Pick of the week
Severance
The startling workplace satire finally returns for a second season. As we left the Lumon crew, they were temporarily straddling work and leisure worlds, with emancipation seeming agonisingly close. But five months on, it’s clear that the hellish, striplit netherworld of their working lives is still very much open for business. Adam Scott’s Mark has been assigned a new team and the uprising has been turned into a piece of corporate folklore with a cutesy, motivational stop-motion animation. But with news filtering through about events in the outside world, this uneasy truce can’t be sustained. Severance remains a magnificent dark comedy that is brilliantly performed and feels unique.
Apple TV+, from Friday 17 January
With Love, Meghan
Meghan Markle moves front and centre in her new lifestyle series for a gushing glimpse of her pastel-coloured domestic perfection. It seems that, from cooking to gardening to beekeeping, there’s almost no end to the things Markle can do. In fact, you’d probably call this parade of clinking glasses, humming hives and gently snoring dogs aspirational if it wasn’t underpinned by vast wealth and status. As it is, it’ll most likely serve as a TV Rorschach blot test, confirming every viewer’s already established view of the woman on screen.
Netflix, from Wednesday 15 January
An t-Eilean
Set in the Outer Hebrides (the title translates as The Island), this murder mystery is the BBC’s first prestige drama primarily in Gaelic. It sits comfortably alongside the many Nordic noir thrillers to have transcended the language barrier in recent times as a dark, twisty and unpredictable tale of bitterness and intrigue in a remote location. When the matriarch of a wealthy family is shot, the community are shocked. But there’s more to the killing than meets the eye, and soon a family history is laid bare. Sagar Radia (Industry) and Hebridean native Sorcha Groundsell star.
BBC iPlayer, from Tuesday 14 January
Single’s Inferno
This Korean dating show is into its fourth series now, and while many of its tropes are familiar, it might offer some escapist fun during the coldest month of the year. It places a bunch of buff singles (a few of them mildly famous but most of them not) on a deserted island named Inferno and gives them a series of mental and physical tasks. The setting acts as a kind of purgatory – the contestants can escape to a paradise island but only if they manage to link up with a partner. An odd mixture of earnest, gentle flirtation and reality show raunch.
Netflix, from Tuesday 14 January
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The Crow Girl
This series, adapted from the novels of Erik Axl Sund, sees the king of stoical, mildly troubled but deeply committed TV coppers, Dougray Scott, starring alongside Eve Myles as a detective charged with investigating the murders of a succession of young men. They’ve all been killed in the same way – pumped full of anaesthetic and then beaten to death – so it seems likely that a serial killer is at large. When they enlist the help of a psychotherapist, one of her patients is soon of particular interest. Will confidentiality go out of the window?
Paramount+, from Thursday 16 January
Lovers Anonymous
Cem isn’t a hearts-and-flowers sort of man. “Love is a disgusting thing,” he says at the beginning of this Turkish comedy drama. “It trickles down the walls like a pink, slimy, disease-ridden liquid.” He even runs a hospital, claiming to be able to cure the lovesick. Cem is scarred by an unrequited childhood crush that destroyed his faith – and perhaps unsurprisingly, the ladies aren’t exactly queuing up to mend his broken heart. However, all that’s about to change as Hazal, a woman whose belief in the power of love is irresistible, enters his life.
Netflix, from Thursday 16 January
Molly-Mae: Behind It All
A documentary series about Molly-Mae Hague, a businesswoman, brand ambassador and influencer who is best known (arguably only known) for finishing joint runner-up on Love Island in 2019. It’s a glossy, broad-brush affair whose lack of weight is barely concealed by the seriousness with which Molly-Mae discusses her various dramas. These include relationship turmoil – including her much speculated-upon breakup with her Love Island partner, Tyson Fury’s half-brother Tommy – the challenges of motherhood and the launching of a new business venture.
Prime Video, from Friday 17 January
