Two big TV shows you need to binge today

Add these to your must-watch list immediately...

• Everyone thought Covid-19 would bring the TV industry to its knees, but it’s not true! There’s a tonne of great stuff to watch, and new seasons of Better Call Saul, Succession and The Handmaid’s Tale are on their way. But here are two new shows you can and should binge from today. Do it! Let’s go…

New Zealand Today (Three)

When Guy Williams had his first solo show axed in 2019, the caustic Jono & Ben sidekick was gutted.

“I've been at TV3 for almost 10 years and every year I assumed I'd get cut,” he told Stuff.co.nz at the time. “This was the one year I felt confident I'd be back.”

That’s because his show, New Zealand Today, was brilliant, an uproarious love letter to small town New Zealand that gently mocked Kiwi stereotypes and unearthed some genuinely wonderful people along the way. (Here’s a list of some of the first season’s highlights to jog your memories.)

I’m happy to report that New Zealand Today returns for a second season from tonight, and it’s just as good as the first.

Williams is swinging bigger, with better stories and major set pieces helping investigate his claim of corruption over Fielding’s continued success in the best New Zealand town awards. At one point, he gets booed out of a debate with the town’s mayor.

Despite Williams’ claim that he’s a fake journalist, there are genuine stories and big gets in New Zealand Today, which doesn’t shy away from the icky stuff. In tonight’s episode, he takes one interviewee to task for using the word “gay” as an adjective. Good.

But it’s when Williams is out walking the streets and interacting with everyday Kiwis that he really shows his skills.

Early on in tonight’s episode, Williams wanders into a store called “Discount Tob” - it stands for “discount tobacco”, they’re just not allowed to say that - and sticks a microphone under the store owner’s protective grill.

He then has one of the funniest and most Kiwi conversations I’ve ever heard. It’s pure genius - and New Zealand Today is full of that.

Them (Amazon Prime Video)

In the 1950s, a coloured American family moved into a white neighbourhood in Compton, and, well, you can probably guess what happens next.

Except you can’t. Them, screening from today on Amazon Prime Video, sets up a situation in which you probably feel like you know what’s about to happen.

Yes, there’s overt, explicit, horrifying and constant racism in this otherwise nice looking neighbourhood. Residents react badly to their new neighbours, staring at them constantly, playing loud music outside their door while attempting to scare them away.

It’s what they do next - which I won’t spoil here - that’s really shocking.

But, like The Terror, Them adds supernatural elements into an otherwise true depiction of what really happened back then, a nicely timed metaphor for the real-life horrors a coloured family is experiencing on an everyday basis.

The tension is palpable, the episodes are often harrowing. But if you liked Jordan Peele’s Us, or American Horror Story, then Them is definitely for you.

Three other things that should be on your radar…

• The new season of The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t far away! Mark April 28 in your diary for some bleak apocalyptic Americana hell raising. Elisabeth Moss is going to war…

• The Loki trailer looks actually really surprisingly good? I don’t care for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but Tom Hiddleston is so great. This one’s landing in June…

• And finally, check out the trailer for Made For Love, a new HBO series starring the always awesome Cristin Milioti who is escaping a tech sex cult run by her husband. He’s planted a chip inside her brain to track her. Hopefully this one will be available on Neon soon…

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