PICK OF DIGITAL & ON DEMAND TV
WEDNESDAY, NETFLIX
THE quirky brilliance of Netflix’s fresh take on the Addams Family stories can be summed up in the first words uttered by its demented yet loveable heroine. ‘I’m not sure whose twisted idea it was to put hundreds of adolescents in underfunded schools run by people whose dreams were crushed years ago,’ says Wednesday, as she walks down the corridor of a traditional American high school. ‘But I admire the sadism.’ And with that we’re off into Tim Burton’s gloriously politically incorrect eight-part series about America’s favourite monster family, starring Jenna Ortega as daughter Wednesday, an otherworldly Catherine
TUDOR QUEEN Blood, Sex & Royalty, Netflix
IF THE idea of the second wife of Henry VIII saying ‘bestie’ or ‘strap in, boys’ makes you cringe, then perhaps this lively new three-part docudrama isn’t for you. However, there is a school of thought that the best way to make history stick is to make it entertaining, and there’s no doubt that this series about Anne Boleyn’s rise through the Tudor court does that. Coronation Street’s Zeta-Jones as matriarch Morticia, Luis Guzman as husband Gomez, and Isaac Ordonez as her brother, Pugsley (pictured). The action starts with Wednesday, now a teenager, being thrown out of school (she dropped piranhas into the water polo pool), so her parents decide to send her to their old school, Nevermore Academy, which is just the place for outcasts. There, she navigates adolescence and the school social scene Amy James-Kelly (pictured) puts a lot into playing Anne, whether she’s talking directly to us (‘He does this with all the girls, right?’) or dealing with amorous men (‘You’re married, end of’). Underneath the modern language, the series does a good job of presenting Anne as a full historical figure, too — not just one of six wives.
HOSTAGE THRILLER Echo 3, Apple TV+
MARK BOAL wrote The Hurt Locker, and his new thriller has a similar feel and look, but with more of a slow burn — it’s ten parts, after all. Luke Evans is the U.S. special forces soldier who takes extreme action when his sister is kidnapped along the Colombia-Venezuela border. The black ops military action, when it comes, is smart, efficient and impressive. Parts one to three arrive today; more follow weekly.
ENIGMATIC AUTHOR Laurie Lee: The Lost Interview, 9pm, Sky Arts
THREE years before his death in 1997, the author of Cider With Rosie gave a rare TV interview. This new documentary is the fascinating story of how it was secured.