What to watch on streaming in February: Your guide to highlights on Netflix, Prime, Disney, ABC and more

HOW TO GET TO HEAVEN FROM BELFAST (Netflix, 12th)

Friends, you can pause your continuous rewatch of Derry Girls because its creator, Lisa McGee, finally has a new show coming! It’s called How to Get to Heaven from Belfast and it promises a similar strain of hijinks, humour and heart. Who could possibly argue with that?

At the convergence point of comedy and mystery, it follows three woman, besties since high school, who are shocked to discover their close friend has died. At the wake, some things don’t add up, and they’re plunged into a bizarre quest across Ireland to work out what really happened, both now and in the past.

PARADISE S2 (Disney+, 23rd)

OK, Paradise really didn’t brace us for what it would become – a post-apocalyptic political thriller that confronted the morality of extreme wealth and billionaires having control of doomsday bunkers. We thought it was just going to be Sterling K. Brown investigating the murder of James Marsden.

But it did turn out out to be more, and this new season is going to engage more with the world outside the bunker as Brown’s Xavier ventures out to find his wife, revealed to still be alive. Marsden, whose character was only seen in flashbacks, will return as a recurring guest star while Julianne Moore’s conniving tech baron will continue to moustache-twirl.

DOG PARK (ABC iview, 1st)

There are so many different groups that are strange, microcosms of community, and the neighbourhood dog park ensemble is one that’s hard to explain to outsiders. What could possibly possess people who are bound merely by geography and a love for their pooch to come together every day at a designated time?

This new Australian comedy series will endeavour to explore that, through the story of a middle-aged misery guts who is initially resistant to the idea but discovers that the thing he fought against might be exactly what he needed – human (and canine) connection. The show stars Leon Ford, Celia Pacquola and Brooke Satchwell.

BRIDGERTON S4.2 (Netflix, 26th)

There are two ways to discern what are Netflix’s most popular shows – one is by the viewership numbers it releases and the other is to look at which of its titles it releases in two halves. So it is that the back half of Bridgerton’s new season will land a month after the first four episodes.

This will be the culmination of the Cinderella romance between Benedict Bridgerton and Sophie Baek, a maid and the illegitimate daughter of a dead nobleman who catches the eye of the second son. Can he reform from his rakish ways, can their class differences transcend a society built on status? It’s a love story, baby, just say yes.

MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS S2 (Apple TV, 27th)

Two years ago, this prequel drama set in the universe of the Godzilla and Kong big screen movies really surprised audiences. How could a spin-off from those heavy metal, overstimulating extravaganzas throw up something that was actually, shock horror, character-driven?

And yet, there it was. Now, here it is again. The series weaves a story about a family across two timelines, and how their work with the mysterious organisation Monarch has entwined their fate to the titan monsters. It stars Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell (playing older and younger versions of the same character) and Shogun’s Anna Sawai.

MAN ON THE RUN (Prime, 27th)

Breaking up a band is like ending a marriage, and The Beatles’ split was intense, especially with the scrutiny that followed. It wasn’t an easy time for Paul McCartney, who had to recaliberate as an artist, a public person and a family man.

Exploring the post-Beatles era, Man on the Run is directed by Morgan Neville, and had originally premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, and features archival footage as well as interviews with the man himself as he recalled the aftermath of The Beatles and his rebirth with Wings.

THE ARTFUL DODGER S2 (Disney+, 10th)

The Australian series is fun, cheeky and a romp, and now that it’s in its second season, it can break away a bit from its origins as an imagined sequel to Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, and stand as its own thing.

Set in the colonies of Australia in the 19th century, it follows the Artful Dodger as he tries to reinvent himself as a surgeon, and try to put his past behind him. But when Fagin shows up, he realises it’s not so easy.

In season two, Dodger has narrowly escaped the hangman’s noose and is back at work in the hospital, but there are renewed obstacles to his connection with the accomplished and whip-smart governor’s daughter, Lady Belle. The show stars Thomas Brodie-Sangster, David Thewlis and Maia Mitchell.

THE BURBS (Binge, 8th)

A reboot of the 1989 movie starring Tom Hanks and Bruce Dern, it has a truly great cast led by Keke Palmer and Jack Whitehall, alongside comedy greats including Paula Pell, Julia Duffy and Mark Proksch. That alone should be enough to pique your curiosity.

Like many stories that skewer the idea that the suburbs are idyllic places of safety and community spirit, the show follows a young couple who return to his childhood home and discovers that there are secrets, especially when it comes to a spooky house that’s rumoured to be haunted.

UNFAMILIAR (Netflix, 5th)

This German-language Dutch series has the familiar bones of a spy thriller – a married couple seem like normal parents on the surface but they’re really retired BND agents whose pasts catch up with them.

They’re trying to parent a suspicious teenager, and save their marriage while dodging former adversaries, assassins and the secrets they’ve been keeping from each other. That’s a lot of pressure.

TRESPASSES (SBS On Demand, 4th)

Gillian Anderson’s most recent Netflix series, The Abandons, has, rightfully, been cancelled, but that doesn’t mean she will disappear from our screens. Thankfully, the prolific actor has another project out, Trespasses.

She’s not the lead, but even a supporting Anderson is enough for us. Originally a Channel 4 series in the UK, this show is set in 1970s Northern Ireland and follows a Catholic schoolteacher who embarks on an affair with a married Protestant lawyer.

CROSS S2 (Prime, 11th)

Prime has become the go-to streaming service for dads who want to watch a man doing manly things, like solving crimes or being a spy. Which is not to diminish a series like Cross, or even some of the other offerings (eg. Reacher) within this sub-genre because they do feature leads that are more complex than anything Chris Pratt is doing in his Prime (and everywhere else) projects.

Cross is an adaptation of the novels by James Patterson and casts him as a younger man and DC cop who uses his PhD in psychology to go after the serial killers plaguing the city. The cases from the first season wrapped up but there’s a new challenge, as well as some new faces with Matthew Lillard joining the cast.

MADAM BEJA (HBO Max, 2nd)

Horny costume dramas are the go, and with Bridgerton heating things up for audiences, it was inevitable others would follow. Madam Beja is a remake of a 1980s Brazilian telenovela, which reimagines the life of famous 19th century figure Ana Jacinta de Sao Jose, a courtesan who defied conventions.

The logline promises a show that will challenge what others define as “morality” with a character who, after she was exiled from polite society, opened a brothel. She was also an activist and pushed boundaries on desire and sexuality.

THE NIGHT AGENT S3 (Netflix, 19th)

The Night Agent is back for some agenting at night. The show that never let milquetoast characters and forgettable plotting to get in the way of being a big hit (in terms of viewership numbers) sees Gabriel Basso return as Peter Something. That’s not his actual name, but it may as well be.

He’ll kick down doors, draw his gun and run, run, run while trying to stop some sort of generic conspiracy. New Zealand actor Luciane Buchanan, who played a semi-love interest in the first two seasons, has been freed of this mediocre show, and won’t be returning. Godspeed.

AUSTRALIA’S GREATEST CONMAN? (SBS On Demand, 24th)

Marc Fennell has an eye for an oddball story that has either largely escaped public attention or have been forgotten by time. This docuseries is concerned with John Friederich, who appeared as mysteriously as he vanished.

Friederich was deeply involved with the National Safety Council of Victoria in the 1980s and had won acclaim for his ideas for civilian search and rescue. An Order of Australia followed, as well as connections to power and influence, even Bob Hawke.

But behind the scenes, hundreds of millions of dollars were being accounted for, throwing the organisation into debt. When he was asked to please explain, he disappeared.

VANISHED (Prime, 27th)

Since the end of The Big Bang Theory, Kaley Cuoco has specialised in one type of story – the mystery. Her projects have crossed genres, and Vanished is not comedic like The Flight Attendant and Based on a True Story were, but at the centre of it is a puzzle to be solved.

The four-part series features Cuoco as a woman named Alice whose boyfriend Tom disappears while on a train to the south of France. Ooops. Maybe she didn’t really know who he was. It also stars Sam Claflin and Matthias Schweighofer.

THE COPENHAGEN TEST (Binge, 16th)

You’ll know if this is the kind of show for you or not, based on whether you think the following plotline sounds intriguing or if you immediately roll your eyes.

Simu Liu plays an analyst at a secret organisation whose function is to watch intelligence agencies. He used to be in the field but has been desk-bound for three years, itching to get back out there.

A promotion comes up, and he grabs it without disclosing his secret: he’s been feeling not great, overcome with migraines and the like, because his brain has been … wait for it … hacked. Interested or a big pass?

CIA S1 (Paramount+, 24th)

The king of the procedural, Dick Wolf, doesn’t have an off switch. After four decades in the TV business, he is still selling franchises to broadcast networks, and the audience can’t get enough – especially if the title is an acronym.

A spin-off from the FBI franchise, the letters are different but the formula remains familiar. CIA follows a New York-based team that consists of CIA and FBI agents working together to counter domestic threats. Never mind that the CIA is supposed to only operate overseas.

56 DAYS (Prime, 18th)

With a VERY similar title to that terrible Polish BDSM movie 365 Days (a rare 0 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes), 56 Days is also being billed as an erotic thriller, which suggests that naming choice was probably intentional. Tasteless? Most certainly. Effective? We’ll see.

This American series is about a couple who fall into an intense and sexually charged affair after a supermarket meet-cute, and then cut to 56 days later and there’s a decomposing body in his apartment. Is it him? Is it her? Do you care?