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Pick of the week
Hacks
It has been an age since we’ve been in the company of Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels, but absence has made the heart grow fonder. Finally, season three of Hacks is available to UK viewers. Deborah (Jean Smart) is now the toast of the comedy world and has hired not one but two new writers. Ava (Hannah Einbinder) is not among them. Maybe Ava should regard the fact that two people are needed to replace her as a compliment but, inevitably, she’s struggling to see it like that. So begins another delicate, hilarious dance of mutual need and shared antagonism as the greatest odd-couple friendship on television enters another stage. It’s great to have them back.
Now, out now
Yellowjackets
The berserk drama about the past and future lives of a female high-school football team forced to survive in the Alaskan wilderness returns with a moment of calm. Back in the forest, there’s a regrouping after the traumas of the winter, though trouble is just round the corner. In the present, Natalie’s passing is being mourned – but what is perpetual outsider Misty planning? Yellowjackets continues to have its cake and eat it: simultaneously schlocky, funny and psychologically disturbing. The horror isn’t overplayed; instead, there’s a sense of suppressed but never quite containable chaos.
Paramount+, from Friday 14 February
After the First 48
The true-crime series following a variety of homicide cases in the US returns for yet another season. As the title suggests, the focus is on the hard detective legwork involved in solving crimes whose motives and possible suspects aren’t obvious in the first couple of days. Among the cases explored are the killing of a mother and her two children and a fatally escalated street robbery, which leads to detectives facing a wall of silence from a terrified community. Could the perpetrator be a figure from surprisingly high up the criminal food chain?
Channel 4, from Monday 10 February
Surviving Black Hawk Down
You’ve seen the Ridley Scott blockbuster; now prepare for the real story told by many of the people who were actually present during the so-called Battle of Mogadishu in 1993. In this three-part documentary, that includes US military personnel, civilian witnesses and, notably, members of the Somali militia involved in the downing of the titular chopper. It’s a mixture of slightly overwrought reconstructions, raw footage filmed during the incident and its aftermath, and reflections on what it all meant. A gripping and frequently terrifying story.
Netflix, from Monday 10 February
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At Home With Katherine Ryan
Another series of questionable domestic wisdom from Katherine Ryan, who semi-jokingly showcases her singular approach to family life. She’s about to head off on a 10-month tour but first she needs to straighten a few things out at home. Her relationship with husband Bobby (“A marriage of both love and convenience”) needs the attention of a counsellor, and her 15-year-old daughter Violet has to learn about keeping her Mean Girls streak and dressing to impress at a Taylor Swift show. Ryan is funny, self-aware and whip-smart company throughout.
U&W, from Monday 10 February
Muslim Matchmaker
It’s a dating show from the team behind Indian Matchmaking – which received criticism for reinforcing the caste system, seeming a little dismissive of women with careers and under-representing India’s Muslim population. This series feels a little more promising, featuring the self-consciously sassy and no-nonsense duo Hoda and Yasmin, who look to guide Muslims in the US through the dating minefield. Along the way, they’ll explore issues ranging from the fundamental (premarital sex) to the frivolous (troublesome body hair).
Disney+, from Tuesday 11 February
Will Trent
As we left agent Will Trent in this police drama, he was at a crossroads. After being forced to arrest his detective girlfriend Angie Polaski, he was traumatised and on extended gardening leave. Now he’s presented with an impossible dilemma: a young girl is missing and police face a race against time to apprehend her killer. They need Will to crack the case and he feels obligated to try. But can he deal with the ghosts of his past? It’s a generic but involving thriller distinguished by a likable lead performance from Ramón Rodríguez.
Disney+, from Wednesday 12 February
