The SLMan Culture List – February

This eight-part conspiracy-based psychological thriller stars Noomi Rapace and Jonathan Banks (we’ll say it, our favourite actor from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul). The space adventure lands on 21st February with three episodes, followed by weekly drops on a Wednesday. Constellation focuses on Jo – an astronaut who returns to Earth after a disaster in space – only to discover that key pieces of her life seem to be missing. An exploration of the dark edges of human psychology, the series follows one woman's desperate quest to expose the truth about the hidden history of space travel and recover all that she has lost.

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This is the first TV series produced by QC Entertainment, the Oscar-winning production company responsible for Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman. Poacher is a compelling crime series about the largest ivory poaching ring in Indian history. Drawing on court documents and testimonials, Poacher dramatises events that transpired in the dense forests of Kerala and the concrete jungle of Delhi. The series showcases the immense contributions made by Indian forest service officers, NGO workers from the Wildlife Trust of India, police constables, and good samaritans who risked their lives.

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The first novel from award-winning poet Andrew McMillan explores community, masculinity and post-industrialisation in northern England. Brothers Alex and Brian have spent their whole lives in the town where their father lived and his father, too. Now in middle age and still reeling from the collapse of his personal life, Alex must reckon with a part of his identity he has long tried to conceal. His only child Simon has no memory of the mines. In his 20s and working in a call centre, Simon derives passion from his side hustle in sex work and his weekly drag gigs. Set across three generations of a South Yorkshire mining family, McMillan’s debut is a lament for a lost way of life as well as a celebration of resilience and the possibility for change.

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The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White is joined by Zac Efron, Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, Stanley Simons, Holt McCallany and Lily James in The Iron Claw. It tells the true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of their domineering father and coach, the brothers seek larger-than-life immortality on the biggest stage in sports – and, if the trailer is anything to go by, their quest plays out against one of the best 80s soundtracks we’ve heard in ages.

Visit Picturehouses.com

Here’s a chance to get stuck into the first novel from the man behind Tokyo Vice, investigative journalist Jake Adelstein. Makoto Saigo is half-American and half-Japanese in small-town Japan, with a set of talents limited to playing guitar and picking fights. With rock stardom off the table, he turns towards the only place where you can start from the bottom and move up through sheer merit, loyalty and brute force – the yakuza. Soon nicknamed ‘Tsunami’, he quickly realises the internal politics of the yakuza are dizzyingly complex. Stuck between an ever-shifting web of alliances and the encroaching hand of the law that pushes the organisation further and further underground, Saigo finds himself in the middle of a defining decades-long battle that will determine the future of the yakuza.

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Once the Super Bowl’s done this Sunday, there are seven long months until the new NFL season. Fill the void with The Dynasty: New England Patriots – a ten-part documentary showcasing the rise of the most dominant sports dynasty of the 21st century. From 16th February, the series brings together former quarterback Tom Brady, coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft to give the definitive story of the team’s remarkable reign. The docuseries explores the franchise’s 20-year journey, from the unique chemistry that fuelled six Super Bowl wins to the internal strife that sparked a turf war. From the owner’s suite to the locker room, this is an insider’s look at the road to – and cost of – greatness. Based on a bestseller by author Jeff Benedict, this goes deeper, drawing on thousands of hours of never-before-seen video footage and audio files from the Patriots’ archive.

Visit TV.Apple.com

This looks set to be one of the exhibitions of the year. By promising citizenship to those without it, the Roman army – the West's first modern, professional fighting force – became an engine for creating citizens, offering a better life for soldiers who survived their service. Expansive yet deeply personal, this exhibition at the British Museum transports guests around the empire, while tracking the life and service of a real Roman soldier, Claudius Terentianus, from enlistment and campaigns to enforcing occupation then retirement. What did life in the Roman army look like from a soldier's perspective? What did their families make of life in the fort? How did the newly conquered react? Legion explores life in settled military communities from Scotland to the Red Sea through the people who lived it.

Visit BritishMuseum.org