There are close scrapes, convenient clues, and the constant reminder that “live fast, die young” is the reality for these phantasmal first responders – a soundtrack of the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees fits impeccably. It’s menacing fun, right down to Lucy and Lockwood crashing a ball, but Cornish never loses the telling perspective of his young protagonists. “The world’s mad and normal never fixed anything,” Lockwood declares, and that applies to the many Problems – fictional or real – that the next generation have to face.

Bad Behaviour
★★★
Stan (from February 17)*

An Australian psychological thriller told with heated flourishes and the murky undertow of adolescent memory, Bad Behaviour is a flawed but sometimes fascinating limited series. It traverses the then and now of a young woman, Jo Mackenzie (Jana McKinnon), who meets the bully and victim she was torn between during a year on a remote bush high school campus. Except Jo’s assumptions don’t meet their reactions.

In liberally adapting Rebecca Starford’s memoir of the same name, creators Pip Karmel and Amanda Higgs interlace teenage girl power dynamics, the first stirrings of lesbian desire, and the comfort we take in slipping back into our past mistakes; as much as Jo wants to now apologise to the tormented Alice (Yerin Ha), she’s still drawn to the malicious Portia (Markella Kavenagh).

The show is at its best when it tests Jo’s complicity and self-destructive reflexes, including her dalliance with housemate Gabbie (Syd Zygier). It’s striking how this is a realm free of men and their expectations, even if some of the characters, such as Jo’s Black friend Ruby (Mantshologane Maile) are little more than sounding boards. Bad Behaviour aims high – Jane Campion’s Mean Girls? – but suffers from an ending too tidy for this torrid landscape.

Last King of the Cross
Paramount+ (from February 17)

A broad strokes crime drama that sits on the shoulders of too many predecessors and lacks for anthropological detail, this Australian series uses the life of prominent Kings Cross businessman (and executive producer) John Ibrahim as the outline for a fictionalised rose from the streets saga.

Beginning in the late 1980s, Ibrahim (played as a teenager by Malek Alkoni and then Lincoln Younes) violently climbs up through a Sydney underworld governed by Tim Roth’s geezer gangster Ezra Shipman. The storytelling is efficient if uninspiring, as victory brings the expected spoils and shortcomings.

Stolen Youth
Disney+

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Starting with him moving into the school housing at the American college where his daughter lived as a student, Larry Ray set out to brainwash a group of dedicated students to establish cult-like control. His grip held for close to a terrible decade, rife with physical and mental abuse, and it’s recounted with empathy and insight in Zach Heinzerling’s three-part documentary. Heard in recordings and via the testimony of survivors, Ray is a sociopath and huckster who destroyed promising lives. His victims are baffled by the depths he dragged them to, and probably always will be.

Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark
Binge

It’s been three years since the comedian, actor and podcaster Marc Maron released a stand-up special and – surprise! – a few things have happened in the world since then. Not surprisingly, this live set opens with a barrage of brickbats for our society, but as the aptly titled From Bleak to Dark unfolds there are moments of recognition, half-chances, and even a tinge of bittersweet optimism to Maron’s commentary as he discusses the death of his partner – filmmaker Lynn Shelton – and jokes about whether he can joke about it. It’s a masterful, revealing balancing act.

* Stan is owned by Nine, the owner of this masthead.

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