TV & Streaming

The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 2 opts for sci-fi scares

Fans of The Mandalorian will now be settling in for a week to week drop of episodes now that Disney Plus has regained everybody’s attention. In the latest episode of Mando and the Child, the show throws a variety of things into the mix but the most prominent of all is it ramps up the…

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The Mandalorian Season 2 opener “The Marshal” leans into western themes and fan service

. Fans of The Mandalorian need wait no longer, the highly anticipated first episode of Season 2 is now available on Disney Plus. The return of the show comes amid a turbulent year for big studios and will be a welcome addition to Disney’s arsenal since they have had to shuffle some of their releases…

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Nicole Kidman to star and executive produce adaptation of award-winning play Things I Know To Be True for Amazon

Australian playwright Andrew Bovell‘s award-winning theatre production Things I Know To Be True has been acquired by Amazon Studios and Nicole Kidman‘s production banner Blossom Films. Set to premiere exclusively on Amazon Prime Video across 240 countries and territories worldwide, Kidman will topline the series set around the the resilience of an enduring marriage and…

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Assassin's Creed

Netflix announces Assassin’s Creed live action series

Netflix has announced a new live action original series based on Assassin’s Creed. It will work with game publisher Ubisoft to create AC shows across live action, animation, and anime, Deadline reports. Executive producers Jason Altman and Danielle Krenik from Ubisoft Film & Television currently oversee the project. It is on the hunt for a…

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Is The Walking Dead: The World Beyond worth watching?

There’s a scene in the second episode of The Walking Dead: The World Beyond where our four teenage protagonists are hiding from “empties” (walkers, zombies) in a treehouse, chewing through the short time by playing Monopoly and passing a bowling ball around while bellowing “Big Moe” – the ball’s given name. It’s amongst the most…

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Disney and Disney+ are gearing up for your attention in the last months of 2020

  News coming out of the House of Mouse has been coming pretty thick and fast as we near closer and closer to the end of the year. So we’re going to distil down some of the key things to keep a lookout for as we edge closer to 2021. We’ve picked out a handful…

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TV Review: Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys Season 2 is just as foul and bombastic as its predecessor

For the majority of the first episode of this second season helping of The Boys, Karl Urban‘s mouthy, unpredictable Billy Butcher is largely absent.  And it’s with his absence from the titular crew – which also consists of Jack Quaid‘s Hughie, Laz Alonso‘s Mother’s Milk, Tomer Kapon‘s Frenchie, and Karen Fukuhara‘s Kimiko – that the…

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Will fans of The Boys be satisfied by Season Two?

Amazon Prime Video decided to take a leap last year into the superhero genre with The Boys, an adaptation of the comic book series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The series is set in a universe where superheroes are capitalized and monetized by the shady corporation Vought International, and led by the unstable and…

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Win a DVD set of the complete series of Schitt’s Creek

Out this week through Acorn Media, you can now enjoy the entire hilarious Canadian series Schitt’s Creek thanks to a jam packed 12 disc DVD box set. That’s no less than 80 episodes across 6 seasons, from the award winning, critically acclaimed and much loved show that stars Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara (who in…

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TV Review: Amazon Prime Video’s World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji takes a more grounded, inspiring approach to the reality TV format

“671 kilometers of jungles, rivers, ocean, and swamp.  And it is…brutal” So says World’s Toughest Race host (and producer) Bear Grylls to an accumulative 66 teams as they gather patiently to learn just what they’re in for over the course of the next 11 days.  And if there’s anyone who knows the extremities of the…

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Mobile-first entertainment platform QUIBI launches in Australia

Quick bites.  Big stories. Designed specifically to engage the masses in the smallest of time frames, Quibi produces fresh, original content in bite-sized portions so you’re entertained at any given second. After successfully launching across the US, where their short-form, mobile-specific content proved a viable alternative to the predominant lounge-room streaming of Netflix and Amazon Prime…

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Is Season 2 of The Umbrella Academy on Netflix worth watching?

There’s something weird, wacky and wonderful about a series that doesn’t pull its punches. The Umbrella Academy introduced us to a misfit family of people adopted and brought together for their special powers to try and stop the end of the world. Season 2 which has just landed on Netflix has us following the Hargreeves…

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First Impressions: Amazon Prime Video’s Alex Rider embraces spy genre tropes and overcomes them with rugged soul

Briefly branding Alex Pettyfer “hot property” off the film’s expected anticipation, and somehow managing to ensemble a cast of such weight as Ewan McGregor, Alicia Silverstone, Bill Nighy and Mickey Rourke, the Alex Rider name was an intended film series that floundered on arrival with the release of Stormbreaker back in 2006. Underperforming in its…

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What To Watch: Amazon Prime Video’s unmissable new additions this August

Let the social distancing binge viewing continue! Winter may be over, but staying on the couch seems like the most reasonable seasonal activity as Amazon Prime Video promises to overload its devoted audience with one helluva line-up. Harley and Katniss and Neo, oh my! Kicking off the month with a bang is everyone’s favourite anti-heroine…

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Is Stan Original Relic worth watching?

Prior to watching Natalie Erika James’ Relic, I’d read constant comparisons to Hereditary and The Babadook. The former has too strong a grasp on literal malevolence to align in any way with James’ debut feature, but The Babadook certainly shares a great deal with this Australian-made indie-horror, given both are rooted in German expressionism and…

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Film Review: Dogs Don’t Wear Pants: In case Fifty Shades was too safe for you…

In case the filmic version of Fifty Shades of Grey was ultimately a little too safe in its actuality compared to the near-porn mentality of E.L. James’s novel, J-P Valkeapää‘s striking Dogs Don’t Wear Pants stands as something of a reparative.  And as much as the bold, dark comedy intends to shock its audience, this remains…

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Interview: Irish actor Michael Smiley on his macabre new role in Acorn TV’s Dead Still

After an enormously successful launch in the United States and Canada, Acorn TV has arrived in Australia and New Zealand.  A predominantly British-centric service that showcases the best drama the UK has to offer, one of the instantly accessible series on the “Netflix for Anglophiles” is Dead Still.  Set in 1880’s Ireland, the comedically macabre…

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Artemis Fowl

Is Disney Plus’ new kids film Artemis Fowl worth watching?

Based on the 2001 book series by author Eoin Colfer, Disney have finally released their latest adaptation onto their streaming service. The film was originally delayed from an August release last year to April 2020. Then the Covid-19 pandemic caused a closure of cinemas globally. Now, finally, the film finally receives a release on Disney Plus…

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Is Steve Carrell Netflix comedy series Space Force worth watching?

With the creative pedigree of both Steve Carrell and The Office’s Greg Daniels behind Netflix’s latest comedy series, and attach that to a send-up of the recently canonized Space Force, the newest military branch of the United States defence forces. The result is a series that doesn’t entirely misfire but also fails to reach the…

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Is Netflix’s The Lovebirds worth watching?

Not unlike fellow Netflix offering Murder Mystery, The Lovebirds adopts the tried and true premise of regular-folk-get-mixed-up-in-a-major-crime and hopes it has enough of a strong centre to overcome any unoriginality.  And whilst the screenplay from Aaron Abrams (a sometimes-actor whose credits include Resident Evil: Apocalypse and The Open House) and Brendan Gall (TV’s Blindspot) doesn’t…

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First Impressions: Amazon Prime Video’s Little Fires Everywhere overcomes its melodramatic state thanks to nuanced performances from Witherspoon and Washington

Perhaps as it should, Little Fires Everywhere does indeed start with a fire.  “There are little fires everywhere”, a fire marshal relays to a distraught Reese Witherspoon and a concerned Joshua Jackson, as they stare at their sprawling suburban home engulfed in flames.  The marshal’s statement indicates this was intentionally lit, setting up an immediate…

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Film Review: The Assistant is uncomfortable but necessary viewing

Though disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein does not physically appear in The Assistant, nor does his likeness or even his name, this quietly disturbing drama from Australian filmmaker Kitty Green very much has him in mind. There’s a humiliation and systemic mentality that rings true throughout the film’s brisk 85 minute running time as it…

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Is David Spade Netflix comedy The Wrong Missy worth watching?

The latest film to be trotted out onto Netflix’s new rotation is The Wrong Missy. Straight up, you should know that this project comes courtesy of Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions team, so that might immediately throw up some questionable flags to begin with. Bankrolled by the streaming giant, predominantly set in Hawaii (presumably as…

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Caliphate Netflix

Is Netflix’s Caliphate worth watching?

Streaming on Netflix now, Caliphate is an eight-episode thriller shot between Sweden and Jordan, following a planned ISIS terror plot in Stockholm while at the same time examining the much deeper issue of radicalisation. With a long-running show like Homeland wrapping up (rather well, might I add) after eight seasons, it’s expected that some fans…

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Review: HBO’s new film Bad Education is “the most Australian movie about Long Island ever made”

The newest feature film for us to enjoy from the company of our own homes during isolation is one that was never acquired for big screen distribution. Coming from HBO Films (following the largest acquisition deal of the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival), Bad Education is the dramatised telling of a true story of corruption…

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First Impressions: Netflix’s second season of Dead To Me continues to complement its comedic personality with a wealth of emotion

*This review will contain spoilers pertaining to Dead To Me’s first season* It goes without saying that if you haven’t finished season one of Netflix’s deliciously comedic Dead To Me (or watched it all, shame on you if so), this second season is not for you to play catch up.  And after the unexpected note…

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Is Alex Garland’s high concept sci-fi thriller Devs worth watching?

Devs is the sort of television mini-series that demands your full attention. This is for a couple of reasons. The first being that the subject matter of deterministic universes and philosophical questions of free will are topics that will leave you in deep thought long after the show ends. The second being that this show…

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Film Review: 1983’s Ozploitation classic Hostage is little more than a Lifetime movie with sporadic moments of exploitation thrown in

Given the fact that Hostage has something of a reputation for being one of Australia’s biggest Ozploitation films, you’d be forgiven for assuming it would live up to its supposed status.  And whilst the opening credits suggest the film to come will be one heavy on uncomfortable violence – there are sudden, furious flashes of…

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TV Review: Amazon Prime Video’s Upload is a thought-provoking comedy on the realities of the afterlife

As easy as it is to compare Upload to a program such as The Good Place – given that both series’ deal with the afterlife – Greg Daniels‘ romantic-comedy-cum-mystery is more a commentary on capitalism, a topic it tackles as successfully as it does ineffectually. Set in the not-too distant future (2033, to be exact),…

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Travel by Taste: 11 food shows on Netflix to binge through

Although we’re currently unable to head on out to a far-flung destination and indulge ourselves in local flavours, we’ve still got ‘armchair travel’. Whether you’re glued to the TV or cooking up a recipe in the kitchen, using your senses to immerse yourself in another culture, as vividly as possible, is the closest we can…

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