We are living in the era of the TV reboot, though there are encouraging signs that it may be coming to an end. One of those signs is Reboot, the new Hulu sitcom about a fake sitcom from the early-2000s being rebooted by Hulu. You can usually tell an end is near when things start getting this meta.
Step Right Up, we are asked to believe, was TV's hit family sitcom hit back in 2002 – though it is in every way firmly rooted in the early-90s golden age of corny family sitcoms. It ended, like all fake sitcoms-within-sitcoms, in bitter acrimony between the cast, but now a screenwriter (Rachel Bloom), whose work typically exists at the more challenging art house cinema end of the spectrum wants to reboot it – subversively.
"You know how in the old sitcom the characters always do the right thing?" In the reboot, she promises the Hulu execs, "they don't do the right thing anymore." The original series, one of the execs reports, still "does surprisingly well on our platform with family, pop culture and vicarious living audience segments", so the reboot is greenlit. And as luck would have it, the original cast is now all washed-up has-beens.
Reed Sterling (Keegan-Michael Key) quit the original run to pursue proper acting opportunities but most recently played the voice of haemorrhoid in a TV commercial; Bree Marie Jensen (Judy Greer) subsequently quit acting to become the unpopular queen of a fictional Nordic country; Clay Barber (Johnny Knoxville) became a man of many mugshots and formerly-cute-child-actor Zack Jackson (Calum Worthy) became an annoying 30-year-old.
So far so "live-action Bojack Horseman", though a twist in the first episode suggests the show's self-awareness extends to its own cliches. As TV comedies go it's comfortably at home alongside fan favourites like Schitt's Creek or 30 Rock and it could turn out to be one of the reboot era's few highlights.
Chef's Table: Pizza (Netflix)
In previous seasons Chef's Table has taken us into the kitchens of some of the world's finest dining establishments and got inside some of its most brilliant culinary minds. The seasons about chefs pushing the boundaries of pastry and barbecue pushed the boundaries of how spectacularly mouth-watering a food documentary can be. But nothing could have prepared us for this new season of pizza artisans around the world. The sight of a pizza being pulled from the oven stirs something deep within – no disrespect to the fine dining chefs, but you just don't get that from a foam reduction being smeared artfully on a plate.
The sight of a pizza being pulled from the oven stirs something deep within. Photo / Supplied
Nadia's Farm (Three, Wednesday)
You probably can't call two people a trend, but we can only hope more TV personalities follow Jeremy Clarkson and Nadia Lim into making shows about their adventures in farming. Lim and her husband, Carlos Bagrie, have actually had their farm for a couple of years. He seems to be from a farming background, so this doesn't quite match the thrills and spills of Clarkson's Farm – it's more like an extended episode of Country Calendar following the family as they transition their picturesque Central Otago farm from traditional sheep and barley to a kind of living pantry for Queenstown's best restaurants. Sunflowers are on the menu by the looks of things.
Save Me (Neon)
Both seasons of Save Me are back on Neon. Photo / Supplied
Lennie James (Morgan in The Walking Dead) wrote and stars alongside Suranne Jones (Doctor Foster in Doctor Foster) in this textbook example of what's commonly known as "gripping British TV drama". He plays Nelson "Nelly" Rowe, a ne'er-do-well who takes into his own hands the investigation into his estranged 13-year-old daughter's disappearance – leading him into some pretty dark corners of society – after he's wrongfully arrested for her kidnapping. If you missed it the first time round back in 2018, or have simply forgotten what happened in the intervening years, both seasons of Save Me are back on Neon and well worth a watch.
Movie of the Week: Blonde (Netflix)
Maybe not the Marilyn Monroe biopic you're expecting, maybe not the Marilyn Monroe biopic you want. Maybe not even a Marilyn Monroe biopic at all – Wellington-born director Andrew Dominik (Chopper) has pulled out all the art-house cinema stops in his adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' 2000 biographical fiction novel exploring the troubled life of Norma Jeane Mortenson (Ana de Armas). Shot in various different aspect ratios, some of it in black and white, other bits in colour, it arrives fresh from a mixed reception on the film festival circuit, and looks set to bewilder and polarise plenty of Netflix viewers.
From the Vault: Interview with the Vampire (1994) (Neon)
Any millennial shaking their head at whatever pale imitation of culture Gen Z is currently obsessed with need only look as far as Interview With the Vampire to know this is a phenomenon every generation experiences sooner or later. What must Gen X have thought, watching us lose our minds over Edward Cullen the Twilight movies, as if Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise hadn't already done "hot vampire" 10 times better back in the 90s. This is just how it goes, the circle of life.
Podcast of the Week: Hoaxed
In 2014, years before QAnon and Pizzagate and everything else, another deranged rumour about a satanic child sex ring – this one also featuring ritual decapitations and baby-eating – spread like wildfire through online conspiracy networks. Two young brothers in the posh North London neighbourhood of Hampstead told police their own dad was the leader of the cult, which carried out its sinister business in secret rooms at their school, and in which seemingly half the community was implicated. Not long after they admitted they made the whole thing up, but the true story behind it all is only slightly less troubling.
From Tortoise Media, the British podcast studio behind last year's catfishing hit Sweet Bobby, Hoaxed follows reporter Alexi Mostrous as he investigates this chapter in a long history of satanic panics. Like Sweet Bobby, it's a story where every new detail is more head-spinning than the last – from what compelled the kids to make such a shocking accusation to how the rumour got out in the first place, and why no one (not least social media companies through which it spread virtually unchecked) has been held to account for the ongoing damage this conspiracy has caused.
