Pick of the week
Masters of the Air
The producers behind Band of Brothers and The Pacific (including Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg) finally deliver another second world war epic. Years in the making and lavishly budgeted, this one dramatises the exploits of the Bloody Hundredth, AKA the US Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group. The opening episodes go relatively easy on the fire and bloodshed – it’s more a case of frostbite and vomiting – in favour of slowly building the relationships within a wide ensemble cast led by Austin Butler. Saltburn’s Barry Keoghan is typically mesmeric as a pugilist lieutenant, while the new Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, appears later – joining an impressive dramatic machine.
Apple TV+, from Friday 26 January
***
Expats
The Farewell director Lulu Wang helms a crisp study of isolation and grief. Nicole Kidman is Margaret, a woman living a luxurious life with her family in Hong Kong. As her husband’s birthday party looms, her brittle manner tells us something is drastically wrong. Meanwhile, seemingly unconnected young Korean expat (Ji-young Yoo) is similarly troubled, and Margaret’s neighbour (Sarayu Blue) struggles with a failing marriage. Relationships, friendships and parenting in the wake of trauma are all turned over curiously in Wang’s careful hands. Kidman’s suppressed mania is suitably unsettling.
Prime Video, from Friday 26 January
***
Queer Eye
“Let’s help this former nun find a future hun!” The Fab Five stay for a second season in New Orleans, since Louisiana is clearly not running short of intriguing eccentrics in need of a pick-up. Apart from the lonely, holy lady, candidates for a new look and/or a new attitude this series are a Kiss superfan whose caring responsibilities have robbed him of his identity; a selfless coach at a sports school for deaf children; and a married couple who have lost touch with themselves and each other, as well as their sense of style.
Netflix, from Wednesday 24 January
***
A Real Bug’s Life
Awkwafina’s chatty narration underlines that this nature series is aimed at a younger audience than most, the idea being that real insects, arachnids and other creepy-crawlies are even odder and funnier than their computer-drawn counterparts in Pixar movies. There’s no compromise in the quality of the close-up camerawork, however, as we learn about the cleverness and impressive physical attributes that enable spiders, centipedes and beetles to survive – or, often, just to make thrilling, death-defying leaps of about three-quarters of an inch.
Disney+, from Wednesday 24 January
***
Six Nations
A documentary series that shows the 2023 Six Nations tournament from numerous new angles – in the sense that it features exclusive interviews and extensive behind-the-scenes footage from training grounds and dressing rooms, and because it relives the games using its own cameras, both at ground level and high above the play. Amid all the crunching physicality and loud team bravado – as each squad is profiled in turn before two more episodes round up the season’s climax – mental health concerns and personal self-doubt are a recurrent theme.
Netflix, from Wednesday 24 January
***
Sexy Beast
More than 20 years after the movie, here are the Sexy Beast backstories. East London, the 1990s: while armed robber Gal (James McArdle) finds love with porn actor Deedee (Sarah Greene), he and his pathologically short-fused colleague Don (Emun Elliott) are offered work by silken crime bigwig Terry Bass (Stephen Moyer). At times it does recall those cheap 90s/00s British hooligan films where Danny Dyer hit people with snooker cues, but McArdle is charismatic. Look out for the bold casting of Tamsin Greig as Don’s bottle-blonde, verbally abusive sister.
Paramount+, from Thursday 25 January
***
Griselda
That everyone was slightly scared of Sofia Vergara’s character was a running joke in Modern Family, so perhaps her shift into drug boss drama isn’t a big left-turn. She now plays Colombian trafficker Griselda Blanco, who will become the “Godmother of Cocaine” but is, as the series starts, relocating to Miami with just a stolen brick of top-drawer happy dust and a dream. It’s 1979, so the disco and flares are as gaudy as the altercations are bloody, but Vergara fiercely embodies a badly wronged woman starting to fight back.
Netflix, from Friday 26 January
