Dead Ringers: The erotic thriller returns to TV
With new remakes of steamy films like American Gigolo, Fatal Attraction, and now, David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers, the small-screen has taken up the reins for all things hot and heavy.
Dead Ringers
Amazon Prime
With the cinematic sex scene dead, the small screen has taken up the reins of all things hot and heavy. From the recent remakes of steamy, canonical films such as American Gigolo, Fatal Attraction, Fear, and Presumed Innocent, it’s safe to say that the golden age of erotic 80s is making a comeback.
Those who don’t jive with remakes should reserve their judgments, as Amazon Prime’s adaptation of David Cronenberg’s 1988 psychosexual thriller, Dead Ringers, proves to be a worthy beneficiary of the body horror classic. Subversively gender-swapped, the series stars Rachel Weisz in the unenviable dual-role of twin star OB-GYNs Beverly and Elliot Mantle.
Heavy is the head that wears Jeremy Irons’s crown, truly one of the great performances ever put to screen, but Weisz finesses it with ease. The stroke of genius that came with remaking this from a female perspective adds an entirely new dimension to the story. Instead of the Mantle twins’ reign of gynaecological terror, this series seeks to reinvent a medical field that treats pregnant women with disregard and babies like commodities. It is an unqualified delight.
Totally Completely Fine
Stan
New Zealand actor Thomasin McKenzie delivered a standout performance in Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho, and she proves to be the saving grace in Stan’s otherwise half-baked black comedy, Totally Completely Fine.
McKenzie portrays a nihilistic 20-something, thick in the disarray and messiness of youth – perpetually behind on bills, living in a foul sharehouse, indulging in too much alcohol, and accidentally setting fire to her brother’s vegan food truck after inhaling a bacon-flavoured vape.
When her grandfather dies, she inherits his “sweet little beach house” perched on a cliff front, a seeming stroke of good fortune until she discovers it is a suicide hotspot. Unwittingly, she becomes the one tasked with helping those who are teetering on the edge. Although this show suffers from inconsistent writing that veers into schmaltzy territory, there are some bleakly funny moments, and McKenzie’s performance is outstanding.
Outlander
11.05pm Saturday, SBS
At the risk of making assumptions, if you‘re flipping through free-to-air channels at 11pm on a Saturday, chances are you have the time to throw yourself into a high-commitment historical epic. Before Bridgerton, there was Outlander.
The big, sprawling, high-fantasy TV series is based on Diana Gabaldon’s wildly popular books. It’s got everything: love, war, time travel, and more horny Scotsmen than you can shake a haggis at. Caitriona Balfe is elegant as Claire Randall, a WWII nurse who is swept back in time to 18th-century Scotland. There she meets a ragtag group of Highlanders, led by the strapping Jamie Fraser (played by Sam Heughan). Their love story is the show’s driving force, but there are also plenty of epic battles, wilderness adventures, and yes, racy scenes that at the time rivalled Game of Thrones. If you find yourself roped in, all seven seasons are streaming on SBS on Demand and Netflix.
Olive Kitteridge
Binge
Olive Kitteridge detests “dopes” and “saps”. She is an intelligent, prickly, and no-nonsense woman, a retired schoolteacher who has dished out loaded advice to students, such as “Don‘t be scared of your hunger”.
When we first meet her, she is alone in the forest, preparing to commit suicide. The camera pans to a suicide note, aloofly titled “To whom it may concern”. At just four episodes, the HBO miniseries based on the Pulitzer prizewinning novel by Elizabeth Strout is character-driven storytelling at its most satisfying.
Frances McDormand (but who else?) stars as the titular character in a story that follows the overlapping lives of the residents of an insular coastal town in Maine over the course of 25 years.
It would be hard to find a show that more richly portrays the most ordinary human flaws and complexities while imbuing each character with grace and compassion, even when they are acting like total beasts. It’s gloomy, but so very lovely.
Borgen
SBS on Demand/Netflix
If you’re itching for more TV shows about shady backroom deals and political power plays while being drip fed Succession, look no further than Borgen. Who doesn’t love a chilly Nordic thriller? And thanks to streamers, gone are the days were you had to rely on your more tech-savvy friends to torrent subtitled, hard-to-find foreign-language TV shows.
This riveting drama plunges you into the wild world of Danish politics. At the centre of things is the steely and pragmatic Birgitte Nyborg, the country’s first female prime minister, who tries to maintain her ethics while dealing with rivals who want to cut her off at her legs, as well as vulture-like press.
A show about the intricacies of coalition-building, media manipulation, and the murky intersection of public and private life sounds like a snooze — but if we learned anything from those first, excellent seasons of House of Cards, when executed skilfully, such dramas offer an adrenaline shot.