This five-episode season feels like Staples, who had a supporting role in Abbott Elementary, is stretching out into writing, running, and starring in his own show. Playing the put-upon Black anti-hero, who’s also a successful musician named Vince Staples, he snatches defeat from the jaws of victory. When Vince is invited to speak at his former high school, a classmate with a decades-old grudge turns the visit into a very different reunion.

The episodes are short but tightly self-contained. As vignettes they interweave the droll and the unpredictable, feeding off one another so the humour feels like the acceptance of cosmic bad luck. The show doesn’t take refuge in the fantastical: an episode where Vince’s trip to the bank is overtaken by a bank robbery has darker applications than mere contrast. If this is a test, Staples passes easily.

Ghosts (season 3)
Paramount+

Like The Office before it, this American remake of the hit British sitcom about a couple who become entangled with the madcap spirits from various eras that inhabit their newly inherited country home has found a distinct comedic groove of its own. The episodes bustle with historic complications, daft supernatural lore, and low-key metaphysical successes – there’s a lot going on, but it has an enjoyable flow and endearing individual performances. There are 40 episodes from the first two seasons preceding the new weekly instalment, and it’s a welcome addition to any comedy roster.

Suncoast
Disney+

A coming-of-age movie with barely enough spiky edges, this autobiographical feature from writer/director Laura Chinn follows Doris (Nico Parker), an American teen whose life is drifting by as her brother’s terminal illness is the focus of her fraying mother, Kristine (Laura Linney). When Doris befriends Paul (Woody Harrelson), an activist protesting about the care of another patient at her brother’s hospital, she gets both a sounding board and some impetus. The cast is very good, but each of them is filling out a role that could have been better illustrated with some extra detail.

The Greatest Night in Pop
Netflix

You can go into this feature-length documentary about the hastily convened 1985 recording session of We Are the World, the chart-topping charity single that featured a who’s who of notable American musicians, expecting baby boomer nostalgia, and you will certainly get some. But director Bao Nguyen is also wryly bemused by the now historic celebrity assemblage – Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Paul Simon and many more – and thankfully intrigued by the logistical and creative demands of creating an anthem. The song’s co-writer, Lionel Ritchie, proves to be a chatty guide.

The L Word (seasons 1-6)
Stan

Like many groundbreaking shows, the passing of time has led to new generations casting an unvarnished gaze over this series – which debuted in 2004 and ran for six seasons – about the often-messy lives and loves of a group of lesbian and bisexual women in West Hollywood. Some of the criticisms are valid, but hindsight shouldn’t always trump a breakthrough in representation – Katherin Moennnig’s Shane will always be vexing, but also probably iconic. 2019’s Generation Q sequel got sidetracked trying to fix what it perceived as the original’s flaws, but 20 years on the original still delivers pleasure and purpose.

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