Inventing Anna and Love Is Blind make Netflix the destination for most binge-happy TV and streaming viewers this week – but that’s not all that’s out: the return of Star Trek, Disenchantment and limelight-avoider Josh Hartnett round out the rest of our noteworthy small screen picks for Mon 7 to Sun 13 of February.
Disenchantment, Part 4
Simpsons and Futurama creator Matt Groening’s animated medieval comedy is back for a fourth 10-episode drop this week after a year’s break. Much like the aforementioned Futurama, Disenchantment satirises the fictional tropes of a particular time period and genre – this being one far in the past than in the future, and fantasy rather than sci-fi, and featuring an all-star cast from the worlds of comedy and animation, including Abbi Jacobson, Eric Andre, John DiMaggio, Tress MacNeille, Matt Berry and Sharon Horgan. Jacobson plays lead heroine Bean, a chaotic teen princess whose aspirations lie more towards partying and adventuring in her home of Dreamland than they do running her father’s kingdom one day. Disenchantment hasn’t become the cultural institution that The Simpsons has, nor the cult favourite that Futurama is (all part of the same interconnected universe, by the way), but for fans of Groening’s offbeat humour, it comfortably – if not a little too predictably – hits the spot. If you want something a bit more hack ‘n’ slash, Critical Role‘s The Legend of Vox Machina is a better call on Amazon Prime.
Disenchantment Part 4 is avaliable for streaming on Netflix from Mon 7 Feb.
The Fear Index, Limited Series
Remember Josh Hartnett? Perhaps not, unless you’re as much of a fan as the forgotten, quirky crime film Lucky Number Sleven as I am, the more memorable Pearl Harbor, or dark period drama Penny Dreadful. Anyway, after a while out of the spotlight for personal reasons, the Hollywood leading man and bonafide 00s heartthrob has been steadily returning to acting, with The Fear Index being a major part of his comeback ahead of lavish caper comedy, Operation Fortune, which is out in March. The four-part series is based on the novel of the same name by Robert Harris and set during that fateful day in May 2010, on which a hung parliament resulted in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government being formed in the UK while the US stock market suffered a trillion-dollar ‘Flash’ crash. The story follows the founder of an imaginary Swiss hedge fund, Dr. Alexander Hoffman (played by Hartnett) as he’s taken on a rollercoaster of murder and rogue computer programs within that 24-hour period. If the adaptation is anything like the book, expect to be whisked away on a white-knuckle ride with him.
The Fear Index begins on Wens 9 Feb at 9 pm on Sky Atlantic.
Star Trek: Discovery, Season 4b
At a time when we’re being bombarded by more Star Trek content that you can shake a Bat’leth at, Star Trek: Discovery remains a highly divisive entry to the venerable sci-fi franchise as it enters the second half of its fourth season. Though critics have always been very kind to Discovery – which is objectively the most progressive and daring Trek show to date – a certain proportion of its audience base have been eager to label it a “flop”, despite it doubling its American network’s streaming service revenue upon release and continuing to be a big ratings draw to this day. The first half of Season 4, which finished airing last December, picked up with series lead Michael Burnham’s promotion to captain of the starship Discovery, plus some metaphorical COVID allusions in the form of a huge space anomaly, which showrunner Michelle Paradise explained as the new Big Bad; an amoral force of pure destruction that the cast struggles to come to terms with.
Star Trek: Discovery Season 4b begins streaming Fri 11 Feb at 9 pm on via Pluto.tv.
Love Is Blind, Season 2
Between Love Island, Ex On The Beach, Too Hot To Handle and every other psycho-sexual TV experiment out there, it’s hard to cut through the noise for any fledgling dating franchise. That is unless you’re Love Is Blind, which aims to pair you with your perfect soul mate via isolated pods. Season 1 benefitted from both a suitably wacky premise – one that also evolves as things progress – and starting at just the right point of lockdown boredom. Now, international spinoffs and a second helping of the original American series arriving this week are hoping to capitalise on the first’s runaway success. In the genre of ‘hot people have problems too, y’know’, the right casting can make this one addictive viewing even if reality television isn’t really your bag. That said, Love Is Blind is far from unproblematic, as most of these sorts of shows aren’t, with the first season suffering from unchecked biphobia and framing some of its female participants as stereotypically ‘crazy’ girlfriends rather than, arguably, being gaslit by wannabe Chads. But by all means, trash lovers, get your fill of Season 2. (We’ll miss you, Jessica.)
Love Is Blind Season 2 is available from Fri 11 Feb on Netflix.
Inventing Anna, Limited Series
Created by the prolific TV queen of female-led melodrama, Shonda Rhimes (of Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, How To Get Away With Murder and Bridgerton fame), Netflix’s Inventing Anna comes hot on the heels of Pam & Tommy as another series adapted from a piece of journalism. In this case, it’s the New York article, “How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People”, which told the almost-too-unreal-to-be-true story of how a young German-Russian socialite conned the rich and powerful into thinking she was one of them, therefore throwing their money behind her extortionately expensive ventures. Delvey’s (real name Sorokin) manufactured heiress status, though obviously unethical, not to mention criminal, might feel like a victimless crime to us at home in a world where our (mostly) legal widening wealth gap itself is unethical. And though not exactly a Robin Hood analogue, Delvey’s fake it ’til you make it saga should provide fascinating Girl Boss gone bad material for a weekend binge-watch.
Inventing Anna is available to stream from Fri 11 Feb on Netflix.
words HANNAH COLLINS