Bank holiday viewing: What to watch on Netflix this weekend from The Eddy to Unorthodox

From OTT reality TV to brooding Teutonic thrillers, Samuel Fishwick picks the Netflix shows to binge this long weekend
Your next obsession? The Eddy
Netflix

Tomorrow's big bank holiday plans have been somewhat kiboshed.

At least the weather’s nice: have a peek before you pull the curtains and fire up the telly.

Netflix has enjoyed a 16 million bump in subscribers since lockdown — from blockbusters to hidden gems, this is what to watch.

Blockbuster TV

Netflix

The Eddy

The lowdown: Your next obsession? The Eddy. It’s set in a Parisian jazz club (The Eddy itself), and is already setting off Moulin Rouge nostalgia, digging into the city’s sultry underbelly.

Dreamlike but dirty would be an accurate take, as washed-up talents play to a near-empty room. Also, much jazz. Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle (La La Land) has assembled a wonderful cast plus superstar scriptwriter Jack Thorne.

Each episode follows a different character. André Holland (Moonlight) is Elliot, a once-famous pianist unable to play since his son died. Amandla Stenberg is his estranged daughter.

USP: A blend of Baz Luhrmann and The Wire.

Ideal audience: Those who like their drama with a beat.

Do say: “If music be the food of love, let’s take the baseline for a walk.”

Don’t say: “A Wop Bop a Loo Bop.”

Tiger King

Netflix

The lowdown: Where to start with Joe Exotic: quixotic, neurotic and borderline despotic American zoo owner and convicted felon?

This seven-part (with a BTS bonus eighth) documentary follows the rise and fall of Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, better known by his stage name, self-described as a “gay, gun-toting cowboy with a mullet”, who in no particular order: breeds tigers, is mauled by tigers, marries two husbands in one ceremony, runs an internet TV show, runs for president, runs out of cash and threatens to murder rival animal sanctuary owner Carole Baskin. And shoots his own music videos.

USP: A binge-watch in which every character is more bizarre than the last.

Netflix: Tiger King - In pictures

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Ideal audience: Louis Theroux Weird Weekend devotees who like life stranger than fiction.

Do say: “That goddamn Carole Baskin.”

Don’t say: “When are we going to get to the bit about tiger conservation?”

Unorthodox

Netflix

The lowdown: This true-ish story (it’s based on Deborah Feldman’s memoir Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Jewish Roots) is about the emancipation of a New York Hasidic Jew, 19-year-old Esty. Moving and absorbing, and the soundtrack really slaps.

USP: Four-part miniseries drama about liberation.

Ideal audience: Aspirant travellers yearning to get out.

Do say: “Man, I miss parties.”

Don’t say: “Look at all the vintage dresses, how chic.”

Too Hot to Handle

Netflix

The lowdown: There won’t be a Love Island this year — alas, they abandoned the idea of setting it in a socially distanced villa in Cornwall.

Instead, get your vicarious sun-and-sex fix from this reality dating show in which 10 vapid-but-beautiful contestants are plonked in a tropical resort and told they’ll win $100,000 if they can keep their hands off each other for a month.

Spoiler: they can’t. It’s outrageously horny, and good dumb fun in the sun.

USP: Reality TV meets Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach.

Ideal audience: Those missing group holidays abroad and their side-helping of gossip.

Do say: “Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder.”

Don’t say: “What I’m most proud of is my penis.”

Jerry Seinfeld Had 23 Hours To Kill

Getty Images

The lowdown: Comedians Getting Cars with Coffee, Netflix’s masterfully mirthful comedy vehicle in which Jerry Seinfeld spent 20 minutes ferrying the funny people from A to B, reminded us that when it comes to zingers Seinfeld reigns.

This gives the emperor of stand-up a Netflix special stuffed with them, covering everyday frustrations, from Pop-Tarts to text etiquette.

On paper nothing new, but as all comics know, half the gig is not what you say but how you say it.

USP: Old-fashioned stand-up staying sharp.

Ideal audience: Dads who have finally settled into lockdown.

Do say: “Stick a fork in me, I am done.”

Don’t say: “What, so he’s like an American Jeremy Clarkson?”

RuPaul’s Drag Race

Getty Images

The lowdown: An institution of OTT. If you haven’t been converted, now is the time: the entire 11 seasons of the drag show are at your fingertips, plus a bonus new season to boot.

With a format similar to America’s Next Top Model, watch drag queens make their own outfits, perform acting, dance and musical challenges and fight off in lip-synch extravaganza battles to impress Ru and avoid being eliminated.

Watch out for the odd celeb cameo (Janet Jackson, Lizzo, Miley Cyrus and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez).

USP: Drag with swag.

Ideal audience: Anyone with or in need of attitude.

Do say: “May the best queen win.”

Don’t say: “How has Ru not aged a day?”

Hidden gems

Call My Agent

The lowdown: Whip-smart French comedy (so subtitles) about a madcap Parisian talent agency traipsing after its roster of A-listers, who in this show are not the stars — the excellent supporting cast of highly strung agents are.

Luminaries from Monica Bellucci to Isabelle Huppert feature. The script is brilliant and co-showrunner Dominique Besnehard very much lived the life as a famous celebrity agent.

Think Extras meets The West Wing and you’re sort of there.

USP: Industry-focused drama played for laughs.

Ideal audience: Comedy fans with attention spans.

Do say: “The best thing out of France since the Etch A Sketch.”

Don’t say: “I thought we were leaving Europe?”

Television shows in 2020

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The Midnight Gospel

The lowdown: Netflix has serious form when it comes to oddball adult animation — see Big Mouth — but this is a whole new trip. Main character Clancy is an animated giant pink human (aren’t we all?) wearing nothing but a wizard hat and a loincloth. Every episode he hops into a multidimensional simulator to interview people on topics such as spirituality, the theory that we all live in a computer simulator, drug use and death positivity. All backdropped by absurdist visuals that boggle your brain. Your eyes won’t know where to look as your ears drink in the character’s profound commentaries on life and death.

USP: Cartoon capers with unlimited scope.

Ideal audience: Anyone bored with this reality and looking for a new one.

Do say: “I like my dimensions both 2D and multiple.”

Don’t say: “Sounds familiar, Mooooorty.”

Dark

The lowdown: Yes, more subtitles. This brooding German-language show is the sulky Teutonic cousin of Stranger Things. It opens with a secret liaison, a missing teen and an ominous-looking cave.

What appears to be an open-and-shut mystery investigation turns into a reality-bending plot with atmosphere in spades. A swamp worth wading in.

USP: Fantasy mystery from smalltown Europe.

Ideal audience: Armchair investigators after some dark relief.

Do say: “Turn the brightness down.”

Don’t say: “I can’t see the subtitles.”

Community

The lowdown: The most self-aware sitcom I can think of delights in taking established TV tropes and exploding them. It is wonderfully silly.

Alumni from Dan Harmon’s fantasy world set in an American community college include Donald Glover, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs and Joel McHale, plus scene-stealers like Ken Jeong.

For a taster, start with the paintball episodes and then move back to the beginning. All six seasons are on Netflix.

USP: TV that thinks outside the box.

Ideal audience: Students of television.

Do say: “Six seasons and a movie.”

Don’t say: “Season four is the standout.”

American Factory

Reuters

The lowdown: A superb documentary from the Obamas’ Netflix deal, which is being pumped into Oscar-winning, vital work.

Directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert keep the camera painfully close to an Ohio automative factory town as it is saved then crushed by big Chinese money. Painful and timely.

USP: Obamarama Netflix doc that won an Oscar.

Ideal audience: Worldy viewers who don’t mind despair.

Do say: “I wonder what they’re up to during lockdown?”

Don’t say: “I prefer the American Apprentice.”

@fish_o_wick

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