YOUR HONOR
Stan
BRYAN Cranston should trademark the panicked-good-dad-forced-to-do-bad-deeds act. He excels in that role.
Cranston's performance as Walter White, the high school chemistry teacher turned vengeful drug baron, is legendary. Breaking Bad is in anyone's conversation about the greatest TV shows of the 21st century.
Unfortunately it makes it impossible to view Cranston's performance as New Orleans judge Michael Desiato in Your Honor without comparisons to Breaking Bad.
Just like White, Desiato is forced to break the law and his moral compass to protect his son Adam (Hunter Doolan), who has killed another teenager in a hit-and-run accident while suffering an asthma attack.
The tragic situation is further complicated by the fact that the dead teenager is the son of vicious crime boss Jimmy Baxter (Michael Stuhlbarg).
Your Honor isn't for the weak of stomach. The crash scene is a bloody dose of realism and tension that'll continue to resonate long after you press stop. But after one episode, you'll likely be hooked.
GODMOTHERED
Disney+
FOR its latest dose of warm and fuzzy Christmas viewing, Disney+ has revisited the old-fashioned fairy tale construct of the godmother.
Eleanor, played by Jillian Bell (Rough Night), is a clumsy but well-intentioned fairy godmother who is about to be re-employed as a tooth fairy. In desperation she finds a letter written from a 10-year-old girl named McKenzie requiring help. However, when Eleanor travels to Boston she discovers the letter was written 30 years ago and McKenzie (Isla Fisher) is now a jaded single mum struggling as a TV news producer.
There's plenty of fish-out-of-water jokes as Eleanor's haphazard magic causes mischief in McKenzie's life. An annoying Bell struggles to hold attention in the leading role and even Fisher's comedic talents aren't enough to rescue Godmothered.
GRANT
Binge
THE recent US presidential election transfixed Australia for months and even with Joe Biden set to take the Oval Office in January, the Donald Trump show still dominates.
A vision of Trump riding a horse, little alone galloping into battle, is hilarious. But this was a reality for the 18th president Ulysses Grant.
This three-part documentary follows Grant's rise from a shy boy teased as "Useless Grant" to becoming a war hero. Grant later battles poverty and alcoholism before re-emerging as President Abraham Lincoln's commanding general during the American Civil War. Grant would eventually become president from 1869 to 1877.
The mini-series blends talking head historians and cinematic reenactments, which provide dramatic scenes of war and political maneuvering.
English actor Justin Salinger (Brimstone, Everest) plays the complicated leader, in what is a largely positive historical analysis of Grant's life, focusing heavily on his military genius.
Grant often ranks in the worst 10 presidents in the US history, due to multiple corruption scandals, but this mini-series attempts to re-frame his legacy as a military hero who kept the Union together following the turmoil of the Civil War. A similar role Biden is about to inherit himself.