Pick of the week
Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere
It was inevitable that Louis Theroux would collide with the manosphere: his diffidence is a perfect counterpoint to the empty bravado that defines the assorted blaggers and oddballs he meets here. As Theroux spends time with influencers including Harrison Sullivan and Myron Gaines, it becomes clear that their performance of hypermasculinity is often linked to loss and trauma. This manifests as bullying but also as an inescapable dullness. However, it’s worryingly evident that many vulnerable young men take the manosphere’s posturing at face value and, as the film goes on, it’s also apparent that Theroux and these influencers are talking to completely separate worlds.
Netflix, from Wednesday 11 March
***
Scarpetta
Nicole Kidman’s TV roles are rarely understated and the trend continues in this melodramatic thriller, adapted from a series of novels by Patricia Cornwell. Kidman stars as Kay Scarpetta, a brilliant but troubled criminal pathologist, who is having a second try at the job of chief medical examiner of Virginia. Her previous spell finished unhappily so the last thing she needs is a case (a possible serial killer) with freakish echoes of one that defeated her years earlier. It’s never subtle but everyone involved commits admirably and Jamie Lee Curtis is in fine sardonic form as Kay’s sister Dorothy.
Prime Video, from Wednesday 11 March
***
Outlander
The eighth and final season of weirdly addictive hokum from a drama that has combined time-travelling mysteries, tribal conflicts and lost children to emotionally exhausting effect. Season seven left us with quite the cliffhanger. It centred on I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside, a song Claire overhears Fanny singing to herself but also a callback to the tragedy of Claire’s stillborn child in season two. Could Fanny’s knowledge of this song open up a whole new branch of the family and tie the show’s many (often baffling) narrative threads together?
Prime Video, out now
***
Girl from Nowhere: The Reset
This strange Thai drama – a reimagined reboot of the original 2018 franchise – combines generic schoolyard rites of passage and supernatural mischief but ends up somewhere genuinely unusual. Nanno (Rebecca Patricia Armstrong) is an enigmatic teen who transfers to a private school. She doesn’t have much of a backstory but she does have a sense for hidden weaknesses and guilty secrets. Soon, a series of bloody events unfold – but is Nanno causing them or simply responding to them? The atmosphere is glossy but creepy and uncanny.
Netflix, out now
***
Sesame Street
These continue to be exciting times for fans of revived kids’ TV from the 20th century. The recent return of The Muppet Show has generally been considered a triumph but this charmingly quirky and educational puppet extravaganza got there first, with new episodes arriving before Christmas. This second batch is another wholesome treat, showcasing currently somewhat un-American themes of tolerance and sharing, plus a batch of gigantic cookies, and in the middle of the colourful chaos, a guest appearance from a happily bewildered Miley Cyrus. A delight.
Netflix, from Monday 9 March
***
Dynasty: The Murdochs
Arguably the most balefully influential family business in history gets the documentary treatment in a gripping four-part series exploring the Murdoch media empire, mainly from the perspective of the succession battle. With Rupert Murdoch now 94 years old, the saga has become increasingly acrimonious. And given the political influence the Murdochs continue to wield, the stakes are, sadly, high for us all. Here, the tensions between the four eldest Murdoch siblings are explored as their father, charming to the last, seemingly pits them against each other.
Netflix, from Friday 13 March
***
Twisted Yoga
Gregorian Bivolaru has a chequered past, involving facing down official hostility for practising yoga in his native Romania during the communist years, a taste for conspiracy theories, and sexual exploitation and human trafficking charges (which he denies). He’s also the man behind a global tantric yoga movement that, according to former followers interviewed in this documentary series, shaded into cultism. It’s an intriguing affair, touching on the hunger for health and wellness hacks and the way belief systems could potentially become coercive.
Apple TV, from Friday 13 March
