Best TV of 2020 (so far), Culture Whisper
10. Noughts and Crosses, BBC One
Malorie Blackman’s alt-history novels continue to resonate year by year with their subversion of historical racism. In Blackman’s world, white people (‘Noughts’) are subordinate to a black ruling class (‘Crosses’). With the murder of George Floyd and the anti-racist protests around the world, this BBC adaptation couldn’t feel more appropriate.
Inspired by the murder of Stephen Lawrence, Noughts and Crosses sees violent friction between the races – historically divided from a Europe colonised by ‘Aprica’. In Albion (Great Britain), the lives of the affluent Cross Sephy (Masali Baduza) and the working-class Nought Callum (Jack Rowan) come together, and they become lovers despite the risk.
9. Tiger King, Netflix
Truth is always stranger than fiction, and it’s never content to stay within the rigid rules of believability. This is bizarrely personified by the threatening, polygamous, gun-toting zoo manager Joe Exotic in Tiger King, the ultimate streaming hit of lockdown. Who knew the industry of tiger zoos was so fraught, conspiratorial, and potentially murderous?
Every episode swerves into an even weirder avenue, mostly following Joe as he runs his roadside zoo in Oklahoma. But he’s met with threats on all sides, facing accusations of animal cruelty – not least from the morally ambiguous activist Carole Baskin, who tries to tear the zoo down. This leads to a murder conspiracy, which Joe is now in jail for. Watch it to believe it.
