Five (more) things to watch this weekend
Ratched — Netflix
Ryan Murphy gives his particular high camp, melodramatic twist to the origin story of one of cinema’s most memorable villains — One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’s Nurse Ratched. Played with unreliability and misdirection by Sarah Paulson, Mildred Ratched is here presented as a postwar working woman with a dark past who must manipulate her way up the ladder of the administration of a North California insane asylum to save the only real relationship in her troubled life. It’s visually lush, full of Hitchcockian trickery and completely over-the-top but there’s plenty of style and surface madness to distract from the show’s sometimes frustratingly pedestrian and silly plotting.
Challenger: The Final Flight — Netflix
This four-part docuseries examines the tragic explosion of the 1986 Nasa Challenger space shuttle, which for many signalled the death knell of the space exploration hopes of the previous two decades. Through interviews with the family of those who died and former members of the space administration, the series paints a compelling portrait of the Challenger mission as one on which so much hope was pinned and yet so many dreams were dashed by the horrible explosion, minutes after its launch, in footage beamed around the world indelibly burnt into the memories of a generation.
The Boys Season 2 — Amazon Prime Video
Amazon’s often funny and smart antihero series about a group of vigilantes who’ve taken it upon themselves to keep unfettered superheroes in line continues with a second season that focuses on the power struggles in the group when a leadership vacuum opens up. It’s full of caricatured violence and snappy oneliners and in the lead-up to the US election has a new relevance that will keep you enthralled.
Harriet — Showmax
Cynthia Erivo delivers a sincere and dedicated performance in Kasi Lemmons’ suitably respectable and dignified historical film about Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad. It’ sa fitting and much-needed tribute to a toweringly righteous figure of undeniable historical importance that’s sometimes a little too by-the-numbers in its telling but always electric in its performances.
Criminal Season 2 — Netflix
The show that focuses on the psychological games played between interrogators and interview subjects continues with a second season that’s jam-packed with stellar performances as we watch and see how those in service of justice use whatever tools they can to get the information out of those who would evade it. It’s a clever and simple idea that works because of the strength of the performances and the unbearable levels of tension that are created in its intelligently written, theatre-style confrontations.