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MEET THE FECKERS (BEEF, S2)

BEEF, S2 Can lightning strike twice on Netflix for Korean American screenwriter and director Lee Sung Jin? Two years ago, it did when he paired Steven Yuen and Ali Wong in ' Beef ' - a cautionary tale about an escalating feud between two strangers, arising from a road rage incident. Now he's back with a new story about people behaving abominably, turning 'Beef' ino an anthology series. But does the new version of 'Beef' hit the heights of its predecessor? This time, Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Cailee Spaeny,  Oscar winner  Youn Yuh-jung from ' Minari ' and ' Parasite ' star Song Kang-ho are there to add some acting heft to proceedings. Isaac and Mulligan play Josh and Lindsay Crane Martin, a power couple with a wobbly marriage who run a Californian country club. Returning home from a function at the club, the couple get into a fierce argument about Josh's debts and the state of their marriage. Josh has left his wallet behind at the club ...
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TOO LATE FOR GOODBYES (THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT: FINALE)

  THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT: FINALE It was never going to be a normal episode. But that didn't deter the host, writers and producers of 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' from trying to stick to the formula the best they could. As usual, there was a monologue, a rather iffy sketch, a 'Meanwhile' slot, a big celebrity interview and even a Colbert Questionnaire. However no matter how hard Colbert and his team tried, it was hard to shake off the overwhelming sense of sadness that this wasn't just the end of his reign but the end of 'The Late Show'. As a result, the whole show felt flat. Hollywood stars from Bryan Cranston to Ryan Reynolds to Billy Crystal and Robert de Niro hadn't come to just praise Colbert but bury a talk show. Rather surprisingly, Colbert's monologue felt uncharacteristically timid with no mention of President Donald Trump. Interruptions from Cranston, Paul Rudd and Tim Meadows, all pretending to be expecting to be the...

THE WRITE STUFF (ROOSTER & AMANDALAND, S2)

ROOSTER Looking for a show to fill the void left by having to wait for the next season of ' Shrinking '? Then maybe Steve Carrell's new sitcom is the answer. Set on a university campus in New England, 'Rooster' sees Carrell play Greg Russo, the author of a series of popular novels about a private investigator. Invited to speak to Ludlow College students by Danielle Deadwyler's English professor Dylan Shephard, going to the university enables him to rekindle his relationship with his daughter, Charly Clive's Katie Russo who is a lecturer. Katie's marriage to Phil Dunster's fickle academic Archie has, however, fallen apart. Archie has left Katie for Lauren Tsai's grad student Sunny who is pregnant with their child. Katie is so distraught by his betrayal, she breaks into Archie's home and burns his prized possession, a first edition of 'War and Peace' by throwing it in the fire, only for his entire house to go up in flames. With Katie fa...

MEAN STREEP (THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 & IF I HAD LEGS I'D KICK YOU)

  THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 Occasionally a film comes along that's light and frothy which still makes a huge cultural impact. David Frankel's 2006 comedy drama ' The Devil Wears Prada ' was that kind of movie. It wasn't a great journalism film like Billy Wilder's ' Ace In The Hole ' or Alan J Pakula's ' All The President's Men '. Its story wasn't very taxing. But it did look good and it had memorable performances from Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci and Meryl Streep who  picked up a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy . More importantly for the studio, Frankel's $41 million 2003 adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's novel made a shed load of money for 20th Century Fox - $326 million to be precise. Twenty years is a long time to wait for a sequel, though. But if Tim Burton's ' Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ' could earn $452 million on a $100 million budget for Warner Bros 36 years after its original w...

LEE WAY (THE YOUNG OFFENDERS, S5)

  THE YOUNG OFFENDERS, SERIES 5 The mingiest show to hit our TV screens since ' Shameless ' is back. But as they reach the milestone of a fifth series, what are Alex Murphy's Conor and Chris Walley's Jock up to  on the banks of their own lovely Lee ? Series Four of the Cork sitcom ' The Young Offenders ' saw Jock spend much of the series behind bars in a Colombian jail cell after getting involved in an ill advised drug smuggling venture that naturally went skewiff. Without his buddy, Conor palled around Cork instead with Shane Casey's psycho with a soft heart, Billy Murphy - getting into various scrapes. But without Jock, bar a few Facetimes from his Colombian prison cell, it felt Peter Foott's sitcom had lost its way. Walley's lanky goofiness was badly missed and while Casey could raise some laughs, the chemistry with Murphy just wasn't quite right. Episode One of Series Five of 'The Young Offenders' sets out to rectify all that. With Jo...

HILL STREET BLUES (PEELERS: THE PSNI FOR REAL)

  PEELERS: THE PSNI FOR REAL Policing is a tough job - no matter where you are in the world. Officers are exposed to danger on a daily basis, to heartbreaking situations and they regularly see the worst excesses of society. How they react is carefully scrutinised and often critiqued. That's especially the case in Belfast - a city still dealing with the legacy of conflict and where a culture of mistrust of the police has been embedded in some communities. The challenge of policing a post conflict society is very much at the heart of Stephen Nolan's slick BBC Northern Ireland fly on the wall documentary series 'Peelers: The PSNI For Real'. Filmed over two years, the talk radio host and a cameraman ride in the back of police cars with a group of officers as they drive around the city on day and night shifts. Wearing a body cam, he observes how the officers handle volatile situations involving members of the public. This includes raids on drug dealers' apartments, car c...

BEING NOTICED (BAIT & NOSTALGIE)

  BAIT From Garry Shandling to Larry David, Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan to John Malkovich, there's always something fascinating about watching actors sending themselves up in movies or TV. Now we can add Riz Ahmed to the list as he plays a version of himself on the cusp of fame. 'Bait' is a comedy drama about a neurotic London born rapper and actor of Pakistani origin juggling career ambition with a chaotic family life. At the start of the six part show, Ahmed's Shah Latif is auditioning for the role of James Bond. Unfortunately the audition in front of Maxine Peake's director Helen doesn't go well. Hearing the paparazzi are camped outside the front of the building as he is being escorted out the back, Shah makes a shrewd move. Pretending he's left his phone charger behind, he engineers a departure instead in front of the photographers. The possibility of producers casting an Asian actor in the role of 007, generates a swell of excitement on social media and...