Stephen Merchant, Johnny Depp, and the return of Prime Video's biggest series

The Independent’s entertainment newsletter [View in browser]( [The Independent]( June 04, 2022 [The Independent]( Written by Louis Chilton   The IndyArts Newsletter   Hello, and welcome back to the IndyArts newsletter. I’m Louis Chilton, filling in for Jessie Thompson this week. Thought you could get rid of me that easily, huh? Well, tough luck – Jessie’s off on holiday at the moment so I’m back for now. I'm sure everyone is out enjoying their extra-long bank holiday, so I’ll keep this relatively short and sweet. What’s in the news this week? The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial came to an end, with a conclusion that few could have anticipated when proceedings began in April. It’s unlikely to be the end of things with Heard’s lawyers already having suggested that an appeal is forthcoming. The other big piece of news is, obviously, the jubilee. Please spare a thought for this staunch republican who’s having to work through Saturday night’s big royal love-in. Depp's defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard came to an end after six weeks (Getty)   On that note, Oliver Keens wrote an [amusing feature ahead of the jubilee concert]( and why it may spell embarrassment for the nation. Elsewhere on the arts desk, Adam White had a [great interview with Simu Liu](, the star of Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Tom Murray had an interesting chat with the [man behind Tom Cruise’s aerial stunts in Top Gun: Maverick]( and Leonie Cooper wrote about [Sam Fender’s misjudged selfie with Johnny Depp](. This week marked the 20th anniversary of The Wire – for many, still the best TV drama ever made. Greg Evans did the Lord’s work and produced this behemoth: a [5,000-word ranking of every Wire episode, ever](. I also wrote this [defence of The Wire’s much-maligned final season](.   [The Saturday Interview – Stephen Merchant]( [Oscars image]( Stephen Merchant: ‘There’s a portion of people who take me at face value and think that I’m always the putz’ (Getty) For this week's [Saturday Interview](, Adam White sat down with Stephen Merchant, one half of the famed writing duo behind The Office and Extras (and one third of the seminal Ricky Gervais Show podcast). Merchant opens up about the second season of his BBC One crime-comedy The Outlaws, what it's like to be conflated with his comedy persona, Gervais, and how “the left” has supposedly taken over from Mary Whitehouse. [Oscars image]( Stephen Merchant in 'The Outlaws' (BBC/Prime Video) Read an extract from our Saturday Interview below… Merchant and Gervais can’t help but be paired in the public consciousness. Beyond their genre-defining work together, they share a comic rhythm – an awkward-male deadpan that can be both wildly inappropriate and perpetually downtrodden. As writers, they gravitate towards the sentimental; emotive mush smuggled in beneath the knob jokes. As public figures, however, they’re today perceived very differently: Gervais a self-mythologising warrior against “wokeness”, Merchant his quieter Noughties sidekick. Or the awkward one with the thick Bristolian accent and spectacles. And maybe, just to further this most biased of readings, the true brains of the operation. As evidenced by that 2020 Twitter snafu, we tend to project onto them our own world-views and assume – or hope – that they’ll mirror them back to us. But, as Merchant makes clear in conversation, few of us truly know him, or his thoughts on the world. There’s the Merchant we see on television and in stand-up – gawky, boisterous, always flirting with skin-crawling overcompensation – and the private Merchant, who has long wrestled with the less nuanced ideas people have of him. “I’ve used that shtick as comedy fuel, because I find it funny,” the 47-year-old says. “But the danger with that is people assume that’s the real you. There’s a portion of people who take me at face value and think that I’m always the putz, or that the Bristol accent makes me kind of parochial. [Or] that I’m just that tall, gangly guy who’s sometimes amusing on Graham Norton.” [Read the full interview here]( What to binge this week Season three of 'The Boys' arrived on Prime Video earlier this week (Prime Video) The Boys The glut of superhero fiction cluttering up our cinemas and streaming services has led to what many have described as “superhero fatigue”. I know I’ve got it. But The Boys has somehow managed to raise itself above the pack. A superhero show that both subverts and embraces the genre’s many tropes, The Boys is Prime Video’s biggest hit to date for a reason. The third season arrived on the streamer on Thursday; if you’re not interested in tuning in to the jubilee fanfare, it could be the perfect time to whizz through the whole thing. ‘The Boys' is available to stream now on Prime Video Out and about [Glass Menagerie – Duke of York theatre]( Tennessee Williams’s classic play is revived at the Duke of York’s theatre for a new production starring Oscar nominee Amy Adams. Alice Saville writes: “Though this staging lacks the vigour to fully hit home, it’s a welcome chance to revisit this play.” [Buy tickets here]( [Jordan Brookes: This Is Just What Happens – Soho Theatre]( In his first show since winning the Edinburgh Comedy Award, Jordan Brookes revels in the comedy of unease. Isobel Lewis writes: “Brookes luxuriates, as ever, in discomfort. But it also sees him at his most personal.” [Buy tickets here]( [Britannicus – Lyric Hammersmith]( In her review of this ancient Roman political drama (starring It’s A Sin’s Nathaniel Curtis), Nicole Vassell writes: “Britannicus is a play about power – who has it, who wants it, and the extreme lengths people go to hold onto it. In many ways, the political drama poses timeless questions: What do people want from their leaders?” [Buy tickets here]( [The new Independent app]( [The new Independent app](   Essential reading [Jada Pinkett Smith addresses Will Smith’s Chris Rock Oscars slap for first time]( [Jada Pinkett Smith addresses Will Smith’s Chris Rock Oscars slap for first time]( [The 10 best sex scenes in film]( [The 10 best sex scenes in film]( [The 17 worst sex scenes in movie history]( [The 17 worst sex scenes in movie history](         If you can spare a minute we’d love your [feedback]( on our newsletters. 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