Pick of the week
Criminal Record
Despite its offputting generic title, this London-set police drama starring Cush Jumbo and Peter Capaldi is classy and engrossing from the start. Via a domestic violence callout from a Hackney phone box, Jumbo’s resourceful detective June Lenker stumbles across a potentially major miscarriage of justice involving a wrongful conviction. However, she makes the mistake of approaching the investigating officer on the case (Capaldi’s DCI Daniel Hegarty) head on – and before long, she’s on the back foot. Hegarty is clearly connected, and soon Lenker is being denied access to files and facing an invasive investigation by the internal monitoring team. What exactly has she uncovered?
Apple TV+, from Wednesday
* * *
Echo
One of the darker, harsher parts of the MCU, this spin-off from 2021’s Hawkeye sees deaf, Native American superhero Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) facing off against her adoptive uncle, the terrifying Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). The pair have plenty of history: as the one-time leader of criminal gang the Tracksuit Mafia, Lopez worked for Fisk, until she discovered he orchestrated her father’s death. In Echo, Maya is forced to flee New York to escape Fisk’s attentions. She returns to her home town in Oklahoma where she attempts to reconnect with her family and process her traumatic past.
Disney+, from Wednesday
* * *
The Trust: A Game of Greed
With Squid Game: The Challenge only recently concluded and the second series of The Traitors working its dark magic, it remains to be seen whether viewers will have room for yet another villainous reality-style gameshow. But here’s another minor variation anyway. In The Trust, 11 strangers will gather with the option of splitting a quarter of a million dollars. Or they could choose to do the dirty on each other for a bigger slice. It feels rather overfamiliar, but it’s impossible to rule out getting sucked in anyway.
Netflix, from Wednesday
* * *
Break Point
Another season of this intimate tennis documentary series, which has had the good fortune to gain its customary locker room access to the men’s and women’s tours at a very interesting time. With illustrious greats arguably starting to fade, a new generation of players are jostling to take their places at the top and everything seems up for grabs. Expect to hear more from the likes of Nick Kyrgios and Iga Świątek who were prominent in season one – and look out for the next king of the men’s game, prodigious young Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz.
Netflix, from Wednesday
* * *
Boy Swallows Universe
A coming-of-age drama with a difference: young Eli Bell’s life isn’t particularly glossy. He’s growing up in a down-at-heel suburb of Brisbane with a deadbeat father, an addict mother, a mute brother, a criminal babysitter and a drug-dealing stepfather. Out of these unpromising beginnings, Eli must somehow try to carve a functional life. The tone, thankfully, isn’t uniformly dour or dismal – Felix Cameron is a bright spark as Eli and there’s a touch of Shameless about these hard-knock lives, even if a grim reckoning does eventually threaten.
Netflix, from Thursday
* * *
Detective Forst
None more bleak: this Polish crime drama follows Borys Szyc’s unconventional but effective Detective Wiktor Forst as he and journalist Olga Szrebska (Zuzanna Saporznikow) try to solve a series of murders committed in the remote and inhospitable Tatra Mountains. As you can imagine, the wintry and dangerous terrain is exploited in both physical and metaphorical terms as the pair bump up against a closed community that harbours all manner of dangerous secrets. Not a groundbreaking premise by any means but an icy winter blast of mystery and malice all the same.
Netflix, from Thursday
* * *
Sky Med
This breezy Canadian series about a photogenic and heroic air ambulance team boils the tropes of the medical drama down to their essence. It’s a demanding job, and in between traumas the medics need to let off steam. Cue a show that sometimes feels like ER with the romantic intrigue turned up to 11. Most of the familiar faces from season one are back but there are new dilemmas as a financial threat to the team emerges. Layoffs are under discussion but, thankfully for the team’s sustainability, people are always finding new ways of hurting themselves.
Paramount+, from Friday
