Your winter school holiday plans may have become a COVID cluster###k, but never fear TV Blackbox is here to recommend more content you can enjoy in lockdown.
Today it’s TV Blackbox news-editor, and website developer Kevin Perry’s turn to deliver his latest bingeworthy highlights.
We’d also love to know your recommendations too – please share them in the comments below.
Clarkson’s Farm
This joyous new series sees the always brash Jeremy Clarkson taking over the fulltime management of his farm in the Cotswolds
The first episode focusses on Tractor driving, and Clarkson uses this opportunity to roll out many of the same jokes we have seen in Top Gear/Grand Tour a thousand times before.
Some fans may enjoy this, but for mine the true joy of this series begins in episode two when a mixture of flood, drought, COVID-19, government red tape, and of course mother nature, throws up more emotional challenges than Clarkson and his team could ever have hoped to expect.
This 8-episode series could have easily become a Grand Tour clone, full of carefully stage-managed calamity as Clarkson attempts to reinvent farming in his usual brash style.
But instead, it’s the cast of completely unfazed, salt of the earth, local country folk who ensure this show remains grounded in reality, while delivering some brilliantly hilarious moments.
And please keep an eye out for Clarkson’s ‘Head of Security’ the chatty Gerald who just might be the greatest character in the history of television…
Clarkson’s Farm season one is available now on Amazon Prime
Everything’s Gonna Be Okay
Being successful is hard. Managing to recreate and build on past success is near impossible. Australian comedian Josh Thomas became an international cult hero thanks to the success of his 2013 ABC comedy Please Like Me. The series was widely acclaimed and was picked up by US cable network Pivot.
Everything’s Gonna Be Okay is the second comedy series from Thomas and again see’s this impressive creator/performer dealing with complex mental health issues in modern society.
The series has received mixed reviews and suffers from the obvious comparisons to Please Like Me. Its cast of self-entitled characters will not be to everyone’s liking but personally, I have grown to adore the fast-paced dialogue, awkward situations, and overall nervous anxiety of this very different comedy.
Everything’s Gonna Be Okay seasons one and two are available now on Stan
The Mosquito Coast
(Apple TV+): Justin Theroux and Australia’s Melissa George star in this new adaptation of the classic 1981 book by Paul Theroux (Justin’s uncle). The series tells the story of a family living off the grid and on the run from the law for reasons that are never fully explained.
Theroux delivers an impressive performance and plenty of insightful monologues in this role of an idealistic inventor, disgusted with the corruption of the civilized world.
But its Logan Polish and Gabriel Bateman in the roles of the two teenage children, unsure if they should be trusting their parents, that really steal the show.
The Mosquito Coast season one is available now on AppleTV+
