Top TV shows to watch this week: Fight Night, The Perfect Couple
Nicole Kidman is at her very best as the icy matriarch in a new murder-mystery drama and Kevin Hart leads a funky, star-studded crime thriller in a quality week on the small screen.
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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.
FIGHT NIGHT: THE MILLION DOLLAR HEIST
NEW EPISODES THURSDAYS, BINGE
Comedian Kevin Hart makes the most of his motormouthed skills and flexes his dramatic muscles leading a top-shelf cast in this eight-part crime drama that claims to be “based on some s--- that really happened” and really packs a punch. The year is 1970, big hair, flares and funky soul music rule and Muhammad Ali is making his comeback to the ring to hostile crowd in Georgia after being banned for refusing to fight in Vietnam. With black gangsters from around the country are flying in for the big fight, small-time hustler Gordon ‘Chicken Man’ Williams is hoping to step up to the big time and impress New York boss Frank Moten (a menacing Samuel L. Jackson) by throwing a huge party. But when the shindig gets crashed by armed robbers (after a very groovy Ocean’s 11 style recruitment montage), Chicken Man finds himself with big questions to answer and has to turn his old nemesis Detective J.D. Hudson (Don Cheadle) – a tenacious and dignified black cop jaded by years of institutionalised racism – to help him find the real culprits and just maybe escape with his life.
THE PERFECT COUPLE
NETFLIX
Nicole Kidman is on a red-hot streak right now – in the same week that she won the top acting honour at the Venice Film Festival for the spicy erotic thriller Babygirl, she’s also back on the small screen with a very more-ish six-part murder mystery. The Aussie Oscar-winner is in imperious form, unleashing icy stares and a cutglass accent as acclaimed author Greer Garrison Winbury, who is also the matriarch of a dysfunctional clan on the island playground of the uber-rich, Nantucket. While preparing for the wedding of her entitled son to a woman she disapproves of (a luminous Eve Hewson), the maid of honour washes up dead on the beach – and pretty much everyone is a suspect. It’s a whole lot more fun than her similar role in The Undoing – Kidman’s previous collaboration with director Susanne Bier – as the investigation unfolds with a raised eyebrow and a knowing wink to the genre, and the twisty-turny conclusion matters less than spending the time with mostly awful, spoiled prats you’ll love to hate.
US PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
WEDNESDAY, 11AM, SKY NEWS, ABC, CHANNEL 9, CHANNEL 10, SBS, ABC NEWS
The number of outlets showing this long awaited showdown between US Presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is a pretty good indicator of the interest – and the potential consequences. The last debate – a slow-motion car crash that proved to be the tipping point in pushing current president Joe Biden to step aside in favour of his VP Harris as the Democratic nominee – showed that what can often be elaborate theatre can also deeply matter. And after all the argy-bargy about formats, venues and conventions it should be a fascinating confrontation between two highly motivated politicians with very different visions for their country and the world.
HUMAN ERROR
WEDNESDAY, 8.45PM, CHANNEL 9
It’s always satisfying to see a new, homegrown drama hit the airwaves and this six-part Melbourne-shot crime thriller inspired by real events ticks a lot of boxes. Leaanna Walsman is rock solid as Detective Holly O’Rourke, who heads up a homicide unit tasked with solving the execution of a suburban mother in her front yard – in broad daylight and witnessed by her son. While her investigation broadens into a wider conspiracy that threatens her career, she’s also trying to manage her haphazard personal life with a daughter who already knows a bit too much about her mother’s sometimes grisly career, the growing emotional distance from her husband (Matt Day) and the shifting relationship with her fellow detective Dylan McKenzie (an excellent Stephen Peacocke).
UNITED GANGS OF AMERICA
THURSDAY, 8.30PM, SBS
Take a deep breath – and maybe a shower – before you dive into the scary world of outlaw bikie gangs as former members, law enforcement agents and journalists lift the lid on the shady life and criminal dealings in this eight-part documentary. This week’s first episodes focuses on the Bandidos, one of the biggest bikie gangs in the world with more than 2500 members in 13 countries including Australia and global criminal syndicate of drugs, gun-running and prostitution worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Using interviews and archival footage – including a shocking 2015 shootout with police that left nine dead – it spotlights the secretive codes and strictly enforced rules, bust-ups with fellow gangs including the Hell’s Angels, not to mention internal strife, treachery and extreme violence.
THE AMAZING RACE AUSTRALIA: CELEBRITY EDITION
SUNDAY, 7PM, CHANNEL 10
After an action-packed week one, some frontrunners are already starting to emerge on the new season of the globetrotting game show, with hulking UFC fighter Bambam and his brother Logan and professional footballers and Matildas teammates Chloe and Emily showing the value of their physical prowess and drive to win. As the second week kicks off, the racers are on the centuries-old Inca trail and struggling with the heat and altitude as they build bricks by hand, schlep heavy loads and wrangle llamas all with wildly varying degrees of success. The always entertaining Adam and Brooke show that as anthropologists they make excellent country singers, and extra kudos to Bridget Helliar the wife of “weak link” and Star Wars nerd Peter for actually getting the job done while he mostly throws in wisecracks from the sidelines.
TRIPLE J ONE NIGHT STAND
SUNDAY, 8.30PM, ABC IVIEW, ABC ENTERTAINS
The annual music festival from the national youth network is back after a five-year hiatus and received more than 2000 pitches from around the country from fans desperate to land it. The 15,000 tickets for this year’s event in the Victorian coastal town of Warrnambool sold-out in less than 24 hours, but the rest of us can dodge the crowds and stinky festival toilets with a live experience from the comfort of the couch. Hottest 100 record-breaker G Flip, ARIA Award winning chart topper Ruel and producer/DJ What So Not are all on the line-up and there will also be behind-the-scenes action with triple j presenters and special guests.
NIGHTSLEEPER
SUNDAY, STAN
This six-part British thriller rattles along faster than the Tokyo to Kyoto bullet train and plays like a mash-up of Speed, real-time classic 24 and an Agatha Christie whodunit. It’s set on the Glasgow to London overnight train, which has been “hack-jacked” (hijacking is so last century) by persons unknown and is hurtling through the countryside without a driver while the rest of the rail network has been shut down. On board is off-duty and out-of-favour cop Joe (Joe Cole), and a motley group of other passengers who refused to get off for various reasons – one of whom might be linked to organisation demanding millions in bitcoin. With help from tech boffin Abby in the control room at the National Cyber Security Centre, the pair have to find a way to find the culprits and regain control of the train before disaster strikes.
HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU
MONDAY, SBS, 10.05PM
The UK version of the award-winning news comedy show has just clocked up a mighty 600 episodes (plus several spin-off shows) since it first aired in 1990 and finally the Americans are getting in on the act. Comedian Roy Wood Jr, best known for his work on The Daily Show and his Comedy Central stand-up specials, will host while the two team captains will be Amber Ruffin (Late Night With Seth Myers) and Michael Ian Black (Reno 911!), with special guests each week. Like its UK parent, it will be aiming for a comedic take on the week’s news and events, and with some of the stranger-than-fiction shenanigans coming out of the presidential race right now, a lot of the heavy lifting will be already done for them.
THE CHEAP SEATS
TUESDAY, 7.30PM, CHANNEL 10
Speaking of comedy news shows, this homegrown gem – described as Media Watch meets Love Island – from the Working Dog stable will clock up its 100th episode next week. Powered by the easy chemistry and comedy smarts between its hosts Melanie Bracewell and Tim McDonald, it has well and truly found its groove as appointment TV for many each week and scored a Most Outstanding Comedy Program Logie last year. Kiwi Bracewell is having a bit of a moment right now too, writing an episode of AppleTV+ hit Time Bandits and has also just returned from her first sellout stand-up tour at the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Cultural correspondent Mel Tracina will join the duo for all the big news from the world of showbiz.
Originally published as Top TV shows to watch this week: Fight Night, The Perfect Couple
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