THE REMOTE IS our weekly look at upcoming TV highlights.
Across TV and streaming services, we bring you some suggestions for your week’s viewing, based on quality, intrigue, and the simple likelihood that something might end up sparking an interesting discussion. Here’s what you should watch out for this week.
A documentary telling the story of Irish free-diver Steven Keenan and his partner Alessia Zecchini has fast become one of the most popular documentaries on Netflix after its release last week.
Directed by Irish director Laura McGann, the documentary explores the world of free-diving, which is exactly what it sounds like. Deep-sea diving without the aid of any breathing apparatus. The documentary is visually stunning – capturing vast expanses of water from above and below, exploring the love story between Zecchini as a diver attempting to break a world record and Keenan as both her husband and her safety diver.
It is a heart-thumping, breath-stopping piece of filmmaking that explores the limits of human curiosity and ambition, how we exist within nature, and the profound danger inherent to such things. With contribution from the families of Keenan and Zecchini, it is both an exhilarating and painfully difficult watch, and many are already raving about it.
This next suggestion is a little weird, but bear with us. Disney+ has – over the last few years – been uploading an animated series of shorts titled The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse.
Look. You’re a grown-up, I’m a grown-up, we are probably neither of us the kind of people who want to watch something because Mickey Mouse is in it. However, the Emmy-nominated shorts have been a fascinating, easy-to-watch burst of old-school Disney animation and storytelling that make for something unlike anything else on the streaming market, and the finale of the entire project, titled Steamboat Silly, is currently available.
Now, let’s do a full 180 and go from Mickey Mouse to Noël Browne. Tonight, RTÉ will air the documentary The Seven Ages of Noel Browne, looking at the life of one of the most radical and controversial politicians of 20th century Ireland.
In the 1950s, Browne became an enemy of the Catholic Church as the architect of the Mother and Child Scheme, and tonight’s documentary will look at the many phases of his career. It airs on RTÉ One at 9.35pm tonight.
And of course, tonight is the finale of Love Island. It may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but the show still has a habit of turning out pop-culture figures who remain in the public consciousness long after the show ends, not least Tommy Fury, Molly-Mae Hague, Maura Higgins, Greg O’Shea and Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu.
Tonight will see the public decide which couple take home the £50,000 and the promise of fame (of a certain kind) for the next few years. The finale of Love Island will air at 9pm on Virgin Media Two.
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