TV picks of the week
Wellington film-maker Tusi Tamasese’s 2017 follow-up to his superb debut The Orator is a slowburning drama that gets under your skin and stays with you for days. At its heart, it’s the story of Maea (Uelese Petaia). Living in a cramped inner-city apartment, he works two jobs trying to make ends meet. We know the former boxer is carrying some kind of burden or guilt because of the marks on the wall where family photos might once have sat. Oh, and the ghostly presence of Seipua (Sima Urale), a demon who taunts Maea that she will find a way of rebirthing.
Toby Jones, Kim Cattrall and Andrea Riseborough star in this two-part 2016 BBC mini-series based on the 1925 Agatha Christie short story. It focuses on the young and handsome Leonard Vole, who seems to have the odds stacked against him when he’s accused of murder. The Guardian‘ s reviewer Lucy Mangan found it to be an ‘‘expertly cast, perfectly crafted murder mystery’’.
Incredibly long, tonally all over the map, and definitely not for the easily offended or faint-hearted, German writer-director Maren Ade’s 2016 black comedy is a surprisingly entertaining, compelling and memorable watch. At its heart is an estranged father-daughter relationship, played with quite brilliant awkwardness by Peter Simonischek and Sandra Huller.
On this week’s episode, the remaining five bakers face three new challenges that embrace a time when Henry VIII reigned and demanded flamboyant banquets and impressive centrepieces at every opportunity. So naturally the three Tudor challenges include a savoury stuffed pie, a knotty biscuit and a showstopping marzipan spectacle.
A 2016 documentary that explores the infamous theft of street artist Banksy’s sculpture The Drinker and the ensuing battle with the art terrorist: AK47. ‘‘For all the comic grandstanding, this raises some serious issues about the legitimacy of contested works of art and some of the more specious underpinnings of the art market,’’ wrote The Hollywood Reporter‘ s John DeFore.
– James Croot