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Our Picks of the Week
SATURDAY MARCH 5
COMEDY: OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH (Neon). Rhys Darby has left his mark on the films of Taika Waititi – as “Psycho Sam” in Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Anton the werewolf in What We Do in the Shadows. Now the pair are crossing swords in Our Flag Means Death, an American-made pirate parody which gives Darby a rare lead role and a chance for Waititi to get in front of the camera.
Darby is Stede Bonnet, a character based on a real-life 18th-century gentleman pirate of the same name who turned his back on his aristocratic beginnings to become a privateer. Waititi plays the legendary Blackbeard. Bonnet ceded the command of his ship to the real Blackbeard, Edward Teach, when he realised he wasn’t captain material. That’s the basis of the 10-episode season, with Darby’s Bonnet finding his management style doesn’t suit the piracy business model despite his best efforts at crew engagement.
Waititi, who is executive producer on the series made for HBO Max in the US, directed two of the episodes. He doesn’t make his first appearance as Blackbeard until a few shows in. “This is the most fun I’ve had acting for a long time,” he told Deadline.
The writer-showrunner is David Jenkins ( People of Earth) and the supporting cast also includes Kiwi TV institution Dave Fane, Leslie Jones ( Saturday Night Live), Ewen Bremner ( Trainspotting) and Fred Armisen ( Portlandia).
Jenkins says the Kiwi leading pair are like an old married couple. “If a scene isn’t quite working, Taika will be able to grumble about Rhys, and vice versa, in the way that only friends can,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “And then when it is popping, they know how to get the best out of each other. There’s a generosity and a real sweetness between them that you wouldn’t get if you weren’t using those two friends.”
“It was scary but having Taika there made it easier to do,” says Darby of his step up to a lead role. “We’re in this together and if he wasn’t there I’d probably track him down and call him to help me.”
Our Flag Means Death is on Neon from March 4 and freeto-air on Prime later in March.
THRILLER: PIECES OF HER (Netflix). A violent incident at a shopping mall in a quiet Georgia town abruptly reveals to Andrea Oliver (Bella Heathcote, The Man in the High Castle) that her mother Laura (Toni Collette, Unbelievable) is not the person she’s grown up believing her to be. But who is she, really? And what is the dark secret at the head of the family. Created by former Homeland producer Charlotte Stoudt based on the 2018 novel by Karin Slaughter.
SCIF- FI: STAR TREK: PICARD (Amazon Prime Video). The trailer for this second season plays like a Star Trek canon who’s who: Q, Seven, the Borg Queen and Whoopi Goldberg’s Guinan all flash past. There’s a time travel theme and, with it, an exploration of Jean-Luc Picard’s complicated past. The
trailer’s Doctor Who vibes may or may not be deliberate, but there would appear to be plenty coming for fans to feast on.
SUNDAY MARCH 6
CURRENT AFFAIRS: SUNDAY (TVNZ 1, 7.30pm). In 2002, a new current affairs show was hustled into place with two aims: to fill the gap left by the decision not to renew TVNZ’s licence rights to 60 Minutes
and to demonstrate a commitment to quality programming amid political chatter about the need for a charter. It wasn’t immediately apparent Sunday
would endure – it leaned heavily on the format of the programme it was replacing and even then-CEO Ian Fraser admitted that it was missing some big national issues. But here it is, 20 years on and a stronger journalistic proposition than ever. This one-hour special looks back at Sunday’s
most memorable moments.
DRAMA: COUNCIL OF DADS
(Vibe, 8.30pm; Neon from March 17). A drama about families in the mould of the critically lauded This Is Us, which it replaced in NBC’s schedules in 2020. When Scott Perry receives a terminal cancer diagnosis, he recruits three of his friends as “back-up dads” to support his widow and children through their lives without him and each of the three finds challenges and rewards in their new duty. NBC cancelled it after one season.
QUACKS: (Rialto, 8.30pm). It’s unclear why the BBC axed Quacks after a single season in 2017, but it’s nice to see it finally turn up on New Zealand screens. Rory Kinnear plays Robert Lessing, a Victorian surgeon and, as such, a rock star of his era. The Guardian’s reviewer characterised it as a costume drama, albeit “one where bladder infections are treated with vegetables, man-baby medics get twatted on nitrous oxide and ether cocktails, and the jokes are so good they might just prove fatal.”
TUESDAY MARCH 8
DRAMA: WINNING TIME: THE RISE OF THE LAKERS DYNASTY (Neon/Sky Go, March 8; SoHo, March 15, 9.30pm). This much-anticipated dramatisation of the rise of the Los Angeles Lakers looks unmissable for NBA fans. John C. Reilly ( Holmes and Watson) stars as Jerry Buss, the unconventional entrepreneur who bought Minneapolis’ basketball team, moved it to LA and began a sporting dynasty, and the previously unknown Quincy Isaiah plays Magic Johnson, the draft pick who changed everything. Sally Field, Jason Segel and Gaby Hoffmann also turn up in a sprawling cast. The trailer uses Marlena Shaw’s California Soul, suggesting the soundtrack is tasty too.
WEDNESDAY MARCH 9
COMEDY: HOW I MET YOUR FATHER (Disney+). If you ever wondered where Kim Cattrall was when the rest of the Sex and the City crew were making And Just Like That, here’s your answer: she was shooting scenes as the future, older version of Sophie, the lead character in this series created by Isaac Aptaker ( This Is Us). It’s a sequel of sorts to long-running sitcom How I Met Your Mother, which, in its day, tried to be the next Friends. Former pop singer and teen Disney star Hilary Duff plays the contemporary Sophie, a twentysomething New York photographer navigating dating in the age of Tinder and seemingly on the cusp of meeting the man who will be the father of her child. Reviews haven’t been great but the show has been renewed for a second season.
FRIDAY MARCH 11
SCI-FI COMEDY: UPLOAD (Amazon Prime Video). This second season sees Nathan Brown (Robbie Amell) – a young software developer who was rather rushed into accepting the offer of a virtual afterlife after a fatal self-driving car crash – at something of a crossroads. His former girlfriend, Ingrid, turns up unexpectedly, but he’s fallen in love with Nora, his customer service “angel”. But Nora is away battling to bring down the whole technological edifice … ▮