TV: 7 Days In Hell
Andy Samberg and Game Of Thrones’s Kit Harrington star in this raucous HBO parody of ESPN sport documentaries. They play rival tennis players – Samberg’s a brash McEnroe type in his twilight years, Harrington a dimwitted child prodigy – who are drawn into the longest match in the sport’s history. 7 Days In Hell is almost entirely silly, and some of its many jokes fall horribly flat, but there’s an agreeably goofy energy to the thing and some great guest appearances to boot, including Lena Dunham as a sportswear magnate and Michael Sheen as a lecherous talkshow host.
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TV: Escape From Isis
A breathtakingly bold piece of journalism, Escape From Isis uses covert footage to document the mistreatment of women by the Islamist terrorist organisation, as well as the underground network working to save them. As you’d imagine, it’s at times a profoundly unpleasant, if entirely necessary, watch, though the deeply affecting sight of captives reuniting with their families does provide a tiny spark of optimism. Watch on All4.
Video: 8-Bit Philosophy
Recognising that Mario and Zelda are more likely to grab your attention than dusty old textbooks, this web series sees philosophical concepts visualised through 1980s-style 8-bit animations. A recent episode saw the show talk us through the works of Judith Butler, a contemporary feminist philosopher, with the help of Pac-Man, while elsewhere Nietzsche and Derrida are also mused upon, via Mega Man and Double Dragon respectively.
TV: Extant
The first series of CBS’s sci-fi thriller, about an astronaut who returns home from a solo space journey mysteriously pregnant, managed to generate a creepy ambience, and not a great deal else. That said, a dramatic retooling of the show is promised in this second series, and we’re willing to give anything that features both Halle Berry (as the show’s lead character Molly Woods) and Steven Spielberg (as executive producer) a second go-around. New episodes will appear on Amazon Prime each week, less than 24 hours after they have aired in the US.
Radio: Music Box With Guy Garvey
Who would you rather trust: Spotify’s ropey recommended artists algorithm or the discerning tastes of Elbow Guy Garvey? If it’s the latter, and it should be, check out Garvey’s new iPlayer series, in which he highlights artists worthy of your attention, beginning with glitchy indie outfit Here We Go Magic. Available from Thursday.
