La Brea
Sci-fi

This bewildering sci-fi, in which a sinkhole in LA pulls hundreds of people into an atavistic fight for survival, returns after a mid-second season break. In part one, we learned that the sinkholes had been created by a corporation from 2076, looking for solutions to their era’s resource depletion. But the victims have found themselves marooned in different eras – can Eve find a way back to 1988 and reunite with Josh? The show aims for somewhere between Lost and The Walking Dead but never quite achieves this. It can’t be accused of lacking ambition, though.

Firefly Lane
Drama/Animation

The saccharine drama about a pair of estranged best pals concludes, and there’s every suggestion that it will die as it has lived – by giving its audience exactly what it wants, in a way that feels more than a little emotionally incontinent. Firefly Lane has never been a subtle show and with Kate (Sarah Chalke) now seriously ill, it seems unlikely that Tully (Katherine Heigl) won’t hurry to her side. However, before this performatively poignant money shot, expect plenty of the show’s usual time-hops as more of the pair’s shared history is coloured in.

Born in Damascus
Documentary

Laura, a Scottish-Syrian film-maker, reconnects online with her closest cousin Lujain after 10 years apart. Their paths were separated by war, and now Laura hopes to reconstruct a positive image of the past by sharing memories and family videos with Lujain, who fled to Canada. Lujain has no memories of Syria and, suffering from the trauma of war, has forgotten many of their times together. As they reconnect, they begin to rebuild their friendship and reflect on how war continues to affect every relationship long after it ends.

Cunk on Earth
Comedy

From Black Mirror's Charlie Brooker, this mockumentary series looks at the history of human civilisation... as explored by the hopelessly obtuse Philomena Cunk (Diane Morgan). The show is a brilliant spoof of classic documentaries, peppered with humorous asides, hilariously terrible questions, and a lot of the 1989 Belgian techno-pop anthem "Pump Up the Jam". Whether you watch it for the historical information or for Morgan's signature comedy, Cunk on Earth is one of the best mockumentaries we've seen in recent times.

Midnight by Taylor Swift
Music Album

Midnights is the tenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 21, 2022, via Republic Records. Inspired by Swift's "sleepless nights", Midnights explores topics of anxiety, insecurity, self-criticism, self-awareness, insomnia, and self-confidence, using confessional yet cryptic lyrics. Sonically, it experiments with chill-out, electropop, dream pop, and bedroom pop styles, applying an alternative approach to the synth-pop sound of Swift's previous pop projects. The songs are characterised by subtle grooves, vintage synthesizers, drum machine, and hip hop/R&B rhythms.