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Stranger Things, Orange is the New Black, The Loudest Voice and the Suits spinoff are what you’re all gonna be watching in July.
Stranger Things, Orange is the New Black, The Loudest Voice and the Suits spinoff are what you’re all gonna be watching in July.

Pop CultureJuly 2, 2019

What’s new on Netflix NZ and every other streaming service in July

Staff writers
Stranger Things, Orange is the New Black, The Loudest Voice and the Suits spinoff are what you’re all gonna be watching in July.
Stranger Things, Orange is the New Black, The Loudest Voice and the Suits spinoff are what you’re all gonna be watching in July.

What’re you going to be watching throughout July? The Spinoff rounds up everything that’s coming to Netflix, Lightbox, Neon, Amazon Prime and TVNZ on Demand this month.

The Biggies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEG3bmU_WaI

Stranger Things (Netflix, Season 3, July 4)

For the few who don’t know, Stranger Things follows the adventures of several 13-year-old Dungeons and Dragons enthusiasts and their friend, a psychic lab experiment-cum-shoplifter named Eleven. Three groups – the pre-teens, some real teens, and their parents – all grapple with supernatural forces from the Upside Down, a malevolent dimension that channels itself through main character and bowl cut-rocker Will Byers (Noah Schnapp). Season three will deal with a new mall, summer love, and the constant lurking evil that threatens to wipe out civilisation as we know it. / Josie Adams

Queer Eye (Netflix, Season 4, July 19)

I’m getting to the point in my journey where all I want to do is cry at a video of an old man shaving his beard. Lucky for me, Queer Eye has that wholesome makeover content in spades, taking the format well beyond their mid noughties namesake. Sure, there’s still five impossibly handsome men traipsing around the country and lending their expertise to hapless regional folk, but the bar has been lifted. Expect surprisingly complex discussions of race, gender and politics with an array of people outside of the old titular “straight guy” – and wash it all down with a guaranteed one good cry per episode.  / Alex Casey

Orange is The New Black (Netflix, Season 7, July 26)

You probably binged the first four seasons of this show, got justifiably pissed off when they killed off Poussey, and then stopped watching it when people stopped talking about it. From what little I’ve read about this season so far, the show sticks its final landing. It’s easy to forget that Orange is the New Black was ahead of so many conversations – it critiques systemic violence, white privilege and the unassailable iron boot of the patriarchy – in a way that is powerful and achingly human, and it deserves more than the critical shrug recent seasons have gotten. / Sam Brooks

The Boys (Amazon Prime, Season 1, July 26)

According to the release, The Boys takes place in ‘a world where superheroes embrace the darker side of their massive celebrity and fame’. Now, when it comes to ‘dark superhero’ content, I tend to fall in the Liz Lemon camp of thinking that they are things that, unequivocally, suck. But there’s enough good DNA at the core of The Boys to pique my interest so I’ll put my Liz Lemon shirt away until I give this one a proper go. / SB

Suits: Season 9 (Express to Lightbox, Season 9, July 18)

Suits is about to be locked away in the great legal filing cupboard in the sky.  The ninth and final season of Suits begins this month on Lightbox, and you can guarantee it’ll go out with a bang. I’m pleading guilty to wanting to see fierce internal politics, lots of unpronounceable legalese and oodles of sexual tension between Harvey and Donna. End of an era? Case closed. / Tara Ward

The Notables

Suits: Jessica Pearson (Express to Neon, Season 1, July 18)

We here at The Spinoff love a good spinoff, so we’re bloody stoked to welcome the arrivial of Suits: Jessica Pearson, the show that promises to fill the Harvey Specter-shaped hole in our hearts. Gina Torres returns as Jessica Pearson, the legal genius who now works for the Mayor of Chicago. Jessica’s been hired to shake things up, but who can she trust in the dark and seedy world of city politics? Will she make a difference? Most importantly, when will Louis Litt come to visit? / TW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAnJJHrq0Ws

The Loudest Voice (Express to Neon, Season 1, July 4)

When Roger Ailes died in 2017 his legacy included founding the biggest cable news channel in America, perpetrating a decades-long series of sexual assaults, and playing a key role in getting a manifestly unfit conman and serial sexual assaulter (sensing a pattern?) into the White House. The story of Fox News’ seemingly unstoppable rise is told in this 7-episode limited series starring Russell Crowe as the racist, foul-mouthed, monumentally creepy Ailes. From a shaky start, Fox News has become the most important – and malevolent – force in US politics, and this might just be the most depressing watch since Chernobyl. / Catherine McGregor

Catastrophe (Express to Neon, Season 4, July 5)

Catastrophe is one of those shows that seems to have snuck under everybody’s radar – and your radar is the worse for it. The British sitcom stars, and is created by, Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney, and follows what happens to a couple who ends up having a child after a quick weeklong fling. It is deeply funny, smart and frank, touching on the realities of parenthood and what it means to continue to be a human with your own problems and flaws when you have a whole new human to raise at the same time.  / SB

Legion (Express to Neon, Season 3, July 1) 

Superheroes are a dime and dozen nowadays, but Noah Hawley’s (Fargo, Bones) psychedelic take on Marvel’s X-Men property is maybe the most unique show on the telly. It’s a totally wild, visual kick in the balls; nothing on TV looks like it and nothing on TV (or in the movies) is as dedicated to capturing the surreal and psychological experience of reading a superhero comic. It’s also extremely funny. ‘Nuff said. / Jose Barbosa

Harlots (Express to Lightbox, Season 3, July 15)

If you missed out on the first two season of this, you best don your corset and get ready for season three. Two of England’s best actresses – Dame Lesley Manville (not actually a dame, but should be) and Dame Samantha Morton (see previous note) – run two 18th century brothels in competition with each other. More emotionally brutal, more feminist and more fun than Game of Thrones, the third season of Harlots ups the drama by adding Theon himself (Alfie Allen) and Ash Hunter as two brothers trying to make it in the 18th century world of sex work. / SB

How To Get Away With Murder (TVNZ on Demand, Season 5, July 1)

How many seasons of television do you need to learn to get away with murder? Apparently at least five (or actually six, given this show’s renewal). How To Get Away With Murder remains the only show where you can get a dose of Pure Viola Davis Acting on a weekly basis. Therefore, it’s my duty to inform you that it exists and where you can find it. Big Little Lies ain’t gonna last forever, so you actress addicts can get on this methadone next. / SB

The Movies

Daffodils (Lightbox, July 3, from $4.99)

A Kiwi film based on a play I saw six times – a couple falls in and out of love, to the tune of many popular Kiwi songs, including The Mint Chicks, Dave Dobbyn, The Exponents, and Crowded House’s ‘Fall At Your Feet’, one of the most emotionally devastating songs in our national songbook. / SB

Teen Spirit (Lightbox, July 31, from $4.99)

This is the film where Elle Fanning, who has usurped Dakota to become Alpha Fanning, sings Robyn’s ‘Dancing On My Own’. Max Minghella, famous for being (possibly) Yet Another Bad Man on The Handmaid’s Tale, directs. / SB

My Dad Wrote a Porno (Neon, July 20)

The HBO special based on the insanely popular podcast about a British lad and his two friends reading bad erotic writing that his father has written. This is their live show, which hasn’t been on any podcast yet, so if you’re waiting for season five of the podcast, this should tide your gutter-brains over. / SB

Magic Mike (Netflix, July 29)

This is not the fun road trip one that featuring a career-best performance from Jada Pinkett Smith. This is the dark sad one about the economy, and how the very foundation of capitalism is based on people breaking their bodies to survive. Still, abs! / SB

The Rest

What follows is a list of what is coming up on every streaming service this month.

Netflix

July 1

Aloha

Are We Done Yet?

A Stranger in Town

BASEketball

Big Fat Liar

Center Stage

Couples Retreat

Designated Survivor: 60 days

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

G.I. Joe: Retaliation

Grown Ups

Immortals

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Katherine Ryan: Glitter Room

Kicking & Screaming

Mama

Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life

Practical Magic

Serenity

Sixteen Candles

Step Brothers

Swiped

The Croods

The Magic of Lassie

The Thing

Tropic Thunder

Unfinished Business

Van Helsing

July 2

Bangkok Love Stories: Objects of Affection

Bangkok Love Stories: Plead

July 3

The Last Czars

July 4

Stranger Things 3

The Lucky One

July 6

Free Rein: Season 3

July 7

20th Century Women

July 10

Family Reunion

Parchís: El documental

San Andreas

Woman in Gold

July 11

Cities of Last Things

July 12

Blown Away

Bonus Family: Season 3

Extreme Engagement

Kidnapping Stella

Point Blank

Taco Chronicles

The Family

True Tunes: Songs

You Me Her: Season 4

4 latas

3Below: Tales of Arcadia: Part 2

July 15

Clash of the Titans

Fool’s Gold

Going the Distance

Hall Pass

The Blind Side

The Goonies

The Shawshank Redemption

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

The Town

The Wedding Singer

Unknown

Vegas Vacation

What a Girl Wants

You’ve Got Mail

300: Rise of an Empire

July 16

Geostorm

The Great Hack

July 25

Another Life

Workin’ Moms: Season 2

July 26

Boi

Girls With Balls

My First First Love: Season 2

Orange Is the New Black: Season 7

Sugar Rush: Season 2

The Son

The Worst Witch: Season 3

July 28

Magic Mike

July 29

Daddy’s Home 2

July 30

Whitney Cummings: Can I Touch It?

July 31

Kengan Ashura: Part l

The Letdown: Season 2

The Red Sea Diving Resort

The Snowman

Lightbox (All movies are pay-per-view, from $4.99)

July 3

Daffodils

Adventures of Dally and Spanky

Mid 90s

King of Thieves

July 5

The In-Between

July 10

The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales

July 15

Harlots: Season 3

July 17

Shazam

The Lego Movie 2

Missing Link

Destroyer

July 18

Suits: Season 9

July 23

The Halcyon

July 24

Hellboy

Critters Attack

July 31

To Dust

Teen Spirit

 

Neon

July 1

Legion: Season 3

July 3

Mary Kills People: Season 3

July 4

The Loudest Voice

Foster

July 5

Catastrophe: Season 4

Lilo and Stitch

July 6

Crazy Rich Asians

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

July 7

Christopher Robin

Thor: The Dark World

July 8

The Thundermans: Season 4

July 9

American Princess

55 Steps

July 10

100 Day Renovation

Olympus Has Fallen

July 12

Snowfall: Season 3

Haywire

Teen Titans Go To The Movies

July 13

Kronk’s New Groove

July 16

Kick-Ass 2

The House With A Clock in Its Walls

July 17

City on A Hill

Peter Pan

July 18

Suits: Jessica Pearson

First Man

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

July 19

Smallfoot

July 20

My Dad Wrote a Porno

Despicable Me

July 21

Dr Seuss’ The Grinch

Space Cowboys

July 22

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

July 23

The Princess and the Frog

July 24

Blood Diamond

July 26

Squinters: Season 1-2

July 29

George of the Jungle

July 30

MacGyver: Season 3

City By The Sea

July 31

Lady and the Tramp

TVNZ on Demand

July 1

Trust Me: Season Two

One Hour That Changed The World

American Housewife

How To Get Away With Murder: Season Five

AP Bio: Season Two

July 22

Walter Presents: Vanished by the Lake

Walter Presents: The Adulterer: Seasons 1-3

Walter Presents: The Thirteen Commandments

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Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime’s schedule had not been released at the time of publication. This listing will be updated when the schedule is released.

Keep going!
Rei will be performing on the festival’s Tangata Whenua stage (Photo: Integrity Promotion)
Rei will be performing on the festival’s Tangata Whenua stage (Photo: Integrity Promotion)

ĀteaJuly 2, 2019

Rei’s new album wears its purpose on its sleeve

Contributing writer
Rei will be performing on the festival’s Tangata Whenua stage (Photo: Integrity Promotion)
Rei will be performing on the festival’s Tangata Whenua stage (Photo: Integrity Promotion)

Rei is an internationally successful, award-winning musician who can rap, sing, produce beats, and even tell a couple of jokes. He talked to The Spinoff about Ariana Grande, meditation, and writing music as self-encouragement.

The winter sun is warm, and so is Rei. He’s the kind of person who puts you at ease straight away. We sit outside a Morningside café and he talks about learning to take moments for himself. “I went for a bushwalk yesterday, because it was a nice day,” he tells me.

Environment is important to Rei – symbolically and literally. His guiding principle is that of being “chiefly,” of taking control of your environment. His last albums, Rangatira and A Place to Stand, were grounded in the concept of rangatiratanga, of ownership of yourself and your surroundings. “It’s funny, because I wrote it for myself,” he admits. “I don’t always feel like a chief.” He wrote the positive content as self-encouragement. “If that encourages other people, too, that’s great.”

Rangatira is a singular album. It’s got great hip-hop beats, high-level production, great hooks, and is recorded entirely in te reo Māori. Like all his music, it’s distinctly Kiwi but still different from anything other local artists are making. New Zealand on Air has an unprecedented level of talent on its airwaves, and Rei is one of its champions.

With his new album, The Bridge, he’s showcasing his global-level talent more than ever. “I am a bridge between all these different things: genres, cultures, people.” Rei blends hip hop with pop, English with te reo, producers with performers. 

Even his approach to his home genre is something new. “All throughout hip-hop’s history there’s been more positive stuff, it’s just not been what sells the most,” he says. “But again, I’m trying to be that bridge! The bridge between positivity and something that is appealing to the masses.”

The positivity is infectious in the first single from The Bridge. ‘Good Mood’ is such a strong pop song that it knocked Ariana Grande off a chart in the U.S. “Shame, Ariana!” Rei laughs, and grins at me. “Nah, I’m just flexing – it knocked her off on the viral charts.”

He’s right to be stoked about this achievement. “People think writing pop is easy, but you’re trying to write a song that connects to the majority of people,” he explains. The concept is always the most difficult part. “Once you’re in the zone, it writes itself. To get into the headspace and for the stars to align – that’s harder.”

‘Good Mood’ is a fun, party-friendly song, but The Bridge isn’t all like that. “Toward the end of the album I go pretty deep,” he admits. “It’s pretty scary to play it to people, but it helps get my thoughts and feelings out there.” He takes one of his many thoughtful pauses. “I hope it helps other people as well.”

The Bridge is (so far) only recorded in English. Rei is very self-aware, and it’s not hard to imagine how that influences his music. The singles released from his album so far are pretty introspective. “Yeah, there’s a lot more depth than my last songs,” he smiles. “It’s quite a lot deeper, this album.” His previous work frequently intertwined the personal with the political. This album? “It’s still got that political charge, I guess.”

Te Pukumeke is a song Rei wrote with producer Baitercell (Chris Chetland) last year. The video for it was released last month, and it’s got a big political charge. It’s an environmental call to action. “In English, it would sound cheesy,” he laughs. In English, a song about protecting waterways from agricultural run-off could risk using cliché. In te reo, the lyrical space is freed of this.

Rei studied Māori at university, where he learned to free himself of more formal language structures. “It’s easier for me to write politically in te reo, because it naturally — for me — sounds less cheesy,” he explains. Only one of the singles from The Bridge so far is done in te reo. “I want to make that a habit,” he says. “You see a lot of bands doing that now. It’s a pretty cool trend.”

The title of The Bridge came to Rei in May. He came to realise his role — as a musician and as a person — at a ten-day meditation course an hour north of Auckland. There was no phone use allowed, and no outside contact. This is where he understood and embraced being a bridge. “I’m not anxious about being one or the other. I can just be me.”

In the same position, many other people would feel a little pressure. We’re about the same age, and I remind him about what it was like when we were coming up, seeing Scribe and realising what New Zealanders could achieve. “I’ve been thinking about that a bit lately,” he says. “All of the teenagers listening at the moment, who might look up to me like that. I try not to overthink it, really.”

I ask if he sees himself as a role model, and he takes one of his biggest pauses yet. “Yeah.” He pauses again before continuing. “I am careful about making sure what I say in my music fits with the kaupapa. I listen to a lot of hip hop, and it’s a little behind the ol’ #metoo movement sometimes. I try to keep things positive,” he smiles at me, “keep it chiefly.”

He takes his time answering questions not because he’s worried; he’s just contemplative. Like all the best musicians, Rei sees his work as an exercise in self-expression with audience approval as a fun bonus, not a necessity. He wants to get it right. He likes to push the envelope not by following trends, but by honing them. “Over the past two years I’ve tried to re-work my songwriting,” he tells me. “I’ve tried to tick a few more boxes when it comes to good hooks, things like that.”

The Bridge is the checklist of an artist doing the absolute most. “I solo produced 12 out of the 14 tracks, and those other two songs I’ve added my own thing to,” he says. He’s already thinking about the future of his production. “Now that I’m getting busier, it’s going to be hard to make all my own beats. I just don’t have time.”

Rei likes to be involved with every stage of the musical process, but he’s no control freak. He loves help from others. Chris Chetland is his “mentor slash co-manager slash life coach.” D. Love is one of Rei’s most trusted producers. “I think I have six collabs on the album,” he tells me: two tracks with other producers and four with other vocalists. “When I work with other vocalists I never just send a beat off for them to write to; it’s me in the room, working on it and helping,” he says. “It’s collaborating. Especially because, well, it’s my song. They might have some lines that don’t fit the kaupapa.”

The kaupapa of The Bridge is as personal and political as anything Rei’s written. With each new album, he ups his game once more. At an APRA SongHubs event, he got to write a song with Jenna Andrews. “She’s written with Majid Jordan, and Drake, and Diplo — people like that. To be in a studio with someone like that and have your ideas valued was pretty cool.” These are huge names, but Rei’s skillset stands up to all them.

This piece, as well as The Bridge, was made with support from NZ on Air. The Bridge is out on July 26th

Pop Culture