What to Watch TV: The Office Australia, Red Flag, Thou Shalt Not Steal, Shrinking and Rivals

The Office

Friday, streaming on Prime Video

Felicity Ward, who is front and centre in the Aussie remake of The Office playing a character first immortalised by Ricky Gervais, wants you all to know it’s OK — she gets it.

“English people and people that love The Office, they’re like, ‘Hey, whatever you do with it is fine’,” she recently joked at a media event in London.

She is, of course, being tongue-in-cheek: Ward, the Aussie-born, UK-based comedian, knows full well that fans — particularly those in the UK — are fiercely protective of the series, first brought to screens by Gervais and later reimagined for a US audience with Steve Carell at the helm.

They want to make sure this spin-off, which — shock, horror — now has a woman boss at its centre, gets it right.

“Ricky Gervais has approved a female lead, he’s very excited about a female lead — just in case anyone is angry,” Ward added.

Which, of course, they likely will be — it will be almost impossible to watch this without making the obvious comparisons to the two monstrously popular versions that came before.

Sadly, I can’t yet give you a definitive answer (there’s a review embargo in place), so instead I’ll give you the lowdown: this version is set in a fictional Sydney-based box company, Flinley Craddick. Ward plays its cringe-inducing manager, Hannah Howard, who oversees a motley crew of office workers (there’s a great ensemble cast) who care little for her management style, but tolerate it nonetheless (she’s signing their pay cheques, after all).

You’re going to want to dip into this. You may rage, you may not — either way, this one will be talked about, so mark your diaries.

Red Flag: Music’s Failed Revolution

Tuesday, 8.35pm, SBS

Walkley award-winning journalist Marc Fennell is back with another intriguing doco, this one taking a close-up look at little-known Aussie music startup Guvera. The service, which launched in the mid-Noughties, promised to “revolutionise music forever”, but then vanished — taking millions of bucks with it. This two-episode series has all the twists and turns Fennell fans have come to expect, and the story is genuinely intriguing. Worth a look.

Thou Shalt Not Steal

Thursday, streaming on Stan

Dylan River (Mystery Road and the excellent and underrated Robbie Hood) is behind this fantastically watchable new series. His fingerprints are all over it — it looks and feels terrific. Set in the 1980s, it tells the story of wayward teen Robyn (Heartbreak High’s Sherry-Lee Watson) who steals a cab and heads off on a bonkers outback road trip to fulfil her grandfather’s dying wish. Also starring Noah Taylor, Miranda Otto and Will McDonald, put this darkly funny series on your radar.

Shrinking S2

Wednesday, streaming on Apple TV Plus

This slow-burn series, about a recently bereaved therapist Jimmy (Jason Segel) and his curmudgeonly colleague Dr Paul Rhoades (Harrison Ford) is sitting pretty on a Rotten Tomatoes score of 87 per cent — not bad for a show no one seems to have watched! Season two sees the odd couple and their colleagues back in session — Jimmy’s still “Jimmying”, Paul’s still being a stick in the mud, and honestly it’s a delight to be back spending more time with them all. Discover this show.

Rivals

Friday, streaming on Prime Video

Jilly Cooper super fans: assemble! It’s finally time for us to feast on this eight-part series, based on the novel by Dame Jilly Cooper. Part of her Rutshire Chronicles book series, this is — and we’re quoting here — “packed full of romantic entanglements, dastardly deals, sex and wit”. Because of course it is! David Tennant, Aidan Turner, Danny Dyer: excuse me while I fan myself coquettishly in anticipation. Am DYING for this one.