Best new shows quick links
5 best new shows
Tucci in Italy (19 May) – Disney+
Series. We like Stanley Tucci. We like Italian food. We like seeing Stanley Tucci in Italy eating Italian food.
The actor regularly dubbed ‘the world’s sexiest bald man’ believes the best way to understand a country is through its food (especially on the production company’s dime, amirite?). Nowhere is this truer than in Italy, where the shape of your pasta and the sauce you serve it with says as much about you as a tattoo of Pavarotti on your forehead and arguments about how to make the best espresso … let’s not even go there, but it’s brutal!
In this new series, Tucci is on a culinary quest to explore the connection between the food, the land and the people of the country he loves. Look, we’re watching! Watch the trailer.
Motorheads Season 1 (20 May) – Prime Video
Series. Will we ever tire of coming-of-age stories? Not if they’re done well. In fact, even if they’re mediocre there’s something about that special time of life, before you realise the next few decades are almost exclusively about being tired and grumpy, when you still think you’re the star in some kind of coming-of-age TV show and that you actually matter, that you’re the person, rather than a person, just one more schmuck on the highway to hell.
This new series, we’re assured, is about first love, first heartbreak and turning the key in your first car. Set in a once-thriving rust-belt town that’s now searching for a glimmer of hope, it’s an adrenaline-filled story of a group of outsiders who form an unlikely friendship over a mutual love of street racing, while navigating the hierarchy and rules of high school.
Starring Ryan Phillippe, Nathalie Kelley and Melissa Collazo. Watch the trailer.
Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 (22 May) – Prime Video
Series. Nine new strangers connected in ways they could never have imagined are invited by mysterious (especially that accent) guru Masha Dmitrichenko to join a transformational wellness retreat in the Austrian Alps. And they take her up on it, the rich fools!
Over the course of a week, Masha takes the guests to the brink of … We don’t know – it’s just a brink, and brinks can be exciting or terrifying. Will they make it? Will she? Will we? Masha is willing to try anything to heal everyone, including herself.
(Read the ScreenHub review of Season 1)
Starring Nicole Kidman, Henry Golding, Lena Olin and (worth the price of entry alone) Murray Bartlett. Watch the trailer.
Sirens (22 May) – Netflix
Limited series. This dark comedy from Molly Smith Metzler looks promising for lots of reasons, and has some proper big names in it.
Devon Dewitt reckons her sister Simone has a really creepy relationship with her new boss (I mean, it’s right there in the fact it’s her BOSS, right … what is this, 1994?) Michaela Kell, an enigmatic socialite.
Michaela’s cult-like life of luxury is massively alluring to Simone and Devon has decided it’s time for an intervention – but doesn’t realise Michaela’s no pushover
Told over the course of one explosive weekend at the Kells’ lavish beach estate, it’s billed as ‘an incisive, sexy and darkly funny exploration of women, power and class’ – and that’s a pretty good start!
Starring Meghann Fahy, Milly Alcock, Julianne Moore and Kevin Bacon. Watch the trailer.
Pee-Wee as Himself (24 May) – Max
Series. We all know Pee-Wee, right? But do we really know Pee-Wee?
This two-part documentary series features what we’re told is a ‘soul-bearing’ interview with Paul Reubens, the man behind the iconic character Pee-wee Herman. We’ll learn all about him as an actor and comedian, and about his previously unknown personal life … that’s what they’re saying in the marketing, anyway – I mean, how much of anyone’s ‘unknown personal life’ do we really want to know, and where do we draw the line?
Reubens discusses his influences, origins in the circus, avant-garde performance theatre and career choices, while reflecting on the reasoning behind, and the consequences of, severing his beloved alter ego from his authentic self. Watch the trailer.
