22 May 2022 51THE BEST TV FROM MUBI AND BEYOND... FRIDAY 27 MAY
The Crown (Netflix)
In the six years since Peter
Morgan’s high-end Buck
House soap opera first
launched, the conduct of the
real Queen’s offspring has
been unravelled in a startling
manner that suggests life
mirroring art. Who doesn’t
now study news stories about
the royal family and think
“How will they rewrite this
and who will be cast in the
lead roles?” And who hasn’t
felt a strange sympathy for
Her Majesty in the process,
thanks, in part, to the
portrayals of her by Claire
Foy and Olivia Colman? The
fifth season, which won’t be
with us until November, will
take us up to the mid 1990s
but it is incredible to think
that a show that began as the
chronicle of a family might
well end up documenting
the fall of a dynasty.
Andrew MaleFireheart (Sky Cinema
Premiere, 7am/12.50pm/
6.25pm/3.20am)
Set in New York in the 1930s,
when people fighting blazes
were expected to be men, this
animated movie is the story of
a teenage girl who joins a fire
brigade by posing as a male
— a ruse that even fools her
dad, the crew’s chief. There
is nothing in this Canadian
film that will set the world of
children’s movies alight, but
it has enough warmth and
brightness to be enjoyable.
Viewers of any age might
like its vision of Manhattan
in the heyday of skyscrapers.
Co-dirs: Theodore Ty,
Laurent Zeitoun (2022)Desperately Seeking
Susan (BBC1, 11.40pm;
Scotland, 12.40am)
Starring Madonna as a free
spirit who leads another
woman (Rosanna Arquette)
into mishaps, this comedy is
a likable blast from the past:
a 1930s-style screwball farce
dressed in 1980s trappings.
Dir: Susan Seidelman (1985)
Edward PorterA bad case of cabin fever (Netflix) Sought: Madonna (BBC1, 11.40pm)FILM CHOICE
ON DEMAND
The King (Sky/Now)
For those of us who were never
entirely convinced by Luca
Zingaretti’s portrayal of the
charming Sicilian detective
Inspector Montalbano and
always thought that he
looked like he was about
to trash a trattoria, here is
some vindication. The actor
Swamp Thing (Amazon)
When Alan Moore was writing
the adventures of DC Comics’
plant-based superhero in the
early 1990s the stories were
wittily and multi-textual, with
ecological, political and even
spiritual subplots. There is
nothing quite as fecund in
Gary Dauberman and Mark
Verheiden’s TV reboot but if
it is proficient, effects-laden
horror you want, dig in.
Andrew MaleNow & Then (Apple TV+)
Set in Miami, this Spanish
and English bilingual thriller
follows a group of former
college friends forced to
confront past misdeeds.
Another Harlan Coben-style
soap opera then, but with a
knockout central performance
from the great Rosie Perez
as a detective obsessed with
an unresolved case. Maybe
someone watching will give
Perez her own detective show.Senior Year (Netflix)
After spending 20 years in a
coma, this comedy’s heroine
(Rebel Wilson) insists on going
back to high school, where
she finds more changes than
she had expected. Although
never especially funny, her
exploits have entertainment
value as a daft satire on
youth-culture trends. The
film aims to show that 2002
was a long time ago. Dir:
Alex Hardcastle (2022) EPconvinces utterly as paranoid,
coke-snorting prison warden
Bruno Testori. Filmed inside
a former 19th-century Turin
prison (now a museum) the
eight-part Italian series is part
murder mystery, part thriller
and part claustrophobic
single-set drama, which uses
its central location as a site
of escalating tension and
as a metaphor for Italy itself
and its long-established
history of crime.The numbers game: is Millie Bobby Brown in for a tough time in and out of school? (Netflix)Stranger Things (Netflix)
Breaking the three series
barrier, which is rare for
Netflix in these straightened
times, the hit drama’s fourth
season begins, switching
between two high schools in- In California, to where
she moved with the Byers
family, Eleven (Millie Bobby
Brown) is bullied in class
by mean girls. Back in
Indiana, a title-deciding
school basketball game
coincides with a Dungeons
& Dragons evening for the
freaks and geeks of the
Hellfire Club. This all adds
up to a masterly mix of teen
comedy, character updates
and grisly set-pieces, full of
nods to movies and the rest
of 1980s pop culture. The
horror in the opener is
confined to the prologue and
ending, so most of the first
offering is free of weirdness.
John Dugdale
The Chalet
(Walter Presents On All4)
French TV is good at shows
that occupy ground between
sci-fi and the supernatural.
Following Les Revenants, La
Dernière Vague and Missions,
this series is set in an Alpine
hamlet that shares a travel agent
with Royston Vasey, Twin
Peaks and the Overlook Hotel.
Adding to the eerieness, it is
split across two time frames,
as key characters — a blocked
writer and his family, a peace-
seeking pregnant woman and
her boyfriend — move in
mysterious ways. There is a
bound figure and visions of
rising blood: when something
cataclysmic happens to the
only exit out of the village, it
is clear that nobody — viewers
included — is going anywhere.
Victoria Segal
Devon And Cornwall
(C4, 8pm)
The fifth series of this sublime
and soothing show meets new
characters Rupert, the “Lone
Kayaker” and retired vet who
photographs wildlife while he
paddles, and Nick, the farmer
taking advantage of global
warming. Growing sunflowers,
he plans to make Cornwall’s
first cold-pressed oil.The Other One
(BBC1, 9.30pm)
Holly Walsh’s heart-warmingly
subversive sitcom continues
as Calum and Cat join Cathy
on a trip to her aunt’s farm
for lambing season. It’s her
favourite place in the world,
made all the better by the fact
that Auntie Dawn is played by
that shameless scene-stealer
Caroline Quentin.The Lateish Show (C4, 10pm)
Mo Gilligan comes to the new
series armed with his second
Bafta, this time for best comedy
entertainment programme,
having made clear in a heartfelt
speech that he is motivated
by bringing “black boy joy to
people’s screens”. And here
he is, with Ashley Walters,
Judi Love and Sean Paul.
Helen StewartCRITICS’ CHOICE
A right royal mirror
of real life?