Searing glory holes, a shapeshifting cat and outback UFO tours: what we’re streaming this April

By Dennis Altman, La Trobe University, Jessica Ford, University of Adelaide, Kelly McWilliam, University of Southern Queensland, Phoebe Hart, Queensland University of Technology, Stephen Gaunson, RMIT University, Stuart Richards, University of South Australia

As the weather begins to cool, you might be spending a few more nights in front of the television on the couch (or on your laptop in bed), looking for a new show to lead you into autumn.

This month, our experts are recommending everything from steamy historical dramas (slightly inaccurate, as all the best ones are), to reality shows about the high-octane world of glassblowing, to new Aussie crime mysteries. Whatever you’re looking for, they have you covered with what to stream in April.

Mary & George

Binge

If The Crown can take liberties with the current royals, can we object if television fictionalises a now 400-year-old reign? The series Mary & George is based on the manipulation of King James I by an amoral mother and son, who win control of almost unlimited riches and power.

That much is true: James, the Scottish King who succeeded Elizabeth I after she died childless, had a series of male favourites of whom George (eventually Duke of Buckingham) was the most significant. George’s mother, Mary Villiers, made several strategic marriages aimed at giving her access to and influence at the court.

https://youtu.be/i3hlTrtnXGo?si=pW4anT8BAndYPWN3

The dominant figure is Julianne Moore’s Mary, whose steely determination is only shaken when her own favourite, a former prostitute who becomes her lover, is threatened. George is played by the handsome Nicholas Galitzine, who moves from the king’s bedtime playmate to the effective ruler of England.

In time, George becomes a patron of the king’s son, the future Charles I, and is finally stabbed to death by a disgruntled soldier. Least convincing is Tony Curran, whose James rarely seems to take any interest in his regal duties – even as he proclaims his divine right to rule.

The program is sumptuous, bawdy and irreverent.

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