BOX SETS AND ON DEMAND
Race: Bubba Wallace (Netflix from Tue)
Unless you’re a fan of Nascar racing, chances are you’ve never heard of Bubba Wallace.
He’s been the only AfricanAmerican driver in the championship’s three national series in each year he’s taken part, and is the only African-American to win more than once in any of them.
This six-part series follows Wallace over the course of the 2021 season, his first for Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin’s 23XI Racing team, paying particular attention not only to his exploits behind the wheel but to the aftermath of his decision to speak out about racial injustice following the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent Black Lives Matters protests, which led to Nascar officially banning the display of Confederate flags at their tracks.
The Walking Dead (Disney+, from Mon)
The 11th and final series of the hugely popular postapocalyptic horror series returns following its midseason break.
If you’ve missed it so far, or need a reminder of what has happened, Maggie led a group hoping to retake the community of Meridian from a bloodthirsty gang of Afghanistan war veterans known as The Reapers.
Daryl was forced to join the villains after learning his ex-lover Leah was living with them.
She then took control of The Reapers and led the fight against Maggie. Meanwhile, Eugene and his cohorts entered the prosperous Commonwealth, soon realising it wasn’t the paradise they had hoped for. The forthcoming six episodes will hopefully tie things up nicely, ahead of next year’s spin-off featuring Daryl and Carol.
Vikings: Valhalla (Netflix from Fri)
Fans of the original Vikings series are probably beside themselves with glee at the prospect of watching this sequel. Set more than a century after its predecessor, it follows the fortunes of some of the most famous Norsemen who ever lived, including Leif Erikson, Freydis Eiriksdottir and Harald Hardrada, and charts the end of the Viking era.
The story begins as the trio head to England, just as tension between their people and the local nobles reaches its peak thanks to their conflict over Christian and Pagan beliefs.
They will face a battle to survive that culminates in the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066. Filmed in Co Wicklow, the drama stars Sam Corlett, Frida Gustavsson and Leo Suter.
Tyler Perry’s A Madea Homecoming (Netflix from Fri)
For the uninitiated, Mabel ‘Madea’ Earlene Simmons is one of Tyler Perry’s most enduring characters.
The actor, film-maker and writer was inspired to create her by his mother and aunt, and every project she’s appeared in, from the 1999 play I Can Do Bad All By Myself to this latest offering, have been comedies, but with an underlying serious theme.
Perry had planned to retire Madea after 2019’s A Madea Family Funeral, but he’s brought her back, and who knows, maybe she’ll return again... Here, she plans a dinner to celebrate her greatgrandson’s graduation, but the unearthing of family secrets looks set to ruin everything. Perry himself plays the central character, while Brendan O’Carroll and Jennifer Gibney pop up as Agnes and Cathy Brown.