It may be April Fools Day, but the sheer number of new streaming releases for the next week is no joke! The two most high-profile releases are easily the Gary Oldman-led spy thriller series Slow Horses on AppleTV+ and Judd Apatow’s latest ensemble comedy The Bubble on Netflix. The other streaming services are not getting pranked though, with Showmax in particular releasing a heap of stuff, including Bel-Air, Yellowjackets, and more!
SERIES
Slow Horses S1
AppleTV+ – 1 April 2022
Based on Mick Herron’s series of the same name, this star-studded British spy thriller series sees Gary Oldman as the disillusioned head of Slough House, a near-defunct division of MI5 where all the failed field agents are dumped to perform dull paper-pushing as punishment for whatever mess-up landed them in trouble. When a new member of the “Slow Horses” gets embroiled in an explosive conspiracy though, these rejects have to step up and deliver.
Bel-Air S1
Showmax – 1 April 2022
Will Smith has been hogging the headlines for all the wrong reasons this week following his now infamous scuffle at the Oscars. This was of course not the first little fight that Will got into that changed his career trajectory. Back in the 90s, Smith shot to fame as the star of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, playing a fictionalized version of himself who gets transplanted from the hoods of Philadelphia to live with his wealthy family in Bel-Air. Not too long ago, a YouTuber took footage from the fan-favourite sitcom and recut it as a trailer for a serious drama series. This fake trailer was so well-received that it caught Smith’s attention, who reached out to the creator, and together the two have turned that once-off gag into Bel-Air, an actual dramatic, non-comedic reboot of the original sitcom. All the characters you remember, like Carlton and Uncle Phil, are there, but not the way you remember!
The Last Bus S1
Netflix – 1 April 2022
It’s still school holidays, so here’s something to keep the kids occupied. Although you may just watch it yourself. The Last Bus is a kid’s adventure series described as an “action-packed eco fable” and follows a group of high-schoolers whose field trip to check out new high-tech drones designed to clean up the environment goes as bad as it can get. After the drones go berserk and vaporize most people, the kids inadvertently find themselves as some the last humans left alive on Earth and set out to track down the drones’ enigmatic inventor for answers.
Wolf Like Me S1
Amazon Prime Video – 1 April 2022
While we currently don’t get Peacock (the streaming service not the bird) in South Africa, we have been seeing several of its originals pop up in our Amazon Prime Video library. Wolf Like Me is the latest and it looks very interesting. Watching most of its trailer, you would think this was just a standard romantic drama about a couple who meet and find each other after a violent car crash… but there’s actually a lot more going on here. A lot more supernatural, actually.
Yellowjackets S1
Showmax – 1 April 2022
One of 2022’s breakout TV series, Yellowjackets tells a tale in two different times. In the 1990s, a high-school girls soccer team’s plane crashes in the mountains, leaving the survivors to fend for themselves for nearly two years in harsh conditions. In present-day, the now grown-up women – the few who made it out alive – have to live with the consequences of what they did during that horrific time in their lives. But exactly what did they do that caused them all to swear to secrecy on the details?
The Cleaning Lady S1
Showmax – 1 April 2022
Based on the 2017 Argentinian television series La Chica Que Limpia, The Cleaning Lady stars Elodie Yung as a former Cambodian-Filipino medical doctor living as an illegal immigrant in America, working as a cleaning lady instead of practicing medicine, all to help her son get a special treatment for a life-threatening disease that’s only available in Las Vegas. But when she accidentally becomes a witness to an organized crime hit, she gets roped into to become a cleaner and doctor for the mob.
American Rust S1
Showmax – 1 April 2022
I’m a huge Jeff Daniels fan and think he’s great in everything he does. So it was very surprising that I somehow hadn’t even heard of American Rust. Released in late 2021 in the US, the drama sees Daniels star as the chief of police in a small Pennsylvanian town in the American Rust Belt, who takes on a case in which the son of a woman he loves is accused of murder. The show was unfortunately cancelled after just one season, but that season sure looks good to me!
MOVIES
The Bubble
Netflix – 1 April 2022
Funnyman filmmaker Judd Apatow has made a career in finding the comedy in terrible situations. And with The Bubble he’s turned his attention to the most terrible situation around: The COVID-19 pandemic. Starring a barrage of famous faces led by Karen Gillan, this meta comedy centres on a group of actors and filmmakers who have to survive each other on an isolated set in England as they try to film the sixth chapter in the blockbuster dino action movie adventure franchise Cliff Beasts, in the midst of the pandemic with all its new safety regulations.
Ray Donovan: The Movie
Showmax – 1 April 2022
Liev Schreiber’s Ray Donovan is one of modern TV’s most popular characters. And now you can see how his story actually ended. After running for seven seasons, Showtime cancelled the Ray Donovan series in February 2020, much to the dismay of longtime fans who were left hanging. A year later though, the network announced that a movie would be released to conclude all the show’s dangling plot threads and give Schreiber’s Hollywood fixer a proper send-off. Released earlier this year on Showtime in the US, we can now stream it locally ourselves.
Last Blue Ride: The Hannah Cornelius Story
Showmax – 1 April 2022
The brutal murder and respective attempted murder of Stellenbosch University student Hannah Cornelius and friend Cheslin Marsh shocked SA when it happened in 2017, subsequently making international headlines. Now, using forensic evidence, interviews with family and criminal experts, this in-depth documentary details the grim final hours of Cornelius’ life after she and Marsh were attacked by four strangers while sitting in their blue Citi Golf, kidnapped, and were subsequently subjected to 11 hours of terror. This one will probably be very emotional and upsetting, so be warned.
Scream
AppleTV+/Google Play Movies – 1 April
If you missed Scream in cinemas earlier this year (and since we don’t have Paramount+ to stream it), then you can finally check out the latest film in the fan-favourite long-running series as it’s now available for digital rental on AppleTV and Google Play Movies. This franchise-revival was quite a hit with audiences and critics on release (personally I think it’s the best entry in the series since the 1996 original), to the point that a subsequent sequel was greenlit almost immediately. So now’s a good time to see what all the fuss was about.
The 355
AppleTV+/Google Play Movies – 1 April
There was far less far fuss kicked up for The 355 when this all-female action flick hit cinemas earlier this year despite its cast ass-kickers in Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong’o, Penelope Cruz, and Fan Bingbing. It’s now available for rental on AppleTV and Google Play Movies, so maybe you’ll appreciate it more than the lukewarm reviews did.