Star-studded kidnap drama Full Circle leads our Top 10 TV picks this week
From a tense, complex thriller to Stanley Tucci and lots of pizza and pasta, Lisa Woolford shares her top 10 TV shows this week.
FULL CIRCLE
Streaming, Binge
From heist comedy Ocean’s Eleven to crime ensemble Traffic, Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh has shown he is the king of tightly-wound suspense – well, OK maybe not so much in Magic Mike’s Last Dance. This six-part miniseries sees him back to his best in this star-studded, terrifically tense kidnapping drama. It’s a complex, and cleverly plotted narrative that revolves around an array of diverse characters. There’s Louis (Gerald Jones) and Xavier (Sheyi Cole), two young Guyanese fresh in New York, recruited to work for an immigrant crime family. Then there’s affluent Manhattan couple Sam (Claire Danes) and Derek (Timothy Olyphant), and their teenage son, Jared (Ethan Stoddard), mixed in with Sam’s celebrity chef father, Jeff (Dennis Quaid), and also the lonely teenage runaway, Nicky (Lucian Zanes), who is pursuing a virtual friendship with Jared. Setting in motion a series of events that bring all these – and more – very different lives together is the shady Mrs. Mahabir (the fabulous CCH Pounder), the head of the crime gang that employs Louis and Xavier. It sounds like a lot – and it truly is, but trust me, it all comes together.
SURVIVAL OF THE THICKEST
Thursday, Netflix
Michelle Buteau created and also stars as Mavis Beaumont in this series about a struggling New York stylist who has to begin again after discovering her partner’s cheating. Her career takes off when she starts dressing curvy clients to shine, while returning to the dating game. It’s a showcase for Buteau, a stand-up comic, actor and podcast host, whose memoir of the same name inspired the show’s fictionalised take.
STANLEY TUCCI: SEARCHING FOR ITALY
Thursday, 8.30pm, SBS
Stanley Tucci and Italian food – these are a few of my favourite things. And this series is delightfully stuffed full of both them. Episode one kicks off in Naples – Italy’s third largest city. In the historic Spanish Quarter, Tucci meets Professor Elisabetta Moro, who takes him to the last authentic fried pizza maker, Fernanda’s. And then Tucci meets up with Enzo Coccia – arguably the world’s best pizza maker. The bad news is his series was cancelled last year. The glimmer of hope is that he’s in talks with other streamers to make sure he gets the rest of his Italian sojourn to happen.
THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY
Friday, Prime Video
From the same author who brought us To All The Boys I Loved Before and XO Kitty, this is the second season of the Jenny Han-inspired series. And fans of the books will be prepared for the sucker punch of emotions to come. Belly (Lola Tung) must deal with the fallout from having feelings (and making out) with both Fisher boys. If only that was all she had to deal with – the entire Conklin family must deal with losing Susannah (Rachel Blanchard), and the chosen family – and home – they’ve called their own. Kyra Sedgwick joins the cast this season.
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS
Friday, Binge
Spun off from the 2014 New Zealand movie of the same name, this is the fifth season of the mockumentary series about the after-dark adventures of a group of vampire housemates – Nandor, Laszlo, Nadja and Colin – on New York’s Staten Island. The group navigate the modern world with the help of their human familiar Guillermo. And this latest instalment picks up soon after Guillermo bribed vampire hunter-turned-vampire Derek to transform him. And – *spoiler alert* – it’s not going quite as well as he had hoped.
THE AFTERPARTY
Streaming, AppleTV+
A big splashy wedding takes a nosedive when the groom is murdered, and every guest becomes a suspect in this second instalment of this murder-mystery, comedy series from Christopher Miller (21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie). Sam Richardson and Zoë Chao are back as Aniq and Zoë, as is Tiffany Haddish as Detective Danner. And there’s a great ensemble cast again with John Cho, Ken Jeong, Jack Whitehall, Zach Woods and Elizabeth Perkins (at her best) as the family members, star-crossed lovers, and business partners who recount their version of what went down.
THE HUNT FOR KARL LAGERFELD’S MILLIONS
Streaming, Prime Video
Multi-award-winning director Michael Waldman is on the search for people who knew the legendary Chanel designer best to try to discover who he really was behind his iconic sunglasses. It doesn’t focus on his often-controversial opinions – which we won’t repeat here – but rather tries to unravel just who will inherit his vast fortune. His personal life was as lavish as the catwalks he adorned; he earned millions, spent millions. Waldman chats with Lagerfeld’s inner circle including his bodyguard Sébastien Jondeau, muse Brad Kroenig and Françoise Caçote who takes care of Choupette, the designer’s pampered Burmese cat, who is expected to be one of the main heirs of his fortune.
BAY OF FIRES
Sunday, 8.30pm, ABC and Iview
Showcasing Tasmania’s rugged west coast, this eight-episode quirky mystery series tells the story of Anika Van Cleef (The Twelve’s Marta Dusseldorp), who is unexpectedly dropped into a small community – the aptly named Mystery Bay – with her children. Betrayed and in serious danger, she has no option but to trust a stranger who claims to be on her side in a town rife with simmering feuds, crime and sometimes, of course, murder. Another stellar ensemble cast including Stephen Curry, Pamela Rabe and Yael Stone.
DANCING WITH THE STARS
Sunday-Monday, 7.30pm, Seven
Twelve become six in this semi-finals week, James Magnussen’s partner Natalie Lowe has some rather interesting and almost Mr Miyagi-esque training techniques to get the best out of her swimming pro. And it paid off in spades (or should that be brooms). What a fabulous series of celebs it has already been. Don’t know what I’ll miss more when it wraps – the glittery costumes, the stunning choreography, eagerly anticipating what fabulousness Virginia Gay will do next or judge Craig Revel Horwood’s withering looks and host Sonia Kruger super-fast quips.
HUNTED
Monday, 7.30pm, Ten
Former AFP agent Dr David Craig, former British Intelligence officer Ben Owen and their top team are back for this second season which sees 20 people released in Melbourne’s Docklands. And there’s some cracker fugitives again such as brother and sister team, Byron and Tanase, who are hoping fugitive-life will help unite them after a difficult few years, but things get off to a tense start. Things don’t go well either for coach and boxer duo Glenn and Taylah, who find themselves in instant hot water thanks to a decision to “hide in plain sight”. And nerdy gamer duo Ben and Callum start a war with Hunter HQ after leaving traps on their devices, and Cath and Kel’s Facebook taunt leads Hunter HQ to a wealth of info on their online friends.
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