Bardot biopic tries too hard
Paramount+’s new eight-part drama, loosely based on the rise-and-fall of the short-lived Australian girl group, feels like a weak imitation of Euphoria.
Paper Dolls
Paramount+
There’s a juicy concept behind Paramount+’s new eight-part drama: it is loosely about the rise-and-fall of the Australian girl group Bardot, who formed on the Channel 7 reality show Popstars in 1999, and conquered arenas before imploding spectacularly in 2002. This series, created by Ainslie Clouston and based on an original concept by former Bardot band member Belinda Chapple, follows Izzy (Emalia), a former teenage pop-star who bottomed out of the industry after a nervous breakdown. Now working at a pizza joint, Izzy glimpses a potential return to pop stardom through a new TV show scouting for a girl group. A music industry cautionary tale is fertile ground for drama — with the shoddy pay, sleazeball executives, fraught mental health, and vicious catfights — but this series lays it on too thick, and too early. It works when it leans into the endearing naffness of the turn-of-the-millennium culture in Australia, but it all feels a bit like a weak imitation of Sam Levinson’s edgy teen drama Euphoria, or worse, The Idol.
The Artful Dodger
Disney+
Severed hands, spilling bowels, and shattered legs — this mile-a-minute riff on Oliver Twist is rollicking fun, but it’s not for the squeamish. Thomas Brodie-Sangster (the cutie from Love Actually) stars as The Artful Dodger, who now goes by his real name, Jack Dawkins, and is on the straight and narrow. Fifteen years after escaping the nick where Oliver left him, Jack has found himself working as a surgeon in 1850s Australia (his nimble thieving hands were ripe for a career in medicine, apparently). The action kicks off when his old pal Fagin (David Thewlis, who has never had more fun with a role) arrives Down Under as a convict. This is a zany period piece with a banger cast — Tim Minchin, Maia Mitchell and Damon Herriman in particular, are excellent — and a script that leaps off the page. If you devoured The Great, you’ll love this.
The Famous Five
Stan, from December 10
It almost feels like the BBC is trolling us. Months after “offensive” phrases were quietly cut from Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series, it was announced that cinema’s most unrepentant edgelord, Denmark’s Nicolas Winding Refn, would steer an adaptation of the best-selling children’s novels. What psychological torture will Refn — best known for his unpalatably violent films Drive and Only God Forgives — subject on young Julian, Dick, Anne, George and border collie Timmy? It’s yet to be revealed which of Blyton’s 21 Famous Five stories Refn will adapt for the three, 90 minute episodes (brevity has never been his forte). That he said The Who’s famous mod flick Quadrophenia was a major touchstone only adds to the mystery.
Somebody Somewhere
Binge
There’s a soothing charm to Somebody Somewhere, the semi-autobiographical series by comedian and cabaret artist Bridget Everett. Perhaps it’s because every cast member looks like the ordinary people you walk past every day. In this sliding doors comedy, Everett imagines an alternate life — what might have transpired if she stayed in her “little apple” hometown of Manhattan, Kansas, instead of pursuing her dreams in New York City. Everett stars as Sam, a grieving 40-something loner who is struggling to find place and purpose in her hometown, where she returned to care for her dying sister. Sam is bogged down by the feeling life has passed her by — she is going nowhere, and she wants for nothing. Things look up when she falls in with the local queer community — on the invitation of her amiable gay co-worker Joel (Jeff Hiller). If you’re in the mood for a good-natured, low-key comedy, Somebody Somewhere is just lovely.
Am I Being Unreasonable?
SBS on Demand
You can tell that Am I Being Unreasonable? was written by real-life best friends, each navigating the aftermath of divorce— Daisy May Cooper, the comedian behind the superb Rain Dogs and This Country, and Selin Hizli. It’s the kind of supremely silly show that could only be cooked up by two gossipy friends who are at ease with being completely deranged with each other. The show is named after an infamous message board on the parenting website Mumsnet (essentially Reddit for moms), which Cooper frequented when her marriage was on the rocks. She is a sparkling presence as Nic, a darkly troubled suburban mother. Nic adores her gifted son, Ollie (the magnetic Lenny Rush), but is lolloping
through a dull marriage with her husband Dan (Dustin Demri-Burns), who is kind in that boring way. All the while, she’s secretly grieving the loss of her true love, Alex (David Fynn), who died months earlier in a nightmarish accident involving a puffer jacket getting jammed in a train door. Tonally, it’s all over the shop — never quite mastering the balancing act between comedy, thriller, and drama — but that doesn’t really matter; it’s giddy fun that demands to be hoovered up in one sitting.
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