New Zealand Listener - October 13, 2018

OCTOBER 13 2018 LISTENER 67

TV OD: TVNZ has a

stack of interesting

shows launching on

OnDemand this week.

Peter Haynes’ AFK,

the story of six video

gamers stuck inside

their online avatars,

quietly built a following

after its debut – and did

well enough to earn a

second season and a major step up in produc-

tion values. It launches on Thursday.

There’s also The Trade, a five-part documen-

tary from Matthew Heineman, director of Cartel

Land, which looks at the faces behind the US

opioid trade, from the poor Mexicans who bleed

poppies for their sap to the American parents

watching their children die. The cinematogra-

phy is arresting, the content unsettling and the

series itself very timely. It launches on Tuesday.

And Splitting Up Together, the family comedy

about family breakup, returns for a second

season with Jenna Fischer (The Oice) and

Oliver Hudson (Nashville) as divorced parents

who take turns living in the family home. It

launches on Wednesday. Those are all at tvnz.

co.nz/shows.

challenging project that was

further complicated by their

own design decisions. Their

asymmetrical octagon of a

dream dwelling soon sucks up

their budget – but they have

no choice but to press on and

do the hard work themselves.

THURSDAY OCTOBER 18

Great Innovators: The Rise

of Australian Wine (National

Geographic, Sky 072, 8.30pm).

He gets about, that Sam Neill.

Here he brings his avuncular

style and his practical knowl-

edge of winemaking to bear

on the past, present and future

of Australian winemaking.

Some great killer facts – both

Napoleon III and Queen Vic-

toria enjoyed Australian wines

• give way to a look at more

recent decades and even the

cork-versus-cap debate. It’s cel-

ebratory rather than rigorous,

but it would be nice to think

Mr Two Paddocks might be

commissioned to do the same

for our wine industry one day.

Mr Inbetween (SoHo, Sky 010,

10.00pm). The hugely com-

petitive nature of modern

television requires broadcasters

to take risks – and America’s

FX channel was surely having

a punt when it commissioned

Mr Inbetween, which is based

on the obscure 2005 Australian

indie film The Magician. But

even before Australians got to

see this black comedy on their

own screens, the Hollywood

Reporter had called it one of

the best shows of 2018. It’s a

victory for Scott Ryan, who

wrote the original movie and

Online

Catch of the Week

captures a lot of the raw

moments,” says Hameister. “I

was hoping that they would

do that, because I think that’s

what people want to see.”

How raw?

“It hurts, and you are always

cold. You get in the tent and

you think the stove will warm

you up, or your sleeping bag,

but you’re always cold.

“There was lots of strength

training, putting on muscle.

We did tyre-pulling on the

beaches to simulate what it

would feel like, but we couldn’t

prepare for the cold.”

Inevitably, she had

moments when she wanted to

call the whole thing off.

“I was never going to go

home,” she says, “it was just a

matter of stopping, taking a

couple of deep breaths and

realising that I didn’t want

to go home and I wanted to

finish it.”

She’s settling back into

school now, having promised

her parents she’d complete

her education. But she’s not

ruling out future adventures.

SVOD HIGHLIGHT: What’s

good in subscription video

on demand. There’s been

a big buzz about Mad

Men creator Matthew

Weiner’s new project

The Romanos, not least

because of its stellar cast,

which includes Aaron

Eckhart, Diane Lane, Noah Wyle and Christina

Hendricks (and that’s not even counting the

guest stars). One reason for the very long

cast list is that it’s written as eight separate

stories about people who believe themselves

to be descendants of the Russian royal family.

Those eight stories are shot in seven diferent

countries. It launches worldwide on Amazon

Prime Video on October 12.

AFK

Rock‘n’Roll Guns for Hire:

The Story of the Sideman,

Wednesday.