Andor from Disney+, Cobra Kai from Netflix and great shows to stream this long weekend

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ANDOR (DISNEY+)

Sacrificing themselves to ensure that the Rebels carry out the Death Star plans at the end of Rogue One hasn’t stopped Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) from getting his own 12-episode series.

Of course, events take place before the fatal mission of the spy-turned thief to Scarif, focusing on the formation of the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire.

Created by Rogue co-writer Tony Gilroy, the show’s cast also includes Stellan Skarsgard, Denise Gough, Adria Arjona and Fiona Shaw.

Bold and ambitious, Andor is also a refreshingly old-fashioned action thriller that, unlike recent Star Wars series, takes the time to introduce its players and their backstories and – at this stage – doesn’t just plan to tackle even more puzzles. fill puzzle pieces around the all-consuming Skywalker Saga you didn’t know you needed.

THE CATCH (TVNZ+)

A hit when they first appeared in 2019, Detective Chief Inspector Rachel Carey (Holliday Grainger) and the rest of her colleagues are back with a new slick, six-part, cutting edge tech infused with British crime thriller.

This time, invisible killers sneak up on London and Carey and his company find themselves involved in a case involving an up-and-coming politician that poses greater risks than they first thought.

“The Capture illustrates how much can be forgiven when a show is supported by an intelligently constructed story”, wrote Dan Einav. from the Financial Times.

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COBRA KAI (NETFLIX)

After setting up John Kreese (Martin Kove) for an attack he didn’t commit, Terry Silver plans to franchise his dojo (Thomas Ian Griffith) in Los Angeles as the ten-part fifth season of this mega-popular The Karate Kid spin. -off begins.

However, he faces opposition from Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), who is unhappy with Silver’s aggressive teaching tactics. Support for his cause comes from an unlikely source: former rival Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto).

“You have to embrace the cheese in Cobra Kai, because that’s half the fun. And just to be clear, the show is a lot of fun.” wrote Nina Metz. from Chicago Tribune.

THE GIRL FROM PLAINVILLE (PRIME VIDEO)

Elle Fanning, Chloe Sevigny and Colton Ryan star in this eight-part series about true crime.

As the tagline suggests, it was inspired by “the case that shocked the nation,” when Michelle Carter was charged with “involuntary manslaughter” as part of an investigation into the death of fellow teen Conrad Roy III.

“The series is formidably well done and a serious deep dive into the adolescent culture of cultivating tragic love,” wrote John Doyle of The Globe and Mail.

THE LAST MOVIE STARS (NEON)

A kind of cross between archival documentaries with audio as Listen to me MarlonBBC lockdown comedy StagedSet in the Actors Studio and a star-studded table reading of a play, this is a hugely entertaining and enlightening look back at a seemingly long-lost Hollywood era.

While the title of this six-part series is meant to be provocative – it comes from a description of the pictured couple by their good friend and mischief-maker Gore Vidal – there is no doubt that Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward rose to fame in an era when cinema was beginning to decline. take as “the dominant art form”. That this has arrived at a time when going to film is once again faced with major challenges and questions about the sustainability of its future feels very appropriate.

That director Ethan Hawke doesn’t shy away from the messier side of his heroes’ lives is what makes The Last Movies Stars so addictive and captivating to watch.

NEVER I NEVER (NETFLIX)

Based in part on the childhood of creator and Indian-American comedian Mindy Kaling, this coming-of-age dramedy focuses on a high school student dealing with the death of her father.

Now in its third 10-episode season, the series has starred Canadian teen Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and given a new role to former tennis star John McEnroe, who provides the show’s main story.

“It’s really all about Maitreyi Ramakrishnan… She’s so relaxed in the role and so natural, it’s hard to believe that Never Have I Ever is her first professional acting job,” wrote Matthew Gilbert of the Boston Globe.

THE COMMITMENTS (PRIME VIDEO)

Now in its second season, this Bafta-nominated crime comedy focuses on seven bickering lawbreakers who discover a pocket money while serving their community service in Bristol. However, it turns out that they are not the only ones interested in this.

This final six-episode series kicks off a few months later, while the group still has time to serve their sentences and the criminal underworld is still not done with them. The impressive cast includes Stephen Merchant, Eleanor Tomlinson, Dolly Wells, Darren Boyd and Rhianne Barreto.

“Delivers an increasingly exciting, faster ending to the main characters’ saga that’s more lighthearted for laughs, but full of strong performances and clever twists,” wrote Rick Marshall of Digital Trends.

WELCOME TO WREXHAM (DISNEY+)

Slickly edited, but told with genuine passion and heart, this reality series is exactly the Ted Lasso-meets-Sunderland ‘Til I that football fans and docuseries lovers have wished for.

Hollywood stars Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds come across as devoted and concerned potential owners of the Welsh city’s English football club, who are willing to learn all aspects of the sporting code neither of which are particularly well known, but are also fully aware. they have personas and characters to play.

What’s striking is how funny both are, even without a team of writers (although bizarrely, one of McElhenney’s Mystic Quest writers Humphrey Ker is enlisted as the eyes and ears of the boys on the ground) and they’re unwilling to use that skill. use it to disarm their target audience – either through a hilarious ad for the club’s main sponsor, Ifor Williams Trailers, or a “press conference” with a subversive Welsh “translator”.