Pick of the week
Mr & Mrs Smith
This is, of course, a reimagining of that Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie movie where they played husband-and-wife assassins, but the nearest TV reference point would be The Americans. Donald Glover and Maya Erskine are John and Jane, a contract-killing partnership under deep cover as a married couple – the kicker here being that posing as lovers can easily lead to real love. Powered by Glover and Erskine’s huge slacker-meets-screwball chemistry, the weekly missions are pepped further by an impressive roster of guest stars: Michaela Coel, John Turturro, Paul Dano, Alexander Skarsgård, Sarah Paulson and Sharon Horgan all join a sleek romcom thriller ride.
Prime Video, from Friday 2 February
***
Black Cake
Charmaine Wilkerson’s 2022 novel is brought plushly to the screen by Oprah Winfrey’s production company. Twin timelines tell a story of identity and struggle: in the present day, two estranged siblings attend the reading of their mother’s will to discover that their inheritance is a set of tape recordings where she tells them of her secret past. The meat of the story is in flashbacks to the 1960s, where one woman’s battle to escape a bad start in life sees her leave Jamaica and travel to London, Scotland and beyond. Throw in an underlying murder mystery and a heap of other secrets and you have a great drama.
Disney+, from Wednesday 31 January
***
Alexander: The Making of a God
A documentary that uses every means at its disposal to get us excited about the life story of one of the greatest military leaders of all time, Alexander the Great. Historian talking heads and news of recent archaeological finds buttress the show’s suitably energetic dramatic reconstructions, which make heavy use of mascara and blue contact lenses, as well as growling extras holding sharpened poles. The story gets going properly when Alexander’s father, Philip II, dies and the young commander decides he’s absolutely had it with the Persians.
Netflix, from Wednesday 31 January
***
Choir
Prepare to be thoroughly uplifted as the Detroit Youth Choir are given the same documentary treatment already afforded to American football and cheerleading teams. In a city where life has in recent years become extremely tough, kids who commit to singing see the discipline as a rare chance for glory. The DYC have already tasted fame via an appearance on America’s Got Talent in 2019, but can their director Anthony White regain that momentum? As an appearance at Carnegie Hall beckons, dealing with life off stage is as tricky as getting the harmonies right on the night.
Disney+, from Wednesday 31 January
***
A Bloody Lucky Day
A curious Korean thriller that requires you to invest in a whole episode just to get a handle on its premise. Oh Taek (Lee Sung-min) is a taxi driver who is estranged from his family, belittled by his colleagues and deep in debt thanks to his own fecklessness. When a young serial killer (Yoo Yeon-seok) gets into his cab and offers him an unusually long and lucrative journey, the die is cast on a worm-that-turns story which pitches a hapless loser into a world of murder and conspiracy. It becomes darker and knottier than it at first seems.
Paramount+, from Thursday 1 February
***
The Defence
Poland’s most reckless defence attorney returns, barely slowed up at all by beginning this fifth season in hospital after being attacked by an angry mob. Within minutes, Joanna Chyłka (Magdalena Cielecka) is hobbling back to her desk, just in time to take an intriguing phone call from a priest. In 1983, the man of God unexpectedly acquired a bag of cash – now he tells a story of a falsely imprisoned friend and a state conspiracy linked to the war on trade union Solidarity. Chyłka is soon, once again, happily putting herself in peril.
Channel 4, from Friday 2 February
• This article was amended on 29 January 2024 to remove an erroneous entry about the Prime Video show Reina Roja.
