With the Olympics coming to an end, a new streamer is going to replace an old one, an anticipated comedy has finally made it down under, and Seven and Nine are getting back to what they do best – copying each other!
From Sunday, it’s The Block (Nine) up against The Voice (Seven). On Tuesday, it’s new panel show The Hundred With Andy Lee (Nine) versus new panel show Australia: Now And Then (Seven). And then on Wednesday, it’s the heroes from the new Aussie drama RFDS (Seven) premiering up against the real-life heroes of Paramedics (Nine).
Also on Wednesday, 10 All Access gets replaced by Paramount+ and it launches with a Mark Wahlberg sci-fi action movie Infinite, a revival of Nickelodeon hit iCarly, and a new series of Why Women Kill (previously on SBS On Demand).
More anticipated for Aussie fans though is the second series of Five Bedrooms (Wednesday on Paramount+) with Kat Stewart front and centre in their promotion. In this second series, her neurotic character runs into an ex-lover (Rodger Corser), Harry (Roy Joseph) gets a new boyfriend and pregnant Ainsley (Kate Robertson) must deal with her hilarious stepmother (Tracy Mann).
Anne Boleyn on Paramount+
Paramount+ also has a new 3-part series from Channel 5 about Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII. There have been many, many versions of this story, including Charlotte Rampling opposite Aussie actor Keith Michell in Henry VIII And His Six Wives (1973), Helena Bonham Carter and Ray Winstone in Henry VIII (2003), and Natalie Dormer and Jonathon Rhys-Meyers in The Tudors (2007).
Now comes Anne Boleyn (Paramount+) which is a “psychological thriller inspired by truth … and lies”. That means a feminist twist an old story and diverse casting with Jodie Turner-Smith as a black Anne Boleyn. It’s an interesting take but only those fascinating by her beheading will stick around to the end.
Hacks on Stan
Meanwhile, one of the hottest shows of the year has been screening in the US since May and now it is finally here. Hacks (Stan) is about legendary comedienne Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and the unlikely millennial comedy writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) she hires. Keep an eye out for Vance’s drug addict daughter DJ played by the hilarious Kaitlin Olson from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
Deborah Vance seems to be a cross between Lucille Ball and Joan Rivers but with enough differences so that neither family can sue. Hacks has been nominated for 15 Emmys and has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but the best part for me is seeing Jean Smart dolled up again after her dowdy role in Mare Of Easttown. What a late-career boost she is getting 30 years after the end of her breakthrough role in Designing Women. You go girl.