TELEVISION
Our Picks of the Week
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 25 TE MATATINI 2023 FINALS DAY
The best of the best
Screening: TVNZ 2, 8am
Streaming: TVNZ+
Scotty Morrison, Mātai Smith, Te Rauhiringa Brown, Tamati Rimene-Sproat and Stephanie Fong present coverage from finals day at Eden Park, as the best kapa haka teams strive for the supreme title of Toa Whakaihuwaka. There’s also a two-hour highlights package at 7pm on Whakaata Māori.
MONDAY FEBRUARY 27 THE FLATSHARE
Romantic notes
Streaming: TVNZ+
Tiffany ( Jessica Brown Findlay, Downton Abbey) and Leon (Anthony Welsh, The Great)
share a flat, but not at the same time. She’s home weeknights and weekends, he’s a shiftworker who sleeps during the day and stays with his girlfriend at weekends. Because they never see each other in person, they communicate via increasingly flirtatious Post-It notes. Yes, it’s a romcom with a premise, based on the millionselling 2019 book by Beth
O’Leary. The idea of Welsh, who is pushing 40 in real life, as a cash-strapped 20-something (Findlay is 35) is a bit of a stretch, but it seems engaging enough. It’s also the first British comedy to be produced for Paramount Plus.
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 28 UPRIGHT
The new adventures of Lucky and Meg
Streaming: TVNZ+
A second season for the Tim Minchin-penned Aussie roadtrip comedy-drama. See story, page 66.
WEDNESDAY MARCH 1 THE MANDALORIAN
It’s all about the redemption Streaming: Disney +
The producers have managed to keep a lid on season three spoilers, but a recent trailer indicates that Grogu and Mando are a team again. Grogu was handed into the care of Luke Skywalker in the season two finale, to become stronger in the ways of The Force. But it appears that Mando’s sentimental gesture of farewell, removing his helmet to say goodbye, has had consequences and he has some atonement to do. It also looks like there’ll be some Seriously Big Fights along the way.
CHEAT
If you don’t know, just cheat Streaming: Netflix
Not to be confused with the 2019 TV drama of the same name, this is Netflix forging into the brave new world of, well, British quiz shows. Danny Dyer (who crossed over from acting to TV presenting after his last movie was reviewed as the “worst film of 2013”) and comedian Ellie Taylor front the show. The format involves four players competing for a prize jackpot of £50,000. They can cheat, indeed they’re encouraged to do so, so long as they’re not caught doing it.
EAST NEW YORK
NYPD New
Screening: Vibe, 7.30pm
The latest in a long line of police procedurals from the CBS network features Amanda Warren ( The Leftovers) as Deputy Inspector Regina Haywood, the newly promoted commander of the 74th police precinct in Brooklyn. She faces challenges, including being perceived as a “diversity hire” by dubious colleagues, but she’s determined to run a better force and that means making some changes. There are some intriguing links to that template for the modern cop show NYPD Blue – cocreator William Finkelstein was an executive producer in NYPD Blue’s later seasons and Jimmy Smits plays Haywood’s unreconstructed boss. Most American reviewers – albeit some apparently through gritted teeth – have decided that the show is pretty good.
FRIDAY MARCH 3 DAISY JONES & THE SIX
Imagining the band
Streaming: Amazon Prime Video
Based on the novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid and presented as a “documentary”, Daisy Jones and the Six recounts the story of a fictional band that has all the internal dramas, if not exactly the sound, of Fleetwood Mac. Riley Keough (Elvis Presley’s granddaughter, no less) and Sam Claflin ( Peaky Blinders)
play the group’s charismatic lead singers, Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne. The adaptation from page to screen meant that a songbook had to be written and recorded – and that job fell to LA songwriter-producer (and sometime Ed Sheeran collaborator) Blake Mills, who roped in friends like Phoebe Bridgers to imagine the band. Reese Witherspoon produces. ▮