Looking for a good movie or series to while away the hours this holiday season? Here are 10 of the best.
Slow Horses (Apple TV+)
Gary Oldman is brilliant as the slovenly, surly, booze-swigging misanthrope at the helm of a crew of MI5 malcontents and rejects, in this series based on the Slough House novels by Mick Herron.
It’s a spy thriller with a difference, whip-smart, darkly cynical, and savagely funny, as the troubled underdogs strive to prove that they’ve still got what it takes to crack a case and save the day for England.
The White Lotus (Showmax)
With more money than morals, and more designer baggage than common sense, a group of the idle wealthy are thrown together in an exotic resort location: an Hawaiian island in the first season, and a Sicilian palace in the second.
There’s murder afoot, but the whodunnit takes second place to the alliances and dalliances of the holidaymakers, who are mercilessly exposed and lampooned by a uniformly excellent ensemble cast. Definitely for adults only!
Wednesday (Netflix)
As the gleefully malevolent, ever-unsmiling ghoul-child of the title, Jenna Ortega delivers a deliciously Gothic performance in this Tim Burton spinoff of the classic Addams Family sitcom.
It’s beautifully shot and scored, and Wednesday’s stark-raven-crazy high school dance sequence is an unforgettable highlight. It’s sheer Edgar Allen Poe-try.
The Bear (Disney+)
Set in a rundown sandwich joint in Chicago, this sweaty and intense series plunges you right into the heat of the kitchen, as an award-winning young chef struggles to start afresh amidst financial troubles and the memory of family trauma.
It’s comic and gruelling in turn, but what really lingers is the human drama that simmers, boils, and bursts into flame behind the scenes of an everyday city eatery.
The English (Amazon Prime)
Bustling into the Wild West in layers of taffeta, complete with bonnet, lace gloves, and cameo brooch, Emily Blunt is as out of place as a pale rose in the desert at the outset of this culture-clash revisionist Western.
But when she teams up with a Pawnee scout, to avenge the murder of her son, she becomes a different character altogether, headstrong, relentless, and at home on the merciless plains.
The unfolding relationship between a stranger from distant climes and a man of the earth seeking to claim his birthright, propels a stunningly photographed series that takes the Western tradition into a whole new realm.
Fire of Love (Disney+)
Drawn together by a mutual passion to explore the fury of volcanic eruption, Katia and Maurice Krafft were a pair of fearless French scientists who lived, loved, and ultimately died for their ground breaking work.
This mesmerising documentary, lyrically narrated, captures the story of their romance, their partnership, and their fiery, all-consuming obsession.
Tehran (Apple TV+)
One of the most gripping Israeli series of recent years, Tehran takes us right into the heart of a Mossad agent’s undercover mission to disable a nuclear reactor in the Iranian capital.
The action is nerve-wracking, and it never feels anything less than authentic, as Tamar Rabinyan, a genius-level hacker with Iranian ancestry, works her way into the underground of the city’s intelligence network.
More than a fast-paced spy thriller, Tehran is also a poignant exploration of cultural ties and the conflict of roots in the Middle East.
Hacks (Showmax)
A stand-up comedy diva, long past her prime, is assigned a young, down-on-her-luck writer to help sharpen her material and get her once-thriving Las Vegas career back on track.
Thus is the scene set for a caustic chemical reaction between seemingly incompatible generations, worldviews, and personalities, in this raucous and hilarious series that brings out the very best in its stars: Jean Smart as Deborah Vance, and newcomer Hannah Einbinder as her long-suffering nemesis, Ava Daniels.
Aside from its abundant joys as an Odd Couple-style relationship comedy, Hacks also has plenty of heart, and is rich with insights into the culture war between boomers and millennials.
The Patient (Disney+)
Steve Carell, who has come a long way since his breakthrough as Michael Scott in the United States version of The Office, excels as a psychotherapist with a very troubled client in this claustrophobic psychodrama set in a suburban basement.
The client is a ruthless serial murderer who desperately wants to stop killing, but can’t, which is why he kidnaps his therapist, chains him to a bed, and demands treatment that will put an end to his urges.
While the action is largely confined to this single location, the series delves into deeper layers of ethical and moral turmoil, as the therapist grapples, in flashbacks, with his own complex Jewish family dynamic.
Pepsi, Where’s My Jet? (Netflix)
In the mid-1990s, as part of its epic battle to win the Cola Wars, Pepsi came up with a loyalty campaign that gave purchasers the chance to earn t-shirts, sunglasses, jackets, and other cool merchandise.
When a TV campaign jokingly showed a clip of a Harrier jet landing on a lucky winner’s lawn, one customer took them seriously, and acquired enough points to claim the item of military hardware, then worth $32-million (R554.5 million).
This entertaining documentary series tells the story of his battle to beat the system and get his jet.
It’s a revelatory tale of what happens when unbridled chutzpah meets the machinations of corporate legal might and marketing gone hopelessly wrong.
- Gus Silber is an award-winning journalist, editor, speechwriter, and author.
Sharon Platt
Dec 8, 2022 at 7:08 pm
Shame Gary Oldman is mulling retirement even though there are ever more Slow Horses they remain a must see and a must read. Although Mick Herron’s Bad Actors meanders a bit, it is still almost as compelling a read as Slow Horses. Mind you, that’s not surprising: on Amazon, Mick Herron is described as “The John Le Carré of our generation” and it’s all to do with bad actors and slow horses. Who would have thought le Carré might be associated with “any generation”! In terms of acclaimed spy novels, Herron’s Slough House series has definitely made him Top Of The Pops in terms of anti-Bond writers. For Len Deighton devotees that ends a long and victorious reign at number one.
Raw noir espionage of the Slough House quality is rare, whether or not with occasional splashes of sardonic hilarity. Gary Oldman’s performance in Slow Horses has given the Slough House series the leg up the charts it deserved. Will Jackson Lamb become the next Bond? It would be a rich paradox if he became an established anti-Bond brand ambassador. Maybe Lamb should change his name to Happy Jack or Pinball Wizard or even Harry Jack. After all, Harry worked for Palmer as might Edward Burlington for Bill Fairclough (real life MI6 codename JJ) in another noir but factual spy series, The Burlington Files.
Of course, espionage aficionados should know that both The Slough House and Burlington Files series were rejected by risk averse publishers who didn’t think espionage existed unless it was fictional and created by Ian Fleming or David Cornwell. However, they probably didn’t know that Fairclough once drummed with Keith Moon in their generation in the seventies. Both books are a must read for espionage illuminati.