What to stream this week: Julianne Moore's new drama, plus five more picks

Sydney Morning Herald

22-05-2025

This week's picks include Julianne Moore's crackling class satire, Paul Reubens' Pee-wee Herman documentary, Stanley Tucci's return to Italy and the revival of Australian classic Number 96.
Sirens ★★★½ (Netflix)
In this shape-shifting black comedy, concrete definitions are merely assumptions we're determined not to see through. The title is initially the code word shared between two sisters – Devon (Meghann Fahy) and Simone DeWitt (Milly Alcock) – when one desperately needs the other's help, but as this ambitious show unfolds, the mythological meaning comes into play: the female-like creatures whose song draws listeners to their demise.
Loading
Which of the show's female protagonists is the true siren, and what song does she sing – these are the true mysteries.
A working-class Buffalo gal hiding from the dementia that is dragging down her father, Bruce (Bill Camp), with booze and bad hook-ups, Devon goes searching for Simone after yet another 'SIRENS' text gets snubbed.
She finds her working as the live-in assistant to Michaela Kell (Julianne Moore), the imposing second wife of hedge fund billionaire Peter (Kevin Bacon). Simone is in thrall to her demanding boss, acting as fixer, No.1 supporter and emotional support human. Devon swiftly decides her sister is in a cult and must be rescued.
At first glance, Sirens might appear to sit alongside The Perfect Couple, last year's enjoyably tart Netflix murder-mystery where Nicole Kidman's formidable matriarch held sway over a wealthy beachside household. But creator Molly Smith Metzler, who thoroughly expands her 2011 play Elemeno Pea, has much more on her mind. Occasionally, too much.
There's class satire and Stockholm Syndrome, as Simone slavishly serves Michaela and parrots her beliefs, plus layers of overlapping trauma. The dialogue can crackle: 'I have rich people Tourette's,' Devon says after one expletive-laden broadside about Michaela's privilege.
There are updates of drawing-room farce and some soap-adjacent intrigue, notably around Simone's secret romance with the Kell's neighbour, Ethan (Glenn Howerton), but there's also an otherworldly hum permeating the storytelling machinery.
Moore gives Michaela a level of self-possession that is hypnotic. Her caring can come across as controlling, and very much vice versa. Michaela holds a funeral service for the peregrine falcon she rescued (RIP Barnaby) and wields non-disclosure agreements as a cudgel, but she's never a mere cliche.
Sirens isn't messy, but there are many lanes it could have easily opted to stay in. It's refusal to be compact and conform is fitting because that's the struggle these women face. The realisation could unite them, but being adversaries comes naturally.
The show hits bedrock in a lacerating scene between Devon and Simone, where their dynamic unravels with truths that feel like they're carrying a lifetime of anger and regret. It's a startling representation of how sisters are tied together, a siren's song only they can sing.
Pee-wee as Himself ★★★★ (Max)
Pee-wee Herman was a one-of-a-kind. Literally. Throughout the 1980s, when the hyperactive, bow-tied character was starring in hit movies and hosting an acclaimed children's television show, his creator, Paul Reubens, stayed hidden away while his alter-ego flourished.
This thorough and eventually moving documentary, which takes in professional success and personal setbacks, balances the ledger. Secretly battling cancer, Reubens sat for 40 hours of revelatory interviews with director Matt Wolf before he died in 2023.
Loading
The chronological narrative explains what the public saw and what they didn't know. A child of 1950s America, Reubens was a conceptual comedian who created Pee-wee as his own little rascal; his naivete both bratty or absurd. Off-stage, Reubens chose to go back into the closet, having been out as a gay man in 1970s Los Angeles, when he decided to obsessively focus on Pee-wee. With hindsight, he describes it as 'self-hatred and self-preservation'.
Reubens' need for control on everything Pee-wee did is not only made clear, it's echoed in his smiling skirmishes with Wolf, which pepper the documentary. Reubens offers commentary on their dialogue, and jokes about how people are watching to hear about his private life and the legal issues. But it's clear Reubens, who used Pee-wee to extol the virtues of 'non-conformity', wanted to set the record straight. Thankfully, he succeeds.
Tucci in Italy ★★★½ (Disney+)
Picking up where his cancelled CNN series – Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy – left off, the celebrated character actor and author's regional culinary tour continues to be charming fare. Tucci understands food is a means of discovery, whether of new experiences or a long-lost heritage, and he samples the menus from restaurants and food stalls alike in regions such as Tuscany and Lombardy with a good appetite, an observant eye and a genuine interest in the people he's meeting. It's not challenging, but it's entertaining and informative.
Overcompensating ★★★ (Amazon Prime Video)
The leap from social media star to series creator isn't an easy one, but Benito Skinner does a decent job with this autobiographically tinged comic drama about a closeted gay American high school student and sports star who gingerly begins to rethink how the world sees him when he gets to college.
In a mix of bravura energy, pop star playfulness (Charli XCX appears) and heartfelt growth, Skinner's Benny has a terrific foil in Carmen (Wally Baram), who has her own issues to surmount. One glitch: some actors, including Skinner, are plainly older than their characters.
Number 96 ★★★½ (Brollie)
Kudos to the niche streaming platform Brollie, which specialises in classic Australian movies and television, for resurfacing this ground-breaking soap opera that debuted in 1972 and quickly changed the parameters of what could be shown on our television screens. Sadly, only 18 of the original 584 black-and-white episodes have survived, but as an archival sampler they're a welcome time capsule (going forward, the subsequent colour television episodes will be added in batches of five a week). Watching yesterday's taboos get broken, it makes you wonder if we need more of the same daring today?
Brassic (seasons 1-5) ★★★★ (Netflix)
A new-to-Netflix binge, this raucous but always genuine British comedy follows a group of petty criminals not making ends meet in a northern English town.
Created by Joe Gilgun and Danny Brocklehurst, it begins with Vinnie O'Neill (Gilgun), who suffers from bipolar disorder and a dangerous surplus of confidence, and takes in his misfit pals turned accomplices. There are chaotic capers and eccentric reckonings with the past's burdens, but also genuine empathy and absurd reason – shout out to Dominic West (The Crown), who guests as Vinnie's eccentric GP.