Pick of the week
The Offer
“Paramount is going to come crashing down. We need hits!” That might have been the case in the lead-up to the release of The Godfather in 1972. But, as Paramount’s new streaming service launches, there are potential hits aplenty. In fact, this series takes a very meta delight in the notion that TV arguably now tells the stories that were once the domain of movies such as The Godfather. The Offer dramatises the painful birth of the mafia epic through the eyes of producer Albert S Ruddy (Miles Teller). It sometimes lapses into the kind of generic gangsterism the film itself was determined to avoid, but there’s a ragged energy that keeps it very watchable.
Paramount+, from Wednesday 22 June
***
Loot
A brilliantly snarky and big-hearted comedy that Apple no doubt imagines as being this summer’s feel-good Ted Lasso. It’s elevated by the reliably watchable Maya Rudolph: she plays Molly Novak, a selfish and superficial woman who divorces her unfaithful husband of 20 years (Adam Scott), is granted an $87bn settlement and, at a loose end, begins to show up for work at the charitable foundation she barely remembers launching (“I have an office?”). Soon, she’s making friends and learning a few lessons about how the other half lives. Not a million miles away from warm but pointed morality fable The Good Place.
Apple TV+, from Friday 24 June
***
Halo
Worryingly, humanity will face an existential alien threat in the 26th century. Fortunately we’ll be able to call upon the Master Chief – a hybrid soldier who is “lethal, upgradeable and, most importantly of all, controllable”. Can you see where this is going? As the combat bots prepare to repulse an invasion, a difficult question arises: “What does one do with a superhuman you aren’t sure you can trust?” Loosely adapted from the games, this lavishly staged series stars Pablo Schreiber as the warrior Chief and Natascha McElhone as the boffin behind his development.
Paramount+, from Wednesday 22 June
***
The First Lady
“In four years, I don’t want to look back and think: ‘What did I become, living in that house?’” These words are spoken by Viola Davis’s Michelle Obama but any of the trio of first ladies brought to life here could ask similar questions. Alongside Davis, this inventive series stars Michelle Pfeiffer as Betty Ford and Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt: three generations of Flotus, all wrestling with a familiar problem. With a high profile but no official power, how do you maintain personal autonomy while avoiding accusations of backseat driving?
Paramount+, from Wednesday 22 June
***
Queen of the Universe
This drag-queen singing contest is essentially a hybrid of The X Factor and RuPaul’s Drag Race. The main USP here is the singing – there is, as we’re repeatedly reminded, no lip-syncing to speak of. This can be a mixed blessing: not all these performers have the vocal chops to match their style. There’s serious money up for grabs, too: the winner will walk away with a cool $250,000. The always cheerfully sardonic Graham Norton presents, and Leona Lewis, Trixie Mattel, Michelle Visage and Vanessa Williams form the judging panel.
Paramount+, from Wednesday 22 June
***
Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber
Within the recent glut of streaming dramas probing the affairs of big, millennial business (The Dropout, WeCrashed), there’s an interesting ambiguity over audience sympathies. Are we expected to like these people? Are they heroes, antiheroes or just plain villains? In Super Pumped, it’s less complicated. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is infuriating from the get-go. This show seems desperate to have its cake and eat it, glorying in the guilty adrenaline rush of the story while critiquing the ethics that underpin it.
Paramount+, from Wednesday 22 June
***
Man vs Bee
“I’m Trevor from Housesitters Deluxe.” With those words, Rowan Atkinson is back on familiar ground – reviving his remarkable facility for machine-tooled haplessness. The premise of this comedy is as simple as the title makes it seem: Trevor (Atkinson) has a job looking after a luxurious house with one tiny but vastly significant snag: it contains a rogue bee that drives our hero to distraction. There’s a paper-thin subplot about him taking his daughter on holiday but, really, this is an expanded set-piece showcase of Atkinson’s gift for physical comedy.
Netflix, from Friday24 June
