Sit back and tune in to Calum Henderson's definitive list of what's hot right now and from the vault.
Pick of the Week: Honey Wars (Neon)
The two greatest New Zealand television series screening right now are Country Calendar and The Casketeers. Honestly, it's not even that close. But what if I told you there was a third show that combined all the elements that make those two shows so good – an uplifting rural success story about a family of hard-working, hard-case New Zealanders.
That show is Honey Wars, and it's available to watch on Neon after it premiered on Prime last year. The series follows the day-to-day operations of Tai Tokerau Honey, a family-owned and operated business that exports its award-winning product all around the world. The honey comes from hives spread out over a vast area of rugged Northland countryside, a lot of which is so remote the only access is by helicopter.
At the head of this whole operation is Rob Murray and his wife, Lon. Rob's an entrepreneurial bloke who's worked as a commercial fisherman, an oyster farmer, a truck driver, and one time decided on a whim to buy a digger and so that became his job for a while. "They're the queen bee and the bumblebee," says his sister, Sarah, the factory manager. "They gather all the workers."
Tai Tokerau Honey has about 20 full-time workers now, most related to Rob and Lon in some way. They have a lot of fun, but it's hard work too. And with the past couple of seasons having been pretty bad for the bees, they really need a good year to keep the business ticking over.
If you've ever watched an episode of Country Calendar and wished it went on for longer, or watched The Casketeers and wished it had had more bees, Honey Wars is the answer.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Disney Plus)
It might sound like a long lost instalment of the Chronicles of Narnia, but The Falcon and the Winter Soldier are in fact two lesser-known characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, who much like Wanda and Vision from WandaVision have now got their own series. Falcon (Anthony Mackie) is an Avenger who was given Captain America's shield at the end of Avengers: Endgame; Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) is an "enhanced soldier" who's re-emerged in the modern-day having last been seen fighting in World War II. This was the Marvel series everyone was looking forward to this year, before WandaVision came along and got all the accolades – but this could still turn out to be the big one.
Billy Connolly: It's Been a Pleasure (TVNZ 1, 8:30pm Monday)
He's brought plenty of pleasure to New Zealand TV audiences over the years, so good to know it's been a pleasure for Sir Billy Connolly too. This hour-long special remembers the (still alive, in case you were worried you'd missed something) Scottish comedian by putting together some of the highlights of his stand-up career and getting some of his fans, like little-known musician Sir Paul McCartney and up-and-coming actress Whoopi Goldberg, to talk about why they love him. A very fond, very funny and quite moving tribute to one of the greats.
The Irregulars (Netflix, from Friday)
More than a century on, we're still finding out things we didn't know about Sherlock Holmes. Last year we met his plucky little sister in the Netflix movie Enola Holmes, and this week we're about to meet The Irregulars, a rag-tag band of teenage street urchins he and Watson paid to solve the crimes that were too spooky for them and then took all the credit. The Baker Street Irregulars aren't a modern creation – they appeared in a couple of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books back in the day – but this series gives them the spotlight they deserve, and gives us the supernatural crime drama we crave.
Movie of the Week: The Mauritanian (Amazon Prime Video, from Wednesday)
For 14 years, from 2002 to 2016, Mohamedou Ould Salahi was held without charge in Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Based on Guantanamo Diary, his memoir published in 2015, The Mauritanian is the story of his fight for freedom and pursuit of justice. Jodie Foster and Shailene Woodley play his dogged defence attorneys, while Benedict Cumberbatch plays a military prosecutor – but the best performance comes from French-Algerian actor Tahar Rahim as Salahi, the Mauritanian at the centre of it all.
From the Vault: Arrested Development (2003) (Disney Plus)
Not a lot of things made between the years 2003-2006 have aged particularly well, so fair enough if you suddenly feel a bit nervous about the prospect of revisiting Arrested Development. Will all Tobias' gay innuendos hold up in the cold harsh light of 2021? How about the character Annyong? Probably not so good. Was the reboot really that bad, or was the whole show just nowhere near as good as we thought at the time? Millennials, it's time to ask ourselves some tough questions.
Podcast of the Week: Norco '80
Every true-crime podcast should follow the naming convention set by Norco '80 – the area where the crime happened followed by the year. Serial would be Baltimore '99. A Jack the Ripper podcast would be Whitechapel '88. A Bain family murders podcast? Dunedin '94. You can't go wrong.
What happened in the medium-sized inland California town of Norco in 1980 could possibly be described as the deadliest bank robbery ever committed. If not for the three casualties at the time, then certainly for the number of deaths that have indirectly resulted in the 40 years since – the shootout between five heavily armed robbers and police is often cited as a major catalyst in the militarisation of US police forces.
The podcast series from LAist Studios (whose California City is another excellently reported crime-adjacent series) is based on the book of the same name by Peter Houlahan. Host Antonia Cereijido does a great job of folding some complex conversations around things like policing and end of the world paranoia – the robbers were hardcore doomsday preppers – into a shockingly, violently riveting true crime story. It may have happened more than 40 years ago, but the themes and consequences of the Norco shootout feel increasingly relevant today.
