Top TV shows to watch this week: Skeleton Crew is family-friendly Star Wars; plus Beatles doco
The family-friendly new Star Wars show Skeleton Crew is The Goonies in space and Beatles ‘64 captures the madness and magic of the Fab Four’s first American tour.
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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.
STAR WARS: SKELETON CREW
DISNEY+, NEW EPISODES WEDNESDAYS
The latest entry into the long-running Star Wars franchise is being billed as The Goonies in space, and it’s not far wrong – with a bit of E.T. thrown in for good measure. Creators Jon Watts and Chris Ford have been open about their love of those family-focused ‘80s gems and seeing that galaxy far, far away through the eyes of four ten-year-old-children makes for a fresh change. As first it’s a little jarring to see Star Wars do suburbia – after an action driven pirate prologue, the story kicks off with the four protagonists Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), Neel (Robert Timothy), Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) and KB (Kyriana Kratter) dreaming of a life of adventure beyond their very dull and orderly planet. But once they are whisked off world after discovering a long-dormant, buried spaceship, it starts to live up to its promising premise when they encounter a Mos Eisley-worthy rogues-gallery of thieves, pirates and villains as they try to figure out a way home. Lifelong Star Wars fan Jude Law has just the right twinkle in his eye as Jod Na Nawood the mysterious Force user who assists them and Nick Frost is clearly having a blast voicing the battered droid, SM 33. Fun for all the family.
MATILDAS V CHINESE TAIPEI
WEDNESDAY, CHANNEL 10, 7.30PM AND PARAMOUNT+
There’s no shame in bravely losing a couple of very physical games on the bounce to the eighth best team in the world, Brazil, but the 14th placed Matildas will be wanting a better results against a team 27 places below them in the FIFA world rankings. Interim coach Tom Sermanni made good use of his international stars as Hayley Raso and Ellie Carpenter but with some expected to return to their European clubs – and the retirement of veteran Clare Polkinghorne – it’s likely to be a new-look team stacked with A-League women’s stars for Wednesday’s game in Melbourne and the Saturday fixture in Geelong. But with a home Asian Cup bringing high expectations in 2026, any chance to get some international experience is a good one.
ADAM RICHMAN EATS BRITAIN
WEDNESDAY, 8.30PM, SBS FOOD
Britain traditionally hasn’t been celebrated for its culinary excellence, but seeing it through the eyes of a curious American is a good way to understand the blend of the traditional and the experimental that marks the country’s modern palate. New York born, actor turned self-educated foodie Adam Richman’s new show does just that, as he travels around the UK to visit the places that have given their names to famous foods. His first-stop is Leeds, birth place of his grandfather, for a mouth-watering modern wrap take on the Yorkshire pudding, Yorkshire Rabbit from a high-end restaurant, old-school Yorkshire Parkin from a market stand and an experimental dessert using Yorkshire Tea. With his dad jokes and willingness to take the mickey out of himself and his home country, Richman makes for a fun travelling companion.
BUDGET BATTLERS
WEDNESDAY, 8.30PM, CHANNEL 9
It’s the reality renovation show for the cost-of-living crisis era, as former contestants on The Block, Jess Eva and Norm Hogan, set out to give a break to some good people who deserve it. However, unlike their previous show, the self-admitted battlers are working on a strict $10,000 budget and with only five days to get the job done. Their first target is Tim, a third generation shearer on the Sunshine Coast who is living in a crumbling 1920s Queenslander because he’s so busy helping others that he never focuses on himself. By conscripting Tim’s four daughters – all well as a bunch of his mates – for the mother of all working bees, the hosts set about knocking down walls, fixing mystery holes in the floor and rescuing old furniture with astounding results, making a little go a very long way.
CREATURE COMMANDOS
THURSDAY, BINGE
At first glance, James Gunn’s animated adaptation of the DC comic Creature Commandos would seem to be very much in the wheelhouse of his Guardians of the Galaxy movies for Marvel – outcasts and misfits with extraordinary powers. But that’s pretty much where the similarity ends, with gore, sex and violence making it very much an adults-only experience. “If you just strip away the sentimentality of Guardians you get down to what the Creature Commandos are, these complete monsters and outcasts who have been disenfranchised, but also some of them have really just done it to themselves,” he says. It’s set in the world of Peacemaker and Suicide Squad, with Viola Davis reprising her role as Amanda Waller, the morally ambiguous spymaster who assembles the team of monsters including Doctor Phosphorus, The Bride, The Weasel and G.I. Robot after being told she can no longer send humans on suicide missions.
MARK MORIARTY: OFF DUTY CHEF CHRISTMAS
FRIDAY, 9.40PM, SBS FOOD
What the Budget Battlers are doing for home renos, Mark Moriarty is doing for the Christmas lunch, with some recipes that will deliver a delicious and cost-effective spread for the whole family. The affable Irishman has assembled an easy-to-follow multi-course meal – as well as tips on how to make the best sandwich of the year with the leftovers. Understandably for the Dublin based chef, it’s all rather wintry fare – mushroom vol au vents, roast turkey and sticky toffee pudding – but absolutely mouth-watering and designed to get the most out of all the ingredients. There’s also a handful of handy hacks for amateur cooks, such as how to not burn your hands while steaming the pud and how to carve a turkey like a Michelin-starred chef.
THE BEATLES ‘64
DISNEY+
Just when you think you’d seen all the Beatles footage in existence comes this early Christmas treat for Fab Four fans, produced by music doco veteran Martin Scorsese. The meat of the doco – supplemented by new interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as archive interviews with George Harrison and John Lennon – is the extraordinary footage captured by documentarians Albert and David Maysles during the band’s first tour of America. The four fresh-faced lads from Liverpool encounter a nation still is mourning after the assassination of President Kennedy and ready to embrace the infectious enthusiasm and timeless tunes that still resonate today. It’s a fascinating view from the eye of the hurricane with Beatle-mania about to go into overdrive thanks to their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, leaving them prisoners in their hotels and mobbed wherever they went.
THE AGENCY
PARAMOUNT+, NEW EPISODES SATURDAYS
With Black Doves dropping this Friday and The Day of the Jackal shaping up as one of the best shows of the year, there’s a rich vein of spy thrillers for fans of the genre right now. This new series starring Michael Fassbender is a little more cerebral and slower paced, focusing as much on the personal cost and more mundane practicalities of life in the world of espionage as much as the high-stakes secret missions that could have global repercussions. Fassbender plays veteran CIA Agent “Martian”, whose years undercover have left him detached and jaded, but also very good at what he does. When he’s recalled from a years-long mission in the Middle East to the London office to confront a new threat – and help train a rookie agent – a chance meeting with his former lover also makes him reconsider how much he’s prepared to give in the service of his country.
TSUNAMI: 20 YEARS ON
SUNDAY, 7PM, CHANNEL 9
It will be 20 years on Boxing Day since the greatest natural disaster of modern times, when more than 200,000 people were killed – and countless more injured – when an earthquake and tsunami devastated parts of Thailand, Aceh, Sri Lanka and India. Veteran journalist Ray Martin, who days before had been hosting Carols By Candlelight, was shocked by the devastation he found when he arrived and is often still emotional as he returns to mark the anniversary. By talking to survivors, families of the lost, brave frontline and aid workers, he relives the horror of the initial disaster but also investigates the aftermath, with areas ravaged by disease and thousands of children left orphaned, and finds inspirational tales of incredible resilience, kindness and the triumph of the human spirit.
YACHT ROCK
BINGE
In a bumper week for music docos comes this fabulous look back at the phenomenon known as “yacht rock”, a mildly disparaging term for music that “rocks, but doesn’t rock too hard”. Coined in a 2005 web series, more than 20 years after the genre’s heyday, bands such as Toto and the Doobie Brothers and artists such as Kenny Loggins and Christopher Cross, were initially offended until they realised it was meant with genuine affection and actually brought a new spotlight and appreciation for the well-crafted and superbly executed music that discerning listeners already revered. Through interviews with key players such as Michael McDonald, Cross and Loggins, as well as later artists such producer Prince Paul and Thundercat, who kept the legacy alive through sampling and collaborations, it digs deep into the inspiration and craft behind the genre’s rapid rise and spectacular fall. And stick around until the end for Donald Fagen’s pithy response to whether Steely Dan ever flew the yacht rock flag.
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