Tara Ward: Must-see TV shows

Zero Day -  (Netflix) Robert de Niro makes his small screen debut in this political conspiracy thriller that follows former US president George Mullan as he is called out of retirement to locate the source of a devastating global cyberattack.

A Thousand Blows - (Disney+) Hezekiah and Alec, two best friends from Jamaica, fight for survival in the violent melting pot of Victorian London's East End; they come up against Sugar Goodson, a dangerous, veteran boxer.

White Lotus - (Neon) A brand new season of the critically acclaimed drama about a group of spoiled, overprivileged guests staying at a five star luxury hotel and the staff who have to tend to their every need.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast
from Newstalk ZEDB twenty.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Four past ten, which means it's screen time time on
news Talk ZEDB. Tara awards our screen time expert every
time every week. At this time, she has for us
her three shows to recommend for watching or streaming at home.
More in Atara, More in.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
A Jet, and congratulations on the birth of your baby.
That's such lovely news. And I hope you've got lots
of good TV shows lined up to keep you going
through this late night early morning sessions.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah, we've already done a few bit of watching, although
my wife was concerned that he was less than seventy
two hours old and seemed to be watching an awful
amount of cricket. She thought relative to relative to go
on exactly exactly. Anyway, three shows that we might be
able to watch a stream at home over the next
few weeks. Let's start off with the show streaming on Netflix.

(01:00):
Tell us about Robert de Niro in Zero Day Here.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
This is a big new political threat series that's just
come to Netflix, and it stars Robert de Niro in
his first major TV role, and he's going straight to
the top. He's playing an American president who is hauled
out of retirement after a major cyber attack on America
leads to thousands of deaths and the country is thrown
into chaos. And Robert De Niro's character has given these

(01:27):
huge powers to lead the investigation into what happened. But
the deeper he digs, the more lies and cover up
he finds, and the question comes is he actually the
right man for the job or is he being set
up to fail? You know, who can he trust as
America falls apart in front of him? Now, this series
was made before Trump became president again, but there's no

(01:50):
doubt that it does feel quite timely in terms of
misinformation and people not trusting the government and conspiracy theories.
But I don't want to overeg it. This is very
much a bingeible Netflix conspiracy thriller. Probably a lot more
talking in this than it is a big action, fast
paced drama. You know, it is a bit formulaic, a

(02:10):
bit predictable, but I think there's more than enough happening
here to keep you watching for all six episodes. Denero
is great and surrounded by actors like Jesse Plemons, Angela Bassett,
Joan Allen, Connie Britton is an amazing cast in that
you know it's a blockbuster kind of conspiracy thriller and
you won't have to think too hard about it. It's
great for a weekend watch.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Nice. Okay, cool, that sounds really good. That's Zero Day.
That's on Netflix, starring Robert de Niro. Next up on
Disney Plus tell Us about a Thousand Blows.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
This is a new historical drama about boxing, and it's
been created by Stephen Knight, who made the show Peaky Blinders.
So if you love the sense of time and place
that Peaky Blinders hads mixed in with some gritty, colorful drama,
then this is the show for you. It's set in
London in the East End in the eighteen eighties, and

(03:01):
it centers around an illegal boxing ring in the back
of a pub and walks to young friends who have
just arrived that day from Jamaica and they get pulled
into this underground boxing world where there are no rules
and everyone is just trying to survive, and so you
see the city through their eyes. But there's a lot
going on in this show. You've also got this all

(03:22):
female bunch of pickpockets who work the town, and you've
got the owner of the pub, a guy called Henry Sugar,
who is a b and knuckle boxing champion. He's a
pretty terrifying kind of guy and played by Stephen Graham,
who never does a bad TV show in my opinion.
So this show grabbed me right from the start. I
came to this thinking, you know, boxing drama. I don't

(03:42):
know about this, but it pulled me in straightaway. Beautiful costumes,
big energy, intriguing characters. It's inspired by real life people
and experiences, and then just kind of takes that and
runs with it. The boxing scenes can get quite brutal,
but there's just so much else here going on to
love as well.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Oh fantastic. Okay, that's a thousand blows from the maker
of Peaky Blinders. So that's on Disney Plus. And finally,
this is the very controversial new music behind White Lotus.
White Lotus in the first two seasons had that amazing

(04:22):
theme song that was kind of just a little bit
like unsettling or off putting. There was something about it,
just some little kind of chordal difference that made things
there's a little bit different and kind of distinguished it
from lots of shows. So anyway, White Lotus Season three
has a new theme song and a new location. It's
out streaming on Neon Now tell us about it.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
Yeah, a lot of people sort of split about the
new theme song, whether you know, they were sort of
expecting that offset version but then got this very new,
quite different one.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
But yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
This is the third season of HBO's The White Lotus,
which is a dark satire. It's been created and written
by Mike White, who has always been very interested in
the intricacies and layers of human behavior. And each season
of The White Loatus is set in a five star
luxury resort. This season it's in Thailand, and it's about
a group of wealthy people who stay at the hotel

(05:16):
and the staff who have to cater to their every
whim and it kind of skewers all the terrible behavior
of the rich and the privileged and the power and
class systems that it's all built on. And every season
starts with a murder, and then we go back in
time and try and work out which one of these
characters has been murdered and why, and they're all pretty awful.

(05:38):
But it's a brilliant drama. I must admit I don't
always know what's going on in the White Lotus. I
kind of go along for the ride a lot of
the time. But it's very sharp, very clever, and beautifully
made as well. And this season, New Zealand actor Wigana
O'Reilly is starring in the show, which is huge to
be part of such an award winning show with this
big international cast, and she was fantastic in the first episode.

(05:58):
So I love White Loatus. It's so great to have
it back.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, yeah, I really cannot wait to watch that. Thank
you so much, Tara. Those shows for you once again.
Zero Day is on Netflix, A Thousand Blows is on
Disney Plus, and White Lotus Season three is streaming now
on Neon.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
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