New to View: May 2 – 8
May 1, 2021 
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A weekly guide to what’s new of note on air and online
Sunday
➢ Murder on Middle Beach Prime, 8.30
A documentary filmmaker investigates his mother’s unsolved murder and her weird family in this HBO true-crime series that first screened on SoHo. “Like watching a surgeon wield a scalpel on his own body, uncovering new layers of infection every time he cuts. It’s hard to say what’s more horrifying — that he keeps carving or that you keep watching.” — Reason Online.
➢ Best Foods Comedy Gala 2021 TVNZ 2, 8.30
Part one of two, featuring Justine Smith, Ben Hurley, Tofiga Fepulea’i, Chris Parker, Angella Dravid, Rhys Darby, Urzila Carlson, Guy Montgomery, Cori Gonzalez Macuer, Nick Rado and Ruby Esther.
➢ Chris Packham’s Animal Einsteins BBC Earth, 8.30
Animals may be more intelligent than we ever imagined, from the birds who sing to their eggs to get a head start on teaching their young to the dung beetles who use the Milky Way for orientation. “A solidly entertaining and informative series about the natural world that doesn’t make you pray for the extinction of all human life.” — The Guardian.
Monday
➢ I Am Not a Rapist TVNZ 1, 8.30
“It is rare to put a spotlight on those falsely accused of rape, but these men’s distressing stories need telling too … a bold move.” — The Telegraph.
➢ 9-1-1/ 9-1-1: Lone Star Three, 9.10/10.00
Fans of this franchise can look forward to a weekly two-hour emergency extravaganza. Said TV Fanatic of 9-1-1-‘s outlandish S4 return: “Premieres are wild and crazy, especially on this show, and while this wasn’t a tsunami, this is one insane disaster that’s going to leave a lot of carnage in its wake.”
Tuesday
➢ Big Brother Australia TVNZ OnDemand
The #1 show with 16-39 year-olds in Australia is being fast tracked for streaming this year. The first four eps are being dropped together, the rest as soon as they’re available. Quipped news.com.au about the “disturbing premiere stunt: Sonia Kruger winces … as she introduces Australia to a ragtag troupe of housemates who are about as appealing as the raw leg of lamb that’s shoved into a woodchipper and sprayed out over their faces.”
➢ DC’s Legends of Tomorrow Neon
S6 isn’t just about fun, slimy alien-hunting, Entertainment Weekly reports. It quotes co-showrunner Phil Klemmer: “I think the notion of aliens sort of challenges you to come to terms with what it means to be an Earthling. At the risk of sounding like a tree hugger [laughs], environmentalism was really at the top of our minds as we were talking about these aliens. It was a hard year for a lot of reasons. To be attacked from without our world also forces you to reconsider why we spend so much time attacking ourselves from within as a species.”
Thursday
➢ 2nd Chance Charlie Three, 9.30
The rugby mentoring reality series gets a BIG second chance, as a revamped weekly half-hour that bridges an hour of first-run Kiwi comedy (7 Days, New Zealand Today) and a re-run of Funny Girls (S3). (Repeats 5.30 Sundays.)
Friday
➢ Jupiter’s Legacy Netflix
Veteran comic author Mark Millar describes his epic, sprawling new saga as “Lord of the Rings for superhero fans”. If that doesn’t grab your attention, how about: “Like The Incredibles as directed by Martin Scorsese.” — IGN.
➢ Mythic Quest Apple TV+
“In its second season Mythic Quest continuously chooses the challenging path over the guaranteed laugh. As a result, Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, and Megan Ganz’s stellar comedy returns for Season 2 just as funny as ever, but it’s also returning as one of the most thought-provoking explorations of workplace dynamics ever brought to television.”
— Decider.
➢ The Long Road Home Disney+
2017 National Geographic dramatisation of a siege in Sadr City that came to be known as Black Sunday. “Contains some sequences that are powerfully affecting. There’s often an arresting clarity to the way it depicts the taking or the saving of a life during battle — acts that can be strangely intimate, especially at close quarters. But like a soldier on a training course, you have to slog through a number of obstacles in order to reach the optimal terrain.” — Variety.
Saturday
➢ Mine Netflix
South Korean drama series about rich, ambitious women trying to find their true selves. Reads the blurb: “It deals with the bare-faced and painful love in a high society. It sheds light on the unhappy lives of the rich and delivers emotional pathos to those who have been stolen of repressed desires.”
➢ Wynonna Earp TVNZ OnDemand
S1-4 of the sci-fi western that originally aired on Sky’s The Zone. “What Wynonna Earp lacks in originality it more than makes up for in gritty, silly, supernatural fun.” — Rotten Tomatoes.
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