The Studio — Apple TV+
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s breezy, satire series takes aim at the machinations, sensitive egos and frustrations of modern Hollywood. Rogen plays Matt Remick, a bumbling, movie-loving studio executive who, as head of Continental Studios, wants to prove he can produce pictures that will reignite Tinsel Town’s belief in the power of movies as art. This is post-pandemic, post-strike Hollywood, however, and Matt and his trusty colleague and right-hand man, Sal Saperstein (Ike Barinholtz), are soon faced with the realities of a business where marketing is more important than product, profit is king, representation is political, and everything and everyone is waiting for a chance to ruin your day.
The Righteous Gemstones Season 4 — Showmax
Danny McBride and his cast of talented comic maniacs return for the final chapter in the riotous adventures of the megachurch millionaire Gemstone family and their ever-crazier attempts to make the business of God bigger, more spectacular and more profitable than everyone else. There’s plenty of big-bang over-the-top insanity in the Gemstones’ farewell season, including jet packs, hungry alligators and an opening Civil War-era episode starring Bradley Cooper as the devilish con man.
Gangs of London Season 3 — Showmax
There’s plenty of ambition, deceit and double- and triple-crossing melodrama as the hard, lean and mean cast of action junkies’ favourite choreographed “skop, skiet en donder” London gangster soapie returns for another season. As always, you shouldn’t trust or underestimate anyone. Be prepared for anything as the saga takes you from the grimy world underneath the canal bridges and the glass-glimmered heights of the City’s skyscrapers where the battle for the heart of the city violently rages.
The Room Next Door — buy from Apple TV +
Pedro Almodovar’s Golden Lion winner for best film at last year’s Venice Film Festival stars Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton as two friends who were close in their youth but were separated by different life paths. They come together for a tearful final reckoning when one of them faces imminent death. Stirringly melodramatic, lushly executed with plenty of the Spanish maverick’s singular colour coding and held together by two excellent performances from its veteran starring pair, it’s an emotional and heart-aching English language debut from one of Europe’s master directors.
Holland — Prime Video
The prolific Nicole Kidman takes centre stage in director Mimi Cave’s uneven but not without its dark charms small-town mystery thriller. Kidman stars as an apparently perfect Midwestern middle-class teacher and homemaker whose life becomes decidedly complicated when she and her colleague (Gabriel Garcia Bernal) grow obsessed with a dark secret that someone in their sleepy town is working hard to keep locked away.
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