West Wing, here we come<\/p>\n
\n Streaming: Netflix, from Thursday October 16,
\n full season\n <\/p>\n
The third season of the political thriller entered on Keri Russell\u2019s Kate Wyler, the US ambassador to the UK kicks off right where 2024\u2019s second left off. Vice President Grace Penn (Allison Janney) is now President after the season two finale where President Rayburn Michael McKean died in office, possibly at the shock of hearing what his deputy had done in the conspiracy behind the attack on a Royal Navy aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf which had killed dozens of British sailors. Joining the cast this season is Janney\u2019s former West Wing colleague Bradley Whitford playing her husband. Also new to the halls of power is Aidan Turner (Poldark) as a mystery man who Wyler has a personal eye on.<\/p>\n
LYNLEY<\/a><\/p>\n New adaptation of the detective novels<\/p>\n Streaming: ThreeNow, from Wednesday October 15, episodes weekly<\/p>\n An odd-couple detective show based on the novel series by Elizabeth George. Detective Inspector Tommy Lynley (Leo Suter, Vikings) is a cop, but also a toff, which sometimes makes for an awkward relationship with his colleagues. He\u2019s paired with Sergeant Barbara Havers, a working-class maverick with a chip on her shoulder, and, against the odds, they become a formidable team. This four-partner for the streaming channel BritBox isn\u2019t the first adaptation of the books (the BBC aired The Inspector Lynley Mysteries 20-odd years ago), but it seems to have a struck a sweet spot with murder-mystery fans and reviews, especially from American critics, have been strong.<\/p>\n LOOT<\/a><\/p>\n Still rich and silly<\/p>\n Streaming: Apple TV+, from Wednesday October 15, first two episodes then weekly<\/p>\n It\u2019s season three and Molly Wells (Maya Rudolph) is still trying to distribute her $87 billion divorce settlement to people who actually need the money \u2013 and still being daft as a brush. (In the current news environment, presenting extremely rich people who aren\u2019t absolute monsters seems an agreeable form of escapism.) Season two ended with a very awkward moment with potential love-interest Arthur (Nat Faxon) and Molly instructing her assistant Nicholas to \u201cget me out of here\u201d on her private jet. The trailer suggests that the relationship with Arthur has gone better than the plane flight. Guest stars include Stephanie Styles, Kesha, Zane Phillips, Henry Winkler, X Mayo, and Paula Pell. Two-episode season premiere, then new episodes weekly.<\/p>\n MURDAUGH: DEATH IN THE FAMILY<\/a><\/p>\n True-crime podcast remade for TV<\/p>\n Streaming: Disney+, from Wednesday October 15, episodes weekly<\/p>\n In what could be seen as a striking example of nominative determinism, South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh was convicted in 2023 of killing his wife Maggie and their 22-year-old son Paul. This eight-episode drama is based on the global hit podcast series The Murdaugh Murders, which began reporting the bizarre details of the case shortly after the killings took place in 2021. (The fact that some of those details reached the public is now the basis of both felony misconduct charges against a court clerk and a motion for a retrial by Murdaugh.) Jason Clarke (also currently the lead in The Last Frontier) plays Alex Murdaugh, Patricia Arquette is his wife Maggie and podcast creator Mandy Matney is played by Brittany Snow.<\/p>\n THE IRIS AFFAIR<\/a><\/p>\n Thriller king aims to entertain<\/p>\n Streaming: TVNZ+, from Thursday October 16. New episodes weekly.<\/p>\n Wellington-based English screenwriter Neil Cross (Luther) is the creator and writer of this Sky TV UK thriller. Niamh Algar (Mary & George) plays quirky but gifted puzzle-solver Iris Nixon, who is invited to Italy by entrepreneur Cameron Beck (Tom Hollander, The White Lotus) and accepts an offer to join a team of scientists working on a powerful new technology. When she realises that the tech is extremely dangerous, she steals the activation code, goes on the run, and creates a new identity for herself. But the billionaire has put a bounty on her head and it\u2019s not that simple. \u201cAll I wanted to do was to make a show I wanted to watch,\u201d Cross said recently. \u201cIris is an unapologetically exciting, witty, chase-driven adventure show and features a lead character the like of which I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever met before on TV.\u201d Read our interview with Cross here.<\/a><\/p>\n SHERIFF COUNTRY<\/a><\/p>\n Where there\u2019s smoke \u2026<\/p>\n Streaming: TVNZ+, from Saturday October 18<\/p>\n Sheriff Country is a spinoff of Fire Country, set in the same small Californian town of Edgewater as the original, but focused on solving mysteries rather than, you know, fighting fires. Morena Baccarin (Homeland) stars as no-nonsense county sheriff Mickey Fox (who was introduced as the estranged stepsister of Cal Fires division chief Sharon Leone in season two of Fire Country). It\u2019s Edgewater all over this week, as the fourth season of Fire Country also arrives \u2013 and the outcome of last season\u2019s cliffhanger is revealed.<\/p>\n FAMILIES LIKE OURS<\/a><\/p>\n Everyone must go<\/p>\n Screening: Rialto, 8.30pm, from Tuesday October 21<\/p>\n Imagine a world where uncontrolled climate change raged to the point that whole nations were forced to evacuate their populations as the waters rose. That\u2019s the premise of Families Like Ours, in which the government of Denmark decides the country is no longer viable and everyone must leave. Director Thomas Vinterberg (best-known as a figurehead of the Dogme cinematic movement alongside Lars von Trier) largely eschews the dystopian spectacle the scenario might suggest and tells the seven-part story through its effect on a single family and its relationships. It\u2019s more of a thought experiment than a disaster film \u2013 everyone\u2019s wealth is in property, which is suddenly worthless. The New York Times hailed it as \u201cvery high-grade melodrama \u2026 This Is Us with a light seasoning of Children of Men.\u201d (The Guardian\u2019s reviewer resisted a wave of critical praise by declaring that it \u201call feels a bit thin, a bit bloodless\u201d.) Ironically Denmark is usually ranked among the most resilient nations and a climate catastrophe that reached its shores would already have wiped out whole populations in Africa.<\/p>\n LAZARUS<\/a><\/p>\n Crime shrink thinks he\u2019s going mad<\/p>\n Streaming: Prime Video, from Wednesday October 22<\/p>\n Sam Claflin (Peaky Blinders) plays Joel Lazarus, a forensic psychologist whose investigation of the apparent suicide of his father (Bill Nighy) tips into disturbing, inexplicable experiences \u2013 including conversations with his father\u2019s ghost \u2013 that somehow connect to a series of cold-case murders. Co-creator Harlan Coben has had a dozen of his thriller novels adapted for the screen but here he has written up an original concept with Bafta-winning screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst, who worked on the adaptation of Coben\u2019s Fool Me Once. \u201cWe have attempted to bring our trademark wit and warmth,\u201d Brocklehurst deadpanned in a recent media statement, \u201cas well as twists galore.\u201d Note: Not to be confused with the new anim\u00e9 series of the same name.<\/p>\n COLDWATER<\/a><\/p>\n Masculinity crisis and a murder<\/p>\n Streaming: TVNZ+, from Wednesday October 22<\/p>\n By all accounts Coldwater is blackly comic to the point of bonkers. Andrew Lincoln plays wildly against his best-known role (Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead) as John, a hapless dad who freaks out so much at witnessing a violent incident at a London playground that his whole family has to move to rural Scotland. There he meets his new neighbour Tommy (Ewen Bremner, Trainspotting) and things get really weird. Reviews have ranged from \u201ca smart and addictive thriller\u201d and \u201cthe maddest, most original thing I\u2019ve seen in ages\u201d to \u201cmoribund from the very start\u201d.<\/p>\n NOBODY WANTS THIS<\/a><\/p>\n Gentile on my mind<\/p>\n Streaming: Netflix, from Thursday October 23<\/p>\n The first season of the Emmy-nominated 2024 hit romcom had agnostic podcast host Joanne (Kristen Bell) and unconventional rabbi Noah (Adam Brody) deciding, after a few relationship wobbles, to give things a go. Now in season two the very Los Angeles couple are trying to blend their lives and their respective loved ones. Some of whom aren\u2019t happy about their happiness, such as Joanne\u2019s co-podcasting sister Morgan: \u201cYou are in a psychotically annoying relationship.\u201d Up for debate this season, according to the trailer, is marriage and whether Joanne will convert to Judaism. Among the guest stars are Seth Rogen, whose The Studio pipped NWT for the best comedy Emmy.<\/p>\n THE ASSET<\/a><\/p>\n Undercover in Copenhagen<\/p>\n Streaming: Netflix, from October 27<\/p>\n For those requiring a Nordic-crime fix, this thriller series offers six episodes of subtitled intrigue. It\u2019s the story of intelligence service cadet Tea, a woman with a dubious background, going undercover as a jeweller in an underworld \u2013 yes, Denmark has an underworld, despite being quite low lying \u2013 where she must befriend the wife of a criminal mastermind. The show was originally titled The Legend in English and is still called Legenden in Danish. Expect plenty of scenes involving worried, bearded men eavesdropping on conversations between women caught in a situation that isn\u2019t of their own making, and possibly some scenes of shops from the nicer parts of Copenhagen.<\/p>\n DOWN CEMETERY ROAD<\/a><\/p>\n Emma Thompson plays detective in another Mick Herron book adaptation<\/p>\n Streaming: Apple TV+, from Wednesday October 29<\/p>\n After Slow Horses, the books of Mick Herron get a second outing on Apple TV+ in this mystery series set in Oxford. It\u2019s an adaptation of Herron\u2019s first book from 2003 about girl who goes missing after an explosion which killed her parents in their suburban home. Ruth Wilson plays a neighbour, whose eye for detail stems from her job as an art conservator, trying to get to the bottom of the matter. Emma Thompson plays a private detective enlisted, reluctantly, to help on a case that is soon looking like a conspiracy theory brought to life. Morwenna Banks, who has scripted Slow Horses episodes, is the main writer. As far as we can tell, it contains less farting than Slow Horses though Thompson\u2019s character looks like she\u2019ll be the Jackson Lamb of this.<\/p>\n SON OF A DONKEY<\/a><\/p>\n Still playing the jackass<\/p>\n Streaming: Netflix, from Thursday October 30<\/p>\n Aussie Egyptian-Greek brothers Theo and Nathan Saidden turned their YouTube \u201cSuperwog\u201d comedy characters and suburban antics into a sitcom for the ABC, which was subsequently picked up by Netflix and retitled Superbro for international release. Now, the streamer is adding to its original Aussie content with Son of a Donkey, a new six-episode standalone show with the same characters. It follows Theo as he moves out of the family home and attempts to embrace adulthood and a full-time job. But a road rage incident gets him court-ordered therapy, and he finds life away from the family is much harder than he thought it would be. By the looks of the trailer, it\u2019s still very broad comedy and it has lost none of its original YouTube-level, ah, charm. <\/p>\n THE TWELVE: THE CAPE ROCK KILLER<\/a><\/p>\n The jury is in<\/p>\n Streaming: TVNZ+ from October 1<\/p>\n Sam Neill\u2019s venerable defence barrister Brett Colby returns for a third murder case in the Aussie crime series and he\u2019s got quite a bit of Kiwi help in the cast. The ensemble involves Danielle Cormack as the prosecutor, Sarah Peirse as the wife of the accused, Marlon Williams as Colby\u2019s son, as well as Neill\u2019s Sleeping Dogs cast-mate Sir Ian Mune and rising star Hanah Tayeb. This series is set in Western Australia, where Colby keeps himself busy on his vineyard \u2013 which for Neill must be a stretch \u2013 between cases. The trial involves a man accused of killing a woman, who threatened to expose him as the murderer in a notorious local case dating back to 1968. To read more go here<\/a><\/p>\n THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW<\/a><\/p>\n New Norton naughtiness<\/p>\n Screening: TVNZ 2, 7.30pm, Fridays from October 3<\/p>\n Streaming: TVNZ+<\/p>\n TVNZ has snaffled Norton\u2019s show from its long-time (since 2012) home on Three. Episodes screen a week after they air in the UK and the line-up for the season opener included Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson and Emily Blunt talking about working together on the UFC film The Smashing Machine, Matthew McConaughey promoting new thriller The Lost Bus, and Aimee Lou Wood speaking about her new BBC series Film Club which is now on ThreeNow. The second episode on October 10 had one Taylor Swift talking about her recent engagement which can he watched Below. The October 17 episode features regular guest Bruce Springsteen plus the man who plays him in a new movie, Jeremy Allen White.<\/p>\n WE WANT THE FUNK!<\/a><\/p>\n Getting in the groove<\/p>\n Screening: Sky Arts, 9pm, Friday October 3<\/p>\n A better-than-average survey of what funk music is, the social and political context it emerged from in 1960s America and its enduring influence on popular culture. James Brown, Parliament, Labelle, Sly Stone and Fela Kuti all get a look in, and interviewees include Fred Wesley, David Byrne, Questlove, Carlos Alomar, Nona Hendryx, an array of historians and writers and George Clinton, the \u201cPrime Minister of Funk\u201d himself. It\u2019s a funky education.<\/p>\n MONSTER: THE ED GEIN STORY<\/a><\/p>\n From mother\u2019s boy to serial killer<\/p>\n Streaming: Netflix, full series from Friday October 3<\/p>\n The news has been so bad lately that maybe going back to an old-fashioned sicko serial killer can be a reminder of simpler times. The third instalment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan\u2019s Monster anthology tells the story of rural Wisconsin killer, grave-robber and body-part fetishist Ed Gein. It\u2019s a story that has previously inspired Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs and the series doesn\u2019t shy away from that \u2013 Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s making of Psycho is actually part of the narrative. Gein is played by Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy), who described the series to Netflix\u2019s Tudum magazine as \u201cthe really human, tender, unflinching, no-holds-barred exploration of who Ed was and what he did\u201d.<\/p>\n ENGLISH TEACHER<\/a><\/p>\n Class struggles<\/p>\n Streaming: Disney+, from Friday October 3<\/p>\n Brian Jordan Alvarez returns for a second season as Evan Marquez, an English teacher who must navigate \u201cthe political minefield known as the American high school\u201d. Marquez and his colleagues grapple with climate change, Covid, military recruitment and student phone use and his righteousness causes friction in his relationship with his ex-boyfriend Malcolm, who goes to a different school. All 10 episodes ready to stream.<\/p>\n JAMES MAY\u2019S GREAT EXPLORERS<\/a><\/p>\n Voyages and villainy<\/p>\n Screening: Sky Real History, 7.30pm, Saturdays from October 4 <\/p>\n The former Top Gear head and veteran of his many boy\u2019s own shows brings his avuncular and slight goofy presence to the stories of three of history\u2019s most famous maritime explorers: Christopher Columbus, Sir Walter Raleigh and Captain James Cook. It arrives on screens a couple of months after May brought a live version to NZ stages. The series examines the innovations that enabled their voyages but also looks at how the great men became monsters. Late in his life, Cook became a tyrant who ordered increasingly extreme punishments of both his crewmen and the native people he encountered. And Columbus? Total psycho.<\/p>\n KAREN PIRIE<\/a><\/p>\n Coal case<\/p>\n Streaming: Acorn TV, from Monday October 6. Full series<\/p>\n It\u2019s taken three years for season two to arrive after the well-received first series<\/a> that introduced the titular Scottish detective from Val McDermid\u2019s crime novels. Pirie is played by Lauren Lyle (Outlander), who is soon to be seen in Sky TV UK-NZ drama The Ridge. This three-episode season follows McDermid\u2019s A Darker Domain, another unsolved murder from decades past, with the story flashing back to the Fife coalfields involvement in miners\u2019 strikes of the mid-1980s, and to the unsolved disappearance of oil heiress Catriona Grant and her young son. Forty years later, a body has been discovered, and Detective Inspector Pirie is assigned to the case. The familiar figure of James Cosmo plays Sir Broderick Grant, father and grandfather of the victims and, as well as heading back in time, the story stretches from Scotland to Malta \u2013 where Pirie\u2019s trademark bumbag just makes her look like another tourist.<\/p>\n FAKE OR FORTUNE<\/a> <\/p>\n Screening: Sky Arts October 7, 8.30pm<\/p>\n Streaming: Neon, October 28<\/p>\n Former Auckland Art Gallery curator and Frances Hodgkins expert Mary Kisler guest stars in tonight\u2019s episode about whether a painting bought for about NZ$80 in a Hertfordshire council sell-off of its unwanted art collection might be by the expatriate NZ painter. This is the third episode of the new season thirteen which Sky Arts fast tracked so we could see the Hodgkins episode. It\u2019s not very well identitifed on Sky platforms, so look for season 13, episode three. To read more go here<\/a><\/p>\n JOANNA LUMLEY\u2019S DANUBE<\/a><\/p>\n River queen<\/p>\n Screening: Wednesdays, 8.30pm TVNZ 1, from October 8<\/p>\n Streaming: TVNZ+<\/p>\n Dame Joanna Lumley\u2019s late-life career as a travelogue host seems unstoppable. Here, over three episodes, she follows the Danube from its source in the Black Forest to its delta at the Black Sea, taking in Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania \u2013 with a detour to the Ukraine border. She also catches up with Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst, visits the Vienna Boys\u2019 Choir, and participates in a ceremony with a coven of witches in Romania. \u201cThey are white witches, they\u2019re good witches,\u201d she explained recently. \u201cAnd they are so glamorous and so fantastic.\u201d <\/p>\n FILM CLUB<\/a><\/p>\n The garage of dreams<\/p>\n Streaming: ThreeNow, from October 8, episodes weekly<\/p>\n Aimee Lou Wood, the rising Englist star who was a scene-stealer in the last series of White Lotus, and Ralph Davis (House of the Dragon) co-write and star in a romantic comedy they reportedly worked on together for a decade. But they\u2019re not the couple in the series \u2013 Davis in the role of the rom-com best mate while Wood plays Evie, a young possibly agoraphobic woman who hasn\u2019t left the house in six months but pours her heart into a weekly film club in her mother\u2019s garage, where she can escape and spend time with her friend Noa (Nabhaan Rizwan). That leaves her boyfriend Josh (Adam Long) feeling a bit left out. When Noa announces he\u2019s moving away for work, and everything begins to change. The show is picking up a warm reception from UK reviewers. It also stars Suranne Jones as Evie\u2019s mother who says of the show: \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve seen or read anything that captures that female relationship between mothers and daughters so warmly\u201d. Owen Cooper, the Emmy-winning young star of Adolesence plays the seemingly troubled kid next door but thankfully not as troubled as he was in his previous show.<\/p>\n Full six-episode season.<\/p>\n THE CELEBRITY TRAITORS UK<\/a><\/p>\n Stars aim to deceive<\/p>\n Screening: Thursdays 7.30pm Three, from October 9<\/p>\n Streaming: ThreeNow<\/p>\n Unusually for a celebrity reality show, this version of The Traitors is quite full of actual British celebrities who presumably didn\u2019t just sign on because they were desperate. Jonathan Ross, Stephen Fry, Alan Carr, singers Charlotte Church and Paloma Faith, rugby player Joe Marler and Olympian Tom Daley are among the contestants. Claudia Winkleman orchestrates it all in her usual campy, imperious fashion. Screening here only hours after it airs in the UK.<\/p>\n VICTORIA BECKHAM<\/a><\/p>\n Posh to the front<\/p>\n Streaming: Netflix, full season from October 9<\/p>\n Victoria Beckham attracted a lot of the attention in Netflix\u2019s docuseries about her footballing husband, but here she\u2019s front and centre. The three-part series, produced by Nicola Howson, who made Beckham, tells the story of her formative years, but the focus is on her work towards the big New York Fashion Week show she hopes will establish her beyond doubt as a serious fashion designer. Interviews include Tom Ford, Roland Mouret, Anna Wintour, Eva Longoria and, of course, the husband. \u201cNothing is sugarcoated,\u201d she told Bloomberg earlier this year. \u201cThere are tears.\u201d<\/p>\n BOOTS<\/a><\/p>\n They want you, they want you as a new recruit<\/p>\n Streaming: Netflix, full season from October 9<\/p>\n Legendary TV producer Norman Lear got this one last show under way before he died aged 101 in December 2023 \u2013 although its completion was stymied by the screen writers\u2019 strike. Miles Heizer (13 Reasons Why) plays Cameron Cope, a closeted teen who signs up for a US Marines boot camp in the 1990s in the hope it might make him not gay. Alongside him is his straight best friend Ray (Liam Oh, The Thing About Harry). The eight-part comedy-drama is based on The Pink Marine, the memoir of Greg Cope White.<\/p>\n THE LAST FRONTIER<\/a><\/p>\n Small-town sheriff vs prisoners on the loose<\/p>\n Streaming: Apple TV+, from October 10, first two episodes then weekly<\/p>\n Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty) plays Frank Remnick, the veteran US marshal tasked with keeping a quiet Alaskan town safe. That job suddenly looks a lot harder when a prison transport plane crashes nearby and inmates \u2013 including one mystery prisoner who might be in on the whole thing \u2013 escape. Then his wife (New Zealander Simone Kessell) gets kidnapped. \u201cThe show is Con Air meets The Fugitive,\u201d creator Jon Bokenkamp told Esquire. \u201cIt\u2019s grounded in 90s action thrillers.\u201d <\/p>\n MOZART: RISE OF A GENIUS<\/a><\/p>\n How he composed himself<\/p>\n Screening: Sky Arts, 8.20pm, from Monday October 13<\/p>\n Following its earlier studies on he lives of Leonardo Da Vinci and Shakespeare, the BBC has delivered another three-part docudrama this time recounting the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. But this one comes heavy on the celebrity talking heads, mostly British actors like Stephen Fry (who gets to read some of Mozart\u2019s rude poems), Richard E Grant, Sheila Hancock, Adjoa Andoh, and comedian Chris Addison who are there as Mozart lovers and get to act as a Greek chorus on events in the composer\u2019s life. Among the experts and musicians are prominent conductors Ed Gardner and Jane Glover and sopranos Lucy Crowe and Golda Shultz. The series is narrated by Juliet Stevenson, who, of course played some nice duets with Alan Rickman in Truly, Madly Deeply.<\/p>\n BOOKISH<\/a><\/p>\n A new quirky crime-solver<\/p>\n Screening: Vibe, Tuesdays 8.30pm, from October 14<\/p>\n Streaming: Neon, later in the year<\/p>\n As he did in Doctor Who and Sherlock, Mark Gattis both writes and appears on screen \u2013 in this case, as Gabriel Book, the proprietor of a 1940s antiquarian bookshop in London, who helps police solve baffling murder mysteries. He has a great relationship with his wife (Polly Walker, Bridgerton), who knows he\u2019s actually gay. Radio Times heaped praise on the show as \u201ca breath of fresh air\u201d with \u201cmore than a bit of Poirot about it all\u201d. Viewers seemed to agree \u2013 it exceeded all ratings expectations and had a second season confirmed before its initial six episodes (in which three mysteries are solved) had finished airing. <\/p>\n For pointers to other recent new shows, go to the September Viewing Guide.<\/a><\/p>\nFake or Fortune presenters Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould with the painting thought to be by Frances Hodgkins. Supplied<\/p>\n