Top TV shows to watch this week: Dune prequel with GoT vibes, plus a bonkers boxing showdown
Dune: Prophecy carries the torch from the hit movies in spectacular fashion, Iron Mike Tyson gets back in the ring and a music doco will tug at the heartstrings.
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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.
DUNE: PROPHECY
MONDAY, BINGE
Following director Denis Villeneuve’s magnificent Dune and Dune: Part Two – the screen adaptations that Frank Herbert’s seminal 1965 sci-fi book have long deserved – was always going to be a tough ask. But by setting the action 10,000 years before the events of the Timothee Chalomet’s Messianic Paul Atreides and expanding the universe, this new six-part series has come up with something not quite as impressive but nevertheless richly rewarding and full of possibilities. While the look and tone lean into Villeneuve’s vision (he wasn’t involved but it’s set in the same universe), it also has a distinct Game Of Thrones feel to it with warring houses, political machinations, mystical elements and, yes, plenty of sex and violence. The story delves into the early days of the Bene Gesserit – the shadowy sect of women obsessed with curating genetic lines to breed future leaders they can then control – and particularly its scheming, powerful leader Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson). Travis Fimmel (one of many Aussies in the cast) is a mysterious soldier with deadly powers who commands the ear of the Emperor (Mark Strong) and threatens to thwart her goals.
MICHAEL MOSELEY’S WONDERS OF THE HUMAN BODY
WEDNESDAY, 7.35PM, SBS
It’s bittersweet seeing UK journalist-presenter Michael Mosley on our screens again after his untimely death in Greece this year. His wife Claire touchingly introduces his three-part swan song, which is a timely reminder of his talents and why he will be missed for his boundless enthusiasm, passion to educate and inform and willingness to put his body on the line in the same of science. This time he’s investigating some recent breakthroughs in medical technology, including a test that can predict the likelihood of heart disease, a revolutionary procedure that gives a man suffering uncontrollable tremors his life back, and the innovations that mean we are now six times more likely to survive cancer than we were 40 years ago.
TARONGA: WHO’S WHO IN THE ZOO
WEDNESDAY, 7.30PM, CHANNEL 9
Next time you’re having a tough day at the office, spare a thought for the dedicated team at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo facing the prospect of taking a 160kg lion to the dentist. But calming, sedating and operating on big cats is just one of the many complicated tasks that happen behind the scenes at one of the world’s most popular and picturesque zoos. It’s both delightful and inspirational to get up close and personal with many of the attractions thanks to the terrific access given to the cameras and the easygoing narration from actor Virginia Gay. Also in this week’s series return episode is a peek into the new nocturnal house, where day and night have been flipped around, and if there’s anything cuter than a three-week-old seal pup learning to swim, I’m yet to see it.
THE BIG TRIP
WEDNESDAY, 8.30PM, CHANNEL 7
Fans of the Amazing Race will find plenty to like it this more low-key reality game show hosted by comedian Dave Thornton, which moves at a slower clip and is as much about the journey as the destination. Four pairs of friends – Australian Survivor buddies Lydia Lassila and Pia Miranda, comedian colleagues Anthony “Lehmo” Lehman and Dilruk Jayasinha, former drama school students and one time boyfriend and girlfriend Gyton Grantley and Nikki Osborne, and 2021 winners of The Block Mitch Edwards and Mark McKie – will travel 3000km from the Nullarbor to Sydney. On the way, they will be scored on a series of challenges, such as speed oyster eating and recreating the famous bus scene from The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert in the first episode, and the winners get to gift $300,000 worth of cars to their fans.
SAY NOTHING
THURSDAY, DISNEY+
Adapted from Patrick Radden Keefe’s award-winning 2018 book, this historical drama is a searing, sobering look at The Troubles, and how the deeply ingrained distrust, prejudice and violence in Northern Ireland affected communities and individuals. Kicked off by the real-life abduction of mother of ten Jean McConville in 1972, the events are recounted years later from the perspective of IRA volunteer Delours Price. She recalls how Catholics in Belfast were treated as second-class citizens and how she became radicalised after a peaceful protest march she was in was led into an ambush by police, leaving her beaten and bloodied but not broken. Price and her sister want to join the cause, but not just to roll bandages and make tea, and once she’s in the thick of the fight, she begins to realise it might not be as noble or cut-and-dried as she first thought.
SILO
FRIDAY, APPLE TV+
The first season finale of this excellent, dystopian sci-fi drama finished on the cliffhanger of protagonist Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) being kicked out of the mile-deep silo that shelters the last remnants of humanity and into the blasted, irradiated world outside. While many of those inside watching assuming she’s walking to her death, there are also those who begin to revere her as a martyr for standing up to the authorities and their strict laws as laid down by Tim Robbins’ oily and ambitious Bernard Holland. But it’s far from the end for the resilient and resourceful Juliette, as she discovers that hers wasn’t the only silo and begins to explore the world beyond.
JAKE PAUL VS MIKE TYSON
SATURDAY, 3PM, NETFLIX
The streaming giant continues to punch into the sporting arena with a fight billed as a “heavyweight boxing mega-event” between Jake “El Gallo” Paul and the Baddest Man on the Planet, Iron Mike Tyson. It’s been nearly 20 years since the former champ Tyson fought professionally – although his 2020 exhibition match with Roy Jones Sr was scored a draw – but his preparation and determination have been documented on the three-part Netflix doco Countdown, which dropped on Netflix earlier this month. Former MMA fighter Paul on the other hand is 31 years Tyson’s junior and has only been boxing professionally for four years, but has only lost once, to Tommy Fury last year. No doubt he’s been scheming about how to use his youth and speed to bring the legend down, but as Tyson once famously said, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”.
COUNTDOWN 50 YEARS ON
SATURDAY, 7.30PM, ABC
It was 50 years last Friday that Countdown – and its mercurial host Molly Meldrum – were first unleashed on an unsuspecting Australian public, so do yourself a favour and tune into this milestone celebration. As befits a show that championed local music – as well as attracted sometimes bewildered and refreshed international guests – there’s a top line-up appearing including veterans Daryl Braithwaite, Joe Camilleri, Grace Knight, Leo Sayer and Ross Wilson, as well as more recent artists such as Electric Fields and Kate Miller-Heidke reimagining classic Countdown hits. Music enthusiasts Myf Warhust and Tony Armstrong host and dig into the archives for some behind the scenes stories and interviews that made up the show’s greatest hits.
HEADLINERS
TUESDAY, 8PM, ABC
Making it in the music business in Australia is hard enough – but so much harder for the one in five Australians who are living with some sort of disability and trying to crack an industry that rarely thinks about them and certainly isn’t set up to cater to their various needs. Musician and campaigner for inclusion, access and equality Elly-May Barnes, whose cerebral palsy can sometimes leave her wracked with pain, is out to change that by assembling two bands who have just seven weeks to put together a set for the massive Outback Mundi Mundi Bash. Rocker mates Tim Rogers, Ella Hooper – and father Jimmy – exude warmth and positivity as fellow mentors, but the true standouts are the determined and extremely talented musicians, living with conditions including autism, blindness and Tourette’s Syndrome, giving everything to make their dreams come true.
SOLAR SYSTEM WITH BRIAN COX
TUESDAY, 8.50PM, ABC
The ever-youthful looking physicist Brian Cox is space-bound again for a fascinating look at our closest planetary neighbours. But rather than tackling them one at a time, he’s chosen themes common to multiple planets that can also reveal information about our own – its origins, its future and even the secrets of life itself. In this week’s first episode he explores the vastly varied volcanoes of the solar system, from the very biggest on Mars, which is so tall it just about reaches outer space, to Saturn’s frozen moon Enceladus, which literally spews jets hundreds of kilometres into space. The combination of beautifully rendered CGI recreations of distant and inhospitable world combine perfectly with Cox’s calm and curious narration.
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