Watch, listen and be inspired by Calum Henderson's definitive list of what's hot right now and from the vault.
The Sex Lives of College Girls (Neon, from Wednesday)
Like John Hughes or Nora Ephron before her, Mindy Kaling has become one of those names that lets you know exactly what to expect when you see it attached to a new movie or TV series. It's a name synonymous with a certain kind of sharp-witted but comfortable and easy-to-watch comedy, from her episodes of The Office to breakout success The Mindy Project to underrated recent Netflix sitcoms Champions and Never Have I Ever. And while The Sex Lives of College Girls might sound like something none of us should be watching without opening an incognito tab first, it's very much in the same tradition.
Co-created with Never Have I Ever writer Justin Noble, this feels like the spiritual sequel to the pair's last series – swapping out suburban high school for leafy northeastern college, dorky and relatable teenage girls for slightly older but equally dorky and relatable young women. If you miss Gilmore Girls circa Rory going to Yale, in other words, this is probably for you.
The first episode ticks off most of the familiar going-away-to-college tropes before leaving us to settle in with four room-mates from a range of backgrounds. Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet, Timothee's older sister), channelling powerful Greta Gerwig energy) has arrived from "the whitest town in the world" somewhere in Arizona and is funding her studies by working at the campus coffee shop, Sips. Leighton (Renee Rapp) is, conversely, a Gossip-Girl-style New York City rich kid, while Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott), the daughter of a Washington State senator, is a promising soccer star. Then there's Bela (Amrit Kaur), the sex-positive ("in theory more than experience") aspiring comedy writer who, unsurprisingly, gets all the best lines.
From hook-ups to break-ups to coming-of-age life lessons, you know what to expect – the kind of show you can easily watch until that incredulous screen pops up to check if you're still watching.
And Just Like That (Neon)
What would a current-day Sex and the City look like? It's a question that gets only more intriguing with the passing of time and now, 17 years after the final episode of the original series, we're about to find out. Carrie and the gang (Samantha is the only main one not coming back) are in their 50s now – still younger than the Golden Girls were, but also not that far off. What's happened to their love lives, fashion sense and families since we last saw them? Find out in the TV reboot none of us had been waiting for, exactly, but which we'll gladly accept all the same.
Fantasy Island (TVNZ OnDemand)
Sex and the City is not the only classic American TV series being rebooted on to New Zealand screens this week. The original Fantasy Island ran from 1977-1984, starred Ricardo Montalban and Herve Villechaize (subject of 2018 film My Dinner with Herve) and produced at least one catch phrase popular enough to have since been referenced on The Simpsons. The modern-day reboot (following a horror movie adaptation released last year) finds Elena Roarke (Roselyn Sanchez) – a descendant of the original's white-suited Mr Roarke – in control of the idyllic island, which still offers guests the chance to live out their fantasies for the right price.
The Great Kiwi Bake Off Christmas Special (TVNZ 1, 7:30pm Thursday)
Nothing says Christmas quite like seeing a celebrity under the pump trying to bake something well beyond their skill level. And there'll be plenty of that sort of thing on this year's Great Kiwi Bake Off Christmas Special, which features National MP Simon Bridges, Seven Sharp's Laura Daniel, Shortland Street's Rebekah Randall, Casketeer Francis Tipene (we are definitely the only country to have a funeral director on our Celebrity Bake Off) and versatile comedy types Josh Thomson and Justine Smith. They'll be baking for $50,000 to give to the charity of their choice, and for the priceless approval of judges Brett and Sue.
Movie of the Week: The Hand of God (Netflix, from Wednesday)
The latest film from Italian director Paolo Sorrentino (The Young Pope, The New Pope) was inspired by his growing up in Naples in the 1980s, which should explain the title. The almost religious figure of Diego Maradona – still worshipped by Napoli supporters to this day – looms large in the life of awkward 17-year-old Fabietto, but there's a lot more going on in this joyful, tragic, deeply personal coming-of-age drama that arrives on Netflix fresh from taking out the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Venice Film Festival.
From the Vault: Die Hard (1988) (Disney Plus)
It's the source of many tedious arguments about what does and doesn't count as a Christmas movie, but a more provocative debate to enter into with friends and family this year is which one in the franchise is best. Most will say the 1988 original, but not you. You'll insist you actually prefer Die Hard 2, or that the under-rated 2007 Live Free and Die Hard actually blows the 80s films out of the water. And you'll make everybody watch all five (yes, there are five Die Hard movies, and they're all available on Disney Plus) to prove it.
Podcast of the Week: Waiting for Impact
Remember the R&B group Sudden Impact? You almost definitely don't, because they never actually released any music. But they did appear in a Boyz II Men music video for about three seconds in 1991, and that was all it took for Dave Holmes to become obsessed with them for the next three decades.
Waiting for Impact is a self-described "passion project" for the writer and former MTV VJ, who's decided to take us all along for the ride as he attempts to solve a mystery he's probably the only person in the world who wanted the answer to: whatever happened to Sudden Impact?
It's the kind of low-stakes investigation that can make a great podcast when done right, but almost never is. This is one of the exceptions, a rare podcast that's better than it sounds.
Holmes' search for Sudden Impact charts a meandering path through the 1990s, folding in stories of his own and others' brushes with fame during that era, and how the one thing they all have in common is none of their lives turned out quite the way they thought. By the time he tracks down the band members, you'll be amazed how deeply invested you are in the story of a band you never even knew existed.
