Streaming in February: What to watch on Netflix, Disney, Paramount, Stan, 7plus and more

THE WHITE LOTUS (Binge 17th)

Lush holiday surrounds, glistening swimming pools and obnoxious rich Americans obsessed with themselves? It must be The White Lotus.

Mike White’s social satires returns for its third season with a story set in Thailand and a primarily all-new ensemble cast including Jason Isaacs, Walter Goggins, Parker Posey and Carrie Coon as guests checking in for a little rest and relaxation but finds much more than they were expecting, as well as Natasha Rothwell, who reprises her character from the Maui series.

It’s already been revealed that this season’s themes include death and Eastern religion and spirituality, so we shouldn’t be surprised if not everyone makes it out alive by the end. After all, the first two instalments had a body count.

ZERO DAY (Netflix, 20th)

If Robert De Niro was to take his first TV role, he might as well aim for the top – the president of the United States. In the political thriller Zero Day, De Niro plays a former POTUS who has been recruited to head a commission investigating a devastating global cyberattack which caused the deaths of 3000 people.

A political thriller that examines the breakdown of civil liberties and norms in the aftermath of fear, chaos and conspiracy, Zero Days draws from both history and present-day anxieties.

Its sterling cast also includes Angela Bassett, Connie Britton, Jesse Plemons, Matthew Modine, Bill Camp, Joan Allen and Dan Stevens. Lesli Linka Glatter, who has directed The West Wing, Homeland, Mad Men and The Good Wife, helmed all the episodes.

THE ORDER (Prime, 6th)

With a debut at the Venice Film Festival and a limited theatrical run in the US, sadly, The Order is going straight to streaming in Australia. It particularly bites because it was directed by Tasmanian filmmaker Justin Kurzel whose visual style always justifies the big screen.

The film is based on the true story of a FBI agent in pursuit of a 1980s white supremacist group called The Order. It stars Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan and Jurnee Smollett.

APPLE CIDER VINEGAR (Netflix, 6th)

When Belle Gibson was exposed as a brain cancer-faking scammer, her wellness empire crumbled faster that the cookie she probably told you not to eat. The story was all the more remarkable because she seemed unable to accept responsibility for her actions.

The tale has now been adapted as a series with some fictionalised elements and composite characters to tell the story of not only Gibson but the thorny world of wellness influencers at a time when Instagram was just exploding.

American actor Kaitlyn Dever takes on the Australian accent as Gibson but the rest of the ensemble includes acclaimed local talent Aisha Dee, Alycia Debham-Carey, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Mark Coles Smith and Ashley Zukerman.

THE NEWSREADER S3 (ABC iview, 2nd)

The year is now 1989, and Helen and Dale are not only no longer working together, they find themselves professional rivals with competitor shows on different networks. As always, riding high at work doesn’t mean their personal lives are under control.

The vaunted ABC drama comes to an end with its third season which promises plenty of emotional moments, relationship drama and even a night at the Logies with lots of taffeta.

There will also be the big news events of the year, including the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Tiananmen Square massacre.

SUITS: LA (7plus, undated)

No one was talking about a second Suits spin-off (yes, there was another one) until the original series went off on American streaming and throngs of new audiences realised there was pleasure in watching these willowy and impeccably dressed lawyers take other people down.

What better town is there to do that than Los Angeles, where even the sharks have agents and lawyers?

The series follows Ted Black (Stephen Amell), a New Yorker who has just moved to the City of Angels and must pivot to an area of law he’s always held contempt for, entertainment law. Ted also happens to know Harvey Specter, with Gabriel Macht expected to guest star at some point.

NICKEL BOYS (Prime, 27th)

Nominated for two Oscars including best picture, Nickel Boys is another film which should’ve had a cinema release but, alas, it was not to be.

A feature directorial debut by RaMell Ross, it’s adapted from acclaimed writer Colson Whitehead’s novel. Shot from an innovative first-person point-of-view, it stars Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson, with a supporting cast that includes Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Daveed Diggs, Hamish Linklater and Fred Hechinger.

Set in 1962 Jim Crow-era Florida, it tells the story of an academically gifted high schooler who is sent to a reform school after he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

GOOD COP, BAD COP (Stan, 20th)

Filmed in Australia but standing in for the Pacific Northwest in Australia, the series stars Leighton Meester as an ambitious detective working in a small town. Complicated family dynamics run into professional ones when she’s paired with her brother as partners, and their dad happens to be the chief.

Meester brought her whole family over for production last year which means her husband, Adam Brody, makes a special appearance in one episode. The Australian cast includes Devon Terrell, Blazey Best, Grace Chow and Boy Swallows Universe’s Felix Cameron.

CHEERS S1-11 (Paramount+, 10th)

It’s been a mystery why Cheers was taken off Paramount+ when the iconic American sitcom is owned by Paramount Television and its stablemate, Frasier, has been available. Breathe a sigh of relief because the entire 11 seasons of Cheers will be restored to the platform.

That means reliving all the witty repartee, the goofiness of Woody Harrelson, the Sam and Diane will-they-won’t-they, the genius that is Ted Danson’s comic timing and the all-round pure joy of hanging out at where everyone knows your name.

MUSTER DOGS: COLLIES AND KELPIES (ABC iview, 2nd)

It almost seems mean to pit two adorable and super clever breeds of dogs against each other but then you remember that’s what every dog show in the world does, whether they’re running through agility tunnels or just prancing around a yard with a strangely dressed human.

At least in Muster Dogs: Collies and Kelpies, the competition is wholesome and so, so cute. The beloved ABC series where the animals outshine every human returns with a twist. This time, the six pups are made up of three Border Collies and three Kelpies and after they’re trained by graziers, they’ll come back together to see which breed comes out on top.

ST DENIS MEDICAL (7plus, 3rd)

It’s truly the era of the medical show again. With the likes of dramas The Pitt, Watson and Doc, there has to be a counterbalance of a comedy. The 2000s had Scrubs and 2025 has St Denis Medical.

The mockumentary sitcom (think, The Office) is a workplace comedy set in a medical centre where shenanigans and healthcare mingle too easily. It stars Josh Lawson, Alison Tolman, Wendi McLendon-Covey and David Alan Grier.

YELLOWJACKETS S3 (Paramount+, 14th)

Your teenage years are messy but add to that the trauma of being stranded in the woods after a plane crash and forced to, uh, extreme measures for survival, and you come out the other side as a really dysfunctional adult.

The first two seasons of Yellowjackets showed us the stomach-churning after-effects of going through something so brutal, whether you’re a victim or perpetrator or both.

Set across two timelines, the chilling drama returns with a fresh instalment as it tackles unanswered questions including a promised “meltdown” in the woods – which could be the literal thawing of the snow but also the more emotional and social type.

THE GORGE (Apple TV+, 14th)

From horror director Scott Derrickson (The Black Phone, Doctor Strange), The Gorge blends the filmmaker’s favourite genre with sci-fi elements in a story about two snipers who have been tasked to guard both sides of a mysterious gorge.

It’s a special assignment in a top secret place because what’s beneath them in chasm is something that could threaten all of humanity. But even they don’t know what it is – until they do, and then it’s all-in. The film stars Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy and Sigourney Weaver.

WIN OR LOSE (Disney+, 19th)

Win or Lose was supposed to be a triumphant debut of Pixar’s first original streaming series. Previously, Pixar has spun off TV projects from existing movie franchises such as Up, Inside Out and Monsters Inc.

Instead, the series ran into controversy when it emerged that Disney overlords cut a storyline involving a transgender character, who remains part of the show but dialogue referencing her gender identity were removed and she was reworked to be cisgender.

Win or Lose follows a middle-school softball team in the week leading up to an important championship. Each episode follows a different character’s perspective.

TOXIC TOWN (Netflix, 27th)

In between Cambridge and Birmingham sits the town of Corby, which had been a steelmaking centre until the local plant was closed in 1981. After the council went in to remove the waste from the former steel site, drudging up toxic chemicals and spreading it, mothers in the nearby area birthed babies with defects at a rate three times higher than their neighbours.

That case, which in 2009 established a link between atmospheric toxic waste and birth defects, is the inspiration of this series about three mothers who fought for justice. It has a crazy good cast including Jodie Whittaker, Claudia Jessie, Aimee Lou Wood and Robert Carlyle.

NCIS: SYDNEY S2 (Paramount+, 7th)

If you can set aside the premise that there are American navy cops running around Sydney solving a bunch of murders in a city that famously has a low rate of homicides that aren’t family violence or bikies related, then NCIS: Sydney nails its brief.

Silly crimes, tough cops, and a thread of a conspiracy involving an American defence boss. Also, cheerleading for the US-Australian military alliance. With the shifting political winds in Washington, perhaps international cooperation in 2025 is the most reality-stretching aspect.

The second season will feature a rogue assassin and a trip to Darwin.

DEATH IN PARADISE S14 (Britbox, 11th)

If a high murder rate in Sydney is unbelievable, then what about the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie, the home of Death in Paradise. A community of what seems to be surely no more than a few thousand, there’s been at least 108 murders.

But the cosy crime series continues to be a mainstayer with its proven formula of the mercurial lead detective and likeable support team who always, always deduces the killer and reveals them in an Agatha Christie-esque denouement.

The 14th season has a new face with DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) coming onboard after his introduction in the Christmas special. It’s the first change-up at the top in five seasons.

INVISIBLE BOYS (Stan, 13th)

Set against the backdrop of the 2017 same-sex marriage plebiscite, this drama seeks to tell an authentic and emotionally raw tale of young LGBTQI Australians in a remote, coastal community faced with the challenges of discovery themselves and their place in the world.

Adapted from the play by Holden Sheppard and created for TV by Nicholas Verso who scripted the show with a team of LGBTQI writers, it stars Joseph Zada, Aydan Calafiore, Zach Blampied and Joe Klocek.

1923 S2 (Paramount+, 23rd)

The main Yellowstone series may be done but the universe lives on. And on and on and on. You’ll be watching Yellowstone spin-offs until the cows come home, which is something that happens on cattle ranches, right?

The prequel stars Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford as Dutton family ancestors defending their ranch from external threats, because, what else would it be.

The second season will amp up the drama with a cruel winter and more of a presence from the villainous Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton) who wants the ranch for something less wholesome than the Duttons’ vision of old-fashioned American values.