Also coming to streaming
Ripley (Netflix, from April 4) Patricia Highsmith’s anti-hero, Tom Ripley, has had many on-screen incarnations over the years; Alain Delon, Dennis Hopper and Matt Damon are among those who’ve brought him to life. Now it’s the turn of Andrew Scott in a new eight-part version of arguably the writer’s most famous and celebrated work, The Talented Mr Ripley. Adapted and directed by Oscar-winner Steven Zaillian, the story begins in 1960s New York, when grifter Ripley accepts a potentially lucrative job to persuade Dickie Greenleaf, the scion of a wealthy family, to return home from a sojourn in Italy. However, his introduction to Dickie’s louche world takes a shocking turn. Johnny Flynn, Dakota Fanning and John Malkovich (who played the central character in 2002’s Ripley’s Game) also appear.
Star Trek: Discovery (Paramount, from April 4) All good things must come to an end, including Star Trek spin-offs. Discovery takes place 900 years after the adventures of James T Kirk and co, and is one of the best entries in the canon. The fifth and final season has had a difficult germination. It was originally meant to be made back-to-back with its predecessor, but filming was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The shoot eventually took place in late-2022, with reshoots the following March designed to give it a more satisfying conclusion. This time, the USS Discovery team, led by Captain Burnham (Snequa Martin-Green), face a race against time – and across the galaxy – to locate an ancient power whose existence has been shrouded in mystery for centuries.
Sugar (Apple TV, from April 5)
Although it has a modern-day setting, there’s something rather wonderfully oldfashioned about the first of two TV projects set to star Colin Farrell this year (his second will see him reprise his role as Penguin from The Batman movie). Sugar owes a lot to the kind of private eye movies Humphrey Bogart made in the 1940s and 1950s, or even Roman Polanski’s 1974 smash Chinatown. Farrell (who is also one of the series’ executive producers) heads the cast as John Sugar, an enigmatic investigator struggling with personal demons. Nevertheless, he agrees to search for Olivia Siegel, the missing granddaughter of a famed Hollywood producer, unearthing a few dark secrets about her family in the process.