What to watch on streaming in November: New releases on Netflix, Disney, Prime, Apple, Paramount and more

DIG

Binge, 23rd

Expectations are high for this one! Whose expectations? Ours, definitely ours. You can’t promise a reunion between Amy Poehler and her Parks and Recreation co-creator Mike Schur (also The Good Place, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Rutherford Falls) without sending those hopes straight to the stratosphere.

This Greece-set comedy is about a team of female archaeologists whose discovery in the ground embroils them in an international conspiracy. Now, that’s a premise with hijinks potential. The show also stars Australian actor Geraldine Viswanathan, and Hugh Laurie.

CUPERTINO

Paramount+, 6th

When it comes to episodic legal thrillers, few do it better than Robert and Michelle King, the creators of The Good Wife and spin-offs The Good Fight and Elsbeth. With Cupertino, they’re picking up a thread they’ve started to pull on in previous projects, but giving it prominence in our tech barons era.

The show stars the Kings’ long-time collaborator Mike Colter as a lawyer who, after being fired from a Silicon Valley start-up, establishes a law firm to represent others who have been screwed over by the industry. In the current culture, exposing the practices of tech, even in drama form, has never felt more urgent.

BLADE RUNNER 2099

Prime, 25th

When Philip K. Dick asked if androids dream of electric sheep, he probably didn’t envisage that his 1968 novel would spin-off into a screen franchise that’s still adding new chapters more than 50 years later. But then again, he was always looking into the future.

This latest instalment is a limited series starring Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer in a story set five decades after the events of the Ryan Gosling-led sequel film Blade Runner 2049. Shafer plays Cora, a fugitive who takes on the identity of a Blade Runner.

ALLEN

Netflix, 12th

Taking inspiration of childhood classics such as E.T., Allen is very much pulling on those Millennial nostalgia vibes. Expect to see the marks of growing up in Australia – like a folder full of Tazos, and a Land Before Time figurine.

Nostalgia is the thematic point in this comedy movie about Petey, an adult man who has never been able to move past a seminal moment in his youth, when he met and befriended an adorable alien named Allen. The film hails from Ludo, the studio behind Bluey.

RIVALS S2 PART 2

Disney+, 11th

Scandal, excess, scandalous excess! Rivals is arch as hell and it’s exactly why it’s been one of the most delicious shows of the past couple of years. And because it’s set in the posh English countryside, that disconnect from so-called decorum makes all the naughty behaviour even more shocking.

The first half of this season dropped earlier in the year, and ended on an emotional cliffhanger that could have grave ramifications for the characters, but especially Tony Baddington (David Tennant), the power-hungry bastard who will finally have to reckon with all the damage he’s caused. Or maybe he’ll just get away with it all.

THE GILDED AGE S4

Paramount+, 2nd

Over its three previous seasons, The Gilded Age has really come into its own. It may have begun life as a trifle of a show, a little curiosity from Julian Fellows, who also created Downton Abbey, but its characters have evolved to become compelling guides into the world of wealthy New Yorkers at the end of the 19th century.

Through characters played by Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon, some of them fictionalised avatars of real-life robber barons and society queens, The Gilded Age explores the social and economic battles of a tumultuous time. May the scheming continue!

THE ALTRUISTS

Netflix, 19th

Sam Bankman-Fried was once hailed as the 41st richest person in America, a crypto-currency genius. He was also called the Bernie Madoff of crypto, by Anthony Scaramucci of all people, and is now serving a 25-year sentence for fraud.

So, yes, there’s a rise-and-fall story here that’s ripe for the miniseries treatment, and that’s exactly what The Altruists is, starring Welsh actor Anthony Boyle as the curly-haired entrepreneur who, today, is still only 34 years old. The series, created by Oscar-winning screenwriter Graham Moore, also stars Alex Lawther, Julia Garner and Karan Soni.

12 12 12

Apple TV, 13th

Let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room, which is that 12 12 12 is annoying as hell for a title of TV show, did the filmmakers not hear how disfluent that is? It’s fine, we’ll get over it.

The numerical love-in refers to the structure of the series, which takes in three separate stages of a heist – 12 months of planning, 12 hours of the act itself, and the 12 days of the aftermath. The show stars Anthony Mackie, Jamie Dornan and Kali Reis.

POSSIBLE LOVE

Netflix, 6th

This is a streaming column but do yourself a favour and go see Possible Love in a cinema right now, where it has a limited run in independent theatres ahead of its Netflix debut. This is one of the best films you’ll see this year, and deserves a bigger screen than anything in your home.

Possible Love is from Korean master filmmaker Lee Chang-dong who hasn’t released anything since his uneasy 2018 movie Burning.

Possible Love has similar interests in the economic divide in South Korea, which here is explored through two families, one a wealthy clan whose matriarch is making a documentary about laid-off workers, and the other, one of the subjects of her film.

R.J. DECKER S2

Disney+, 4th

There’s always room for a breezy crime procedural, especially one that’s led by Scott Speedman who still has that charm so evident since his Felicity days (Team Ben!). Here, he plays a former photojournalist who lost his career and freedom after being locked up for an assault.

Once he was released, he was (kind of) vindicated, and now we follow his weekly adventures in the sweaty-noir world of Florida where the criminals are biting as hard as the gators. The show was based on Carl Hiaasen books.

STICK S2

Apple TV, 4th

When it comes to middle-aged former golf champions making a comeback, Stick is definitely the better show (the other being Will Ferrell’s abomination of a series). Starring Owen Wilson, it’s an amiable, inoffensive and sometimes emotionally effective series.

Wilson plays a former pro who rediscovers his purpose after discovering and mentoring a young up-and-comer, and this season will see him contemplating whether he too could rejoin the tour. It also stars Marc Maron and Timothy Olyphant, and Rhea Seehorn joins the cast.

THE HUNTING WIVES S2

Stan, 26th

You already know whether you’re a Hunting Wives person or not. If you are, then the imminent arrival of season two is the best almost-Christmas present you could ask for. A return to this very melodramatic world of murder, betrayal, secrets and dangerous trysts in a Texan community.

It’s Dallas and Dynasty crossed with Desperate Housewives but on acid, with the likes of Brittany Snow and Malin Akerman throwing very significant looks at each other, at their husbands, at everyone. Shade is constantly on the menu.

And if you’re not a fan of heightened, pulpy soaps, steer clear, because it doesn’t get more arch than The Hunting Wives.

AWKWAFINA: THE UNLIKELY COOK

Apple TV, 6th

The celebrity travelogue is a burgeoning genre, but this one from Awkwafina has a more personal twist than most. The New York-born comedian and actor comes from Chinese restaurant stock (her great-grandfather opened one of the first in the city), but she can barely wield a wooden spoon.

Her goal is to re-open her family’s eatery for a modern palette, and Awkwafina travels around the US to discover how other Asian-Americans are remaking their cultural heritage in food, with a view to forming her own vision of what that legacy looks like for her.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: RINGS OF POWER S3

Prime, 11th

Your friends who are such die-hard Lord of the Rings fans that they occasionally break out some Elvish (or perhaps that’s you?) have mixed feelings about this spin-off series, The Rings of Power. But surely even a middling LOTR series is better than none, right?

The show is a prequel set during the Second Age, aka thousands of years before the movies and the main books are set, and pulls from J.R.R. Tolkien’s appendices. It’s a lavish production and features characters including Galadriel and Elrond, but it’s also very, very high-fantasy, so it’s not the most accessible entertainment.

THE GOOD DAUGHTER

Stan, 13th

Who’s the good daughter in the title? Is it Charlotte, the small-town lawyer played by Meghann Fahey, or Samantha, the estranged sister portrayed by Rose Byrne? Or may be it’s Kelly (Shayna Benardo), a young woman who’s been arrested in connection to a horrendous crime.

Those who have read Karin Slaughter’s 2017 novel probably know the answer, but for the rest of us, we’ll have six episodes to figure it out – and the link between a long-held trauma in the sisters’ past with the present day crime. The show looks like your typical middling airport novel crime thriller adaptation, but the cast, which also includes Brendan Gleeson, piques some mild curiosity.

THE MOSQUITO BOWL

Netflix, 25th

Filmed in Queensland, this American film is directed by Peter Berg (Hancock, Friday Night Lights and, let’s never forget, he played Dr Billy Kronk on 106 episodes of Chicago Hope) and stars Nicholas Galitzine and Bill Skarsgard.

The story is centred on four American football players (portrayed by two Brits, a Swede and one actual Yank) who concocted the famous Mosquito Bowl football game, which took place among soldiers training for the Battle of Okinawa during World War II.

THE HUNTING PARTY S2

7plus, 2nd

Like Pokemon, when it comes to escaped serial killers, you’ve got to catch them all! That’s the general premise of The Hunting Party, a crime procedural that kicks off with an explosion at a secret government prison housing the worst of the worst, who aren’t even supposed to exist.

When these criminals flee, it’s up to an elite team of cross-agency operatives to track them down before they kill again. The show stars Melissa Roxburgh, Josh McKenzie and Patrick Sabongui.