10 TV and streaming highlights for February: White Lotus, Zero Day, and more...
Season three of The White Lotus, and Robert de Niro in Zero Day feature among February's TV highlights.
The first episode of this four-parter dropped on Sunday, Feb 2, but you still have time to jump aboard the adaptation of Gill Hornby’s novel of the same name. Keeley Hawes is in the lead role as Cassandra Austen, the sister of novelist Jane (deceased by the time the series starts). Cassandra famously burnt her sister’s letters to keep them private, but in this series she’s trying to find a stash of lost correspondence that could ruin Jane’s posthumous reputation. Flashback scenes provide glimpses of the siblings’ young lives together.
A rainforest in Costa Rica provides the setting for Bear Grylls’ outing with a 12 celebrities. They’re battling to show their survival skills and avoid an elimination that involves the British adventurer hunting them down. Una Healy will fly the flag for Tipperary, while there’s also Kerry connection through Kola Bokinni ( Isaac in Ted Lasso), whose mother hails from the Kingdom. Boris Becker, Mel B and Danny Cipriani will also be rumbling in the jungle.
Two-part documentary series filmed over one night in Cork city. It features a motley crew of shift workers, security staff, bar-room revellers, and more of the southern city’s inhabitants. Amidst the fun and hard work, we also see the other side of life on Leeside as Hope for the Homeless distribute food and drink to the less fortunate, and an ambulance rushes to help a man who had been rescued from the river.
A two-part documentary series on the Dublin convicted criminal who has had a high profile in recent years due to his trial in connection with the 2016 gun attack at the Regency Hotel (where he was found not guilty), and his near-election as a TD in the 2024 General Election. The show will look at Hutch’s life through the years, from his humble beginnings, through his early involvement in crime, and onto the vicious feud that claimed the lives of several members of his family.
Ridley Scott’s docuseries returns to the source material that provided the story for his 2001 film. Over three episodes, the show delves into what happened during the ‘Battle of Mogadishu’ as US forces got involved in Somalia’s civil war, and had to deal with the loss of three helicopters. Interviewees include members of the American units and local militias they were fighting against.
Chris O’Dowd has likely dipped into his own Roscommon upbringing to create the world of Drumbán, a rural town with a secret. Christina Hendricks and Paddy Considine provide some international star power for the six-part comedy series about what happens when a Hollywood production begins filming in the town.
St Valentine’s Day feels the perfect time to release a documentary on the great Luther Vandross. The title of the show comes from his biggest hit, but there was much more to the New Yorker who died in 2005, aged 54. Of course, as well as his own tunes, he also had a major hand in David Bowie’s move towards soul in 1975 with the Young Americans album.
The satiric show moves to Thailand for its third season. It’s not quite make-or-break for the series but season two’s Sicily adventure was a step down from the opening instalment, and was largely kept afloat by Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) who won’t be around this time. The cast does include Patrick Schwarzenegger, 31-year-old son of Arnie.
Six-part political thriller with a heavyweight cast headed by Robert De Niro. The 81-year-old plays a former US president now tasked with an enquiry into the cause of a deadly cyberattack that claimed dozens of lives. Other familiar faces in the ensemble include Jesse Plemons, Lizzy Caplan, and Matthew Modine.
Bare-knuckle boxing tale set in 1880s London. Over the six episodes, we’ll watch the adventures of two best friends from Jamaica making their way in the fight trade in the British capital’s dodgy underbelly. The usually-excellent Stephen Graham plays Sugar Goodson, king of the East End boxing world.
