Pick of the week
Riches
“He wouldn’t want us fighting.” “Yes he would.” And thanks to his will, Stephen Richards (Hugh Quarshie) is going to get his way. Stephen is a Black British entrepreneur whose beauty empire is worth millions. But he hasn’t been a good husband or father, and this becomes clear upon his sudden death: Stephen has two mutually antagonistic families, one of which he has granted exclusive control of his empire. While this drama starts with Stephen lecturing a white journalist on structural racism, any polemical intentions are allowed to underpin rather than dominate what, from the will reading onwards, is a rancorously enjoyable dynastic free-for-all.
ITVX, from 22 December
***
1923
The Yellowstone universe continues to fill in its chronological gaps in lavish widescreen style with this new series, which serves as a sequel to this year’s 1883. Once again, a starry cast bring the Dutton clan to life – Harrison Ford plays Yellowstone ranch head honcho Jacob Dutton while Helen Mirren is his wife Cara. In this series, the Duttons acquire some problem neighbours – and while neighbourliness is a relative concept on a ranch, hostility soon spirals out of control. Meanwhile, other hardships loom as the Great Depression threatens America.
Paramount+, from 19 December
***
Emily in Paris
This glossy, banal sugar rush of a romcom is back for a third season – though how much of the show’s success is down to hate-watching remains to be seen. As we return, Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) is facing a crossroads in both her career and love life. Her working relationship with Madeline continues to be stormy; as for romance, two comically handsome gents, Gabriel and Alfie, are vying for Emily’s affections. For all of her much-vaunted attempts at assimilation, it remains culturally clumsy, primary-coloured, infuriatingly watchable nonsense.
Netflix, from 21 December
***
A Year on Planet Earth
Stephen Fry narrates this four-part series exploring the implications of the Earth’s annual journey round the sun. He’s working with a script that feels functional at best but it’s frequently visually spectacular, albeit in ways that will feel familiar to any devotees of the BBC’s numerous Attenborough extravaganzas. The highlights include red foxes with their remarkably calibrated hunting brains, riflebirds and their mating rituals, and an eternal battle between lions and their prey, centred on the changing of the seasons in Botswana.
ITVX, from 22 December
***
Piñata Masters
Is there any field of human creativity that can’t be finessed into a competitive reality TV format? Probably, but we now know that the making of piñatas is not among them. This manic, periodically charming new Mexican series sees various earnest craftspeople design extraordinarily elaborate papier-mache party centrepieces ranging from huge planets to dinosaurs. Then, joyfully, their creations are smashed to pieces – and of course, judged in the process – by a group of rampaging children. Strangely compelling, against all the odds.
Netflix, from 23 December
***
The Witcher: Blood Origin
The wildly successful, relentlessly absurd fantasy epic scoots back a thousand years to unveil an origin story. This prequel concerns a coup launched by Mirren Mack’s previously compliant princess Merwyn and a reluctant alliance of convenience between Laurence O’Fuarain’s black sheep Elvish warrior Fjall and Éile (Sophia Brown), a travelling musician with a military past and a bad temper (“Cross me,” she warns him, “and I’ll feed your cock to the dogs”). As Merwyn looks to expand her kingdom, can our outcast heroes save their respective clans?
Netflix, from Christmas Day
***
Treason
Adam Lawrence (Charlie Cox) has told his kids that his current job, as deputy head of MI6, is much safer than the fieldwork of his earlier career. But when a hit on the boss of the organisation leads him to suddenly assume control, Lawrence rapidly finds events getting out of hand. Every spy has a past, and Russian agent Kara Yerzov (Olga Kurylenko) is in London with the express intention of reminding Lawrence of his for the purposes of leverage. Cue a deadly triangle between the pair and Lawrence’s partner Maddy De Costa (Oona Chaplin). Twisty, slick and satisfyingly nasty.
Netflix, from Boxing Day
