After the crossover success of F1 reality series Drive To Survive, the show’s producers must have looked around and asked themselves: what sport can we turn into premium unscripted content next? The answer probably arrived like the thwack of a Nick Kyrgios serve: let’s do tennis.
At first glance, the WTA and ATP tours seem fertile ground for this type of show which blurs the boundaries of sports documentary and reality. There’s a potential cast of hundreds of stars from around the world, with clear narrative peaks in the four annual grand slams. After being dominated by the same handful of generational megastars for the best part of two decades, the sport currently has a power vacuum that any number of talented youngsters could fill.
We’re introduced to a handful of them in the first five episodes of Break Point (the season, like a lot of Netflix shows, has been split into two parts) – but first, Nick Kyrgios. The Australian “bad boy of tennis” is the focus of the first episode, which follows him through his 2022 Australian Open campaign.
You can appreciate their thinking – drama seems to follow Kyrgios everywhere he goes. One minute he’s playing an audacious between-the-legs return on a match point, the next he’s having a screaming match with the crowd or smashing his racket in frustration (his lovely mum has a growing collection of them at home back in Canberra). Every match he plays could be his last, and he truly doesn’t seem to care either.
But as enigmatic as he is, the episode struggles to fully get inside his head – which is where so much of tennis takes place. The psychological battles and intense isolation of elite tennis make Break Point quite a different experience to Drive to Survive, and it’s hard to imagine those who aren’t already fans of the sport being captured by it in the same way.
That 90s Show (Netflix)
That 90s Show (Netflix). Photo / Supplied
Time for some depressing maths: the 90s are now further in the past than the 70s were when That 70s Show first aired in 1998. Remember how ancient the 70s seemed back then? That’s us now. Set in 1995, this sequel focuses on the teenage daughter of That 70s Show’s high school sweethearts Eric and Donna, which is also kind of depressing in a way. The parents from the original series return as the grandparents here, while most of the original cast (minus the Scientology one) pops up during the series to play … the embarrassing parents.
If you thought TV thriller settings couldn’t get any more claustrophobic than Vigil’s submarine, The Rig has news for you. Amazon’s new series is set on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland which has been enshrouded in a thick, supernatural fog which means the helicopter that usually picks the workers up and drops them off can’t land. You could just send a boat, right? Turns out it’s not quite as easy as that either. Line of Duty’s Martin Compston (who was also aboard HMS Vigil) is in this, alongside the wonderfully brooding Mark Bonnar, who was also in Line of Duty.
Alaska Daily (Disney+)
Alaska Daily (Disney+). Photo / Supplied
Will they ever make a TV show or movie about a journalist who spends their days colluding with the government, making up fake news clickbait headlines and writing “opinion dressed up as fact”? Alaska Daily certainly isn’t it – Hilary Swank plays a worn-out New York journo who relocates to Anchorage for a fresh start and does some excellent and thorough reporting on missing indigenous women, in the proud tradition of the journos in Spotlight and Zodiac. Like those two movies, this series is also based on real-life reporting, published by Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica in 2019.
Movie of the Week: The Menu (Disney+)
Guests must travel by boat to get to the illustrious Hawthorn, a restaurant run by renowned celebrity chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). The guests at The Menu’s dinner seating are like a who’s who of the most insufferable people you might find at such a restaurant – the food critics, the finance bros, the ultra-bored ultra-wealthy older couple, and the celebrity chef fanboy who’s watched every episode of Chef’s Table multiple times. Succession director Mike Mylod has basically made Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for rich grown-ups – part foodie satire, part horror, and sometimes hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.
From the Vault: Empire Records (1995) (TVNZ+)
Future generations will never be able to grasp just how much their parents and grandparents wished they worked at a record store when they were growing up. A bit part of that, for a certain generation, at least, was a direct result of Empire Records. It’s not just the job that’s become all but obsolete in the intervening years, but the at-all-costs aversion to “selling out” which drives the staff’s fight to save their beloved store. It’s about time we returned to those good old-fashioned 90s slacker values.
Podcast of the Week: Chameleon: Dr Dante
Another year, another podcast about a spectacularly dodgy character that’s practically begging to be turned into a movie. The latest season of the consistently good and sometimes great Chameleon tells the story of stage hypnotist and con man Ronald “Doctor” Dante (not an actual doctor – he just changed his first name to Doctor to make himself seem more credible), whose life seems to be one endless string of misadventures.
The podcast spans from the 1960s through to the 1990s, picking up when he makes a name for himself by seducing and quickly marrying troubled Hollywood pin-up Lana Turner (becoming her seventh husband) in 1969. That obviously doesn’t end well, and by the second episode, he’s living in San Diego plotting to murder his stage hypnotism rival (who was an actual doctor). And there are plenty more outrageous chapters where those come from.
This season is hosted by Sam Mullins, who regular Chameleon listeners might remember from last year’s excellent Wild Boys season. Where that yarn was enhanced by his personal connection to and memories of the strange case that unfolded in his Canadian hometown in the early 2000s, this is more straight documentary-style storytelling. It’s still good, but if you’re new to Chameleon altogether, start with Wild Boys instead.
