March 5, 2024
Discover our top recommendations for Netflix programmes. That Netflix releases all episodes is attractive to binge viewers.
Netflix, which started out as a video rental delivery service, has to deliver a quality service and it manages that with a diversity of programming.
The Perfect Couple
With Big Little Lies, The Undoing and Nine Perfect Strangers all on her recent TV CV, Nicole Kidman is making a habit of roles as successful women caught up in tales of murder or attempted murder.
She continues it with this mystery adapted from a novel by Elin Hilderbrand, playing Greer, an author and the matriarch of the wealthy Winbury family.
Her son Benji (Billy Howle) is getting married, and — although Greer is not a fan of his bride, Amelia (Eve Hewson) — she and her husband, Tag (Liev Schreiber) throw a splendid, Gatsby-esque bash on Nantucket Island.
When a friend of Amelia is found drowned, possibly killed, on the beach, the partying gives way to a police investigation in which the Winburys’ secrets are exposed.
Like many similar series the person you are led to believe is the guilty party never is. Still, it’s a pleasing and easy watch.
Ashley Madison
Ashley Madison was an extremely popular site, which seems scarcely credible as it promoted adultery around the world.
Then one day a on one of the computers a message flashed up: “Shut down Ashley Madison immediately (or) we will release all customer records, profiles, sexual fantasies… real names and addresses”. This documentary tells the story of what unfolded with access to some of those who signed up to the site and were in danger of being outed.
Whilst we can take the high moral ground with these “victims” it is a very human story with consequences well told.
Call The Agent
A show from France, Call My Agent! is primarily concerned with the business at the ASK talent agency in Paris.
The four main agents are left to keep the business alive after the founder dies, while managing the egos of their clients and their own often chaotic private lives. Plenty of guest appearances playing out of character by leading French actors. The sharp satire has spawned a number of remakes, including Prime Video’s Ten Percent.
3 Body Problem
This is an ambitious series over eight episodes (there will be more to come) and created by those responsible for Game of Thrones, so expect high production values.
Part sci-fi wildcard, part detective thriller, 3 Body Problem is based on Liu Cixin’s philosophically heavy 2008 Chinese novel, opening in Chairman Mao’s Beijing, where a young physicist witnesses her father being publicly murdered by zealots.
In a modern timeframe, scientists are dying in bizarre circumstances, while results emerging from laboratories across the globe suggest that the laws of physics have ground to a halt. What unfolds is a dense mystery in which a shadowy billionaire (Jonathan Pryce) and five scientists who met at the University of Oxford, among them tech entrepreneur Auggie (Eiza González) and snack mogul Jack (John Bradley), must attempt to make sense of this terrifying new world.
We know something is coming but is it friend or foe?
Ripley
In early 1960s New York, a plutocrat hires Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott), unaware that he’s a sociopath and conman, to get his prodigal son Dickie (Johnny Flynn) to return to America.
The grifter finds the playboy spending his way across Italy with his friend Marge (Dakota Fanning), and attaches himself to them.
Steven Zaillian’s eight-parter is the third screen version of a 1955 thriller by Patricia Highsmith, after a French vehicle for Alain Delon and Anthony Minghella’s 1999 film in which Matt Damon was Ripley. It differs from the movies in being shot in black-and-white and, as a TV series, having more minutes of screen time.
The 33rd Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards saw Scott net a win as best actor, the first time a performer has been named best actor by the UK’s film and theatre critics in the same year.
Boy, Swallows Universe
Based on an acclaimed novel by Trent Dalton. Boy Swallows Universe is set in lower-class Brisbane circa 1985, a city filled with lowlifes and troublemakers who orbit the life of 13-year-old protagonist Eli played by Felix Cameron who is excellent. They include his mentor, Slim (Bryan Brown), his dad, Robert (Simon Baker), his mother, Frances (Phoebe Tonkin) and her boyfriend, Lyle (Travis Fimmel) – yet another father figure.
There’s also Eli’s mute older brother, Gus (Lee Tiger Halley), who communicates by writing words in the air with his finger, displayed for the audience in white powdery letters like skywriting from a tiny plane.
When its good, as it mostly is, this series can be very, very good: a one-of-a-kind Australian period piece.
One Day
Set across a succession of July 15ths from 1988 to 2003, David Nicholls’ 2009 novel was a high-concept love story that effortlessly combined the comic and the romantic.
It detailed the intertwined lives of privileged, self-confident Dexter and spiky Northerner Emma with an endearing wit and depth. The 2011 film adaptation with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess was a disappointment.
This adaptation benefits from having time to develop the story over 14×30 minute episodes. Leo Woodall and Ambika Mod are perfect as Dex and Emma and embarrassing 1990s period details are horribly accurate. It’s a weepy.
Griselda
Griselda Blanco was the only person that Pablo Escobar feared, so it was only a matter of time before the Narcos production team told the story of this 1970s Miami drug queen bee.
As played by Sofía Vergara, Griselda is portrayed as a more glamorous and sympathetic figure than she was in real life.
Griselda is closer to your classic rise-and-fall morality tale, albeit one enamoured with the glamorous life of its criminal protagonist.
Fool Me Once
You know what you get with a Harlan Coben novel and this drama has an interesting concept that doesn’t disappoint.
Lead character, Maya Stern who has a troubled military career, is trying to come to terms and discover the truth behind the brutal murder of her husband, Joe.
However, when Maya installs a nanny-cam to keep an eye on her young daughter, she is shocked to see her husband in her house. What makes this series interesting is that nothing is as it appears to be and the ending has a touch of originality.
Inventing Anna
The series is inspired by real events, telling the true story behind Russian-born fake German heiress Anna Sorokin – the fraudster who conned New York high society out of thousands – and the magazine journalist determined to tell Anna’s story.
Vivian is a fictionalised version of journalist Jessica Pressler, who first broke the wild true story back in 2017, and who in the series battles both millionaires and her own editors in order to get the story out.
Beef
In Beef, Steven Yeun goes head to head with Ali Wong – two performers who are powerfully twitchy and captivatingly unhinged . Yeun plays a less-than-gainfully-employed handyman, while Wong plays an entrepreneur.
He’s feeling guilty that his parents lost their motel and had to return to Korea while his deadbeat brother trades crypto.
She’s dealing with the stress of attempting to sell her company to something like a Home Depot while her sculptor husband fiddles with his clay pots at home.
Both these characters are feeling quite aggrieved, and when their paths literally collide in a road-rage incident, each becomes the target of the other’s ire. The show is dark and comic at the same time, a satire with its teeth sunk into some uncomfortable realities.
The Diplomat
Keri Russell stars in this political drama series, which follows the new US ambassador as she attempts to build strategic alliances and avert global crises, all while managing her relationship to a fellow diplomat and political star played by Rufus Sewell.
Russell and Sewell make for a hugely engaging on-screen presence and their dynamic is the series’s best quality. The politics is broad and accessible, meaning this might not scratch an itch for some but does make for an easy binge-watch.
Meanwhile, Rory Kinnear as the Prime Minister lights up every scene he’s in . A second series is on the way.
The Night Agent
The Night Agent is based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Matthew Quirk and follows one particular ‘night agent’ who gets embroiled in a dangerous conspiracy.
For those wondering what exactly a night agent does, our protagonist Peter Sutherland mans a top-secret phone line in the basement of the White House, but the phone line – which is for compromised undercover spies – never rings.
Until one fateful day it does, with Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan) appealing for Peter’s help when her aunt and uncle get assassinated. Although a tad implausible at times, this is a series that really keeps you gripped throughout its 10 episodes.
Sex Education
Don’t be put off by the title, even though it is a recurring theme as an awkward high school student gets good guidance on the topic living with his mom (Gillian Anderson), who is a sex therapist.
Being surrounded by manuals, videos and tediously open conversations about sex, he uses his insider knowledge to improve his status at school, as he teams with a whip-smart bad girl to set up an underground sex therapy clinic to deal with their classmates’ problems.
It’s funny and very addictive over the first three seasons but the final series is a let down.
Gunther’s Millions
This four-part series explores the story of multi-millionaire Gunther VI who lives in the lap of luxury. He travels on private planes, eats gold-flaked steaks for dinner and surrounds himself with a glamorous entourage of spokesmodels and entertainers. He is also a German shepherd.
The dog was said to have inherited $400 million from his countess owner in 1992 and it’s a fortune managed by family friend Maurizio Mian. But it’s also a story that involves sex cults, scientific experiments and tax schemes.
Drive To Survive
An acclaimed series that has broadened the appeal of Formula One and spawned many other similar docuseries.
This series demystifies motor racing because it reveals the pressure drivers and team bosses are under wherever they may be on the grid pecking order. As footage reveals, this is a dangerous sport and it’s a miracle how some walk away from crashes.
In series three, Romain Grosjean emerges from a fireball after nearly three minutes when most thought it would be fatal. There have been five series to date and it’s the early ones which are the best.
The Last Dance
Charting the rise of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Basketball is not everyone’s sport, but this series may convert you as you appreciate what separates one of the greatest ever sportsman from those almost equally gifted.
There are also great back stories to those who played with him as well as coaches and family.
Tour de France Unchained
Netflix users will be no strangers to the behind-the-scenes sports documentary, with Formula One (Drive to Survive), golf (Full Swing) and tennis (Break Point) providing compelling series, so it’s perhaps no surprise that the world’s most famous cycling race would eventually become a subject.
This eight-part series takes cycling enthusiasts and casual observers behind the 2022 tour, illustrating the physical and mental strength required to win, and the personal and team battles that rumble on across the 21 stages. Series 2 is even better.
Of the others, Drive to Survive was great for three episodes but then ran out of road. Full Swing Series 2 was better than its predecessor and Break Point was disappointing because of lack of access to the big stars.
You don’t have to like the particular sport to enjoy these programmes because it is the combination of human backstories and not necessarily knowing the outcome of the contest in question that creates true drama.
Series 2 based on the 2023 Tour is just as compulsive.
Untold
Three series of great tales from lesser-known sportsmen covering all the emotions sport can engender from heartbreak to triumph. You don’t have to like sport to enjoy these stories.
Two notable ones are “The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist” which threatens to destroy the life of one of the best American college football players and “Breaking Point” the story of American tennis player, Mardy Fish, and the mental demons that tormented him for much of his career.
The Deepest Breath
A documentary film that at first glance you may think “Do I really want to watch a film based on free diving” Well you should because this is one of the most remarkable films you’ll watch for some time.
Free diving is where divers take a single breath and see how far they can dive. As they return to the surface, there is a danger of blackout so safety divers, also on a single breath, are on hand to guide them to the surface.
This is also a love story between one of the greatest female free divers and a safety diver and it is the unfolding of their love and the price to be paid that makes this so compelling. One of those programmes you’ll be thinking about the next day.
Get Gotti
This three-part documentary about the rise and fall of New York City’s most flamboyant Mob boss in the 1980s is a sleazy delight for anyone who ever loved The Sopranos.
Produced by the same team behind Netflix’s Fear City — about the FBI’s investigation into organised crime in the 1970s and 1980s — it’s a series that has no respect for the loathsome John Gotti but is utterly fascinated by his language, style and (utter lack of) ethics.
What it took to get him to trial makes you believe that sometimes crime really can pay.
Read our review of other streaming services.
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