Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.
Channel: Netflix South Africa
TX Time: 10h00 (all episodes)
Genre: True Crime, Documentary Series
A celebrity restaurateur once hailed as the queen of vegan cuisine becomes a fugitive when she goes on the run with a man who cons her out of a fortune by convincing her that he holds the key to making every dream — from expanding her food empire to making her beloved pitbull immortal — a reality.
This wild four-part documentary series explores how Sarma Melngailis, the celebrity restaurateur behind the glittering New York hotspot Pure Food and Wine, went from being the queen of vegan cuisine to being known as the "Vegan Fugitive".
Shortly after meeting a man named Shane Fox on Twitter in 2011, Melngailis begins draining her restaurant's funds and funneling the money to Fox after he cons her into believing he could make her dreams — from expanding her food empire to making her beloved pitbull immortal — a reality... but only if she continues to obey his every request without question.
A few years later the couple, now married and on the lam after stealing nearly $2-million from the restaurant and its staff, are found holed up in a Tennessee motel by law enforcement.
Their undoing? A charge made under Fox's real name, Anthony Strangis, for a Domino's pizza.
Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. takes you on a journey more bizarre than fiction.
Deserts
Channel: Curiosity Channel (DStv 185)
TX Time: 20h00
Genre: Documentary, Wildlife, Nature
All habitats present challenges to life, but few more so than the desert, but still, even here, life abounds, from little foxes to speed lizards and light-footed gazelles to huge camels.
Each one finds its own ways to exploit and conserve food and water, creating new dramas every day.
In the Long Run
Channel: S3
TX Time: 18h30
Genre: Comedy
Created by and starring Idris Elba and inspired by his own 1980s inner-city London childhood, In the Long Run is a warm-hearted portrait of a West African family making ends meet in Thatcher-era Britain.
Walter and Agnes came to London from Sierra Leone 13 years ago and now live a quiet life with their son Kobna.
But when Walter's brother Valentine comes to stay, his exuberance and lust for life changes everything.
Also starring comedy legend Bill Bailey as Walter's neighbour and workmate Bagpipes, In the Long Run is a story about family, community and what home really means.
Hei$t: The Great Robbery of Brazil's Central Bank
Channel: Netflix South Africa
TX Time: 10h00 (all episodes)
Genre: True Crime, Documentary Series
A documentary series about one of Brazil's most spectacular heists arrives on Netflix.
With never-before-seen testimony from police and criminals, as well as plenty of archival footage, Hei$t: The Great Robbery of Brazil's Central Bank reconstructs the historic robbery of the Central Bank of Brazil, located in Fortaleza, in the state of Ceará.
In August 2005, using a tunnel nearly 80 metres long, robbers made their way into the bank's vault and escaped with more than 160-million reais — or nearly 3.5-tons of cold, hard cash.
With three episodes, each 50 minutes long, the series recreates key moments from the cat-and-mouse game between the thieves and the federal police over the course of an investigation that's lasted more than five years.
It was one of the biggest bank robberies ever in the history of Brazil — and in the world.
The show also reveals unexpected details about the heist, as well as its tragic consequences.
It seemed like the perfect crime, but extortion, kidnappings and murders followed in its wake, leading even the robbers themselves to believe that the money was cursed.