"Fly me to the moon, Let me play among the stars"
"8 Days to the Moon and Back", Louis Theroux and "Dark Mon£y" are worth your time.
Hello,
Scotty here with your Worth Watching newsletter for this week.
It’s a bit later than usual this week: Basically, blame Pride.
Pride has broken me.
Here’s some things to look out for this week:
8 Days: To the Moon and Back (BBC Two, Wednesday 9pm) - Mixing archive footage, audio recordings, and innovative reconstructions, this film looks at the extraordinary challenges and risks that Apollo 11 faced on its way to the moon.
It’s also as smart as hell.
When the actors open their mouths, you don’t hear them merely impersonating Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. You hear the actual voices of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins, the actor’s voices synching with theirs, like ventriloquist dummies in space. There’s no narration either; just words appearing on screen to break down the technical language you hear throughout.
It does not end up feeling like a gimmick. In fact, quite the opposite; it adds to it. You get a true sense of the emotions the astronauts felt, and you can almost feel the claustrophobia inside the lunar module. This innovation reminds me a lot of Peter Jackson’s film They Shall Not Grow Old, which transformed black and white footage into colour, and used lip readers to reconstruct the original soldiers’ dialogue, emphasising that people are people. There is no difference between them then, and you now.
8 Days will make you realise how much we have taken the moon landings for granted . As one uncredited voice utters during the documentary itself: “We really don’t have a language to describe this thing. What are the words you use? How do you say… ‘the skies the limit?’ What does that even mean?”
Make sure you make a point of watching this show this week.
Dark Mon£y (BBC iPlayer) - In case you missed the drama on Monday and Tuesday on BBC One, I recommend giving this a look. Dark Money looks into non-disclosure agreements and why the families or victims of sexual molestation, or assault, choose to sign them and accept the money, and the consequences that this may bring.
The topic is unsettling, but this drama couldn’t feel more timely and it couldn’t be better acted. You’ll get an understanding at how complicated this issue is, and the hoops victims, who have already experienced a traumatic and life-changing event, have to go through to obtain and seek justice. Screenwriter Levi David Addai has done a brilliant job of bringing this issue to life. The drama continues next week
Louis Theroux: Surviving America's Most Hated Family (BBC Two, this Sunday, 9pm) - Louis Theroux returns with a new film on the Westboro Baptist Church: in particular the Phelps family who make up members of its hateful congregation. Why has Theroux returned for the third time? Fred Phelps, the pastor at the core of the hate group, who encouraged homophobic and offensive views, died in 2014. Existing members of the church have also left, and/or denounced the church’s views.
Like the other two previous docs in the series, Theroux is brilliant at showing us his interviewees revealing themselves as they really are, rather than having them showing us what they want us to see. In case you have missed the first two in the series, you can catch up on Netflix.
And a reader recommendation from Elaine… Instant Hotel on Netflix - “Just dropped on Netflix, the second series of Instant Hotel is addictively binge-worthy. Yes, it’s a bit like Four in a Bed, but it’s more Airbnb than cosy BnBs. And the crucial difference is that it features spectacular places in Australia.
“The second series has Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen as a judge in some extraordinary suits. He’s actually entertaining. And there’s one couple you will love to hate.”
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Must Watch news: The TV review podcast I’m a co-host in was reviewed in The Observer this week. You can subscribe to the “upbeat, interesting 5 Live review podcast about current TV and streaming shows” through Apple’s podcast site.
And podcast news: I presented Radio 4 Extra’s Podcast Radio Hour with Amanda Litherland last week, talking about podcasts that we are excited to listen to in July.
That’s all for this week. Just a head’s up, Queer Eye is back next week (yep, they seem to be releasing a new series practically every 39 minutes. Is it too much now? I’ll be reviewing it in next week’s edition.)
Have a good one.
Scotty x