Quick! Some shows before you get sucked back into BBC Parliament!
“Billy Connolly”, a police procedural and that new Ryan Murphy thing.
Hello,
Welcome to the Worth Watching email. I’ll admit it’s been hard to tune out of all the political nonsense in the past week because much of it feels like a rather unhinged political drama, but if you want a breather here are some suggestions:
The Politician (Netflix, out Friday) - Relax, Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix show about a school election has the look and feel of a Presidential one, and is a good watch. What it doesn’t have is the intensity and quickfire bite you might have been led to believe from the show’s trailer. What you get instead is a slower, slightly more twee fit, that gets more confident and more addictive as the plot goes on, so stick with it. It's shot like a Wes Anderson film and manages to weave together many different themes and topics without it feeling like ticking off a checklist. The best thing? The opening titles are bloody great.
In the latest Must Watch BBC Sounds podcast, we interviewed the show’s star Ben Platt about the new series: “A huge inspiration for me for this character and in this show has been Parkland High School survivors who became really important voices in the gun control conversation in America, in particular Cameron Kasky”, Platt told me. “He immediately galvanised a group of students and became the face of this movement and helped to organise The March of Our Lives … reading the script and seeing Payton written at the very top of his intelligence and written as someone who is far beyond his years, seeing someone like that in reality was really inspiring, albeit Cameron Kasky is far more empathetic and lovely kind person than Payton obviously is.”
Criminal (Netflix, out now) - Also well worth your time is the new Netflix police procedural, which never switches away from the interrogation room, creating an incredibly anxiety-inducing atmosphere as the police try to work out whether or not to charge their suspect or not. It’s not just the setting that is so intriguing; it’s the fact that there are four different versions of this show in four different languages: English, French, German and Spanish. You flick between each version for each episode, allowing you to compare how each country treats their suspects. It’s a feat that only someone like Netflix could successfully pull off.
A quick favour though: switch the dubbing off. Netflix need to do this automatically, not assume you are too lazy to read bloody dialogue. Watching a show in its original language feels more authentic and putting your phone down for 45 minutes so you can concentrate on something that isn’t Brexit isn’t half bad either.
The Circle (Channel 4, 9.15pm tonight and 10pm ) - At first you might be wondering why watching a reality show featuring people in separate rooms, interacting with each other through a social media platform, would be compelling TV, but it is. I think it's because, with the contestants shot alone in a Gogglebox-style way, their personalities are peeled back to be something more authentic than you see on other reality TV show formats. It clearly works for Channel 4 too, last year it becoming All4’s most popular show ever, with half of them being between the ages of 16 and 34.
I am also intrigued by two changes introduced this year - one: Richard Madeley aka the Good Morning Britain stand-in who provides such rich material for Joe.co.uk is going to be a contestant; I literally exploded when I heard this news. Two: we won’t see Alice Levine and Maya Jama present just once before they mysteriously disappear for the next 48 days; they have been replaced by Emma Willis, who is bringing ‘this isn’t Big Brother but it is the closest thing to it’ vibes.
Japan with Sue Perkins (BBC iPlayer and Wednesday, 9 pm) - If you know me well you'll know that I am a fan of this country (I have been four times in five years). It has so many layers, and so much culture and history wrapped up in such a small space, but not much of it is ever really depicted well on television. For most TV makers, they just stick on the usual tourist fanfare highlighting “how weird everything is,” followed by Lost in Translation music, odd things in shops and constant neon lights and busy road crossings.
This show tries at points to peel things back a bit more, and it works… up to a point. There are moments when Perkins captures well the country’s emphasis on constant office works and its effects, as well as what it is like to be single in Japan at a time when the birth rate is falling. But then it falls right back into touristy stuff like robot hotels, which don’t really reflect what Japan is really like. Do watch: it’s an easy way to spend an hour, but it also feels at times like a bit of a missed opportunity.
Billy Connolly’s Great American Trail (ITV Hub and Thursday 9pm) - This travelogue meanwhile is fabulous, following Billy travelling down the East Coast of America speaking to people who have Scottish heritage. I couldn’t get enough of it; Billy is not just an brilliant entertainer, he’s just as brilliant as Michael Palin at bringing out the best in people, and letting them, not him, be the focus of the show.
At Edinburgh some ITV head mentioned that the channel shouldn’t be focusing on these travel sort of shows because they don’t add anything, but this is one that clearly does.
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If that is not enough, I made this montage of Rachel Riley dishing out rude words on Countdown. Not sure why. Enjoy!
If you have any suggestions for what can make this newsletter, let me know by responding to this email and it might just make the next one. And if you love this email, please do tell other people about it. It really makes a difference.
Thanks for reading.
Scotty x