Five TV shows to watch this weekend
If you fancy a binge, here’s a show you can crack off in one sitting. Hugh Grant just gets better as he gets older, and he does slimy so well.
Heartbreak High
Netflix
Heartbreak High is running on the fumes of its charm. The first season of Netflix’s reboot of the ’90s Australian soap, which debuted in 2022, was a global runaway hit. It also felt, at times, fresh (although it shamelessly borrowed from its superior teen predecessor, Sex Education) and seemed to have something worth saying. There was a relatable dramatic throughline centred on the fallout between two best friends, as well as some well-meaning but clumsy observations on sex, sexuality, gender identity, First Nations communities, and fractured family life. All of that is lost in this smug second season, which is thin on drama and overstuffed with bawdy gags and underdeveloped social media talking points (think “situationships” and incels). Added to the mix this season is a new PE teacher, played by Angus Sampson, who launches a group called CUMLORDS to help the male populace of Hartley High reclaim their masculinity; and the Luca Brasi-like “Bird Psycho”, who is terrorising one of the students with ibis corpses. While the show is filled with smatterings of “she’ll be right” and “gacked”, and there’s a cameo from the beloved sandwich board-slinging Sydney activist Danny Lim, the whole thing feels weirdly divorced from its local context.
Fallout
Prime Video
Prime Video’s post-apocalyptic adventure comedy, based on the enormously popular Fallout computer game series, is a lot to take in. It is set in 2296, 219 years after a nuclear apocalypse has wiped out America. The most privileged survivors are living underground in luxurious, orderly vaults, and the rest are left to rough it out in the Wasteland — an unforgiving dustbowl overrun with violent criminals and cowboys, and all matter of slimy, spiky monsters. The story revolves around Lucy, played by the charismatic Yellowjackets star Ella Purnell, a “vault dweller” who is sent on a mission that takes her above ground. Lucy makes for a great hero because she possesses precisely zero qualities one would associate with an apocalyptic hellscape warrior. She is an overly polite, “sorry, sorry, thank you so much” kind of girl, and yet she manages to chainsaw heads off bodies like it’s nothing at all. Fallout, which was created by Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, the husband-and-wife team behind the sci-fi hit Westworld, is very much a by-the-fans, for-the-fans kind of show. That’s not to say you have to be deep into the Fallout lore to enjoy it. If you’re a fan of wackadoo adventure stories, and have an appreciation for goofy humour, there may be something here for you.
Baby Reindeer
Netflix
A few years back, when Richard Gadd was still slogging it out as a jobbing comedian and a bartender, waiting for his big break, a weeping woman walked into the pub where he worked. Though she claimed to be a lawyer, she couldn’t front for a cup of tea, so he gave her one on the house. This tiny act of kindness would go on to spark an episode of traumatic stalking. Over five years the woman, who he calls Martha, sent him 41,000 emails, 350 hours of voicemail, and 100 pages of letters and would turn up at his gigs and loiter outside his house. But because there were no explicit threats of violence, the police couldn’t — and didn’t — do anything about it. This dark chapter served as the inspiration for the Scottish comedian’s one-man Edinburgh Fringe show, and has now been adapted into an adrenalised, darkly witty series for Netflix by the creators of The End of the F***ing World.
Bluey
ABC iView, Sunday, April 14
Here’s something that children, parents, and — as TikTok would have you believe — childless Zoomers can get behind: the first feature-length episode of Bluey, The Sign will debut on ABC on Sunday at 8am. At 28 minutes, it is four times as long as the standard Bluey episode; and features guest appearances from the likes of Joel Edgerton, Rose Byrne and musician Megan Washington. There are some big (by Bluey standards) bombshells dropped in this episode, but it’s about as warm and lovely as TV gets.
A Very English Scandal
Britbox
If you fancy a binge, here’s a show you can crack off in one sitting. Stephen Frears’ masterfully directed satirical drama — about the British politician Jeremy Thorpe (Hugh Grant) and Norman Scott (Ben Whishaw), the former lover he was accused of trying to kill — is as good as television gets. Clever, confident, and deliciously cruel, with a perfect script from Queer as Folk creator Russell T. Davies and performances that cannot be bested. Grant just gets better as he gets older, and he does slimy so well.