PICK OF PAY TV ANDMOVIES

NETFLIX

NEW! ROARING TWENTIES (Season 1) ★★★ The lives and loves of eight twentysomethings are documented by this shiny new Netflix reality series, filmed at a house in Austin, Texas. From Friday.

NEW! SATURDAY MORNING ALL STAR

HITS! (Season 1) ★★★ Saturday Night Live’s Kyle Mooney is behind this irreverent spoof of 1990s children’s cartoons. It’s a mix of animation and live action, which you don’t see too often. From Friday.

MOVIE BACK TO THE OUTBACK

(2021) U ■ ★★★ A great voice cast graces a cartoon caper that’s essentially Madagascar in Australia. Tim Minchin is a secretly mean koala

(right), Guy Pearce a pining spider and Isla Fisher a sweet snake; they all break out of a zoo and head for the wild. From Friday.

MOVIE THE UNFORGIVABLE

(2021) 15

◆ ★★★ Sandra Bullock plays an ex-con in a gritty redemption story based on Sally Wainwright’s series Unforgiven, which starred Suranne Jones in the same role. Ruth (Bullock) is a cop-killer, and faces an uphill struggle on the outside as she searches for her younger sister. From Friday.

AMAZON PRIME NEW!

THE EXPANSE (Season 6,

Episode 1) ★★★★ Based on the novels by James S.A. Corey, Amazon’s sci-fi series is set in a time when humans have colonised the solar system. This is no utopian Star Trek-style future, though – it’s a gritty, incredibly detailed world that is worth

seeing from the start to fully appreciate. This sixth and final season will conclude on January 14. Weekly, from Friday.

KEY & PEELE (All five seasons) ★★★★ The sketches of US comedian Keegan-michael Key and Oscar-winner Jordan Peele tackle social awkwardness, male weakness and racial issues with a daring flair – and extremely high production values.

COMEDY

MOVIE WRATH OF MAN (2021) 15 ◆ ★★★ Guy Ritchie launched Jason Statham’s career with Lock Stock, and director and star are reunited for this dependable thriller about a one-man army on a revenge mission. From Friday.

MOVIE ENCOUNTER (2021) 15

◆ ★★★ Riz Ahmed and Octavia Spencer star in this good-enough sci-fi thriller about a troubled Marine and father (Ahmed) who has uncovered the disturbing truth about an alien invasion. From Friday.

DISNEY+ NEW! THE FIRST WAVE ★★★★★

It’s hard to imagine a better pandemic time capsule than this powerful documentary, which celebrates the heroes inside New York’s hospital system in the early months of Covid. From tomorrow.

NEW! WELCOME TO EARTH

(All six parts) ★★★★

Awe-inspiring sights greet

Will Smith on his adventure into extreme environments, starting in the ocean’s depths. It’s not easy work for the movie star, who claims to be afraid of water. From Wednesday.

SKY/NOW DRAMA

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (All five seasons) ★★★★★ This Texas-set drama looks as if it’s about American football, but it really isn’t. The small-town school team is just the starting point for an uncommonly real family drama that stars Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton.

COMEDY ABBY’S (All ten episodes) ★★★ Cheery drinking comedy with a sentimental streak, starring Natalie Morales as the deadpan ex-marine who runs an illegal bar in her garden. Among the regulars is Fred (The Middle’s Neil Flynn).

BEST OF THE REST NEW! THE GREAT

(Starzplay) ★★★★ Elle Fanning returns as young Catherine the Great in the new, second season of this wild and punchy period drama. The war between the now pregnant Catherine (left) and her husband, Peter, becomes considerably more violent in the opening episode.

Weekly, from tomorrow.

QUEENS OF MYSTERY

NEW!

(Acorn TV) ★★★ A body is found at an art gallery in a new episode of this fun and almost parodically English village mystery. Weekly, on Mondays.

PAY MOVIES

DUNE (2021) 12 ◆ (BT Film Store, Sky Store, Virgin) ★★★★ It loses something not being seen on the big screen, but Denis Villeneuve’s violent epic remains utterly compelling even on TV. Rebecca Ferguson is the movie’s heart as Lady Jessica, a woman

whose duties tear her at least three ways.

STILLWATER (2021) 15 ◆ (BT Film Store, Sky Store, Virgin) ★★★ Matt Damon stars in a steadily played, nuanced drama loosely based on the Amanda Knox story, about the dad (Damon) of a girl imprisoned for murder in France. Both from Monday.