Pick of the week
Mo
With the US administration threatening to take hostility towards immigrants to new levels, there’s real poignancy to the second and concluding season of this excellent comedy. Palestinian refugee Mo (Mo Amer) is in Mexico, trying to get back to the US and trapped between trusting the legal process (risky) and relying on the hustle (riskier). But things are about to get much worse after an attempted border crossing hits a snag. It’s full of wit and warmth but the show’s polemical thrust is subtle and acute – the implication is that the energy and ingenuity immigrants such as Mo are forced to expend on survival would be a boon to any community or country they chose to inhabit.
Netflix, from Thursday 30 January
Paradise
Xavier Collins (Sterling K Brown) is brave, discreet and a closed book. As the lead protection agent for former US president Cal Bradford (James Marsden), these characteristics are significant assets. This gripping drama by Dan Fogelman of This Is Us fame is a slow burn. There’s clearly history between these two men but what unfolds is a lesson in world-building – it becomes clear that the sphere they inhabit is deeply abnormal and shaped by cataclysmic events way beyond their control. As the narrative takes shape, Collins’s inscrutability starts to look more like barely suppressed trauma.
Disney+, from Tuesday 28 January
***
American Manhunt: OJ Simpson
The murder trial of OJ Simpson (and indeed, his life up to that point) was told definitively in the Oscar-winning 2016 documentary OJ: Made in America. But presumably it has been decided that enough time has now passed for another take on the most startling celebrity homicide story in history. This four-parter reopens the case, and though it doesn’t add much in terms of insight with its new interviews, it does act as a grim reminder of how race, wealth and the legal system tend to distort and refract different versions of the truth in American society.
Netflix, from Wednesday 29 January
***
The Recruit
The first season of this espionage thriller found a point of difference in a crowded field by endowing its lead with a touch of haplessness that felt refreshing in the context of most generic fictional spies. In season two, Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo) has been assigned to a potentially deadly new mission in South Korea – but could the main source of his problems be coming from inside the CIA? Once inside the country, Hendricks combines blundering charm, rule-bending and occasional lethal force to world-saving effect once again.
Netflix, from Thursday 30 January
***
The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse
The long-awaited second season of this anime adaptation of Nabaka Suzuki’s manga is a jumbled mixture of mythologies taken from sources including the Bible and Arthurian legend. The knights and their allies are facing obliteration after their climactic season one showdown with demon entity Melagaland. As such, it’s time to journey to Camelot where destiny will be confronted and possibly altered. However, the voyage is full of wonder and danger. Expect inventive animation and spectacular battles.
Netflix, from Thursday 30 January
***
School Spirits
This breezily daft YA drama throws together three endlessly popular TV tropes: crime-fighting, high-school hi-jinks and a trip to the afterlife all jostle for space. It centres on Maddie (Peyton List), a teenager who is stuck in the spirit world and suspects she has been murdered. As we return to Split River High, Maddie finds she is far from alone in this netherworld – there’s almost a parallel school’s worth of kids trapped with her. How did they get there and can they escape? And in the meantime, what about a little afterlife romance?
Paramount+, from Thursday 30 January
***
Fatal Crossing
This Danish drama stars Marie Sandø Jondal as Nora Sand, a high-flying journalist in search of redemption. Nora has been suspended by her newspaper and ordered to lie low after her affair with one of the principals compromised a big scoop. But upon returning home to live with her father in a small town, her story-gathering instincts get the better of her when a missing person cold case lands mysteriously, in an envelope, on her doorstep. Based on a novel by Lone Theils, it’s a generic but reasonably diverting noir thriller.
Channel 4, from Friday 31 January
