2 weeks ago
13
Pick of the week
The Leopard
Guiseppe Tomasi’s 1958 novel Il Gattopardo doesn’t lack ambition, tracking the creation of modern Italy via the story of one aristocratic family. This adaptation is suitably grand and sprawling – an explosion of summertime colour and a fine advertisement for rural Sicily. It tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, a landed prince attempting to hold back the tides of change as Garibaldi’s revolutionary army threatens what he considers his family’s ancestral birthright. Netflix has its cake and eats it, paying lip service to history while leaning heavily into the plentiful sex, sun and scenery, delivering the goods as a lush, stylish costume drama.
Netflix, from Wednesday 5 March
With Love, Meghan
After being delayed due to the LA wildfires, Meghan Markle’s long-awaited lifestyle series is with us at last – and what a tonic in troubled times. Expect a gushing glimpse of pastel-coloured domestic perfection offering proof that, from cooking to beekeeping, there’s almost no end of things that Markle can do. In fact, you’d probably call this parade of clinking glasses, humming hives and gently snoring dogs aspirational if it wasn’t underpinned by such vast wealth and status. As it is, it’ll probably confirm every viewer’s already established opinion of the woman on screen.
Netflix, from Tuesday 4 March
Fear
“I like watching you.” As messages from new neighbours go, this isn’t a great start. But it’s going to get worse for Martyn and Rebecca (Martin Compston and Anjli Mohindra) who have moved into a beautiful home in Glasgow, unaware of the troll in the basement flat. Before long, the behaviour of Solly McLeod’s Jan has gone from discomfiting to disturbing and the couple are soon considering desperate measures. Fear is adapted from a novel based on the author Dirk Kurbjuweit’s actual experiences, which adds an extra frisson of horror to the whole scenario.
Prime Video, from Tuesday 4 March
Geordie Stories: Charlotte’s New Baby
Charlotte Crosby is done with Geordie Shore. After her fallout with co-star Marnie Simpson, she’s made it clear that her time on the show is over. That doesn’t mean there isn’t still plenty of reality TV business to be done – Charlotte will be moonlighting on the forthcoming Aussie Shore and this series sees her monetising her personal life still further, following her pregnancy from bump to birth. Expect plenty of melodrama and cameos from familiar faces, including Letitia and Gary who are moving in with Charlotte and Jake while their house is renovated.
Paramount+, from Tuesday 4 March
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Daredevil: Born Again
Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk are on a collision course again as the hit Marvel series returns after seven years away. By day, Murdock is a blind lawyer fighting for social justice while Fisk is a mob boss turned politician with mayoral ambitions. But that’s not the half of it: the two antagonists also possess superpowers and are an almost perfect match for each other. It’s the usual darkly glossy fantasy fare. The two leads – Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio – have cracking chemistry as the battle between good and evil plays out in modern-day New York.
Disney+, from Wednesday 5 March
Just One Look
Another of Harlan Coben’s mystery potboilers is adapted for the screen, this time a Polish version of a 2004 novel. Greta is living a life of domestic bliss in suburban Warsaw when she finds a strange photo of her husband and inadvertently unlocks a murder case. Soon, her family are under threat as the past roars back to life, bringing hitmen to her door. But is her spouse telling her the whole truth about his life? Like much of Coben’s work, Just One Look stretches plausibility to the absolute limit but boasts a certain berserk energy all the same.
Netflix, from Wednesday 5 March
Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black
The opening half-season of this glossy, frequently lurid melodrama operated at a high emotional pitch, but this latest batch of episodes ramps the intensity up even more. And, just like before, it’s generally at the expense of any degree of subtlety, nuance, moral complexity or character development. As we return, the Bellarie family are fighting to save their empire – and they fight dirty. Cue blackmail, kidnapping and revenge as Kimmie, who reached breaking point at the midpoint of season one, is forced to take desperate measures to save her sister.
Netflix, from Thursday 6 March
