The Artful Dodger (Disney+)
Set in 1850s Australia, this eight-part “sequel” to Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist follows the fortunes of Jack Dawkins (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), aka The Artful Dodger, as he tries to make a new life for himself as a surgeon in the lively colony of Port Victory. However, his past life of crime comes back to haunt him when a familiar face arrives – Fagin (David Thewlis).
Maia Mitchell, Damon Herriman, Tim Minchin, Miranda Tapsell, Kym Gyngell and Albert Latailakepa also feature among the eclectic cast.
“The Artful Dodger’s energy can be downright goofy at times, but always knowingly so, anchored by performers who know just how to fill its heightened period world,” wrote The Daily Beast’s Caroline Siede, while Decider’s Joel Keller thought that “The Artful Dodger doesn’t try to replicate the vibe of Oliver Twist. It has its own vibe, one that moves quickly, is often funny, and is mostly entertaining to watch”.
The Crown (Netflix)
The sixth and final 10-part season of this British royal drama focuses on the period between 1997 and 2005.
That means you can expect the deaths of Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother and Diana, Princess of Wales, the weddings of Edward, Earl of Wessex and Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles and the early days of the relationship between Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Only four episodes have dropped at this point, with the balance set to debut on December 14.
“Thanks to Elizabeth Debicki’s stirring performance [as Princess Diana], The Crown still reigns when depicting this sprawling family soap opera,” wrote The Playlist’s Emma Fraser, while Boston Globe’s Matthew Gilbert thought that “the Australian actor channels Princess Diana in her last weeks with a devastating precision… It’s one of the most evocative performances I’ve seen on TV”.
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The Artful Dodger and Orphan Black: Echoes are among the great shows available to stream this week.
007: Road to a Million (Prime Video)
While we await news of who will be next to fill the tuxedo and enjoy their martinis “shaken, but not stirred”, the Hollywood producers behind the Bond movies have come up with this reality series featuring nine pairs of contestants taking on 007-inspired challenges as they attempt to win the £1 million top prize.
Featuring Succession’s Brian Cox as “The Controller”, the globe-trotting show promises to take the duos – and viewers – “from the wilds of the Scottish Highlands and the remote Chilean desert to the bustling streets of Venice and the luxurious Caribbean coastline of Jamaica”.
Essentially, it’s a far less-taxing and transport-dependent version of Race Around the World or The Amazing Race, but it is no-less compelling thanks to some smart casting and the sneering Cox, doing his best hybrid of Succession’s Logan Roy and Bond villain, as he surveys the contestants’ sometimes flailing attempts and more-than-occasional ineptitude.
The Gilded Age (Neon)
Julian Fellowes’ 1880s-set New York answer to Downton Abbey returns for a second, eight-part season.
It continues society newcomer Bertha Russell’s (Carrie Coon) quest to challenge the city’s old guard, who seem determined to shun her and her family, as evidenced by her request for a box at the Academy of Music being rejected. Meanwhile, her industrialist husband George (Morgan Spector) has troubles of his own, battling a growing union at his Pittsburgh steel plant.
The impressive cast also includes Cynthia Nixon, Christine Baranski, Nathan Lane, Audra McDonald and Robert Sean Leonard.
The production design is still outstanding, the costuming exquisite and the now vast acting ensemble truly first-rate, even if the dialogue is sometimes a little too portentous and expository.
A show as much for fans of the late 20th Century Anne of Green Gables and The Road to Avonlea as Downton, this offers perfect spring evening viewing for lovers of old-school costume dramas.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is now available to stream on Apple TV+.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (Apple TV+)
I approached this 10-part MonsterVerse spin-off with a fair amount of trepidation. After all, if Godzilla vs. Kong’s 113 minutes felt like a lifetime, how on Earth was anyone going to stay sane enduring a MonsterVerse tale more than four times that length?
Fortunately, director Matt Shakman and screenwriter Chris Black have taken a very different approach to the more recent, polarising cinematic outings. Following the now time-honoured Tinseltown tradition of ignoring sequels, this opens back on Skull Island, but is mainly focused on the fallout from the original 2014 battle between Godzilla and a series of Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms (Mutos) in San Francisco.
A year on and while some believe the whole event was a hoax (“They did it with CGI,” is one of many theories), Cate Randa (Kiwi-born Anna Sawai) is still haunted by the horrors she witnessed on G-Day. In Tokyo to “settle” her late father Hiroshi’s “affairs”, she is shocked to discover the product of one of them living in his apartment.
Flitting between these near modern day machinations and the 1950s Pacific island adventures of army officer Lee Shaw (Wyatt, son of Kurt Russell), cryptozoologist Bill Randa (Anders Holm) and fellow scientist Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto), Monarch weaves an intriguing cross-generational mystery that strikes a good balance between all-out action and compelling storytelling. Yes, there’s still a certain amount of watching actors ducking and diving computer-generated beasties, but at least Shakman and Black do enough to make us care about their fates.
Orphan Black: Echoes (TVNZ+)
Set in 2052 – and the same universe as the original Tatiana Maslany series that first debuted a decade ago – this 10-part sci-fi thriller promises to “take a deep dive into the exploration of the scientific manipulation of human existence”.
Starring Jessica Jones’ Krysten Ritter and The Midwich Cuckoo’s Keeley Hawes, it follows a group of women as they weave their way into each other’s lives and attempt to unravel the mystery of their identity.
“There’s enough tension and uncertainty here to make it interesting to devotees and neophytes alike,” wrote The Age’s Craig Mathieson.
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Seven “evil exes” stand between Scott Pilgrim and dating Ramona Flowers.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Netflix)
Based on the graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley, this eight-part anime adventure revisits and reimagines Edgar Wright’s 2010 live-action tale about a young man who has to defeat the girl-of-his- dreams’ seven “evil exes” in order to date her.
On vocal duties – and reprising their movie roles – are everyone from Michael Cera to Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson and Aubrey Plaza.
“Insane fights, sparkling animation and a fresh look at an old story – Scott Pilgrim was born to be an anime hero. What a level-up,” wrote Empire magazine’s John Nugent, while Variety’s Alison Herman thought that it “successfully combines the innovative style and comic charm of its predecessors with a new spin that corrects for the tropes we can now see with hindsight”.
Time (Neon)
Doctor Who’s Jodie Whittaker, The Last of Us’ Bella Ramsey and On Chesil Beach’s Tamara Lawrance team-up for the second, three-part season of Jimmy McGovern’s (Cracker) prison-set anthology drama.
Arriving at Carlingford Prison on the same day, Orla, Abi and Kelsey are thrown together to face an unfamiliar world.
While the pace is sometimes breathless, Time never descends into easy tropes or melodrama.
As well as McGovern’s trademark crisp, insightful and spare writing, that feeling is enhanced by terrific turns from the central trio. Whittaker is particularly compelling as an under-pressure solo mum who suddenly finds herself not only in extremely unfamiliar surroundings, but also that her life outside the prison walls is rapidly unraveling.
“I’m in here, but it’s my kids who are doing the suffering,” she opines early on – to heart-wrenching effect.
