Watch, listen and be inspired by Calum Henderson's definitive list of what's hot right now and from the vault.
Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin (Neon)
The 90s are back in a big way in the latest spinoff of sensationally over-the-top teen drama Pretty Little Liars. Original Sin feels like an attempt to recreate a Wes Craven slasher movie from memory by someone who last watched it on VHS back in 1997.
That may or not be true of series creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who took plenty of similarly ambitious stylistic swings on Riverdale and the other recent Archie Comics TV adaptations. Knowing the guy behind Riverdale is in charge, it suddenly makes sense that this series mostly takes place in a school that looks as if its sole reference point was the gymnasium from Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' music video.
While 90s are back in an aesthetic sense, they're also back to haunt the characters who inhabit this weird, hazy world. The series begins at an industrial warehouse rave on New Year's Eve 1999, where Y2K kicks off on a bummer note when a teen jumps to her death. Flash forward 22 years and one of that girl's so-called friends – now the mum of one of the new generation of teens – gets sent a flyer for the rave with an ominous note scrawled on the back. Moments later she's found dead.
Her daughter (who also happens to be six months pregnant) and her friends then start receiving creepy texts and seeing a Mike Myers-style masked figure around town. But they're too busy feuding with mean girl Karen ("a giant walking macroaggression") to take much notice.
There hasn't been a show that's leaned so hard into being OTT, trashy fun since, well, the original Pretty Little Liars, probably. But you don't need to have seen a second of that series to understand or appreciate this uncannily entertaining 90s throwback.
Players (TVNZ+)
The makers of Netflix true-crime parody American Vandal are back with a new mockumentary series that's far better than it has any right to be. Players, about the clashing egos within a professional esports team, is a pitch-perfect pastiche of sports documentaries like Michael Jordan's series The Last Dance and ESPN's 30 For 30 anthology. Like American Vandal, it starts out feeling one-note but sucks you in with a surprisingly solid story – this time about a League of Legends clan adjusting to the addition of a new member forced upon them by their corporate owners. You don't need to know or care about esports to enjoy it, but it's probably even funnier if you know the source material.
Candy (Disney+)
Melanie Lynskey continues to carve out a very successful niche as the go-to actor for playing disaffected stay-at-home mums in psychologically troubling TV dramas, following up her starring role in Yellowjackets with the portrayal of a real-life 1980s axe murder victim. The new true-crime limited series from the maker of The Act drips 80s suburban kitsch as it tells the story of Candy Montgomery (Jessica Biel as you've never seen her before), who was accused of said axe murder after having an affair with her neighbour's husband. Biel's real-life Justin Timberlake also pops up as one of the cops investigating the case.
Skymed (TVNZ+)
Remember The Flying Doctors? Who could possibly forget. Skymed simply swaps the Australian Outback for the equally vast Canadian wilderness and away we go again. Filmed on location in northern Manitoba, the medical drama follows a slightly more diverse cast of characters and deals with a few more modern-day issues than its classic 80s predecessor, but at heart, it's the same show: go in the plane (or chopper), have some close calls, save some lives, make your own life more complicated than it needs to be by getting into relationships with the other first responders. Just good honest telly, really.
Movie of the Week: The Many Saints of Newark (Neon)
From Young Indiana Jones to The Young Pope, prequels about famous characters when they were younger are always a thrill. The Many Saints of Newark is pretty much Young Tony Soprano, in other words, the Sopranos prequel spin-off you never knew you wanted. James Gandolfini's own son Michael plays the young Tony, starring alongside the legendary Ray Liotta who plays twin brothers "Hollywood Dick" and "Sally" Moltisanti in a 1960s and 70s New Jersey mob caper written and directed by the same guys as the TV series.
From the Vault: Mission: Impossible (Netflix)
A new weekend movie marathon challenge emerges with Tom Cruise's entire Mission: Impossible back catalogue now available on Netflix. And what a body of work it is – from the 1996 movie that started it all through to 2018's Fallout, it's right up there with the best action movie franchises. Rappel yourself on to the couch and enjoy all the hair-raising stunts and ridiculous set-pieces.
Podcast of the Week: Moment of Truth
Rotherham United away to Shrewsbury Town is not what many people would consider an exciting football fixture – including supporters of the clubs themselves. And yet, in the first episode of the BBC podcast Moment of Truth, a football match has rarely felt more riveting.
The fly-on-the-wall series follows two football managers – Rotherham's Paul Warne and Oxford United's Karl Robinson – through the final dozen games of the 2021-2022 season, offering a candid insight into the angst-ridden life of a football manager. You'd think Warne would be chilled out – his team are seven points clear at the top of the table heading into this match and cruising toward automatic promotion to the Championship. But even a match he can theoretically afford is approached like a matter of life and death.
We hear him fretting about his squad selection in the lead-up (Rotherham's star player has made himself unavailable so he can be present for the birth of his child, a decision the old-fashioned Warne doesn't fully understand), giving the lads a rev-up in the sheds, chuntering to his assistant on the sideline about how badly the lads are playing, and performing a solemn post-match post mortem with his staff. It's raw, revealing and endlessly fascinating – though, as the warning at the start of each episode rightly states: "If you're offended by strong language, this podcast might not be for you."
