‘Three Identical Strangers’

Three adopted teenage boys discover they are identical triplets separated at birth. Their investigations into why return unexpected answers.

On his first day at a new college in upstate New York in 1980, a shy Bobby Shafran is baffled by the enthusiastic greetings he receives from returning students. They are mistaking him for Eddy Galland who turns out to be Bobby’s identical twin. Neither were aware of the other. The story takes a further bizarre twist when, the result of media coverage, David Kellman is added to the mix, resulting in identical triplets rather than twins. They enjoy the limelight of the resulting media frenzy – three identical 19 year-olds with similar characteristics and likes are perfect chat show material. But a darker side reveals something much more questionable. Finding details of their birth mother is relatively straightforward but (to this day) redacted information about the process of adoption and information kept from parents is unnerving as the story becomes touched by tragedy [no spoilers].

More than five years in the making, the admittedly overlong Three Identical Strangers is a determined, dogged documentary from Tim Wardle as a biopic evolves into investigative journalism. Interviews, archival and current, with the triplets, living parents and family members add to the sense of confusion with a process that did not always take into account the boys’ best interest.

Rating: 64%

Director: Tim Wardle (One Killer Punch, Lifers)

‘Pam & Tommy’

A confronting yet enjoyable eight part miniseries that follows Baywatch TV star Pamela Anderson’s wild whirlwind romance with Tommy Lee which results in marriage after only 96 hours.

Two phenomenal performances anchor the crazed narrative of this hugely entertaining if occasionally confronting eight episoder. As Anderson, Lily James grows in stature, demanding to be heard above and beyond the ‘all swimsuit and dumb blonde’ label attached by the Baywatch showrunners. And the initially ever-supportive cocaine-fueled Tommy Lee brilliantly played by Sebastian Stan is inconsistent, anarchic and occasionally terrifying – as electrician Rand (Seth Rogen) finds out early on in the story.

It’s the decision to position the focus of the narrative from Rand’s perspective that makes for an interesting telling. Struggling financially, the electrician and former part-time porn performer finds Lee’s refusal to pay his bills a challenge. Revenge is sweet as Rand steals the enormous safe from Lee’s garage. And in that safe…. the famed personal sex tape. The non-too-bright Rand thinks he’s struck gold – as does adult film producer and former employer Uncle Miltie (Nick Offerman).

The newly weds are not aware initially that the tape has gone: the early episodes interweave crazed marital bliss with Rogen and Offerman exploring ways of exploiting the footage (it’s the early 90s – the internet is in its infancy and there were no privacy laws covering such material). Even when it becomes public, the knowledge of the release takes time to filter down. But when the penny finally drops, the repercussions are massive. So begins a destructive domino principle as lives are changed forever – none more so than that of Pamela Anderson, desperate as she was to be taken seriously as an actor. Such personal material in the public domain is personally and professionally destroying. Lee is equally outraged but fails to understand his wife’s distraught view that as a woman things are far worse for her. Desperate to minimise the attention, she is ignored as Lee and his band of lawyers look to legal action after legal action, resulting in the controversy snowballing.

To add controversy to scandal, Pamela Anderson herself was none too happy about the unauthorised revisiting of the story. But there’s no denying the power of the tale and, prodigious talking prosthetics aside, Pam & Tommy is extremely well made.

Rating: 71%

‘Killing Eve’ (All 4 Seasons)

An unofficial fascination with presumed female assassins results in MI5 agent Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) leading a covert MI6 team headed by the highly irregular Carolyn Martens (Fiona Shaw). A series of high profile deaths, seemingly unconnected, are believed to be linked to one operative – Villanelle (Jodie Comer).

Initially working out of Paris, the stylish Villanelle and her handler Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) work for The 12, a secretive oligarch that commission Villanelle (and others) to assassinate – industrialists, politicians, spies. But as Eve is to discover only too quickly, the spy webs, legal or otherwise, are inextricably linked – Carolyn Martens seems to know everyone, with a number, including Konstantin, former lovers.

Obsession leads to obsession as both Oh and Comer also become inextricably linked over the four seasons as action switches from London to Moscow to Paris to Rome to Barcelona to Havana to Berlin. They consume each other as deaths mount, leads fail to produce the desired results and Shaw’s loyalties are less than apparent. It’s The 12 they’re all ostensibly looking for but Killing Eve is as much about the relationships between the four as it is about the murderous threat to European stability. Along the way, Eve loses her husband Niko (Owen McDonnell), tired as he is of the disconnect that has developed between them, as Villanelle disposes of the Russian family she thought was dead.

It’s a gorgeously told series of narratives, visceral in appeal as the malevolent glamour and violence of Villanelle is balanced with the married ordinariness of Oh. But roles flip as the series develops. Freed from the contraints of that married ordinariness, it’s Eve who, by the end, becomes the stronger character chasing down leads that will reveal the identity of The 12. Mordant wit abounds as the three women lock horns. Sadly, season three lost the edginess of the first two seasons written by Emerald Fennell as a somewhat uncertain, ungrounded Eve drifts through the tracking down of the ever untouchable Villanelle. But four sees a resurgence in the narrative. A more vulnerable Villanelle is finally reachable and the full extent of Carolyn’s behind-the-scenes machinations become apparent – particularly when another assassin, Pam (Anjana Vasan), trained by Konstantin, appears on the scene.

Rating: 77%

‘Welcome to Chippendales’

The extraordinary genesis tale told over eight episodes of the LA-based Chippendales night club founded by Somen ‘Steve’ Banerjee and the original home of the male-stripper phenomenon that is The Chippendales.

From drug abuse to murder, money laundering to lawsuits, racism to homophobia Welcome to Chippendales (directed by Matt Shakman and written by Robert Siegel) is an unexpected gamut of dramatic and melodramatic power struggles as Banerjee (Kumail Nanjiani) looks to hold on to the company he formed. As an immigrant, it’s his American dream and it’s this that was being undermined, having struggled to make a success of himself since arriving from India. Mistakes had been made along the way but having invested all he had in the lease of a closed-down club in West Hollywood, to Banerjee he deserved the accolades for the founding of The Chippendales. He dreamt of being the next Hugh Hefner.

Problem is those mistakes cost dearly. Through advice, Banerjee had reluctantly tapped into the emerging 1970s women’s equality movement. Men have strip clubs, so why not women? Hen nights and the like aplenty as women flocked – but same men same routines resulted in no returning audiences. Two significant figures entered Banerjee’s life at this juncture. Accountant and reluctant audience member Irene (Annaleigh Ashford) who was to later become Banerjee’s wife. And Emmy-award winning television personality and choreographer Nick De Nola (Murray Bartlett).

Irene turned the finances around. It was she who was the powerhouse to Banerjee’s early ideas. A one-off choreography commission from De Nola was to escalate into the opening of a (more tasteful) New York venue and the touring arm of The Chippendales. Only Banerjee and De Nola were like chalk and cheese: no matter how successful, the two clashed. Banerjee had the need for recognition but his skills were limited. The more arrogant, strutting De Nola attracted the accolades for the success without due acknowledgement of his employer. The situation was not helped by Banerjee’s greed and lack of business acumen: mistakes cost the company millions of dollars. De Nola running New York and the State-wide tour was bringing in the money, not LA.

In spite of the profits being made, the antagonism Banerjee felt could not be left to rest. Appeals fell on deaf ears. Actions taken were to lead to tragic consequences that threatened the very existence of The Chippendales as the FBI tracked the movements and business deals made between LA and New York. It’s an extraordinary eight episodes as uptight LA is juxtaposed with the monied partying of New York as De Nola and lover Bradford (Andrew Rannells) along with business associate Denise (Juliette Lewis) take everything to the extreme – but continue to make money and lots of it.

Rating: 67%

’Beef’

Award-winning 10 part dark comedy of a miniseries, Beef sees two people consumed by road rage and a continued determination to get one up on each other for months after the event.

An LA car park and a near collision sees the luxury white SUV driven by Amy Lau (Ali Wong) and the ute of Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) involved in a crazy car chase around the suburban streets. Nothing comes of the chase but the two now know each other’s identity and place of work and home. (In the States a payment will provide personal details of the holder of a given car registration).

Cue 10 episodes of dark comedy that palpably build over time as the two go to extraordinary lengths to better the other in order to appease their simmering anger.

Amy is a wealthy business woman on the verge of selling her company for a small fortune. But the buyer, billionaire Jordan (Maria Bello), has been stringing her out for some time, placing obstacles to the sale. A fraught Amy, already liable to bouts of depression, struggles with anger issues that cause problems with her Zen-like husband George Nakai (Joseph Lee) and a mother-in-law she does not like (Patti Yasutake).

Danny Cho is frustrated and angry – a struggling electrician who feels marginalised as a Korean in the US but also has family issues: his parents have returned to Korea following the collapse of their motel business and his live-in younger brother Paul (Young Mazino) prefers video games to work. His recenty paroled wheeler-dealer cousin Isaac (David Choe) contributed to the demise of the family business. How far can Danny trust him and his ideas?

From ‘simple’ vandalism, revenge escalates. Danny befriends an unaware George: Amy has an affair with Paul. Isaac causes all kinds of trouble. The two also try to get on with their own lives – Amy through work and her family, Danny through the Church. Much of it is in the realms of possibility. Until the final episode at least. By the last episode it’s all seemingly too late even if, at different points throughout the 10-part series, each has reached a possible stopping point. But always at the wrong moment. The explosive finale blows all that out the window as the two finally reach a level of self-awareness. But at great cost to themselves and others.

Created by Lee Sung Jin, Beef beautifully plays on the ‘I’m in the right here’ mode as the incident comes when both Amy and Danny were each at moments of uncertainty in their lives. The need for self confirmation is epitomised by their determination to ‘win’ (without knowing what that actually means).

Rating: 69%

’The Morning Show’ (Season 3)

And so to season three of the high quality American newsroom-based series with more than a threat to the independence of the delivery of that news.

The If it works, why fix it? approach is very much in evidence with season three as network CEO Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) continues to manipulate and power broke behind the scenes whilst the internecine struggles on the floors below continue with Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) and Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) centre stage. Only there are significant changes with Witherspoon, in terms of screen time if not impact of storyline, less apparent. And then there’s the high level fallout from the leak of all the personal data highlighting the racial division and discrimination at UBA to deal with.

As well as the reveal in variations in salary packages, one immediate outcome is the profiling of the affair between Jackson and Laura Peterson (Julianna Marguiles), Levy’s temporary replacement in season two. It’s this that results in less screen time for Witherspoon, the two women chosing to slip away to Montana and keep a low profile. But work is never far away and the two are compromised by family issues and the White House riot seriously impacting on Jackson’s professionalism – brother Hal (Joe Tippett) having been filmed by Jackson herself assaulting a security officer.

Back in New York, Ellison needs a huge injection of cash to prevent bankruptcy – and billionaire entrepreneur Paul Marks (Jon Hamm) is the target as a possible buyout from Cybil Richards (Holland Taylor) and the less than enthusiastic board. Cue a hugely reluctant Alex Levy as the star name to travel to Texas and generally charm Marks. It’s the main season three plotline that ebbs and flows throughout the 10 episodes as that suspicion of each other gradually gives way to something more personal. Levy sees it as her opportunity to get a place on the board whilst there’s plenty of power games being played out: Ellison’s position is not helped by the mutual dislike between him and Marks and his animosity with the board, Leonard Cromwell (Stephen Fry) in particular.

But The Morning Show interweaves personal and professional stories of other members of the team – with the cool and sassy Stella Bak (Greta Lee), president of UBA’s news division, carrying baggage from her knowledge of Marks. To divulge or take the billions of dollars is no easy decision, particularly when there are thousands of jobs at stake. One of those jobs is producer of Levy’s program, Mia Jordan (Karen Pittman), who, ever present in the three seasons, is given more of her own story – a professional woman who has given up affairs of the heart to focus on her career. News photographer Andre Ford (Clive Standen) is her secret lover but Mia has just sent him into a highly dangerous job in the Ukraine.

It’s the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the White House riots and the overturning of the Roe vs. Wade abortion laws that form the (real) news behind the scenes, providing much needed grounding for what is a superior but wholly engrossing soap opera melodrama. Bring on season 4.

Rating: 68%

‘Harley & Katya’

History-making ice-skating pair climb their way to success but the ultimate cost is tragedy.

Skating since the age of four, the dimunitive Ekaterina ‘Katya’ Alexandrovskaya was a product of the fully-funded Russian sporting system. Expectation was high, but at 15 she found it difficult to find the right partner. Harley Windsor was the other end of the spectrum, arriving late (and by chance) to the sport and forced to self-finance – no easy matter for a working-class indigenous family from Western Sydney. But connections via the local ice-rink and Russian trainers led Harley to Moscow and Katya, four years his junior.

Pairing up and based in Sydney the two rose through the junior ranks. But it was a struggle – financially for both, emotionally for Katya, separated from family and with poor English, forced through necessity to live in the home of her Russian coaches. As they strive for excellence, Katya in particular becomes increasingly distracted and unfocussed both on and off the ice.

No spoilers but as a documentary, Harley & Katya slowly reveals the cost paid in the search for excellence. Archive material and interviews with Harley, family members and officials involved in the (voluntary) Australian Ice-Skating Committee piece together the unfolding of the pair’s history. It’s a fascinating insight. But there’s an imbalance – in part inevitable by the nature of events. Media spotlight throughout was on Harley as a young indigenous man representing Australia in a winter sport – this along with language saw Katya excluded. And so with director Selina Miles’ film. Katya and her story is notable by absence. The result is dissatisfaction with the film with so many questions left unanswered.

Rating: 57%

Director: Selina Miles (Martha: A Picture Story, TV’s The Wanderers)

’Ted Lasso’ (Season 3)

The third and final season of Ted Lasso neatly ties up loose ends (and unravels a few others) as the much loved American coach of Richmond AFC follows the inevitable path scaffolded in season two.

Plenty of subtexts maintain interest as a generally predictable plotline unfolds – with that underlying competitive streak between key personalities of Richmond and London rivals West Ham, a team now managed by former bootboy Nathan (Nick Mohammed).

Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) as owner of Richmond takes the moral high-ground against philandering former husband Rupert (Anthony Head) – and now she has to deal with the fall out from the purchase of superstar Zava (Maximillian Osinski) and the proposed international super league. Closer to home, Roy (Brett Goldstein) and Keeley (Juno Temple) have split – with Keeley, having left Richmond to set up an independent advertising agency finds herself involved in an unexpected and steamy relationship with Jack (Jodi Balfour). But Roy is never far away when needed – even providing former nemesis Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster) support when needed. But central remains manager Ted (Jason Sudeikis) as he navigates depression caused by the separation from his family that even success on the field cannot fully rectify.

Sadly, season three is a patchy affair. A squirm-inducing petulance of an episode when the Richmond/West Ham rivalry hits rock bottom is the nadir of Ted Lasso as a series. And the ill-conceived, childish Zava subplot adds little and detracts from the central relationships between players and backroom staff. And that is ultimately what Ted Lasso is about. Outfield football scenes are generally amateur – the real interest lies with the soapy melodramas of Rebecca’s quest for love, Roy’s softening of attitude, Sam Obisinya’s (Toheeb Jimoh) restaurant, the friendships and banter of the players. And after three seasons, Ted Lasso introduced plenty of likeable characters and storylines to hold interest, even if season three failed in consistency of its storylines.

Rating: 63%

’Feud’

A legendary feud between two legendary screen idols comes to a head with the making of the 1962 feature Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? – the first time Bette Davis and Joan Crawford had shared the limelight in the same film.

It’s a delicious premise as the once most beautiful woman in the world (Crawford – Jessica Lange) is pitched head to head with the once most talented woman in the world (Davis – Susan Sarandon). With their popularity on the wane with few roles for older women (extraordinarily they were both only in their mid-50s), both stars need the feature to be a success. As does director Robert Aldrich (Alfred Molina) – his last few films have all bombed at the box office.

The alcoholic Crawford is old school Hollywood – Los Angeles resident who continues to maintain the glamorous front in spite of a distinct shortage of cash. Confidant with the notorious gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (a splendid Judy Davis), Crawford is generally safe from the poison pen of Hopper. Which is more than can be said of the east coast resident, the intelligent, determined Bette Davis. Made party to the negotiations with the film by Crawford, Hopper has a field day in revealing any salacious gossip she can on the upstart, Davis.

Feud is a fun eight part ride as barbed comments fly eighteen to the dozen – with studio boss Jack Warner (Stanley Tucci) encouraging the feud. With leaks aplenty, the media is never far from the story and as long as the two women are at loggerheads, the more interest there is in the film. And of course, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? was a box-office success, leading to Oscar nominations and the hag horror genre. The film’s success led to further confrontations between the two women – their connection to the film did not end when the director announced ‘that’s a rap’ on the final day of shooting.

It’s an engrossing eight part miniseries that goes behind the scenes of old Hollywood. But old style glamour is in short supply – Crawford’s only friend (aside from the vodka bottle) appears to be her maid/general dogsbody Mamacita (Jackie Hoffman) whilst Davis is struggling with motherhood and 16 year-old daughter, B.D. Merrill (Kiernan Shipka). Not lost is the irony that the two were being played by the system and had they pulled together, they and others could have had so much more say in the industry. Both individually recognised it but personal enmity could not be overcome.

A Ryan Murphy production and based on the book by Laurence Leamer, Feud is calmer and more restrained than series such as Hollywood and American Horror Story. At eight episodes, pace palls as the energy is strained. But, thoughtful and considered, Joan with desperation and Bette with defiance, Feud looks to the impact the system and expectations placed on the two women and the resultant decades of bitterness that existed between them.

Rating: 70%

’Devs’

When her boyfriend goes missing the same day as starting a new position in the highly secretive Devs section of their Amaya workplace, Lily Chan (Sonoya Mizuno) suspects the company is behind the disappearance.

Created by writer/director Alex Garland, Devs is a cerebral eight-part science-fiction thriller. An imaginative and visually stunning exploration of the concept of free will and determinism, quantum computing is the name of the game. But with films Ex Machina, Annihilation and Men to his name (as well as novels The Tesseract and The Coma), Garland is both stimulating and engaging. Prior quantum computing knowledge not required!

Amaya is the name of the daughter of founder Forest (Nick Offerman) killed with her mother in a road accident. It’s a reality he struggles to accept. Devs is a way, using known scientific theories, for Forest to capture digitally created imagery of his daughter and, through it, capture pasts and even forecast futures. Successes have, needless to say, led to the American government interest in the work – as well as other global powers.

But it’s the human side rather than the international power politics that is the focus. Lily is desperate to locate Sergei (Karl Glusman) and initially turns to the Amaya head of security, the shady Kenton (Zach Grenier). But uncertainty of his interests results in Lily confiding in former boyfriend Jamie (Jin Ha). With both involved in encryption, more and more of the events leading up to Sergei’s disappearance are revealed.

It’s a cat and mouse game but interspersed is the technological dramas unfolding at Devs. Isolated from the rest of the Amaya campus, a futuristic lab in a bunker protected by a Faraday cage is the HQ. There, brilliant minds, managed by Katie (Alison Pill), come together to further enquiry. It’s a visual feast as the likes of Lyndon (Cailee Spaeny) and Stewart (Stephen McKinley Henderson) struggle with the many-worlds enhancement of the meta verse as opposed to deterministic de Broglie–Bohm theory of quantum mechanics! Fear not – understanding the intricacies are not particularly relevant as the narrative of action unpicks the thrust of the storyline.

Devs is not your average science-fiction thriller. Lugubrious in its pacing at times and an emotionaless Lily can be challenging but a complexity of narrative and science along with more than a few old-school detective story thrills ultimately produces a mesmeric and utterly engaging, intelligent miniseries.

Rating: 74%