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AMERICAN AUTO (NEON)
From the creator of Superstore, comes this US sitcom that follows the misadventures of the employees of Detroit-based Payne Motors. Over two seasons, it explores the company’s struggles after a new CEO, who knows little about cars, is hired from the pharmaceutical industry.
From the corporate offices to the factory floor, everyone is determined to pull out all the stops in order to make things work… if they can just get out of their own way.
“Funny and fast-paced, this single-camera comedy is worth a test drive,” wrote Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Rob Owen, while TV Insider’s Matt Roush thought that, “I wouldn’t buy a used car from these people, but I’ll relish watching them dig their own graves in a future auto graveyard”.
BASED ON A TRUE STORY (TVNZ+)
Eight-part darkly comedic thriller that aims to take a stab at modern society’s obsession with true crime.
With a baby on the way, married couple Ava (The Flight Attendant’s Kaley Cuoco) and Nathan (Argo’s Chris Messina) devise a plan to create a potentially money-spinning podcast about their recently hired plumber Matt (Death on the Nile’s Tom Bateman), who they believe is actually an infamous serial killer.
Although the premise is obviously akin to the fabulous Only Murders in the Building (but with more of a broad, star-driven LA sensibility than the theatrical ensemble that series boasts), it feels closer to Lucky Hank (or perhaps even a sun-drenched Ozark, Justin Bateman is a producer after all) in style.
The dialogue has the same crispness, the less-than-quite desperation is palpable and the central marriage has a similar tension to that between Hank and Lily or Marty and Wendy.
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BLACK SNOW (TVNZ+)
Vikings and Danger Close actor Travis Fimmell headlines this six-part Australian crime-drama about a Queensland detective who suddenly finds himself investigating a 25-year-old cold case, when the opening of a time capsule from 1994 unearths an unexpected secret.
“This is a moody, well-made crime drama that forefronts a little-explored area of Australian culture and history,” wrote Flicks’ Travis Johnson, while Concrete Playground’s Sarah Ward encouraged viewers to “come for Australia’s latest must-stream crime drama, and the first of 2023, then, but stay for a show that embraces and interrogates much more than its recognisable basic set-up typically indicates”.
I’M A VIRGO (PRIME VIDEO)
Sorry to Bother You writer-director Boots Riley created this seven-part, coming-of-age tale about 13-foot-man Cootie (Moonlight’s Jharrel Jerome).
Raised in Oakland, California by his Aunt Lafrancine (Carmen Ejogo)and Uncle Martisse (Mike Epps), after being accidentally discovered by a group of teenage political activists, he escapes to the “real world”, where he forms friendships, finds love, navigates awkward situations and encounters his idol – The Hero (Walton Goggins).
“Precisely what viewers complain they can’t find on television – something novel, something offbeat, something surprising,” wrote Wall Street Journal’s John Anderson, while Slant magazine’s Steve Nguyen Scaife described it as an “intoxicating shot of imagination”.
I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE (NETFLIX)
Former Saturday Night Live writer Tim Robinson is back with the third, six-part instalment of his sketch comedy series. In each segment, Robinson and his guests do whatever they can to try to drive someone to the point that they need – or desperately want – to depart. Among those set to feature are Andy Samberg, Will Forte, Vanessa Bayer, Cecily Strong and Fred Willard.
“The impressive thing about the series is how these now-familiar formulas in no way detract from the amusement of watching it. It remains one of TV’s best, and certainly most efficient, laugh machines,” wrote Rolling Stone’s Alan Sepinwall, while The Daily Beast’s Nick Schager believed that “trading in Robinson’s particular brand on taboo-smashing ridiculousness laced with crushing misery and frustration [and designed for instant meme-ification], it confirms that no one does unhinged better, or funnier”.
MANIFEST (NETFLIX)
Dead and buried (and here in New Zealand petering out in a graveyard slot on Saturday nights on TVNZ 1) in 2021, this supernatural drama gained a new lease of life after it unexpectedly topped the Netflix charts around the globe in the early days of 2022.
Cue a chance for the creators to finish the story of the passengers aboard Montego Air Flight 828, who (in a storyline predating the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s “Snap”) lost five-and-a-half years while travelling from Jamaica to New York, with a 20-episode fourth-season split into two-parts.
“Trust us. Manifest pulls out all the stops in its final batch of episodes to prove itself worthy of surviving its own Death Date back in 2021,” wrote Decider’s Nicole Gallucci, while Tell-Tale TV’s Lara Rosales believed that “Manifest ends in the most sci-fi way possible, defying every law of logic”.
SECRET INVASION (DISNEY+)
One of the most highly-anticipated Marvel series, this six-part series picks up a thread from the 2019 movie Captain Marvel.
When Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) learns of a clandestine invasion of Earth by a faction of shapeshifting Skrulls, he joins forces with a small group of allies, including Martin Freeman’s Everett Ross, Cobie Smulders’ Maria Hill and “friendly” Skrull Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) to attempt to thwart it.
With the stakes significantly upped from most of the Marvel TV series so far, Secret Invasion is definitely a change of pace from She-Hulk: Attorney at Law or Ms. Marvel. With its talk of global threats and conspiracies, there’s definitely an air of Captain America sequel The Winter Soldier, or more recent series The Falcon and the Winter-Soldier, as Fury attempts to defuse the situation and prevent a major catastrophe.
Boasting a cast that also includes Olivia Colman, Emilia Clarke and Kingsley Ben-Adir, what could have been this decade’s answer to the campy, but much-loved V (not necessarily a bad thing), is instead a dark, tension-filled, high-stakes thriller that feels like both the showcase Fury fans have always wanted and a potential swansong for Jackson’s Marvel OG.
STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS (TVNZ+)
Set in the decade before Captain James T. Kirk and company’s five-year mission “to seek out new life forms and new civilisations”, this sci-fi series begins its second 10-episode season with Spock (Ethan Peck) disobeying orders when he receives a distress call from Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong).
By taking the U.S.S. Enterprise and its crew into disputed space, he risks renewed hostilities with the Klingons.
“Fans get a wide range of compelling new stories, often in an adventure-of-the-week format, with lots of eye-popping special effects and cool nods to the history of these beloved characters,” wrote NPR’s Eric Deggans, while Empire magazine’s James White thought that “with a great balance of compelling characters and engaging, self-contained stories, this throwback series continues to prove itself the very best of the current live-action Trek shows”.
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