What to watch this week: red-hot crime drama Smoke full of twists; parent tips for tricky kids' issues

News.com.au

4 hours ago

We've sifted through the latest offerings from TV and streaming platforms to find the best shows you should be watching this week.
SMOKE
FRIDAY, APPLE TV+
For anyone contemplating writing off this hot new series as just another crime drama after the first episode, stick around for at least the first two when they air on Friday. Although it's adapted from the popular podcast Firebug, and inspired by true events, it's best to go in as spoiler free as possible to get the most of the frequent twists and turns as a dogged detective (True Blood's Jurnee Smollett) and a firefighter-turned-arson investigator (Rocketman's Taron Egerton) push the boundaries of law enforcement and each other's buttons as they hunt down two serial arsonists in America's Pacific Northwest. Golden Globe winner Egerton is particularly good as the slightly off-kilter Dave Gudsen, who is feeling the pressure of his job while juggling a strained relationship with his wife and stepson and delusions of grandeur as an author. Creator Dennis Lehane, who also wrote Mystic River and Shutter Island, digs into the psychology of those who light fires out of feelings of powerlessness and the blazes themselves – and the emotional and physical damage they wreak – are at times truly terrifying.
HARRODS: THE RISE AND FALL OF A BRITISH INSTUTION
WEDNESDAY, 8.30PM, SBS
Although Harrods remains a byword for class and quality for many and a vital stop on any London tourist itinerary, the up-market department store's reputation has taken a battering of late since serious allegations of sexual assault and harassment arose against its late former owner Mohamed Al-Fayed. This documentary traces the rise of what began as a humble tea shop in East London in 1874 to become the most famous shop in the world, occupying an entire block of some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Through aspiration and innovation – it courted royals and the rich and famous and was the first shop to install an escalator – it rose to the status of British institution, a reputation it is fighting to maintain despite the recent bad press.
STAGS
WEDNESDAY, 11PM, CHANNEL 7, 7 PLUS
From Bachelor Party to The Hangover, the stag-do gone horribly wrong has been a screen staple for decades but this rollicking, brutal, six-part British black-comedy-drama might just outdo the lot. It focuses on groom-to-be Stu and seven of his idiot mates as they embark on a wild week of drink and drugs in South America – but things go sideways quickly when one makes the monumentally stupid decision to smuggle cocaine on to a plane. Before they know it, they are whisked off to a prison that 'makes Guantanamo look bougie' and doesn't even need walls because it's ringed by a minefield. With no consular assistance and trial date possibly years away, they are left to fend for themselves among the thugs, grifters, gangsters and even organ harvesters – and not everyone is going return home alive.
AUSTRALIA V WEST INDIES
WEDNESDAY, 11.45PM, KAYO, DISNEY+
After the disappointment of losing the World Test Championship to South Africa in London earlier this month, the Aussies will be desperate to prove they still deserve to be the No.1 ranked Test side playing away to a team that's currently sitting in 8th spot. It will be new-look side too, with makeshift opener Marnus Labushagne finally running out of chances and replaced by mercurial teenager Sam Konstas and the ever-reliable former skipper Steve Smith likely to miss the first game with a finger injury. The once-great Windies are coming off the back of a shocking tour of England and Ireland but might be a very different proposition in their own backyard over three Tests and five T20s.
COUNTDOWN
WEDNESDAY, PRIME VIDEO
Not to be confused with the beloved Aussie music show of the same name – and to be honest, I'm not sure what Molly Meldrum would bring to the crack team of crime-fighters – but do yourself a favour and check it out anyway. There's nothing particularly original about this new crime drama about a secret squad of law-enforcement misfits brought together to prevent disaster in Los Angeles but when you've seen a high-octane foot chase ending in a cold-blooded execution, a brutal prison-yard brawl and a torture scene in a drug-den basement – all in the first ten minutes – you know it's never going to be dull. While the squabbling crew of tough nuts from different law enforcement agencies, and headed up by Eric Dane's sage FBI boss, butt heads as they tangle with gangs and cartels, it soon becomes clear they are dealing with something much more dangerous than drugs.
GRANTCHESTER
SATURDAY, 7.30PM, ABC
It might seem odd that the small and strangely murder-prone Cambridgeshire village of Grantchester has had three consecutive vicars with a penchant for solving crimes, but Rishi Nair is filling out the cassock and collar very nicely in his second outing playing the dashing Reverend Alphy Kotteram as the much loved 1950s-set detective drama enters its tenth season. Of course there's a mystery for Alphy and DI Georgie Keating (Robson Green) to unpack – a man is found dead in suspicious circumstances at the Easter church fete while wearing bunny costume – but there's also romance in the air and a genuinely touching side plot of gay former curate Leonard still wrestling with family estrangement.
THE WATERFRONT
NETFLIX
Kevin Williamson, the man behind Dawson's Creek, is the creator of this solidly soapy crime drama about a once powerful North Carolina family faced with the imminent demise of its fishing empire and trying to turn things around by throwing a line into the highly lucrative – and dangerous – drug trade. Tough guy patriarch Harlan Buckley, returning from a heart attack but unwilling to give up his hard-drinking ways, is initially unimpressed with the deal concocted by his desperate-to-impress son Cane and hard-nosed wife Belle to run drugs using their fleet. But after a $10 million haul gets hijacked and the family is on the hook, his ready fists, shady contacts and knowledge of how to extract information or dispose of a body are their best shot at coming out on top.
DEAL OR NO DEAL
MONDAY, 7PM, CHANNEL 10
With the imminent demise of The Project (we'll miss you!), Gold Logie winner Grant Denyer's snappy game show kicks off in a new timeslot from next week with an assist from revered newsreader Sandra Sully. After picking suitcase No. 10 – of course – Sully proves to have nerves of steel in her quest to win $100,000 for SpinalCure Australia. The classy network veteran has been involved with the charity since meeting former Superman Christopher Reeves, who was paralysed in a horse riding accident, and speaks passionately about helping return dignity and respect to those living with spinal injuries. The usually irrepressible Denyer also gets emotional while remembering the prospect of never walking again after breaking his back in 2008 in a stunt gone wrong.
TRAINWRECK: POOP CRUISE
NETFLIX
Travel enthusiasts considering a cruise in the near future should probably steer clear of this morbidly fascinating doco that spotlights the horrific 2013 voyage of the Carnival Triumph, which was left stranded and without power in the Gulf Of Mexico after an engine fire. As if losing the means to party wasn't bad enough for the thousands of revellers on board, worse was yet to come when they found out that almost all the toilets were busted and the only solution available was to do No.1s in the shower and No.2s in a plastic bag – with predictably disgusting results. Passengers, crew and press recall the nightmare when tension ran high as supplies ran low – leading some bright spark to suggest that free drinks would be the best way to get passengers back on side. What could possibly go wrong?
PARENTAL GUIDANCE
MONDAY, 7.30PM, CHANNEL 9
Parenting expert and author Justin Coulson and A Current Affair presenter Ally Langdon host this compelling – and often frightening – four-part series that addresses some of the most pressing issues facing children today. They are assisted by real-life parents with very different approaches on raising children, and whose kids are given tasks they can all then discuss to see what they can learn from each other. First up is the ever-thorny issue of screen time – how much is too much, what are the dangers and benefits, and how does emerging AI fit in to an environment that can be riddled with predators, bullying and inappropriate content. Other big topics to be covered in coming weeks include peer pressure, body image and mental health.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT …
Streaming 2pm Friday, Tubi.
LIKE Sofia Coppola did before her, Destry Allyn Spielberg has stepped out from the very large cinematic shadow of her famous father, to forge her own path as a director. Distancing herself from her Oscar-winning dad Stephen's signature schtick of fantasy and wonderment, the junior Spielberg is making her mark with psychological thrillers. For first feature film directorial debut, which follows her award-winning short movie Let Me Go (The Right Way) – a nepo-baby collaboration starring Sean Penn's son Hopper and written by Stephen King's son Owen – Spielberg has enlisted Downton Abbey's Michelle Dockery as her lead. Dockery plays a deranged woman who takes in a group of orphans looking for sanctuary from a pandemic.