TVNZ+’s Pack of Lies, Prime Video’s The Wheel of Time among great shows to stream this weekend

CRUEL SUMMER (PRIME VIDEO)

This hit teen anthology drama returns for a sophomore, 10-part season with another thrilling mystery.

In the summer of 1999, small-town computer genius Megan (Sadie Stanley) resents the arrival of outgoing and mysterious foreign exchange student Isabella (Lexi Underwood); little does she know how her life will change within the next 12 months.

“Thrilling and cheesy in equal measure, the series breezes towards its finish as a particularly well-oiled drama,” wrote Slate magazine’s Steven Nguyen Scaife, while Paste magazine’s Lucy Braugher thought that ”although it’s not quite on its predecessor’s level, Season 2 makes for propulsive, entertaining viewing, keeping its audience unsure about who to trust, and embracing a similar go-for-broke style of storytelling”.

FIFTEEN-LOVE (TVNZ+)

Set in the world of professional tennis, this provocative six-part drama looks at the relationship between teenage prodigy Justine Pearce (Ella Lily Hyland) and her maverick coach Glenn Lapthorn (Poldark’s Aidan Turner).

Five years after her own career is cut short by a devastating wrist injury, she’s back working as a therapist at her old tennis academy. Re-encountering Glenn though dredges up the past and leads to Jessica making an explosive allegation which forces everyone to reconsider everything they thought they knew about the pair’s past success.

Switching back-and-forth from a police interview and the events between Lapthorn re-entering Justine’s orbit and his detainment, there’s a certain amount of deviation between their accounts that keeps you gripped and unsure as to where the truth may lie.

While that’s nothing new for contemporary British drama, Hyland and Turner do a terrific job of selling this premise through their undoubted chemistry and establishing the pair as complicated, flawed characters.

THE FOLLOWING EVENTS ARE BASED ON A PACK OF LIES (TVNZ+)

Five-part UK thriller which focuses on two very different women with one thing in common.

Alice (Rebekah Staton) is a formidable PA, while Cheryl (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is a best-selling fantasy author. Both become trapped in a triangle of epic proportions when the encounter Rob (Alistair Petrie), an eccentric and celebrated eco-preneur who may or may not be trying to destroy them both.

“Despite its darker side, this show is a ripping good yarn; before you know it, it’ll have tricked you into watching it all,” wrote London Evening Standard’s Vicky Jessop, while The Daily Telegraph’s Jasper Rees thought that “as a playful satire, it revels in its own weirdness”.

HARLAN COBEN’S SHELTER (PRIME VIDEO)

Based on the prolific American author’s 2011 novel of the same name, this eight-part thriller follows teenager Mickey Bolitar (Jaden Michael) as he starts a new life in suburban New Jersey.

But when one of the children in his school disappears, he teams up with his friends Ema (Abby Corrigan) and Spoon (Adrian Greensmith) to uncover a web of mysteries about several missing people from the past.

“Shelter is broader than a barn door, but, at full pelt, it’s also a whodunit with heart, soul and an infectious sense of fun,” wrote The Daily Telegraph’s Ed Power, while San Jose Mercury News’ Randy Myers thought that “with its tongue-in-cheek humour and wild twists, this will become your next guilty pleasure”.

THE LOST FLOWERS OF ALICE HART (PRIME VIDEO)

Based on Holly Ringland’s best-selling 2018 novel of the same name, this seven-part, Australia-set and shot drama stars Sigourney Weaver, Asher Keddie, Leah Purcell, Alycia Debnam-Carey and Frankie Adams.

When Alice, aged 9 (Alyla Browne), tragically loses her parents in a mysterious fire, she is taken to live with her grandmother June (Weaver) at Thornfield flower farm, where she learns that there are secrets within secrets about her and her family’s past.

“A reminder that when it is handled with skill, sophistication and a measure of restraint, melodrama can be as satisfying as any other style of storytelling,” wrote The New York Times’ Mike Hale, while Los Angeles Times’ Robert Lloyd thought that the “sensitively written, expertly performed by actors young and old, and beautifully shot [story], is in no rush to give up its mysteries, and by drawing out the drama, what’s obvious in the story comes off as proportionally more subtle”.

MEN IN KILTS (NEON)

Outlander’s Sam Heughan and The Hobbit trilogy’s Graham McTavish hit the road again for a second, six-part travel adventure – and this time they’re traversing our motu.

Each episode focuses in on a particular theme, as the charismatic pair explore Aotearoa’s Scottish connections and take a deep dive into this country’s history, people and culture. As the series tagline states: “Same Kilts. New Zealand.”

As with the original galavant around the friends and co-workers’ native Scotland, the delights of Kilts are in the camaraderie, light-bickering and gentle ribbing between Heughan and McTavish.

PAINKILLER (NETFLIX)

If Disney+’s sublime Dopesick took a Traffic/Syriana multi-time and narrative approach to the creation, marketing and effects of the highly-addictive opioid OxyContin, then this six-part series offers up something like a cross between Dark Waters, Spotlight and Up in the Air.

That’s because this six-part “fictionalised” series focuses on depositions carried out by a legal team seeking to prosecute the drug’s manufacturers Purdue Pharma “for their role in starting America’s opioid epidemic”.

Like Dopesick, Painkiller’s fractured storytelling is initially a little challenging and confusing and although this perhaps lacks a compelling character to rival Kaitlin Deaver’s injured miner or Michael Keaton’s conflicted doctor, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood writers Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster do at least attempt the same multi-faceted tactic by weaving in the stories of injured mechanic Glen Kryper (Taylor Kitsch) and young saleswoman Shannon Schaeffer (West Duchovny).

However, where Painkiller works best in its portrayal and potted history of the Sackler family and OxyContin. There’s more than a touch of Succession about the rise of patriarch Arthur Sr. (Marvel’s Agent Coulson Clark Gregg) and his realisation that “the big money in medicine was in sales and marketing – and lies”, as well as his children and wider whānau’s battle for his business interests and legacy after his death – a scrap seemingly “won” by nephew Richard (Matthew Broderick), who took the one remaining company with a potentially profitable product and found a way to transform millions into billions.

THE WHEEL OF TIME (PRIME VIDEO)

Based on Robert Jordan’s beloved, best-selling fantasy novels The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn, this second, eight-episode season returns to the sprawling, epic world where magic exists, and only certain women are allowed to access it.

Filmed in the Czech Republic, Morocco and Italy, the series stars Rosamund Pike and New Zealand’s own Zoë Robins.

“The cast seem more comfortable now and the stakes ever higher in a smart, complicated adaptation that is taking worthwhile risks, while still holding on to what fans love about the books,” wrote Empire magazine’s Helen O’Hara, while Metro.co.uk’s Sandra Barr believes it is a “stellar example of fantasy at its most spectacular”.