Barry’s back with a bullet and promising to go out with a bang in the fourth and final season of the award-winning dark comedy.
The series is about a hitman who attempts a career switch when he unexpectedly gets bit by the acting bug. At first, his ability to channel his intensity and combat PTSD into his roles sees him quickly becoming the toast of his acting class. But his old life is never far away and he soon finds himself roped back into the killing game and in increasingly dangerous situations. All of which threaten to end his new acting career, his life or at worst, both.
Thanks to its pitch-black humour, outrageous unpredictability and brilliant performances by Bill Hader as the earnest yet sociopathic hitman, and Henry Winkler as his acting coach/mentor, the show’s been a critical hit. One reviewer even described this concluding season as “flawless”. The show hasn’t missed the target yet and we’re confident that it’ll go out with a bang.
Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney turns his attention away from Enron, Scientology and disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong to serve up this two-part doco on tennis sensation turned criminal Boris Becker.
Tennis star Boris Becker in documentary Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker, now streaming on Apple TV+.
In 1985, at just 17 years old, Becker stunned the world by winning Wimbledon and then kept the world stunned by continuing to win everything, including six Grand Slams, an Olympic gold medal and 49 career titles. Serious people talked about his powers on the court, while gossipmongers latched on to his tumultuous personal life, which included many high-profile scandals and sexual controversies.
After retiring his racquet his fortune eventually dwindled and he began fiddling the books. However, the former tennis great would learn the taxman is not as forgiving as a tennis umpire and he got busted, being sentenced to prison last year.
Gibney had access to Becker for three years, covering his life, his achievements and his downfall while also getting comments from his immediate family and tennis rivals such as John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg.
Critics have fallen in luv (ho-ho!) with the doco, with one saying it “tells a great story and throws in an intriguing thesis to boot”.
Colin Farrell continues his late-career embrace of weird and wild characters in this new premium mini-series. In this Victorian thriller, he stars as whale harpooner Henry Drax, a violent and extremely brutal drunkard.
Jack O'Connell and Colin Farrell star in Arctic thriller The North Water, streaming on TVNZ+.
He joins a whaling expedition in the 1850s and sets sail for the Arctic with a disgraced ex-army surgeon with a penchant for opiates and a desire to make amends and do good. But when things take a turn for the worse, as they tended to in those icy waters back in the day, the two men are set on a collision course with confrontation and grim, cold death.
This chilling thriller has been warmly received by critics with one calling it “a riveting voyage” while another praised it as “a well-executed adventure story”.
