Watch, listen and be inspired by Calum Henderson's definitive list of what's hot right now and from the vault.
Somebody Somewhere (Neon)
There's a certain type of US town you only ever see on TV if a body has been discovered and it threatens to expose decades of deeply held secrets. It's either that or the season three episode of an urban comedy-drama where the main character goes home to visit the family who've never really understood them and their big-city hopes and dreams.
Somebody Somewhere is closer to the latter – but in a much better way than you're probably imagining. The HBO series is loosely based on the experiences of comedian/actor/cabaret performer Bridget Everett, who plays Sam, a mid-life-crisis adjacent woman who has returned to her ironically-named hometown of Manhattan, Kansas, to care for her terminally ill sister, Holly. Months on from Holly's death, she's still living in her house, sleeping on her couch, grieving and stalled at a crossroads in her life.
This is where we pick up – with Sam crying at work and being comforted by a colleague you briefly think might be some kind of freaky workmate from hell but is actually just Joel, who sang in the choir with her at school and still worships her singing all these years later. By the end of the first episode, they're on stage at a church in a mall performing a Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush duet, and the fact that it's somehow not corny and in fact quietly devastating is just one of the many miracles this show works over its seven episodes.
Every scene is delicately observed – the family stuff, with the scales of dependence beginning to tip between children and parents, in particular – brilliantly acted and an absolute joy to watch despite how heavy it all sounds. A true hidden gem.
Holding (TVNZ 1, 9:30pm tonight)
Who knew Graham Norton wrote a novel? Actually, the talk show host and vintner has written three – and the first, published in 2016, is now a TV series. Holding is a four-part murder mystery set in a small village in West Cork, where human remains have been discovered by builders demolishing a farmhouse. While the mystery is being investigated by the slow-moving local garda, life goes on for the village's assortment of well-drawn characters, some of whom are clearly sitting on long-held secrets. Directed by 90s British comedy legend Kathy Burke, who these days mostly directs for the theatre.
The Fear Index (Neon)
Turn-of-the-millennium teen heart-throb Josh Hartnett has successfully transitioned to middle-aged-man-in-a-suit acting, and The Fear Index, a four-part adaptation of Robert Harris' 2011 financial thriller, might be the best showcase yet for his talents. He plays Dr Alex Hoffman, a tech/money genius who's basically invented an algorithm so good that all sorts of mysterious cybercriminals are out to get him. Add to that layers of financial and tech jargon, lots of people profoundly under the pump as stock markets plummet on big screens and all the rest – it's a pretty stressful four episodes, but in a fun way.
WeCrashed (Apple TV+)
The latest series to arrive on the "podcast to documentary to scripted drama" conveyor belt, WeCrashed tells the story of the rise and fall of WeWork, a shared working space tech company that was one of the most valuable startups of the 2010s before it imploded with billions of dollars of debt in 2018. Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway star as the company's co-founder Adam Neumann and his wife, Rebekah, who you can probably tell from the casting have quite a chaotic but undeniably compelling relationship. Add this to the list for once you've finished Super Pumped and The Dropout.
Movie of the Week: Windfall (Netflix)
The thing about breaking into a tech billionaire's holiday home is that while it might seem like easy pickings, those guys are rich enough that they can just decide to go on holiday at the drop of a hat. Jason Segel's character finds this out the hard way in thriller Windfall, when he gets caught in the act by Jesse Plemons and Lily Collins when they show up for some unscheduled R&R and things suddenly get hectic. From the writer of Se7en, it's tense, taut, unpredictable – the kind of thriller they used to make.
From the Vault: Lethal Weapon (1987) (Neon)
How does all four Lethal Weapons back-to-back sound as a lazy Sunday movie marathon? It's never been easier now they're all in one place on Neon. Start with the classic 1987 original – Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as odd couple crime-fighting duo Riggs and Murtaugh – and end with 1998's Lethal Weapon 4, which features those two plus Joe Pesci and Chris Rock. There is, allegedly, a fifth Lethal Weapon movie currently in development, but don't hold your breath.
Podcast of the Week: American Hostage
In 1977, disgruntled Indianapolis man Tony Kiritsis took his mortgage broker hostage after being refused a payment extension. He rigged up a shotgun to his victim's head, telling police it would go off if they tried to kill him or if his victim tried to escape. Thus began the tense and memorable 63-hour stand-off that is the basis for the new eight-part thriller podcast American Hostage.
Chief among Kiritsis' demands was to be interviewed live on the radio by no-nonsense newsman Fred Heckman, voiced here by Mad Men's Jon Hamm. An old-fashioned reporter even by 1970s standards, he's only in the newsroom to pick up his wife's anniversary gift when the phone rings – but like he says: "if a phone rings and you don't answer it, you're not a journalist".
Heckman calmly hears out the rarked-up Kiritsis (Joe Perrino) off-air, before receiving a bollocking from his producer for even thinking about letting the gunman speak on the air. In the fine tradition of man-on-the-end-of-a-phone thrillers, American Hostage gets straight down to business, drawing us into the triangle of communication between Heckman, Kiritsis and the police as they try to negotiate their way out of a very tense situation.
