Challenging ‘Wakefield’ comedy debuts
A dark Australian comedy set in a psychiatric ward, the eight-episode “Wakefield” (9 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA) is an acquired taste. Stories unfold on a character-by-character basis, so some scenes and actions are repeated, but from another’s perspective. Patients and staff all have problems and symptoms of their own, and at times it’s hard to tell who needs the most help.
Nik (Rudi Dharmalingam) is a psychiatric nurse with rare empathy and intuition. He seems to be the only one who can guide an anxious young mother to return to the care of her newborn, and he appears to be the only one on staff not obsessed with his own problems or able to bend the rules.
There’s James Matos (Dan Wyllie), a buttoned-down businessman committed by his wife after an overdose he insists was a mix-up of pills, but that she saw as a suicide attempt. He dresses from the waist up in a suit and tie, but has institutional pajamas for pants. He’s first seen on a smartphone trying to Skype clients in London, where he appears to be nailing down a big deal. Initially, we don’t know if his enterprises are for real or part of his delusions of grandeur. Financiers think themselves the Napoleons of our time, so this is an interesting twist.
Other characters include a head nurse with extreme intimacy issues and another addicted to online gambling. The din of the institution is played up for disturbing effect. James’ business calls are forever interrupted by the guitar strumming of his manic roommate. Only on this series would a newborn be allowed in such a ward, and that baby cries all the time. It’s enough to drive you around the bend, if you are not already there.
And that’s Nic’s problem. One day, quite without warning, he gets a song stuck in his head and it won’t go away. And his inability to stop hearing it, and humming it, turns Nik from a center of stability to just another irritant. And without Nik to stabilize the place, things will unravel.
› Martin Clunes, best known around the world for his role in “Doc Martin,” returns in the second season of “Manhunt,” a four-episode thriller streaming weekly on Acorn.
The first season of “Manhunt” was among the most-watched TV series in the U.K. in 2019. Clunes plays London investigator Colin Sutton, whose thorough detective work in season one found a serial rapist who had operated for years. Season two follows the work of a serial rapist dubbed “the Night Stalker” by the press. “Manhunt” is based on Sutton’s exhaustive diaries and adheres pretty closely to real events and police procedures, taking fewer liberties for the sake of TV drama.
› HBO Max streams the 2021 movie “Women Is Losers.” Set in 1960s San Francisco, it follows a Catholic schoolgirl (Lorenzo Izzo) who follows her own path. The title is taken from a song Janis Joplin sang with Big Brother and the Holding Company, a fixture of the Bay Area music scene.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› A former medical school standout (Carey Mulligan) avenges her best friend’s suicide in the 2020 drama “Promising Young Woman” (7 p.m., HBO).
› A Navy man’s corpse spontaneously combusts on “NCIS” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
› A return to school on “The Big Leap” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
› A murdered sailor’s case has links to the murder of his girlfriend on “NCIS: Hawai’i” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14).