Pick of the week
Dead Boy Detectives
The fate of Edwin Paine seems a sad indictment of discipline at the UK’s boarding schools: after being murdered in his dorm, he found himself consigned to hell for decades thanks to “a clerical error”. This supernatural drama (based on the comic books of Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner) sees Edwin (George Rexstrew) join forces with his similarly undead pal Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri). The pair have opted not to enter the afterlife but instead exist in a semi-earthly hinterland, solving paranormal mysteries. The aesthetic is slightly over-fussy gothic and the duo are initially hard to like. But as they join forces with Kassius Nelson’s possessed teen Crystal Palace, guards drop and backstories emerge.
Netflix, from Thursday 25 April
***
Secrets of the Octopus
The octopus clearly becomes more fascinating the closer to it you get. To that end, this series follows scientist Alex Schnell as she spends time drifting along the ocean floor with a friendly octopus called Scarlet and observing her survival strategies and incredible capacity for shape-shifting and camouflage. We also meet the deadly and visually startling blue-ringed octopus as it prepares to give birth by turning itself luminescent as a warning to passing predators. It’s a beautifully shot and at times genuinely psychedelic insight into an otherworldly realm.
Disney+, from Monday 22 April
***
Fern Brady: Autistic Bikini Queen
Scottish comic Brady has always had an unsentimental perspective on her art. She has sworn she’d never do a standup set with a gratuitously emotional payoff. So the mention of her autism in the title of this 2022 set is something of a red herring – if she explores the condition at all, it’s only obliquely. Instead, she offers amusingly scabrous takes on everything from drinking (“I don’t like drinking. I don’t need drink to make me blunt and offensive in social situations”) to babies (“Imagine being so lonely you literally have to shag your friends into existence?”).
Netflix, from Monday 22 April
***
The Big Door Prize
Once you know your life potential, what do you do next? It’s the conundrum at the heart of this gently profound drama, with a tone that lands somewhere between wry comedy and melancholia. As the second season begins, the town of Deerfield is trying to cope with the existential challenge presented by the gap between potential and reality. But perhaps the mysterious Morpho machine can help with that too? With their lives upended by its revelations, Dusty (Chris O’Dowd) and friends are now trying to move the machine on to the next stage.
Apple TV+, from Wednesday 24 April
***
The Asunta Case
This series is based on one of the bleakest cases in recent Spanish history: the murder of 12-year-old Asunta Basterra Porto in 2013. Asunta was reported missing by her adoptive parents Rosario and Alfonso and, a few hours later, her body was found by the roadside. However, investigations started to lead the police in the direction of her parents. But what reason could they have had to kill their daughter? The case soon became a grim national obsession. This dramatisation stars Candela Peña and Tristán Ulloa as the beleaguered couple.
Netflix, from Friday 26 April
***
Morten
Another in the apparently inexhaustible reserves of foreign-language dramas unearthed for the Walter Presents strand, this Dutch series stars Peter Paul Muller as Morten Mathijsen, a charismatic, slightly flashy politician on the rise. Mathijsen is positioning himself as a possible prime minister but might his past catch up with him first? When a manuscript is discovered in the flooded basement of a publishing house, it falls to cleaner Kelly de Nooijer (Claire Bender) to explore the impact a traumatic event from the past may have on the Netherlands’ political future.
Channel 4, from Friday 26 April
