As I write this, people across the country will be recovering from last night’s Halloween shenanigans, perhaps even having a sugar meltdown.

Luckily, this month’s streaming picks include a serial killer movie to help the spooky season last a little longer. There are also some nifty new TV shows set in the idyllic outback landscape, as well as Chimp Crazy, a daring documentary series that’s terrifying in its own way.

Whether you’re after something funny, scary, or pointless, there’s plenty to sweep you off your feet.

Area

netflix

Area It takes place in the Northern Territory, on the “world’s largest cattle station”. The once-great dynasty of its owners, the Lawson family, is thrown into doubt when their heir dies. The Top End’s most powerful players – billionaire miners, rival cattle barons, desert gangsters and Indigenous elders – immediately begin to surround themselves.

Filmed in stunning remote locations, the program looks like the most ambitious and sophisticated Tourism Australia advert you’ve ever seen. Wildlife! Panoramic drone shots! Hat budget! The rest of the world might move from thinking we ride kangaroos to work to assuming we all have our own helicopters. While the male characters are a great source of humor and violence, it’s the women in Territory who bring the heart.

Territory does a great job of establishing a simmering tension between the traditional owners of the land and the families and businesses that have taken it over; but this plot moves at a frustratingly slow pace. Perhaps this is to appeal to a global audience that will likely lack the context that local audiences have. And perhaps, for Australian audiences, the enduring obedience and struggle of the original landowners is the intended outcome.

Territory is an ambitious and attractive series. It was great to see so many resources poured into a new concept, filmed and set in a part of Australia that rarely gets the attention it deserves.

– Alexa Scarlata

Read more:
Netflix’s Territory is a Succession-like drama set in the Australian outback, filled with family rivalry and betrayal.

Woman of the Day

netflix

Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, The Woman of the Hour, offers a look at the horrific crimes of serial killers Rodney Alcala. Alcala, nicknamed the “Dating Game Killer” after taking part in a popular dating competition in the 1970s, is thought to be responsible for the rape and murder of nearly 130 men, women and children.

Woman of the Hour is particularly interested in women in the 1970s being trapped under a critical social gaze that expects them to be understanding and compliant; This causes them to experience extreme psychological and physical vulnerability.

Alcala’s camera and The Dating Game’s cameras frame and blind the women subjected to their gaze, highlighting social and gendered conventions and restrictions.

Kendrick is an intriguing presence, initially as a confident woman who takes pride in her intelligence, before realizing she may be caught in Alcala’s web. Daniel Zovatto is dangerously charming as Alcala, with his charisma and sadism on display simultaneously.

The Woman of the Hour is a departure from Kendrick’s lighter work of the past; I can’t wait to see what he turns his hand to next.

–Jessica Gildersleeve

competitors

Disney+

A “crazy” It needs three important things. It has to be 1) sex-filled (crazy), 2) wildly popular (-breaking), and 3) wildly over-the-top (in other words, crazy). competitors, new Disney+ adaptation A chapter of Dame Jilly Cooper’s 1988 novel of the same name features the 1 and 3 of spades. And if earlyreception like that anything We are on track for 2.

The show revels in the excesses and spectacle of its 1980s setting. It all starts with Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) having sex with a journalist in the bathroom of a Concorde; This scene culminates when the plane breaks the sound barrier. The show continues in the same way for its eight episodes.

On the surface, the plot seems relatively dry. The main competitors are two production companies competing for a local television franchise. Corinium is run by villain Tony Baddingham (David Tennant), while Venturer is run by Rupert and Declan O’Hara (Aidan Turner). Among them is Cameron Cook (Nafessa Williams), a ruthlessly ambitious producer with whom both partners are dying to get into bed (figuratively and literally).

But the plot is surrounded by so much frothy fun, melodrama and naked tennis that there are plenty of other things to be invested in. Rivals doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it also has a lot of heart. Watch out for the romance between Freddie Jones (Danny Dyer) and Lizzie Vereker (Katherine Parkinson), which really stands out.

– Jodi McAlister

you will not steal

stan

you will not steal It follows Aboriginal teenager Robyn (the extremely talented Sherry-Lee Watson). He escapes juvenile detention and embarks on a daring journey from Alice Springs to Adelaide to uncover a long-kept family secret.

Each episode begins with a playful lesson from Robyn’s past. These range from the eponymous “thou shalt not steal” to “thou shalt never go to Coober Pedy”.

This deadpan humor cleverly exposes important issues. There are extreme rates of Indigenous youth incarceration, alcoholism, assault, toxic masculinity, bullying, and the weaponization of religion.

In the first six of its eight short episodes, Thou Shall Not Steal strikes a balance between hard-hitting comedy and perilous journeying. Its final episodes revel in a series of over-the-top scenarios that nevertheless tie together the loose ends of the narrative in an entertaining way. Indeed, the shift towards outright absurdity reveals the show’s gentler message: finding a chosen family.

A stylish and well-made range, crafted with incredible attention to detail. The spectacular landscapes contrast with the dank, dirty areas occupied by the enemies, and the soundtrack is a treasure in itself. You Won’t Steal is definitely a fun ride.

– Kelly McWilliam

Read more:
Thou shalt not steal: New Stan series takes a wickedly funny journey through Central Australia

Fisk season 3

ABC iView

Nothing is certain except death, taxes, and Fisk being funny, especially in relation to the first two. In the third season, things change at small wills and probate firm Gruber & Fisk. The signature brown suit remains, but as a newly elected partner our “prickly little lawyer friend” Helen Tudor-Fisk (Kitty Flanagan) has to deal with more responsibility, pressure and general stupidity than ever before.

At the office, Roz (Julia Zemiro) is making a heated foray into her mediation business, with varying degrees of success, and writing down ideas for an upcoming hit album. Ray (Marty Sheargold) is loudly in love with fashion psychologist “lady love” Melissa (Justine Clarke), much to everyone’s annoyance. Custodial clerk George (Aaron Chen) is under crossfire from his usual job at the front desk while facing competition for the Webmaster role.

The quiet hysteria of office life erupts into frenzy when threats emerge and co-working space policies are revealed. There are also plenty of laughs in Fisk’s dealings with useless nepo hires, impending memoirs of his aging ex-judge father, questionable will changes scribbled in pencil, and a scheming “grammar” (grandma scammer).

Fisk’s star-studded third season does not disappoint. It features a buffet of Australian comedy talent including Sam Campbell, Claudia Karvan, Tom Ballard and Rhys Nicholson to name a few. Looking at previous seasons title is approved If you do not pay attention to this report, which is considered “correct” by legal experts, I may belittle you.

– Marina Deller

Chimpanzee Crazy

REALM

Chimpanzees scare me. They are our closest genetic species; One minute they’re sweet, the next they’re angry and violent. Similarly, Chimp Crazy creeped me out. In this documentary series, Eric Goode, the successful director of Tiger King, focuses on Tonia Haddix, who has another animal obsession.

While volunteering at Connie Casey’s for-profit facility, Haddix encounters great apes. This is where Haddix bonded with “humane” Tonka, who grew up starring in Hollywood movies before fading away.

But Goode can’t get close to Haddix and Tonka: all the bridges to the big-animal community have been turned to ashes after things went wrong with Joe Exotic. So Goode is hiring former circus clown Dwayne Cunningham as acting director.

Although the subject of deforestation is not touched upon, Chimp Crazy makes a subtle comment on the stratification of society and lack of love in North America. All the action takes place in the deep south, with “white trash” under the microscope.

Goode explores an alternative perspective with representatives of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) hunting for Haddix’s tooth and manicured nail. According to them, chimpanzees do not need us and deserve “humane” conditions.

Ultimately, the docuseries erects yet another streaming-age icon: Haddix is ​​plastic, unapologetic, flawed, and reminiscent of a mother about to be separated from her child. Coincidentally, her child is a 32-year-old chimpanzee.

– Phoebe Hart

Office

hit liner

New Australian version Office It closely mirrors the American version: a romantic story, tensions between the office and the warehouse, an old-school boss who loves, desires and needs friendship, and a staff who put work life second to what they’d rather do.

Hannah Howard (Felicity Ward) is a devoted office manager who loves her job and runs an underperforming, dysfunctional workplace staffed with disinterested staff. Like David Brent and Michael Scott before her, Hannah is optimistic, naive, relentless, and terrible at managing personnel. He forces his employees, who are clearly reluctant but never actively rebel, into pajama days and bus trips. There’s plenty of comedy in the awkwardness and small moments.

The first Australian season of The Office may not be anything new, but I kept watching. It was safe, even comforting. Perhaps similarly, going to someone else’s family for Christmas dinner can feel familiar: recognizable food, decorations, known characters; But with the excitement that maybe something different could happen this time.

This remake knows what it is. It was made to satisfy an audience that wanted to be in a world that reflected their own experiences, but took it a little too far. We don’t set out to break the mould, but to bring it up to date and give it an Australian voice for the world to hear.

– Philippa Burne

Read more:
Ten years after the US version ended, Australia is remaking The Office. It’s not new but it’s funny