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Pick of the week
The Residence
Wickedness in the White House? Who would believe it! This series from Shondaland is a quirky whodunnit about a mysterious death at the heart of US power. Uzo Aduba stars as Cordelia Cupp, a brilliant, eccentric detective who is charged with unpicking the details. As the body of the building’s chief usher is discovered, a state dinner is in full swing. Soon, Cupp (a keen birder whose binoculars come in handy for professional reasons too) brings searching questions and inconvenient truths to the occasion. It’s a gently comic genre piece; essentially a country house murder mystery with West Wing bells on. And it’s great fun, largely thanks to Aduba’s wry central performance.
Netflix, from Thursday 20 March
Happy Face
A meta true-crime drama about a true-crime podcast. Annaleigh Ashford plays Melissa G Moore, a woman who discovered her father was a serial killer (“Happy Face”) at the age of 15. The murderer (real name Keith Jesperson) insinuated himself back into her life years later by offering to spill the beans on another victim – but only to his daughter. Moore found herself manipulated from multiple angles as she reluctantly complied. Dennis Quaid chews the scenery somewhat as Jesperson, but Ashford is a sensitive lead, playing a woman caught painfully between family duty and a wider sense of moral responsibility.
Paramount+, from Friday 21 March
The Simpsons
The definitive cartoon of the TV age has seemingly entered a holding pattern. The Simpsons is clearly never going to be either cancelled or abandoned by its creators but nor will it ever again feel like appointment viewing. However, despite a longstanding sense of wheelspin, the show does still conjure moments of invention and originality. These five new episodes mark the beginning of the 36th season; look out for a self-referential tangle with ChatGPT creativity and, perhaps inevitably, a White Lotus spoof in which the family go on a fancy holiday.
Disney+, from Monday 17 March
Inside
For the uninitiated, the Sidemen are a group of seven goofy, hyperactive internet personalities who compete with each other in reality TV-style challenges. Their first series of Inside was a sensation on YouTube – and given that the group boast more than 130 million subscribers between them, it’s easy to see why Netflix might want a piece of the action. The format is familiar: celebrities are confined in a house and face challenges influenced by everything from Big Brother to I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here, with a prize pot that is a chunky £1m.
Netflix, from Monday 17 March
High Hoops
A Peep Show take on kids’ telly? Not quite, but this CBBC comedy does star Robert Webb and Isy Suttie, alongside likable teenage lead Darci Hull. It’s the story of Aoife, a tall, slightly gawky teen with an unusual dress sense whose plan to fit in at a new school seems to revolve round her basketball ability. However, even on their first day, Aoife and her sardonic brother Conor have managed to irritate the various cliques (mean girls, bullies etc) and their quest for approval seems doomed. But Conor’s brains and Aoife’s guileless charm help them find a way. Good fun.
BBC iPlayer, from Monday 17 March
Last One Laughing
This competition show brings together a selection of Britain’s finest comic talent to face a simple but counterintuitive challenge: don’t laugh. The last comedian standing will be the winner but in a room containing, among others, Joe Lycett, Daisy May Cooper, Lou Sanders and, most challengingly, Bob Mortimer, that won’t be easy. The smart early money may be on Richard Ayoade (“I haven’t laughed since the 90s”) but deadpan Joe Wilkinson could be a dark horse. Jimmy Carr (whose laugh nobody needs to hear ever again) is the host.
Prime Video, from Thursday 20 March
Flowers Over the Inferno
Elena Sofia Ricci leads this adaptation of Ilaria Tuti’s 2019 novel. Set in the snowy Dolomite mountains in Italy, it’s a crime thriller with parallel but connected themes. After the murder of an engineer, police commissioner Teresa Battaglia has to track down the killer. But she has problems of her own – she projects the kind of steel needed by a successful woman in a male-dominated world, but her vulnerability is clear as she begins to suspect she’s experiencing the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. An intriguing twist on some familiar thriller tropes. PH
Channel 4, from Friday 21 March
