What to watch: Bono’s brilliant one-man show; dinosaurs are back and better than ever
Playful, powerful and passionate, U2 frontman Bono bares his soul in a one-man show while inventive documentary Walking With Dinosaurs is an educational treat for the whole family.
Entertainment
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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.
BONO: STORIES OF SURRENDER
FRIDAY, APPLETV+
U2 front man Bono says that his 2022 memoir and its subsequent stage and screen iterations were an attempt to “to put my fists down and take off the armour”, and he’s done so in raw and revelatory style. And it’s peak Bono too – playful, passionate and periodically pretentious as he recounts some of the seminal events in his journey from being a troubled Dublin teenager, who lost his mother in his teens, to one of the biggest rock stars the world has known. With the help of Aussie director Andrew Dominik (of Chopper fame), the charismatic and sometimes controversial frontman has adapted the one-man show that he performed in New York in 2023 for the screen, and bares his soul through stories of near-death experiences, crises of faith and his difficult relationship with his father, as well as how he juggles his many roles as an artist, activist, friend and family man. Woven throughout the show are stunning reinventions of some of the band’s biggest hits including Desire and With Or Without You – and, as an added bonus, it’s the first feature-length film released in Apple Immersive Video, meaning that anyone with the Apple Vision Pro technology can feel like they are right in stage with the man himself. Highly recommended.
KEVIN COSTNER’S THE WEST
WEDNESDAY, STAN
After winning Oscars for producing and directing Dances With Wolves, and movies including Silverado, Wyatt Earp and the Horizon saga on his CV, Kevin Costner is the perfect guide through an unflinching, informative, eight-part documentary on the American West. He might not be the most compelling of narrators but, combined with an array of historians and other experts, documents and illustrations from the era and high-quality dramatic recreations, the series recounts why the Wild West has been romanticised for so long as the essence of the American dream, while not shying away from the darker subjects such as colonisation, dispossession, murder and disease. It kicks off with a three-part special this week tracing the initial push into the Northwest Territory just after the War of Independence, the literally trailblazing Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804, and the forging of the Oregon Trail.
OUR MEDICINE
THURSDAY, 7.30PM, NITV, SBS
The life expectancy for First Nations peoples in Australia is about eight years lower than non-Indigenous Australians due to higher incidence of chronic diseases, and this sobering but uplifting documentary investigates how better health outcomes can be achieved by embracing a combination of traditional healing methods as well as better engagement with modern Western medicine. Narrated by Leah Purcell and with terrific access to frontline health professionals, it takes viewers to regions such as Cairns and remote communities to investigate why many Indigenous Australians are reluctant to seek the help they need – “they see us, but they don’t really see us,” says one patient – and how the passionate and caring Indigenous doctors, nurses and paramedics are helping to bridge that gap.
CONFESSIONS OF AN OCTOMOM
THURSDAY, 8.30PM, 7 BRAVO
Natalie Suleman became a media sensation in 2009 when she delivered only the second set of octuplets ever recorded. Already a single mum to six children, the so-called “Octomom” was vilified as mindless and heartless, dubbed the most hated mother in the world and even received death threats once the story got out (against her will). Not surprisingly, her life went a bit sideways and she was charged with scamming welfare, dabbled in the porn industry, went into rehab and then pretty much disappeared – until now. In this six-part, stranger-than-fiction doco, she tells her side of the story, starting with the controversial IVF procedure that led to the multiple pregnancies, and some of her many children speak up for the first time about their unconventional family situation.
SIRENS
NETFLIX
Three incredible performances from Oscar-winner Julianne Moore, The White Lotus star Meghann Fahy and Aussie Milly Alcock anchor this terrifically fun drama that will keep you guessing over five slick episodes. Fahy is Devon, who is caring for her dementia afflicted father and battling substance and intimacy issues that stem from a traumatic childhood. Her similarly affected younger sister Simone (Alcock) thinks she has found a way out as personal assistant to the uber-rich Kiki (Moore), the glamorous second wife of a billionaire, who may or may not also be the head of a cult. When Devon goes to fetch her sister from her gilded cage, all three relationships are tested with some genuinely affecting moments and dark laughs about class, family and power.
BETTER HOMES & GARDENS
FRIDAY, 7PM, CHANNEL 7
DIY guy Adam Dovile drew the winning ticket in this week’s special episode of the long-running lifestyle show and was dispatched to the wilds of Canada. After turning up in a T-shirt and thongs, he’s soon kitted out in a flanny and fluffy hat to explore the ski town of Banff and its truly stunning surrounds that make up one of the world’s first national parks. With the help of some friendly locals, he tries his hand at some lesser known snow sports, including fat-tire biking, back-country snowshoeing, and marvels at some crazy brave ice-climbers. He continues the journey in next week’s episode at the nearby Lake Louise, with a horse-drawn sleigh ride and a chopper ride over the area that’s just jaw-droppingly scenic.
MATILDAS V ARGENTINA
FRIDAY, 7.30PM, CHANNEL 10
It’s pretty much Christmas this week for aficionados of the World Game. First up on Friday night is the Matildas taking on an Argentinian team that’s 17 places below them on the world rankings but still a threat. For the second game on Monday, (streaming on Paramount+ from 6.45pm), former player Grace Gill will become the first Matilda to be the main caller of a national football match. On Saturday night, strap in for an epic local derby grand final in the Men’s A-League when Melbourne City face four-time winner Melbourne Victory (7.30pm on Channel 10). Then set the alarm for 4.15am Sunday (on Stan) for what’s usually the highest stakes game outside of a World Cup when French football powerhouse Paris Saint-Germain will be shooting for their first ever Champions League trophy – if they can get past the always dangerous Inter Milan.
ADULTS
DISNEY+
If a comedy about a group of mates sharing accommodation in New York City while negotiating the minefield of young adulthood sounds awfully familiar, the opening scene featuring a man pleasuring himself on a grungy subway quickly establishes that this is a very different beast. But where the Friends were mostly living their best lives in Manhattan, this group – Samir, Issa, Paul Baker, Billie and Anton – are sharing Samir’s parents’ house in the much less glam Queens. All of them are a bit crap at life, but there are some edgy laughs to be had as they navigate their way through trivial issues like fixing a boiler and friend group dynamics to more serious subjects such as consent and America’s busted health care system. Definitely not for the kids though.
CHENG LEI: MY STORY
TUESDAY, 7.30PM, SKY NEWS
Ahead of the release of her extraordinary memoir released next week, comes this inspirational one-hour documentary about Australian journalist and mother-of-two Cheng Lei, who spent more than three years in a Beijing prison after being wrongly accused of espionage. Told in her own words, it not only reveals her bravery and resilience in enduring isolation for long periods and denied access to family or a fair trial, it is also the first time a documentary has been made about China’s ultra-secret state security imprisonment.
WALKING WITH DINOSAURS
TUESDAY, 8PM, ABC
Getting emotional over the fate of a 66-million-year-old baby triceratops was definitely not on my bingo card for this week, but the top-notch computer generated animation and inventive storytelling of the this much loved BBC documentary series will do that do you. More than 25 years after it first aired, the prehistoric settings and resurrected dinosaurs look better than ever and the effective device of flipping between an imagined animal inspired by a real fossil – in this week’s case a dog-sized triceratops on the run from a big, nasty T-Rex – and modern day archaeologists explaining how and why they do what they do, makes for the best kind of educational family viewing.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT …
THE RIVER WILD
Forget Sophie’s Choice. Or even Kramer versus Kramer This is the film that truly
shows Meryl Streep’s range as an actor. Heralded for her pitch perfect accents,
we all know Streep can – and does – act rings around most of Hollywood. She’s also
a solid singer (as proven by Postcards from the Edge). But did you know Streep has
also got game as an action hero? Here, she plays a schoolteacher named Gail who
takes her family on a white-water rafting “holiday” believing that navigating a river
together will save her crumbling marriage. While Gail was prepared for the icy water
and dangerous rapids, she wasn’t counting on having a bunch of cold-blooded killers
stowaway on the family boat.
Originally published as What to watch: Bono’s brilliant one-man show; dinosaurs are back and better than ever
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