This week's picks
heart stopper
Alice Osman's charming coming-of-age drama returns for a third series. Nick and Charlie's relationship is making progress, although it's still in its baby stage. The focus is on Charlie's struggle to cope emotionally. The result is miscommunication and anxiety. Elsewhere, Tara and Darcy go through tough times and are tested for asexuality through a buttoned-up Isaac. As always, Heartstopper's strength can also be its slight weakness. Unsurprisingly, the film flatly refuses to paint LGBTQ+ lives with shades of drama or trauma. Does this mean it verges on saccharine at times? Absolutely, it does. Does it really matter? Most don't.
Netflix, starting Thursday October 3rd
where is wanda
This German series is a strange, dark comedy about the disappearance of the titular teenage girl. After a TV appeal fails, Wanda's parents decide that the police have dropped the ball and take it upon themselves to investigate. This desperate behavior quickly spirals out of control and eventually becomes a nuisance to the entire neighborhood. The series feels like a meta-commentary on the tropes of the TV show, ranging from the tragic fates women often encounter to the current slightly salacious craze for true crime. It's not laugh-out-loud funny, but it's interesting.
Apple TV+ starting Wednesday October 2nd
last day of the space age
This Australian drama is set in 1979 in a suburban beach community. These are refreshingly hopeful times, but problems lie just beneath the surface, including racial intolerance, economic hardship, and the impact of technological change on daily life. The challenges of a new era are pressing when the region becomes the focus of a series of unusual events, including a global beauty pageant, a power attack that threatens to plunge the place into darkness, and the crash landing of a nearby space station. It seems like something. It has a great cast, including Iain Glen and Lin-Dan Pham.
Disney+, starting Wednesday October 2nd
Chef's Table: Noodles
The Emmy-nominated series returns with a deep dive into global staples that seem universal and nearly infinitely adaptable. Traveling by way of Cambodia, Italy, China and the United States, we meet four masters of their craft, explore the roots of their passion, compare recipes, recipes and cooking techniques, and explore how food impacts society. We will think deeply about how to convey and preserve the history of Japan. “Eating noodles allows you to understand the culture of Xi'an,” says Gilong Wei, the queen of Chinese noodles, a staple at her hometown street food stall.
Netflix, from Wednesday, October 2nd
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Aussie shore
Another group of shaggers, canners and pathological show-goers converge, this time in Cairns, in the scorching heat of north Queensland. You know the drill already: House boss (and veteran of the show's first Geordie iteration) Charlotte Crosby described this band of Australian mayhem artists as being much wilder than their British counterparts, And she should know. As ever, this collective hot mess is never particularly enlightening, but these shows are essentially beyond criticism at this point, existing in their own world of unapologetically unstoppable invincibility.
Paramount+, from Thursday, October 3rd
Charlie Cooper's Mythical Land
Charlie Cooper's role in the great comedy This Country means, in a way, that he's already part of British rural folklore. The country revealed the specificity of small, isolated communities in a regionally precise and universal way. In this fun fact series, he explores his interest in the mythology of Britain's deep history. You can't help but be swept up in his earnest curiosity as he hops into his camper van and investigates everything from ghost dogs roaming East Anglia to crop circles in Wiltshire.
BBC iPlayer, from Friday October 4th
runaway
This dark French drama from the Walter Presents series tells the story of a 16-year-old girl who, despite her loving and caring middle-class family, is sucked into the orbit of a dangerous and manipulative older man. Masu. Léa (Romane Jolie), who dreams of becoming a dancer, meets charismatic rapper Nico (Willy Cartier) at a party and is drawn into his world when he offers her to appear in his music video. But soon his commitments dissolved and were replaced by drugs, crime and sex work. Can her family intervene before it's too late?
Channel 4, from Friday October 4th
