Watchlist: The singular life of Sinead O’Connor
The documentary, Nothing Compares, which charts the meteoric rise of a young, abused Dublin woman who was thrust into stardom as swiftly as she was condemned to exile.
SBS on Demand
SBS on Demand
Sinead O‘Connor was a rare force of courage and conviction. It’s doubtful we will ever see another like her. This documentary, directed by Kathryn Ferguson and released last year, charts the meteoric ascent of a young Dublin woman psychologically abused by her mother (“a beast”) and the Catholic Church, who was thrust into superstardom as swiftly as she was condemned to exile.
It opens with her performance at the 30th-anniverary concert for Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden in 1992, 13 days after she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live during a guttural performance of Bob Marley’s War. The crowd is a racket – split between cheers and boos – and O’Connor, then 26, stares them down with fire and fragility. “I was always being made out to be crazy by the media,” says O’Connor in the documentary.
It is astounding how powerful the footage is, considering the context of modern pop music – where political statements are the status quo, often performative, and disingenuous.
Euphoria
Binge
This week Angus Cloud, who played Fezco, a kind-hearted drug dealer with sad eyes, on Sam Levinson’s heretic HBO hit Euphoria died at 25. It was Cloud’s first acting gig, he was working as a waiter when he was scouted by a casting agent for the show while walking through Greenwich Village. So much of what is charming, different and cool about Euphoria is its cast, a blend of household names like Zendaya and Australia’s Jacob Elordi, and non-professional actors like transgender model Hunter Schafer, blogger Barbie Ferreira, and porn star Chloe Cherry.
The teen drama, which was made by the hotshot independent studio A24, is based on the 2012 Israeli series by Ron Leshem. It is the spiritual equivalent of Skins for Gen Z, but makes its forebear look positively prudish. This is a deeply troubling show; there is a brutal bashing, sex that is graphic and often violent, and drug abuse that would put an Irvine Welsh character to shame – all shot like dissociative, uber-stylised music video.
Pistol
Disney+
Speaking of Irvine Welsh, it’s unfathomable that Danny Boyle, the director who traumatised us with his grotesque “worst toilet in Scotland scene” from Trainspotting, has produced a Sex Pistols biopic that feels squeaky clean. Pistol is Disney’s attempt at “punk”. The series is adapted from Lonely Boy, the 2016 memoir by Steve Jones — the Pistols’ guitarist and a founding member.
Jones is played by the charismatic Australian actor Toby Wallace (Babyteeth), who does his absolute best with a hammy script. He is the story’s dramatic throughline: illiterate and a survivor of childhood abuse, playing in a band going nowhere fast, until he ends up in Sex, the clothing boutique by designer Vivienne Westwood (Tallulah Riley), and the savvy svengali Malcolm McLaren (Thomas Brodie-Sangster). On a lovely side note, Riley and Brodie-Sangster, whom met on set, just announced their engagement.
Pistol covers all bullet points: the group’s formation, domination, and eventual downfall, the ousting of founding bassist Glen Matlock, Jones’s relationship with a pre-Pretenders Chrissie Hynde, and the tragic chapter of Sid and Nancy. This is not a great show, but it is immensely watchable, and full of magnetic performances, particularly from Anson Boon, who plays the snarly, frenzied Johnny Rotten to perfection.
Heartstopper
Netflix
If Euphoria’s MO was to shock Gen Z, Heartstopper’s is to swaddle them. Netflix’s superbly sweet coming-of-age series is back for a second season. The show is based on the enormously popular-black-and-white webcomic by Alice Oseman, which online attracted more than 52 million views, inspiring the young British author to self-publish a graphic novel. She is a writer on this show, and her gorgeous comic-book flourishes are everywhere.
It is a “boy meets boy” love story about a shy 14-year-old, Charlie (Joe Locke), who develops a crush on the popular rugby player Nick (Kit Connor). The pair bond over a debate on whether or not it’s good form to do your homework on the way to maths, essentially summing up the wholesome spirit of this show. The cast of newcomers are superb, and Olivia Colman who plays Nick’s mother, is fantastic.
Keep your ears peeled for the music sync from Montaigne, who represented Australia at Eurovision in 2020.
The Bureau
SBS on Demand
If you like spy thrillers and observing that things are “so French,” it may be time for your next big commitment TV show: The Bureau (or Le Bureau if you’re so inclined.) This epic French show is perhaps the television’s greatest in the way of espionage dramas. La Haine director and Amelie heart-throb Mathieu Kassovit plays Guillaume Debailly, code name Malotru, a spy for the DGSE (France’s equivalent of ASIS), who has returned to Paris
from a six-year undercover mission to Syria, where he posed as a French teacher gathering information under the eye of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. He’s having a hard time breaking character,
and has made a devastating snafu on the job: falling in love with Nadia El Mansour, a stunning, married, Syrian professor. Without giving too much away, this show is ostensibly 50 episodes dedicated to the fallout of one mistake.