Hyperdrive (Netflix)
Somewhere deep inside of me, a motorsports nut yearns to be free. How else can I explain the list of drivers my brain remembers despite never having watched more than a couple of laps of Bathurst in my life. Scaife, Lowndes, Van Gisbergen – who even are these people?
The problem my inner petrolhead faces is that a much bigger part of me finds motorsport in all its forms completely boring. That is, until now. Netflix has finally invented a new form of motorsport so stupidly and cartoonishly entertaining I can't help but love it.
Hyperdrive has been described as Ninja Warrior meets The Fast and The Furious, but I like to think of it more like Tux Wonder Dogs for cars. The first driver to take to the high-octane obstacle course is a man whose actual name is Fielding Shredder. That's arguably not even the coolest name in the first episode – there's a guy from France called Axel Francois.
Shredder nails the Supernova, an obstacle where drivers have to reverse through a narrow row of neon poles before doing a 180-degree skid in a turning circle (a manoeuvre the commentators repeatedly inform us is called a "Rockford turn"). He aces the Lightbox, where drivers have to do a couple of 540-degree donuts inside a lit-up box.
