What to watch this Easter weekend
Whether you’re staying in, hopping to the movies or overindulging on chocolate, there’s plenty of new TV shows, films and online series to get stuck into this long weekend.
Check out nine Australian recent releases below:
The new Aussie drama from Nine, follows midwife Grace (Kate Jenkinson) and her passionate colleagues at an unconventional birth centre. Grace’s life is turned upside down when a pregnant teenager, Sophia, shows up to her maternity ward. The stellar cast includes Sigrid Thornton (Seachange) as Grace’s mother, Catherine Van Davies (Hungry Ghosts) as fellow midwife, Alexandra Jensen (My Life is Murder) as Sophia and Alex Dimitriades (The Principal; The Slap) as Sophia’s adoptive father.
Watch on 9Now here
Documentary series Australia in Colour is back with a second season, which again uses cutting-edge technology to colourise black and white archival footage, injecting new life into old stories across the four episodes. Narrated by Hugo Weaving, key moments of the 20th century are revisited as Australia’s social history is put on display, exploring issues such as changing gender roles, the Stolen Generations, the evolving entertainment scene, drinking culture and crime, just to name a few.
Watch on SBS On Demand here
One for the kids, parents and everyone in between is fan-favourite Bluey. Join Bluey the blue heeler pup and her little sister Bingo as the pair embark on a great Easter egg hunt. When the girls wake up to no chocolate eggs, Bingo fears the worst. Luckily Bluey finds a series of clues and so the treasure hunt begins.
The Easter special releases on ABC iview and ABC Kids at 8am on Sunday 4 April.
Watch the trailer here
New comedy series Fisk is created, written and directed by Kitty Flanagan, who stars as straight-shooting Helen Tudor-Fisk, a corporate contract lawyer forced to take a job at a suburban law firm specialising in wills and probate, in a bid to save her career. Joining Flanagan as she navigates death, grief, money, family and entitlement, is a band of eccentric colleagues, including probate clerk George (Aaron Chen) and brother-sister duo Roz Gruber (Julia Zemiro) and Ray Gruber (Marty Sheargold).
Watch on ABC iview here
Feature documentary Girls Can’t Surf is the untold story of the renegade surfer girls in the 1980s who took on the male-dominated professional surfing world, battled for equality and recognition and changed the sport forever. Hear in-depth interviews from surfing greats Jodie Cooper, Frieda Zamba, Pauline Menczer, Lisa Andersen, Pam Burridge, Wendy Botha, Layne Beachley and more, as they tell their stories and experiences of sexism, the media, heartbreak and adventure, cut alongside archival footage of competitions.
Girls Can’t Surf is showing in cinemas now.
Visit Madman for more details here
Click here to read an interview with director/producer Christopher Nelius and producer Michaela Perske.
In romantic drama I Met a Girl, aspiring musician Devon, who lives with schizophrenia, falls for a mysterious woman Lucy. When she vanishes leaving him with just a note to ‘meet me in Sydney’, Devon sets out on an epic, cross-country journey to find the girl of his dreams… who may just be in his head.
I Met a Girl releases on Netflix on 2 April. Watch here
Peter Rabbit, the mischievous loveable rogue, is back this Easter in the sequel to the 2018 worldwide hit film Peter Rabbit. Rose Byrne, James Corden, Margot Robbie and Domnhall Gleeson are reunited as Beatrix Potter’s beloved characters are once again brought to life. Bea, Thomas and the rabbits have created a makeshift family, living a comfortable life in London, but Peter still can’t seem to shake his naughty reputation. He adventures out of the garden out to a world where mischief runs rife and soon finds himself in trouble. When his family risk everything to come looking for him, Peter is forced to decide what kind of bunny he wants to be.
Peter Rabbit 2 is currently showing in cinemas.
Watch the trailer here
Watch our interview with Animal Logic about the making of the first Peter Rabbit film here
Set in a remote community on Tasmania’s rugged West Coast, this 6 x 10-minute online mystery series from writer Caitlin Richardson follows teenager Jas’s investigation into her father’s death. This coincides with the arrival of Jas’s new schoolteacher Ruby, who carries her own past trauma and the investigation changes everything for the town, the mine and themselves.
The Tailings will premiere on SBS On Demand on Friday 2 April.
Watch the trailer here
From creator Kristen Dunphy and premiering this Friday on ABC iview is Wakefield, a new eight-part drama set in a psychiatric hospital in the NSW Blue Mountains. At the centre of the show is Nik, a gifted psych nurse working with the fascinating characters – both staff and patients – of Ward C. He’s easily the sanest person at Wakefield but when a song gets stuck in his head, a dark secret from his past begins to intrude into his present and he starts to lose grip on his own sanity.
Hear from the showrunners of Wakefield, Kristen Dunphy and Sam Meikle here
Wakefield will premiere on ABC iview on Friday 2 April from 7am. Watch here
What to read next
The showrunners of Wakefield on plotting the eight-episode ABC TV series, how music influences their writing, and the challenges and silver linings of a COVID-19 shutdown.
26 Mar 2021
Caris Bizzaca