What to watch on TV this week

The Politician, Netflix

The comedy and melodrama of modern politics spreads into the current culture. But the Pose and Glee writer Ryan Murphy decides to have fun with it.

In The Politician — the new Netflix satire set in a colourful, Gen-Z high school — Murphy follows Payton (Ben Platt), an adopted teenager who strongly covets the position of student-body president. But it’s a weird and ruthless road ahead.

Murphy’s writing is imbalanced and some of the humour deflates in its peculiar confusion, but The Politician can still entertain — especially when Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Lange rock up. It's worth watching purely for Ben Platt’s eccentric, energetic performance.

World on Fire, BBC One

The horrors of the Second World War still reverberate, no matter how many years have passed. But there are so many WWII dramas that the genre risks repeating itself. Thankfully, World on Fire doesn’t fall into that dodgy trench.

We’re on the cusp of Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland, and Harry (Jonah Hauer-King) serves as a British translator intent on getting his girlfriend Kasia (Zofia Wichla) out of the country. But this may complicate matters for his sweetheart, Lois (Julia Brown), back home.

World on Fire also stars Sean Bean (Game of Thrones) and Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread).

Hotel Mumbai, Sky Cinema

On 26^th November 2008, the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba coordinated a series of attacks in Mumbai, India – the most famous being on the Taj Palace Hotel.

Director Anthony Maras attempts to recreate the attack in his debut action-thriller Hotel Mumbai, starring Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, and Jason Isaacs. Available on Sky Cinema, the film excels in its gritty, thrilling action sequences — but the reality of the event feels uncomfortable to watch.

Read our review

In the Shadow of the Moon, Netflix

Well, this is a bit of a turnaround. Michael C. Hall made his name playing the moralistic serial killer Dexter Morgan in Dexter; but now, he’s the one catching the killer in Jim Mickle's Netflix film In the Shadow of the Moon.

Resurfacing after nine years, a notorious psycho-murderer (Cleopatra Coleman) in Philadelphia returns to wreak havoc on the community. But this is no ordinary cat-and-mouse thriller, with screenwriters Gregory Weidman and Geoffrey Tock plunging into peculiar science-fiction. Narcos actor Boyd Holbrook also stars.

Frayed, Sky One

Not long after This Way Up delighted Channel 4, Sharon Horgan’s production company Merman brings us a brand new female-led comedy.

Set in 1988, Frayed follows the wealthy housewife Sammy (Sarah Kendall) as her opulent life is uprooted: her husband suffers a heart attack and leaves her piles of debt. As a solution, Sammy and her kids move to Australia where she grew up - but she’s not used to a non-lavish lifestyle.

Frayed also stars Robert Webb and Diane Morgan.