The Sonic boom of TV viewing options this weekend
Alright you, here’s what you need to know about TV available this weekend:
If you watched the two Sonic The Hedgehog live action movies and are likely to see the third one later this year, you’ll probably want to check out new Paramount+ show Knuckles. The voice cast from the films are back, along with the second tier actors from the films - so no Jim Carrey or James Marsden, but you do get Adam Pally. The show is perfectly alright, but perhaps not aimed at the grown-up viewer who isn’t watching it because there are kids in the house.
The new trend in multi-platform Hollywood is companion spin-off shows that take place firmly in the world of the movies. This is the first big one, but later this year there is The Penguin (spun out of The Batman movie) on Max, along with a Dune series The Prophecy. Expect more of this as those walls between TV and movies crumble further.
The big Netflix release this weekend is the Neil Gaiman-inspired Dead Boy Detectives. Initially characters in the comic The Sandman, the new show has no connection to the Netflix show about The Sandman. But viewers may be familiar with them on TV from appearances in the Doom Patrol TV show. If none of that means anything to you, you probably aren’t pressing play on this one.
I’m a little annoyed that I hadn’t realised until just moments ago that Swift Street had debuted on SBS. Australian viewers can find the whole eight-episode first season streaming at SBS On Demand now. Episodes are under half-an-hour each, so it should be an easy binge. The show is a father/daughter crime comedy with Cliff Curtis (Avatar: The Way of Water) as the father.
South Korean drama Goodbye Earth promises me my biggest on-screen guilty-pleasure: apocalyptic drama. I will watch and love any movie that shows the decay of society.
If you’re in Australia, my top TV tip is to get on board with CBS network drama Elsbeth. It is now available down under by way of Paramount+ where all the episodes from season one so far are now available to stream (it’ll be a 10 episode drama in full).
The show spins-off kooky lawyer Elsbeth Tascioni into a Columbo-style murder mystery of the week. It’s interesting the way that 15 years ago The Good Wife was all about bringing prestige TV to broadcast, but now we are past peak prestige and this spin-off is a real TV throwback.
Elsbeth is a lot of fun. You don’t need to have prior knowledge in the character - instead just revel in the oddity of Carrie Preston in the lead role. She’s modified and toned down the extremities of the character (it was in danger of being, well, a bit much).
