Pick of the week
Andor
The Star Wars universe expands backwards once again with this immaculate prequel to 2016’s Rogue One (set before the original films). The vibe is dark, complex and slightly noir-ish, as Diego Luna reprises his role as Cassian Andor – the Rebel Alliance pilot and intelligence officer whose unit got their hands on vital but dangerous information about the Death Star in Rogue One. This is Cassian’s origin story as his initial cynicism turns to revolutionary fervour in the face of the empire’s savagery. Look out for a brilliantly icy turn from Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma, a senator and double agent whose political machinations within the empire conceal a deeper secret.
Disney+, from Wednesday 21 September
***
Fortune Seller: A TV Scam
This week’s Netflix true crime series is a slightly less harrowing affair than we’ve come to expect, telling the story of Wanna Marchi, an Italian TV personality/telesales scam artist turned convicted criminal. It’s a rags-to-riches story with multiple rises and falls, each more entertainingly nefarious than the last. Among her dubious get-rich-quick schemes were an apparently miraculous “slimming cream” and items intended to ward off evil spirits (including a substance that turned out to be table salt). Marchi’s daughter and business partner Stefania Nobile is interviewed, as is an unapologetic Marchi herself.
Netflix, from Wednesday 21 September
***
Sisterhood
The formidable scouting network of Channel 4’s Walter Presents strand reaches Iceland for the first time, offering this dark drama about literal skeletons from the past. When human remains are discovered in a mine, a trio of women – priest Elisabet, chef Anna Sigga and nurse Karlotta – are forced to reckon with a horrendous incident from their teens. As two detectives are assigned to the cold case, it’s a generic crime drama up to a point. But really, it’s about guilt: even after evading justice, can anyone live well while concealing an awful secret?
All 4, out now
***
Girl in the Box: The True Story
The story of Colleen Stan is so disturbing it almost defies belief. After being kidnapped in 1977 by Cameron and Janice Hooker, Stan was held captive in a wooden box under their bed and treated as a sex slave for seven years. Paramount+ are screening a film about the case starring Addison Timlin as Stan – and this accompanying two-part documentary renders the horror of Stan’s ordeal very tangible. In addition to Stan’s imprisonment, it covers her kidnappers’ trial during which she found herself portrayed as a willing participant in her own torment.
Paramount+, from Monday 19 September
***
Designing Miami
Photograph: Netflix
If you enjoy the property-porn aesthetics of the Selling Sunset franchise but find the cut-throat rapacity of the participants a little offputting, this series might be for you. It centres on Miami husband-and-wife duo Ray and Eilyn Jimenez, who are happily married but also competing for much of the same work in the overheated world of high-end interior design. There’s lots of stagey rivalry but, crucially, plenty of love too: any conflict here is essentially good-natured and, one suspects, largely for the benefit of the cameras.
Netflix, from Wednesday 21 September
***
Super/Natural
“Welcome to a realm beyond human perception.” It would probably be too flashy a tagline for David Attenborough but, increasingly, there is a realm of nature documentaries beyond the BBC Natural History Unit. Benedict Cumberbatch narrates this frequently eye-popping series – executive-produced by James Cameron – which explores animal behaviours that defy human understanding. Expect a catalogue of wonders such as an intimate conversation between elephant seals and a lizard that breathes underwater using an air bubble.
Disney+, from Wednesday 21 September
***
Academy Dreams: Leeds United
From the production team behind the Take Us Home series, which tracked Leeds United’s pandemic-plagued promotion push, comes this new six-parter focusing on the club’s academy. Leeds supporters will know that academy progress has been somewhat mixed – young players such as Joe Gelhardt and Sam Greenwood have emerged, yet their rise to the fringes of the first team has had implications for the academy team’s success. But it’s always fascinating to be allowed an insight into the rarefied pathway that leads to football stardom. Leeds legend Vinnie Jones narrates.
Prime Video, from Friday 23 September
