There's a lot you COULD watch this weekend, but only one show you SHOULD watch.

It’s quietly a pretty big week for notable TV shows, both new and returning. But of them all, there’s only one standout worthy of your time…

Netflix have quietly pushed out a new season of Heartbreak High. The handful of reviews I have seen have been pretty negative. Luke Buckmaster over at The Guardian refers to season 2 as “polished, upbeat, and performative.” Christina Izzo at The AV Club had concerns about the shows authenticity:

It’s a shame that so much of the second season feels concerned less with authenticity than fulfilling a teen-show algorithm (clunky lines like “Spider’s gone and literally Poké-morphed into a peak incel!” barely feel written by a real human, let alone uttered by one), because there is such potential in the characters’ more textbook coming-of-age antics.

With less bombast than one may have expected, the streamer also drops the animated Good Times sequel/reboot this weekend. There was a lot of chatter about the show from the perpetually online crowd, but that seems to have retreated back to be a low hum in the background.

If Netflix thought it had a gem on its hands, you would expect that chosen media outlets would have reviews available ahead of launch to counter the hostility. Instead, Netflix has it locked down. Make of that what you will.

Apple TV+ also has a dud on its hands. This one I gave a good ol’ college try with, but struggled. Franklin is visually a retread of HBO’s rather brilliant John Adams mini from forever ago, but it lacks that show’s grit, charm, and watchability. It’s not that Franklin is a bad show - it’s just really flat and not an especially good show.

I rather liked this headline:

I did say there was one show worth watching. Now, I must confess that I have not yet had a moment to press play on it - Prime Video’s Fallout.

There were several rapturous reviews for it this week, but many of those coming from tech-orientated culture sites where the midichlorian count of the reviewers is quite high. But checking in with my queen, my critical spirit animal Lucy Mangan at The Guardian, I was surprised to find how much she adored it.

For newcomers such as me, this intelligent, drily witty, immaculately constructed series set in the Fallout universe fully captivates and entertains on its own terms. It opens in 1950s America, at the height of the cold war and the “red scare”, with former TV star Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins) reduced to appearing at a children’s birthday party after being tarred with the pinko brush. A mushroom cloud appears on the horizon, the blast wave hits, the apocalypse arrives.

All those who can afford it rush to the secure vaults they have had built in preparation. We cut to Vault 33 two centuries later, by which point they appear to be doing very nicely. All the naivety of the 50s and the better parts of its mores – politeness, consideration, cooperation, modesty and restraint – have been preserved, albeit with the occasional twist. Like daily weapons training, and chipper approaches to the avoidance of marrying one of your many cousins.