Pick of the week
The Beatles: Get Back
“There is a show to be had,” says John Lennon, “once we get over the nervousness.” The idea of a Beatle being nervous about a performance is almost inconceivable. But this tiny moment is typical of the casually revelatory nature of Peter Jackson’s startling three-part series on the making of the final Beatles album, Let It Be. With the help of footage rescued from a vault, the films pull off a seemingly impossible trick: rescuing the Beatles from their customary position, frozen at the peak of the pop canon, and repositioning them as a flesh-and-blood working band. Watching them interact – occasionally irritably but often with good humour – feels as close as we’ll ever come to deciphering their magic.
Disney+, from Thursday 25 November
***
True Story
In this intense, twisty, seven-part series, comedian Kevin Hart is playing a character at least partially inspired by himself: superstar comedian (see what he did there?) The Kid. Over the course of a debauched night out with his sketchy older brother Carlton (Wesley Snipes), things turn both sour and blurry. With the criminal underworld involved and celebrity reputation-management not completely compatible with doing the right thing, might the unfolding scandal threaten his career, or even his life? Hart’s own life has had its ups and downs, but let’s hope it has never been quite this chaotic.
Netflix, from Wednesday 24 November
***
Nail Bar Boys
Another of BBC Three’s cheerful, hyperactive slices of young British life. This time, a nail bar in Liverpool run by a posse of amiable, gawky British Vietnamese lads. “We’re like a boyband aren’t we?” says one, rather hopefully. But they absolutely aren’t and that’s part of their charm. Instead, a big chunk of their daily lives involves bemoaning their ongoing romantic struggles while flirting hopelessly with customers – Brandon, for example, spends some time telling a baffled punter about the voodoo curse holding him back. Slight but endearing stuff.
BBC Three, from Sunday 21 November
***
Selling Sunset
As damp, drizzly autumn settles in, it’s time to escape to the sun-dappled Hollywood Hills for another season of selling homes and throwing shade. As ever, the estate agency aspect of this show is simply the very distant subtext for the endlessly melodramatic reality show antics. For season four, the cast has been refreshed: there’s Vanessa Villela, a Mexican American telenovela star and Emma Herman who is an entrepreneur but, perhaps more relevantly for entertainment purposes, has a bit of history with the existing cast. Expect fireworks.
Netflix, from Wednesday 24 November
***
Hanna
A third and final season for this slick thriller about Hanna (the excellent Esme Creed-Miles), raised in a remote Polish forest and trained to be an assassin. The show’s appeal has always rested largely on the conflict between her unnerving professional expertise and ever-increasing emotional vulnerability as she chafes against the strangeness of her upbringing. This outing promises resolution as, with old nemesis Marissa Wiegler now onside, Hanna turns her attention to destroying her sinister handlers Utrax from within.
Amazon Prime Video, from Wednesday 24 November
***
Hawkeye
Bow and arrows at the ready because the latest offering from Marvel sees Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) join forces with his eventual replacement Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) for some festive hi-jinks. As Avengers fans will remember, Clint had a murderous wobble at the end of that series. Now, he’s attempting to pick up the pieces and get home to his folks for Christmas. But guess what? As a result of his vigilante spree, lots of very dangerous people want him killed, the scariest of whom might just be Florence Pugh’s deadly assassin Yelena.
Disney+, from Wednesday 24 November
***
’Twas the Fight Before Christmas
“I’m probably the only American to have been banned by a federal court from decorating for Christmas.” Jeremy Morris really likes Christmas. Possibly too much. Many of us will have had neighbours whose taste for tinsel has got slightly out of hand, but this alternately quirky, funny and dark documentary explores an obsession running out of control. When Morris’s taste for decorating his north Idaho home went nuclear, his neighbours objected; what followed tested the concept of goodwill to all men to destruction and beyond.
Apple TV+, from Friday 26 November
