It’s Paddington and all his friends! They’re coming to streaming services in September alongside a whole lot of other stuff.
It’s Paddington and all his friends! They’re coming to streaming services in September alongside a whole lot of other stuff.

Pop CultureSeptember 1, 2019

What’s new on Netflix NZ and every other streaming service in September

It’s Paddington and all his friends! They’re coming to streaming services in September alongside a whole lot of other stuff.
It’s Paddington and all his friends! They’re coming to streaming services in September alongside a whole lot of other stuff.

What are you going to be watching in September? The Spinoff rounds up everything that’s coming to streaming services this month, including Netflix, Lightbox, Neon, Amazon Prime and TVNZ on Demand.

Click here to read our listings for August.

The Biggies

The Good Place (Netflix, Season 4 weekly, September 24)

It’s weird that the smartest, deepest sitcom of the past few years has consistently felt like it’s been hovering under the radar for all of its three seasons so far. It’s even weirder, but no less welcome, that the showrunner – Mike Schur of Parks and Rec fame – knows when we’ve had enough of a good thing, and has decided to end it after season four. If you haven’t gotten onboard with this afterlife series featuring one of the most endearing ensembles in quite some time (Kristen Bell, William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, Manny Nacito, and the immortal Ted Danson), then now is the time.  / Sam Brooks

Unbelievable (Netflix, Mini-series, September 13)

The latest in what is sure to be a long line of shows inspired by investigative journalism, this miniseries is based on the ProPublica article ‘An Unbelievable Story of Rape’ and a subsequent episode of the podcast This American Life. It follows Marie (Kaitlyn Dever), a teenager charged with lying about her rape, and the two female detectives (Toni Colette and Merritt Wever) across the country who search for the truth. With the pedigree of writer Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich) and director Lisa Cholodenko (Olive Kittredge), expect this one to hang around until next one’s Emmys and to be a bracing, difficult, but hopefully rewarding watch. / SB

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-kdBlzCG7w

The Politician (Netflix, Season 1, September 27)

A new Ryan Murphy? Featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, noted quadruple threat (actress, singer, cook, GOOP)? That kind of satirises politics through the lens of a privileged high school kid (played by someone in their late twenties, natch) running for school presidents? I’m sold! 

Despite the premise, which sounds like an episode of Popular stretched out over a season, this sounds like it’ll take a few pages out of the Ryan Murphy playbook. Acclaimed actresses slumming it and cashing a paycheck? Yup! A high-speed bullet train of a plot that was never on the rails to begin with? Probably. An endless supply of memes for your supposedly witty homosexual friends to put in the group chat? I’d bet a house on it. / SB

The Good Doctor (Lightbox, Season 3, September 24)

The doctor is in the house again, with popular medical drama The Good Doctor returning to Lightbox for a third season. Freddie Highmore (Bates Motel) plays Dr Shaun Murphy, a surgical resident with autism and savant syndrome, who gets a job at a prestigious hospital in San Jose. Shaun’s a brilliant surgeon with a genius mind and near-photographic recall, but he struggles to relate to the people around him. He’s skilled at saving lives, but he faces hostility from his colleagues who misunderstand him and doubt his ability to become a successful doctor.

The show is the brainchild of House creator David Shore, and like we said back in season one, The Good Doctor “both breaks and warms the heart, and fans of character-driven medical shows like Grey’s Anatomy will enjoy the healthy mix of medical quandaries, personal dramas and hanky-panky in the supply cupboard.”/ Tara Ward

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLkEpO3k514

PEN15 (Neon, Season 1, September 7)

Schoolyard comedy PEN15 is the best thing I’ve watched in a long time. Set in a middle school in 2000, the story follows Anna and Maya through the drama of young love, popularity, sexual awakenings and the brutal way kids that age don’t sugar-coat anything they say. The twist is that Anna and Maya are played by adults, allowing the show the licence to tell the story of middle school through a unique adult lens. There’s wedgies, there’s fake love notes, there’s a whole episode dedicated to the Spice Girls (kind of). It explores childhood racism and bullying that will bring back memories long repressed, and it does all this in a way that has you crying with laughter from beginning to end. / Alice Webb-Liddall

The Notables

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3dRarfihaw

The Deuce (Neon, Season 3, September 10)

David Simon will likely never get back to The Wire, but The Deuce is now challenging Treme for his most substantial follow up. At times it has felt overly-stylised at the expense of its plotting, but more often The Deuce evokes a wild and wasted New York city. It’s porn and punk rock and police corruption, it’s a masterful Maggie Gyllenhaal, and features some of the best writing in television. So: not the The Wire, but more than enough. / Duncan Greive

The Almighty Johnsons / Go Girls / Step-Dave (Neon, all seasons, September 15)

Three beloved New Zealand TV classics land on Neon this month, and they happen to be some of our best shows from the past decade. The first is fantasy-drama The Almighty Johnsons, which follows a group of brothers who discover they’re descended from Norse gods. The cast boasts a heap of well-known Kiwi actors like Tim Balme, Dean O’Gorman, Keisha Castle-Hughes and Sara Wiseman, and comes with plenty of dark humour.

Step-Dave is a light-hearted romantic comedy about a bartender who falls in love with his ideal woman, only to discover she’s fifteen years older than him and has three kids, while comedy drama Go Girls follows a group of dissatisfied twenty-somethings living on Auckland’s North Shore. They try to make good on a series of promises they make to each other, and hilarity and chaos ensue. These shows are all Kiwi TV treasures, and it’s a happy reunion to see them together in one place. / TW

All Rise (TVNZ on Demand, Season 1 weekly, September 24)

One for Simone Missick (Luke Cage) and a legal drama! Two for Marg Helgenberger (CSI) and Jessica Camacho (Sleepy Hollow)! All Rise! All Rise!

In all seriousness and Blue lyric bastardization aside, All Rise is a new show in the genre that I can’t get enough of: courtroom drama. Apart from the cast, this has a relatively unknown pedigree, so it’ll be one to put on the bubble before commitment, but god knows – if I’ve watched fifty seasons of Judge Judy, then I’ll happily dive into this. / SB

Downton Abbey (Lightbox, all seasons, September 13)

Sound the alarm, release the hounds and polish the family silver, because all six seasons of Julian Fellowes’ much loved period drama series Downton Abbey heads to Lightbox this month. That’s 52 glorious episodes of the upper-class Crawley family and their plethora of servants, as they live, love and laugh their way through the early 20th Century. It’s also the ideal lead-in to the Downton movie that hits cinemas on September 12. Watching Downton is a warm delight, with its gorgeous sets and costumes, Dame Maggie Smith’s acerbic takedowns, and Turkish diplomats who die suddenly in a post-coital glaze of aristocratic ecstasy.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll find yourself wearing big hats with pointy feathers and taking your breakfast in bed with a tray. Don’t fight it, the Downton life is the way forward. / TW

Undone (Amazon Prime, Season 1, September 13)

You probably haven’t heard about this until now, but mark my words, everybody’s going to be talking about it once it hits. It’s a new animated show from Kate Purdy and Raphael Bob-Waksberg (BoJack Horseman) that bills itself as a ‘groundbreaking and genre-bending’ show about a young woman’s journey to unlock her past and solve the mystery of her father’s death. She gets visions of her late father, and through these visions, she’s encouraged to travel through space and time to prevent his death, as one does. If Bob-Waksberg’s ability to tackle difficult topics in BoJack is any indication, this one will be one that will make you rock back and forth afterwards. I’m booking my spot to gurn in my armchair on September 13, thanks. / SB

The Movies

A Simple Favour (Neon, September 7)

Low-key, this might was my favourite movie of 2018, thanks largely to Blake Lively’s full glam-bisexual performance, which should’ve been in contention for all kinds of awards. It starts off as a thriller about a mom-blogger (Anna Kendrick) who makes friends with a glamourous and nonchalant friend (Blake Lively) at her kid’s school, who then suddenly goes missing; from then on it’s a demented high-stakes black comedy. It’s weird as hell, stylish as hell, and I cannot stop thinking about it. Watch it with as many martinis as you have friends, and you’ll have the time of your life. / SB

Paddington 2 (Netflix, September 21)

Just recently, Hugh Grant caused a minor stir when he said the best film he’d ever appeared in was… Paddington 2. The really amazing thing about the media reaction? Most people said he was right. Paddington 2 is just that good: winsome but never saccharine, cryingly funny but never crude, so bloody lovely that you’ll need a minute to compose yourself as the end credits roll. The rollicking prison canteen scenes; the thrilling James Bond-style train race; that London pop-up book… as Aunt Lucy would say, “it’s all just wonderful”. Watch this movie – but only after the almost-as-good Paddington (2014), also streaming on Netflix. / Catherine McGregor

Widows (Neon, September 11)

If Blake Lively in A Simple Favour is my pick for most underrated performance of 2018, then Widows might just be the most underrated film. Maybe it’s the genre that let Widows slip under the radar. It’s technically a heist film, albeit with a strong feminist bent – but the social commentary, the mastery of Steve McQueen’s direction and the strong performances from the cast across the board (Viola Davis! Elizabeth Debicki! Michelle Rodriguez!) make this maybe my favourite film of 2018. And you can stream it right to your home! / SB

Us (Lightbox, September 4)

Crazy to think that the moment that Lupita N’yongo’s lookalike started rasping in front of the fireplace in Us is also the moment that my heart stopped beating. Now, I am a ghost with a blog, imploring you to watch Us because you won’t get a more terrifyingly twisted horror experience this year. If you haven’t seen it before, don’t Google it. Don’t ask anyone about it. Stop reading this. Allow Jordan Peele to gently peel away all your layers of comfort, safety and identity, leaving you with a mind-bending alternate reality that has to be seen to be believed. / Alex Casey

The Rest

What follows is a list of what is coming up on every streaming service this month.

Netflix

September 1

Dirty Dancing

Transformers: Age of Extinction

Grease 2

God’s Own Country

Django Unchained

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: Season One

I Do… Until I Don’t

Tyler Perry’s Single Moms Club

Social Animals

For the Birds

Moving Art: Season Three

September 3

The Deep: Season Two

September 4

The World We Make

September 6

The Spy

Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father: Season 3

Hip Hop Evolution: Season 3

Elite: Season 2

Archibald’s New Big Thing

Modest Heroes – Ponoc Short Films Theatre

September 7

The Nut Job

September 10

Terrace House: Tokyo 2019-2020

Bill Burr: Paper Tiger

Evelyn

Our Godfather

September 11

Downsizing

September 12

The I-Land

The Mind, Explained

September 13

Kabaneri Of The Iron Fortress: The Battle of Unato

The Ranch: Part 7

Unbelievable

Tall Girl

Hello Privilege, It’s Me Chelsea

The Chef Show: Volume 2

Black Lagoon: Seasons 1 & 2

Head Count

September 14

Justice League

September 15

Los Tigres del Nortre at Folsom Prison

The Heartbreak Kid

War Dogs

The Mask

Storks

September 17

The Last Kids on Earth

September 20

Las del Hockey

Criminal

Disenchantment: Part 2

Fastest Car: Season 2

Between Two Ferns: The Movie

Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates

September 21

Paddington 2

Ingrid Goes West

Don’t Breathe

September 23

Team Kaylie

September 24

Jeff Dunham: Beside Himself

September 25

Abstract: The Art of Design: Season Two

Birders

Explained: Season Two

September 27

This is Personal

London Fields

Realms

Skylines

Vis a vis: Season 4

The Politician

Bard of Blood

The Good Place: Season 4 (weekly)

In the Shadow of the Moon

Dragons: Rescue Riders

Sturgill Simpson Presents: Sound & Fury

September 28

The Disaster Artist

September 29

Tiny House Nation: Volume 2

Vagabond

September 30

Mo Gilligan: Momentum

A Champion Heart

Neon

September 4

Mayans MC: Season Two

Year Of The Rabbit: Season One

Mary Shelley

The Seagull

Whitney

You Were Never Really Here

On Chesil Beach

Climax

The Happy Prince

Zoe

Funny Cow

Fahrenheit 9/11

September 5

Robin Hood

The Spy Who Dumped Me

September 7

PEN15

The Simple Favour

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

September 10

The Deuce: Season Three

50/50

September 11

Animal Kingdom: Season Four

Widows

September 12

Creed II

The Amaranth

What Happened on September 11

In The Shadow of The Towers: Stuyvesant High on 9/11

September 13

Mr. Inbetween: Season Two

September 14

Ralph Breaks The Internet

September 15

The Almighty Johnsons

Go-Girls

Step-Dave

Temple

The Happytime Murders

September 18

Happy Together

War Horse

We’re The Millers

September 20

Sweetbitter: Season Two

Hotel Artemis

Mary Poppins Returns

September 23

Strange Angel: Season Three

Shipmates

Miles 22

September 25

New Amsterdam: Season Two

September 26

Bambi

Bambi II

Aquaman

September 27

What’s My Name: Muhammed Ali

September 28

The Crimes of Grindelwald

September 29

Ice on Fire

September 30

Divorce: Season Three

Amazon Prime

September 13

Undone

El Corazon de Sergio Ramos

September 19

The Family Man

September 20

Savage x Fenty Show

Lightbox

September 3

Keeping Faith

September 4

The Banana Splits Movie

The Poison Rose

Brightburn

Top End Wedding

Little

Us

What They Had

September 11

Mr Mercedes: Season 3 (weekly)

Godzilla II: King of the Monsters

Adventures of Daily and Sparky

The Swan Princess: Kingdom of Music

September 16

The Goldbergs: Season Six

September 17

Rush

September 18

John Wick 3: Parabellum

All About Nina

Child’s Play

Never Look Away

The Least of These

Peterloo

Scooby-Doo: Return to Zombie Island

Zog

September 19

AP Bio

September 20

OMG

September 24

The Good Doctor: Season 3 (weekly)

The Arrangement

September 25

The Secret Life of Pets 2

MIB: International

Mid90s

Wild Rose

The Best of Enemies

Untouchable

Loud Krazy Love

Sometimes Always Never

TVNZ OnDemand

September 10

Ahikaroa: Season 1

September 11

Colonial Combat: Season 1 & 2

September 24

All Rise

Bob Hearts Abishola

September 25

Emergency

The Resident: Season 3

Keep going!