It's too easy to miss brilliant streaming shows, movies and documentaries. Here are the ones to hit play on or skip.
Rena Owen and Eline Powell, two of the stars of mystery-thriller series, Siren.Credit:Freeform/Ed Herrera
Siren
Stan*
Deadliest Catch or Sexiest Catch? It's hard to tell at first. Because if that really is a mermaid that fishing trawler hauls out of the Bering Sea in the dead of night, we don't get a good look at it. Whatever it is quickly mauls a fisherman and then scuttles off into the boat's inky hold. And what are the odds that a bunch of US Navy SEALs would immediately abseil down from a helicopter, dart the… creature… and then make off with it and with the wounded fisherman?
While it's possible to imagine the current US president establishing a military mermaid taskforce after being gulled by one of the Discovery Channel's fake mermaid documentaries, things still seem a bit, well, fishy.
Back on dry land, the small fishing town of Bristol Cove, Washington, is in the swing of its annual mermaid festival, a nice little tourism earner built on mermaid legends dating back to the time of the town's founding. Local trawler magnate Ted Pownall (David Cubitt) takes centre stage at the official proceedings, while events are observed with some displeasure by shopkeeper Helen Hawkins (ever-delightful New Zealander Rena Owen, most recently seen in The Gloaming).
Eline Powell is Ryn, Alex Roe is Ben Pownall, and Fola Evans-Akingbola is Maddie Bishop in Siren.Credit:Freeform/Ed Herrera
One notable absentee is Pownall's marine-biologist son, Ben (Alex Roe), who would rather be down at the local marine research centre with his girlfriend, Maddy (Fola Evans-Akingbola). All well and good, but isn't there a certain mermaid-shaped piece missing? Without giving too much away, let's just say that there's a new girl in town, slightly built, elfin featured, seemingly mute, and possessed of unsettling, twitchy mannerisms that might lead some folks to assume that she's a member of the local methamphetamine community.
Belgian actress Eline Powell (a recognisable face to your more tragic Game of Thrones tragics), is terrific in the role, combining the artlessness of the ingenue with the nervy menace of the cornered animal. Equally impressive is the way the effects department handles the mermaid transformations, with echoes of werewolf movies adding to the sense of primal danger.
It's all quite well put together, a cut above your usual non-premium, small-town-monster-mystery-meets-military-conspiracy kind of show, and the early episodes deliver some neat surprises. The town's back story of mermaid genocide has obvious parallels with the dispossession of Native Americans, but the series doesn't seem intent on labouring the point. Worth checking out.
Jexi
Amazon Prime Video
Workaholics' Adam DeVine and the disembodied voice of Rose Byrne are wonderfully puerile fun in this sweet but dirty-minded rom-com from the makers of The Hangover. DeVine plays mobile-phone addict Phil, a friendless dork who lives in San Francisco and works writing listicles in a clickbait sweatshop.
Phil (played by Adam DeVine) is addicted to his mobile phone. A system update to his device brings AI life coach Jexi into his life. Credit:Netflix
When Phil gets a new phone its Siri-style personal-assistant program (Byrne) turns out to be a foul-mouthed rogue intent on improving his life by tearing it apart. Wanda Sykes is an absolute show-stealer in her little role.
Cuffs
Acorn TV
Emotionally authentic but procedurally dodgy, this bright-and-busy British series has Top Boy star Ashley Walters and Sherlock's Amanda Abbington as coppers policing Brighton's pebbly beaches. Walters' no-nonsense PC is particularly aggrieved at being made training officer for the superintendent's callow, queue-jumping son (Jacob Ifan). Brighton quickly reveals itself to be a sun-drenched hotbed of daylight ram-raids, nudism, truancy, parkour and racist violence. Slightly rote, but watchable.
Ashley Walters and Jacob Ifan play two police officers with complicated personal lives in Cuffs.
Uncut Gems
Netflix
Adam Sandler's dramatic performances are so much better than his woeful latter-day comedies that he really ought to quit the comedy business altogether. He even got some Oscar buzz for Uncut Gems.
Adam Sandler is a jeweller in a whole lot of trouble in Uncut Gems. Credit:Netflix
It's a brilliantly exhausting movie that gaffer-tapes us to motormouth New York gem dealer and degenerate gambler Howard Ratner (Sandler) as he tells lie after lie and pulls scam after scam trying to get out from under some violent debt collectors. The thrill and despair of the addict are palpable.
Narcos: Mexico
Netflix
Even by Narcos standards, the first season of Narcos: Mexico was a harrowing one, leading up as it did to the real-life torture and murder of DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena (so memorably played by Michael Peña). And just when it looked as though the blowback might finally bring down cocaine kingpin Felix Gallardo (Diego Luna), Mexican institutional corruption put him right back on top of the heap.
Continuing on from an excellent first season, Narcos: Mexico manages to step it up a level.Credit:Netflix
In the new second season it's still 1985 but Gallardo faces a new threat in DEA agent Walt Breslin (Scoot McNairy), who is leading a posse of DEA agents on a campaign of revenge kidnappings. But might the spider become the fly once more?
As ever, it's exquisitely written, cast and shot, making great use of Mexico's stunning landscapes, opulent haciendas and colourful '80s fashions. The series does a fine job too of keeping the viewer straight about a big cast of characters – including a little up-and-comer by the name of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman (Alejandro Edda) – and of placing events in the context of American involvement in the war in Nicaragua. Brilliant.
Muscle Shoals
Docplay
It's fitting that the first track we hear in this celebratory but emotionally dappled documentary is Wilson Pickett's Land of 1000 Dances. The rich, elemental energy of the recording encapsulates what would become known as the Muscle Shoals sound. Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge and countless others are on hand to explain how an unlikely outpost of racial harmony in 1960s Alabama changed the courses of lives and careers and brought us some of the most soulful music ever recorded.
*Stan is owned by Nine, the publisher of this masthead.
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