Mercado on TV viewing highlight: Ten Pound Poms (Monday on Stan) isn’t some feel-good series about English migrants moving down under in the 1950s. And that’s because the most dangerous animal in Australia isn’t a crocodile, it’s the terrifyingly racist yobbo with a thirst for the drink, memorably portrayed by David Field.
Although this BBC co-production occasionally verges on the far-fetched, its central storylines are based on believable emotions. A wily nurse (Michelle Keegan) is searching for an orphan, and a WWII soldier (Warren Brown), treating his PTSD with alcohol, is hoping a new start can provide a better life for his wife (Faye Marsay) and family.
Those fine actors make for a brilliant British cast, and Stephen Curry, Cheree Cassidy and Rob Collins head an equally strong Aussie contingent. But it is David Field who steals the show with a more psychotic version of Chips Rafferty vibes from the original Wake In Fright (1971). It’s a powerful performance that hopefully shows that David Field is one of Australia’s best-kept secrets.
The cast of Five Bedrooms
The fourth season of Five Bedrooms (Sunday on Paramount+) proves that the streamer has done the right thing in sticking with this delightful series. Instead of bringing in more new characters, this series just brings back former guest characters, like Tracy Mann as the stepmother from hell. Another thumbs up.
Foxtel/Binge is at bursting point with edgy new series to watch. Slip is a surprisingly racy series where an art gallery worker (Zoe Lister-Jones) slips into a different alternative universe every time she has an orgasm. Totally bizarre, and is there a point?
A Town Called Malice follows a truly nasty crime family relocating from a turf war in Britain to the sunny coast of Spain. Martha Plimpton and Dougray Scott are having a ball with the material, and the 80s soundtrack is non-stop. The characters, however, are so unlikeable, it’s no surprise they have axed it halfway through its first season.
And then there’s Bupkis, a star-studded fictionalisation of Pete Davidson’s life and family, starring – wait for it – Edie Falco, Joe Pesci, Steve Buscemi, Bobby Canavale, Jane Curtin, Stacy Keach, Jane Curtin, Brad Garrett, Ray Romano, Chris O’Donnell, Jon Stewart and Al Gore. Based on the hilarious and strangely beautiful first two episodes, this is the new Foxtel series that demands you keep watching to the end.
Read more Mercado on TV here.
Welcome to TV Gold: The all-new weekly TV podcast
Well, the name is new! So is the email address asking for feedback and question – [email protected].
Listen now on your favourite podcast platform for 30 minutes of TV reviews and recommendations every week from Mediaweek’s Andrew Mercado and James Manning.
More exciting viewing tips this week from the new series Ten Pounds Poms (Stan) and Queen Charlotte (Netflix) to The Messenger (ABC) and A Town Called Malice (Foxtel/Binge). Plus listener emails, the return of Five Bedrooms, and Tim Ross with a must-watch series on Aussie homes. What will be the TV Gold Show of the Week?
Listen online here, on the LiSTNR app or on your favourite podcast platform.