Watch, listen and be inspired by Calum Henderson's definitive list of what's hot right now and from the vault.
The Wheel of Time (Amazon Prime Video)
A big-budget television show based on a series of extremely thick and incredibly popular fantasy novels first published in the 1990s? we're not talking about Game of Thrones any more, this is Amazon's The Wheel of Time. If George RR Martin's still unfinished series is a gateway to the fantasy genre, Robert Jordan's epic 14-book saga is the hard stuff – though anyone expecting the same kind of shock and awe as the HBO series should probably readjust their expectations a bit before jumping into this one.
At the heart of it all is, of course, an epic quest – but before that can begin we must face our own quest of getting our heads around the world of the Wheel. The key figure in the first episode is Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike), who's a member of the Aes Sedai – a sisterhood of powerful women who are in tune with the prophecies of the Wheel of Time and can tell that some dark stuff is about to go down. With the help of a noble swordsman called Lan (Daniel Henney), she's searching for a child born 20 years ago who's the only one who can defeat the Dark One – just like Harry Potter, really.
That's what brings her to Emond's Field, a peaceful mountain village full of lutes, flutes and a thriving tavern scene, which promptly gets laid siege to by a rampaging horde of beasts. Moiraine scares them off, gesticulating magically like Madonna in the Ray of Light video, but this attack only confirms her suspicions: the one she's looking for lives in the village, and they have to get to the White Tower ASAP.
"Your life isn't going to be what you thought," she tells the group (which includes New Zealand actress Zoe Robins) embarking on this quest. The Wheel of Time might not be exactly what you thought either, but it is going to be big.
Adele: One Night Only (TVNZ 2 and OnDemand, 7:30pm Monday)
What's the bigger indicator of success: when you get interviewed by Oprah in her rose garden, or when the release of your new album is marked with a two-hour primetime concert special? And what does it say about Adele that she's got them both rolled into one? One Night Only combines a tell-all sit-down with Oprah (remember Harry and Meghan?) combined with live performances of songs from her new album, 30, recorded live in front of a star-studded audience at LA's Griffith Observatory earlier in the year. If you thought you'd already cried all your tears to the lead single 'Go Easy On Me', think again.
Cowboy Bebop (Netflix 19)
Bebop is the name of the spaceship, which is home to a ragtag trio of space cowboy bounty hunters (played by John Cho, Mustafa Shakir and Daniella Pineda) in this long-awaited live-action remake of the 1990s Japanese anime classic. It's 2071 and they're chasing the villainous gangster Vicious (Alex Hassell) and his girlfriend around a solar system that includes a number of places (and faces) that may look a little bit familiar to Aucklanders. Part sci-fi, part western, part black comedy, part spot-the-local-landmark with a little bit of jazz but probably not quite as much as the title implies – truly something for everybody.
The Beatles: Get Back (Disney Plus, from Thursday)
If there are two things we can all agree we have enough of already it's extremely long Peter Jackson passion projects and The Beatles recording ephemera. But when the two combine on Disney Plus this week it's going to be hard to say no. The three-part documentary series (each part is two hours) follows the band through the recording of Let It Be (including their famous rooftop concert in its entirety), with footage digitally restored using the same technology used to bring World War I to eerily vivid life in They Shall Not Grow Old.
Movie of the Week: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Disney Plus)
Yet another movie rolls off the Marvel production line – but, like Black Panther in 2018, this is one worth watching for even the most casual Marvel movie watcher. Like Black Panther, it breaks barriers as the first Asian-directed and predominantly Asian-cast Marvel movie, and, like Black Panther, it's one of the studio's best. It tells the origin story of humble valet Shaun (Simu Liu) – who is secretly also deadly martial artist and trained assassin Shang-Chi – and his dealings with the mysterious Ten Rings organisation.
From the Vault: Kedi (2016) (TVNZ OnDemand)
This gentle and extremely charming documentary was a hidden gem of the NZ International Film Festival a few years back. Kedi follows a handful of the many, many cats who call the streets of Istanbul their home, with the locals waxing lyrical about the character their feline friends bring to the old city and the existential threat they face from development. All the cats are great but special mention must go to the gentlemanly tom who politely paws at the window of his favourite restaurant until someone comes and feeds him posh scraps.
Podcast: Sweet Bobby
A catfish, as the 2010 documentary and subsequent MTV series has taught us, is when a person tricks someone into thinking they're somebody else online. Most catfish operations are fairly mundane and straightforward, but the one documented in new series Sweet Bobby is no ordinary case. With its epic timeframe and complex cast of characters, this is catfishing's War & Peace.
It begins in 2010, when 30-year-old radio presenter Kirat gets a Facebook message from Bobby, the brother of her cousin's ex-boyfriend. If it's already sounding confusing, just wait. Though they had never met in real life, Kirat has heard of Bobby – they're both members of the Sikh community in the UK and have a handful of mutual friends, so she doesn't suspect anything suspicious.
As always the case with these things, the red flags are big and bright in retrospect. Like when Bobby dies, then gets brought back to life in another country claiming he's under witness protection. But with a cast of friends supposedly corroborating his story, hearing how deep it goes and the toll it takes on Kirat's life is heartbreaking. After three increasingly bleak episodes, the series is this week pivoting to turn the spotlight on the catfish's side of the story – this is where it gets really interesting.
