Amazon Prime
Ripper Street
A fifth and final run for the BBC-turned-Amazon detective drama that used Jack the Ripper as a jumping-off point for all manner of grisly goings on in 19th-century Whitechapel. As another serial killer lurks, Reid, Jackson and Long Susan’s efforts to capture the bad ’un are hindered by the fact that they’re also on the run from the police themselves. Hopefully there be a sense of closure and comeuppance-getting at the end of these last six episodes, with the programme-makers promising that this is the logical conclusion of the tale rather than merely another axing.
Available from 12 October
Goliath
There are shades of Better Call Saul in this new drama about a charmingly dishevelled lawyer investigating a suspicious death at sea. Inevitably, he ends up on the other side of the courtroom from his old firm – now a ruthless legal mega-corp that just happens to employ his ex-wife. Billy Bob Thornton is typically watchable as our roguish protagonist – also named Billy – boozing, shagging and issuing demand letters from his Santa Monica motel room. Everyone else, however, is a little bit 2D.
Available from 14 October
Podcast
FiveThirtyEight elections podcast
If you’re looking for a steer on the US election, FiveThirtyEight – the political site renowned for analysing the news using hard stats rather than hot-air punditry – is a good place to start. Its presidential race podcasts have been ramping up over the summer, investigating topics such as the candidates’ campaign spend and what makes a “tipping-point” state. The latest edition is the start of a miniseries on the electorate themselves, drilling down into the demographics to identify who is likely to vote Republican and why.
Available now
Netflix
Haters Back Off
“All the most famous people in the world started on the internet – Justin Bieber, Susan Boyle, that cat that fell off the table when it got scared.” So declares real-world online sensation Miranda Sings at the beginning of this new eight-episode series based on the so-bad-it’s-great YouTube channel. As well as following the talentless, nasal-voiced “singer” – portrayed by US comic and classically trained vocalist Colleen Ballinger – the show expands on the pop parody premise to incorporate Miranda’s fame-hungry dad, supportive but clueless mum and highly embarrassed younger sister into the mix. Strange, hilarious and – of course – tuneless in the extreme.
Available from 14 October
All 4
Continuing his televisual world tour, Channel 4’s resident foreign-language selector Walter has nabbed three Dutch series to add to his collection. The first to hit UK screens is this pacy six-parter about a software consultant who – as the title suggests – finds himself framed for a string of wrongs. What begins as a tale of cybercrime, infidelity and embezzlement soon gives way to a murder mystery and a Europe-wide fundamentalist Christian conspiracy against protagonist Michael Bellicher. Quietly compelling.
Available from 14 October
