What to watch on Sky and free-to-air TV this week
A superhero movie and a Kiwi doco that looks at a 1984 kidnapping make for great viewing, writes Alex Behan.
They broke the mould when they made Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse (Saturday, March 6, 7pm, Three), resulting in the best superhero movie and one of the best cartoons of the last decade.
Using a revolutionary style of animation, every frame of this fast, funny, mind-bending narrative is spectacular in multiple dimensions. Nicolas Cage as Spider-Man Noir, a Great Depression era hardboiled detective who takes everything too seriously is worth the price of admission alone.
In 1984, an Auckland University lecturer was kidnapped, beaten, chained to a tree and publicly accused of rape by Six Angry Women (Monday, March 8, 8.30pm, TVNZ1) who kept their identities hidden. The action sparked social debate around gender politics at the time and a new feature documentary examines the identities and motivations of these influential instigators. It includes interviews with key players and never-before-seen archival footage.
The show that does for hatching what The Casketeers does for dispatching, My Ma¯ ori Midwife (Saturday, March 6, TVNZ OnDemand) gives insight into the hard mahi done by midwives across Aotearoa and, even more importantly, the tremendous impact of reconnecting with cultural values around childbirth. Midwives extraordinaire Camille Harris and Waimarie Onekawa continue to go above and beyond in season two and we meet new tapuhi from all over the country.
The fact that human beings created a vaccine for a disease previously unknown in less than a year will never not be impressive. The Vaccine: Conquering Covid (Sunday, March 7, 8.30pm, Discovery) features America’s most reassuring voice, Dr Anthony Fauci, answering common questions around who helped create the vaccine, how it was developed, how it works and the effects we can hope for as it rolls out worldwide.
The first feature filmed entirely in one of Australia’s indigenous languages, Ten Canoes (Sunday, March 7, 8.30pm, Ma¯ ori TV) serves both as an oral history of the Yolngu people and exploration of wider Aboriginal culture. A morality tale disguised as a docu-drama, this moving, often funny film is narrated in English by David Gulpilil, whose life and family history served as foundation for this fantastical story.
While the trend of remaking successful Hollywood films with allfemale casts can feel trite, Ocean’s 8 (Sunday, March 7, 9pm, TVNZ2) is enjoyable enough that putting your distaste to one side is easy. The charismatic cast elevate a predictable storyline and script and making New York’s Met Gala the object of the heist allows for some glorious set pieces, glamorous costume changes and glib one-liners from Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Rhianna.