What's on TV this week: GLOW, Good Girls, Down With Love, Tour de France

I HAVE a confession to make.

I am half a season behind on The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s not that the show has lost its mojo, the writing and the performances are still brilliant. But it’s just so damn dark.

With the local and global political scene often devolving to a pack of apes slinging poo at each other, what I really want is escapism, not brutal dystopias that feel much more familiar than it should.

Is it any wonder so many people are turning to the easy positivity of Queer Eye? My favourite salve for the soul is listening to a British person talk about food and wine with love, authority and tempered enthusiasm — The Wine Show with Matthew Rhys and Matthew Goode and Mary Berry Classic are particularly good for this.

Here’s hoping the seven below will help you shut-out the harsh reality of the world, even if it’s just for 30 minutes at a time.

GLOW S2

(Netflix — now)

If you had to describe GLOW to someone in two words, it’s the show about women’s wrestling. If you had a few more words, you would tell them that’s a clever and beautifully performed ensemble dramedy about women’s wrestling — one that’s as fresh as Orange is the New Black was before it became melodramatic and overly reliant on conflict.

The Netflix series returned for its sophomore season last Friday and it’s even better than it accomplished first season. A fictional behind-the-scenes reimagining of the actual women’s wrestling series from the 1980s, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, the show fronted by Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin and Marc Maron is a brilliant blend of heart, comedy and kick-arse feminism.

Fully aware of the stereotypes its wrestling personas exploit, it can pull out lines like “My costume smells like beer and racism” while never seeming like it’s lecturing you. That kind of thing takes a lot of finesse and GLOW has it by the bucketload.

But what makes GLOW such a delight to watch is it is about people working together. Yes, there is tension and drama but that’s not its raison d’etre. GLOW overwhelmingly portrays the camaraderie of a group of disparate souls coming together and supporting each other — and we all need a bit more of that these days.

DOWN WITH LOVE

(Eleven — Monday, July 2 at 8.30pm)

OK, this is the perfect guilty pleasure movie. Down With Love was Ant-Man director Peyton Reed’s second film after Bring It On and it’s a delightful little satire of the Rock Hudson-Doris Day rom-coms from the 50s and 60s.

Barbara Novak (Renée Zellweger) is a feminist author who pens a book decrying love and marriage. Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor) is a Lothario, man-about-town journalist set out to prove that no woman can resist his charms.

Down With Love is definitely not highbrow art house but it is fun, frothy and appealing, and it has an incredible, eye-popping wardrobe. The cast, which also includes David Hyde Pierce and Sarah Paulson, look like they’re having a brilliant time and that enthusiasm is infectious. And I dare you to not get that closing credits song stuck in your head.

GOOD GIRLS

(Netflix — Tuesday, July 3 from 5pm AEST)

In the vein of Weeds and Breaking Bad before it, Good Girls is the story of suburbanite parents turning to a life of crime. Here, the criminal not-masterminds are Detroit mothers Beth, Ruby and Annie, played by Christina Hendricks (Mad Men), Retta (Parks and Recreation) and Mae Whitman (Arrested Development) who pulls off a heist at the local supermarket after their financial circumstances put them in impossible situations.

While it may be streaming on Netflix, Good Girls is originally an NBC program in the US, which means that despite its edgier premise, it’s made as a free-to-air network show with the polish and restrictions that entails. So don’t expect it to have the same bite as its predecessors. What it does have is a brilliant cast in Hendricks, Retta and Whitman and sometimes, that’s enough.

CLOAK & DAGGER

(Fox8 on Foxtel — Sunday, July 8 at 8.30pm)

If you really wanted to, you could build your entire TV slate around only superhero shows. There are the six Netflix/Marvel shows, plus the four shows in the DC Arrowverse, Legion, Black Lightning, The Runaways, Gifted, Gotham, The Tick and so much more. If I was to list them all, it would stretch to the end of the article. You get the point. For some, the addition of another superhero show to the schedule is symptomatic of an industry too invested in caped heroes.

But for those who can’t get enough of it, Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger is one to add to your list. Centred on Tandy and Tyrone, two teenagers who are granted powers in the wake of traumatic accidents, Cloak & Dagger is more youth-focused than other superhero shows.

But what sets this series apart from most of the others is that it’s interested in telling stories about teen social issues and not just the kapow fight with an underdeveloped villain. The first episode screened last night but you can catch up on Foxtel Now before this Sunday’s instalment.

LADY JANE GREY: MURDER OF A CHILD QUEEN

(SBS — Monday, July 2 at 7.30pm)

Maybe it’s because Henry VIII cut off two of his wives’ heads or maybe it’s because his daughter Mary loved to burn people at the stake, but the Tudors are among the most fascinating English royal dynasties in history.

The blood spilt by the Tudors weren’t limited to outsiders or even those who married in, but among themselves, including the fascinating story of teenager Lady Jane Grey, England’s first Queen to rule in her own right, even if it was just for nine days.

Over three episodes in this BBC series, historian Helen Castor takes a look at the tumultuous days that defined the life of Lady Jane Grey, a cousin of Henry VIII’s son, Edward VI who removed his sisters from the line of succession on his deathbed, sparking a game of thrones that would literally see heads roll.

TOUR DE FRANCE

(SBS — Saturday, July 7 at 8.30pm)

Come for the cycling, stay for the vistas of French chateaus. The Tour de France starts this Saturday night, the two weeks of the year when a bunch of angry motorists who normally swear at any cyclist they see on the road pretend they know a thing or two about the two-wheeled competition.

But even if you’re not that into cycling itself, the Tour de France is such compelling TV watching because it’s more of a tourism show than a sports event. As the cyclists wind their way through the French countryside, your eyes will drift away from the Lycra pack to the stunning castles, quaint villages and the rolling hills. How can you resist? Plus, if you’re one of those people who like falling asleep with the TV on, with an hour on the timer, Le Tour is a pretty relaxing option.

SNOWFALL

(Showcase on Foxtel — Wednesday, July 4 at 8.30pm)

John Singleton is best known as the director of Boyz n the Hood, and he’s taking the South Central LA setting of his most popular film and expanding it into a 10-episode series called Snowfall. The scripted drama looks at the first crack cocaine epidemic of 1983, intersecting around the stories of a 19-year-old dealer, a CIA operative, a Mexican crime boss’ niece and a wrestler.

Snowfall is a slow-moving series but will appeal to a certain demographic who loves a drama about the drug trade, and it’s a vivid portrait of a community at a decisive moment in time.

Share your TV and movies obsessions with @wenleima on Twitter.

Let's block ads! (Why?)