Teine Sā — The Ancient Ones
Prime, 9.30pm Thursday
You might not have seen them on the screen before, but the Pacific Islands have some pretty intense supernatural legends. New series Teine Sā — The Ancient Ones takes six from across the Pacific and brings them into the modern day, full of influencers and online dating. In the first one, a young artist (Frankie Adams) opens a portal to the spirit world when she tramples an ancient heirloom; in another, a bullied teenager evokes an ancient Solomon Islands guardian spirit. There’s a cannibal in one of them, and some sort of shapeshifting reptilian lizard — but it’s unlikely any of it is quite like anything you’ve seen before.
Jupiter’s Legacy Netflix
For a young athlete or musician, following in the footsteps of a famous parent can seem like a bit of a poisoned chalice — who’s to say it’s any different for the children of actual superheroes? Jupiter’s Legacy, based on the popular comic book series, follows a group of supercharged youngsters struggling to live up to the expectations set by the legendary feats of their parents. They were called The Union, and were classical superheroes who used their powers for the good of all mankind. The comics got into big intergenerational themes around socio-economics and capitalism and all that — so, not exactly your typical superhero series.
The Apprentice Aotearoa TVNZ 1, 8.30pm Monday
There has never been a funnier episode of New Zealand reality TV than the first episode of the Terry Serepisos series of The Apprentice NZ, where the teams of aspiring capitalists had to organise a sausage sizzle. Happily, the first episode of all-new Mike Pero-led The Apprentice Aotearoa captures the exact same vibe as the teams full of marketing types climb over each other to create a new kids’ popcorn flavour, coming up with ad concepts on the fly and pitching their products to the supermarkets. It looks and feels straight out of 2004, in the best possible way.