The praise for the first episode of this HBO-adapted series has been near universal since it dropped on Monday.

Coming in at more than 80 minutes, the pilot takes its time to develop the world of the story.

It kicks off with a TV talk show interview in 1968, where John Hannah plays an epidemiologist who predicts fungi, rather than a virus or bacteria, would cause a global outbreak humans would not be able to defeat.

We jump forward significantly to meet Pedro Pascal's Joel and daughter Sarah (Thandiwe Newton's lookalike daughter Nico Parker) as the craziness begins.

It's an exceptional opening, with heart-pounding tension and some real horrifying moments.

The whole show looks and feels expensive. Also stars Bella Ramsey, Anna Torv and Gabriel Luna.

Coming on the back of landmark sports documentary series Drive to Survive, following the personalities of the F1 circuit, Break Point shines a light on the many and varied stars of the professional tennis tour.

Rather than focus on the big, established names in the tennis sphere like Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams - who probably weren't jumping out of their skin to be involved - the show highlights the up-and-comers who have been forging their names in the last few years.

That said, the first episode focuses on a very familiar face for Australians - the loose cannon of tennis himself, Nick Kyrgios.

The Canberran talks about how being thrust into the global spotlight as a teen was a steep learning curve, and he made some bad decisions regarding his conduct in the intervening years.

He says he's just not the kind of person who can dedicate himself to the rigours of professional tennis all year round.

It seems like this candor is supposed to endear us to his outlandish on-field antics, but it really doesn't.

It seems unlikely that anyone who follows tennis would come away feeling any differently about Kyrgios after watching his episode.

Other players included in the series include Matteo Berrettini, Ajla Tomljanovi, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and many more.

The likes of Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova and Chris Evert provide expert commentary in addition to the new kids on the block.

If you've never paid any attention before, this show gives you a good introduction to the sport and really does well to play into the drama of a grand slam.

If you do follow the tennis, you're already familiar with that.

Further episodes are set to drop in June.

This is a Scooby-Doo spin-off that doesn't feature the mystery-solving dog at all - because it's not designed for children.

Who it actually is designed for is anyone's guess.

'Origin story' series Velma follows the titular Mystery Gang member in high school, as she tries to figure out who is killing and de-braining her classmates.

Daphne is her estranged friend, Fred is a dunderhead jock and Shaggy is just called Norville and he pines after Velma. Mindy Kaling voices the lead.

The first episode is filled with animated suggested nudity and fairly unfunny jokes.

Scooby fans were pretty disappointed when the first trailer dropped, and now that the series has arrived, their views have been validated.

It's a stinker.