One Question Quiz
It’s Nicole! It’s Eddie! It’s Saoirse! It’s Felicity (unfortunately!). Watch all these people and more on streaming services in March.
It’s Nicole! It’s Eddie! It’s Saoirse! It’s Felicity (unfortunately!). Watch all these people and more on streaming services in March.

Pop CultureMarch 1, 2021

What’s new to Netflix NZ, Neon and other streaming services in March

It’s Nicole! It’s Eddie! It’s Saoirse! It’s Felicity (unfortunately!). Watch all these people and more on streaming services in March.
It’s Nicole! It’s Eddie! It’s Saoirse! It’s Felicity (unfortunately!). Watch all these people and more on streaming services in March.

What are you going to be watching in March? With thanks to our friends at Nando‘s, we round up everything that’s coming to streaming services this month, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, Neon and TVNZ on Demand.

The biggies

Scratched: Aotearoa’s Lost Sporting Legends (on TVNZ on Demand from March 22)

You’ve seen them all on The Spinoff – now you can watch every episode of the award-winning Scratched: Aotearoa’s Lost Sporting Legends again on TVNZ on Demand. The series finds and celebrates the New Zealand athletes of yesteryear who’ve fallen off the radar or never got the recognition they deserve. From Māori tennis legend Ruia Morrison’s journey to Wimbledon in the 1950s to the hard luck story of 80s skateboarding prodigy Lee Ralph, the two seasons are full of incredible people and stories you probably hadn’t heard before. / Calum Henderson

Operation Varsity Blues (on Netflix from March 17)

If you’re anything like me, you were following the story of how Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin paid bribes to get their children into top universities like a hawk watches a vole scampering across a field. The story was everything you could want from a crime story: famous people trying to get around the system by throwing money at a problem, and getting dragged through the mud as a result. Now there’s a documentary, by the same people who gave us the breathless retelling of the Fyre Festival shitshow, about the 2019 scandal that saw the rich and sometimes famous paying a cumulative $25 million to get their kids into college by bribing admissions officials and fraudulently inflating test scores. / Sam Brooks

ZeroZeroZero (series on Neon from March 8)

In Calabria, southern Italy, a flailing crime lord announces a make-or-break deal: 5,000 kilos of cocaine worth €900 million is arriving from Mexico, via intermediaries in New Orleans. Thus the three interlocking stories that make up Zero Zero Zero are set in motion: the buyers in Italy (this is an Italian production, based on an novel by Gomorrah author Roberto Saviano), the producers in Mexico, and the go-betweens, a ship-owning family led by patriarch Edward Lynwood (Gabriel Byrne). This kind of big-picture portrayal of the drug trade is familiar from shows like Narcos and Traffic, but ZeroZeroZero is a stand out thanks to stunning cinematography and oodles of ominous atmospherics. / Catherine McGregor

Star (available on Disney+ now)

It’s kind of a cheat to put this here, but I think a streaming service suddenly dropping 435 films and 150 series onto the service counts, because that’s what Disney+ just did. Anyway, you can find a full list of the (almost exclusively) archival content here, and read an explainer of what Star is here. If you’re like most of my friend groups, you’ll be mostly excited to finally have somewhere to stream Ugly Betty. / SB

The notables

The Drowning (series on Neon from March 28)

The British love a moody water-based thriller – think Deep Water, The Nest, The Bay – and now there’s The Drowning, a new four-part mystery drama about a grieving mother’s search for the truth. Jill Halfpenny stars as Jodie, a gardener who becomes convinced that a local teenage boy is actually her missing son Daniel who disappeared several years earlier, presumed drowned. Determined to find out what really happened to her child, Jodie infiltrates her way into the boy’s life and turns a community upside down in the process. Nobody mention a DNA test, things are way too tense here to think logically.  / Tara Ward

Invincible (series on Amazon Prime Video from March 22)

This is definitely one to keep an eye on: Invincible is more than just your average animated series, no matter how much it might look like Teen Titans. It follows a kid, Mark Grayson, (Steven Yeun) who finds out that his dad (JK Simmons) is his universe’s equivalent of Superman, and even more, he’s inherited those powers! Super strength? Got it. Flight? That too. Invincibility, as the title suggests? 100%. It’s darker than it sounds, with a tone that’s similar to The Boys, but not quite as nihilistic. The comics were great, and I can’t wait to see this show tackle the same blend of wholesome superhero comedy and cartoonish violence. / SB

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (series on Disney+ from March 21)

WandaVision hasn’t even wrapped up its truly astonishing first season and yet here we are talking about the next juggernaut on the Disney+ calendar. Launching this month, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier pairs two fan favourite supporting characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe for what promises to be an action-packed, six episode spy thriller. Not a lot is known about the premise just yet, but the trailers have revealed the return of Daniel Brühl’s Helmut Zemo from the films and teased other connections to the wider universe as well. While WandaVision – which, I repeat, is pretty much the best show of 2021 – has chosen to look and sound a lot different to a traditional Marvel production, Falcon is sure to appeal to those looking for stylised action and big budget special effects. It’s only six episodes long because it would literally have been too expensive to make it any longer – this is a six hour Marvel film, people!/ Stewart Sowman-Lund

Nailed It: Double Trouble! (series on Netflix from March 26)

This is one of those real simple ones that don’t need much of an explanation: It’s more Nailed It!, the hilarious and wholesome cooking show where bad cooks are allowed to be the most mediocre they can be. Nicole Byer, a true angel among us, hosts. The twist this time is that instead of three bad cooks competing, it’s six – they’re doing it in pairs, y’all. Tune in, feel better about yourself and the world. / SB

The movies

Fake Famous (on Neon from March 21)

What makes an influencer? Is it all just hashtags and filters? Is it really work? These are the questions asked by Fake Famous. The documentary takes three Los Angelenos wannabes with relatively small social media followings and attempts to turn them into famous influencers, through purchasing fake followers and other somewhat dodgy schemes. The three people selected? Why, it’s an actress, a fashion designer and a real estate assistant – everybody’s favourite sorts of people. I’m sure this won’t be depressing and revealing about our modern social media culture at all!/ SB

Little Women (on Neon from March 7)

Speaking as an ancient and creaky Gen X-er, I never expected the 1994 film adaptation of Little Women, starring an Oscar-nominated Winona Ryder as Jo and Christian Bale as a surprisingly attractive Laurie, could ever be improved on. And then 25 years later came Greta Gerwig’s version, and I realised I how wrong I was. This one isn’t just gorgeously shot and beautifully acted – it’s also inventively constructed, with a nonlinear timeline that foregrounds the adult story without detracting from the teenage hijinks. And yes, it will absolutely make you cry. / CM

Coming 2 America (on Amazon Prime Video from March 5)

If you had “Amazon will release a sequel to 1988 Eddie Murphy vehicle Coming to America” on your 2021 TV bingo card then congrats! You’re a weirdo, but also correct. This sequel follows Prince Akeem Joffer (Murphy) just as he’s set to become the King of Zamunda, but he discovers he has a son he never knew about in, you guessed it, America. The son in question is Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler), a street savvy Queens fellow. To honour his father’s dying wish, Akeem and Semmi (Arsenio Hall) go/come to America once more. The first film showed Murphy at the height of his powers, and I can only hope that this film continues the high quality comeback started by 2019’s Dolemite Is My Name. / SB


This post is made possible by our friends at Nando’s


The rest

Netflix

March 1

Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell

Ocean’s Eleven

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

March 2

Word Party: Season 5

March 3

Moxie

Murder Among the Mormons

March 4

Pacific Rim: The Black

March 5

Sentinelle

Nevenka: Breaking the Silence

City of Ghosts

March 8

Bombay Begums

March 9

The Houseboat

StarBeam: Season 3

March 10

Marriage or Mortgage

Dealer (Caid)

Last Chance U: Basketball

March 12

The One

Paradise PD: Part 3

Love Alarm: Season 2

Paper Lives

YES DAY

March 15

The Lost Pirate Kingdom

Zero Chill

Mao’s Last Dancer

Dallas Buyers Club

March 16

RebellComedy: Straight Outta the Zoo

Waffles + Mochi

March 17

Under Suspicion: Uncovering the Wesphael Case

Simply Black

Justice League: The Snyder Cut

March 18

Cabras de Peste

Nate Bargatze: The Greatest Average American

B: The Beginning Succession

March 19

Sky Rojo

Formula 1: Drive to Survive: Season 3

One Small Problem

Alien TV: Season 2

Country Comfort

March 22

Navillera

March 23

Loyiso Gola: Unlearning

March 24

Who Killed Sara?

Seaspiracy

March 25

Caught by a Wave

Secret Magic Control Agency

DOTA: Dragon’s Blood

March 26

Nailed It!: Double Trouble

The Irregulars

Magic for Humans by Mago Pop

A Week Away

Bad Trip

March 27

Petter Rabbit

March 30

Octonauts & the Ring of Fire

March 31

Haunted: Latin America

Neon

March 1

The Amazing World of Gumball: Season 6

Transhood

Tell it To The Bees

Vita and Virginia

March 2

Horse Camp: A Love Tail

The Photograph

March 4

The Flash: Season 7

Bellbird

Almost Famous

March 5

A-Z Guide for Girls

The Gruffalo’s Child

Lubna and Pebble

Sesame Book: My First Trip to the Farm

JoJo’s Follow Your Dream

Black and Blue

Judy & Punch

Seven Stages To Achieve Eternal Bliss by Passing Through The Gateway Chosen By The Holy Storsh

Vault

The Nightingale

March 7

Little Women

Edge of Darkness

Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium

For Sama

Halston

In Search of Greatness

March 8

ZeroZeroZero

March 9

Grown Ups

March 10

Honey Wars

March 11

New Amsterdam: Season 3

The Hunt

March 12

Bia & Nino Humming

Death At a Funeral

The Pursuit of Happyness

March 15

Terminator Salvation

March 16

Louis Theroux: Life on the Edge

The Nomads

March 17

Mayans M.C: Season 3

March 18

The Diagnosis Detectives

Bloodshot

March 19

The Changing Face of the New Zealand Dairy

90 Day Fiance: Season 7

Cadillac Records

Where the Wild Things Are

March 21

Fake Famous

March 22

Erin Brockovich

Rambo

Red 2

March 23

How We Eat with Simon Gault

Red 2

The Grey

March 24

Living with Tourette’s: Season 1-3

March 26

Pins and Nettle

Total Divas: Season 6-9

The Grudge

March 28

The Drowning

March 29

A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood

Crank: High Voltage

TVNZ on Demand

March 1

Kitchen Science

Trapped: Season 1-2

Born to Kill

Suburgatory: Season 1-3

The Unauthorised Beverly Hills, 90210 Story

The Unauthorised Melrose Place Story

She Shears

From the Vault: Sailing

Scott and Bailey: Season 1-5

Whitechapel: Season 1-4

The Eric Andrew Show: Season 1-4

Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Season 2-7

Harvey Birdman: Season 2-4

Zama

Sex Lives of Plants

Banksters

The Beatles, Hippies and Hell’s Angels: Inside the Crazy World of Apple

Playground Murder Plot

Living Dolls

Voyage of Curiosity

Chernobyl Reclaimed

Happy Face Killer

Victoria Gotti: My Father’s Daughter

The Obsession of Carter Andrews: Season 2

Yukon Gold: Season 5

Broken English Virtual Concert with Bebe Zahara Benet

Nubia Amplified

Stranger Hearts

Love is Blind

Looking for Lenny

We are X

Gardening with Soul

Madam K

The Defence (aka The Disappearance)

March 6

My Māori Midwife: Season 2

March 7

Black Sails: Season 1-4

Banished: Season 1

March 18

Press

March 20

Nikita: Season 1-4

March 24

The Secret of Circkley Hall

March 28

The Gloaming

March 29

Defending the Guilty

Amazon Prime Video

March 5

Coming 2 America

March 12

Making Their Mark

March 22

Invincible

Noah

March 24

The Mauritanian

Disney+

March 5

Raya and The Last Dragon

Flicka 2

Flicka: Country Pride

March 12

Love in the Time of Corona

Own the Room

March 19

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Arrested Development: Season 1-3

Disney Ducktales

March 26

The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers

Gnomeo and Juliet

Code Black

Ghost Whisperer: Season 1-5

Happy Endings

Apple TV+

March 12

Cherry

Acorn TV

March 1

Balathazar: Season 2

Black Box

The Miniaturist

March 8

The Sounds

Above Suspicion: Season 3-4

WPC 56

March 15

Finding Joy: Season 2

In Deep: Season 1

Murphy’s Law: Season 1

March 22

Moving On: Season 9-10

Total Control

Code of a Killer

March 29

In Deep: Season 2

I, Claudius

River

Keep going!