WORTH WATCHING
Bel-Air TVNZ OnDemand, from Monday
We all know the story: a young West Philadelphia man has his life flip-turned upside-down after he gets in one little fight and his mum gets scared and says “you’re moving in with your aunty and uncle in Bel-Air”. Back in 2019, film-maker Morgan Cooper made a trailer which took the facts from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s expository sitcom theme song and reimagined them as an intense modern-day drama. He uploaded it to YouTube, where Will Smith saw it, loved it and decided to get in touch. Now here we are with a full series answer to the question: what if The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but Euphoria?
Inventing Anna Netflix
Anna Delvey is a wealthy German heiress who once walked among New York City’s richest and most famous socialites at their biggest and most extravagant parties. Anna Sorokin is a German con artist famous for her successful and highly entertaining run defrauding banks, hotels and wealthy acquaintances between the years of 2013 and 2017 as her alter ego Anna Delvey. The saga was inevitably going to be made into a TV series one day and here it is, created by none other than Shonda Rhimes, based on Jessica Pressler’s definitive New York magazine feature that lifted the lid on Sorokin’s spectacular grift.
Pam & Tommy Disney+
You never really think to ask for the stories behind famous sex tapes, and you certainly don’t expect the TV dramatisations of those stories to be any good, but here we are. English period drama specialist Lily James is a surprisingly effective casting choice as 90s babe Pamela Anderson, whose sex tape with rock sleaze Tommy Lee (superhero movie specialist Sebastian Stan) is stolen from his house by a scorned renovator played by Seth Rogen. The first few episodes, directed by I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie, are probably the most talked-about TV of the year so far, for reasons that should become clear once you start watching.