CLARKSON’S FARM (FIRST VIDEO)
He may have rightly taken his time after proposing a Game of Thrones-inspired punishment for a polarizing British king, but there’s no denying that one of Britain’s favorite bitter antediluvians is still making addictive television.
Seemingly a world away from Jeremy Clarkson’s usual grand tour antics starring James May and Richard Hammond, Clarkson’s Farm continues to delight in its second season, showing a softer side of the now 62-year-old while proving he’s so irascible, unruly and fair irresponsible as ever.
As in the first series, many of the joys come from Clarkson’s bull-at-a-gate approach to farm and roller coaster outcomes. Between a costly moment of inattention while driving a tractor and an ill-timed decision to change the tires on that huge Lamborghini R8, there are plenty of entertaining “cack-handed Palavas” and opportunities for his teenage advisor, Kaleb Cooper, to snub him.
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Season 3 of Ted Lasso and the second half of The Glory are among the great shows to stream this weekend.
THE CONSULTANT (FIRST VIDEO)
Christoph Waltz has portrayed some of Machiavell’s most memorable cinematic creations of the last 15 years.
Now he’s brought his particular blend of measured malevolence to the small screen in the form of The Consultant’s Regus Patoff.
Based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Bentley Little, this eight-part series is a slick and raunchy workplace thriller. Adapted by Servant’s Tony Basgallop, with at least the first episode directed by WandaVision and The Great helmer Matt Shakman, The Consultant feels like a dark mirror of Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest, or a more glittery but flatter version of Severance than that Employees of the successful Los Angeles-based mobile gaming company CompWare is struggling to adjust to the sweeping changes brought about by the mysterious and eccentric Patoff.
CONTINUE READING:
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* After The Last of Us, what will be the other must-watch TV shows of 2023?
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Daisy Jones & The Six is now available to stream on Prime Video.
DAISY JONES & THE SIX (FIRST VIDEO)
Riley Keough, Sam Claflin, Suki Waterhouse, Camila Morrone and Timothy Olyphant are part of the impressive cast assembled for this 10-episode musical drama based on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestselling 2019 novel.
In 1977 Daisy Jones & The Six were on top of the world. Led by two charismatic lead singers – Jones (Keough) and Billy Dunne (Claflin) – the band had risen from obscurity to fame. And then, after a sold-out show at Chicago’s Soldier Field, they gave up. Now, decades later, the band members have finally agreed to reveal the truth.
Author Reid readily admits that her narrative was inspired by the eloquent and scandalous Fleetwood Mac, and anyone familiar with her tensions and factions can easily spot some similarities. But rather than reflecting the stormy dynamics of the creators of Go Your Own Way, it’s the costumes, production design, and acting that stand out.
THE GLORY (NETFLIX)
Originally debuting in the closing days of 2022, interest in this Korean drama has surged again with the recent arrival of the second half of its 16-episode run.
Years after surviving horrific abuse in high school, Moon Dong-eun (The Grandmaster’s Song Hye-kyo) sets in motion an elaborate plan of revenge to make the perpetrators pay for their crimes.
Quinci LeGardye, writing for the AV Club, described it as “you can’t plot for a second with a frame that you can’t look away from,” while San Francisco Chronicle’s Chris Vognar previously thought it was “visually arresting and carefully constructed,” adding, ” The Glory takes its central theme to a fine point, reveling in Moon Dong-eun’s maneuvers as a heist film might outline the steps of a grand heist.’
Netflix
The Glory Part 2 is available to stream now on Netflix.
RAIN DOGS (NEON)
Former Taskmaster UK contestant Daisy May Cooper directs this eight-part British dramedy billed as an unconventional love story between a working-class single mother, her young daughter and a privileged gay man.
“Rain Dogs has a naturalism that’s eye-catching, bittersweet and at times tragic,” wrote The Age’s Craig Mathieson. “It reaches the depths of an unconventional friendship with defiant humor, noting that the peaks have equally grim downsides. This show blew me away.”
RED ROSE (NETFLIX)
Eight-part British horror about a group of teenagers whose friendships are infiltrated by a new app that threatens them with dangerous consequences if they don’t comply with their demands. Could it just be an algorithm luring them to the dark web? Or is it something much more supernatural?
“The series deserves applause for finding horror in a way that doesn’t feel cheap, along with such a reliance on its decidedly ordinary setting,” wrote The Times’ James Jackson.
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Eugene Levy is the host of a new travel show called The Reluctant Traveller.
THE RESISTANT TRAVELER (APPLE TV+)
If you thought Richard Ayoade’s Travel Man was the least adventurous or enthusiastic globetrotting guide, just wait ’til you see Eugene Levy in this eight-part series
Perhaps stylistically more of a not-so-eccentric and far less inquisitive Jeff Goldblum, the now 76-year-old Canadian-born former Schitt’s Creek, American Pie, and Best in Show star seems regularly tormented when he schelps through exotic countries as diverse as Italy, Japan, the Maldives, South Africa and Portugal.
Sure, he could stay in some truly opulent surroundings and notable hotels, but as he tells us mockingly dourly, “the catch is that I’ve agreed to explore what lies outside – the world I’ve avoided all my life have”.
Avuncular, self-deprecating, and endearingly reservedly charming, Levy could become your new favorite guide to what the world has to offer.
TED LASSO (APPLE TV+)
Now in its third — and possibly final — 12-episode season, this Emmy Award-winning comedy has lost none of its luster based on early evidence.
It’s still an ace as a transatlantic fish-out-of-water comedy, as a workplace sitcom its characters are compelling and nuanced and its observations shrewd, while as a football drama it’s sure to hook you.
Much of the show’s charm comes from its surprising warmth and the homegrown sermons of Jason Sudeikis’ ever-optimistic lasso of the same name. It’s hard not to smile when he gushed about rugby (“What a game – it’s like American football and sumo wrestling gave birth to a baby with huge muscular thighs all caked with mud.”) or his own misconceptions about Britain (“When I first came here I thought Yorkshire Pudding would be a fancy name for dog shit.”).
This remains feel-good fantasy football and one of the most adorable and consistently fun television comedies since Modern Family.
