The best TV and film to watch this week – The Perfect Couple to Slow Horses
A NEW month means a new selection of top telly hits to check out.
The Sun’s TV Mag has rounded up the best of the best for the next seven days.
So read on to find out all you need to know.
NETFLIX
The Perfect Couple – Available from Thursday
Amelia (Eve Hewson) couldn’t be happier. She’s about to get married to dashing Benji (Billy Howle), the man of her dreams. Not only is he a great guy but he just happens to come from a very wealthy family – and his mum, famous writer Greer (Nicole Kidman) has splashed the cash on the couple’s luxurious wedding on the swish island of Nantucket.
However, on the morning of the big day, the dream becomes a nightmare when a body is found floating in the harbour. With all the wedding guests now suspects, it seems some uncomfortable family secrets are set to be revealed.
Based on the best-selling book by Elin Hilderbrand, and also starring Liev Schreiber, Dakota Fanning and Isabelle Adjani, this six-parter is a deliciously dark, intrigue-soaked murder-mystery – and everyone’s invited.
Selling Sunset – Available from Friday
We’re off to Los Angeles once again to spend some quality time with the glamorous agents at the Oppenheim Group, as they do everything they can to sell some luxury property to wealthy buyers.
Returning for season eight are the usual crew of bosses Jason and Brett Oppenheim, Chrishell Stause, Mary Fitzgerald, Emma Hernan, Amanza Smith, Bre Tiesi, Nicole Young and Chelsea Lazkani, who we’ll see going through a painful divorce.
Of course, there’s nothing like a new cat to get the pigeons feeling flustered and this season the girls will be welcoming – or, more likely, shooting suspicious glares at – new agent Alanna Whittaker.
Expect another intoxicating cocktail of glamour, drama, fights, friendship breakdowns, romances, bitching and backstabbing – oh, and maybe even some house sales.
Wang In There, Baby! – Available from Tuesday
Phil Wang is one of the most original and likeable British stand up comics out there – so much so, he’s also won himself a sizeable international fanbase, particularly in the States.
But if you’ve not had the chance to go to one of his performances in person, don’t worry, because this, his second Netflix special, is here to show you what all the fuss is about.
Filmed in the atmospheric setting of Shakespeare’s Globe in London, the hour-long Wang In There, Baby! finds Phil riffing on wide-ranging subjects including octopuses, being British, being Asian, America, reheated rice and the trappings of minor fame. Wang-derful.
Outlast – Available from Wednesday
Who doesn’t love being sat all warm, dry and comfy on the sofa, surrounded by snacks, watching a bunch of people put themselves through freezing, soggy hell on a super-tough survival show?
One of the toughest of them all – Outlast – is back for a second season, challenging another 16 lone wolf outdoor experts to team up and take on the unforgiving Alaskan wilderness together. But will it be the elements, or each other, that proves the biggest obstacle to scooping the $1million prize.
This time the line-up includes python removal expert Bayardo, Air Force veteran Bri, mechanic Joseph, helicopter pilot Drew, rocket scientist Meghan and model Tina. Can they find reserves of endurance – and patience – even they didn’t know they had?
Untold: Hope Solo vs U.S. Soccer – Available from Tuesday
One of the most famous figures in American women’s football, goalkeeper Hope Solo won it all as a player – the World Cup, Olympic gold, a place in the National Soccer Hall Of Fame and more.
But off the pitch, her life has been complicated, involving a difficult upbringing with her divorced parents, several brushes with the law both during her career and afterwards and a controversial relationship with her husband, former American footballer Jerramy Stevens.
Now, in a raw, candid and wide-ranging interview, a defiant Hope has the chance to tell her own story, meeting her successes and failures head on.
Apollo 13: Survival – Available from Thursday
The remarkable story of what happened to NASA’s ill-fated 1970 Apollo 13 mission, when an explosion aboard the spacecraft left three astronauts – Jack Swigert, Fred Haise and James Lovell – stranded halfway to the moon, their oxygen supplies running low, is one that’s been told before.
But few retellings will get you as close to the drama and peril as this new feature-length documentary. Crammed with original footage and audio from the mission, interviews with key players and dramatic reconstructions, director Peter Middleton’s film immerses viewers in the nail-biting reality of the astronauts’ situation, and the incredible mission to bring them home. Compelling.
APPLE TV+
Slow Horses – Available from Wednesday
Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) is back. The spy world’s grubbiest and most cantankerous secret agent is about to embark on another fiendish and highly dangerous mission, helped – although he would surely say hindered – by River (Jack Lowden), Standish (Saskia Reeves) and the rest of the team of MI5 rejects at Slough House.
When a suicide bomber causes carnage at a shopping centre, MI5 boss Diana Taverner (Kristen Scott Thomas) puts Jackson and his crew on the case, but it swiftly becomes clear that there are some seriously dark forces at play. Will the case prove too much even for the brilliant Jackson Lamb?
It’s riveting stuff and this time round, the cast includes Hugo Weaving in a deliciously dark role – no spoilers – but, as ever, its Gary Oldman’s superbly seedy performance that holds the whole thing together.
PRIME VIDEO
Damaged – Available from Wednesday
Has Samuel L. Jackson ever made a bad movie? That probably depends on whether you’ve seen Snakes On A Plane, or not. The point is, the charismatic American star can usually be relied upon to pick interesting and exciting projects and while crime thriller Damaged isn’t an instant classic, like, say, Pulp Fiction or Django Unchained, it’s certainly a decent enough addition to Samuel’s impressive back catalogue.
Chicago cop Dan Lawson (Sam) finds himself teaming up with fellow detective Walter Bravo (Vincent Cassel) in Scotland, after a series of shocking crimes show an uncanny similarity to murders committed by a serial killer Dan had hunted in his hometown five years earlier.
No Activity – Available from Wednesday
Useless cops are a telly staple, of course, but few are as ineffectual as veteran detective Tokita Shingo (Etsushi Toyokawa) in this, the Japanese remake of Aussie police comedy No Activity. Always choosing to do the bare minimum, Shingo leaves the hard work to his partner, enthusiastic and charming rookie Asobu (Tomoya Nakamura).
Somehow, though, this odd couple managed to pull off a drugs bust in the first season and now they’re back, with a new case to crack but the same wildly contrasting attitudes to the job. Expect hilarity and some very hapless police work.
PARAMOUNT+
Dr Death – Available from Thursday
If you’ve watched Bad Surgeon: Love Under The Knife on Netflix, you’ll already know the story of Paolo Macchiarini. This Italian thoracic surgeon became famous in the Noughties for his innovative windpipe transplants, which used the patient’s own stem cells and synthetic materials.
However, it soon emerged that his work was based on research fraud and that instead of giving his patients a new lease of life, most of them had died. Macchiarini was also a fraud in his personal life, as investigative journalist Benita Alexander was to discover to her cost, when she fell in love with the charismatic doctor.
Macchiarini’s story, his unmasking as a conman and his relationship with Benita is dramatised in this eight-episode third series of anthology drama Dr. Death, with Edgar Ramirez and Mandy Moore in the lead roles.
The American – Available from Friday
Based on the true story of ballerina Joy Womack, the first American to graduate from the prestigious Bolshoi Academy in Moscow, this compelling drama plunges us into the unforgiving and incredibly tough world of ballet training.
Joy’s (Talia Ryder) journey is, as you might expect, far from plane-sailing, her dreams of becoming a prima ballerina tested to their limit by the rigorous routine of the Bolshoi, as well as some powerful external pressures that appear intent on stopping her from succeeding.
Not a million miles from that other bleak ballet-based movie Black Swan, The American is an intense and powerful portrait of one woman’s pursuit of greatness and the obstacles place in her way. Also stars Diane Kruger.
VIAPLAY
The Box – Available from Monday
Anna Friel makes a welcome return to our screens, starring in a compelling seven-parter that’s part detective drama, part psychological thriller. After being deeply affected by a recent investigation, Kansas City police officer Sharon (Anna) starts experiencing terrifying nightmares.
While her colleagues believe Sharon is suffering from PTSD thanks to the terrible pressure of her previous case, it begins to emerge that she’s actually being targeted by relentless and powerful supernatural forces.
Will she be able to defeat them and reclaim her sanity before it’s too late? An enjoyable, genre-mashing drama that’s loaded with twists, turns and plenty of scares.
CHANNEL 4
Walter Presents: Border Town – Available from Saturday
If you’ve ever wondered what a Finnish version of Sherlock might be like, wonder no more. Border Town follows the investigations of quirky detective Kari Sorjonen (Ville Virtanen), who’s blessed with a brilliant mind and phenomenal powers of deduction.
And he’s going to need them when he takes a job in a small town on the border between Finland and Russia, where he had hoped to spend more time with his wife and teenage daughter. However, a series of murder cases, plus the small matter of a serial killer, quickly make him realise that life is going to be anything but quiet.
And when he discovers that the crimes could be linked to his own family, things take an even darker turn.
DISCOVERY+
90 Days Fiancé: Before The 90 Days – Available from Monday
The 90 Days juggernaut ploughs on, with series seven of this gripping, surprise-laden spin-off. Fans will obviously be familiar the deal by now: a bunch of smitten Americans journey overseas to meet their international sweethearts in person, in most cases for the very first time.
This time, we’ve got eight brand new couples to meet, featuring cast members from as far afield as Poland and Ghana. Among the intriguing-looking couples are New Mexico chicken farmer Rayne and Chidi from Nigeria, who happens to be blind, and homeless Loren from Las Vegas and transgender Faith from the Philippines. The very definition of a guilty pleasure binge.
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