Pick of the week
You
“Love burns me out completely.” As You fans know, sociopath and fugitive Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) is burned out by both love (the emotional state) and Love (the deceased ex). The fourth season starts from a problematic place: its intention is that we sympathise with Joe and believe that he wouldn’t kill so much if the people in his life weren’t so difficult. If you can stomach that, it’s absurdly entertaining. Joe is in London now, pretending to be a professor and pining for Marienne. But he’s drawn into the orbit of Malcolm – a nepo-baby academic and one of the least subtly-drawn characters in TV history. Joe needs to keep his head down, but Malcolm won’t make that easy.
Netflix, from Thursday 9 February
***
The Exchange
Farida is a recent divorcee with a teenage daughter. She’s just about maintaining her social status in a wildly aspirational society. But without her ex’s cash, she’s living a lifestyle she can no longer afford. This drama starring Rawan Madhi is based on a true story: in 1980s Kuwait, two pioneering women (Farida and her cousin Munira) made waves in the cutthroat world of finance and shattered the glass ceiling. The characters and the moral quandaries they face feel slightly broad at times, but it offers a strong feminist perspective on what is an intractably patriarchal part of the world.
Netflix, from Wednesday 8 February
***
Class
When three scholarship kids from the wrong side of the tracks arrive at “Delhi’s best and most expensive school”, they attract a certain amount of attention. Alongside the unpleasant snobbery, there’s something grimmer still – a genuine sense that the spoiled, grifting rich kids actively resent their presence in their midst. What unfolds is an increasingly dark and taut tale of secrets, lies and ultimately violence as the rottenness at the heart of India’s class system is picked apart. Adapted from Netflix’s Spanish series Elite, this is a teen drama with an edge.
Netflix, out now
***
Ghislaine Maxwell: Partner in Crime
Ghislaine Maxwell’s story remains an itch that documentary makers can’t help but scratch: the mixture of outrageous privilege, intense evil and a chain of connections leading to the very top of British society make it irresistible. This film acts as a primer to the Maxwell story and also a deep dive into her trial – rather unusually, one of the jurors speaks on camera here, offering an insight into how close the case came to being dismissed. Meanwhile, the testimony of victims, including Virginia Giuffre, are a reminder of the horror at the heart of the story.
ITVX, from Thursday 9 February
***
My Dad the Bounty Hunter
Most kids develop a certain fascination with what their parents do for a living. This cute animation series sees siblings Lisa and Sean stow away in their dad’s truck, only to find themselves on board a spaceship. Turns out their father’s working life is more terrifying and exotic than they’d ever imagined. So begins a taxing adventure for Dad, combining intergalactic bounty hunting with some fairly tricky parenting. It’s good, wholesome fun – and it’s incredibly refreshing to see an African American family foregrounded in an animation.
Netflix, from Thursday 9 February
***
Clarkson’s Farm
The first season of this horticultural reality series was a surprise hit. Given recent events, this second run might be slightly more appetising if it promised to deploy its star as a scarecrow or subject him to trial by muck-spreader. Anyway, Amazon has decided that Clarkson’s misogynistic comments about Meghan Markle weren’t quite nasty enough to consign this show to the dung heap, so on we go. As ever, Clarkson’s plain-speaking sidekick Kaleb is the real star – if they’re smart, Amazon will give him his own show and compost this series for good.
Prime Video, from Friday 10 February
***
Walter Presents: Sacha
A murky and melodramatic Swiss thriller starring Sophie Broustal as Anne Dupraz, a well-respected prosecutor who is arrested for shooting a man. A mystery of memory loss and hidden intention unfolds: Dupraz admits her guilt but isn’t able to explain her actions. Furthermore, the victim (who is in a critical condition in hospital and may or may not recover) is connected to the Geneva underworld and might not be entirely innocent himself. Expect the unravelling of both a criminal case and a woman’s identity. Moody and intriguing.
All 4, from Friday 10 February
