New month, new set of series, documentaries, movies and cartoons for streaming service Showmax, the African-based home of select content from HBO, BBC, MNET, Nickelodeon, cartoon Network, and many more. Then there are the service’s homegrown Showmax Originals.
The month of February sees new additions across the board. You can check out everything new here, while below we spotlight our standouts for the month.
Series
On the series front, there are new seasons for sci-fi drama Raised By Wolves (shot in South Africa, for the record), ensemble cop comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine, legal series The Good Fight, as well as record-breaking local telenovela The Wife.
Our top pick, though, is Dexter: New Blood. Making up for the unpopular ending of the dark serial killer drama, New Blood is set 10 years after Dexter (Michael C. Hall) went missing in the eye of Hurricane Laura. Now living under an assumed name in the small town of Iron Lake, New York, Dexter’s past (and bloody urges) eventually catch up with him. New Blood has been screening since February 1, and you can catch all 8 seasons of Dexter’s original run on Showmax too.
Launching on Valentine’s Day is Sex in Afrikaans, a Showmax Original and six-part docuseries that delves into the sex lives of Afrikaaners. This adults-only show reveals that Afrikaans people aren’t nearly as conservative as you’d believe – at least behind closed doors.
Sex in Afrikaans follows clinical psychologist Bradley R Daniels as he helps four couples and two singles to have shameless discussions about their sex lives. The eye-opening series will also feature interviews with sex workers, adult shop owners, a unicorn, swingers, dominatrixes, a crossdresser, a dungeon master, people who dress up like babies, and others who prefer full-body latex suits. Screening from February 14.
The 4400 is back!
In this remake of the noughties’ cult classic, 4400 overlooked and marginalised people (who vanished without a trace over the past hundred years) all return in an instant, having not aged a day and with no memory of what happened to them. How will they adapt to, and fit into, contemporary 21st Century America?
This reboot keeps the mystery of the original series, but, with a mostly non-white cast, adds a theme of racial inequality into the mix. Screening now.
Oh, and don’t forget Euphoria returned last month in the form of weekly episode drops every Monday.
Movies
Massively acclaimed Judas and the Black Messiah is inspired by the true story of the betrayal and 1969 assassination of Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), chairman of the Black Panther Party. Lakeith Stanfield plays Bill O’Neal, a petty criminal turned FBI informant who is forced to befriend and spy on Hampton. An electric examination of racial injustice, Judas and the Black Messiah was nominated for six Academy Awards last year, and picked up two, for Kaluuya as Best Supporting Actor, and Best Original Song.
Streaming from February 3.
Post-apocalyptic thriller Glasshouse is set after an airborne virus afflicts humanity with dementia, crumbling civilization in the process. Confined to their airtight glasshouse, a family does what they must to survive – until the sisters are seduced by a stranger who upsets the family’s rituals, unearthing a past they have tried to bury. Festival darling Glasshouse has a South African pedigree, having been developed by Showmax with Local Motion Pictures, in association with Crave Pictures.
Streaming from February 7.
Prepare for a batshit bonkers ride with Shadow in the Cloud, a mash-up of WWII period action and monster horror. Female flight officer Maude Garrett (Chloë Grace Moretz) is tasked with transporting top-secret documents aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress, where the sexist crew is about to become the least of her problems. Lurking in the shadows, something sinister is tearing at the heart of the plane.
Watch Shadow in the Cloud from February 17.
If you missed it, superhero sequel Wonder Woman 1984, and topical revenge thriller Promising Young Women (with Carey Mulligan in an Oscar-nominated performance), also joined the service in January. Happy streaming!