Pick of the week
Before
Billy Crystal plays (reasonably convincingly) against type in this thriller, as child psychologist Eli, a man reeling from the suicide of his wife Lynn. When a mysterious, mute child appears on his doorstep with bloodied hands and an unblinking stare, Eli assumes he has dreamed him. But Noah (a creepy turn from Jacobi Jupe) is very real: he is equally drawn to Eli but is unable to explain the roots of his obvious trauma, which manifests in incredibly detailed drawings and episodes of jarring violence. The dialogue is clunky and feels indebted to horror totems The Exorcist and The Sixth Sense. But the intriguing central premise keeps it watchable.
Apple TV+, from Friday 25 October
***
Beauty in Black
Tyler Perry’s oeuvre has sometimes been criticised for perpetuating negative stereotypes about Black lives. This glossy drama may not entirely dispel that perception with its focus on the gradually intersecting lives of two slightly overfamiliar paradigms of Black womanhood: hard-knock-life pole dancer Kimmie (Taylor Polidore Williams) and hyper-successful girl boss Mallory (Crystle Stewart). When Kimmie has a chance to improve her circumstances, she finds herself barging into Mallory’s immaculately sculpted environment, with unpredictable consequences for them both.
Netflix, from Thursday 24 October
***
Blackshore
DI Fia Lucy first appears breaking a creep’s nose in a pub toilet. She’s that kind of TV copper: ambitious, focused to the point of perpetual rage and more than a little troubled. Like many such rozzers before her, she’s back in her home town, on a temporary secondment from Dublin and struggling with its provincial attitudes. It’s not the most groundbreaking idea and the drama that unfolds – the search for a missing woman with mental health problems – is no less generic. All the same, Lisa Dwan is a spirited lead, making her character Lucy easy to root for.
U, out now
***
The Disappearance of Kimmy Diore
A French crime drama set in the world of influencers and social media. When the titular six-year-old goes missing, investigating detective Sara Roussel (Géraldine Nakache) finds herself exploring a primary-coloured but sinister scene where nothing is quite as it seems. Kimmy and her mother are the co-stars of a cutesy, hugely successful online TV show but doubts about her family’s motives are soon obvious. As Sara gets closer to them, a nasty tale of exploitation and hothousing starts to emerge. How will fans of the show react when the facts emerge?
Disney+, from Wednesday 23 October
***
Doctor Odyssey
Another product of the feverish mind of Ryan Murphy, this wildly melodramatic medical procedural is set on board a luxury cruise ship and stars Joshua Jackson as Max, the doctor charged with keeping the passengers and crew safe. It’s a tougher assignment than it sounds – predictably, the Odyssey turns out to be an absolute death trap of a boat, populated by accident-prone goofs. Also predictably, when Dr Max isn’t saving lives, he’s embarking on a very obviously foreshadowed affair with one of his colleagues. Daft beyond description.
Disney+, from Thursday 24 October
***
Nautilus
This drama, based on Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, has had a difficult birth. It was originally set for Disney+ distribution before they jumped ship, leaving Prime Video to pick up the series. It’s a lively, albeit unoriginal telling of the tale of Nemo (a dashing Shazad Latif), one of the slaves captured and used to construct a vast submersible for the villainous British East Company. Nemo leads a rebellion, though, and soon he and his renegade gang are journeying across the oceans having adventures and plotting revenge.
Prime Video, from Friday 25 October
***
Stalk
This French offering from the Walter Presents strand is a high-school drama with a tech twist. Lucas (Théo Fernandez) is a teenager whose innate geekiness makes him an easy target for bullies. He is, however, exceptionally gifted and soon starts taking revenge via cyberstalking, catfishing and other such online trickery. Before long, this mischief has evolved into an all-out war as he begins hacking the phones and computers of his tormentors to learn their most intimate secrets and manipulate them accordingly. A bleak modern morality tale.
Channel 4, from Friday 25 October
