MIKE WARD’S SMALL SCREEN
SUNDERLAND ’TIL I DIE (15)
(Netflix Original) FOOTBALL documentaries tend to focus on success stories: Barcelona, Manchester City, Salford City, that kind of thing.
And I dare say the makers of this new Netflix offering, available from today, had a similar vision when they decided to focus on relegated Sunderland AFC’s attempt last season to bounce straight back into the Premier League.
What they found themselves documenting instead was a season of further catastrophe, delivering yet another cruel blow to some of the game’s most passionate supporters.
To say football in Sunderland is a religion is no exaggeration, and that faith, despite everything that’s happened of late, is reflected in one fan’s optimism.
“Let’s go and beat them four, five-nothing,” he says, “and start the season with confidence.” As it turns out, he’s pretty much got the score spot-on. Just not the right way round…
THE INNOCENT MAN (15)
(Netflix Original)
TRUE crime documentaries are huge at the moment.
Netflix’s latest is this grimly fascinating six-parter, based on US thriller writer John Grisham’s non-fiction bestseller from 2006, focusing on two early80s murders that sent shockwaves through the small Oklahoma town of Ada.
At the centre of the story is ex-minor league baseball player Ron Williamson, sentenced to death in 1988 having been wrongly convicted of rape and murder.
THE MEG (12) (Download, DVD and Blu-ray)
THE Meg is short for the Megalodon.
It’s a prehistoric sharky thing, it’s 75ft long, and it’s threatening a bunch of marine scientist types, trapped inside their deep-sea submersible that lies crippled on the Pacific Ocean bed.
Yeah, I know – blimey, eh? I’ll tell you who can sort this. Jason Statham, that’s who. And as luck would have it…
THE EQUALISER 2 (15) (Download, DVD and Blu-ray)
DENZEL Washington doesn’t usually do sequels. In fact, this is his first.
Four years on from the original he’s back as ex-Marine Robert McCall, out for brutal revenge (he doesn’t really do any other sort) following the killing of a colleague.