5 best new shows: quick links
5 best new shows
The Mortician (2 June) – Max
Series. The word ‘feel-good’ doesn’t exactly jump to mind with this one … but the words ‘gruesomely fascinating’ do. This three-part documentary series chronicles a trusted family-owned funeral home in California that hid behind a façade of decency and propriety to take advantage of loved ones at their most vulnerable.
In the early 1980s, David Sconce, scion of the Lamb family, took over the family business and sought to exploit the deceased in numerous ways to expand their earnings. Driven by profit, the Lamb Funeral Home engaged in years of morally questionable and inhumane practices.
And by inhumane … Sconce was sentenced to five years for, among other things, mutilating corpses.
Towards Zero (3 June) – BritBox
Miniseries. An adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel? Another one‽ That’s OK – we like them!
When an elderly widow is brutally murdered in her quiet Gull’s Point home, Inspector Leach is thrust into a web of shocking twists. A failed suicide attempt, a false theft accusation, a malfunctioning hotel lift, and a tennis star’s tangled love life – what do these events have in common?
As Leach digs deeper, the connections between them become impossible to ignore, leading to a dark and unexpected truth.
Starring Mimi Keene, Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Claudie Blakley. Watch the trailer.
Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee Season 2 (4 June) – ABC iview
Series. What started as a Zoom then YouTube series during those dark and dismal days of Covid, is now a returning (and happy-making) series in these dark and dismal days of … everything …
Hosted by New Zealand comedian Guy Montgomery and his assistant Aaron Chen, Season 2 sees an all-new line-up of Australian comedians battling to prove they are the best and brightest on a game show that turns a traditional spelling bee upside down.
They’ll attempt new words, unusual definitions and have to decipher Guy’s hidden meanings while trying to take the top spot and win a one-way ticket to the following episode. Watch the trailer.
Stick (4 June) – Apple TV+
Series. The fact this one’s been pitched as a ‘heartfelt, feel-good comedy’ goes a fair way/ fairway to helping us get our heads from the bunker and give it a shot.
It’s about a found family and their relationships set within the world of golf. Owen Wilson stars as Pryce Cahill, an over-the-hill, ex-pro golfer whose career was derailed prematurely 20 years ago.
After the collapse of his marriage and getting fired from his job at an Indiana sporting goods store, Pryce hedges his bets, and future, entirely on a troubled 17-year-old golf phenomenon called Santi.
Starring Owen Wilson, Peter Dager and Marc Maron. Watch the trailer.
Ginny and Georgia Season 3 (5 June) – Netflix
Series. A lot will depend on whether you’ve seen Seasons 1 and 2, and if you haven’t you can watch them right now – go on, we can’t stop you!
It’s a comedy-drama. It’s American. It’s about an angsty awkward teenage girl called Milly whose mum, Georgia, is doing her best to quit her wild ways and give her family a ‘normal life’ in leafy New England. It’s been described as Desperate Housewives meets Gilmore Girls, and a bit trashy (but, like, good trash).
Starring Brianne Howey, Antonia Gentry, Felix Mallard and Sara Waisglass. Watch the trailer.
