Crackhead (HBO, 5 episodes)

Drug-addicted party-animal Frankie has blown it all up - her inheritance, her relationships, and most recently, her sister's house. It's time to go to rehab. Creator and star Holly Hervey is outstanding in the lead role as Frankie in this New Zealand comedy. Also watch out for Sara Wiseman and Errol Shand who both work at the rehab centre Frankie arrives at.
The filmmakers really want to shock the Crackhead audience. Just minutes into episode one Holly’s character Frankie is on a wild night at a club. She ends up making out and vomiting into a toilet at the same time. That might draw a vidid picture for people trying to imagine that. Surprisingly in the show we get to see it in detail.

The Comeback (Series 3, HBO Max, 8 episodes)

The third and final season of the HBO Original comedy series The Comeback. Two decades years after its debut, the series returns with Lisa Kudrow reprising her Emmy-nominated role as actress Valerie Cherish. And what an awkward character she is.

Homebodies (SBS, 6 episodes)

This is a bold, surprising and heartfelt Australian family drama that explores the courage it takes to accept the ghosts (literally) from our past.
The series stars Claudia Karvan (Bump, Puberty Blues, Love My Way), Luke Wiltshire (Boyish and With Love, Lottie) and Jazi Hall (Playing Gracie Darling), and follows Darcy (Wiltshire), a trans man who reluctantly returns to his regional hometown to care for his estranged mother Nora (Karvan). Roxie Mohebbi is great too as Dee’s childhood friend who features in perhaps the short series’ most interesting storyline.

The Other Bennett Sister (Foxtel/Binge, 10 episodes)

The series features characters from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The story begins at Longbourn, the Bennet family home, where Mr and Mrs Bennet preside over a lively household of five unmarried daughters: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia. As society’s pressures mount, the Bennet sisters navigate the glittering yet precarious world of Regency England, where marriage is both aspiration and necessity.
Andrew dismissed this as one of James’ standard British petticoat dramas…but guess what, he liked it too!
Watch this for Ella Bruccoleri is Mary Bennet, Ruth Jones is great as Mary’s mean mother and Richard E Grant excellent as usual as the befuddled father who sadly lasts only two episodes.

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This special episode of TV Gold looks at the Australian comedy Deadloch.
Podcast hosts Andrew Mercado and James Manning review the second season of the hit Prime Video series and also included in the episode after our review is an interview with the stars Kate Box and Madeleine.

About Deadloch Season 2 (Prime, 6 episodes)

Detectives Dulcie Collins (Kate Box) and Eddie Redcliffe (Madeleine Sami) are in Darwin to investigate the death of Eddie’s former policing partner Bushy. However, their plans are soon diverted when a body part is discovered in a remote town called Barra Creek. With the Northern Territory police force focused on a large-scale search for two missing backpackers, Dulcie and a very reluctant Eddie are tasked with identifying the John Doe.

Sticky, sweaty and juggling comprehensive thrush infections, the detectives find themselves embroiled in a world of crocodile-fuelled tourism, overstretched Indigenous rangers, cagey locals, and seven-metre prehistoric predators – all of whom call Barra Creek’s stretch of land, and water, their home.

As the humidity builds, and Eddie and Dulcie dig deeper, more questions arise for our duo – not only about the case, but the many secrets that lie beneath the surface of this small town.

Who’s in Deadloch Season2:

Returning to Deadloch are Kate Box, Madeleine Sami, Nina Oyama and Alicia Gardiner.

Joining the cast for Season Two are Luke Hemsworth (The Terminal List: Dark Wolf, Thor: Love & Thunder), Steve Bisley (The Great Gatsby, Mystery Road: Origin, Mad Max), Shari Sebbens (The Sapphires, Top End Bub and The Office), acclaimed writer/director Jean Tong in their acting debut, Genevieve Morris (Bloom, No Activity), Byron Coll (Time Bandits, The Luminaries), Nikki Britton (How to Stay Married), Anthony J Sharpe (Joe v Carole, Human Error), Blake Pavey (Urvi Went to an All Girls School), Damien Garvey (The Survivors, The Artful Dodger), Ngali Shaw (The Twelve, Ladies in Black), Bev Killick (Savage River, Jones Family Christmas), Ling Cooper-Tang (Troppo, Apples Never Fall, Nautilus), Ursula Yovich (Top End Bub, Mystery Road), Syd Brisbane (High Country, Stateless), Ines English (Last Days of the Space Age, Ghosts Australia), Lennox Monaghan (Windcatcher), Reiden Corpus and Storm Murgha.

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This week on the TV Gold podcast AM and JM review: Imperfect Women, Gone and Frauds.

Imperfect Women (Apple TV, 8 episodes)
The series examines a crime that shatters the lives of three women in a decades-long friendship – characters played by Kerry Washington, Elisabeth Moss, and Kate Mara. The thriller explores guilt and retribution, love and betrayal, and the compromises people make that alter our lives. As the investigation unravels, so does the truth about how even the closest friendships may not be what they seem.

Gone (Stan, 6 episodes)
David Morrissey plays headmaster Michael Polly who returns home one afternoon to find his wife Sarah missing. As the hours roll on, he finally reports her disappearance the next day to DS Annie Cassidy played b y the always brilliant Eve Myles. She is a no-nonsense detective who is immediately perplexed by the apparent stoicism of the headmaster. As the case escalates with the emergence of puzzling evidence, Annie is assigned the role of Family Liaison Officer for Michael and his daughter.

Frauds (ABC, 6 episodes)
A new heist thriller stars TV Gold Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker as criminal colleagues Bert and Sam, whose intertwined past resurfaces in the setting of Southern Spain after a decade of separation. Bert convinces Sam to do just one ore headiest, but can they pull it off.

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The Madison (Paramount+, 12 eps)
The Madison is new from Taylor Sheridan and stars Michelle Pfeiffer as Stacy Clyburn, a ritzy New York City philanthropist and the matriarch of the successful Clyburn family. She seems intent to quit city living for the wilds of Montana after an event sees her questioning her life in New York.

Scarpetta (Prime, 8 eps)
Nicole Kidman is forensic pathologist Dr. Kay Scarpetta who returns to her position as Virginia's Chief Medical Examiner, where she investigates a murder with eerie reminders from her first big case decades ago. Scarpetta works alongside former detective Pete Marino (Bobby Cannavale) and her now husband FBI Agent Benton Wesley (Simon Baker) as they investigate a brutal strangling. Playing Kidman’s sister and Cannavale’s wife is Jamie Lee Curtis as a successful children’s author Dorothy who starts the series sharing a house with Scarpetta.

Vladimir (Netflix, 8 eps)
Who would have thought – two comedies sent in literature classes in small US colleges in two weeks on the TV Gold podcast. (We reviewed Rooster last episode.)
Vladimir follows an unnamed, middle-aged protagonist (Rachel Weisz) who is a writer, professor, wife, and mom. As her life unravels, she becomes obsessed with a captivating new colleague, the eponymous Vladimir (Leo Woodall), at the small liberal arts college where she’s worked for decades. The cast are brilliant including John Slattery who plays the philandering college professor husband of Weisz’s character.

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DTF St Louis (HBO Max, 7 eps)
A limited series about a love triangle between three adults experiencing middle-age malaise that leads to one of them ending up dead.
Jason Bateman plays Clark Forrest, a St Louis TV weatherman, who rides a recumbent bicycle everywhere he goes - even to a murder scene apparently which makes him a prime suspect.
David Harbour is sign language interpreter Floyd Smernitch who forms a bond with the weatherman after they narrowly avoid serious injury during an outside broadcast during a storm.
But the real star of the series just could be Linda Cardellini as Floyd’s wife Carol.

Rooster (HBO Max, 10 eps)
A comedy set on a college campus about best-selling author Rooster (Steve Carell) and his complicated relationship with his daughter Katie (Charly Clive). A great supporting cast includes Phil Dunster as Katie’s estranged husband and John C McGinley as the president of Ludlow College. A comedy that delivers plenty of laughs.

Marshals (Paramount+, 13 episodes)
Marshals is the first Yellowstone spinoff featuring characters from the series. Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone son Kayce Dutton (played by Luke Grimes) is facing life after the death of his wife Monica, a Broken Rock native. A former Navy SEAL colleague arrives at his farm and offers him a roll with the US Marshals. What will Kayce do?

Also this TV Gold episode, Andrew Mercado on the rebooted Scrubs (Disney+), and James Manning on the Paul McCartney doco Man on the Run (Prime).

Finally, both hosts look at the final episode of Under Salt Marsh (Binge/Foxtel) and report if the episode that promised so much made sticking with the series worthwhile.

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This week on the TV Gold podcast:

The Lady (Binge/Foxtel, 4 episodes)
Produced by Left Bank Pictures (makers of The Crown), the series is a true-crime drama based on the life of Jane Andrews, a working-class woman who became the dresser and confidante to Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, but was later convicted of murdering her partner, Thomas Cressman, in 2000. Brilliant performance from Mia McKenna-Bruce as Jane.

How to Get to Heaven from Belfast (Netflix, 8 episodes)
The dark comedy-crime thriller series was created by Lisa McGee (Derry Girls) and tells the story of three lifelong friends in their late 30s who embark on a chaotic "odyssey" across Ireland to investigate the mysterious death of an estranged childhood friend.

The Walsh Sisters (Stan, 6 episodes)
Set in Dublin, the series follows the chaotic, dysfunctional, yet deeply loyal Walsh family. The story revolves around five sisters—Anna, Rachel, Maggie, Claire, and Helen—as they navigate the complexities of adulthood in their 20s and 30s. Based on characters from the novels of Marian Keyes.

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This week on the TV Gold podcast, Andrew Mercado and James Manning review:

Love Story (Disney+, 9 episodes)
Another series from producer Ryan Murphy tells the story of John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette and explores the chemistry, whirlwind courtship, and high-profile marriage of one of the most iconic couples of the 20th century.

Under Salt Marsh (Binge/Foxtel, 6 episodes)
Under Salt Marsh stars Kelly Reilly (Yellowstone, Pride & Prejudice) as Jackie Ellis and Rafe Spall (Trying, Life of Pi) as Detective Eric Bull in Under Salt Marsh, in a new crime drama is set in the fictional Welsh town of Morfa Halen.

Lord of the Flies (Stan, 4 episodes)
Lord of the Flies is the story of schoolboys stranded on a tropical island with no adults, following a deadly plane crash. In an attempt to remain civil they organise themselves, led by Ralph and supported by the group’s intellectual, Piggy. But when Jack becomes more interested in hunting and vying for leadership, he soon begins to draw other boys away from the group and, ultimately, from hope to tragedy.

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TV Gold special: Ryan Murphy

This week’s episode of TV Gold is devoted to the prolific TV creator Ryan Murphy.
The podcast has regularly reviewed his prodigious output. TV Gold hosts Andrew Mercado and James Manning don’t always love everything Murphy delivers, but it always gives the podcast plenty of talking points.
Over recent years Murphy’s creations have lived on Netflix and a recent deal has seen him find a new home at Disney which means in Australia his new series will be seen on their streaming platform Disney+.
The new Disney deal sees Murphy return to FX which is where he created many series including American Horror Story, Feud, and six seasons of Nip/Tuck.

The special TV Gold episode starts off with a look at the series The Beauty which is on FX.
In FX’s The Beauty, the world of high fashion turns dark when international supermodels begin dying in spectacularly gruesome and mysterious ways.
FBI Agents Cooper Madsen and Jordan Bennett (played by Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall) are sent to Paris to uncover the truth. As they delve deeper into the case, they uncover a sexually transmitted virus that transforms ordinary people into visions of physical perfection, but with terrifying consequences.

The Best of Ryan Murphy

Andrew Mercado’s Top 5
Feud: Bette and Joan
Pose
Nip/Tuck
American Crime Story: Gianni Versace
Monster

James Manning Top 5*
Halston
The Watcher
Feud: Bette and Joan
The Andy Warhol Diaries
Glee
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Mendez Story
*It’s actually a top six!

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