We have plenty of shows to choose from in the month ahead. An infamous Australian fraudster is at the centre of Netflix’s “true-ish” drama, Apple Cider Vinegar, Disney+’s A Thousand Blows is the new series from the creator of Peaky Blinders, and Binge has a new season of The White Lotus.
It’s time to upsize your personal watchlist.
Netflix
My top Netflix recommendation is Apple Cider Vinegar (February 6).
Netflix is calling it “a true-ish story based on a lie”. The wild saga of Belle Gibson, the Australian scammer who built a wellness empire on fake claims of managing multiple cancer diagnoses, gets the limited series treatment. Creator Samantha Strauss (The End) was inspired by The Woman Who Fooled the World, the 2017 non-fiction book by The Age and Sydney Morning Herald journalists Beau Donnelly and Nick Toscano, who catalogued Gibson’s cruel deceptions and eventual downfall. Adding a fictional friend-turned-rival for Gibson (Kaitlyn Dever, Unbelievable) in the form of Milla Blake (Alycia Debnam-Carey, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart), it’s a story of unchecked ambition and deception set against the explosion of social media, the #girlboss era, and our wellbeing obsession. It’s a juicy, insightful tale.
Also on Netflix: If you have anxieties about a cyberattack bringing down the computer systems that underpin 21st-century life, Zero Day (February 20) might not be the show for you. Robert De Niro plays George Mullen, a former US president who is charged by his successor (Angela Bassett) with finding those responsible for a day of attacks that crippled America and left more than 3000 people dead. It’s a political conspiracy thriller of nightmarish possibilities and worrying scenarios – Mullen’s methods skirt legal precedent, while his investigation uncovers more than he expected. The supporting cast for the unease is exemplary: Jesse Plemons (Killers of the Flower Moon), Connie Britton (White Lotus), and Dan Stevens (Legion) co-star.
Co-created by Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project), Running Point (February 27) is an American sports comedy about a young woman, Isla Gordon (Kate Hudson, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days), who is unexpectedly put in charge of the family business (professional basketball team, the Los Angeles Waves) after her brother endures one scandal too many. Hudson, who is ripe for a comeback, plays a woman who has to navigate a complex, ego-ridden world. If the backstory sounds familiar, note that one of the show’s executive producers is Jeanie Buss, who took charge of the storied Los Angeles Lakers NBA franchise in 2013, following the death of her father.
January highlights: Dystopian Korean drama Squid Game returned with a new body count, American Primeval was a western where survival was all that mattered, Asura revealed a masterful Japanese drama set in the 1970s, the police procedural got a Swedish twist in The Breakthrough, and – praise be! – a new Wallace & Gromit movie.
Binge
My top Binge recommendation is The White Lotus (February 17).
Why hasn’t HBO made a White Lotus spin-off series, where the fictional luxury resort’s corporate PR team desperately scramble to whitewash the heinous acts that keep happening to their guests? As it is, this is the third season of Mike White’s delicious black comedy anthology where the tourists go home with more than a tan. After Hawaii and Sicily, the new episodes are set in Thailand, with an ensemble cast that includes Carrie Coon (The Leftovers), Walton Goggins (Fallout), Jason Isaacs (The OA), and – she’s going to steal every scene – Parker Posey (Best in Show). First-world problems will lead to freakouts, flare-ups and family failings. Can’t wait!
Also on Binge: The Irish actor and comedian Chris O’Dowd, who most recently starred in Apple TV+’s The Big Door Prize, goes home to write, direct, and co-star in Small Town, Big Story (February 27). It’s the story of an Irish village with particular quirks – clue one: birds keep falling from the sky – at risk of exposure when a major American TV series uses it as a location. Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) plays one of the show’s producers, who has a history with the town and especially a very toey local played by Paddy Considine (House of the Dragon). Plenty of oddness to this one.
January highlights: Colin Firth gave an exemplary lead performance as a grieving father in Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, plus a new transfusion for fans of emergency-room dramas with the ER-like The Pitt debuting.
Stan*
My top Stan recommendation is Invisible Boys (February 13).
The rigours of growing up as a gay teen in Australia are at the centre of this new series, which promises a raw and authentic look at the LGBTQ coming-of-age experience. Set in the unforgiving Western Australian coastal city of Geraldton, with the 2017 plebiscite on same-sex marriage as the backdrop, the show follows four teenage boys who have to come to terms with their desires and hopes after one of them is outed on social media following an encounter with a local married man. The source material is the award-winning 2018 novel of the same name by Holden Sheppard, a Geraldton native, and it’s been adapted by writer/director Nicholas Verso, whose spectral teen horror-comedy Crazy Fun Park pipped Bluey for a Logie in 2023.
Also on Stan: Shot in Queensland, Good Cop/Bad Cop (February 20) is an American crime comedy about a dysfunctional brother and sister forced to work together by their father in the family business: policing a Pacific Northwest town. Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl) is the station’s detective, and Luke Cook (Hacks) is the socially awkward brother assigned to partner with her by their ornery father Hank (Clancy Brown, The Penguin). The trailer offers shoot-outs and snippy sibling rivalry, plus a sighting of Meester’s husband, Adam Brody (Nobody Wants This), as a suspect receiving unconventional interrogation.
January highlights: Travis Fimmel’s detective James Cormack was back for a second season of the Australian crime drama Black Snow, plus the British police corruption thriller Protection.
Amazon Prime
My top Amazon Prime recommendation is Clean Slate (February 9).
The celebrated Hollywood writer and producer Norman Lear made socially conscious and successful sitcoms across seven decades, including All in the Family and One Day at a Time. Lear passed in December 2023 at the age of 101, and Clean Slate is one of his legacy shows. He executive-produced Dan Ewen’s comedy about a black Alabama car wash owner, Harry (George Wallace, The Ladykillers) who reunites with his estranged child after 23 years, the now proud trans woman, Desiree (Laverne Cox, Orange is the New Black). Expect a warm-hearted, mainstream comedy about common ground, updating family traditions, and finding space – instead of a swear jar, Harry drops a coin in the pronoun jar when he misgenders Desiree. Like so many of Lear’s shows, it’s timely.
Also on Amazon Prime: Bypassing cinemas to release as a streaming exclusive, The Order (February 6) is the new feature from Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel (Snowtown, True History of the Kelly Gang). Based on historic events in the 1980s, it charts the pursuit by veteran FBI agent, Terry Husk (Jude Law), of Bob Mathews (Nicholas Hoult) – the leader of a white supremacist group graduating from bank robberies to domestic terrorism. Debuting to strongly positive reviews at last year’s Venice Film Festival, the film is a sharp action-thriller that reveals the unfortunately relevant mindset of extremism.
January highlights: A new season of the British conspiracy thriller The Rig gave science-fiction fans more to ponder, while police drama On Call was a new take on the familiar Los Angeles patrol car genre.
Apple TV+
My top Apple TV+ recommendation is The Gorge (February 14).
Movie star chemistry is dangerously fickle. It’s impossible to say what will happen when Anya Taylor-Joy (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga) and Miles Teller (Top Gun: Maverick) are matched up – sparks fly or chalky residue? – but kudos to Apple’s latest original feature film for matching them with an out-there concept. The two play elite snipers who are assigned the ultimate mission: a year alone on either side of a mysterious chasm that houses the gates to hell. No communication between their posts is permitted, but that doesn’t stop a long-distance bond forming in this high-velocity horror-romance. Are they going to end up in the Gorge? Absolutely. It’s the responsibility of director Scott Derrickson (The Black Phone, Doctor Strange) to make their romance matter before the monsters come out to play.
Also on Apple TV+: The high-intensity emergency room drama is back – on both sides of the Atlantic. Following on from The Pitt reviving ER from an American perspective, Europe counters with Berlin ER (February 26). Set on the chaotic front lines of a Berlin hospital, the eight-part German language series has serious credentials: co-creator Samuel Jefferson was an emergency room physician before pivoting to screenwriting. Haley Louise Jones (Dear Child) plays the newcomer who wants to repair a failing system, Slavko Popadic (Crooks) is the world-weary veteran who knows the team’s bleak coping mechanisms will win out.
January highlights: Severance returned – it’s still the most beguiling, theory-inspiring show on streaming, while Prime Target followed a maths prodigy trapped in a conspiracy thriller.
Disney+
My top Disney+ recommendation is A Thousand Blows (February 21).
With his Peaky Blinders movie, The Immortal Man, in post-production, prolific British showrunner Steven Knight (SAS: Rogue Heroes, Taboo) already has a new series ready to go. Set in the dog-eat-dog underworld of London in the 1880s, this bare-knuckled drama follows Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby, Black Mirror) and Alec Munroe (Francis Lovehall, Small Axe): best friends from Jamaica who come seeking their fortune in the city’s unregulated boxing scene. Standing in their way is the East End’s reigning champion, the uncompromising Sugar Goodson (Stephen Graham, The Irishman), while hoping to profit is Mary Carr (Erin Doherty, The Crown), whose gang of female thieves pillage high society. It’s history that bruises, a Knight trademark, sure to spotlight betrayal and corruption.
Also on Disney+: Off the back of their highest-grossing film ever, 2024’s Inside Out 2, Pixar is now releasing its first original series, Win or Lose (February 19). The show follows a school softball team approaching a district final, with each of the eight episodes focusing on a different character – whether it’s a nervous student, a hopeful parent, or a supportive coach. The warm colour palette and engaging character design are to be expected, but some fantastical flourishes also feature in the show, which was created by Pixar graduates Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates. The most familiar voice? Will Forte (The Last Man on Earth) as Coach Dan.
January highlights: Case-of-the-week murder mystery High Potential was great fun, Paradise was a wildly unconventional White House political thriller, and Amy Adams starred in the maternal black comedy Nightbitch.
ABC iview
My top ABC iview recommendation is The Newsreader (February 2).
Creator Michael Lucas brings one of the ABC’s best dramas of the past decade to a finale with a third and final season. The year providing the headlines that serve as the backdrop to the reporting by the show’s fictional reporters is now 1989, but some crucial things haven’t changed. The relationship between celebrated newsreader Dale Jennings (Sam Read) and his former partner on- and off-camera, Helen Norville (Anna Torv) is still complicated, especially with Helen returning to Melbourne after a successful stint as a foreign correspondent. The telling intertwining of the personal and the professional has always been one of The Newsreader’s great strengths, although this season also boasts a recreation of the 1989 Logies.
January highlights: The British true-crime drama Until I Kill You was a gripping depiction of a woman who survived her serial killer partner, plus crisis management got some laughs with the Australian comedy Optics.
SBS On Demand
My top SBS On Demand recommendation is Pose (February 14).
Here’s a terrific box-set, available on a free-to-air service for the first time. Debuting in 2018 and running for three seasons, Pose was a larger-than-life look inside a rarely seen underground scene: New York City’s ball culture in the 1980s and 1990s. An LGBTQ subculture where black and Latino participants could lead full-throated and sometimes fabulous lives, ball culture was a mix of performance and competition held between “houses”, family-like groups of friends and collaborators. Horror maven Ryan Murphy (Netflix’s Monster) helped give the show intimate drama, proud resilience in a time of HIV and gentrification, and anthropological detail, which drew award-winning performances from Michaela Jae Rodriguez and Billy Porter.
January highlights: There was a new dose of Scandi noir with the Icelandic crime drama The Darkness. And one of the best shows of the 1990s, the police drama Homicide: Life on the Street, came to streaming for the first time.
Other streamers
My top recommendation for the other streaming services is Paramount+’s 1923 (February 23).
Taylor Sheridan’s suite of showy American dramas has had some hiccups recently: Yellowstone didn’t nail its finale, Lioness got side-tracked, and Landman had some odd ideas about its female characters. But after a solid first season, this is the Sheridan show I have most have faith in. This Yellowstone prequel is set in the titular year on the Yellowstone ranch where the Dutton clan is in the hands of Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren’s Jacob and Cara Dutton. The duo’s considerable star power, and a period setting that diverts some of Sheridan’s cultural complaints into bleak historic revisionism both in Montana and Europe, made for a restless grandeur. I’m intrigued as to where this concluding second season will go.
Also: The Oscars aren’t happening until Monday March 3, but in February DocPlay has an advance look at the Academy Award for the best documentary feature film. The specialist platform is exclusively releasing three of the five nominees, all on the same day – February 24. The trio consists of Black Box Diaries, a Japanese feature about a high-profile sexual assault case, written and directed by the victim, journalist Shiori Ito; No Other Land, which was made by a quartet of Israeli and Palestinian activists and charts dispossession in the West Bank; and the Cold War tale Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, which brings to thrilling life the storming of the UN Security Council by protesting American jazz musicians in 1961.
January highlights: Michelle Yeoh kept the Trekkies happy with Star Trek: Section 31.
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