Pick of the week
Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness
There’s starry, and then there’s getting Barack Obama to cold-open your new show. Still, while he has impressive friends these days, Larry David is still Larry David – as this irreverent response to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence proves. What unfolds is a sketch comedy – featuring Jon Hamm, Kathryn Hahn and Jerry Seinfeld – in which Larry brings the essence of Curb Your Enthusiasm to scenarios including Alexander Graham Bell’s first ever phone call and the horrors of trench warfare. Larry’s capacity for semi-innocent offence endures through the ages but one truth we surely all know is that sketch shows are patchy. This one is no exception.
HBO Max, out now
Rolf Harris: Primetime Predator
Like his TV contemporary Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris made it his business to be surrounded by children. In Nick Sweeney’s two-part documentary, the similarities are inescapable and grotesque. Both became huge stars by cultivating superficial images of gentle harmlessness. But both were hiding in plain sight – to watch the archive footage is to be struck by how little effort Harris made to conceal his true essence and the extent to which his employers appear to have looked the other way. The brave women testifying to Harris’s abuse are a chilling reminder of how childhood trauma can scar a whole life.
Prime Video, from Monday 29 June
Elle
The universe of the Legally Blonde films expands via this prequel which stars Lexi Minetree in the Reese Witherspoon role of Elle Woods. Minetree does a game job of catching Elle’s mixture of breeziness and brains. It’s 1995 and her Bel Air life is a pastel dream. However, her parents have a shock in store: the family is relocating to Seattle. Elle struggles to fit in at Grunge High (“I’m feeling very blond”) and even a boxfresh Nirvana T-shirt doesn’t do the trick. But before long, her relentless positivity is proving to be her not-so-secret weapon.
Prime Video, from Wednesday 1 July
Worst Neighbor Ever
“She’d be out there, mowing her yard naked,” recalls one woman of a neighbour who she had regarded as simply eccentric. From the team that brought us Worst Ex Ever and Worst Roommate Ever comes this bizarre, sometimes horrifying compendium of next-door nightmares. The tone is sometimes slightly confused, as if the show can’t decide if it wants to be a romp or a horror story. But the tales – which range from harassment and nuisance to property destruction and serious physical threat – make it compelling all the same. Watch and count a few blessings.
Netflix, from Wednesday 1 July
Survival of the Thickest
A third and final season for Michelle Buteau and Danielle Sanchez-Witzel’s body-positive comedy drama. And fittingly, given that the story began with a dumping, will the narrative go full circle? Could Mavis (Buteau) be about to put all her eggs in one romantic basket again? It’s starting to look that way – particularly as her new creative venture is receiving mixed notices. Survival of the Thickest ends as it began: it’s broad and simplistic but charming and funny too, maintaining its core values of respect and inclusivity, right to the end.
Netflix, from Thursday 2 July
Silo
Time to plunge back into subterranean dystopia as this claustrophobic sci-fi returns. Impossible as it is for the current inhabitants to imagine, there was a world before the Silo – and through the eyes of certain characters, we’re starting to get tantalising glimpses of it. Alongside this origin story, there’s present day jeopardy; a sense that the clock is ticking. Could it be time to risk returning to the surface? The world-building is convincing and the cast – including Rebecca Ferguson and Harriet Walter – is impressively downtrodden and defiant.
Apple TV, from Friday 3 July
The Simpsons: Simpsley
It’s easy to forget that this era-defining cartoon is still going. But even if the quality now feels variable, the episodes keep coming. This summer, the family is embarking on a series of standalone adventures. In August, there’s a Black Mirror spoof. This week, there’s this riff on The Talented Mr Ripley, where penniless con artist Marge Bouvier is sent to Italy to convince wealthy waster Seymour Skinner to come home. When she gets a glimpse of his lifestyle, her plans change – but she’s reckoned without his layabout guest, Homer Simpsley.
Disney+, from Friday 3 July