‘What ifs’ dominate the new TV landscape this week. What if Poland was still communist? What if all of Dickens’ characters lived in the same town and knew each other?
Richard Ridings and Caroline Quentin as Mr and Mrs Bumble in the 21015 BBC series Dickensian, now at TVNZ On Demand. Photo: BBC
Apologies for the day of delay, this column actually required a little bit of research! New binge-worthy series on streaming TV include quite a few shows this week that I hadn’t previously heard of. This is good. This is interesting.
Netflix drops a few series this week but the ones that caught my eye – and started appearing in promos so Netflix obviously think these are up my alley too – include 1983, a “what if” fantasy series asking what the world might be like if the Berlin Wall had never fallen and Poland had remained communist. The list of directors includes the terrifically versatile Agnieszka Holland who has been making a lot of prestige TV but also made some top arthouse films in the 80s and 90s, including Europa, Europa.
The Netflix series 1983 wonders what Poland would be like if it was still communist. Photo: Netflix
Earlier this year, Sam Neill took a trip around the Pacific In the Wake of Captain Cook for Prime TV but back in 2001 he went even further with a documentary for the BBC called Space and those six episodes have just arrived at Prime Video (Amazon’s streaming service).
Lightbox have a French crime mystery called Nox in which Nathalie Baye (Catch Me If You Can, La Balance) plays a retired cop whose daughter (also a cop) disappears in the catacombs beneath Paris. Baye believes that only she can unravel the mystery, putting her at odds with the official investigation. And, if you are feeling a bit more nostalgic or have more time on your hands, Lightbox also have all eight seasons of the Martin Clunes vehicle Doc Martin.
Nathalie Baye as Catherine Susini in Nox on Lightbox. Photo: Rémy Grandroques / Gaumont Télévision / Canal+
Neon have also gone medical with the first 14 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy available from Friday.
TVNZ is proving that its On Demand service is as adventurous as its free-to-air service isn’t with complete series of Dickensian (2015), a BBC show with the conceit that all of Dickens’ characters inhabited the same Victorian London shared universe, like Marvel. IMDb lists 20 episodes in the season but TVNZ only have 13 up at the moment. But that should keep you going for a while.
The final episode of the brand new BBC John Le Carré adaptation The Little Drummer Girl (directed by Chan-wook Park) has arrived on TVNZ On Demand so that’s totally binge-able now. There’ll be a full review of that show here next week.
Every week around this time, Dan Slevin highlights some of the best and most interesting TV shows that are new to Kiwi streaming services.
