What to Watch TV reviews: Half Man, This Is A Gardening Show, Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85

Half Man

Friday, streaming on Stan

Following up a TV hit as sizeable as Baby Reindeer was always going to be an ask for the show’s creator, Richard Gadd, who wrote and starred in the global sleeper hit for Netflix.

All eyes will doubtless be on this, his follow-up project.

The six-part BBC/HBO co-production once again sees Gadd front and centre, this time alongside BAFTA award-winning actor Jamie Bell. The pair play two men: quiet, introspective Niall and violent, forceful Ruben, who meet and form an unlikely brotherly bond while navigating the shared trauma of their childhoods.

The story follows the intricacies of their complex relationship over 30 years, crossing between the present day and their time growing up together as teens (Stuart Campbell and Mitchell Robertson play their younger incarnations).

Gadd, who won three individual Emmy awards for Baby Reindeer, wrote the part of Niall with Bell, who famously rose to fame due to his starring role in the feel-good dance film Billy Elliot, in mind.

“There was something about this show as I was writing it — I couldn’t get Jamie out of my head,” Gadd said.

“He’d probably roll his eyes if he heard me talking about Billy Elliot, but I can’t believe that he managed to do that at the age of 13 and I just think he’s instinctively an incredible actor.”

The series is the latest in a string of TV projects which put masculinity and the concept of male violence in the spotlight — if you’ve spied the trailer, with Tame Impala’s relentless, anxiety-inducing Let It Happen playing in the background, you’ll have an idea of just how intense it’s shaping up to be.

We can’t share more, but mark our words: people will be talking about this one.

Australia’s Greek Cafes & Milk Bars: Shaken & Stirred

Monday, 7.30pm, SBS

If you’re old enough to remember just how awesome your local Greek-run corner store or milk bar was, then you’ll want to take a trip down memory lane with this doco, which charts how Greek migrants “shaped the way Australians ate, socialised and understood community” through their shops and cafes. With rare archival footage, interviews with families and cultural historians weighing in, it paints a vivid picture of a fascinating recent past.

Glenn & Mick’s Celebrity Intervention

Monday, 7.30pm, Seven

Mick Molloy and Glenn Robbins are on hand to dose out some “tough love” to Aussie celebs in this new comedy series, part This Is Your Life, part celebrity roast. The first episode sees Carrie Bickmore on the receiving end, with some of her closest friends, family and colleagues there to relive her highs and lows. This has a clunky start but soon warms up, and if you can stick with it there are some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments. Bickmore is certainly a good sport!

This Is A Gardening Show

Wednesday, streaming on Netflix

I love US comedian Zach Galifianakis. I also love gardening. But I did NOT love this show, which purports to be about gardening, but has scant little of it, at least in the first two episodes I peeked. This series is struggling to know what it wants to be, and given we have Costa Georgiardis doing it better with Gardening Australia (and the Junior edition, which has more in common with this), I can’t see this landing with local audiences. Still, I learnt some good tips about growing tomatoes, so there’s that.

Stranger Things: Tales From ’85

Thursday, streaming on Netflix

This new animated series is executive produced by the Duffer brothers: whether or not this is a good thing depends entirely on how you viewed this year’s finale season. This sees the characters returning to 1985 — the gate to the Upside Down has been closed, but something’s still lurking beneath the snow in Hawkins, and our crew is determined to get to the bottom of what’s afoot. This is aimed at a younger demographic — it will be interesting to see how they, and the show’s rusted-on fans, react to this iteration of the story.