What to stream this week: Masters of Sex, Perry Mason, Search Party and more

Based on real-life sex researchers, this stylish and beautifully performed series deserves to be seen. And it’s based on real people.

What are we watching this week?

There’s a remake of a classic crime show – and you can watch both Perry Masons, you know, for comparison’s sake. But there are also shows to challenge you, make you think and make you laugh.

SOMETHING PROVOCATIVE

Sizzling

Masters of Sex: It may be set in the 1950s but there’s plenty to provoke and titillate in Masters of Sex – it’s in the title. Starring Lizzy Caplan and Michael Sheen, the four-season series is loosely based on the real-life research of pioneering sex researchers Dr William Masters and Virginia Johnson. It’s stylish, compelling and features excellent performances. Watch it: Amazon Prime Video/Stan

Dear White People: If all the talk about privilege and structural and institutional racism has you confused or questioning, and you don’t feel like reading through an academic tome to engage with it, the smart and sharply written Dear White People series is an entertaining way into the discourse. It’s set on an American college campus and it’s thought-provoking, funny and emotional. Watch it: Netflix

SOMETHING NEW

Perry Mason for a new generation Supplied by Foxtel.

Perry Mason (2020): A gritty and at-times grim revival of the beloved character in an origin story that charts how Perry Mason transforms from a messed-up private detective to the defence lawyer he’s better known as. Starring Matthew Rhys in the title role, the eight-part miniseries is a complex, character-driven mystery set in a corrupt and unforgiving 1932. Watch it: Foxtel Now, from Monday, June 22 at 8.30pm

The Politician: The first season of Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series suffered from what so many Murphy shows are burdened with: an unevenness that doesn’t make up for the lush, expensive production values. While the core character of politician-wannabe Payton still sucks, at least the second series has added icons and queens Bette Midler and Judith Light to the cast. Watch it: Netflix, from Friday, June 19 at 5pm AEST

SOMETHING DRAM-EDIC

Donald Glover has won Emmys for Atlanta

Atlanta: Donald Glover’s very singular series is neither drama nor comedy, and you can barely call it a mix of both – rather it bends genre, almost an anthropological study of Earn, a Princeton dropout trying to make it as the music manager of his cousin’s fledgling rap career while juggling the responsibilities of fatherhood and what it means to be a young black man in America. Watch it: Binge/Foxtel Now

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Search Party: There’s a missing girl and a group of four self-absorbed young New Yorkers determined to solve the mystery. Sounds simple enough but this engaging show is both a comical and terrifying look at Gen Y-ers with too much time on their hands. The first season resembles a Nancy Drew story while the second ventures deep into Hitchcock territory. A third season is on the way. Watch it: iTunes/Google Play

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SOMETHING FAMILIAR

Acting the fools

Party Down: This half-hour workplace comedy from Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas only survived 20 episodes, but they’re little nuggets of comedy gold. Centred on a catering team as they go from strange job to strange job, it’s a great ensemble of characters who are chasing fame, love and a lusty night. Watch it: Stan

Perry Mason (1957): As famous for its theme song as it is for it courtroom antics where the guilty party somehow always confess on the stand, the original Perry Mason series is exactly the kind of comforting and satisfying fans of procedural TV gobble up. And 60 years on, it holds up for its tight plotting. Watch it: 10 All Access

SOMETHING FUNNY

Phoebe Waller-Bridge before Fleabag, the series

Crashing: In between Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Edinburgh Festival debut of the lauded Fleabag and when her one-woman play was adapted into the phenomenal TV series, she made Crashing. The quirky and droll series follows a group of twenty-somethings who are fancy squatters in an abandoned hospital, swapping beds, partners and getting up to shenanigans. There are only six episodes, so savour it. Watch it: Netflix

GLOW: With a talented and diverse cast, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling are exactly what it says on the box. A dramatisation of a real-life women’s TV wrestling league from the 1980s, it’s the story of a group of scrappy outsiders who find purpose, friendship and self-respect in the most unlikely of arenas. Watch it: Netflix