Pick of the week: The Missing (DR2, Thu 20:00)
Britain’s new mystery thriller, The Missing, is a heart-breaking and remarkable BBC production, sure to make your emotions vacillate between all-embracing joy and extreme sadness – all in the space of a single episode.
With an impressive 85 on Metacritic, the series follows a devastated father’s (James Nesbitt) search for his abducted son, kidnapped whilst on holiday in France. Unable to accept his disappearance, he spends years obsessively searching, resulting in the fracturing of his marriage and the disintegration of his emotional being.
Set in France and London, the suspenseful thriller paints a touching picture of a father’s unrelenting love for his child and his inability to come to terms with the possibility of his death. As with most abduction thrillers, it also involves a police investigation and a hunt, yet somehow it avoids clichés, instead presenting a fascinating jigsaw puzzle, left largely unsolved.
Perhaps what the series does best is take a real-life situation and turn it into a ‘hauntingly brilliant’ performance, which is not overly sentimental or emotive – rather, just exceptionally human.
Also new:
In 1982, Atari had to get rid of unsold copies of its ET videogame. Rumour has it they were buried in New Mexico. Find out the truth in Atari: Game Over (DR3, Mon 20:25) when the site is excavated (photo: John Kelly).
Can we expect the truth in What Brits Love (DR2, Mon-Thu 17:45) – probably not, although it’s bound to involve food, and apparently the first episode features a food item that has been featured on Heston’s Great British Food (TV3 Puls, Thu 21:00).
They used to love Jesus before they fell off The Road from Christ to Constantine (DRK, Tue 14:05), which is being shown in its entirety together with companion piece Byzantium: A Tale of Three Cities (DRK, Thu 14:40).
Elsewhere, LA Shrinks (SVT1, Thu 22:45) use therapy to help people face their fears and follow their dreams, but who needs them when you’ve got The Rock, who in Wake up Call (3+, Tue-Wed 20:00) helps them using his knowledge and network; Amy Poehler’s brother Greg is still trying to make his way as an American in Scandinavia in Welcome to Sweden (SVT4, Wed 21:00), the show about the country where stereotype has it the ladies all look like Miss Universe 2014 (TV2, Fri 23:40).
Coming soon: Bloodline
Netflix’s new noir family drama, Bloodline, is already being touted as TV’s next big dark thriller – perfect for binge-viewing.
The series follows the tight-knit Rayburn family, whose secrets and scars are upturned as their troubled and estranged older brother Danny (Ben Mendelsohn) returns home.
With a score of 74 on Metacritic, Bloodline has accrued a mostly positive reaction, with critics praising the show for its addictive plotline, beautiful location and superb acting. (PM)
Sport of the week
A quiet week ahead of the sporting jewel that is April. The Euro 2016 qualifiers continue with Ukraine in Spain (K6, Fri 20:30) , but will their efforts be in vain? While Israel vs Belgium (K6, Tue 20:30) could also be a belter (photo: Erik Drost). And you can always depend on the early-season Formula One races to fill in that void on Sunday morning (3+, Sun 08:00). (BH)
Film of the week
Poor old Kirsten Dunst. While she’s set to rebound this year in season two of Fargo, it’s been all downhill since Lars von Trier’s Melancholia in 2011, and they don’t get worse than Bachelorette (TV2, Sat 22:50). Actually they do. LOL (DR3, Sat 17:00) with Miley Cyrus and Demi Moore got 4.2 on IMDB, while Walking Tall (DR3, Sat 20:45) sees The Rock take on a whole town. (BH)
