Stuck for what to watch? Allow the Herald's entertainment team to assist.
WATCHMEN (Neon)
Get ready Watchmen fans, the new HBO series is finally here for your streaming pleasure. The series - set in a world in which superheroes are treated as outlaws - plays into thenostalgia of Alan Moore's insanely popular comic book series on which it's based, while also attempting to make its own stamp on the franchise. Starring Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson and more, it's already been lauded by the BBC as "a perfect comic-book adaptation". The first episode dropped this week and new episodes are coming express from the US every Monday.
Unbelievable has been on Netflix for a while but deserves a follow up mention because it's so damn important. The heartbreaking series is based on the true story of Marie Adler (played by the wonderful Kaitlyn Dever) who is forced to defend her claim of being raped, as well as the investigating detectives who painstakingly pieced together the bigger picture. The first two episodes are the most important as you see the awful way Adler was treated, and then the jarring juxtaposition of how the next survivor is treated (ie. properly). It's a brilliant look at what survivors experience, how stories are twisted and how the truth so often goes untold.
CASTLE ROCK (Lightbox)
The highly-anticipated second season of Castle Rock is here, kicking off with a triple-episode drop today. The series delves into the characters and stories of Stephen King's universe, based in his fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine. This season of the psychological horror follows a feud between warring clans which comes to a boil when budding psychopath Annie Wilkes – the evil nurse from King's Misery, who will be played by Lizzie Caplan – gets waylaid in the small town.
THE MOVIES (TVNZ On Demand)
This two-part miniseries is getting a lot of hype overseas as it looks back at American cinema over the decades, through a collection of celebrity interviews and archival footage. It comes to us from award-winning producers Gary Goetzman, Mark Herzog and more notably, the one and only Tom Hanks. It's not just a self-congratulatory trip down memory lane either, it examines the cultural, societal and political shifts that forced cinema to evolve and the pivotal moments that brought us where we are today. Available now.