From Millie Bobby Brown’s Damsel to Guy Ritchie’s new series The Gentlemen, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week
1. The Netflix Slam – Saturday, March 2, Netflix
Netflix is getting into sports programming in a big way with live-streaming coverage of their very own tournament, The Netflix Slam. Held at the Michelob ULTRA Arena at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, tennis fans will be treated to an electrifying clash between 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal and the formidable World No. 2 (and fellow Spaniard) Carlos Alcaraz. “I’m honoured and so happy to be sharing the court with Rafa in Las Vegas,” Alcaraz, a U.S. Open and Wimbledon champ, told Netflix. “He’s an all-time great, of course, and his records and achievements speak for themselves.”
2. Rock the Block – Monday, March 4, HGTV | Season Premiere
The same night he serves as a guest judge in the finale of Battle on the Mountain, Ty Pennington returns to host season five of HGTV’s ostensible all-star game. For the first time, the show welcomes four duos from seasons past who are seeking to redeem themselves and “settle old scores.” They include Evan Thomas and Keith Bynum (Bargain Block), Lyndsay Lamb and Leslie Davis (Unsellable Houses), Bryan and Sarah Baeumler (Island of Bryan), and Mitch Glew and Page Turner (Fix My Flip). They’ll each have six weeks and a budget of $250,000 to reno waterfront homes in Florida, with the winners getting a street named after them. They’ll be judged each week by other HGTV icons, starting tonight with Egypt Sherrod and Mike Jackson (Married to Real Estate)
3. Someone Lives Here – Monday, March 4, Crave1
This documentary follows the groundbreaking efforts of Toronto’s Khaleel Seivwright, who quit his job as a carpenter and dedicated himself to building insulated “tiny shelters” to house the homeless, which use body temperature for heating.
4. A Revolution on Canvas – Tuesday, March 5, HBO Canada
Part political thriller, part verité documentary, first-time filmmaker Sara Nodjoumi delves into the mystery surrounding the disappearance of more than 100 paintings by her father, seminal Iranian modern artist Nikzad Nodjoumi, that were deemed “treasonous” by the Iranian government during the 1980s.
5. Erika Jayne: Bet It All on Blonde – Wednesday, March 6, hayu
It’s been a rough couple years for Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne. In addition to splitting from her husband, attorney Tom Girardi, the singer has been targeted by several lawsuits and federal investigations stemming from the former couple’s alleged business practices, including accusations of fraud and embezzlement.
Amidst all that turmoil, Jayne decided to turn over a new leaf by getting back to her roots with a residency at the House of Blues in Vegas. Running from August 25 through December 16, 2023, the Bet It All On Blonde stage show found Jayne belting out “Roller Coaster,” “Pretty Mess” and other songs from her extensive catalogue — nine of which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Dance Club charts.
Debuting Wednesday at 8 p.m. on streamer hayu, a new two-hour special documents the tumultuous six weeks leading up to opening night, as the diva and her team tune out the chaos of the real world and prep their performance. Per a Bravo press release, that includes everything from “putting together songs and choreography, to nailing down wardrobe and glam, along with countless rehearsals — all while working against the realities of budget constraints and a ticking clock.”
Bet It All On Blonde was Jayne’s first real performance project in three years, and as she told BravoTV.com at the time: “The overall vibe for the show is based around the six words that I built Erika Jayne on, which were: fantasy, love, escape, glitz, glamour and fun.” More specifically, she continued: “It kind of runs the entire gamut of everything I’ve done. And we have a cool, like, disco sing-along and some other cool covers that I really enjoy. I mean, it’s just so much fun.” Yet as you’ll see in this doc, the process of getting it off the ground was full of delicious, Housewives-esque intrigue!
6. Animal Control – Wednesday, March 6, Fox | Season Premiere
Joel McHale returns for a second shift as Frank Shaw, the jaded Seattle animal control officer who prefers the company of four-legged critters to that of his obnoxious fellow humans. Fox has already renewed the scruffy sitcom for a third season.
7. Extraordinary – Wednesday, March 6, Disney+ | Season Premiere
One of the pleasant TV surprises of 2023 was a U.K. comedy set in a world where everybody has one kind of superpower or another . . . everybody, that is, except for Jen, a 25-year-old shop girl who still hasn’t unlocked her particular ability. In season one, Jen and friends embarked on a quest to fix that, while also grappling with the more grounded angst of romance, work and finding your place in the world. In the finale, our not-so-super heroine enrolled in the Discovery Clinic to solve the problem medically. That’s where we find her to start season two, but alas, even after paying that $15,000 fee, “finding her power isn’t as easy as she hoped.” Meanwhile, her amnesiac shapeshifter boyfriend Jizzlord grapples with a bombshell from his past, and Jen’s pals Carrie and Kash try (and mostly fail) to live under the same roof after their breakup.
8. Supersex – Wednesday, March 6, Netflix | Series Premiere
A provocative seven-part bio-series out of Italy casts Alessandro Borghi (Devils) as Rocco Siffredi, tracing his fraught journey to becoming the “world’s greatest porn star,” with over 1,300 adult films to his name. The trailer alone already has viewers hot and bothered (some just plain bothered) for its graphic sexuality.
9. The Gentlemen – Thursday, March 7, Netflix | Series Premiere
Set within the world of his 2019 film of the same name, director Guy Ritchie serves up this spinoff series featuring an entirely new cast of criminals. It all begins when Eddie Horniman (Theo James), second son of the Duke of Halstead, unexpectedly inherits his father’s sizable country estate — only to discover it’s part of a massive cannabis empire. He’s further shocked to learn that a host of unsavoury characters from Britain’s underworld are hellbent on grabbing a piece of the operation — most notably career criminal Bobby Glass (Ray Winstone), whose ruthless daughter Susie (Kaya Scodelario) handles the day-to-day business of his illicit drug trade. To protect his family, Eddie must beat the crooks at their own game. “The world of The Gentlemen is a little bit of me,” Ritchie told Netflix. “We’re looking forward to bringing fans back into that world, introducing new characters and their stories, and I am excited to be doing it with this extremely talented cast.”
10. Damsel – Friday, March 8, Netflix
Netflix continues taking every opportunity to harness the star power of Millie Bobby Brown — from Stranger Things to the Enola Holmes movies. The former won’t return for its final season till 2025, and Enola Holmes 3 hasn’t even been greenlit yet. But on Friday, the young Brit gets another fantastical showcase, as she goes from battling Demogorgons in the Upside Down and solving mysteries with her big bro Sherlock in Victorian England to slaying a dragon in a fairytale kingdom.
Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later), this Netflix film casts Brown as Elodie, a humble maiden who gets the full Cinderella treatment, whisked away to the castle to marry the proverbial Prince Charming. Except, it’s all a trap, engineered by the queen (Robin Wright) and her royal family to keep a fire-breathing lizard at bay via human sacrifice. The latest course in a buffet of young brides who have been served up to this monstrosity, Elodie must rely on her wits and her grit to escape its underground lair alive.
As Fresnadillo explained in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum: “What I really loved in the script from Dan Mazeau was embracing the idea of a fantasy adventure and a princess-and-dragon story, but taking it into a place [where] it’s completely upside down.” he said, Stranger Things pun presumably not intended. “It was a very intense journey that I was so excited to design and to develop. At the core, this is such a beautiful story about a young woman becoming a strong, independent and empowered adult. Elodie doesn’t have any kind of support. It’s a real survival experience.”
Added Brown: “She’s a damsel who doesn’t need to be saved. She saves herself in many ways. It subverts what you expect: You’re expecting the prince to turn around and save her, and . . . no. Don’t wait for the prince.”