3 hours ago
5
Pick of the week
His & Hers
The brutal murder of an anonymous woman? Rarely a promising start to a drama, but thankfully things get more interesting from this point. The killing is the backdrop to a dangerous game of cat and mouse between tightly wound detective Jack (Jon Bernthal, on fine, nervy form) and Tessa Thompson’s broadcast journalist Anna, whose career has hit the skids following a personal trauma. She views the case as a source of professional redemption, but there is history between the pair – and it turns out the victim might not be unknown to them. A dark thriller, adapted from Alice Feeney’s novel, that utilises the steamy heat and fraught racial politics of Atlanta to tense, claustrophobic effect.
Netflix, from Thursday 8 January
A Thousand Blows
Back to the squalor of late Victorian east London for another season in hell with Steven Knight’s charismatic desperados. A year has passed and Stephen Graham’s Sugar Goodson has spent it drinking heavily. Meanwhile, Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) is pining for Jamaica and fighting for loose change, and Erin Doherty’s Mary Carr is in hock to predatory crimelord Indigo Jeremy. Mary has a plan – but she’ll need accomplices with clear heads. However, this season’s wildcards are the French anarchists who have arrived bearing seditious intent and plenty of dynamite. It’s brooding, bloody and oddly poetic.
Disney+, from Friday 9 January
Hercules the Bear
“He looked like a wee pyjama case,” remembers Hercules the bear’s “mum” Maggie Robin, of the day she and her husband Andy acquired their lifelong companion. But as this jaw-dropping yet charming documentary shows, he didn’t stay that way for long. Maggie and Andy (who was a wrestler and incorporated Hercules into his performances) lived with the bear in the Scottish Highlands. Hercules was so gentle that the couple regularly took him to their local pub. “You had to watch him on a Babycham,” Maggie recalls. “He’d go a wee bit overboard.” A delight.
BBC iPlayer, out now
Abbott Elementary
Abbott Elementary. Photograph: Gilles Mingasson/ABC
Abbott’s headteacher Ava Coleman (Janelle James) is a far from unflappable figure at the best of times. But as the second half of this fifth season begins, she has more reason than ever to panic: the school’s heating system has broken down and the entire operation has been temporarily relocated to an abandoned shopping mall. As ever, the show manages to combine character-driven comedy with a gently polemical edge. This plotline is based on a real-life incident – and while the teachers do their best to keep spirits up, why have they been put in this position?
Disney+, from Wednesday 7 January
Beast Games
The first season of this big-money gameshow hosted by Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson led to a class-action lawsuit against the makers. Five contestants alleged on-set mistreatment, sexual harassment and unsafe conditions – Donaldson said he can’t comment, but claimed he spoke to 700 to 800 contestants who “all had a great time”. So it’s back – a horribly compelling, deeply dystopian spectacle in which teams compete in challenges for prizes including money, cars and even a private island. Imagine an unholy mashup of Gladiators and Squid Game: The Challenge.
Prime Video, from Wednesday 7 January
Girl Taken
This drama, adapted from Hollie Overton’s novel Baby Doll, suggests that the almost extrasensory bond between identical twins can be compounded by trauma. When 17-year-old Lily Riser (Tallulah Evans) is abducted, her twin Abby (Tallulah’s real-life sister Delphi) and their small town are consumed by the search for her. Five years later, Lily returns, now a grown woman and bearing the scars of a horrific ordeal. But as the identity of her captor is revealed (an assumed pillar of the community), the twins’ troubles are just beginning. Alfie Allen and Jill Halfpenny co-star.
Paramount+, from Thursday 8 January
Tehran
This nailbiting Israeli espionage thriller returns for a third season. Mossad agent Tamar (Niv Sultan) is still undercover in Tehran but, after last season’s turmoil, her position has never been weaker. She’s dangerously close to being unmasked by her adversaries, yet her handlers don’t really trust her either. So the last thing she needs is the arrival of South African weapons inspector Eric Peterson (Hugh Laurie, at his most grave and sombre). Peterson is a man on a mission; he needs Tamar’s help but could he put her in even greater danger?
Apple TV, from Friday 9 January
