New to View: September 6 – 12

A weekly guide to what’s new of note on air and online

Sunday

➢ The Salisbury Poisonings TVNZ 1, 8.30

“The three-part series is a fact-based drama relating the events that took place in the small UK city of Salisbury in March 2018, when a former Russian solider (also an agent for UK intelligence) and his daughter were poisoned. With its focus on the human impacts of the poisonings – with three other people seriously affected, including Dawn Sturgess who died – the events of two years ago are shown to have eerie parallels to the current coronavirus pandemic … It’s hard to know whether the series would be as gripping without those parallels – to watch it without being hyper-aware of seeing people on TV interact closer than two metres apart, for example – but watching it in June 2020 adds an extra dimension.” — Chemistry World.

Monday

➢ The Farmer Wants a Wife TVNZ 2, 8.45

This Australian dating reboot ended its run last month on Seven with higher ratings than the premiere and delivered 32% more viewers than Nine’s 2016 season. TV Tonight dubbed it a “bush fairytale” that “gets back to grass roots TV romance. As the blokes meet their ladies one by one there are awkward smiles, blushing faces, spontaneous statements and cupid arrows at the ready.”

Wednesday

➢ Our New President Rialto, 8.30

2018 satirical documentary that recounts Donald Trump’s election from Russian propaganda and YouTube videos. “We wanted to see if it was possible to make a documentary out of news without a single true statement in it,” director Maxim Pozdorovkin says of this Special Jury Prize winner at the Sundance Film Festival. “An audaciously assembled film, made up entirely of Russian state news clips and user-generated videos, is a fascinating and necessary curio.” — The Guardian.

Friday

➢ The Duchess Netflix

The creator of this six-part comedy, Katherine Ryan, plays a solo mom weighing whether to have a child with her nemesis: her daughter’s dad. Can two wrongs make another right? “A tasteless misfire … painful to watch stupid behaviour, and stupid writing, treated by its creator as subversively intelligent.” — Variety.

➢ Suits: Jessica Pearson Prime, 10.30

Free-to-air premiere of the Suits spin-off that was axed after only one season. Curiously, it’s screening on the channel that quickly yanked the long-running Suits because of poor ratings. “Though Pearson trades the juicy intrigue of Suits for straightforward political drama, it works thanks to Gina Torres’ commanding performance.” — Rotten Tomatoes.

Saturday

Agents Are Forever Sky Arts, 8.00

➢ An original production by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, with music from spy and detective movies such as Sherlock, Mission: Impossible, Homeland and the very best of James Bond soundtracks.