Pick of the week
Yellowjackets
Back to the twin wildernesses of snowy Canada and American suburbia where the girls – and later, middle-aged women – of a marooned New Jersey high school football team continue their slow-mo meltdown. The aftermath of the plane crash is manifesting itself as both physical decline and psychological trauma – having gazed into the void, all retain a certain wild volatility. Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) is using Adam’s murder cover-up to pep up her disappointing sex life. Taissa (Tawny Cypress) has done something unspeakable to a dog. Juliette Lewis’s Natalie has been imprisoned for her own safety. And Christina Ricci’s Misty is still a bundle of nervous energy and manipulation.
Paramount+, Friday 24 March
***
Waco: American Apocalypse
Tapping into that trademark American combination of devout religiosity and extreme war readiness, this series exhaustively analyses the brutal climax to the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas. It’s very much an exploration of the siege rather than the cult and might have gone deeper into the reasons why so many men, women and children found themselves believing that Vernon Howell – AKA David Koresh – was worth dying for in the first place. But it’s still fascinating and harrowing, telling the tale via the recollections of journalists, Branch Davidians and FBI operatives.
Netflix, from Wednesday 22 March
***
Monster Factory
“Professional wrestling is an eclectic melting pot of misfits,” says coach Danny Cage. That’s the appeal of this documentary series which follows the aspiring grapplers at the titular New Jersey wrestling school. They’re a varied and usually endearing bunch, who got into the wrestling game for various reasons: one uses it as a salve for his crippling anxiety, another as a means of calming his Tourette’s syndrome. Cage has a striking record of helping his students reach the top but, needless to say, there are many dramas along the way.
Apple TV, out now
***
Phoenix Rise
A big-hearted coming-of-age drama set in the West Midlands and focusing on a group of misfit teens attempting to return to mainstream education after being excluded. Refreshingly, they don’t have any supernatural entities to fight; instead, they’re battling with more profound but universal problems such as absent parents, bullying and anger management. They find a sanctuary both within their school and, after initial suspicion, with each other. From Alex Draper’s angry but vulnerable Billy to stylish, brittle Summer (Lauren Corah), they’re easy to root for.
BBC iPlayer, from Tuesday 21 March
***
Neighbours
Fans of suburban Australian melodrama will be counting down the days until the show returns (on this Amazon offshoot) in late 2023. But newcomers will want to catch up – there have been about 9,000 episodes of the Ramsay Street potboiler and, while they won’t all be on Freevee, there will be plenty to keep you occupied. A classic season will be available every month from now until the relaunch, so dive into this daft world of ill-fated weddings, dreaming dogs, evil doppelgangers and inexplicable guest appearances from English pop royalty.
Freevee, from Thursday 23 March
***
The Night Agent
A serviceable if overheated conspiracy drama based on a novel by Matthew Quirk. Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) is a diligent, time-serving FBI agent at the White House. He finds himself monitoring a mysterious emergency phone line that, thankfully, never rings. Until one night it does and he finds himself plunged into a nightmare involving a Russian mole at the highest levels of US government. Before long, the hunt for the double agent has become a matter of life and death, for both Sutherland and (you guessed it) the US itself.
Netflix, from Thursday 23 March
***
My Kind of Country
Apple makes its move into the competitive reality format with this talent show searching for the next big star of country music. In it, scouts including country luminaries Jimmie Allen and Mickey Guyton will travel the world on the hunt for singers. The chosen few will then be invited to showcase their abilities in Nashville in the hope of winning what is described as “a life-changing prize” (hopefully a bit more than exposure on Apple Music?). Expect appearances from executive producers Reese Witherspoon and Kacey Musgraves, too.
Apple TV+, from Friday 24 March
