Top show to watch on streaming platforms and TV this week
From a warts-and-all doco on a rock giant to a gritty, homegrown crime drama, these are the shows worth watching this week.
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.
Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story
DISNEY+
Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Gotham Chopra is best known for his documentaries on sporting greats such as Kobe Bryant and Tom Brady and has brought those skills to this fascinating, warts-and-all four-parter on stadium filling act Bon Jovi.
Made to celebrate the multi-million-selling New Jersey band’s 40th anniversary, it intersperses four decades of history with Jon Bon Jovi’s struggle to get back to full health after 2022 tour that the lead singer and band founder knows was sub-par due to his vocal problems.
Like an elite athlete facing staring down retirement, Bon Jovi says that if the best he can be is 100 per cent of 80 per cent, then he’d rather give the game away entirely and as a result the episodes almost play out like a thriller as he seeks medical advice while reflecting on the legacy that means so much to him.
Both Bon Jovi and Chopra agreed that everything had to be on the table to paint an accurate picture of the band’s rise to fame, hedonistic peak and internal squabbles and not only is there incredible archival footage of the big hair era, all the major players – yes, including departed guitarist Richie Sambora – are refreshingly candid and honest.
Tszyu v Creati
WEDNESDAY, 5.30PM, MAIN EVENT ON KAYO
There’s been plenty of spice in the lead-up to this stoush for the Australian Super Welterweight Title, with Italian Daniel Creati accusing his Aussie rival Nikita Tszyu of dangerous tactics and receiving special privilege – “and surfing the light of his father and brother” – from referees when he fights.
But fighting words count for nothing once the bell rings for the first round, so may the best man win!
Swift Street
WEDNESDAY, 8.30PM, SBS
This compelling new Melbourne shot and set crime drama hits the ground running as 21-year-old Elsie (Tanzyn Crawford) literally walks in on her father (ever-reliable chameleonic Kiwi actor Cliff Curtis) trying – and failing – to hang himself.
Haunted, hangdog, hopeless gambler and single dad Robert is 26 grand in the whole to some no-nonsense crims who are not averse to detaching a digit or two in the pursuit of a debt.
Enterprising, energetic Elsie, who is already selling fake IDs to rich kids and skimming credit cards in pursuit of her dream of opening a bike shop, agrees to turn her talents to raising the money and saving her dad’s life, making for a heartfelt, darkly funny drama that’s pulsing with energy and propelled by an excellent soundtrack.
War On Disco
WEDNESDAY, 8.30PM, SBS VICELAND
To many, the sight of John Travolta strutting down a New York street to the unmistakeable sound of the Bee Gees was the height of disco – but it also helped sow the seeds of its downfall.
After bubbling up from the clubs of New York, where it had initially been championed by the African-American, Latino and LGBTI communities, it had crossed over into the mainstream and was commodified by the mid-1970s.
But in an era when the US economy was in the toilet, it also came to represent excess, elitism and exclusion.
This doco traces that rise and the inevitable backlash that gave rise to the Disco Sucks movement and culminated in an unforgettable night at a Chicago baseball stadium where more than 50,000 people turned up to watch a shock jock detonate a crate full of records in a fascinating early example of the culture wars that are still being waged today.
Velma
THURSDAY, BINGE
The very adult-targeted spin-off/reimagining/piss-take of much-loved kids’ animated mystery Scooby Doo is back for a second season, once again with no sign of the snack-loving dog and instead focusing on geeky, highly-strung, mystery-solving Velma Dinkley (voiced by Mindy Kaling).
After catching her first serial killer in the first season, Velma is conflicted both by her new-found popularity and feelings for fellow sleuth Daphne, while bratty Fred has reinvented himself as the Spooky Stuff Hunter and guilt-stricken Norville is plagued by bloody visions.
Of course there’s a new mystery to be solved when the sheriff turns up dead, but that takes a back seat to the rapid-fire gags, oddball characters and meta pop culture references.
After the Party
SUNDAY, 8.30PM, ABC
Penny Wilding might be a straight-talking, no-nonsense teacher at an all-boys school in New Zealand, but the very sight of her ex-husband Phil (Top Of the Lake’s Peter Mullan), returning to town after five years away, is still enough to send her into a tailspin and give her flashbacks to the drunken party many years before that tore their family apart.
What Penny (a mesmerising Robyn Malcolm) saw – or thinks she saw – that night leads to her accusing Phil of a sex crime against the drunk friend of their daughter Grace, but no one believes her.
Phil’s plan to move in with Grace and her three-year-old son reopens old wounds as Penny threatens to unravel all over again in a taut, tense and sometimes uncomfortable drama that will keep you guessing.
High Country
TUESDAY, BINGE
After the combustible events of yesterday’s penultimate episode, Andie is feeling more alone than she’s even been.
Not only has she had (spoiler alert) an emotional bust-up with partner Helen, but the revelations of a child trafficking ring linked to the mysterious High Country disappearances have left her with some big questions about her very identity.
Still, there’s plenty to be tied up in the final episode including who killed the victims, at whose behest and why were they bumped off.
Leah Purcell has been rock solid all season as the dogged city cop Andie, and once again shines in the finale as she comes to terms with her own past while trying to solve the tricky case that has driven a very well worked and beautifully shot thriller, which still has plenty of twists, an almighty reveal … and the tantalising possibility of more.
The Cheap Seats
TUESDAY, 8.30PM, CHANNEL 10
Kiwi comedian Melanie Bracewell has been killing it on stage at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival these past few weeks (her free Forget Me Not comedy special on YouTube is well worth checking out too) so she will be well and truly match fit for the return of her comedy current affairs show, now into its fourth year.
Having won the Most Outstanding Entertainment Logie last year with co-host Tim McDonald, it’s likely to be a case not fixing what ain’t broke, so expect plenty of hot takes on the week’s news plus new and improved versions of Mel’s Markets, Timfomercials, Across The Ditch and What’s On What’s On In The Warehouse.
This Is Going To Be Big
TUESDAY, 8PM, ABC
This uplifting and utterly delightful two-part documentary follows the bumpy journey of the students at the Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Specialist School to put on a musical based on the work of John Farnham.
As their inspirational drama teacher Lori observes, just about everything these students – who are living with a range of physical and mental disabilities – do is more difficult than for other kids and so it proves as they learn lines, movement and songs.
But despite their challenges, the smart, funny and talented cast are determined to challenge perceptions and defy expectations through months of rehearsal right up to the big night.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll cheer, not just at the determination and resilience of these incredible children but also for the love and dedication of the parents and teachers who support them every step of the way.
Marlow Murder Club
TUESDAY, 9PM, CHANNEL 9
When an insufferably well-to-do murder suspect calls retired archaeologist Judith Potts “one of those busybodies who has nothing to fill her days and lives alone with a cat in an empty house” – he’s not far wrong.
But it also shows that Marlow Murder Club, based on Death In Paradise creator Robert Thorogood’s book of the same name, is having a little fun with the very well-worn genre of slightly eccentric, genteel amateur sleuths solving crimes in sleepy but picturesque British towns.
In this case, Potts is hunting the person who killed her art-dealer neighbour with a Nazi pistol and, with the help of the local vicar’s wife and dog-walker named Suzie, is doing a much better job than the local constabulary. It’s a leisurely, pretty stroll for mystery lovers, but not a particularly taxing one.
Humiliating blow for MAFS wife in G-string
In vulnerable, near-nude scenes, a MAFS wife strips down and makes one demand of her husband. He refuses. James Weir recaps.
MAFS scene too brutal for television
A TV insider has claimed that some seriously spicy scenes were left on the cutting room floor of last night’s dramatic episode of MAFS.