Tara Ward: Department Q. The Better Sister, Brassic

Department Q  

Carl, a former top-rated detective, is wracked with guilt following an attack that left his partner paralysed and another policeman dead. On his return to work, Carl is assigned to a cold case that will consume his life (Netflix). 

 

The Better Sister   

Chloe, a high-profile media executive, lives a picturesque life with her husband Adam and son; her estranged sister Nicky struggles to make ends meet; when Adam is murdered, the two sisters reunite and try to untangle a complicated family history (Prime Video). 

 

Brassic   

In a forgotten corner of Northern England, Vinnie and his mates are stone-broke. Driven to a life of petty crime, Vinnie, Dylan, Cardi, Ash, Tommo and JJ's friendship has stood the test of time, but the cracks are beginning to show. When Dylan's girlfriend Erin wants out to start afresh in a new town, Dylan is torn between following her or staying with the pals he thinks of as brothers. As their past indiscretions begin to catch up with them and the realisation hits that they are getting in way over their heads, the boys need each other now more than ever (Netflix). 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at Me.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Right now, though, our screen time expert Tara Ward has
some fab new Tally shows for us to enjoy over
King's Birthday weekend.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Good morning, Tara, Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Okay. I have delved into Netflix's new show Department QE
basically because I love Matthew Good and also I love
listening to Scottish accents.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yeah, what did you think? Did you enjoy it? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
I did. I think it takes a little while to
get into I mean, Matthew Good is definitely very committed
to the role. He looks as tortured as his character
should be, and he's not a particularly nice guy. But
as we proceed, I can see that you're going to
kind of warm to him. Would that be fair?

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yeah? Yeah, absolutely. This is a new Scottish crime thriller.
It's made by the team behind The Queen's Gambit and
it is about a police detective called Carl Mark who's
played by Matthew Good. And Mark is recovering from a
traumatic incident on the job. He's not well liked, he's
difficult to work with, He's suffering a lot of guilt,
and when he comes back to work, he's sent to

(01:10):
the basement and given a new job, working completely on
his own as the head of Department Q, which is
a new cold case unit. And the new unit is
a publicity stunt basically to reassure the public that the
police are taking crime seriously. And so it's not expected
to succeed, but Mark builds this team of colleagues who

(01:31):
like him, do things differently, and they start investigating this
four year old cold case involving a young lawyer. So
there's two storylines running through here. But it did grab
me from the very first second. It's got energy, it's
dark and gritty. There's some brilliant sarcastic humor in this,
and as you say, it does take its time and

(01:52):
sort of carefully crafting that world of people and places
and moments that you get pulled into. So it's a
crime thriller, but I think it's going to kind of
turn into a very moody, gothic psychological thriller as well,
and perfect timing for the long wintery weekend at nine episodes,
and I think if you like Line of Duty, if

(02:13):
you like slow horses or Luther, I think you'll like
this one as well.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, I like the structure of it as well. I
don't want to give away too much about the plot,
but the way that those two storylines were kind of
working together. I didn't see Yeah one coming, so I
like that as well. Hey, The Better Sister is starting
on Prime Video. Awesome cast Jessica Bill and Elizabeth Banks.
And I've only watched the first episode of this, but
what I liked about it was I have no idea
whether this is going to go because all the characters

(02:38):
seem dodgy.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Tara, Yes, it's so true, and it's kind of tapping
into that white lotus thing that we're getting a lot
of it at the moment, where you know, it's glossy
and beautiful, and it's about the lives of wealthy people
who outwardly everything is perfect, but underneath it's all kind
of terrible and there's lots of secrets. But your Sisters
Jessica Bill and Elizabeth Banks, who play two estrange sisters

(03:01):
who are forced to reconcile after one of their husbands
is murdered. Chloe is a high powered media executive. She's
very successful and she's in the public eye and her
sister Nikki is a recovering at it, and when Chloe's
husband is killed one night, the two sisters have to
sort out their own issues in order to protect themselves
and their family from being framed from the crime. But

(03:23):
there's a bit of ambiguity in there in that first
episode about about whether what we're seeing is true, and
I think I found the key to this was suspending
belief a bit. The first episode I felt was a
little bit slow, again, taking its time to set things up.
And if you've watched a lot of crime dramas, there's
some distracting stuff going on here, people walking through the

(03:43):
crime scene and hiding evidence in unusual ways, but there
is some good stuff. How Jessica Bale and Elizabeth Banks
are both great in this. You know what I mean
when I say yeah and love it? Yeah, And I
think this is probably a show that you can put
on and admire the clothes and the nice houses and
the beach views and just sort of be slowly pulled
into it and not have to think too hard about it.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
And you got a comedy for us.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yes, this is Brassak. This is a British comedy. It's
not a new show. It's been around since twenty nineteen,
but five seasons of it have just landed on Netflix,
so I think this is going to give that show
a whole new audience in New Zealand. It's already in
the top ten list already. But it's set in a
small village in the north of England, and it's about
five young working class men who have all grown up together.

(04:28):
They're stuck in this small town. They're broke. There isn't
any jobs and so they spend their days doing petty crimes,
things like stealing Shetland ponies to order. And one of
the friends wants to leave their village and go off
and do bigger and better things, and it makes others
start to question what they want to do with their lives. Now,
I will say this is not a politically correct TV show.
It's created by Joe Gilgan, who plays Vinnie in This

(04:51):
and who was also in This Is England. It reminded
me of Shameless and or The in Betweeners. You know,
there's a lot of swearing, there's a lot of dodgy behavior,
but it is very funny and it's about friendship and
small town life and trying to do the right thing
failing over and over again, and it's got heart to it,
which I think is what makes it so watchable and

(05:11):
likable and why you end up backing these lovable rogues
because there's heart and waltonness and it is very funny
as well wonderful.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Thank you so much, Tara. Tara's recommendations today, Department Q
is on Netflix, The Better Sister Prime Video, and Bressik
is on Netflix. And I've just seen that Lareta Switt,
who was eight it was hot Lips, and the TV
show Mash has passed away. If you're a fan of
the TV show Mash, you'll know exactly who I'm talking about.

(05:38):
Died at age eighty seven.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio