The TV shows you need to watch this week: From Pose to Derry Girls
The Beeb's ultra-camp drama about Eighties underground New York makes a Lady Gaga video look like ‘Last of the Summer Wine’
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Pose is a “big” show in every sense of the word. Set in 1987, it is an ultra-camp drama about the New York fashion, music and underground ball scene, and it makes a Lady Gaga video look like a scene from Last of the Summer Wine. There’s lots of style, drag, “voguing” (a dance made popular by Madonna’s song “Vogue”), big hats, big hair and big freakish frocks. Pose also has the great distinction of featuring the largest cast of transgender actors in regular roles, as well as the largest recurring cast of LGBT+ actors ever for a scripted series. There you go.
The transgender cast includes Mj Rodriguez, Dominique Jackson, Indya Moore, Hailie Sahar and Angelica Ross, who co-star alongside Evan Peters, Kate Maraand James Van Der Beek. The series follows several “Houses” – alternate families, mostly made up of Black and Latino gay and transgender youths, who are looked after by the house “mother” – that compete in the ball scene, apparently to see who can be the most outrageously camp.
This week’s episode of This Time with Alan Partridge, the sharpest satire on our screens (this year at any rate), contains scenes that viewers may well find very funny. The innovation and attention to detail in this series are what you’d expect from Steve Coogan and writers Neil and Rob Gibbons, and the show been consistently excellent. However, there is a scene in Monday’s show that I think qualifies as the strongest comedy Alan Partridge has ever featured in – and that includes him lapdancing in a leather thong and a Pringle peek-a-boo sweater. First aid has never been more bizarre. Unmissable, and worthy of a Bafta just on its own.
Maybe it is something to do with the momentous times through which we are living, but television comedy is pushing on with an impressive revival. Channel 4 is fielding its strongest contender in years – Derry Girls. The second series is, if anything, even better observed, charming and well-paced than the first. Set in Northern Ireland during some of the bitterest years of the Troubles, writer Lisa McGee has found an extraordinary balance between using the grim backdrop to produce just the right tone of sardonic humour, and the ensemble cast with their lyrical accents make the most of the local patois and punchy dialogue. A wee treat awaits, if you’ve not already been mesmerised by the girls, their chip-eating families and, in particular, the formidable headmistress of the Our Lady Immaculate College, Sister Michael (Siobhan McSweeney).
In the comedy context I am of course obliged to remind you of the award-winning Fleabag, powering its way through a second series. If you think of it as a version of Miranda but with foul language, foul habits and the foulest of humour then you’ll get Phoebe Waller-Bridger’s extraordinary achievement about right. Plus you get Olivia Colman thrown in and the whole obscene affair is an awful lot funnier than Miranda Hart, I have to sa
Saturday nights wouldn’t be complete for many without The Voice, ITV’s heavyweight contender in this still most fiercely competitive corner of the terrestrial TV market, notwithstanding the rise of streaming and alternative ways of staring at a screen for hours on end. The knockout rounds start now, though you’ll probably not notice much difference. Anyway, there’s Olly Alexander, Anne-Marie, James Arthur and Nicole Scherzinger doing the mentoring.
Shetland reaches the cold climax of its latest bleak storyline – murder, kidnap, human trafficking and organised crime, all incongruously swirling round the little cottages and bungalows of the nearest things the British Isles possess to Scandinavia. Douglas Henshall (as DI Jimmy Perez) has been, as ever, brilliant in the title role, and supported by fine supporting performances, crew work, stunning seascapes and Perez’s ever-present Volvo estate. With time slipping away and Perez out of ideas, where is Nigerian Zezi (Titana Muthui) being held captive, and can he get there in time to save her?
Pose (BBC2, Thursday 9pm); This Time with Alan Partridge (BBC1, Monday 9.30pm); Derry Girls (Channel 4, Tuesday 9.15pm); Fleabag (BBC1, Monday 10.35pm); The Voice (ITV, Saturday 7.30pm); Shetland (BBC1, Tuesday 9pm)
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments