A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
Netflix (available on Netflix)
Lemony Snicket’s beautifully melancholic comic series gets given the big budget adaptation treatment once again, this time as a Netflix original series. Covering the first four books of the unfortunate series, this is a masterful transformation that captures the delightful misery of the novels. Neil Patrick Harris is superb as the nefarious Count Olaf in his many disguises as he schemes and murders his way to stealing the Baudelaire orphans’ fortune. *****
DIRK GENTLY’S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY
BBC America (available on Netflix)
Based on Douglas Adams’ 1987 detective novel of the same name, Samuel Barnett stars as Dirk Gently as he’s guided by the universe on a mysterious quest to solve a murder. On the way, he finds an unlikely and unwilling partner in Elijah Wood, is pursued by a holistic assassin, fights futuristic cults, and travels through time. An inventive series that revels in its weirdness, that has the watcher addicted within minutes as they try to make sense of it all… if that’s at all possible. ****
HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE
Piki Films (available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Google Play Store)
What We Do in the Shadows director Taika Waititi’s latest outing is a charming triumph that has deservedly become one of New Zealand’s top grossing films. Ricky Baker is a troubled orphan sent to live on a remote farm with a foster family: loving mother Bella and her cantankerous husband Hec (played by Sam Neill). Things unfortunately don’t go to plan and Ricky and Hec go on the run from the authorities in the New Zealand bush. Brilliantly funny. *****
ANOMALISA
HanWay Films (available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Google Play Store)
Kaufman returns with this bold experimental animated film, which follows a customer service expert promoting his book at a convention in a hotel who feels separated from everyone else and perceives everyone’s voice as being the same. It’s an interesting concept but that’s all that carries it; it lacks any real semblance of a plot and the charm wears off pretty quickly while it repeatedly smacks you in the face screaming “ART! ART! ART! DO YOU GET IT YOU IDIOT?” **
SOUL MATES
ABC (available on Netflix)
Christiaan Van Vuuren and Nicholas Boshier star in this Australian sketch comedy series, after their successful online projects – most notably the Bondi Hipsters. With characters ranging from cavemen debating the morality of eating babies to Kiwi assassins working for New Zealand’s Munustry of Dufinse to make sure Russell Crowe returns to New Zealand, this is consistently weirdly funny and is a template for just how a sketch show should be. ****
THE LAST KINGDOM
Based on Bernard Cornwell’s The Saxon Stories, BBC America’s The Last Kingdom is, along with Peaky Blinders one of the best series to come out of the UK in recent years. Uhtred is an orphaned son of a Saxon nobleman captured and raised by Viking Danes. However, there comes a point where he must choose between his identities and rides to war. Filled with great battle scenes and gritty directing, Welsh history needs a series like this to show off our history. ****
BACKSTROM
Fox (available on Netflix)
Backstrom is a comic crime procedural drama about a politically incorrect, obnoxious, cigar smoking detective, played by Rainn Wilson. Sherlock with balls, a penchant for prostitutes and a lifestyle which could kill him at a moment’s notice, he is witty, clever, and nowhere near as irritating as Sherlock has become. *****