We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+
Homebound 3.0 (ThreeNow, May 15)
The uber-talented writer and performer Sam Wang is back with a second season of his groundbreaking local romcom Homebound 3.0. Wang and Michelle Ang’s sham relationship has now become real, so the two decide to undertake an even more audacious con: faking a pregnancy to get an early inheritance from their rich overseas relatives. Per our own Naomii Seah, Homebound 3.0 is “laugh-out-loud funny” with its “fresh and engaging take” on the romcom genre. Don’t let one of the best local shows in years pass you by.
The Sender (Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, May 13)
In locally-made online miniseries The Sender, six not-so-perfect prefects sneak off to a bach out in the wops for a night of underage drinking and ill-judged decisions. The wild getaway is interrupted when their phones light up with a flurry of texts – an anonymous number is blackmailing the group with scandalous photos and salacious secrets. The Spinoff’s Alex Casey got a sneak peek and even though “short-form, phone-first content makes me feel grumpy and 40,000 years old,” she “was hooked on the first few bite-size episodes of this part Gossip Girl, part Bodies Bodies Bodies whodunnit.”
Murderbot (Apple TV+, May 16)
Murderbot may be set on the edge of the universe, but New Zealand talent is at the centre of this cosmos with local directors Toa Fraser and Roseanne Liang helming two episodes each of the big-budget production. Based on the award-winning series of books by Martha Wells, Murderbot is a wry workplace comedy that just so happens to look like The Terminator. The titular high-tech security unit has hacked itself and become sentient, but still follows old orders and reluctantly protects a group of scientists on a hostile alien planet (even though they’d rather be watching their favourite soap opera).
Duster (Neon, May 16)
While J.J. Abrams is best known for Star Trek and Star Wars, the down-to-earth Duster has been on his mind for aeons. Co-creating the 70s-set crime drama with LaToya Morgan, the series follows Rachel Hilson as the first black female FBI agent and Josh Holloway as a pedal to the metal getaway driver. À la The French Connection, the pair of opposites are brought together by their dogged desire to take down a crime syndicate that’s expanding its blood-soaked empire across America. The high-octane Duster looks set to live up to its tagline: “All vengeance, no brakes.”
Overcompensating (Prime Video, May 15)
Internet icon Benito Skinner, star and creator of the A24-produced Overcompensating, wanted “queer people to see their experience and the complicatedness of that experience” in this new retelling of his coming out experience. Set on a rowdy American college campus, Skinner plays a closeted former football player desperately trying to fit in with a swaggering posse of macho frat-bros. Embodying the messy hedonism and self-sincerity of Brat summer, it’s fitting that pop’s it-girl Charli XCX soundtracks and guest stars in Overcompensating. Like ‘Guess’ and ‘Apple’, the TV show is bound to be a hit.
Pick of the Flicks: Love, Death & Robots: Volume 4 (Netflix, May 15)
Presented by Deadpool’s Tim Miller and Fight Club’s David Fincher, the cult-favourite animated anthology series Love, Death & Robots returns for a fourth volume with a new smorgasbord of sci-fi, horror, and fantasy short films. Each of the 10 films is conjured up by a different creative team, so you’re in for a feast of startling stories and striking animation. In Golgotha, a rare live-action entry, Rhys Darby plays host to an alien emissary who believes that their messiah has been reincarnated on Earth as a dolphin.
The rest
Netflix
Tastefully Yours (May 12)
Red, White & Brass (May 12)
Untold: The Liver King (May 13)
Bad Thoughts (May 13)
The Expendables 4 (May 13)
Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story (May 14)
American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden (May 14)
Snakes and Ladders (May 14)
Vini Jr. (May 15)
Thank You, Next: S2 (May 15)
Love, Death & Robots: Volume 4 (May 15)
Franklin (May 15)
Secrets We Keep (May 15)
Bet (May 15)
Pernille: S5 (May 15)
The Moogai (May 16)
The Quilters (May 16)
Football Parents (May 16)
Rotten Legacy (May 16)
Dear Hongrang (May 16)
TVNZ+
The Other Mrs. Jordan (May 12)
Sullivan’s Crossing (May 13)
The Great Australian Bake Off (May 15)
Britain’s Got Talent S18 (May 16)
Big Boys S3 (May 16)
The Way of the Dragon (May 16)
Carol (May 16)
Lion (May 16)
Frances Ha (May 16)
Dance Moms: A New Era (May 17)
Dynamo: Beyond Belief (May 17)
Masantonio (May 18)
ThreeNow
Homebound 3.0 S2 (May 15)
90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way S5 (May 16)
Neon
Batwheels: The Wizard S1 (May 12)
Grizzy and the Lemmings: World Tour S4 (May 12)
In Cold Water: The Shelter Bay Mystery (May 12)
Signs of a Psychopath S5 (May 13)
Save The Last Dance (May 13)
Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story (May 15)
Wolf Hall (May 15)
Anger Management (May 16)
Outback Opal Hunters S13 (May 16)
Duster (May 16)
School of Rock (May 17)
American Sniper (May 18)
Death by Fame S3 (May 18)
Prime Video
Overcompensating (May 15)
Disney+
Will Trent: S3 (Episodes 1-18) (May 14)
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives: Season 2 (May 15)
FX’s Welcome to Wrexham: S4 (May 16)
Matteo Lane: The Al Dente Special (May 16)
Tucci in Italy (May 19)
Apple TV+
Murderbot (May 16)
Deaf President Now! (May 16)
Shudder/AMC+/Acorn/HIDIVE
Aurora Teagarden Mysteries S4 (Acorn TV, AMC+, May 12)
DocPlay
The Hidden Spring (May 12)
Benjamin Franklin (May 15)
Thomas Jefferson (May 15)
The Roosevelts (May 15)
