What to watch this week: Nicole Kidman’s Perfect return; Stanley Tucci’s fabulous festival of food
Award-winning Aussies Nicole Kidman and Murray Bartlett are front and centre for the second season of Nine Perfect Strangers – but how does it stack up against The White Lotus?
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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.
NINE PERFECT STRANGERS
THURSDAY, PRIME VIDEO
The second season of the drama adapted from Aussie author Liane Moriarty’s bestseller of the same name finds Nicole Kidman’s Russian weirdo wellness guru Masha dealing with the fallout of her unconventional healing methods and enthusiasm for mind-altering drugs. Dodging the controversy and in some financial strife, she sets up shop in the Austrian Alps and welcomes a new group of troubled souls who think her extreme techniques can rid them of their various traumas. Among them are billionaire father and son (Mark Strong and Henry Golding), a glamourous, acerbic many-times divorced mother and her exasperated daughter (Christine Baranski and Annie Murphy) a nun with a mysterious past (Dolly De Leon) and a once-popular, now-cancelled kids’ puppeteer (a brilliant Murray Bartlett). Like the first season, you just know that things are going to get strange once these broken and mostly entitled humans start interacting with each other and spilling their secrets – to say nothing of the chemicals they are ingesting – but it must be said, The White Lotus does it with a whole lot more style, shocks and laughs.
EUROPA LEAGUE FINAL
THURSDAY 4.30AM, STAN SPORT
The fact that Aussie football manager Ange Postecoglou could win Tottenham Hotspur’s first major trophy in 17 years and still lose his job is a pretty good indicator of the season he’s had at the London club. On the bright side, the team standing in his way of achieving that – the once mighty Manchester United – is only one place ahead of Spurs in the bottom five of the Premier League, with both teams coming off four losses and a draw in their last five matches. So it might not be a match for the ages at the San Mames stadium in Bilbao but there’s still a hell of a lot to play for, not least a possible $200 million jackpot for the winner to play in next season’s Champion’s League.
THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY
FRIDAY, 8.30PM, ABC
Fans of a good, old-fashioned, meat and potatoes (or perhaps meat and leek, given it’s set in Wales) British crime drama, look no further than this gritty, twisty thriller that combines a solid murder mystery with a will-they, won’t-they love story. Two Welsh detectives, Rick Sheldon and Ffion Lloyd (Richard Harrington and Elen Rhys), are reunited to solve the murder of a nurse than seems to have echoes of a serial killer they put away more than a decade ago and is raising fears of a copycat killer in the still traumatised community. Adding an extra layer of complication is the fact that the pair were once engaged, with Ffion fleeing for the big city after Rick cheated on her. Her reluctant return is good news for the tricky case, but maybe not so much for his new family, with clearly unresolved issues between the two.
REALITY CHECK
FRIDAYS, 7PLUS
Look at this new, weekly, bite-sized wrap up of reality TV as public service – hosts Starr McGowan and Adrian Konarski watch shows like MAFS, Below Deck Down Under, Farmer Wants a Wife and Love Triangle so that you don’t have to, but can still chip in on the water cooler conversations. In addition to picking their highlights, the comedians, social media creators and reality TV tragics actually do a pretty good job of demystifying some of the genre’s secrets by explaining how producers manipulate so-called ‘reality’ by crafting main characters and villains and the use of editing and music to create or amplify drama.
FRONT ROW WITH MEGAN BURSLEM
SATURDAY, 2.30PM, ABC
This new concert series that lets fans enjoy the classical music experience from the comfort of the couch is kicking off with a biggie – Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Famed for its epic choral finale, Ode To Joy, it’s one of the most recognisable pieces of music in existence thanks to its use in movies from Die Hard to A Clockwork Orange and a star-studded roster of soloists will join the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Choir to bring it to life. Future episodes will feature works by Strauss, Elgar and Vaughn Williams – as well as new original compositions – performed by orchestras around the country.
OVERCOMPENSATING
PRIME VIDEO
Creator and star Benito Skinner based this raunchy new comedy series on his own experiences as gay high school football star who arrives at a prestigious US university desperate to keep his sexuality hidden. On his first day, he meets outsider Carmen, who is still grieving the loss of their brother and the pair strike up a real friendship that also outwardly doubles as a relationship that will enhance the social standings of both. Despite having seen the college cliches of drinking, shagging, jocks, nerds, frats and shady hazing rituals a million times before in movies from Animal House to Pitch Perfect, there are still some genuine laughs to be had, and a bunch of fun cameos from James Van Der Beek to Charli XCX, all grounded by the sweet and touching bond between the two leads.
CODE NAME LUCY: SPIES AGAINST NAZIS
SUNDAY, 5.30PM, SBS
Even diehard WWII enthusiast might struggle to know the names of Sandor Rado and Rudolf Roessler, although they are now regarded as two of the conflict’s most important spies who helped turn the tide against the Nazis. This 2023 documentary enlists experts and boffins from around Europe and uses documents and intelligence lost behind the Iron Curtain for decades to spotlight the brave and risky role they played in transmitting intelligence from neutral Switzerland to their handlers in Soviet Russia. Their intel, such as the news that Germany was going to attack Russia imminently was sometimes so alarmingly accurate that Stalin refused to believe it, and also came at great personal cost after the war.
FAKE
SUNDAY, 8.30, CHANNEL 10
With Asher Keddie back on screen in the comedy drama Strife, it’s terrific timing for the free-to-air premiere of her 2023 thriller. The seven-time Logie-winner was nominated for an AACTA Award for her role as Birdie Bell, a food writer who has just about given up on love until she meets the seemingly perfect man on a dating app. David Wenham is also in top form as the smooth beau who claims to be a successful farmer, but right from the very start there’s something slightly off-kilter about him. Although some viewers will be left screaming at the screen at the number of red flags as their relationship progresses, it’s a compelling, addictive modern take on love, loneliness, manipulation and deception.
TUCCI IN ITALY
DISNEY+
There’s a slight feeling of deja vu to this five-part food and travel series given that the Oscar-nominated actor has already done two acclaimed seasons of the similar, Emmy-winning Searching For Italy (streaming on Binge and SBS On Demand), but there’s no shortage of material to satisfy Tucci’s appetite for all things Italian. Once again the actor and amateur cook is fabulous company as he seeks out different regions to discover local specialities and how the history and culture has informed the food, before chowing down on some mouth-watering meals. His first stop is spectacular Florence, where his enthusiasm for lampredotto (made from cow’s stomach) and stewed beef tongue takes the awful out of offal, before heading to Lombardy, Trentino-Alto Adige, Abruzzo and Lazio.
TIPPING POINT
TUESDAY, 7.30PM, CHANNEL 9
It’s a Travel Guides special for this episode of the surprisingly fun – who knew that watching discs teetering on shelf could be so suspenseful? – game show hosted by former tennis ace Todd Woodbridge. Yes, there’s shameless cross-promotion of the shows, but the three teams of the well-heeled Kevin and Janetta, the raucous Kev, Teng and Dorian (aka The Boys) and the florally flamboyant Mark and Brett are absolutely up for the battle, with $50,000 on the line for their chosen charity. The urbane and occasionally acid-tongued Kevin emerges as the MVP, both for his smarts on the buzzer and his zingers directed at his own age and lobbed squarely at his opponents, observing of his younger rivals “so, it is true that you three share one brain”.
Originally published as What to watch this week: Nicole Kidman’s Perfect return; Stanley Tucci’s fabulous festival of food
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