Pick of the week
Wednesday
“They haven’t built a school strong enough to hold me. I doubt this one will be any different.” This reboot of The Addams Family from the master of the theatrically sinister, Tim Burton, focuses on the enigmatic teenage daughter Wednesday (Jenna Ortega). She’s been thrown out of her regular high school after an incident with some deadly flesh-eating fish and enrolled at a performatively gothic “school for outcasts” – the alma mater of her mother Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Here, the cliques are divided into supernatural categories (vampires, werewolves etc) and Wednesday’s glorious disdain for all other students will be tested to destruction. Great fun. Phil Harrison
Netflix, from Wednesday 23 November
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First Love
This generation-spanning love story is inspired by Japanese pop superstar Hikaru Utada’s two songs First Love and Hatsukoi. They are separated by 19 years, but the screen story has an even wider narrative scope. Jumping between three decades, it takes in the first meeting of Harumichi Namiki (Takeru Satoh) and Yae Noguchi (Hikari Mitsushima), their growing attraction and their separation. But as the two protagonists wallow in their memories, might redemption be possible? Can their love be rekindled? It’s tasteful, idealised and at times, a little antiseptic: romance as designed by Marie Kondo. PH
Netflix, from Thursday 24 November
***
Our Universe
Paging Morgan Freeman! Netflix has an uplifting, beautifully shot new series about life, the universe and pretty much everything – all it needs is a narrator. Freeman, of course, rises to the occasion, lending his impossibly grave and sonorous tones to this epic, frequently eye-popping series. The emphasis here is on connections: from the stars to the oceans and the big bang to the tiniest plant growing in the desert, what irresistible forces and processes link all life on Earth? It’s undeniably spectacular and admirably ambitious stuff. PH
Netflix, from Tuesday 22 November
***
Blood, Sex & Royalty
The streamer has clearly decided that royal-based semi-fiction is the way to go: hot on the heels of season five of The Crown comes this racy docudrama based on the scurrilous but arguably proto-feminist life of Anne Boleyn. The dramatic segments are led by Amy James-Kelly’s Anne, but there are slightly awkward inserts involving historians offering thoughts on the context of the fictionalised action. It might have worked better as a basic drama – as it is, the show struggles to gather momentum as either history or entertainment. PH
Netflix, from Wednesday 23 November
***
Echo 3
Implausible feats of vigilante guerrilla warfare in this thriller starring Jessica Ann Collins as Amber Chesborough, an American scientist who has been captured in the middle of a bloody conflict on the Colombia-Venezuela border. It falls to her husband Prince (Michiel Huisman) and her misleadingly named brother Bambi (Luke Evans) to save her. Fortunately, the pair are former special forces soldiers. Echo 3 is the creation of Zero Dark Thirty writer Mark Boal and the tone (underground political intrigue meets sweaty ultraviolence) is comparable. PH
Apple TV+, from Wednesday 23 November
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Staged
Proving to be more than a simple but joyous one-hit lockdown wonder, David Tennant and Michael Sheen’s snappy series – in which they play themselves – returns for a third season. Still directed and written by Simon Evans (who also stars), the newest collection of 15-minute shorts sees real-life pals David and Michael return to normal life. Simon – whose work schedule needs filling – pitches a Christmas radio drama to the pair. The only problem is that they’ve made it clear they no longer want anything to do with him … Hollie Richardson
BritBox, from Thursday 24 November
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The Confession
This two-part crime documentary possesses all the twists and turns of a melodrama but, sadly, is both true and, to this day, unresolved. Patricia Hall went missing from her home in Pudsey, West Yorkshire in 1992. Her husband, Keith, was immediately a suspect and the subject of a controversial honey trap that led to a game of cat and mouse with the police. But still, no evidence tied him to the crime. So what really happened to Patricia? The programme hears from Keith Hall, Patricia’s sister Christine and other key protagonists as they process this ongoing tragedy. PH
Prime Video, from Friday 25 November
