RNZ's Perlina Lau is back for a look at the best TV on the streamers in February.
Photo: Screenshot
The Gilded Age - Neon
This may be the next one for Downton Abbey fans or for those waiting another month for the second season of the incredibly popular Bridgerton.
Created, written and executive produced by Julian Fellowes, (Downton Abbey, Belgravia, Gosford Park) the Gilded Age in America was a time of huge economic change, old vs new money and an ushering in of new systems.
You can imagine the costumes, horse-drawn carriages, the upbeat orchestral music and many extras in top hats. The story centres around a young girl, Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson), who moves to New York City from rural Pennsylvania after her father dies in 1882.
She moves into the home of her old-money aunts, Agnes van Rhijn and Ada Brook (Cynthia Nixon - a slight departure from And Just Like That). Across the road, are the incredibly wealthy neighbours - the Russells; a railroad tycoon and his wife. Marian finds herself sandwiched in a social war between her aunts and the neighbours and will have to decide how she’ll conduct herself and which rules she will follow in this society on the brink of the modern age.
Enough seeds have been sown in the first episode, you can see where the storylines are going.
Pam & Tommy - Disney+
I’ll admit I did a double take after reading which platform this eight part drama series is on. An '80s Playboy playmate turned '90s TV star and the drummer from Mötley Crüe were the 'it' couple of the '90s.
Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee were married four days after meeting and their infamous relationship continued to play out in the public eye.
Specifically, their honeymoon sex tape which was stolen and leaked to the public. On VHS. Of course. Lily James (Downton Abbey, War and Peace, Cinderella) is unrecognisable as Pam.
The make-up and hair department created an incredibly convincing transformation. I was surprised at the casting at first, until I saw the trailer.
Sebastian Stan plays the other half while Seth Rogan and Nick Offerman play the two shady characters who release the tape to the world. Difficult to imagine in our now, social media saturated world, the scandalous and outrageous story shows two celebrities who become victims in the early days of the digital revolution.
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel - S4 - Amazon Prime
If you haven’t yet delved into the world of Mrs Maisel, I implore you to do so. It’s perhaps one of my favourite shows in the last five years.
Created by Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmour Girls) the writing is unsurprisingly fast-paced and witty, the characters are hilarious and the late '50s early '60s costumes are incredible and a feast for the eyes.
I inhaled the first season during a miserable winter in London and I was hooked. You quickly see why Rachel Brosnahan has picked up a Primetime Emmy and two Golden Globes for her performance. A New York, Jewish housewife, Miriam Maisel or Midge has the perfect life - husband, two kids and an apartment in the Upper West Side. Overnight her life is upended and she discovers her incredible talent of standup comedy. From there - she’s been on a journey around New York and Las Vegas honing her craft.
But at the end of the last season we saw her get thrown off the Shy Baldwin tour and her manager Susie has gambled away the earnings and Midge’s chance to buy back her apartment.
In Season 4 she’s ready to progress from the opening to the main act and the show’s moving further into the '60s, signalling more change. But the more she becomes embedded in the comedy world, the bigger the rift between Midge and her family and friends becomes.
Afterlife S3 - Netflix
The words “heart-warming” and “Ricky Gervais” don’t usually go together and yet here we are. After losing his wife to cancer, Ricky Gervais’ character, Tony, falls into a depression and contemplates suicide. But instead, decides he’ll live to punish the world by saying and doing whatever he likes.
He continues working at the local paper where his colleagues are fantastically ordinary and his godson George is about the only person he appears to want to spend time with.
Heading into its third and final season (Gervais has confirmed this), it’s getting more hopeful. Ricky Gervais’ character, Tony is spending more time with potential flame, Emma, and he’s starting to take a more optimistic view of grief.
It dives deeper into the lives of his colleagues with a particularly great/cringe-worthy date scene with Kath. It’s an incredibly relatable show exploring an emotion and feeling many have or will experience.
Written, produced and directed by Gervais, it’s a poignant and honest portrayal of grief, it’s tragic, surprisingly heart-warming but also shockingly hilarious at times. Maybe have a box of tissues nearby just in case.
Cheer S2 - Netflix
Following the wildly popular first season, Cheer is back. The first season burst into 2020 shining a light on the world of competitive cheerleading. Aside from the visual spectacle of impressive sequences and people being thrown into the air, it was the underdog stories which won audiences
over. The show turned the Navarro College cheer squad almost into overnight celebrities with an appearance on The Ellen Show and they met Oprah.
But the second season is less joyful. There’s less to cheer about. While preparing for the next nationals, everything comes to a halt when Covid hits.
It means the show pivots and the final four episodes skip a year and show the squad preparing one year later. But it means changes to the team and many have left college without a proper farewell.
Before the final four episodes, there’s also one particular episode which addresses events in 2020. The breakout star of Season 1, Jerry Harris, was also arrested in 2020 and accused of production of child pornography.
When more teens came forward - the now 22-year-old was accused of soliciting sex and explicit photos from minors. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. It’s difficult to watch and shows the potential dark side and culture of abuse and silence in the sport.
Landscapers - Neon - 21st February
This played on Sky Soho last month, but in case you missed it, it’s now on Neon from this month.
Olivia Coleman stars in this new series as one half of a seemingly ordinary couple in Nottingham. But Susan and Chirstopher Edwards, played by David Thewlis, have been on the run for at least 15 years.
Two dead bodies are found in the back garden of a house and after a phone call to Christopher’s step-mother, their part in a horrific crime begins to come to light.
Suddenly, their relationship is the focal point of a police investigation and they’re separated for the first time in their marriage.
What emerges from the highly-stylised HBO mini-series is their reality is steeped in fantasy. Their world and imaginations provide a fortress and sanctuary from the real-world and their own guilt but it’s all starting to unravel.
