March’s must-see TV
From Billions’ return to the Kiwi debut of controversial doco Leaving Neverland, these are the small-screen shows we’re most excited about, writes James Croot.
With the end of summer comes a whole new crop of televisual viewing. Yes, reality shows like Married at First Sight Australia and Heartbreak Island continue to dominate weeknights on free-toair, but there is also a feast of other fare out there.
Netflix has Idris Elba’s new comedy Turn Up Charlie (March 15) and the much-anticipated Motley Crue biopic The Dirt (March 22), TVNZ OnDemand boasts crime web series Find My Killer (March 11) and Martin Clunes’ detective series Manhunt (March 3), while Lightbox is streaming the third series of the hit comedy Better Things (March 1).
However, after scanning through the forward schedules, Stuff has picked out the six March shows we’re most excited about seeing.
Billions
(March 19, SoHo)
In the fourth season of this popular financial drama, former enemies Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis) and Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) join forces to try to eradicate all of their rivals.
But how long will this uneasy alliance between New York’s hedge fund king and the former US attorney last? Joining the all-star cast this time around are Samantha Mathis and Kevin Pollak.
The Enemy Within
(March 4, Lightbox) Dexter’s Jennifer Carpenter stars in this new US drama which is likely to delight fans of shows like The Blacklist.
She plays Eric Shepherd, a former CIA operative until a traitorous act led to her facing a life sentence. Now, to save her daughter, she has to team up with a man whose life she destroyed to track down a fiercely dangerous, elusive criminal.
‘‘A near-perfect mixture of the chess-piece intricacy of The Good Shepherd and the loony bang-bang of the Mission: Impossible movies,’’ wrote Reason.com’s Glenn Garvin.
Leaving Neverland
(TBC, TVNZ 1)
New Zealand finally gets to see this already controversial HBO documentary which focuses on two men, Wade Robson and Jimmy Safechuck, who allege they were sexually abused as children by the pop star Michael Jackson.
‘‘Leaving Neverland is no thriller, but it’s undeniably a kind of true-life horror movie. You walk out of it shaken, but on some level liberated by its dark expose,’’ wrote Variety’s Owen Gleiberman.
It will screen over two nights.
Mrs Wilson
(March 1, TVNZ OnDemand) Luther and The Affair star Ruth Wilson plays her own grandmother in this three-part BBC drama.
Alison Wilson became famous in the 1960s for uncovering her husband Alexander’s mysterious and secret life after his death.
‘‘This tale of marital deceit and espionage exerts a melancholy meditation on how little we can know about each other,’’ wrote The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan.
Ordeal by Innocence
(March 20, SoHo)
A three-part, BBC drama based on Agatha Christie’s 1958 novel of the same name.
Bill Nighy, Matthew Goode, Eleanor Tomlinson and Alice Eve are among those characters are under suspicion after the death of wealthy heiress Rachel Argyll.
The show’s UK broadcast was delayed for three months because original cast member Ed Westwick was accused of sexual assault. His scenes were reshot, with Christian Cooke taking his place.
‘‘Careful choreography is the backbone of this Agatha Christie adaptation, which features a uniformly brilliant cast,’’ wrote The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan.
Triple Frontier
(March 13, Netflix)
Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund and Pedro Pascal team up for this actionadventure about a group of former special forces operatives who reunite to plan a heist in a sparsely populated multi-border zone of South America.
Written and directed by J C Chandor (Margin Call, A Most Violent Year), the film was partly shot on the same Hawaiian ranch as Jurassic World.