Time Bandits ★★★½
Apple TV+

A romp that takes in some of the best VHS cassettes you could rent in the 1980s, Time Bandits is a comical children’s adventure rife with daft tweaks and droll asides. Ten episodes may be stretching its appeal slightly, but with a terrific double act at its core – Lisa Kudrow as a snippy temporal thief and Kal-El Tuck as the bright boy caught up in her gang’s blunders – the show does more than enough to justify both remaking Terry Gilliam’s 1981 movie and a second season.

It begins with a bedroom closet and a winning protagonist: 11-year-old Kevin (Tuck) is a history buff full of knowledge and no-one to share it with. His phone-obsessed parents are loving but baffled, and barely notice when a time portal opens in his room and a gang of thieves, in possession of a very special but stolen map, crash through. In their haste to escape, the plucky kid ends up with Penelope (Kudrow) and her misfit crew. They spend the first few episodes trying to dump him.

As a supergroup series – the creators are Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords), and Iain Morris (The Inbetweeners) – Time Bandits feels like a homage not only to the original film, but many of the trio’s childhood faves. One episode has an affectionate nod to Back to the Future. It also understands that Kevin is smarter than his new guardians, adult authority figures should be mocked, and that exploring history is a lark. The series grows more assured with each instalment.

Penelope, Kevin and the likes of Widgit (Roger Jean Nsengiyumva), a navigator who can’t read the map, and fretful strongman Bittelig (Rune Temte) find themselves at a half-built Stonehenge or inside the Trojan Horse at Troy. Kevin’s knowledge is suddenly a blessing, and he blossoms while starting to understand the dynamics of those around him. They’re also pursued by the agents of duelling deities, the Supreme Being (Waititi) and Pure Evil (Clement). The former owned the map, the latter wants it for himself.

There’s a smidge of risk to this slapdash enterprise, even if it comes from the lasers shooting out the eyes of Pure Evil’s hellish bounty hunter, Fianna (Rachel House, one of many Kiwis on duty here). Gilliam’s film, with its Monty Python influence, was darkly fantastical and scary, but this is more child-friendly without sacrificing a tone built on deadpan retorts, silly misunderstandings, and Friends star Kudrow being hilarious as an insecure leader. It’s that rare remake that gets it right.

Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes ★★★★
Binge, Monday

It’s impossible to sum up Elizabeth’s life and career. She was a 1940s Hollywood child star, America’s sweetheart in the 1950s and a screen goddess by the 1960s. She was married eight times (to seven men), was the first actor to ever get $US1 million for a movie (1963’s Cleopatra), and was accused of “erotic vagrancy” by the Vatican. The bullet points are endless, and thankfully they’re mostly ancillary to this intimate, fascinating documentary.