Your guide to the week’s best on Sky and free-to-air TV
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (8.30pm, Saturday, April 6, TVNZ 1)
Hilarious and heartrending, this 2022 dramedy should surely have earned Emma Thompson far more attention than it did. It also provided more evidence as to why Australian Sophie Hyde (Animals) is one of the most impressive and exciting directors of her generation.
Written by British comedian and actor Katy Brand, it’s the sex comedy we didn’t know we needed. Sex positive but sensitive and thought-provoking, it’s essentially a two-hander with Thompson and co-star Daryl McCormack’s (Peaky Blinders) characters “connecting” over the course of four “meetings”. It’s a simple conceit, beautifully and perfectly executed.
Nadia’s Farm (7.30pm, Wednesdays from April 3, Three)
Nadia Lim, husband Carlos and their growing family are now well and truly settled on their 1200-acre, historic Royalburn Station – and working towards establishing their legacy as Kiwi farm legends – as the second season of this local reality series opens. But a new year means a set of new challenges.
Cow (8.30pm, Wednesday, April 3, Rialto)
Red Road and American Honey director Andrea Arnold uses her cinéma vérité approach to capture the lives of bovines, rather than humans, in this documentary. The focus is Luma, a Kent dairy cow.
Taskmaster (9.00pm, Wednesdays from April 3, TVNZ 2)
The best panel show on the planet is back for a 17th season, with Greg Davies and Alex Horne putting five more comedians through their paces with crazy and inspired challenges.
Scrapper (8.30pm, Saturday, April 6, Rialto)
Writer-director Charlotte Regan’s gentle 2023 drama is the story of 12-year-old Georgie (Lola Campbell), whose enforced preternatural independence is threatened by the arrival of her estranged father (Triangle of Sadness’ Harris Dickinson).
Scrapper is an absorbing tale anchored by two terrific performances. Dickinson shows his depth in creating a character that’s light years away from Sadness’ shallow influencer, while newcomer Campbell demonstrates a chutzpah and nuance that definitely mark her out as one to watch over the next few years.
Perhaps the real star, though, is Regan, who weaves this Dickensian-esque story together with a realism (and a lightness of touch).
The NeverEnding Story (7pm, Sunday, April 7, TVNZ 2)
The movie that scarred a certain generation of Kiwi kids, Wolfgang Petersen’s 1984 adaptation of Michael Ende’s popular 1979 tome is filled with memorable moments.
The bullied Bastian Balthazar Bux’s (Barret Oliver) immersive escape into the magical world of Fantasia is a pleasing mix of Princess Bride-esque storytelling, Narnia-like fantasy and Flash Gordon-style heroics (complete with a Giorgio Moroder synth-infused score).
There are narcoleptic hanglider bats, racing snails and a “child-like” empress, which all sound like rejected characters from a Lewis Carroll adventure, while the all-consuming “Nothing” and its herald, the wolf-like Gmork, feel very Tolkien-ish.
The Girls on the Bus (8.30pm, Sundays from April 7, SoHo)
Inspired by a chapter in former Wall Street Journal and The New York Times journalist Amy Chozick’s 2018 memoir Chasing Hillary, this 10-part drama focuses on the trials and tribulations of four women – New York Sentinel reporter Sadie (Melissa Benoist), Liberty National News’ Kimberlyn (Christina Elmore), veteran “Queen of the Scoop” Grace (Carla Gugino) and Gen Z influencer Lola (Natasha Behnam).
The quartet bond, bicker and compete for the inside word on how the respective campaigns of those seeking the Democratic nomination for president are faring.
“Can you imagine a world where legacy print media, right-wing cable news and an extremely online Gen Z-er would work together to expose a political conspiracy? The Girls on the Bus can – and that accounts for a large part of its idealistic appeal,” wrote Entertainment Weekly’s Kristen Baldwin.