We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (Neon, 19 January)
Game of Thrones was great until it wasn’t, and House of the Dragon was good but never great. Thankfully, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms marks a return to form for the once beloved franchise. Labelled as a “nailed-on winner,” the fantasy drama is set a century before the events of Game of Thrones, and follows the misadventures of the scrappy knight Ser Duncan the Tall, alongside his cheeky squire Egg. An about-turn in tone, scale and stakes, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms “goes down like a hearty bowl of broth by a warm fire.”
FX’s The Beauty (Disney+, 22 January)
Riding in on the coattails of Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, The Beauty is another salacious creation from American Horror Story’s Ryan Murphy. Starring Evan Peters, Anthony Ramos, Ashton Kutcher and Rebecca Hall, the adaptation of the 2016 graphic novel of the same name follows two FBI agents investigating a sexually transmitted treatment known as “The Beauty” which transforms ordinary users into visions of physical perfection. But with beauty comes a price – the miracle drug is a poisoned chalice, its side-effects lethal. Billed as a global thriller that asks “what would you sacrifice for perfection?”, The Beauty is not for the faint of heart.
Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart (Netflix, 21 January)
In the dawn hours of June 5, 2002, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was taken from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, Utah. Two decades on, it remains one of the most widely reported missing-persons cases America has ever witnessed. In this heart-wrenching true crime documentary, the now adult Smart gives her account of the tortuous nine months she spent in captivity, and her eventual escape. Told in Smart’s own words and through never-before-seen archival footage and exclusive interviews, Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart goes beyond the headlines for a devastating addition to the true crime genre.
Drive (TVNZ+, 20 January)
Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive has garnered a cult following for a reason – “it takes the tired heist-gone-bad genre out for a spin, delivering fresh guilty-pleasure thrills in the process.” Starring the cool-as-ice Ryan Gosling as a no-name Hollywood stuntman and getaway driver for hire, he falls head over heels for Carey Mulligan’s Irene, his married neighbour. Compelled to protect Irene and her young son after a pawn shop robbery goes horribly wrong, Drive soon shifts gears into an “existential bloodbath.” Fasten your seatbelt for this 70s-style, high-octane thriller.
He Had it Coming (TVNZ+, 25 January)
Lydia West, Natasha Liu Bordizzo and 2010’s teen heartthrob Cody Simpson star in He Had It Coming, a black comedy set on a university campus. A satirical take on the whodunit genre, this “fun, feminist romp,” sees a star athlete murdered, with his castrated corpse left at the foot of West and Bordizzo’s activist art project. Amid inflaming gender tensions, and a rising body count, the best friends must clear their names with a detective hot on their heels, all while searching for the real murderer. He Had it Coming isn’t subtle in the slightest, but it is a series with a killer edge.
Pick of the Flicks: I Am Martin Parr (DocPlay, 19 January)
A portrait of Martin Parr, the celebrated photographer who passed away late last year, I Am Martin Parr accompanies the “vigilant genius” on a road trip across England, examining his extraordinary life, enchanting work, and evocative style. Best known for “the fierce brilliance of his colour images in the 70s and 80s” the documentary asks is Parr “an inspired observer of Britons on holiday, primarily the working classes? Or is he something darker, more misanthropic?” Clocking in at a sprightly 66 minutes, the illuminating and amusing I Am Martin will leave you itching to explore his back catalogue.
The rest
Netflix
Star Search (20 January)
Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart (21 January)
Finding Her Edge (22 January)
Free Bert (22 January)
Cosmic Princess Kaguya! (22 January)
The Big Fake (23 January)
Skyscraper Live (23 January)
TVNZ+
Disaster Investigation (19 January)
Chloe Ayling: My Unbelievable Kidnapping (19 January)
Riot Women (20 January)
A Walk Among the Tombstones (20 January)
Drive (20 January)
Dallas Buyers Club (20 January)
Race Across the World S5 (21 January)
Taskmaster: Champion of Champions S4 (21 January)
Jamie’s Eat Yourself Healthy (22 January)
George Clarke’s Building Home (22 January)
The Forsytes (24 January)
He Had it Coming (25 January)
Neon
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (19 January)
Tiny Toons Looniversity S2 (19 January)
A Knight in the Making S1 (19 January)
Game Theory with Bomani Jones S2 (20 January)
Naked and Afraid Brazil XL (21 January)
Dirty (22 January)
Gold Rush S16 (23 January)
Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man! (23 January)
The Collective (23 January)
Real Time with Bill Maher S24 (24 January)
Surf’s Up (24 January)
Return to Paradise S2 (25 January)
Journey’s End (25 January)
A Tail of Love (25 January)
Prime Video
Steal (21 January)
Disney+
Hoops, Hopes & Dreams (19 January)
FX’s The Beauty (22 January)
Apple TV
Drops of God S2 (21 January)
Shudder/AMC+/Acorn TV/HIDIVE
Ridley S2 (AMC+, Acorn TV, 19 January)
Mother of Flies (Shudder, AMC+, 23 January)
DocPlay
I Am Martin Parr (19 January)
AroVision
Boléro (19 January)
Die My Love (21 January)
Twiggy (21 January)
A Cat’s Life (21 January)
Pilot (21 January)
Future Council (21 January)
