Obama takes a trip under the sea, Rebecca Hall has her life turned upside down by a hum, and Billy Bob Thornton is just trying to make it through the day.
Landman
Monday
Paramount+
“We don’t do it ’cause we like it. We do it ’cause we run out of options.”
Billy Bob Thornton (Fargo) is Tommy Norris, a crisis executive for Big Oil who has to thread the needle and keep everyone happy. That isn’t easy when “everyone” includes business tycoons and a drug cartel, none of whom are known for their love of fair play or compromise. Rounding out the cast are Demi Moore (The Substance) and Jon Hamm (Mad Men).
The Listeners
Tuesday
BBC One, 9.00pm
Rebecca Hall (Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire) leads this drama as Claire Kutty, a well-liked English teacher. On the outset, her biggest problem in life is getting teenagers to care about the themes of 100 Years of Solitude. That is, until a low, persistent hum enters her life, and refuses to leave.
Family and colleagues insist they can’t hear it, driving a wedge between Claire and everyone she knows. A desperate search for answers and community eventually draws her to a group of neighbours who claim to hear the hum too.
Our Oceans
Wednesday
Netflix
Most politicians struggle to fill the spare time that suddenly opens up to them after leaving office. Usually, it’s a toss-up between writing memoirs and getting banished to St Helena. As well as sharing his playlists on Twitter, Barack Obama opted to start a production company, Higher Ground Productions, with wife Michelle. Now, he’s narrating another wildlife documentary, this one a spiritual successor to his previous project, Our Great National Parks.
Our Oceans is a five-part series looking at each of the five oceans on Earth. “The world will never be the same once you’ve seen it from below,” the former president promises.
A Man on the Inside
Thursday
Netflix
After collaborating on The Good Place, Ted Danson teams up once again with Michael Schur in the Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Parks and Recreation co-creator’s new sitcom, based on a true story.
Danson plays Charles, a widower who decides to keep busy by infiltrating a nursing home to help a Private Investigator (Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Santa Clarita Diet) recover a client’s family heirloom. Along for the ride are Stephanie Beatriz (Encanto) and Stephen McKinley Henderson (Civil War).
Return to Paradise
Friday
BBC One, 8.00pm
If Death in Paradise’s fictional island setting of Saint Marie wasn’t scenic enough for you, try Australia, in this new spin-off of the crime comedy-drama.
DI Mackenzie Clarke (Anna Samson, Wake in Fright) is returning down under after six years in London, where she made a name for herself in the Metropolitan Police. She's coming home under a dark cloud (presumably the first Australia has ever seen), following accusations of evidence tampering. To make things worse, she headed to London after leaving her fiancée (Tai Hara, Colin from Accounts) at the altar. Her first day back home might be a bit awkward.