The cheating scandal couldn’t have come at a better time for The Block (Nine) which has rebounded in the ratings after a sluggish start. It puts them in a good position to deal with new reality competition next week on The Masked Singer Australia (10), Making It Australia (10) and SAS Australia (Seven).
Now for the good news – new local drama Australian Gangster (Monday on Seven) is the perfect companion show to screen after SAS Australia. The bad news though is Australia Gangster is unlikable and nasty.
Within the first few minutes, lead character Pasquale Barbaro (Alexander Bertrand) tells a Lebanese gang member that he will “f!@# your missus in the arse”. They put out a contract on him while he terrorises his kid’s day care centre and gets a new mistress who looks just like his wife.
Apparently Australian Gangster is a “fast, punchy and often funny rush” but it’s not and we’ve seen it all before. Can we stop with the under par Underbelly rip-offs and the glorification of toxic masculinity and revolting criminals with bad dress sense.
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One show that actually is fast, punchy and funny is Only Murders in the Building (Disney+). Steve Martin and Martin Short are in their element as they team up with Selena Gomez to investigate their New York building and turn it into a podcast.
Martin Short can sometimes be annoying but he is perfect here as a monstrous theatre director. Steve Martin is sublime as a shut-off washed-up TV actor, and a deadpan Selena Gomez does some great generation gap gags. Look out for those cameos too from Nathan Lane and Sting.
The new HBO drama Scenes from A Marriage (Monday on FoxShowcase) is not some overblown extension of an influential Swedish movie from the 1970s. I had no idea that director Ingmar Bergman originally made it as a six-part TV mini-series which was then edited down for cinemas.
Based on the first episode, this new one is sticking closely to the original plotlines but updating them to modern times. The opening scene with Jessica Chastain is riveting, right from her surreal entrance to when she stares wordlessly as her husband (Oscar Isaac) describes their relationship to a stranger. Intense and interesting.
Will an HBO series about marriage breakdown, instead of murder, get as good a reception as Mare of Easton and The White Lotus? You can drag out a mystery week by week, but a quiet relationship drama might be better as a binge. Fun fact though, the original Scenes from a Marriage was the inspiration for Knots Landing which then begat Desperate Housewives.
Iggy & Ace (SBS On Demand) is the latest nihilistic sitcom after Why Are You Like This and All My Friends Are Racist (iview). This show goes in hard about alcoholism as Ace (Josh Virgona) heads off to Gay AA, enraging his wine-loving best friend Iggy (Sara West).
These edgy comedies are all aimed at younger audiences and they’re not for the faint-hearted. But it’s great to see both public broadcasters giving opportunities to new and outrageous Aussie talent. Keep ‘em coming.
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