Sacha’s back... and still shocking

▼ sacha baron cohen: who is america? (channel 4)

The actor and comedian found fame in the ’90s through his alter egos of Ali G and Borat, shining a light on people’s prejudices and bigotry in a series of smart and eye-opening interviews.

It’s hard to fool people in that manner once you’re famous, but Cohen felt he couldn’t let what’s happening in Trump’s America pass by without comment, so his new seven-part series sees him take on four disguises in order to meet his victims incognito. Some skits work and some don’t, but they’re never less than amusing.

His portrayal of a stereotypical Southerner to interview ex-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders failed to draw in the wily politician, but he did succeed in poking fun at those from the Deep South, which was surely also his intention.

The ex-convict artist segment didn’t work and his very liberal Democrat persona didn’t quite get the rise from the Trump-supporting dinner hosts he must have hoped for, but the final segment hit the mark and recalled past Baron Cohen glories.

Portraying an anti-terror expert, he convinced several US Congressmen to agree to make a video supporting his idea of Kinderguardians, where toddlers would be trained to shoot guns to defend themselves at school.

Truly jaw-dropping, rather than taking cheap shots, let’s hope for more like that in the rest of the series.

▼ shades of blue (sky atlantic)

No one portrays someone teetering on the edge of being a homicidal maniac quite like Ray Liotta.

It looks certain he’ll go out in a blaze of glory in the Jennifer Lopez co-starring final series of the crooked cop drama, and it should be fun watching the madness unfold.