Is Jim Carrey's new show Kidding worth your time?

Still, even as he endures his shellshocked new existence in his rented bedsit, Jeff remains a committed professional, going on Conan O'Brien's show to promote his new children's book. And it's there that Kidding, which reunites Carrey with director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), shows us what Mr Pickles means to everyone else.

When he pulls out a ukelele and starts on one of his best-loved songs, grizzled old fellow guest Danny Trejo and the whole studio audience erupt in a joyous singalong, oblivious to his heartbreak. Phew! What a sock in the old breadbasket.

Carrey has to make his character slightly larger than life but still much smaller than his own enormous type. Jeff is at once childlike, deeply principled and utterly naive to the ways of the unsentimental real world - yet still capable of significant passive aggression.

Carrey plays at all resolutely straight. The viewer's knowledge that that familiar row of pearly white choppers could at any moment burst out into a head-splitting Ace Ventura grin - and that it never will - adds greatly to the poignancy of it all.

But Kidding is no one-man show. Series creator Dave Holstein (Weeds) surrounds Mr Pickles with interesting characters, well cast, who have serious struggles of their own.

Jeff's son is uncomfortable in his own skin and coming under the influence of dope-smoking older kids; his comedically gruff dad and boss (Frank Langella) is dead against his new plan to teach America's children all about death; and his sister and puppet maker (Catherine Keener) has her hands full with an unruly little daughter and a big betrayal. It ain't family viewing but it will be interesting to see where it goes.

The Purge
Amazon Prime Video

How about a near-future dystopia in which the new "founding fathers" of America, having surfed into the White House on a tide of cash from rich donors, extol murderous street violence as patriotic virtue?

Well, some of us don't have to imagine it - series creator James DeMonaco has already brought us four Purge movies (the third of which is currently on Netflix). There are rules, though. It's only one night a year that America's police stand down and all crimes become legal. The first episode showed how things pan out: the smug rich celebrate, sipping champagne behind blast-proof doors while ordinary folk hunker down in terror of roaming gangs of sadistic psychos.

The episode arriving on Wednesday sees US Marine Miguel (Gabriel Chavarria) forced into a bloody, derivative detour on his search for his sister, Penelope (Jessica Garza). Penelope, of course, has joined a cult that has its devotees sacrifice themselves as victims to The Purge. The show is clearly in no hurry, so a deeper dive into the mythos would be nice.

Stay Here
Netflix

Interior designer Genevieve Gorder and real estate expert Peter Lorimer are travelling around the US, helping people to turn drab homes into flashy short-stay rentals, accelerating gentrification and making the neighbours' lives so much more interesting.

The first episode sees them head to the Seattle waterfront, where a couple are getting little return on their unrenovated 1980s houseboat. The rapid remodelling looks great, but viewers going the online-rental route will be most interested in the practical tips on welcome baskets, marketing and advertising.

Ghoul
Netflix

Who doesn't love an old-fashioned ghoul? The malevolent flesh-eaters of Arab legend have fired the imaginations of everyone from H. P. Lovecraft to Sui Ishida, the man behind the wildly popular Tokyo Ghoul (which is also on Netflix, as well as Animelab).

But the horror in this dark Indian miniseries isn't the sole preserve of the eponymous monster.

It's at a secret military torture site that that a zealous young interrogator (Radhika Apte) finds herself face to face with a notorious terrorist (Mahesh Balraj).

Gripping stuff.

60 Days In
Stan

A captivating documentary experiment in which a bunch of innocent volunteers go undercover as prisoners inside Indiana's violent, overcrowded Clark County Jail.

None of the corrections officers at the jail know what's going on - part of the volunteers' remit is to snitch on officers who help keep the place full of drugs.

Some of the volunteers, including Muhammad Ali's daughter Maryum, have some idea of what to expect. Others think they're about to expose a cushy taxpayer-funded holiday resort. Violence isn't far off.

Charles Bradley: Soul of America
DocPlay, iTunes

For decades American soul singer and latter-day Byron Bay Bluesfest favourite Charles Bradley toiled in obscurity, his difficult childhood leading to an adult life marked by poverty, illiteracy, homelessness and terrifying encounters with racist police.

This affecting documentary, which follows the 62-year-old Bradley in the lead-up to the release of his critically acclaimed debut album in 2011, does a fine job of recounting that story.

The music is wonderful and Bradley's emotional reaction to seeing his first music video a joy to behold.