What to stream this week: Alan Cumming’s devastating Brit drama, plus five more picks

This week’s picks include a confronting drama from Queer As Folk’s Russell T. Davies, a trip around the world with Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski and a new streaming home for the always excellent Mad Men.

Tip Toe ★★★★

A searing drama inspired by the UK’s rise in anti-LGBTIQ+ hate crimes since 2019, Tip Toe starts in the immediate aftermath of violence. Within the show’s first minute, we see four people react in shock and agony to a confronting scene in Manchester’s empty early morning streets, with their sobs and screams cutting through the quiet.

Set in 2026, Tip Toe charts the 10 days leading up to that, focusing on a feud between two neighbours: flamboyant gay bar owner Leo (Alan Cumming) and Clive (David Morrissey), a quietly menacing, out-of-work electrician.

Created by Russell T. Davies, the prolific Welsh screenwriter best known for steering the Doctor Who reboot, Tip Toe is the newest addition to his groundbreaking canon of queer British television, spanning ’90s drama Queer as Folk, dystopian sci-fi Years and Years and It’s a Sin, set during the AIDS epidemic in ’80s London.

But this is something new from Davies, a series full of fury and fear not at the failures of the past or future, but right now. It’s not always eloquent or subtle – especially when characters go on didactic rants about Trump or trans rights, an indulgence of Davies’ to turn characters into mouthpieces as needed.

Still, Tip Toe’s five episodes arrive with urgency, asking how far the pendulum will swing back on equality – for LGBTIQA+ people and all minorities. But at 59 years old, Leo doesn’t want to think about it: “Now, I don’t have to care as much,” he tells fiery friend Melba over drinks. “I have marched. Now it’s someone else’s turn.”

Leo’s life is filled with friends, sex and Spit and Polish – his bar on Manchester’s Canal Street, the gay neighbourhood immortalised in Queer As Folk as an LGBTIQA+ haven. But the culture is shifting, as resident barfly Melba spells out: “If there’s a war, you’re on the frontline, my darling. You have trans bar staff – that’s the battleground right there.”

Backed by a strong cast (particularly Paul Rhys, who devours Melba’s alcohol-fused polemics), Cumming and Morrissey play Leo and Clive as completely out of sync, each incapable of understanding the other.

Tapping into his own campy charisma, Cumming is brash, bold and defiant as Leo – but lets the persona slip in moments, hinting at baggage he ignores for a simple, fun, gay life.

Meanwhile, Morrissey plays Clive’s emotions in micro, potentially hidden even from himself. It’s an icy aggression, with waves raging under a thin sheet that could crack at Leo’s lightest joke. The scariest part? You might know it well.

Best of the World with Antoni Porowski (Disney+) ★★★

Queer Eye’s food and wine expert Antoni Porowski doesn’t do enthusiasm in halves. This is, after all, the man whose puppy-dog excitement over a Greek-yoghurt guacamole practically tore Twitter apart in 2018. That enthusiasm makes him a dorky/charming host of National Geographic’s four-episode travel series Best of the World, in which he visits Mexico City, Paris, London and New York to explore what’s made the publisher’s annual list of top restaurants, sights and traditions.

Each episode, Porowski goes behind the scenes at major attractions, such as Big Ben or The Moulin Rogue, with stops in Michelin-starred restaurants and more left-of-centre experiences. Whether interviewing the New York City Marathon’s most beloved volunteer, scoffing down a pasty at Mexico City’s “bread-and-pastry nirvana” Panaderia Rosetta, or swimming in the freezing waters of London’s Canary Wharf, Porowski dives in with puns and plenty of earnestness.

Some moments, however, are given a little too much emotional weight: Porowski is fond of an impassioned speech and is moved to tears repeatedly, including by a London pub’s Sri Lankan twist on a Sunday roast. But it’s more endearing than irritating, given that he’s never afraid to be a little goofy. “I’m a big fan of furniture,” he tells one Parisian. “It’s beautiful, but it’s also practical.” Besides, who doesn’t get a little whimsical while travelling.

Dead of Winter (HBO Max) ★★★★

How could Emma Thompson say anything but “you betcha” to a taut thriller set in Fargo country? Directed by Brian Kirk, Dead of Winter stars the two-time Oscar winner as Barb, a sweet-natured Minnesotan widow who stumbles upon a kidnapping and murder plot in the sub-zero woods. Armed with a thick accent, remarkable survival skills and a neighbourly need to help, Barb faces off against a nameless couple, played with great menace by Marc Menchaca and Judy Greer. The excellent cast pulls off slightly too sentimental backstories, adding genuine emotional heft to its bloody cat-and-mouse game.

Journey Home, David Gulpilil (SBS On Demand) ★★★★

Regarded as one of Australia’s finest actors, Yolŋu man David Gulpilil’s life is the subject of several intimate documentaries – including My Name Is Gulpilil, released months before his death from lung cancer in November 2021. This latest offering traces the actor’s last wish for his body to be repatriated from South Australia to his homeland of Gupulul, in remote East Arnhem Land. Narrated by Hugh Jackman and directed by Maggie Miles (Trailblazers) and Trisha Morton-Thomas (Occupation: Native), it spans that 10-month journey, quietly reflecting on the actor’s life, legacy and connection to Country.

Over Your Dead Body (Amazon Prime Video) ★★

Expect high highs and low lows in this ultra-gory comedy-thriller riff on Mr & Mrs Smith, starring Jason Segel and Australia’s Samara Weaving. Instead of assassins, they’re a toxic couple, each plotting to kill the other on a weekend away. (It’s less icky in context.) Packed with twists and psychopaths (Timothy Olyphant and Juliette Lewis), the film is completely unpredictable and elaborately violent. Steered by ex-sketch comics, including Jorma Taccone of The Lonely Island/Saturday Night Live and comedy duo BriTANicK, it’s a little too unrefined, with some dead-on-arrival scenes that throw you out of the fun.

Mad Men (HBO Max) ★★★★★

Have you heard of this one? After disappearing without a trace from Australia’s streaming services, the shadowy Don Draper (Jon Hamm) resurfaces – and he’s in 4K and ultra-high definition for the first time. One of the leaders of the 2000s Golden Age of TV, Mad Men’s intoxicating and toxic setting in the advertising world of 1960s New York is entirely rewatchable – all seven seasons. Yes, its cast is incredible. Yes, it’s gorgeous, with a prestige gloss rarely matched today. But, most of all, it always meets the current moment, no matter when you’re watching.

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