Pick of the weekCape Fear<\/p>\n
Max Cady is back! The terrifying villain of the 1962 and 1991 films is brought unsettlingly back to life in this serialised remake by a perfectly cast Javier Bardem. Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg loom over this version as executive producers but the ambience feels fresh enough to make it worthwhile. Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson are the Bowdens, a slightly self-satisfied pair of legal high-flyers whose family life is menaced by Cady, a released prisoner who blames them for his murder conviction 17 years earlier. Sympathies seem more ambiguously balanced this time thanks to Bardem\u2019s devilish charisma and suggestions that the Bowdens might not be as squeaky-clean as they seem.
Apple TV, from Friday 5 June<\/p>\n
Bring Me the Beauties: A Model CultEternal sunshine?\u2026 Hoyt Richards in Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult. Photograph: HBO<\/p>\n
It feels like a discarded plotline from Zoolander but the events described in this documentary series are grimly real. In the early 1980s, model Hoyt Richards came into the orbit of Manhattan socialite Frederick von Mierers and fell hard for his cocktail of self-improvement, eastern philosophy and new age woo. Soon, he was part of Von Mierers\u2019s spiritual group (or cult, if you prefer) Eternal Values. The series (directed by Chris Smith of Fyre fame) tracks the group\u2019s journey into exploitation \u2013 and Richards\u2019s route out.
HBO Max, from Monday 1 June<\/p>\n
Not Suitable for WorkIn need of a lift \u2026 Ella Hunt and Jay Ellis in Not Suitable for Work. Photograph: Disney\/PA<\/p>\n
Mindy Kaling\u2019s comedy is set in Manhattan and is afflicted with similar plausibility problems to its obvious antecedent, Friends (those apartments are surprisingly palatial for young adults on the bottom rungs of career ladders). Sadly, it doesn\u2019t match Friends for charm. Ella Hunt stars as AJ Pascarelli; abrasive but vulnerable, new in town and now living in a building that coincidentally houses old friends and former flings, including Jack Martin\u2019s aggravating nepo baby medical student Josh. It struggles to develop a satisfying central narrative and the characters aren\u2019t substantial or likable enough to compensate.
Disney+, from Tuesday 2 June<\/p>\n
The Legend of Vox MachinaBear necessities \u2026 The Legend of Vox Machina. Photograph: Amazon\/PA<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me guess: a vague portent of doom with little to no explanation?\u201d This fantasy action animation has its cake and eats it, managing to fondly spoof the conventions of its genre while still working as a lively example of it. As it returns for a fourth season, the Vox Machina crew have gone their separate ways, variously in search of lost families and missing purpose. But, of course, they must reassemble the team in the face of yet another new threat to the realm. What villainy awaits them? \u201cDeath cultists, supernatural villains; the usual.\u201d
Prime Video, from Wednesday 3 June<\/p>\n
Clarkson\u2019s FarmThreshing about \u2026 Clarkson’s Farm. Photograph: Prime Video\/PA<\/p>\n
Back to Diddly Squat farm for another season of mildly stagey hijinks with Jeremy Clarkson, Kaleb Cooper and various photogenic animals. As we return, Clarkson has had a brainwave: he\u2019s invented a driverless tractor that looks like a rejected Tesla prototype and turns out to be just about as reliable. However, things get more serious as a TB scare threatens the farm, there are some unwelcome guests in the pub car park and Clarkson has a health issue. He still makes time to visit London to grumble about changes to farming inheritance tax, however.
Prime Video, from Wednesday 3 June<\/p>\n
The WitnessPost mortem \u2026 Jahsaiah Williams and Jordan Bolger in The Witness. Photograph: Ana Blumenkron\/Netflix<\/p>\n
\u201cHave we spoken to the boy yet?\u201d When Alex Hanscombe was two, he experienced unimaginable trauma: he witnessed the sexual assault and murder of his mother, Rachel Nickell, on Wimbledon Common. This gripping but distressing three-part drama \u2013 which was written with Alex and his father Andr\u00e9 as consultants \u2013 explores the aftermath. It was inevitable that the police were going to have to talk to Alex sooner or later. But with leads elusive and Alex and Andr\u00e9 struggling to rebuild their lives, would closure ever be possible?
Netflix, from Thursday 4 June<\/p>\n
Teach You a LessonClass action \u2026 Kim Moo-yul in Teach You a Lesson. Photograph: Kim Ji-yeon\/Netflix<\/p>\n
This South Korean drama panders to a reactionary fantasy: the idea that unruly pupils have effectively taken control of the education system and that ineffectual teachers will have to be rescued, if necessary, by force. The force in this case is the Teachers\u2019 Rights Protection Agency, a troubleshooting body whose take-no-prisoners supervisor Na Hwa-Jin specialises in arriving in schools, singling out troublemakers and then busting a few heads. All in a spirit of tough love, naturally. It\u2019s glossy, nasty and, above all, thoroughly bizarre.
Netflix, from Friday 5 June<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pick of the weekCape Fear Max Cady is back! The terrifying villain of the 1962 and 1991 films…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-450706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}