Always Be Streaming... this November. It's busy.
Get set for the November avalanche of big shows and movies
November might be the biggest month of the year for TV. We’re just a few days into the month and already I’m feeling overwhelmed.
First of all there’s the returning shows. Adult animated superhero show Invincible has built up a strong following in the 2 years since the first season debuted on Prime Video. If you like superhero fare, I rate it rather highly. There was something so charmingly low stakes about HBOs The Gilded Age that appealed strongly to me with the first season. I’m looking forward to pressing play on it. In a quirk related to the show taking forever and a day to actually go into production, in Australia the show lives on Paramount+ and not Foxtel/Binge which is the home of every other HBO show down under.
In terms of new TV, the two shows that caught my attention this week are both anime. While that’s not really a genre I lean into very much, Blue Eye Samurai has an interesting voice cast which includes some of my favourite performers: Maya Erskine, Randall Park, and Brenda Song. And then there’s the other Netflix samurai animated drama Onimusha which is has Takashi Mike leading the creative on the show
But it’s the new movies that have my attention. NYAD on Netflix is about… actually, what it is about is irrelevant - it stars Annette Bening and Jodie Foster. That’s enough. I’m pressing play.
Similarly, check out this cast for high concept comedy Hulu/Disney+ film Quiz Girl: Sandra Oh, Awkwafina, Jason Schwartzman, Tony Hale, Holland Taylor, and Will Ferrell. Again, that’s enough to have you pressing play. The plot is a formality at this point.
Also on Netflix is a French film directed by and starring Mélanie Laurent which is a lightweight Charlies Angels-esque crime caper. I haven’t seen it yet, but that sounds like something I could very easily see myself presisng play on this Sunday afternoon.
Meanwhile Hulu have invested in a bunch of Christmas TV movies, two of which debut this week. Why are they spending money on low-value Hallmark style TV movies? They’re not taking away audience from Hallmark or GAF with this junk. Audiences after that fare know where to go. Why not aim higher with Christmas TV programming, by targeting audiences who aren’t already being catered for with movies starring luminaries like Denise Richards?
THE WEEK AHEAD: It’s a lot of high octane, dude stuff with the season four return of Apple TV+’s For All Mankind, David Fincher’s new Netflix film The Killer, Prime Video’s reality James Bond event show 007: Road To A Million, and Paramount+ debuts NCIS: Sydney.