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Pick of the week
Apple Cider Vinegar
The rise and fall of Belle Gibson was a wild story of the early social media age and an early warning about the torrent of anti-science hokum that would soon be heading our way. Gibson was a young Australian who established herself as a “wellness guru” by falsely claiming to have mitigated multiple cancer pathologies via a range of dietary tricks and alternative medicines. This glossy, pacy dramatisation of Gibson’s deadly tissue of lies is distinguished by a fine, nuanced central performance from Kaitlyn Dever, who portrays Gibson as corrupted and parasitical but also desperately needy and in denial about the true gravity and consequences of her actions.
Netflix, from Thursday 6 February
Clean Slate
Unhappy Alabama teen Desmond moved to New York, became Desiree and started working in a gallery. A couple of decades on, Desiree (Laverne Cox) has run out of money and faces unfinished business at home. Can she return to Alabama and reconnect with her good-hearted but traditional father Harry? This sitcom (executive produced by the late Norman Lear) tracks the tentative rebuilding of Desiree and Harry’s relationship via endless gender-based awkwardness and a “pronoun jar” for any accidental linguistic mishaps. It’s broad but underpinned by an abiding warmth.
Prime Video, from Thursday 6 February
Common Side Effects
This animation is surprisingly straight-faced and earnest for an Adult Swim production – and none the worse for it. It presents as a polemical satire, aimed squarely at the rapacious greed and endemic corruption of big pharma. Schoolmates Marshall and Frances have discovered a natural remedy that could cure any disease known to mankind, but how will the monstrous Reutical Pharmaceuticals Inc react to being given this miracle mushroom? Not quite as positively as you might hope. Beavis and Butt-Head’s Mike Judge is among the fine voice cast.
Channel 4, from Monday 3 February
Celebrity Bear Hunt
Ever wanted to see Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen slathered in mud and running for his life? Finally, you’re in luck thanks to this wild survival show in which celebrities (among them Mel B, Boris Becker, Big Zuu and Shirley Ballas) are taken to a jungle in Costa Rica and tutored in survival techniques by Bear Grylls. They’ll then compete in various games – and for the losers, a terrifying fate awaits as they’re released into the wild and hunted down by Grylls, with elimination from the contest on the line. Utterly ludicrous but don’t pretend you’re not tempted.
Netflix, from Wednesday 5 February
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Love You to Death (A muerte)
A Spanish romantic drama which employs nuclear levels of contrivance to ripe emotional effect. Raúl (Joan Amargós) is a cautious wallflower of a man who, upon receiving a cancer diagnosis, begins to suspect he might have wasted his life. However, that changes when he meets Marta (Verónica Echegui), a free-spirited and commitment-phobic woman at a party. Soon, the pair are falling in love – but there’s a catch, involving the small matter of Marta’s newly discovered pregnancy. Never subtle but possessed of a certain open-hearted charm.
Apple TV+, from Wednesday 5 February
Cassandra
When a family moves into a home that has been empty since the 1970s, they’re intrigued to find an old-fashioned looking domestic robot in a closet. So much so that they decide to plug it in. What could possibly go wrong? As secrets from the past start to unravel, it’s easy to guess where this German sci-fi might be going; it doesn’t feel like too much of a spoiler to say that the robot (Cassandra) turns out to have a little more autonomy than is desirable, not to mention a very personal agenda. Even so, it’s an amusing slice of techno-fear for AI paranoiacs.
Netflix, from Thursday 6 February
Accused
A second series of the anthology drama which takes its format and title from Jimmy McGovern’s BBC series in which we met a character in the dock and, via flashbacks, pieced together how they got there. Another strong cast has been assembled: Michael Chiklis, Taylor Schilling, Rhea Perlman, Abigail Breslin and Malcolm-Jamal Warner. The stories range in tone and subject matter to explore everything from negligent driving to accusations of racism. It never carries the weight of McGovern’s original but there are some intriguing moral posers all the same.
Paramount+, from Thursday 6 February
