‘The Undoing’ – HBO

I watched The Undoing on Now TV catch-up during a really busy week; as busy you can get in a Tier 2 lockdown. It was an awkward stop/ start way of doing things, which sometimes you’ve just got to do, to squeeze some prestige TV into your week, and I ended up watching episode one on two different devices. The major problem was I just couldn’t remember what the show was called, even after watching about 40 minutes . Oh Magic 8-Ball, will this show stick in my mind long enough to make any kind of impression? The 8-Ball says “Don’t count on it.”

The Undoing is led by a pair of very big names – Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant as a very believable rich and successful married couple. The show is based on the 2014 novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz and adapted as a six-part miniseries by David E. Kelley, whose most recent big hit was Big Little Lies, with which this series shares a whole lot of DNA.

Kidman plays the very elegant, almost regal, Grace Fraser, a successful therapist who lives in a super-fancy part of New York City with her husband Jonathan (Hugh Grant, doing exactly what you’d expect of him) , a superstar paediatric oncologist, and their son Henry (Noah Jupe), who attends the elite Reardon School – that’s and eye-watering $50,000 per year in tuition fees, and a school run that’s just a short walk through the beautiful wintery park. Grace helps some of the other Reardon parents plan an auction event to raise funds for the school and at a planning meeting Grace meets Elena (Matilda De Angelis). She’s new to the school and to this heady social strata – her son Miguel (Edan Alexander) is attending on a scholarship – and even before Elena rather proudly breastfeeds her baby at the table with a bunch of very buttoned-up small-c conservative women, she’s marked out as an entirely creature to her new peers. She seems to glare when a woman at the table jokes about hating her children. I think the theme of what makes a good mum and what it means to be a ‘real’ woman is bound to be explored in later episodes.

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‘Harlots’ – BBC2

Like an experienced woman in the oldest profession Harlots has been around the block. Originally an ITV production, aired way back in 2017 on ITV Encore (who knew they broadcast anything new?). It was also shown in America by Hulu and came back to the UK by way of Amazon Prime – only on one of those misspelled channels within channels (StarzPlay) that demands you pay extra for access to streaming content you’re already paying for. Thankfully in the fraught and fierce contest for any new-ish content in a bleak and empty Covid-19 drama wasteland the BBC have bought it and it’s on BBC2 and iPlayer. And might finally find a UK audience.

So what I’m saying is, unlike their excitable punters Harlots has been a long time coming. Was it worth the wait?

In 18th century London, women’s opportunities for economic advancement are either through marriage or sex work. The city’s brothels are run by single-minded businesswomen; the two we focus on are Margaret Wells (the excellent Samantha Morton) and Lydia Quigley (Leslie Manville, having the time of her life in Georgian make-up and powdered wigs). The story revolves around Margaret, her daughters and the women who work for her, all victims or benefactors of her ruthless determination to move up in the world. This go-getting attitude puts her at odds with Lydia Quigley, who she previously worked for. The fighting between these two women is set against a backdrop of a new movement of religious zealots demanding the closure of brothels, and police now trying to subdue Soho with brutal raids.

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'Making a Murderer: Part 2' – Netflix

Fifteen years ago if you had an extensive collection of serial killer literature on your bookshelf your date might leave with certain preconceptions about you and they might not be in a hurry to see you again. These days they’ll probably ask you what podcasts you’re listening to, whether you’ve seen The Staircase or who you think really killed Sister Cathy in The Keepers. True crime has come out of the closet and the first major show on Netflix that did that was Making a Murderer. Even if you were living under a rock three years ago you’d still have heard about it. It was easily Netflix’s most talked-about series ever, and arguably the most important true crime TV show in decades. Now it returns for a long-awaited second series.
The original investigative filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos are back and hard at work, embedded in the ongoing troubles of the Avery family and their apparent relentless persecution by the American justice system. If you need a quick refresher Steven Avery was originally convicted of a sexual assault on Penny Beerntsen despite having a solid alibi. For that he served an 18 year sentence. That conviction was finally overturned in 2003 and he was freed. He then filed a $36 million civil lawsuit against Manitowoc County and the law enforcement officers who framed him. Just two years later Avery and his 16 year old nephew Brendan Dassey were tried and convicted by those same institutions for Teresa Halbach’s murder. She’d disappeared after photographing a car at Avery’s salvage yard.  The hugely flawed conviction was clear to anyone with even a passing interest in how the police should work as vulnerable Brendan was coerced into his confession during a hugely irresponsible questioning where he had no responsible adult or legal council present. The video footage of his confession remains grueling to watch.
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'The Legacy: Series 3'

The Legacy is a Danish drama from DR Fiktion, but quite a different beast to stable-mates The Killing and Borgen. Series 1 was described by The Guardian as “utterly addictive” and I’m pleased to report that while the characters have grown and changed, this remains true.
Instead of dark political intrigue or dark and bloody murders in grey dockyards The Legacy offers up an enormous rambling farm-house in rural Denmark and an off-kilter family drama. This series spins out from the death of artist and domineering matriarch Veronika Gronnegaard and the after effects on her children. The Legacy in Danish is Arvingerne which literally translates as “heirs”. As these kids squabble over Veronika’s house, her reputation and her art we can see why Sky Arts picked it up rather than Sky Atlantic, the more traditional home for drama.
In series 1 we were rooting for Signe, Veronika’s fourth child adopted and brought up by normal down-to-earth people. She’s the surprise beneficiary of Veronika’s deathbed will and we’re willing her to get her share of the inheritance from her argumentative, entitled and just plain rude step-siblings. Lovely Signe learns her secret family history and is excited, but not about the money. She’s lonely and wants to be their sister. But this simple story of trying to be a blended family quickly gets messed up. Money changes people. Signe started believing her own hype.
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'Z: The Beginning of Everything'

Another sumptuous drama here on a subscriber service. It’s almost like this is where the big bucks reside in these digital days. Z: The Beginning of Everything is the story of Zelda Fitzgerald, Mrs F Scott Fitzgerald to you dear. It’s based on Therese Anne Fowler’s book which Christina Ricci read and wanted to audition for. It turns out no one was making it, so she decided to do it herself. Ricci says that Zelda had suffered bad press over the years, with the focus firmly set on her genius husband. Ricci was sick of her being overlooked and sets out to flip that script.
Ricci with her soulful doe eyes and her fierce blonde bob is Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, a brilliant, beautiful and talented Southern belle, the original flapper and an icon of the Jazz Age in the flamboyant 1920s. Zelda is young and bored to death in her little quaint country town of Montgomery, Alabama. Having never been to the American south it looks lovely to me – all wide tree-lined avenues, sugary iced tea and cotillion balls at the country club.
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'Broadchurch' (Series 3) and ''Line of Duty' (Series 4)

This spring ITV and BBC1 are both banking on strong comebacks from Broadchurch and Line of Duty – two behemoths of British drama. Standards are high and expectations even higher – let’s check in with them both…
ITV’s Broadchurch was roundly panned for a patchy second series where the writers tried to do two stories at once and did them both badly. The courtroom scenes were embarrassingly poor with very little in the way of reality, or even a coherent story. Strangely a solicitor friend of mine enjoyed it, but maybe she’s not looking for gritty realism after a full day defending people in the dock.  Her giving it the benefit of the doubt was extremely generous; she was very much in the minority. Series 2 had terrible ratings and people gave up on it in droves (including Mr H who doesn’t have time for bad tv). It should serve as a warning to all broadcasters eager for a hit –  one good series is always better than undermining it with a poor return.
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The Border – On the Box

From HBO Europe (which is a thing, it turns out, and no bad thing either) may I present the first Polish drama ever to be shown in the UK, on Channel 4. Somewhat bravely it was shown late in June, a couple of days before he UK’s fairly disastrous referendum on leaving Europe.
It’s a timely story torn from the headlines surrounding the current European immigration crisis. The Border is a six part drama set in the lush rural Bieszczady Mountains, on the Ukrainian-Polish border. In Polish the title is ‘Wataha’, meaning the pack. You can see why the name change for the international version, given the animalistic rhetoric around this ongoing heated debate. We are introduced to the Polish Border Guard, protecting the “wildest EU border”.
So far, so stereotyped – the guys are drinking, singing and shagging in an isolated hunters cabin. These macho guards are celebrating a retirement in time-honoured fashion. And boom – a bomb goes off, killing everyone inside. Well, that sure got my attention.
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