Shows you don’t want to miss this week: Brilliant Blanchett in Disclaimer, sweet Bluey minisodes
With Cate Blanchett leading an Oscar-stacked drama, Dessert Masters bringing the sweet treats and the return of Bluey, all your TV viewing bases are covered this week.
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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.
DISCLAIMER
APPLE TV+
With an Oscar-winning writer/director in Alfonso Cuaron and a two-time Oscar-winning actor in Cate Blanchett, expectations were high for this seven-part adaptation of Renee Knight’s 2015 novel of the same name – and it doesn’t disappoint. The Aussie star is her usual brilliant self as Catherine Ravenscroft, a poised, assured and respected documentarian whose past comes back to haunt her when a self-published book turns up in the mail – also sent to boring husband Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen) and shiftless son Nicholas (Aussie Kodi Smit-McPhee) – that details a secret from her wilder, younger years that could ruin her career and her life. Kevin Kline (another Oscar-winner in top form), is the retired and freshly widowed schoolteacher behind the plot, convinced that decades earlier, the younger Katherine (Leila George), was responsible for the death of this son, with whom she had a racy affair. But as the action flips between past and present and the opposing narrators recall the key events very differently, the actual truth becomes ever more elusive. Superbly acted and stunning to look at – especially the scenes set in Italy – it’s well worth your time.
BLUEY MINISODES
ABC IVIEW
The little Aussie cartoon that could has won just about every award it’s eligible for and officially become the most watched show in the US this year. So any time there’s new episodes of the adventures of the Heeler family, Bluey, Bingo, Bandit and Chilli, is a cause for celebration for the whole family. And even if they are only small – clocking in around the two-minute mark – the six new minisodes are perfectly formed, as Bluey creates a tattoo that her dad thinks is tough, Bandit writes an outraged letter to the government, Chilli tries to wrest control of the streaming device, and Bingo unleashes her rock drumming skills. Just delightful.
BATHURST 1000
FROM THURSDAY, FOXTEL AND KAYO
It’s called The Great Race for good reason, with more than 60 years of history behind it and a litany of legends from the late Peter Brock (who now lends his name to the winning trophy) to the likes of Bob Jane, Dick Johnson, Mark Skaife and Craig Lowndes who have all finished the 1000km, 161-lap race in front. This year Shane van Gisbergen and his Kiwi compatriot Richie Stanaway are favoured to snare a third straight title, but the master and apprentice team of four-time winner Jamie Whincup and young gun Broc Feeney will be hot on their tail. Six time winner Skaife will provide expert commentary, while Heli-Cam will catch all the action from the practice and qualifying from tomorrow as well as the race itself, which starts at 11.30am Sunday.
SWEETPEA
THURSDAY, BINGE
After a lifetime of being abandoned, overlooked, pushed around or outright ignored, Rhiannon has a long list of people she would like to kill in this jet-black horror-comedy. But when the loss of her beloved father and dog coincides with the reappearance of the bully who made her school years absolute hell and the prospect of being turfed out of the family home by her thoroughly awful sister, thoughts arise about turning her bloody fantasies into reality. Yellowjackets and Fallout star Ella Purnell is fabulous in the title role – the dismissive nickname Rhiannon’s grubby boss uses for her – as her wide-eyed nervousness and timidity turn into steely resolve and murderous intent when one snub too many leads her to put the words her father left her with that she stand up for herself – and his very sharp knife – to unexpected use.
SOCCEROOS V CHINA
THURSDAY, 7.30PM, CHANNEL 10
After the resignation of coach Graham Arnold due to a disastrous beginning to the third round of the 2026 World Cup qualification campaign, the stakes could hardly be any higher for replacement Tony Popovic in his first match in charge of the national team. And it’s not getting any easier for the team that lost at home to lowly Bahrain and drew away to Indonesia last month. Tomorrow night in Adelaide they will take on China – who sit 66 places below the 25th placed Socceroos in the world rankings – and will be desperate to take all three points to get their campaign back on track. But the big test will come away to the 16th ranked Japan, in a game to be live streamed on Paramount+ from 8.45pm next Tuesday.
LAST DAYS OF THE SPACE AGE
DISNEY+
Radha Mitchell is the standout performer in this retro family drama set in 1979 Perth, the year that the eyes of the world were on its remotest city thanks to the space station Skylab crashing to earth nearby and the its unlikely status as the first host city of the Miss Universe pageant outside America. She plays a suburban mum who works as a bookkeeper at the same power station where her husband (Jesse Spencer) is leading a strike – and is forced step up into management when she learns of their dire financial situation. Meanwhile, Vietnamese immigrants Lam and Sandy are mourning their dead son while running fish and chip van at the beach and neighbour Eileen (Deborah Mailman) is raising her grandson in the absence of her Aboriginal activist daughter. The three families are all linked by their forward-looking school-age children in a time of change for hot-button issues such as gender roles, racism and Indigenous rights, which can come across as slightly pat, but is generally solidly done.
TEENAGE BOSS: THE NEXT LEVEL
SATURDAY, 7.30PM, ABC FAMILY
Smiley and enthusiastic kids’ performer and former Yellow Wiggle Emma Watkins is the perfect host for this documentary that hands over the purse strings of the family budget to teenagers for a month and is designed to inspire the 75 per cent of Aussies who struggle to save money. This week, it’s the turn of 17-year-old, soccer-mad Jack, described by his mother as “a disorganised mess” who is always rushing from sporting engagement to the next. Confident to the point of cockiness, yet oddly likeable, he reckons it’s going to be cinch to make his $3000 provide for the family for a month, so he can keep what’s left to fund a post-school overseas trip. But with his somewhat self-centred priorities, not to mention some bold budget food choices, his mother and sister might beg to differ.
DESSERT MASTERS
MONDAY, 7.30PM, CHANNEL 10
Amaury Guichon and Melissa Leong are back for another season of the cooking reality show that’s best not watched on an empty stomach. Joining them are a disparate group of chefs and bakers who all share a love of sweet treats, an uncanny ability to put them together in new and inventive ways, and a drive to win the $100K prize and the Dessert Masters Crown. First up they are tasked with creating a dish that showcases their greatest strength and it’s fascinating watching them work with ingredients, cauldrons, and even goggles that make them look part mad-scientist and part alchemist. And as a country bakery enthusiast, I found it hard not to warm to MasterChef graduate and self-described “humble baker from Newy”, Reece Hignall, who is dedicated to preserving the mouth-watering tarts, cakes and sponges he grew up eating.
RED FLAG: MUSIC’S FAILED REVOLUTION
TUESDAY, 8.35PM, SBS
Spotify is a household name in 2024 but it could just have easily been Australian company Guvera. which burned brightly but briefly in the highly competitive, industry-disrupting streaming space before flaming out for good seven years ago. By talking to former employees, artists including Ben Lee and music industry insiders, documentarian Marc Fennell takes viewers back to 1999 when the business was as big as it would ever be, fuelled by overpriced CDs, before Napster upset the whole apple cart with its peer to peer network that opened up a world of unlimited free music. Guvera founder, Aussie entrepreneur Claes Lobert, described as “Steve Jobs’ punk little brother”, saw a way that consumers could continue to effectively get their music for free but without the artists suffering. It was a brilliant idea and a revolutionary concept – until it wasn’t.
FRONTLINE
ABC IVIEW
If Frontline isn’t the greatest Australian comedy ever made, it’s certainly in the top three and to celebrate its 30th birthday, creators Working Dog have remastered all three seasons in HD and made them available on ABC IVIEW. And frankly, it’s a little alarming how topical the satire set in the fast-paced, high-stakes, big money environment of a current affairs newsroom still is. Led by the well-turned-out but dim and insecure host Mike Moore (Rob Sitch), driven by his exasperated producer (Alison Whyte) and assisted by glamorous and ambitious reporter Brooke Vandenberg (Jane Kennedy) and grizzled veteran Marty Di Stasio (Tiriel Mora), it’s a triumph of ratings and money over ethics and journalistic rigour, that often reflected the real life headlines of the day. Well worth another look.
Originally published as Shows you don’t want to miss this week: Brilliant Blanchett in Disclaimer, sweet Bluey minisodes
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