Amazing Grace. Photo / Supplied
Clarkson's Farm (Amazon Prime Video)
Even Jeremy Clarkson's biggest fan would have to admit he can be a bit of a plonker. But then, even his harshest critic would have to admit his new farming series is pretty great television.
Clarkson's Farm chronicles the irascible former Top Gear presenter's attempts at working the land on his 1000 acres in the Cotswolds, a job that's been taken care of by "a chap from the village" since Clarkson bought the farm in 2008. But with that chap taking his retirement, and Amazon presumably expecting something in return for the multimillion-dollar contract he signed with them, Jezza has decided to take the reins himself. How hard can it be?
Clarkson approaches the farm with the same braggadocio we grew accustomed to during his time on Top Gear. But unlike test-driving expensive cars on private race tracks, there's a natural justice to farming that ensures any act of overconfidence is swiftly and satisfyingly punished.
His first act as a farmer is to buy a tractor. After inspecting the machines at the local dealership, he goes ahead and imports a Lamborghini R8 from Germany, a tractor so big it doesn't fit in his shed. It's got the wrong hitch on the back and when it breaks down, no one knows how to fix it because the instructions are all in German.
Every few days, Clarkson's land agent Charlie shows up at the farm with an increasingly overwhelming list of jobs he has to do. Every time he thinks he's discovered a genius time-saving shortcut, his vastly more experienced 21-year-old contractor Kaleb gives him a bollocking for doing it all wrong.
Farming, we soon learn, is a physically and mentally challenging way to make a living. And Clarkson's Farm, with its mix of Country Calendar and Grand Designs, hammers that point home in a tremendously watchable way.
Limetown (Neon, from Wednesday)
Released in 2015, the original podcast version of Limetown was ahead of the fiction podcast curve. It took what was then the addictive new true crime formula and voice of shows like Serial and scripted a mystery about a journalist investigating the historical disappearance of 300 people from a research facility in Tennessee. Listening now, six years and hundreds of true crime podcasts later, it feels a little tired – this TV adaptation, starring Jessica Biel and Stanley Tucci, gives the story another lease on life, free from the podcast's genre restraints.
Amazing Grace (TVNZ 2, 8.40pm Tuesday)
Just who is Grace, and what's so amazing about her anyway? In this new Australian drama series she's a midwife, which to be fair is one of the more amazing professions out there. What sets this midwife drama apart from an episode of One Born Every Minute is that Grace's next patient is the child she gave up for adoption 17 years ago, and she's shown up to the birth centre to have a baby of her own. One moment you're an under-the-pump midwife, the next you're a grandma – and what we thought was a medical drama is suddenly a heartwarming family drama instead.
Bump (Neon)
The old Friends With Benefits/No Strings Attached phenomenon has struck again – two TV series with very similar concepts arriving from different networks at almost exactly the same time. Bump, like Amazing Grace, is an Australian family drama about a teen having a baby, only in this one the pregnant teen is only 16 and it's her parents on the brink of divorce who are forced to reassess the trajectory of their lives as a result. If it's a toss-up between one or the other, this might tip you: Bump is made by the same producers as everybody's favourite Australian drama Offspring.
Movie of the Week: Six60: Till the Lights Go Out (TVNZ 2, 8.40pm Monday)
You may say you hate Six60, but you've almost definitely bopped your head or tapped your foot to one of their songs at the mall without realising it. The sooner you make peace with that and realise that your hate only makes them stronger, the better. Start your Six60 rehabilitation programme by watching their rockumentary, a lot of which is about how much their success has been forged out of a burning desire to prove all their critics wrong.
From the Vault: Wag the Dog (1997) (Netflix)
If you get Robert De Niro or Dustin Hoffman to star in a comedy you're usually on to a winner. Get them both in the same comedy? You've hit the jackpot. Released in 1997 but more relevant today than ever, Barry Levinson's dark political satire Wag the Dog is centred around a political spin doctor (De Niro) and Hollywood producer (Hoffman) who conspire to stage a phony war to distract attention from an Oval Office sex scandal threatening to erupt two weeks before an election.
Podcast of the Week: Cheat!
One of the best podcasts of the year so far is a series called Crushed, which took an in-depth look at the steroid cheating scandal that rocked baseball in the late 90s. If that podcast whet your appetite for more cheating scandals, Somethin' Else (the studio that brought us Power: The Maxwells) delivers with their new series Cheat!
Each episode tells the story of a different cheating scandal, some of which you'll have heard of, many of which you won't. The stories are drawn from all corners – last week it was a young day trader who in 2010 wiped a trillion dollars off the world's financial markets trading from his bedroom in London; this week it's the story of a 1983 boxing match at Madison Square Garden which some call, against plenty of strong competition, the most shameful night in boxing history.
While sandpapering a cricket ball or bowling it underarm is clearly a dog act, not all instances of cheating are so black and white. Which makes it an evergreen topic for a podcast series, and means Cheat! should have no shortage of interesting episodes to come.
Cryptic posters across Melbourne and Sydney have teased the Australasian tour.