Screen Queen TV reviews: America’s Sweethearts, Fifteen Love, Unstable S2 and Batman: Caped Crusader

America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

Streaming now on Netflix

Last weekend I watched the Fremantle Dockers versus Melbourne Demons match. It was a good’un — we trounced the opposition.

But there was one aspect of the game that left me disappointed — and it had nothing to do with what happened on the field and everything to do with the Acca Dacca track, Thunderstruck, that was playing in the stands.

Usually this gets me razzed up in all the right ways — it’s a belter of a hype track — but it left me cold.

And if you’ve watched this new Netflix documentary, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

You see, this song is now so indelibly linked in my mind to the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and all the gross injustices they’ve endured (which I now know all about thanks to this excellent doco), I struggle to hear it without shuddering.

All I can think about is how the women in this doco don’t think of themselves as victims, but undoubtedly are; how many have been left battered and bruised and with lifelong injuries thanks to the brutal training they’ve endured to perfect their Thunderstruck routine; how they’re settling for wages little better than a fast food worker, when their footballer colleagues are on contracts worth tens of millions of dollars.

The injustice of it all!

Yet they all still seem so shiny and . . . happy?

It’s strange — give me an oversized Docker mascot with comically big muscles holding a giant anchor over this rank hypocrisy any day.

Better yet, get him doing high kicks to an AC/DC track — it’s the only thing that will leave me feeling better about this whole sorry story.

Fifteen-Love

Sunday, 8.30pm, ABC

This came out last year, but is finally making its way to free-to-air — and it’s definitely worth a watch, mostly for the mesmeric performances of Aidan Turner and first-timer Ella Lily Hyland, who is incredible as a teenage tennis prodigy who may or may not have been groomed and sexually assaulted by her coach (played by Turner).

Both nail their roles, and there’s a wonderful tension at play as you try to decipher who’s really to blame, and who’s the real victim in the scenario.

Top-shelf performances and a sensational script leave you guessing until the end.

A must-see.

Unstable S2

Thursday, streaming on Netflix

Rob Lowe and his real-life son John are back in this father-son comedy, which isn’t nearly as terrible as it sounds on paper. This season sees some great supporting performances from Sian Clifford, Fred Armisen and Iris Apatow, who joins as an irritating Gen Z-er.

Junior Doctors Down Under

Thursday, 8.25pm, SBS

Perth’s expat doctors are under the microscope in this great new observational documentary from WA’s Prospero Productions. It’s all about the medical professionals who’ve traded their lives for a fresh start Down Under — a great watch.

Batman: Caped Crusader

Thursday, streaming on Prime Video

There have been stacks of screen adaptations of Batman over the years, but this one, which boasts J.J. Abrams as an EP, feels refreshingly low-fi. Fans of the original comic will likely lap it up.