Pole to Pole with Will Smith (Disney+)
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Will Smith makes it to the top of a 300-foot ice wall during a 100-day journey that covered seven continents and resulted in a seven-part series.Freddie Claire/Supplied
Travelling can be a humbling experience, especially when you ditch the itineraries and immerse yourself in nature or local cultures. Perhaps that’s why Will Smith undertook his own 100-day, seven-continent journey for this latest series, to reconnect with himself after certain PR disasters involving Chris Rock.
Regardless of why he went on the journey, the actor shares a more humble side of himself with audiences as he participates in unique experiences such as catching anacondas, descending into holes for scientific discoveries and milking a venomous tarantula. It’s a project that took five years to come to fruition, with National Geographic cameras, experience and money behind it. The result is a seven-part visual and cultural feast for nature and travel lovers alike. The first two episodes are now streaming, with next instalments releasing weekly.
Riot Women (BritBox)
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Riot Women follows five women who form a punk band and enter a talent contest.Britbox
Menopausal, middle-aged and invisible. Those aren’t just the ways the women at the centre of BritBox’s latest comedy describe themselves, but those are also the inspirations behind the show’s music. Riot Women revolves around five women who create a punk-rock band and enter a local talent contest after they realize their lives haven’t turned out how they’d hoped. They long for something more amidst navigating adult children, aging parents and failed relationships, and bond over a shared love of music that brings more meaning to their lives than they thought possible.
This is a show about following your passions no matter how old you are, and recognizing that it’s never too late for a second start. Riot Women hails from Sally Wainwright, the same scribe who brought shows including Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax and Gentleman Jack to life.
Ponies (STACKTV)
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Haley Lu Richardson and Emilia Clarke play ‘persons of no interest’ in a period piece set in 1970s Moscow.Peacock
Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke and The White Lotus’ Haley Lu Richardson come together for this period piece of espionage, cold war and undercover antics. The actors play two PONIES (persons of no interest) who are tasked with gathering key evidence about the KGB after their spy husbands are killed.
There are big stunts and social statements to be made among the witty banter and fashionable outfits, with plenty of emotional moments to invest viewers in the characters. The 1970s Moscow setting and political atmosphere aren’t new, but the reframed female narrative offers a fresh perspective of the format, one in which the spies at the centre of the story aren’t immediately experts.
The Night Manager (Prime Video)
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Tom Hiddleston plays Jonathan Pine, a former military man turned hotel night manager.des willie/Amazon Prime
It’s not déjà vu. The second season of the series adapted from John le Carré’s novel returns a decade after the first, this time on Amazon’s streaming service rather than AMC. Tom Hiddleston returns as Jonathan Pine, a former military man turned hotel night manager. Nine years after the events of the first season, Pine is now going by Alex Goodwin, a low-level intelligence officer with MI6. But when he spots a former rival, he’s thrust back into the high-stakes life.
The season is one of two on tap from the streamer, and while it continues to draw from the novel for inspiration with returning characters, including Olivia Colman’s Angela Burr, it also goes beyond the source material to offer something new for fans of the famed Irish-British author.
A Sámi Wedding (CBC Gem)
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Norwegian dramedy A Sámi Wedding follows a woman trying to organize a massive wedding in record time.Supplied
Norwegian television isn’t all bleak noir crime dramas, as evidenced by the Canadian premiere of this eight-episode dramedy. The chaotic but enjoyable series takes place in the small Sámi town of Kautokeino, where a woman named Garen (Sara Margrethe Oskal) hopes that her son’s marriage into a wealthy family will boost her meagre social standing. But as she tries to put on the perfect, 3,000-person wedding in record time, and with the help of her own dysfunctional family, things obviously don’t go according to plan.
The series made its debut late last year at the Primetime section of TIFF and has earned acclaim for its mix of local traditions with modern realities. The result is a funny but heartfelt watch.
