Apple’s Physical, TVNZ+’s Twisted Metal among great shows available to stream this week

THE AFTERPARTY (APPLE TV+)

TV’s wild and wackiest crime-comedy is back. Known for its genre-bending approach to murder-solving, this 10-part second season keeps that conceit intact, while swapping the original run’s clifftop mansion for a country estate.

Solving pop-music icon and movie star Xavier’s murder has enabled Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) to retire. However, much to her book publicist’s frustration, work on X Marks The Murderer: A Detective True Life Mystery hasn’t progressed that quickly. Their showdown meeting though is interrupted by a blast from the past – escape room designer and former Xavier murder suspect Aniq (Sam Richardson) is in desperate need of her assistance.

Like the inaugural round, if the central mystery perhaps lacks the nuance, smarts or swagger of a Knives Out, Glass Onion or Poker Face,The Afterparty at least delivers plenty of laughs.

This is a show where you can see the seams, but some scenes and lines are side-splittingly funny.

THE BEAR (DISNEY+)

One of the hottest shows of last year is back for an extended 10-part second season.

Bringing in older sister Natalie (Abby Elliott) as a renovations project manager, chef Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) and his sous chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) work on developing a menu for their new restaurant, The Bear. To help get them off the ground, Carmy also strikes a deal with his Uncle Cicero (Oliver Platt) for an 18-month loan.

“Tackles everything from menu development to renovation woes with an appealing mix of warmth, dark humour and chaos,” wrote Time magazine’s Judy Berman.

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FUTURAMA (DISNEY+)

Picking up the action from the exact moment where we left things on this long-running, twice-cancelled animated sitcom almost a decade ago – the universe unfrozen after cryogenically preserved late-20th Century professional Philip J. Fry (Billy West) and his cyclops Planet Express co-worker/love interest Leela (Katy Segal) had decided to live their lives again – opening tale The Impossible Stream couldn’t really be more meta.

Whether Futurama will be able to maintain the quick quips and zeitgeist-reflecting sensibilities throughout this resurrection run remains to be seen, however, on the evidence of its first couple of episodes, it’s great to have it back.

Like The Simpsons, the delights are in the details, from pithy observations about the importance of TV show writers (never more timely than now) to the inspired titles on Fry’s EPG and Fulu homepage (who wouldn’t want to watch Say No to the Overalls, or Stanley Tucci: Searching for Alderaan?)

The Homer-esque robot Bender (John DiMaggio) is still the undoubted scene-stealer and series MVP, but it feels like he’s used a little more sparingly here giving the series a little more balance – and class – that it sometimes had towards the end of its last, Comedy Central-backed run.

GOOD OMENS (PRIME VIDEO)

Four years after the original adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s international best-selling 1990 novel earned rave reviews, David Tennant and Michael Sheen are back to explore more of the unlikely relationship between fussy angel and rare book dealer Aziraphale (Sheen) and fast-living demon Crowley (Tennant).

Having been on Earth since The Beginning – and with the Apocalypse thwarted – the duo are getting back to easy living amongst mortals in London’s Soho. That is, until the archangel Gabriel (Jon Hamm) turns up unexpectedly at the door of Aziraphale’s bookshop with no memory of who he is, or how he got there.

“Like the first season, Good Omens 2 is warm, inviting, weird, whip-smart, wonderfully diverse, very funny… and it’s really going to annoy the ‘anti-woke’ brigade,” wrote The New Statesman’s Marc Burrows, while Empire magazine’s Helen O’Hara thought that “it’s aggressively quirky and sometimes overly cute, but there’s too much acting talent in here for it not to be fun”.

PHYSICAL (APPLE TV+)

Rose Byrne returns for the third-and-final, 10-part season of this 1980-set dark comedy.

Having transformed from a quietly tortured housewife into a dominant fitness entrepreneur, her Sheila Rubin finds her new status challenged by rising “celebrity exercise goddess” Kelly Kilmartin (Zooey Deschanel), who becomes not only a professional threat, but manages to get inside her head.

“Physical at last finds the right marriage between the people in Sheila’s orbit and the ultra-compelling character at its centre,” wrote The Daily Beast’s Coleman Spittle, while Screen Anarchy’s Peter Martin thought that “healing takes time, as does Physical. It’s a good, absorbing journey, and gives viewers time to enjoy 10 more hours of Rose Byrne and the writers unpeeling unexpected layers of a character who still has miles to go before she rests”.

THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY (PRIME VIDEO)

Inspired by the best-selling trilogy of books by Jenny Han, this young adult drama enters its second, eight-part season with Belly (Lola Tung) unsure if summer at Cousins Beach will ever be the same again what with siblings Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) fighting over her heart and the Susannah’s (Rachel Blanchard) cancer returning.

However, when an unexpected visitor threatens the future of Susannah’s beloved house, Belly has to rally the gang to come together– and decide once and for all where her heart lies.

“Season 2’s emotional roller coaster serves as a harsh reminder that life isn’t always a beach, but its unique mix of ‘miserable and magical’ [as Taylor Swift – who features heavily on the soundtrack – would describe the events that take place] will keep you hooked until the end,” wrote Decider’s Nicole Gallucci.

TOTALLY COMPLETELY FINE (TVNZ+)

New Zealand’s own Thomasin McKenzie headlines this six-part black comedy about a young woman who inherits her grandfather’s coastal home, only to discover that it resides on a clifftop that is regularly used by people attempting to take their own lives.

Using her own chaotic brand of off-the-cuff psychology, McKenzie’s Vivian develops an unexpected knack for bringing people back from the brink.

Inspired by Sydney screenwriter Gretel Vella’s (The Great) own brushes with suicidal people during Covid lockdowns, Totally Completely Fine is a thought-provoking dramedy that shares her Russian tale’s twin strengths of edgy humour and compelling characters. There’s a hint of Offspring, a touch of Rake and soupçon of Deadloch in this potent cocktail, but it’s McKenzie who is Totally Completely Fine’s secret ingredient.

Her chaotic, depressed, dark eye shadow and black toenail polish-sporting Vivian is light years away from Life After Life’s Ursula Todd, Last Night in Soho’s Ellie Turner or Jojo Rabbit’s Elsa Korr. Yes, there’s a certain similarity in the strength of character they all need to survive their respective ordeals, but here McKenzie displays a so far reasonably untapped penchant for comedic timing and physical humour that really sells Vivian Cunningham to the audience.

TWISTED METAL (TVNZ+)

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’s Anthony Mackie plays a talkative milkman with amnesia, John Doe, in this 10-part post-apocalyptic wasteland-set action-comedy inspired by the classic PlayStation game series.

Offered the chance to secure a better future, he now must deliver a mysterious package with the help of car thief Quiet (Stephanie Beatriz). In their way are a series of open road dangers, including savage marauders.

The eclectic cast also includes Scream’s Neve Campbell and Spider-Man: No Way Home’s Thomas Haden Church.

“Twisted Metal turns an insanely funny video game into an insanely funny show, with a story,” wrote Chicago Sun-Times’ Richard Roeper, while AV Club’s William Hughes thought that “Mackie makes for exactly the lead this show needs, playing to its eschatological absurdities and its occasional feints towards deeper meaning”.