Clockwise: The Pigeon Tunnel, Juice, Raised by Refugees, Rick and Morty.
Clockwise: The Pigeon Tunnel, Juice, Raised by Refugees, Rick and Morty.

Pop CultureOctober 16, 2023

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

Clockwise: The Pigeon Tunnel, Juice, Raised by Refugees, Rick and Morty.
Clockwise: The Pigeon Tunnel, Juice, Raised by Refugees, Rick and Morty.

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

Juice (on TVNZ+ from October 21)

This surreal comedy comes from Mawaan Rizwan, and is loosely based on the comedian’s life. He plays Jamma, who’s navigating his work life and his relationships with his family (played by his real-life mother and brother) and his boyfriend (a delightful Russell Tovey). It’s more than just another show about a stand-up by a stand-up, with practical effects and trippy visuals setting it aside from the pack. Sam Brooks

Raised by Refugees (season two on Neon and SkyGo from October 19)

This heartwarming and funny-as-all-hell comedy loosely based on stand-up Pax Assadi’s childhood returns for a second season on Neon. Kenus Binu returns as a young Paxi, while Assadi plays his well-meaning and embarrassing dad. It’s a picture perfect snapshot of the early 00s in suburban Auckland, mixing multicultural humour with classic fish-out-of-water jokes. / SB

Big Mouth (season 7 on Netflix from October 20)

If you’re not into Big Mouth already, the seventh season probably won’t change your mind. But just in case: this gross-out animated comedy about the all-too-relatable experiences of growing up, if you happened to grow up with manifestations of your fears, desires and innermost thoughts over your shoulder. This season is stacked with guest stars, including Megan Thee Stallion, Lupita Nyong’o, Padma Lakshmi, Zazie Beetz and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who even writes a song!/ SB

The notables

Rick and Morty (season seven on Netflix from October 16)

Man, remember Rick and Morty? Remember the whole Szechuan sauce debacle? Were we ever so young. Anyway, the series returns for its first season since Justin Roiland’s cancellation this week, and while there’s no doubt the show is past its heyday, with historically some of the most intolerable fans on the internet, the duo definitely has some gas left in the tank. Hey, if Family Guy can run for more than twenty seasons, there’s nothing to say Rick and Morty can’t sail into the double digits too. / SB

WTF is Crypto? (docuseries on TVNZ+ from October 19)

WTF is Crypto is a show hosted by Brooke Howard-Smith, a veteran TV personality (last seen on The Traitors NZ) who is not an uninterested party when it comes to crypto: he was intimately involved in the creation of Fluf NFTs, bunny themed blockchain tokens that tried to be the Bored Ape Yacht Club and never quite made it, losing enormous amounts of value as the crypto market fluctuated last year and people started to wonder why they were spending real money on digital pictures. It feels like there have been people explaining cryptocurrency to me since at least 2013 (I actually kind of get it now, thanks!) but it’s not clear to me why TVNZ is launching an explainer show now – if they want a zeitgeisty digital topic, why not dive deep into AI from a New Zealand perspective? Anyway, here is an account of an NFT party hosted by Howard-Smith at the peak of the Fluf hype cycle. / Shanti Mathias

Bosch: Legacy (season two on Prime Video from October 20)

It’s the kind of show name that deserves to be yelled (BOSCH, everybody), but this American cop drama is back for a second season. Based on the books by Michael Connelly, (bish) Bosch (bash) follows former detective, now private investigator Harry Bosch as he tries to hunt down the bad man who kidnapped his daughter. There’s a lot of kicking down doors and clenched jaws, and if you’re a fan of a troubled cop who’s determined to go rogue and beat the system, Bosch will deliver over and over again. / Tara Ward

The films

The Pigeon Tunnel (film on AppleTV+ from October 20)

There’s a lot less bird content in this documentary than the title suggests, but if you like a) John le Carre b) spies c) cool stories, The Pigeon Tunnel won’t disappoint. Made by Academy Award-winning documentarian Errol Morris, this film delves into the life of former British spy David Cornwell – or as he’s better known to most of us, writer John le Carre. This was le Carre’s final interview before his death in 2020, and he gives an open and compelling account of his astonishing life, determined to test the boundaries between truth and fiction until the very end. / TW

… and a bunch of awesome New Zealand cinema (on TVNZ+ from October 19)

Praise be to the free streaming service that is TVNZ+, bringing us a bunch of mostly pretty hard to find NZ cinema! In alphabetical order, from October 19 you can watch (albeit with ads): 50 Ways of Being Fabulous, In my Father’s Den (Tom Wambsgans is in that one!), Matariki, Out of the Blue, Sleeping Dogs, Smash Palace and UTU Redux. Go forth!/ SB

Netflix

October 16

Oggy Oggy: Season 3

Rick and Morty: Season 7

October 17

I Woke Up A Vampire

Heather McMahan

The Devil on Trial

October 18

Dark Water

October 19

Bodies

Crashing Eid

Neon

Crypto Boy

October 20

Big Mouth: Season 7

Creature

Elite: Season 7

Surviving Paradise

Disco Inferno

Flashback

Kandasamys: The Baby

Vjeran Tomic: The Spider-Man of Paris

Neon

October 16

Shining Vale: Season 2

Escape the Victory

October 17

Designing Dreams: Season 2

Daddy’s Home

Daddy’s Home 2

October 19

Raised by Refugees: Season 2

Found

What’s Love Got to Do With It

Death Race

October 20

American Assassin

October 21

Goon

Goon: Last of the Enforcers

October 22

Gold

TVNZ+

October 17

WTF is Crypto?

The Killer Affair

A Black and White Killing

October 18

Ripper Street: Season 1-5

October 19

Tokyo Vice

50 Ways of Saying Fabulous

In My Father’s Den

Matariki

Out of the Blue

Sleeping Dogs

Smash Palace

UTU Redux

October 20

Stag

Eureka: Season 1-5

October 21

Juice

October 22

Survivors

ThreeNow

October 16

Casual: Seasons 1-4

Disney+

October 18

Living for the Dead

Primal Survivor: Extreme African Safari

Puppy Dog Pals: Season 5

October 20

Werewolf by Night in Colour

Prime Video

October 17

Storm Boy (2019)

October 20

Upload: Season 3

The Other Zoey

Silver Dollar Road

Bosch: Legacy: Season 2

Sayen: La Ruta Seca

Apple TV+

October 20

The Pigeon Tunnel

AMC+

October 11

Cooper’s Bar

October 12

True Crime Story: Citizen Detective

Acorn

October 16

The Chase

Lockdown Tower

Shudder

October 20

Night of the Hunted

Keep going!