When They See Us Netflix
The Planets (BBC Two) | iPlayer
What We Do in the Shadows (BBC Two) | iPlayer
Chernobyl Sky Atlantic
Confessions of a Serial Killer (Channel 4) | All 4
The US drama When They See Us dealt with the horrific case of the Harlem teenagers (four African American, one Hispanic) who were intimidated by police into fake-confessing to the appalling Central Park rape of a jogger, Trisha Meili, in 1989. A certain Donald Trump featured in the drama in real-life news bulletins – younger, but still with a face like mashed potato stabbed with a pencil; still dressed like a faulty Ken doll trying and failing to hide a pot belly. Showing the “stinking-rich blowhard” form that would become his political signature, Trump stirred up public anger against the accused, paying for ads calling for the death penalty (the boys were 14 to 16 years old). However, as demonstrated by Ava DuVernay’s elegantly hard-hitting, four-part series craven lies and structural racism were already crushing the teenagers and their powerless, impoverished families.
This was tough viewing, as we witnessed the tearful, dazed teenagers, illegally interviewed alone, bullied, beaten and tricked into “confessing” on videotape to group rape, then sentenced to between five and 15 years – with 16-year-old Korey Wise (played by Jharrel Jerome) sent to suffer particularly horrendous abuse in adult prison. Eventually the real culprit confessed, but even scenes of the Central Park Five’s release (ultimately, they were jointly recompensed $41m) were shot through with pathos.
When They See Us wasn’t perfect – it was light on the suffering of Meili (who was unable to remember what happened). However, in a case that remains controversial to this day, the drama succeeded in giving the wronged teenagers their voice. With overall pitch-perfect performances, special mention should go to the actors playing the accused as teenagers (Caleel Harris, Asante Blackk, Ethan Herisse, Marquis Rodriguez – with Jerome superb as both young and old versions of Wise). Felicity Huffman (who recently pleaded guilty in her own trial, regarding the college admissions scheme scandal) also convinced as the hard-bitten prosecutor, as did Michael K Williams, Niecy Nash and John Leguizamo as the devastated parents trapped in a legal-racial hornets’ nest. Sometimes there was a crackle of period detail (Walkmans, Fight the Power, shoulder pads) but it wasn’t overplayed. This was a dignified production about justice subverted to suit murky agendas. Has Trump ever apologised – even for his calls for the death penalty for children? Take a wild guess.
Professor Brian Cox retained his singular presenting style (think hipster-Dementor) for his new series, The Planets. The opening episode dealt with the four rocky planets closest to the sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars), with intriguing visuals – who’d have thought that the surface of Mercury would resemble my skin at 14? Cox explained that the other “rockies” once had Earth-like conditions, and Earth’s “moment” would also be over once the sun turns into a red giant and cools – though that’s in several billion years, so don’t panic and start stockpiling tins of Big Soup for your underground bunker just yet. Cox could tone down the intergalactic am-dram just a tad (Venus was “a vision of hell where no life can survive”), but there was much to amaze – just the bit about ocean worlds of liquid methane was more visual and stirring than the entire last series of Game of Thrones.
What We Do in the Shadows is the hilarious TV spin-off from the cult 2014 film from Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), with both men still involved. Instead of tortured, pouting True Blood-style vampires, this lot are like the dork-undead that Nosferatu might have met on holiday, and then regretted exchanging numbers with. Shot in documentary fashion and set on Staten Island, it boasts an amazing cast, including Kayvan Novak as Nandor the Relentless, Matt Berry as foppish braggart Laszlo and Natasia Demetriou as bloodsucking-Kate Bush-alike Nadja. There’s also Harvey Guillén as Nandor’s plaintive familiar Guillermo, and “energy vampire” Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch), who drains people and vampires alike with his excruciating dullness: “We’re the most common kind of vampire.”
Highlights this time (there are two weekly episodes) included Colin’s office romance with Vanessa Bayer’s “emotional vampire” Evie (E-V, geddit?), which had to be called off, Colin parting with the words: “I wish you nothing but continued success feeding on the addled-brained cattle that waste their lives around us.” The vampires also met the king of the Manhattan vampires at his trendy niterie (“Everyone looks like Billy Idol”). Generally, the vampires have meetings in “the Fancy Room”, shout “Bat!” to turn into bats to escape, hiss and bare their fangs when they’re angry or pleased, and bicker and flounce. Nandor to Guillermo: “You’re still angry about that vampire trying to eat you, aren’t you?” “Yes.” “Don’t deny it!” Just in terms of sheer daftness, it’s a gem.
In its penultimate episode, Chernobyl, Craig Mazin’s miniseries about the 1986 nuclear disaster, continued to exude stark, brutal magnificence, with lethal shards of the shattered reactor core having to be cleared from rooftops, babies born dead, and household pets shot. Directed by Johan Renck, this has been an astonishing, disturbing series: desolate but also uplifting, with doomed courage to be found everywhere. Everything has been beautifully articulated – from the devastating human cost to the science of radiation to the machinations of the Soviet system. I’ve even enjoyed the architecture and drab decor.
Chernobyl’s thumping heartbeat is the growing bond between scientist Legasov (Jared Harris) and Soviet official Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgård), both excellent. This time, Shcherbina bleakly rounded on physicist Khomyuk (a superbly restrained Emily Watson) as she pleaded for the truth to be told: “What you’re suggesting is that Legasov humiliate a nation that is obsessed with not being humiliated?” Unmissable.
In the documentary Confessions of a Serial Killer, Ben Zand looked at the case of Samuel Little, already a convicted rapist and murderer, who has confessed to raping and killing more than 90 other women over four decades. If all the confessions turn out to be true, Miller will be the deadliest serial killer in US history. In audio recordings never heard before, Miller was as chilling as expected, musing almost conversationally: “I try to trace back to when I became attracted to a woman’s throat.” Miller also admitted to targeting women who were less likely to be missed – which meant mainly African American sex workers.
Travelling from California to the deep south, Zand challenged police officers from the time about whether these kinds of victims were deemed so “disposable” that their deaths would fail to be properly investigated, leaving Miller free to kill again. Despite the cagey and blustering responses, the truth seemed to be as clear as it was depressing.
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