Clockwise: Neighbours: The Return, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Love is in the Air, The Kardashians.

Pop CultureSeptember 25, 2023

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

Contributing writer

Clockwise: Neighbours: The Return, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Love is in the Air, The Kardashians.

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

Neighbours: The Return (on Prime Video from September 25)

Neighbours is back, baby. The long-running Australian soap that ended emotionally in 2022 has now risen from the dead in a twist even Madge Bishop wouldn’t have seen coming. Last November – three months after Neighbours ended “for good” – Amazon announced they would revive the show that launched the careers of Kylie Minogue, Margot Robbie and Delta Goodrem. The rebooted soap features a mix of old and new characters, including one unlikely star who travelled all the way from Newport Beach: Mischa bloody Barton (read more about this exciting news here). / Tara Ward

The Man Who Played with Fire (on TVNZ+ from September 26)

Nope, this isn’t another adaptation of a Stieg Larsson book, this is a documentary about Stieg Larsson! It follows the best-selling author’s secret, decade-long investigation into the assassination of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, and uncovers the breakthrough he was on the brink of before his sudden death in 2004. Sounds like a plot worthy of… a Stieg Larsson novel, really./ SB

Project Greenlight (on Neon from September 27)

How hard is it to make a movie, really? This competitive reality show gets to the bottom of it all. Project Greenlight seems to be the reality competition show that won’t ever properly go away. It debuted in the early-00s, was revived in 2015, and now returns once more under the stewardship of Issa Rae. The reviews of this one were really great, framing the show as less a competition and more a look behind the scenes of what it is to make a movie that isn’t that good, really! I’m intrigued. / SB

The notables

The Kardashians (season four on Disney+ from September 28)

Like a bad vampire facial, season four of The Kardashians is sucking out the last drops of season three’s sisterly feud storyline and injecting it into this season to see just how anaemic it can get. The season four trailer ends with Kourtney telling Kim she’s a witch and she hates her. It could be a promotional tie-in for the new American Horror Story, which Kim is starring in, or they might actually hate each other in real life. Who knows anymore? The show has largely become a beige vehicle for the family to rewrite the narrative on events already reported and anchor them to a mafia-esque concept of family.

Because everything has already happened, we can look forward to the director’s cut of Kourtney’s “Trav I’m pregnant” announcement, nothing but allusions to Kylie dating Timothée Chalamet (who has refused to appear in the show) and more extravagant birthday parties for children who will only know they took place if they rewatch the show in 10 years’ time. At this point, we’re justifying watching the show on the basis of some pseudo-intellectual interest in pop culture phenomena, right? Do I hate it? Yes. Will I still watch it? To quote Kylie, “family time is my favourite time”, so, yes, absolutely. Please send help. / Anna Rawhiti-Connell

Grimm (all seasons on TVNZ+ from September 27)

There are dozens of procedurals that went on for more than a hundred episodes despite never quite making the headlines or hitting the cultural zeitgeist, even though they were actually good! Grimm is one of those, following homicide detective Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli) who learns he is descended from a line of guardians known as Grimms, charged with keep the balance between humanity and mythical creatures, for a cool 123 episodes. / SB

Love Island UK season five (on TVNZ+ from October 1)

The “legendary” fifth season from 2019 – featuring, among others, Molly-Mae and Tommy Fury – is coming to TVNZ+. From Alex Casey and Tara Ward’s conversation about the most recent season: “There’s just something so comforting about the fact that, especially as we plummet into the depths of winter, a new episode of Love Island UK will almost always be there at the end of the day. Obviously, not gonna lie, there’s simply too much TV to choose from and sometimes you just want to watch a group of people in their 20s try and figure out if a prawn is in the sea or not. Also, as Iain Stirling himself said, Love Island is fundamentally about people finding people and that is always interesting, regardless of whether those people have a working knowledge of crustacean habitation or not.”

The films

Love is in the Air (on Netflix from September 28)

Delta Goodrem is back on our screens in a role she was truly born to try: a fiercely independent seaplane pilot who is definitely NOT going to fall in love with the brash city CEO who turns up to shut down her family business. This cheesy romance has been on my “To Watch” list for weeks, and if Delta’s character doesn’t sing “Lost Without You” on a grand piano hidden under a dusty parachute in the corner of her airport hanger, I’ll eat my captain’s hat. / TW

Flora and the Sun (on AppleTV+ from September 29)

John Carney (Once, Begin Again, Sing Street) has been making the same film – tearjerking romantic musical dramas – over and over again for close to two decades, which might be annoying if it weren’t for the fact that these films are all actually really good! Flora (Eve Hewson) is a single mother living in Dublin having trouble with her rebellious son who happens upon a guitar in a skip one day. With the help of a Los Angeles-based online guitar teacher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, at his most Gordon-Levitty), she discovers that one person’s trash is, yes, another’s person’s treasure. I’m already crying!/ SB

The first four Indiana Jones films (on Neon from October 1)

There’s never a wrong time to watch Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, especially in the two weeks leading up to the election. Give yourself some joy, watch some Indy movies. (On the flipside, there is almost never a right time to watch Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, but go with your chosen deity on that one.) / SB

Netflix

September 25

Little Baby Bum: Music Time

September 26

Who Killed Jill Dando?

September 27

Overhaul

Streetflow 2

Encounters

September 28

Castlevania: Nocture

Love is in the Air

The Darkness with La Luz del Mondo

September 29

Do Not Disturb

Nowhere

Power Rangers Cosmic Fury

September 20

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

Neon

September 25

Grace’s Amazing Machines: Season 4

September 26

Scream VI

September 27

Project Greenlight

Tracey Morgan: Taking it Too Far

September 28

Our Idiot Brother

September 30

Paw Patrol: Season 8b

Wedding Crashers

October 1

Paw Patrol: Season 9a

Little Monsters

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

TVNZ+

September 26

The Man Who Played With Fire

September 27

Grimm: Seasons 1-7

September 29

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK: Season Five

Cubicle Confessions

September 30

The Killing Kind

October 1

Love Island UK: Season 5

Oasis: Supersonic

Studio 54: The Documentary

Nas: Time is Illmatic

Arthur Christmas

Smurfs: The Lost Village

Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Season 9-11

Teenage Euthanasia: Season 2

Persian Lessons

Sputnik

Scattering CJ

My Millennial Life

Winston Churchill: Blood, Sweat and Oil Paint

Basquiat: Rage to Riches

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder

A Mother’s Nightmare

Reba McEntire’s The Hammer

The Simone Biles Story: Courage to Soar

Death, She Wrote

Black Mamba: Kiss of Death

Find Me a Beach House

Bushwhacked: Season 3

Brave Wilderness

Pride: Season 4

Camp Wannakiki: Season 5b

Gogo For The Gold: Season 2a

The Sherry Vine Variety Show: Season 2a

Life After Flash

Life After The Navigator

Dying Laughing

Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story

ThreeNow

N/A

Disney+

September 27

All the Same… or Not: Season 2

The Worst of Evil

Reply 1997: Season 1

September 29

Beautiful, FL

Project CC

Maxine

The Ghost

The Roof

Black Belts

Prime Video

September 25

Neighbours: The Return

September 29

Gen V

September 30

Ski Jumpers

Apple TV+

September 29

Flora and Son

AMC+

N/A

Acorn

N/A

Shudder

September 29

Nightmare

Keep going!

David Seymour and the TV political fictions of Thick of It, Veep and House of Cards. Image: Archi Banal

PoliticsSeptember 24, 2023

Why David Seymour despises TV shows about politics

Toby Manhire

Editor-at-large

David Seymour and the TV political fictions of Thick of It, Veep and House of Cards. Image: Archi Banal

And what kind of coalition would he like to form with National: one with clear borders, or a merger approach?

If David Seymour were sent to a desert island and could take just one TV show based on politics, what would it be? House of Cards perhaps? The Thick of It? Yes, Minister? “I’d read a book,” the Act leader told The Spinoff Megapod this week. Such television was a scourge in the real world of politics, he said.

“I think they’ve done so much damage. You’ve got a whole class of people who have come into politics thinking it’s about the game.”

In what appeared to be an allusion to Jami-Lee Ross, he described “one particular politician who came a cropper”. That individual “had the House of Cards theme song as their ringtone, and was absolutely fixated. That’s an extreme example, but it’s not the only example of the effect those shows have,” he said.

“Politics is not a game, but when the politics itself becomes a game then you’ve got a problem.”

Seymour was unimpressed, too, with a different animal of political television, the first leader debate on TVNZ. What did he think of it? “Not much.”

He said: “It was an opportunity for two people who between then have two thirds of the vote, nearly, to actually set out: these are some challenges New Zealand faces, and here are some ways we can overcome them.”

Instead, a vast part of the debate “appeared to be about why the other one’s plans won’t work, rather than what could work. I think New Zealand is at a point where we really need some policy change, some policy innovation, and it didn’t really come out of that. Neither of them was much different from the other, or the status quo.”

If current polling bears out on election day, Seymour will find himself in a position of negotiating a coalition – preferably, from his point of view, without a reliance on Winston Peters’ blessing.

If it were to be a National-Act coalition, how would he prefer it be assembled structurally: Act assigned chunks of policy territory that they in effect “own”, with National holding the remainder, or for Act influence to be sewn through the government?

“To be honest I’ve thought about it a lot, and they both have their attractions and I don’t really have a clear answer to that,” said Seymour. “You can either say, look, we’re all on the same team, we basically merge and deal with each issue as a merged team. Or you can say [for example] you guys are responsible for infrastructure, education and police, and everything else is ours.”

He said: “I suspect it’s going to be more of the merged team approach, to be honest. I think it makes more sense to be checking each other’s homework, as James Shaw says about these sorts of things. I suspect we’re in the merged area, but I could be wrong about that.”

A range of politicians who appeared on the Megapod across 12 hours on Wednesday were asked to name their favourite politically themed television – the show they’d choose if marooned.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins went for West Wing. Act deputy leader Brooke van Velden said she made a point of avoiding political shows and instead went for tween dramas and the likes of Is It Cake?.

National MP Erica Stanford was of similar mind. “To be honest I tend not to watch them,” she said. “I find them really stressful. With this job I like to come home and watch just mind numbingly easy reality TV rubbish.” But she did, she admitted, once enjoy the US version of House of Cards.

‘If you regularly enjoy The Spinoff, and want it to continue, become a member today.’

Toby Manhire
— Editor-at-large

National’s Auckland Central candidate Mahesh Muralidhar selected West Wing – “I’ve probably watched it eight times.” Labour candidate Oscar Sims chose Yes, Minister. The incumbent MP and Green candidate Chlöe Swarbrick chose The Thick of It. So did Act candidate Felix Poole. As did Labour finance spokesperson Grant Robertson.

Green co-leader James Shaw said he had loved and was once inspired by West Wing but returned to it recently and found it unwatchable. His choice instead: Yes, Minister. Top leader Raf Manji went for Borgen.

Labour MP Michael Wood similarly said that “as a good lefty” he’d enjoyed West Wing over the years, but his favourite show of late with a political element was Slow Horses: “There’s a deliciously venal, ambitious, horrible Tory secretary of state.”

Megapod guests were also asked to assess their own mojo level for the mojo meter. Seymour’s pick: “I’d put myself at about eight. Pretty good, but you can always get better.”

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