Netflix
The Get Down
With the excellent Crazy Ex-Girlfriend proving that musicals on TV needn’t be a disaster, now seems a good time for Baz Luhrmann to enter the fray. His new Netflix series charts the period in New York’s history when the dying days of disco intersected with the birth of hip-hop, told through the eyes of a group of artistically inclined South Bronx teens. If you can deal with the strange juxtaposition between gritty archive footage and overwrought song-and-dance numbers, there’s plenty to enjoy here, not least the period costumes.
Available from Friday
YouTube
Hot Ones
The “extreme food” genre seems as unstoppable as it is unappetising, with videos of people eating dangerously hot, sour or fatty things making up an increasingly hefty portion of YouTube’s output. This US webseries from First We Feast at least manages to smuggle some engaging conversation in with the pain, as comedians including David Cross and rappers such as Coolio are interviewed while sampling increasingly spicy hot wings. The pick of the contributors are sketch duo Key and Peele, whose appalled reactions to these piquant treats (“Let’s be honest, you put battery acid in this bottle”) also prove very funny.
Available now
Her Story
Transgender representation on the small screen has vastly increased in recent years. However, the latest trans-related narrative to gain acclaim – even snagging an Emmy nomination – isn’t another big-budget production but rather a crowdfunded webseries. Her Story follows Paige and Violet, two trans women navigating the Los Angeles dating scene and even encountering prejudices within the LGBT community itself – not least when Violet becomes involved with Allie, a lesbian who has never dated a trans woman before. This highly original six-part series certainly gives bigger shows such as Amazon’s Transparent a run for their studio-backed money.
Amazon
Life In Pieces
This zippily paced US comedy follows three generations of the Short clan (pictured, above left) as they face life’s trials and triumphs. Each episode is told in four sections, through the eyes of a different branch of the family. Starring Colin Hanks, Betsy Brandt (AKA Skyler’s difficult sister Marie in Breaking Bad) and The Newsroom’s Thomas Sadoski, the opening episode covers everything from love after divorce to the difficulties of staging a fake funeral. The entire series is online now. Available now
BBC iPlayer
Cold War: Stories From The Big Freeze
From conflict in Korea to the Cuban missile crisis, former BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall’s oral history is a reminder of the confusions and contradictions of life during the early cold war. This Radio 4 series combines interviews with those who lived through the period with clips from the BBC’s extensive archives. The three tales featured in the Berlin Wall episode are particularly captivating.
Available now
