Shows to watch this month
While all the talk has been around
controversial leap into the future, Dancing With the Stars NZ will continue to rumba and the Football World Cup is expected to dominate the secondhalf of the month, there is still plenty of new television this month.
Queer Eye’s new Fab 5 are back for a second season on Netflix, MasterChef Australia returns to TVNZ, and there are new adaptations of Little Women and Fahrenheit 451 (both SoHo), the New Zealand-debuts of British dramedy No Offence, Canada’s Frankie Drake Mysteries (both Vibe) and Parisset period drama The Collection (UKTV). Here’s five we’re most excited about:
Come Home (TVNZ OnDemand, June 21)
Christopher Eccleston stars in this three-part BBC drama about a man struggling to cope when his wife of 19 years walks out on him and his three children.
‘‘It is all beautifully played and beautifully put together,’’ wrote The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan. ‘‘I expect viewing couples to be riven along gender lines the length and breadth of the land.’’
Instinct (Prime, TBC)
Alan Cumming headlines this US police-procedural drama based on best-selling novelist James Patterson’s 2017 novel Murder Games. The former Good Wife star plays author, psychology professor and ex-CIA operative Dr Dylan Reinhart, who is called in to help the NYPD solve a series of murders related to his book.
Patrick Melrose (SoHo, June 19)
Benedict Cumberbatch is joined by Jennifer
Jason Leigh, Hugo Weaving, Celia Imrie and Blythe Danner for this five-part US drama based on the novels by Edward St Aubyn about a man who tries to overcome his addictions and demons rooted in abuse by his father and negligent mother.
‘‘Patrick’s life may be in shambles, but the series manages to assemble its disparate pieces into something deeply beautiful,’’ wrote USA Today’s Kelly Lawler.
The Staircase (Netflix, June 8)
Netflix’s latest true crime series is the continuation of a 14-yearold one. Three new episodes will join the existing 10 following the story of Michael Peterson, a crime novelist accused of killing his wife Kathleen after she was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in their home. ‘‘The documentary keeps adding layers of complexity to the tale until one is entirely hooked by its ambiguities and twists and turns,’’ wrote Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan of the first two series.
Three Girls (Rialto, June 3)
Three-part, dramatised BBC version of the events surrounding last decade’s Rochdale child sex abuse ring, which describes how the authorities failed to investigate allegations of rape because the victims were perceived as unreliable witnesses. Maxine Peake (The Village), Lesley Sharp (The Full Monty) and Molly Windsor (The Unloved) star.
‘‘The strength of the drama is that it focuses on the abused rather than the abusers. ,’’ wrote The Guardian’s Sam Wollaston.