six-part documentary series make his exploits look positively tame. In it, he travels the world to seek out kindred spirits who perform real feats that look like they must be magic and each episode is prefaced by the very sensible warning of NOT trying this at home. Given that his own magical journey began with a book called Swami Mantra, his visit to India is particularly resonant and there he marvels at swamis and strongmen whose exploits will make you wince in pain. And in Japan, he’s particularly taken with the dedication and meticulousness that’s built into the culture and helps produce wonders like modern-day Samurai Isao Machii, who can slice in mid-air a ball bearing fired at 350km.
THE AMERICAS
TUESDAY, 7.30PM, CHANNEL 7
The pedigree for this ten-part nature documentary series is insane – produced by Mike Gunton, the maker of Life and Planet Earth II, scored by Grammy-winning composer Hans Zimmer and narrated by two-time Oscar-winner Tom Hanks. And it well and truly lives up to the promise as it explores the supercontinent from the northern reaches of Canada, through the wildly varied environments of the US and the vast Amazon rainforest, all the way to the tip of Patagonia. This week’s first episode zooms in on the Atlantic Coast, with the wild horses that inhabit the Outer Banks off the coast of Carolina, which is also home to scary looking but surprisingly social sand tiger sharks. Also wonder at the remarkable return of the bald eagle in one of the busiest water ways in the US, Chesapeake Bay, and the wily and adaptable raccoons who have made their home in New York’s Central Park.
DONAL’S REAL TIME RECIPES
TUESDAY, 8PM, SBS FOOD
Cooking shows are dime a dozen but all too many assume the luxury of time and a kitchen stocked with every ingredient and appliance under the sun. Irish TV presenter and celebrity chef Donal Skehan’s mantra of feeding families fast and making every minute matter will resonate with busy parents and he’s not afraid to break a few rules to speed up the cooking process. This week, he shares his pasta favourites – and single-handedly props up the global olive oil and parmesan industry – with a delicious looking ragu bianco, a dead-easy one-pot chicken and mushroom pasta, a messy but creative chopping board pesto pasta and a spiced meatballs with burst tomatoes past that will feed the family for a week.
SMALL TOWN BIG STORY
BINGE
Irish IT Crowd and Bridesmaids star Chris O’Dowd wrote and directed this six-part black comedy set in his homeland. Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks is has her icily imperious best as Wendy, who left the sleepy fictional Irish village of Drumban decades earlier and is now a hard-nosed producer in Hollywood for HWAT Pictures (Hollywood With a Twist), whose previous output includes ridiculous titles such as Shakespeare in College. With a location to find for their next movie I Am Celt, Drumban is down to the last two choices, and its locals will stop at nothing to nobble the competition and snare those big TV dollars. Part of the committee is Paddy Considine’s local doctor Seamus, who has a murky history and unfinished business with Wendy, including a mysterious incident that may or may not involve aliens. The two leads are great together, but inevitably most of the gentle comedy comes from the village’s motley collection of oddballs brushing up against the showbiz machine.
MAFS bride exposed for ‘lying’ to viewers
Married At First Sight bride Jacqui has been exposed in an alleged lie after her groom Ryan revealed the truth on Instagram.
Is Netflix’s smash hit based on a true story?
Adolescence has become a huge breakout hit in the vein of Baby Reindeer, and what inspired it is even more horrifying.