Rivals to 12 12 12: the seven best shows to stream this week
Pick of the week Rivals How will Rivals handle a funeral? With intrigue, melodrama and booming 80s power ballads, of course. The first part of season two of this bonkbuster ended with Monica’s death. This resumption gives it 15 minutes before the characters go back to tearing each others’ clothes off. But that’s only the beginning: bereavement hasn’t made Tony Baddingham any less vicious but, from Maud’s partial culpability for the fatality to a looming battle between Venturer and Corinium over the TV rights for Lizzie’s book, there are flashpoints everywhere you look. Rivals manages sadness, scandal and hilarity all at once. What a show. Disney+, from Wednesday 11 November *** 12 12 12 A daring, borderline impossible Christmas Eve raid on a bank vault under the streets of Zurich is at the heart of this thriller. It operates across multiple timelines which, taken together, explain the title – the planning takes 12 months, the heist 12 hours and the subsequent police operation 12 days. The robbery is the brainchild of Paul Galvin (Jamie Dornan) who, in time-worn style, is plotting one last job before marriage and fatherhood. But FBI agent Jack Strickland (Anthony Mackie) is on his tail, looking to redeem himself as career ignominy looms. The characters could be more fleshed out but the plotting is inventive and there are plenty of spectacular action set-pieces. Apple TV, from Friday 13 November *** City of God It’s the second season of this spin-off from the brilliant 2002 film, and the neighbourhood is still riven by gang violence. Local photojournalist Wilson “Rocket” Rodrigues (Alexandre Rodrigues) has returned to document these endless, attritional conflicts. But the gangsters are getting wise and suspecting that real power might involve a few compromises and some concessions to politics. Can they take their discontent to city hall? It’s become a little more soapy and episodic during its transition to the small screen but City of God still packs a fearsome punch. HBO Max, from Sunday 8 November *** The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power This LOTR prequel has been a mixed bag so far, with the uniformly breathtaking production values not quite matched by the script or narrative drive. Still, as season three arrives, the pace picks up: Sauron (Charlie Vickers) has enslaved most of Middle-earth but pockets of resistance still remain. The last free inhabitants (dwarves, elves, humans and wizards) must unite to hold him back. The battles are staged on an epic scale and there’s a foundational moment in the saga as, for the first time, we witness the forging of the One Ring. Prime Video, from Wednesday 11 November *** The Jigsaw Puzzle Murderer The title of this two-part true-crime documentary series is horrifyingly literal. In 2024, officers from Greater Manchester police were alerted to a suspicious package in woodlands on the edge of Salford. What they found was chilling: tightly wrapped in cellophane was a dismembered human torso. But where was the rest of the body – and would putting it back together lead them to the killer? Via interviews with the detectives involved and using real CCTV footage, the story of the murder of Stuart Everett is told in gruesome, forensic detail. Paramount+, from Thursday 12 November *** Maniacs of the Truth Filmed over three painstaking years, this two-part true-crime story has a clever political dimension alongside its crime-fighting. Ostensibly, it features a group of retired Hungarian detectives talking about the defining cases of their lives. But what they’re actually discussing is the experience of police work (which, at its noblest, is the search for truth) in the context of careers during the early 1990s when Hungary was transitioning from autocracy to democracy. To what extent did their individual struggles dovetail with the country’s wider story? HBO Max, from Friday 13 November *** Snoopy Presents: 12 Days of Snoopy Warm, jazzy piano. Snoopy sleeping on top of his kennel despite heavy snow. All is present and correct for an early helping of festive Peanuts. But Snoopy has been a bad dog, and he’s been placed on Santa’s naughty list. Cue a canine existential crisis; can he summon up enough goodwill to get back in Father Christmas’s good books in time for the big day? In typical style, at first he opts for a shortcut to goodwill – but inevitably, there are wholesome moral lessons just round the corner. An animation that hits its charming beats with precision. Apple TV, from Friday 13 November
