Five things for you to watch this weekend

EMILY THE CRIMINAL — RENT OR BUY FROM APPLE TV+

Aubrey Plaza sheds her comedic skin for some seriously good dramatic work in this grim modern LA neonoir directed by John Patton Ford. Plaza plays Emily, a young art school graduate saddled with crushing student debt. Working long hours as a food delivery driver, Emily takes a second gig as a “dummy shopper”, buying goods with stolen credit cards for a crime syndicate under the tutelage of a young, charming middleman named Youcef (Theo Rossi).

When Emily proves to be rather good at her new job, and begins to fall for her boss, she’s drawn into the murky world of crime helping her beau to pull off a plan that will set them free or trap them forever. It’ sa solidly executed crime drama that raises important questions about debt cycles college graduates can’t escape.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN LONDONGRAD — SHOWMAX

In 2014 a high-flying, bigspending fixer to the rich and famous, a property speculator called Scott Young was found dead, impaled on the railings below the window of his fourth floor apartment in one of London’s posh suburbs. Young, who had been the subject of a messy media spectacle divorce, was declared dead by suicide but his former wife was convinced that something wasn’t right and so she called in the investigative team at BuzzFeed.

What their investigation revealed was a long-stretching, tentacled conspiracy of dubious deaths over two decades in London, that pointed the finger all the way to Moscow and Vladimir Putin’s long-running battle with the oligarchs who had made their home in the UK’s capital. Based on a book nominated for the Pulitzer Prize book by Heidi Blake, the sixpart docuseries paints a depressing picture of how London’s overeagerness to welcome Russian money has allowed it to become a Wild West outpost for late capitalism’s cowboy class, who do what they want.

REPRESENT — NETFLIX

A sharp, satirical comedy series about the racial imbalance of French politics in which a youth counsellor in Paris, young, personable and black, finds himself a serious contender in the presidential election. If you thought that the US had representation issues when it comes to the political landscape, just wait until you see how backward things are in France.

SHRINKING — APPLE TV+

Harrison Ford and Jason Segel star in this gently funny, decidedly heartwarming comedy about a therapist whose life isn’t going anywhere until he has his own breakthrough and decides to start telling his patients the truth. Maybe it’s the beginning of a whole new world or maybe it’s a really bad idea that’s going to spin out of control and drag everyone around him down with him.

THE LYING LIFE OF ADULTS NETFLIX

A sumptuously realised and excellently acted adaptation of yet another book by the still anonymous Italian literary superstar Elena Ferrante. This series explores the transformation of a bored 1990s’ Naples teenager after she seeks out her eccentric, free-spirited aunt and embarks on a journey of self-discovery and new possibilities that will change her life forever.