Wednesday to Hunting the Yorkshire Ripper: the seven best shows to stream this week
Netflix, from Wednesday 6 August
The crimes of Peter Sutcliffe (and the flawed police investigation) have proved irresistible to documentary-makers, with the BBC and Netflix recently offering up versions of events. In truth, this latest series doesn't add much to our understanding of Sutcliffe's crimes, though it does broaden to examine the infamous 'Wearside Jack' tape that was sent to police by a man claiming to be the killer. Former DCS Chris Gregg – who assembled a team to catch the hoaxer – is interviewed about his career-long involvement with the case.
Prime Video, from Sunday 3 August
As represented in TV dramas, cold cases are often glamorous and mysterious. This documentary series shows the reality is sadder, if frequently no less intriguing. It focuses on the work of the DNA Doe Project, a US organisation that, in partnership with law enforcement agencies, uses detective work and genetic investigation to offer the relatives of some of the estimated 50,000 unidentified bodies lying in American morgues a measure of closure. It's a necessarily melancholy affair but also somewhat stirring in its depiction of tireless, valuable service.
Disney+, from Wednesday 6 August
A third series for this accomplished animation that follows the exploits of the Prouds, an upwardly mobile African American family who mix cartoonish hijinks with strong, slightly earnest moral messaging about identity and hot-button social justice issues. Trudy is worried about screentime and it isn't just her kids who can't put down their phones – her husband Oscar is hardly setting a good example. Cue a decision to live more consciously and to take a family holiday to London, Paris and Nairobi that becomes life-changing for everyone involved.
Apple TV+, from Wednesday 6 August
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The chemistry between Seth Rogen's Will and Rose Byrne's Sylvia continues to underwrite this profound comedy. The series doesn't just tell us that deep, platonic friendships between men and women are possible – it shows us. It's hard to avoid the feeling that Will and Sylvia have more fun together than with anyone else. And that's the whole point: shouldn't that be enough? As we return, Will is preparing to marry Jenna but admits to Sylvia that he has a crush on someone else. The fear that it might turn out to be Sylvia herself soon passes but, even so, is this another symptom of Will's inability to commit to adult life?
Apple TV+, from Wednesday 6 August
Most people would probably agree that the absence of a gameshow for cats and their owners is a glaring omission from the TV schedules. So thank goodness, finally, for House of Cats, a three-parter of snappy episodes which is hosted by comic Ivo Graham and social media personality, and qualified veterinary surgeon, Cat the Vet. Fittingly, there's no hint of a cash prize here; instead the winning partnership will take home a golden litter tray. Given that cats are notoriously much harder to organise than dogs, they will have certainly earned it.
Channel 4, from Thursday 7 August
From Walter Presents, this daft but moderately creepy mystery drama from France stars Fantine Harduin as the titular teenager. When Promethea is hit by a car, she eventually wakes from a coma with no recollection of anything but her unusual name. Gradually, her memory starts to return but that proves to be a mixed blessing as a series of disturbing revelations about an unsolved recent murder start to spill out. At first, it seems that Promethea might have witnessed this killing – but could her involvement have been even more hands-on?
Channel 4, from Friday 8 August
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The Independent
37 minutes ago
- The Independent
What to Stream: Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson team up and 'King of the Hill' and 'Wednesday' return
New Orleans legend Big Freedia returning with a new gospel album and the acting trio of Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson and Keke Palmer teaming up for the armored truck action comedy 'The Pickup' are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you. Also among the streaming offerings worth your time, as selected by The Associated Press' entertainment journalists: The animated 'King of the Hill' returns after a 15-year pause, the first half of season two of 'Wednesday' lands on Netflix appropriately on Wednesday and the 'Welcome to Wrexham' spinoff 'NECAXA' premieres with Eva Longoria. New movies to stream from Aug. 4-10 — Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson are armored truck drivers coerced into a heist in the action comedy 'The Pickup.' Keke Palmer plays the criminal mastermind who disrupts their routine drive. Eva Longoria, Andrew Dice Clay and Marshawn Lynch co-star in the movie, which made headlines during its Atlanta production after several crew members were injured in a collision during the shoot. It streams on Prime Video on Aug. 6. — Filmmaker Osgood Perkins' latest horror 'The Monkey' will be streaming on Hulu starting Thursday. The follow-up to his breakout hit 'Longlegs' was inspired by a 1980 Stephen King story. Theo James plays twin brothers whose lives turn to chaos when a demonic toy monkey stars causes deaths around them. In her review for The Associated Press, Jocelyn Noveck wrote that it felt 'uneven.' She added that, 'surely there will be an audience for the creatively rendered gore. The rest of us may feel left with a witty, visually arresting, highly inventive quasi-mess on our hands.' — If you haven't had enough Pedro Pascal this year, he's a key part of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's 'Freaky Tales,' streaming on HBO Max on Friday, Aug. 8. The anthology action comedy follows four interconnected stories in Oakland, California, in 1987. Before the film's Sundance debut in 2024, Boden told the AP that 'It's a movie lover's movie … It has one foot in reality and then one foot just launches off into fantasy.' — AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr New music to stream from Aug. 4-10 — New Orleans legend Big Freedia, the queen of bounce music (and a notable Beyoncé collaborator, lest anyone forget the zeitgeist-shifting 'Renaissance' ), is back with a new album. But 'Pressing Onward' is new territory for the artist. It's her first gospel album and it still manages to induce as much booty-shaking as ever before. The difference this time is that her vibrant sonic celebrations are all about faith. Start with 'Holy Shuffle' featuring Billy Porter or 'Sunday Best' with Tamar Braxton. It's good for the soul. — For several years now, one of the most exciting names in heavy rock music has been BABYMETAL, Japanese kawaii metal trio that marries pop idol culture with chugging riffs, full-throated vocals, blast beats and bilingual lyricism. They've inspired fanfare across the globe, and on Friday, they'll release their fifth studio album, 'METAL FORTH.' It features guest spots from Poppy, Spiritbox and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello. Clearly, it's not for the faint of heart. — AP Music Writer Maria Sherman New series to stream from Aug. 4-10 — Would you believe it's been 15 years since 'King of the Hill' went off the air? The animated comedy returns Monday with a new 14th season on its new home, Hulu. All 10-episodes drop at once for bingeing. The show picks up give or take 10 years after the events of season 13. Hank and Peggy are both retired after returning from Saudi Arabia, where Hank had been working. Their kids are now grown. Adjusting to life as retirees and in the current political climate in America presents challenges for the couple. — Another long wait comes to an end Wednesday when the first half of season two of 'Wednesday' premieres on Netflix. The show follows teen Wednesday Addams (played by Jenna Ortega) as she studies at a boarding school called Nevermore Academy. Ortega's deliciously deadpan delivery earned her an Emmy Award nomination for her work on Season 1. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán play Wednesday's parents, Morticia and Gomez. — Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne proved that yes, men and women can be just friends in the first season of their Apple TV+ comedy called 'Platonic. ' The codependent buddies, Will and Sylvia are back with a new season on Wednesday. We meet them again and Will is engaged to his boss — who doesn't like Sylvia. And Sylvia is planning their wedding. Will is struggling to open his bar and Sylvia's event-planning business has yet to take off. — More than two years ago, AMC Networks pulled the plug on its sci-fi comedy 'Demascus ' as a cost-cutting measure even though production was already completed. Tubi has rescued the show, starring Okieriete Onaodowan, and it premieres Thursday. It's about a man who begins using an experimental technology that allows him to experience different timelines of his life. — The 'Outlander' prequel 'Outlander: Blood of my Blood' debuts on Starz on Friday, Aug. 8. It's about the parents of Claire and Jamie from 'Outlander.' Unlike its predecessor, 'Blood of my Blood' does not have source material by author Diana Gabaldon but its showrunner Matthew B. Roberts also works on 'Outlander' and is very familiar with the lore. The cast is already filming a second season. It streams on the Starz App or through platforms like Hulu and Prime Video. — The 'Welcome to Wrexham' spinoff "NECAXA ' premieres Thursday on FX on Hulu. After their success owning the Welsh soccer team Wrexham AFC, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney join Eva Longoria and buy a stake in a Mexican club, NECAXA, 'It's more than winning games. We're gonna win hearts. We're gonna inspire pride. We're gonna empower the team,' Longoria says in the trailer. — Alicia Rancilio New video games to play from Aug. 4-10 — The Mafia series from 2K Games has moved from 1930s Chicago to 1940s New York to 1960s New Orleans, but now it's going back in time and space. Mafia: The Old Country aims to deliver an origin story of sorts, traveling to 1900s Sicily. Enzo Favara is a young man who's suffered a rough childhood, and he is hoping to improve his status by working for the Torrisi crime family. That means pulling off heists, punching out rivals and killing anyone who might threaten the Don. The cars may be slower and the weapons may not be as slick, but if you're bummed out about having to wait for the next Grand Theft Auto, you might want to spend some time with the original gangsters. It arrives Friday, Aug. 8, on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.
Times
38 minutes ago
- Times
Suranne Jones: ‘I'd go back to Coronation Street. Why not?'
The actress and producer Suranne Jones, 46, grew up in Chadderton, Greater Manchester. Her first major role was playing Karen McDonald in Coronation Street. She won a Bafta for Doctor Foster and was nominated for her role in Gentleman Jack. She has also starred in Vigil and appears in Netflix's Hostage. She lives in London with her husband and their nine-year-old son. It's a scary time for the industry and the arts. I worry that the government won't continue to fund in the right places and we don't take it seriously enough. Theatre needs to reach young people. If they asked, 'Would you come and do an episode of Coronation Street?' I'd say, 'Why not?' If you had asked me two years after I left the show, I'd have said, 'Absolutely not. I'm going to do all these things.' But now it's 21 years ago, it might be fun. Donald Trump is like a caricature. What he's said [about 100 per cent tariffs on films made outside America] is absolute madness. It's mind-boggling. The women before us had no language for the perimenopause. It must have been horrendous. I never heard my mum, aunties or cousins talking about it, other than that they were hot or they felt a bit mad. I have the language to say to anyone, 'This is what I'm experiencing.' You can walk into a room and have that conversation. You could never do that before. A woman stopped me in the toilet and said, 'You're the reason I was able to tell my gran I was gay and introduce her to my girlfriend.' [Jones played gay characters in Vigil and Gentleman Jack.] I get a lot of messages on Instagram and I feel really connected to the LGBTQ community. I would be scared to play the Doctor. I thought Ncuti Gatwa [who left Doctor Who in May] did a brilliant job. That's a lot to live up to. It's a pressurised job. I love Jodie Whittaker — watching some of her episodes with my son, I'm like, wow, that takes a lot. So I'd be a bit frightened of it. But I'm really pleased I got to play in that universe [in the 2011 episode The Doctor's Wife]. It was so special. I lost both my parents. You have to rebuild yourself. I feel lucky that not only do I have a therapist, but I have a way of giving back my experience of grief via the arts. • Read more TV reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews I worry when the people who make smartphones say they don't give them to their kids. Or they limit themselves. My son doesn't have a phone. It's so addictive. I get lost scrolling. I have to take a holiday from it, because it's scary. I'd love to have a huge digital detox. I have always looked after my wellness and mental health in a really serious way. Not only with therapy — exercise to me is also about mental health. If I don't do it, then I'm very lost and I just want to go to bed — I get so overwhelmed with life. I do what therapists call 'parts work', where you look at the different parts that make up a person. I've got little girl me who's ready to play, teenage me who's ready to knock someone out, someone with a drink and a fag, someone with a clipboard, the one who has got a chip on her shoulder and the one who's a geek. We need to take care of all these aspects of our personalities. Being bullied was hard. It made me stand up for myself. But it's nothing like what young people must experience now. Anything I went through was for a moment at school, then I got home and into the safety of family life. Now, you can't get away from it. My nine-year-old loves ChatGPT. I never use it. He likes coding and he's good at maths – I've got no idea how that is even possible, because his dad and I are not. Therapy is amazing. It's having a safe space to talk. It's a toolkit. I have learnt how to navigate things when I start to become overwhelmed. Not everyone can afford to go to a therapist and there's a huge waiting list on the NHS. But therapy can be talking openly with your partner or friends. I had to make friends with fame. A lot of people may well see Hostage and recognise me more often on the street. That will be a little tough, but I've been there before. I've seen waves of it. I was there with the Circle of Shame [a feature in Heat magazine that criticised female celebrities' appearances], worried about how I looked. Fame gets you some nice things, but what I really want is to go to the seaside with my little boy and do what everyone else is doing. Hostage streams on Netflix from August 21 Love TV? Discover the best shows on Netflix, the best Prime Video TV shows, the best Disney+ shows , the best Apple TV+ shows, the best shows on BBC iPlayer, the best shows on Sky and Now, the best shows on ITVX, the best shows on Channel 4 streaming, the best shows on Paramount+ and our favourite hidden gem TV shows. Don't forget to check our critics' choices to watch and browse our comprehensive TV guide
The Review Geek
4 hours ago
- The Review Geek
The Naked Gun (2025) Movie Review – One funny son of a gun
One funny son of a gun Back in the late 80's, The Naked Gun series set the gold standard for absurdist brilliance. Boasting a near-constant stream of gags, deadpan one-liners, and physical comedy, Leslie Nielsen took the reigns of this franchise and absolutely run with it. He embraced the role of bumbling Lieutenant Frank Drebin, transformed from serious dramatic actor into a comedy icon, playing it straight while everything around him spiralled into slapstick chaos. It was glorious, crazy and remains, to this day, a masterclass in parody. Fast forward to 2025 and there really haven't been a whole lot of good comedies released lately. Unless you count unironic jokes like The Minecraft Movie (which was only funny for the audience memes and how bad the film was) or hilariously misguided efforts like Prime Video's War of the Worlds, there just hasn't been a whole lot to laugh about. In an age of endless sequels, reboots and prequels, it's ironic then that from the ashes of this dull sludge of grey, a sequel to The Naked Gun series steps up to try its luck. While this 2025 Naked Gun homage does manage to capture what made the originals so good, it never comes close to hitting the same upper-echelons of greatness that made Nielsen's trilogy so memorable. Unlike other sequels though, The Naked Gun doesn't sneer or belittle what's come before, instead deciding to embrace the craziness and deliver a lovely homage to the originals. Just like in those films, Director Akiva Schaffer has done his best to try and make every frame of the movie count. There are countless gags all over this movie in the background, from a beaver on the mantlepiece to more obvious segments like a couple of girls being escorted out the police station for running a Lemonade stand racket. Stepping into the well-worn shoes of Lesley Nielsen here is Liam Neeson. For anyone who has seen his brief segment from Ted or his deadpan Life's Too Short skit, Neeson does have a 'particular set of skills' for transitioning from serious roles to comedy. Here, Neeson plays the son of Frank Drebin, Frank Drebin Jr., who becomes entangled in a world-ending plot with a megalomaniac inventor, dead-set on disrupting the status quo. All the usual cliches are here, and the film leans into those like an old friend. The advanced tech, the McGuffins (handily called PLOT devices) and the investigative beats leading to a big world-ending showdown, are all mixed in to this simple story. The story really doesn't have a whole lot of meat to it though, instead designed as a platform for the comedy to shine through. The comedy itself is a mixed bag and for every couple of hits, there's an equal miss or two waiting to show up. The Naked Gun understands that not every joke will be laughed at, but there are so many thrown in across the 90 minute run-time that you won't notice too much. There are clever wordplay jokes (one of which including a play on manslaughter that had me laughing out loud) and deadpan one-liners. There are also bathroom jokes and satire, along with big movie spoofs too. However, The Naked Gun also unashamedly borrows entire gags from other movies too, which is a bit disappointing. There's a segment involving thermal binoculars that feels ripped right from Austin Powers: Goldmember. The shocking twist in The Hand That Rocks The Cradle involving the inhaler is thrown into this too, along with kung-fu moves from The Matrix (remember when every 90's spoof movie did this?), the Mission: Impossible masks and James Bond spy names. Of course, it's hard to be wholly original in this field, but given how pioneering the Naked Gun series has always been, it's a bit of a shame to see such familiar jokes pop up so frequently. A lot of the issues with this movie though largely come toward the end of the movie. It's a weird comparison to make but this film has the same problems that The Secret Life of Pets had. All the best jokes and gags are thrown into the first half of the movie, leaving the second half to scramble and try to hit the same heights. Like Pets, it never manages. While the character arcs are relatively good and the movie at least makes the most of its talented cast, all of them are very much 'in on the joke'. What made the originals so endearing was how the characters kept playing it straight when everything around them continued down an increasingly absurdist path. Here though, all the actors feel like they're leaning into the campy hilarity, especially Neeson toward the end of the film. To be fair, comedy is incredibly difficult to get right and you can tell the creators of The Naked Gun have done their best to at least try and honour the originals while going their own way. It doesn't quite hit the mark but it does have some genuine laugh out loud segments, which is more than can be said for some of the other comedies released recently. Your mileage with The Naked Gun will certainly vary but by all accounts, this isn't a bad effort. Go in with low expectations and you're bound to find something to chuckle at here.
