What to watch this week: Cancel culture take-down and a Ted Danson comedy delight
Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville stars in a comedy-drama that puts cancel culture front and centre, and Ted Danson is back for one of the year’s most delightful comedies.
Entertainment
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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.
DOUGLAS IS CANCELLED
SUNDAY, 8PM, ABC
There’s plenty to love, hate, relate and infuriate in Steven Moffat’s (Doctor Who, Sherlock) timely and on-point take-down of modern media and the ever more pervasive cancel culture. Beloved TV news host Douglas (Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville) rules the airwaves alongside his hot younger colleague Madeline (Karen Gillan) with whom he has a relationship that is sometimes flirty but often fractious behind the scenes. His public and private lives are thrown into disarray when a tweet appears recounting a supposedly sexist joke he drunkenly told at a wedding and now claims not to remember. While Douglas’ crafty and cynical producer and old-school agent assure him it will all blow over as long as he remains “balanced, boring and bland”, his co-host escalates the looming PR disaster by retweeting it to her 2.5 million followers along with an ambiguous comment that could be read as a defence or a disowning. Moffat doesn’t hold back on either side of the division and chaos unleashed, making play with sensitive subjects such as sexism, wokeness, power imbalances and manipulation of the truth.
A MAN ON THE INSIDE
NETFLIX
Ted Danson reunites with The Good Place creator Michael Schur for a gentle but utterly delightful comedy that’s one of the year’s best. The Cheers veteran plays Charles, a widowed retiree, who whiles away his days comfortably but shiftlessly doing crosswords and drinking red wine – existing, but not really living. After his daughter challenges him to find something to give his life meaning, Charles stumbles on an ad in the newspaper looking for someone to go undercover in a retirement home to find some stolen jewels. Ted proves to be an immediate hit in the retiree community, which he finds to his surprise is bursting with joy and energy, and his life is transformed by new-found purpose and the connections he had been lacking since losing his wife. There are more gentle smiles than big laughs, but led by the excellent Danson and terrific supporting cast, it’s crackling with heart, humour and fun.
BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS
FRIDAY, 7PM, CHANNEL 7
Get yourself sorted for the holiday season with something for everyone in this special 90-minute episode of the long-running and much-loved lifestyle show. For the foodies, Clarissa Fieldel brings an Asian twist to the traditional Christmas ham, while Colin Fassnidge teams up with Adam Dovile for a fabulous raspberry and honey panna cotta trifle. For the handypeople, Melissa King turns a rundown courtyard into an enviable outdoors space, and Charlie Albone transforms a sunburnt garden. And for the crafties, Juliet Love gives tips on handmade Christmas ornaments, bunting and table-place name tags.
PAM & TOMMY
FRIDAY, 12AM, 7PLUS
Lily James and Sebastian Stan – and a whole lot of prosthetics – are excellent in this eight-part miniseries about the turbulent marriage between the actor-model and the Motley Crue rocker, and particularly about the notorious sex tape that threatened to eclipse both of their careers and made them a laughing stock. Based on a Rolling Stone article, it also stars Seth Rogen as Rand Gauthier, the disgruntled and grubby builder who made off with the tapes and sold them in the early days of the internet, raising questions about privacy and who gets to profit from the misfortune of public figures. Not surprisingly given the subject matter (and Tommy’s talking appendage at one point), it’s definitely not for the kids, but well worth the four Emmy nominations it garnered when first released in 2022.
WOMEN’S AFL GRAND FINAL
SATURDAY, 7PM, FOX FOOTY, KAYO, CHANNEL 7
It’s just what the neutral fans wanted – a grand final rematch and a chance for North Melbourne to get revenge for the loss to Brisbane in last year’s big dance. After a nearly flawless season – with just one draw and no losses along the way – surely the Kangaroos can get it done this year, especially after their ruthless 57-point thumping of Port Adelaide at the weekend. But the Lions can never be counted out. Their fast finishing win against Adelaide means they will be playing in their sixth grand final in eight seasons, and victory on Saturday night would mean they join the Crows as the only teams with three flags. Game on!
SPELLBOUND
NETFLIX
It’s not quite up there with the best of Pixar, but this fun animated family film with a message is a cut above the plethora of plucky princess adventures on offer. A good deal of that is down to the effervescent and angel-voiced Rachel Zegler and the songs of the great Alan Menken, the composer behind classics including The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. Zegler voices Ellian, the only daughter of King Solon and Queen Ellsmere, who have been transformed into wild, unspeaking monsters and hidden away from the kingdom. As Ellian embarks on a quest to find a way to transform them back into humans, there’s fun magical creatures that the kids will love as well as some serious and thoughtful musings on the nature of family and conflict that will resonate with the adults. The top-notch voice cast also includes Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem and John Lithgow.
WOMEN’S BIG BASH LEAGUE FINAL
SUNDAY, 12.50PM, FOX CRICKET, KAYO, CHANNEL 7
It feels fitting that the Melbourne Renegades are the first team through to Sunday’s decider at the MCG given their dominance throughout the season and a 7-3 win-loss record, sealed with an absolute pommeling of the Sydney Thunder last week. Their opponents are yet to be decided, with the winner of Wednesday’s knockout match between the Thunder and the Hobart Hurricanes earning the right to play the Brisbane Heat on Friday, and the winner of that game advancing to the big one. Regardless, it’s been another cracking year for the WBBL, and a terrific curtain-raiser for the three-match one-day series against India that kicks off in Brisbane next week.
MUSTER DOGS: WHERE ARE THEY NOW
SUNDAY, 7.30PM, ABC
The first two seasons of Muster Dogs – the first working with kelpies and the second with border collies – have been the epitome of feel-good TV, not just because of their cute canine stars, but also as a glimpse into some of Australia’s rural and regional communities. Engaging host Lisa Millar hits the road again to see how the mighty mustering marvels have fared since the cameras left – both as working dogs and celebrities in city and country alike. She checks in on the season winners Frank and Zoe and their respective pups Annie and Buddy, and discovers how the series has helped raise the profile of farm life, animal management and drawn devotees from as far afield as Israel.
DEAD MOUNTAIN: THE DYLATOV PASS INCIDENT
MONDAY, 11.35PM, SBS
There are some definite X-Files vibes in this spookily atmospheric two-part Russian-language period thriller about nine ski hikers who go missing in the frigid and remote Sverdlovsk region in 1959. The man sent from Moscow by the KGB to investigate, Oleg, is a ghost who doesn’t officially exist on paper, but is determined to get to the bottom of why the four hikers found frozen to death on what the locals call the Mountain of Death fled the safety of their tent without coats – some even without shoes – and what happened to the rest. As he digs deeper, he finds some eerie similarities to a mysterious incident in a castle abandoned by the Nazis while he was fighting in World War II, leaving him wondering whether there are supernatural factors in play.
GET MILLIE BLACK
BINGE, NEW EPISODES TUESDAY
In many ways, this is new British production is a pretty by-the-numbers police thriller: maverick cop with a slightly mismatched partner on the hunt for a missing girl from the wrong side of town and butting heads with the rich and powerful. But chances are you’ve never seen the well-worn genre in a setting like this before. Tamara Lawrence plays the title character, who was shipped off to London from her native Jamaica by her abusive single mother as a teenager and joins Scotland Yard driven by a desire to protect the vulnerable. After her mother dies, Millie returns to the mean streets of Kingston to discover that Orville, the brother she thought was dead, is now a trans prostitute called Hibiscus, and as she works the case also has to wrestle with the city’s rampant homophobia, social inequality and the ghosts of colonialism. It’s almost unrelentingly grim, but compelling.
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