Tara Ward: Task, The Girlfriend, New Zealand’s Best Homes with Phil Spencer

Task  

An FBI agent heads a Task Force to put an end to a string of violent robberies led by an unsuspecting family man (Neon). 

 

The Girlfriend 

Laura's picture-perfect life starts to unravel when her son brings home a new girlfriend named Cherry; she becomes convinced that Cherry is a manipulative social climber -- or is she just being paranoid? (Prime Video) 

 

New Zealand’s Best Homes with Phil Spencer   

Property expert Phil Spencer showcases some of New Zealand's most stunning homes and gives a glimpse into the lifestyles they have to offer (TVNZ1 + TVNZ+ from Sunday night). 

 

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Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:12):
It is screen time time. Time to catch up with
Tara Wards. She's does screen Time Expert. It is her
role every week to recommend three shows for watching or
streaming at home. Hey, Tara, good morning. I will begin
this morning with a show that's streaming on Neon starring
Mark Ruffalo. Tell us about Task.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Task is HBO's latest crime thriller. And you might remember
the show Mayor of Easttown that came out a few
years ago at starred Kate Winslet. Yep, she played a
detective in Pennsylvania and it was quite a slow, gritty
crime thriller. Well, this latest series Task is made by
the same creator of Mayor of Easttown, Brent and Glesby,
and it feels quite similar. It has that same kind

(00:53):
of slow pace, it's set in working class communities, and
it's got a similar kind of worn down mood to it.
But as you say, it stars Mark Ruffalo, who is
great in this. He plays an FBI agent who is
dealing with her family tragedy and he's also been assigned
to a case involving some violent home invasions in Philadelphia,
and those robberies are linked to local drug houses and

(01:17):
so he needs to find the criminals before it escalates
into a drug war, and so he pulls together a
task of Agents, task Force of Agents to help him investigate,
and what he thinks is going to be a simple
case turns into this violent game of cat and mouse.
And like Mayor of Eastown, this is about how crime
has a ripple effect in communities, and how the system

(01:39):
is rigged against some people, and how personal and professional
lives just always get tangled up. It's a great show,
but I think you have to be in the right
mood for this. It's slow, quite heavy, very atmosphere, but
you know it's HBO, so it's a quality series. It's
kind of beautifully bleak, and if you like Meyor of
Eastown you will definitely like this as well.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
I love Meyor of Eastown, So that's a bit of
me by the Sounds of Things. So that's Task That
stars Mark Ruffalo. It's on Neon on Prime Video.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
The Girlfriend, Yes, something very different. This is a new
psychological thriller starring Robin Wright and Olivia Cook, and it's
about how a mother's perfect life starts to fall apart
when her son brings his new girlfriend home. The mother, Laura,
lives in London. She's a wealthy gallery owner and she's
very close with her adult son Daniel, almost to the

(02:28):
point of having an unhealthy relationship. But everything changes when
Daniel meets this new girlfriend. Laura is immediately suspicious of
her and starts to dig into her past, uncovers several
lies and things begin to unravel, and it's a story
of manipulation and jealousy. And the question is is Laura
warranted and trying to protect her son or is she

(02:50):
just paranoid and obsessed with him? And when I started
watching this, you know, it throws a few cliches that
you straight away and I thought, oh, I've seen this
show lots of times before, But then it pulled me
in really quickly, and this is going to be my
weekend watch. I think most of that is to do
with rob and Wright, who is just fantastic in this.
She's directing this as well. But it's one of those

(03:11):
shows that you don't know who's telling the truth, you
don't know who to believe. Nothing is as it seems,
and it plays around with perspectives and storytelling, so you
see the same events from different viewpoints and that keeps
you guessing. You know, it's not perfect, but it's compelling
and it's entertaining, and it gets darker as it goes along. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Cool, Okay, that's the girlfriend. That's on Prime Video and
on TV and Z one and TV and Z Plus
from tomorrow night. New Zealand's Best Homes with Phil Spencer
as another series.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
New season of the very popular tv Z show that
takes us inside some of New Zealand's most impressive homes.
And as the name suggests, this is presented by Phil Spencer,
who of course most famous here for his British property
shows like Location, Location, Location, and Love It or Listed.
And he's flown back to New Zealand to visit eighteen

(03:59):
more spectacular luxury million dollar properties built in the mountains
and beside the beach and places like Wantaka and Corimandel
and Bay of Islands and it's sort of a celebration
of the architecture and the artistry of these houses and
he meets the owners and the architects and learns more
about what they were trying to do and how those
houses fit in with the environment around them, and it's

(04:23):
a beautiful show to watch. Many of us will never
step foot inside houses like these, so it's answering that
endless curiosity that we have with these property TV shows
about seeing how other people live. It's pretty spectacular houses
and this it's one of my favorites.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Okay, cool, So that's back tomorrow night on TV and
Z one and streaming on TV and Z Plus thereafter.
Of course, thanks Tara. Those shows once again. New Zealand's
Best Homes with Phil Spencer The Girlfriend is on Prime
Video and Task is the one with Mark Ruffalo that
is streaming on Neon.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talk z B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio