Sex/Life. Photo / Supplied
Leonardo (TVNZ OnDemand)
In 500 years, when they make a TV series about whoever the defining artist of this century turns out to be, there will no doubt be a few historical inaccuracies. But will anybody in 2521 care if the actor playing Kanye West has a 1980s pencil moustache instead of a goatee, or that he's best friends with Kurt Cobain?
That's what the "Historical inaccuracies" section of the show's Wikipedia page is for. And if the one for Leonardo, the new biographical drama series about Leonardo Da Vinci, is any indication, it'll be a thorough and very interesting read.
The series begins in 1506, a century during which it was apparently deeply unfashionable for Italian men to have facial hair (Section 5.5: "Other historical liberties"). But everybody here has a little goatee, and Leonardo – played by handsome prince of historical drama Aidan Turner (Poldark) – has a long black beard.
The artist is being arrested on suspicion of murdering his lover, Caterina de Cremona. "They say you quarrelled, she burned some of your paintings, so you poisoned her," suggests the arresting officer. Leonardo gazes out the window. "An enigma like the sky, that's what she was to me," he muses.
We go back to where it all began, as a student at Maestro Verrocchio's art school, which really puts 38-year-old Turner's age range to the test. This is where he first encounters Caterina as a model who becomes his muse, and to whom he brags: "I don't draw like the others do."
He's insufferable, but that's the price you pay for genius. For anyone who misses Poldark, likes old Italian stuff or wants to find out about the artists the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were named after (Michelangelo pops up later in the series), Leonardo covers all the bases.
Talkback (TVNZ OnDemand, from Wednesday)
Mike Hosking's on-air persona has long lent itself to parody, but none have taken their character studies as in-depth as Jason Hoyte in his new mockumentary series, Talkback. He plays Malcolm White, a top-rating common sense espousing centre-right broadcaster who's just slipped to No 2 in the ratings for the first time. Created by Hoyte along with Wellington Paranormal's Mike Minogue, who plays his network boss, it's a satire probably closer to Australian series Utopia than The Office, which is probably a good thing. The supporting cast features the great Ginette McDonald, Morgana O'Reilly and Olivia Tennet, and there are guest appearances from Hilary Barry, Jason Gunn and Stan Walker.
Physical (Apple TV)
Set amid the aerobics boom of the 1980s, new Apple TV series Physical stars Rose Byrne as a San Diego housewife with debilitatingly low self-esteem and an extremely self-critical inner monologue. Beaten down by the health and beauty industrial complex, she discovers salvation one day on a trip to the mall: an aerobics class. There's spandex, neon, big hair, the ubiquitous Sony Walkman and all the other 80s touchstones you might expect – but it also has a much darker, more unsettling edge than most other modern TV representations of the decade, which makes it all the more interesting.
Sex/Life (Netflix)
Based on B B Easton's wildly entertaining memoir ,44 Chapters About 4 Men, Sex/Life is a comedy-drama about a married mum of two dealing with her unsatisfying sex life with her husband by writing steamy journal entries about all the leather-clad tattooed-up rock 'n' roll bad boys she dated in her reckless youth. When her husband starts reading the journal he ups his game in the bedroom, which leads her to start fabricating new stories and leaving the journal lying around for him to find. In this version, they've named her character "Billie Connelly", which feels like it should be illegal.
Movie of the Week: Luca (Disney Plus)
The latest Pixar movie is a heartwarming coming-of-age tale about the friendship between two young lads coming to terms with their identities over the course of one idyllic summer in a picturesque part of Italy. It's Call Me By Your Name with cute sea monsters, basically. Adult fans of that movie, classic Italian cinema and Studio Ghibli should cross both fingers behind their backs that their children like this movie as much as they will.
From the Vault: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004) (Netflix)
This long and often painful documentary following heavy metal giants Metallica as they record their 2003 album, St Anger, is a classic for a reason. The band is losing fans thanks to their ongoing lawsuit against Napster, members are quitting and going into rehab, relationships are strained beyond breaking point – recording an album has rarely been a more tortuous process. As a document of that process, Some Kind of Monster has only got better with age.
Podcast of the Week: The Vaping Fix
The movie script almost writes itself: a group of Stanford students huddled outside a lecture hall, puffing on cigarettes, wishing smoking was more socially acceptable. Suddenly, one of them has a billion-dollar brainwave: what if we disrupted smoking to make it healthy and cool?
Listening to The Vaping Fix, the story of enormously successful e-cigarette company Juul and its founders, James Monsees and Adam Bowen, it's easy to imagine it becoming the next The Social Network, or at the very least the next season of Silicon Valley.
The origin stories of Juul and Facebook have plenty of similarities – both founded by smart young entrepreneurs who were corrupted by greed and blindsided by the unanticipated consequences of their inventions. The first episode of The Vaping Fix, hosted by health and science writer Laura Beil, is a ride through the early years of a venture that started out with the best of intentions as Ploom, a device designed to make smoking safe and help people quit.
How we got from this to the current vaping boom and its accompanying health concerns so quickly is mapped out over the rest of the series. It's a fascinating story, and probably not the last we'll hear on the topic.
OPINION: This was no random triple course of overture, concerto and symphony.