TV: Loki, Time, and more

The Pleasure Principle (Walter Presents strand of Channel4.com)
It’s impossible not to think of the first season of The Bridge as body parts from the same murdered woman start turning up in Odessa, Warsaw and Prague. The three investigating police forces have different theories as to what’s happened but agree that there’s one or perhaps multiple sick puppies out there that need to be hunted down pronto. Pan-European crime shows often feel clunky and forced but this is a beaut. Also new from Walter Iuzzolino & Co. are Box 21, which focuses on a trafficked Romanian getting her gun toting revenge after being forced into prostitution in Sweden and The Nordic Murders), a twistastic German drama set on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom that’s similar in tone to Shetland and therefore to be savoured!

Time (BBC One)
You’d expect a prison drama co-starring Sean Bean and Stephen Graham to be gritty, compulsive and impeccably acted and so it proves to be with the chemistry between the two evident from the off. Imprisoned for four years for an accidental killing, Bean’s traumatised family man character looks like he’s going to be eaten alive by the old lags until Graham’s kindly warder steps in. The respite, needless to say, is short-lived with a climax that will leave you reeling.

Fatherhood (Netflix)
Having made us laugh like hyenas in his comedic outings, Kevin Hart turns out to be a very fine dramatic actor in this film adaptation of Matthew Logelin’s best-selling Two Kisses For Maddy: A Memoir Of Loss & Love. Not to be watched if your pet goldfish has just died, it tells the story of how Logelin’s wife Liz passed away just hours after giving birth to their only daughter. Noting that it’s a rare opportunity to see a black father being portrayed in a positive light, Hart’s relationship with his screen daughter doesn’t so much warm as whisk your heart off to a tropical beach.

Loki (Disney+)
After ten years of appearing in other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, the God of Mischief and brother to Thor gets his own series to run amok in. As excellent as Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson and Sophia Di Martino are in their respective roles, it’s that old ham Richard E. Grant who steals the honours as, well, we’re not going to spoil the surprise! If you’re a Marvel fan you’ll love it, if you’re not, this might just convert you!

Lisey’s Story (Apple TV+)
Normally when an author flogs their novel to a production company that’s their work done, but Stephen King wrote all eight episodes of the TV telling of his 2006 Lisey’s Story novel. Julianne Moore plays the titular widow whose writer husband has died and left behind a series of manuscripts, which a persistent professor is desperate to gets his paws on. Reunited with Children Of Men star Clive Owen, Moore makes sure that maximum drama is squeezed from every scene.