What to stream in March on Netflix, Disney, Binge and Apple: The Residence, The Studio, Daredevil and more

THE RESIDENCE (Netflix, 20th)

The place: the White House. The occasion: A fancy pants state dinner. The murder victim: The chief usher. The suspects: Everyone, all 157 of them.

Hailing from Shonda Rhimes’ production outfit, The Residence is a comedic murder mystery for those who love nothing more than a cosy whodunit with a sense of humour. The victim knew everyone’s secrets so the killer could be anyone, and it’s up to mercurial detective Cordelia Cupp to figure it out.

With a cast that includes Uzo Aduba, Giancarlo Esposito, Randall Park, Ken Marino, Isiah Whitlock Jr, Jason Lee, Al Franken, Julian McMahon, Susan Kelechi Watson and guest star Kylie Minogue, it sounds like an absolute riot.

THE STUDIO (Apple TV+, 26th)

If you like your TV with a healthy dose of absurdity and anxiety, The Studio will certainly deliver. Co-created by and starring Seth Rogen, the 10-part series is centred on a mid-level Hollywood studio and the man promoted to run it.

Matt Remick (Rogen) might have ambitions of making important cinema but the economic realities of the modern industry gets in the way, and he’ll soon realise that to the artists he loves so much, he’s little more than a suit who signs the cheques.

The supporting cast includes Ike Barinholtz, Catherine O’Hara and Kathryn Hahn, plus a bevy of superstars playing versions of themselves, including Olivia Wilde, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Adam Scott, Charlize Theron and Zoe Kravitz.

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN (Disney+, 4th)

There’s been a dozen streaming shows and even more films since Marvel’s Netflix partnership wrapped up in 2019 but those who remember those shows almost always point to Daredevil as the signature piece (justice for Jessica Jones, we say).

After years of fan demands, Daredevil is back, this time under the aegis of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A direct sequel to those previous three seasons, Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio reprise their roles as nemeses Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk, in a new power dynamic where Fisk is now the mayor of New York City.

The two characters have popped up in the MCU in the past three years but this is their first real showdown in seven years, and the Marvel overlords have promised it will be just as bloody and violent as the Netflix series.

RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES S4 (Binge, 10th)

If you feel The White Lotus has not been giving you enough Walton Goggins, you can double your pleasure with the return of The Righteous Gemstones for its final season.

Goggins, of course, plays the hustler Baby Billy Freeman in the comedy about the excesses and outlandish personalities of televangelists. The Danny McBride-led series is loud and in-your-face, which is exactly what you expect from McBride, who also created the show. It’s not for everyone.

When it comes to mining the bizarre world of American megachurches, The Righteous Gemstones leaves nothing on the table.

SIDE QUEST (Apple TV+, 26th)

Mythic Quest has been one of the great under-appreciated workplace comedies of the past few years and some of its best episodes have been these vignettes that step outside of the main narrative.

There was that standalone first season episode that flashed back to a different video game developer that occupied the team’s offices before them. It was widely beloved, and clearly an inspiration for this spin-off anthology series about the fans, players and employees of Mythic Quest.

Rob McElhenney is slated to feature in Side Quest but he seems to be the only crossover character. The guest cast will include Pen15’s Anna Konkle, Abbott Elementary’s William Sanford Davis and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning’s Esai Morales.

THE LAST ANNIVERSARY (Binge, 27th)

Are you ready for a fourth Liane Moriarty adaptation? Don’t answer that because it’s here anyway.

The Last Anniversary extends the cosy relationship between the Australian novelist and Nicole Kidman, who, while not onscreen in the series, is producing it through her Blossom Films banner.

It stars Teresa Palmer as a woman who inherits an island house from her ex-boyfriend’s great-aunt, much to the chagrin of the dead woman’s relatives. It’s not the most welcoming of environments and everyone on the island has more than their fair share of secrets.

It also stars Daniell Macdonald, Miranda Richardson and Helen Thomson.

ALONE AUSTRALIA S3 (SBS On Demand, 26th)

The contestants on Alone Australia are either masochists or the most derring-do, out-to-prove-themselves adventurers who may benefit from regular therapy. Putting yourself through the gruelling paces of this particular survival show for a chance to win $250,000 seems extreme, even in a cost-of-living crisis.

The fact that previous contestants had quit within a day is apparently not enough to put off people with a very developed sense of exceptionalism.

Dropped in the middle of the wilderness with nothing but basic provisions, camera equipment and crazy-making isolation and loneliness, this year’s batch of competitors will face the perils of the Tasmania’s West Coast Ranges.

HOLLAND (Prime, 27th)

Holland, Michigan is the best place on Earth, or at least that’s what Nancy believed. The idyllic town of American apple pie values is clearly hiding some vicious secrets – is Nancy’s husband living a double life or is it something far worse?

The thriller film is directed by Mimi Cave, whose only previous feature, Fresh, starred Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan but there was clearly something about her vision here that excited everyone enough to assemble a top cast.

Nicole Kidman leads the ensemble which also includes Gael Garcia Bernal, Matthew McFadyen, Rachel Sennott and Jude Hill, the kid from Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical Belfast.

DOPE THIEF (Apple, 14th)

From the co-screenwriter of Top Gun: Maverick, The Batman and The Town, Dope Thief is based on a 2009 novel by Dennis Tafoya. The eight-part series has an impressive cast with Brian Tyree Henry, Wagner Moura, Ving Rhames, Kate Mulgrew and Marin Ireland. Ridley Scott directed the first episode.

The story is about two dropkick friends who pose as federal agents to raid an unknown house only to unwittingly stroll into a world of hurt when they discover they robbed the biggest narcotics operation on the American eastern seaboard. Ooops.

THE ELECTRIC STATE (Netflix, 14th)

That this straight-to-streaming movie cost $US320 million to make should be whistle-worthy but, historically, pretty much every non-awards-play Netflix film with a comparable budget has had zero-to-bupkis cultural buzz after the first few days of release.

Everything about The Electric State is screaming “so Netflix” – the cast is led by streaming stalwarts Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, and is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, whose post-Marvel work has been underwhelming.

Everyone will watch it, but few will remember it. Gray Man, anyone? How about Red Notice? Yeah.

OK, OK, we’re prejudging, it could be good. Loosely adapted from Simon Stalenhag’s illustrated novel, it follows two people and a toy robot across a post-apocalyptic American west while trying to unravel a conspiracy.

GOOD AMERICAN FAMILY (Disney+, 19th)

Starring Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass, Good American Family is based on the bonkers true story of Natalia Grace.

You know the case. She was a seven-year-old adoptee from Ukraine who was taken in by an American family who on the outside was all sunshine, roses and virtue. After a few odd incidents, the mum worked herself up into thinking Natalia was not a child but an adult woman in disguise.

Yes, she had seen the horror film Orphan and convinced herself she was living the real-life version. Wild.

WITH LOVE, MEGHAN (Netflix, 4th)

The level of interest in Meghan Markle is disproportionate to how interesting she actually is. Whether you’re pro, anti, ambivalent or confused by the hoopla, there’s no denying that whatever she does generates headlines, a lot of them in bad faith.

It may help to think of her as exactly who she is, a harmless, earnest former Hollywood actor with a great wardrobe, inoffensive interior style and who’s a little bit Californian woo-woo.

So, if she wants to make a lifestyle show where she’s wandering through her veggie patch and cooking with famous friends (Mindy Kaling, Roy Choi, Abigail Spencer), what’s really the beef?

LONG, BRIGHT RIVER (Stan, 13th)

Liz Moore has adapted her own best-selling novel into this eight-episode crime drama starring Amanda Seyfried as a beat cop with a personal connection to a missing person.

The story is set in Philadelphia, in a neighbourhood blighted by the opioid epidemic and poverty, forcing women into vulnerable positions on the street and doing sex work.

For Mickey (Seyfried), they are not faceless statistics but people she knew, including her younger sister Kacey, who was last seen getting into a red ute a month earlier.

DELI BOYS (Disney+, 6th)

Two Pakistani American brothers Mir (Asif Ali) and Raj (Saagar Shaikh) have been living the high life, mooching off their family fortune which seemingly comes from the deli business they own.

But when their dad unexpectedly dies (a golf ball to the head, ooph), they’re awakened to where the money really comes from – the family business is crime, lots and lots of crime, led by the trigger-happy Lucky (an absolutely arse-kicking Poorna Jagannathan)

For two pampered brats who have never had to work for anything, it’s an adjustment.

HAPPY FACE (Paramount+, 29th)

Happy Face is the third iteration of the same story, because this is how the ecosystem works now. The TV series is adapted from a 2018 true crime podcast, which was based on a 2009 autobiography book.

The story is inspired by Melissa G. Moore who at 15 discovered her dad is a prolific serial killer known as Happy Face. She changed her name and tried to move on while he served his time jail.

After years of estrangement, he forces himself back into her life and she must discover if another man on death row is about to be punished for a crime her dad is responsible for.

NINE BODIES IN A MEXICAN MORGUE (Stan, 2nd)

Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue stars Will & Grace’s Eric McCormack as one of nine survivors of a plane crash stranded in a jungle.

Faced with not just the trauma of the accident and the lack of a rescue operation, there’s the added threat that they keep dying one by one, and it seems like one of them is the killer. But who?

The series is created by Anthony Horowitz, a legend as one of the creators of Midsomer Murders as well as the author of the Alex Rider books.

AMAZING RACE S37 (7plus, 6th)

One of the OG reality competition shows, everyone remembers the iconic moments from past seasons of The Amazing Race. Remember that watermelon to the face? Or those Harlem Globetrotters psyching one of their rivals out of going down a massive waterslide? That was rough but so entertaining.

Returning for its 37th season (still hosted by Kiwi Phil Keoghan), another set of racers are off to barely see the world, face their fears, confuse locals and, maybe, win a million dollars. This season, the countries include Hong Kong, Japan, the UAE, France, Portugal and Bulgaria.