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2 days ago
9
Pick of the week
The Abandons
As his biker epic Sons of Anarchy proved, Kurt Sutter is helpless to resist the iconography of the American outlaw. This western is set in the 1850s, a gritty era of cattle rustlers, blood vendettas and murders with pitchforks. In rural Oregon, the brutal Van Ness family are threatening smallholders as they expand their territory. Will the locals join forces to protect their homesteads? Lena Headey stars as sad-eyed Irish emigre Fiona Nolan, a woman who cannot bear children but has gathered a band of orphans around her. Looming menacingly over her is Constance Van Ness (Gillian Anderson), an amusingly one-note villain. Pure hokum but it rattles along entertainingly.
Netflix, from Thursday 4 December
With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration
All round to the Sussexes’ rental mansion for homemade crackers, champagne cocktails and enough festive kitsch to make Santa himself arch a sceptical eyebrow. The exciting news this time is that Prince Harry is making a guest appearance in his wife’s TV kitchen but otherwise, it’s business as usual – expect wreath-making tips, crafting ideas and Meghan skipping through a forest of Christmas trees in October while pretending to be cold. You have to have a sneaking admiration for this project; it almost feels like deliberate provocation at this point.
Netflix, from Wednesday 3 December
Controlled: Can I Trust My Partner? UNTOLD
Presenter Daisy Maskell is never shy about taking a hands-on approach to her subject matter – which typically involves the darker corners of modern romance. In a previous episode of this strand, she tested a spiked drink on herself. This time, she’s investigating the troubling rise of partner abuse among the under-30s with particular focus on the bleak market in “stalkerware” apps which enable users to covertly monitor another person’s private online activity. Along with her (consenting) partner, Daisy tries out an app, with disturbing results.
Channel 4, from Monday 1 December
Sean Combs: The Reckoning
After a lengthy beef with the artist formerly known as P Diddy but now best known as Sean Combs, federal prisoner, 50 Cent now gets to executive produce a four-part documentary about his adversary’s downfall. The early stages explore Combs’s rise through the world of hip-hop as his knack for branding and talent-spotting made a behemoth out of his company Bad Boy Entertainment. However, as we now know, Combs was a bad boy in much grimmer, less performative ways as his recent conviction for transportation for prostitution indicates.
Netflix, from Tuesday 2 December
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Seaside Hotel
This gently nostalgic comedy drama was, for five years, the most watched fictional series on Danish television. Which goes to show that Britain isn’t the only country powerless to resist a rose-tinted trip back to the early 20th century. The first eight seasons are already available on Channel 4 but now, the final two seasons have arrived. It’s 1945, Denmark is free and the hotel is reopening after the war. Amanda and Frida have plenty of renovating to do but nothing can be quite the same again, as emphasised by a crime involving Sarah’s Jewish grandparents.
Channel 4, from Thursday 4 December
Owning Manhattan
“I want to build the number one real estate brokerage on Earth.” It’s a noble dream but as season two of this reality show begins, can Ryan Serhant pull it off? First, he’s going to have to assemble a crack team of highly-strung brokers, most of whom look like minor members of the Kardashian clan. What ensues is never even slightly endearing or edifying as the gang screech and squabble over lavish slices of Tribeca real estate while apparently on the verge of complete nervous collapse. If you’re in search of reasons why Zohran Mamdani had to happen, look no further.
Netflix, from Friday 5 December
The New Yorker at 100
The king of high-minded long reads paired with weirdly random cartoons gets a fascinating profile as it reaches its century. And in an age of compromised client journalism and AI-slathered clickbait hackery, the New Yorker magazine feels like more of a brilliant outlier than ever. As you’d expect, this documentary is full of passion; with long-standing editor David Remnick among the contributors, there’s a deep dive into the magazine’s editorial processes which reveals an obsessive, almost pedantic commitment to truth-telling.
Netflix, from Friday 5 December
