Marvellous, joyous TV: Five stars for beloved dating show’s US spin-off

Love on the Spectrum US
★★★★★
Netflix, from Wednesday

The gentle, illuminating and joyous Australian series Love on the Spectrum proved such a winner on American Netflix that it’s little surprise that series creator Cian O’Clery hopped the pond to make a counterpart piece.

The idea is the same – to document the journeys of several young people on the autism spectrum as they begin dating – but there’s also a new facet in the experience of 63-year-old San Francisco man Steve, who was only diagnosed as being on the spectrum in recent years.

David and Abby in Love on the Spectrum US.Credit:Netflix

It is, of course, the cast that makes the series, and once again O’Clery has done a wonderful job of assembling a group of people who are all hugely, colourfully different and utterly charming in their idiosyncrasies, unfiltered frankness and complete lack of guile. No story unfolds quite how you’d expect, and while viewers will be tearing their hair out at certain sudden U-turns, you can’t help but come away feeling that there really is somebody for everybody.

Perhaps the boldest personality is that of bubbly 26-year-old Californian Dani Bowman, who has built herself a remarkable career and business in animation and providing animation education and training to other young people, including those on the spectrum.

Her 24/7 obsession with animation and her business-minded approach promise a brutal winnowing for potential suitors. If they’re not actually working in animation they must at least be in a field that is somehow compatible with animation, and they must have serious career and educational goals to boot.

Dani in Love on the Spectrum US.Credit:Netflix

Yet, on her first date, with a lovely young chap who doesn’t quite tick all of those boxes, the businesswoman melts away and we see a very different side of Dani: girlish, giddy and easily smitten. It’s a little poignant moment in a series that’s chock-full of them.

Everyone is different: 34-year-old James is prone to agitation and anxiety; 23-year-old Abbey seems to float along in a state of bliss brought on by her love of wild and stuffed animals; and 24-year-old Kaelynn is deeply unimpressed with the men on Tinder in South Carolina. For Steve, there’s the enticing possibility of a whole new life – his recent diagnosis has brought relief from 50 years of guilt and shame about being “weird”.

As with the original series, O’Clery also does a brilliant job of including the cast members’ parents and capturing the endless delight they get from their children.

Marvellously, joyously human TV.

Hacks
Stan*, new series Friday

Jean Smart returns as comedy legend and firebrand Deborah Vance in season two of Hacks.Credit:Stan

You can cut the tension with a knife as Joan Rivers-style comedy legend Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and young writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) take their fractious relationship on the road – with Deborah still not knowing how Ava betrayed her last season. Both Deborah and the show as a whole return in wonderfully acerbic form, with supporting characters providing great value. Not least Deborah’s daughter (Kaitlin Olson), who is now engaged to a Midwestern MMA fighter who insists on calling Deborah “Mom”. Magic.

Girls5eva
Stan, new episodes on Fridays

Girls5eva are the middle-aged survivors of a ’90s girl band.Credit:Stan

Meredith Scardino’s wonderful musical-comedy series is also back in fine form – though it’s not immediately delivering the kind of sublimely satirical songs that made the first season such a masterpiece. It’s still great fun, though, as the middle-aged survivors of ’90s girl band Girls5eva continue their shaky comeback and land an album deal with Property Brothers Records. Summer (Busy Phillipps) has made clear that the women have grown between seasons: “I’m only doing vocal fry now if I’m scared or I need something.”

Bellingcat
Docplay

This 2018 documentary is a timely account of open-source investigative-journalism collective Bellingcat.Credit:Docplay

With the open-source investigative-journalism collective Bellingcat in the news for its work in compiling and preserving evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, it’s well worth checking out this illuminating 2018 documentary. Director Hans Pool, Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins, and some of Bellingcat’s volunteer researchers and analysts, show how the group’s forensic analysis of publicly available sources such as Google Maps imagery and social-media videos has provided valuable evidence about atrocities committed in Ukraine and elsewhere.

Crossing Swords
Paramount+

This foul-mouthed, oh-so-wrong stop-motion animation from Robot Chicken veterans John Harvatine and Tom Root plays like a medieval mash-up between South Park and Game of Thrones. What sets it apart is the adorable wooden character and set design, the quaintness of which is mercilessly defiled by filthy dialogue and visuals. Our hero is pure-hearted young squire Patrick (Nicholas Hoult), who is appalled by all the sex and violence. The impressive main voice cast includes Tony Hale, Tara Strong and Seth Green.

* Stan is owned by Nine, the owner of this masthead.

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