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+, Neon and TVNZ+.
The biggies
The Bear (on Disney+ from July 19)
No one likes to wait for their main course but New Zealand fans of The Bear have been forced to wait a full month longer than everyone else to devour the second season. Set in a chaotic Chicago sandwich shop and led by grieving blue-eyed chef Carmy, season two of The Bear is, according to overseas critics, much calmer than the first. That gives the show room to breath: sandwich shop The Beef is closed, the team is uniting behind the creation a new-look fine dining restaurant, and that gives the show time to dive even deeper into these compelling, complicated characters. Expect romance, expect flashbacks, expect to be introduced to the chaotic mother figure behind it all. Also expect to clear your schedule: when The Bear’s second season lands, you’ll want to eat it all up in one big gulp. / Chris Schulz
Totally Completely Fine (on TVNZ+ from July 20)
New Zealand star Thomasin McKenzie continues her upward trajectory in this new Australian comedy-drama. McKenzie plays Vivienne, a selfish twenty-something who inherits her grandfather’s cliffside property, only to discover her new home is a popular suicide jumping spot. She learns her grandfather had dedicated his life to helping the troubled visitors to his property, and now it’s up to Vivienne to continue her grandad’s legacy. It’s a gem of a dark comedy and full of heart, and as you’d expect, the talented McKenzie steals every scene she’s in. / Tara Ward
Justified: City Primeval (on Disney+ from July 19)
Did you want more Justified? If you were a fan of the detective series from about a decade ago, then almost certainly you do! Timothy Olyphant returns as Elmore Leonard’s Raylan Givens, who has left Kentucky for the bleak neon lights of Miami, continuing to work as a U.S. Marshal while raising his daughter part-time. However, he soon finds himself in Detroit, pursuing a notorious criminal constantly avoiding the police force there./ Sam Brooks
The notables
The Deepest Breath (documentary on Netflix from July 19)
This film follows a free diver training to break a world record, which doesn’t sound stressful at all. That diver, Alessia Zecchini, enlists the help of safety diver Stephan Keenan, and the film follows the highs and very literal lows of chasing their specific dream. / SB
Sweet Magnolias (season three on Netflix from 20)
My heart always skips a beat when I see that Steel Magnolias is back, but alas, this is Sweet Magnolias – not a reboot of the Julia Roberts/Dolly Parton classic that I spent 80% of my teenage years sobbing uncontrollably to. This one’s a soapy drama that follows the lives and loves of three best friends – Maddie, Helen and Dana Sue – who live in the small Southern American town of… wait for it… Serenity. Leave your cynicism at the door, thanks very much, and enjoy your visit to the sweet little town where you can never have enough community picnics. / TW
The Chemistry of Death (on TVNZ+ from July 18)
This British/German co-production is based on the bestselling novel of the same name, and tells the story of Dr David Hunter (Harry Treadaway), who moves to a small village after being forced to give up his profession. When local police ask him to help solve a murder case, his past plagues him, and he has to make a decision to turn away or return to his old life. Sounds like a good ol’ juicy cop procedural to me. / SB
The films
They Cloned Tyrone (on Netflix from July 21)
Oh, this sounds like fun! John Boyega, Teyonah Parris and Jamie Foxx star as an unlikely trio who are trying to uncover a government cloning conspiracy. They Cloned Tyrone was conceived as a genre-busting homage to the Blaxpoitation films of the 1970s. with elements of satire, horror and absurdist humour. It looks silly, it looks funny, and it looks exactly the right amount of wild that I want from a midwinter film. / SB
Julie and Julia (on TVNZ+ from July 19)
Meanwhile, Julie and Julia feels like the literal opposite of They Cloned Tyrone. If you’re not familiar with this 2009 film that garnered Meryl Streep another Oscar nomination for playing legendary TV chef Julia Child, it follows Child as she finds her way to French cooking, and a 2000s blogger named Julie, played by Amy Adams, who decides to cook her way through Child’s book as her life falls apart. It’s a wholesome, great watch, but be warned that the Streep half of the film is miles better than the other half. / SB
The Whale (on TVNZ+ from July 19)
Did you really want to see the film that got Brendan Fraser an Academy Award but was turned off because it looked relentlessly depressing and potentially problematic? Well, watching it on demand probably isn’t going to stop it from being either of those things, but at least now you don’t have to pay for it. / SB
Netflix
July 19
The (Almost) Legends
The Deepest Breath
July 20
Sweet Magnolias: Season 3
Supa Team 4
July 21
They Cloned Tyrone
Neon
July 18
Section 8
House Party
Black Adam
July 19
Ocean’s 8
July 21
In the Heart of the Sea
July 23
Flatliners
TVNZ+
July 18
The Chemistry of Death
Baby Driver
July 19
The Whale
Fury
Julie and Julia
Eat Pray Love
July 20
Totally Completely Fine
Disney+
July 19
The Bear: Season 2
Justified: Primeval City
When Sharks Attack… and Why
Prime Video
July 21
Made in Heaven: Season 2
Apple TV+
July 21
Stephen Curry: Underrated
Acorn
N/A
Shudder
July 17
The Chronical Mysteries
July 21
Sharksploitation
AMC+
July 17
The Chronical Mysteries
July 21
Sharksploitation