Clockwise: The Little Mermaid, Virgin River, Marie Antoinette, Black Ops.

Pop CultureSeptember 4, 2023

New to streaming: What to watch on Netflix NZ, Neon and more this week

Sam Brooks

Contributing writer

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Clockwise: The Little Mermaid, Virgin River, Marie Antoinette, Black Ops.

What are you going to be watching this week? We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+.

The biggies

The Traitors UK (on ThreeNow from September 4)

I’ve been recapping and loving The Traitors NZ on this here website, but a definitive truth remains: the UK version is about 20,000 times better than anything we could have ever done with Paul Henry and a series of hats. Set in an old, grand castle in the highlands of Scotland and throwing together 22 true complete strangers (not just Brooke Howard-Smith and some mates from the 2000s) the murder-mystery competition is genuinely thrilling and filled with high stakes, backstabbing and genuinely shocking turns. Essential viewing that will make you ponder if the local version missed a trick by not filling the cast entirely with everyday New Zealanders. / Alex Casey

Black Ops (on TVNZ+ from September 9)

Co-creators Gbemisola Ikumelo and Akemnji Ndifornyen star as two earnest but hopeless community support police officers who are unexpectedly drafted into an off-the-books undercover operation, in this acclaimed British comedy-thriller. As you might expect, they are well out of their depth in the criminal underworld, which leads to hijinks and affairs as they seek, likely in vain, to clean up their community. / Sam Brooks

The Changeling (on AppleTV+ from September 8)

This creepy show is based on the novel of the same name by Victor LaVelle, and stars LaKeith Stanfield (Atlanta) as Apollo and Clark Backo (Letterkenny) as his wife Emma. Emma commits a “horrific act” after the birth of their first child, and quickly goes missing, upon which Apollo has to find her. It’s been described as a “fairytale for grown-ups” involving a “perilous odyssey” through a “New York City you didn’t know existed.” Colour, and paint, me intrigued. / SB

The notables

Virgin River (on Netflix from September 7)

Season five of the soapy drama about a nurse-midwife living in a sleepy town in Northern California is nearly here, and frankly, I am counting down the hours. Virgin River is the sort of warm and friendly place where everyone knows everyone and nothing ever happens, apart from a worrying number of murders, drug busts, robberies, kidnappings and paternity scandals. Still, the women of the town love to quilt and there’s always some kind of drama at the bakery, and Martin Henderson’s character Jack is probably about to pull some epic shit to save the town from the raging wildfires of last season’s finale. Absolute scenes, I’ll be hoovering up every drop. / Tara Ward

The Lovers (on Neon from September 8)

This British meet-not-so-cute tells the story of Janet (Roisin Gallagher from The Dry), a nihilistic supermarket worker who doesn’t care about anything, including herself, and Seamus (Johnny Flynn from the Catton Emma), a self-centred political broadcaster, and they end up inextricably drawn to each other, The complication? Seamus has a perfect, celebrity girlfriend (played by Alice Eve) already. / SB

Lodge 49 (on AMC+ from September 7)

It’s not often that I would suggest that someone should subscribe to a service for one show, but this is the rare exception: Lodge 49 is one of the best, most underseen shows of the past decade. It follows Californian ex-surfer Sean “Dud” Dudley (Wyatt Russell), who is adrift after the death of his father and the loss of his family business. He finds himself at a vaguely religious fraternal order, Lodge 49, to help him find his way again. The show is gentle, profound, funny and moving – if that summary even vaguely entices you, I guarantee that you will enjoy it. / SB

The films

The Little Mermaid (on Disney+ from September 6)

I did not care much for this “live action” remake, but I highly rate Halle Bailey’s performance as Ariel, or at the very least those re-recordings. So maybe go listen to those instead! But if you’re a Disney completist, and missed this in the cinemas, you can now enjoy the horrors of the CGI sea from the comfort of your own home. / SB

Sitting in Bars with Cake (on Prime Video from September 8)

Honestly, I’m mostly putting here for the title, which is actually shockingly close to the premise of this film. Inspired by true events, and a book of the same name, the film follows lifelong besties Jane (Yara Shahidi) and Corinne (Odessa A’zion), as the latter convinces the former to commit to a year of baking cakes and bringing them to bars, with the hope to meet new friends and develop confidence. Sounds great. But wait, Bette Midler also stars? Sounds greater!/ SB

Marie Antoinette (on TVNZ+ from September 6)

Sofia Coppola recently admitted that her 2006 film Marie Antoinette was a “flop” that “no-one saw”. It got booed at Cannes, it’s certified “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes and yet, in the words of Kirsten Dunst wearing decidedly modern MAC plum lipstick in the bathtub, “let them eat cake”. Starring Dunst alongside Jason Schwartzman and Jamie Dornan, Marie Antoinette is an extremely mid-2000s Tumblr version of history. It’s candy-coloured, set to the music of Julian Casablancas and basically entirely fictional, which is all to say I still think it’s great fun. / AC