We get a number of big VOD debuts this week, led by Alien: Romulus, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and Borderlands, as well as the Like a Dragon: Yakuza adaptation, Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour, and the Aussie reboot of The Office, among others.
SERIES
The Office S1
18 October 2024 – Prime Video
When The Office started its life as a Brit mockumentary sitcom starring Ricky Gervais, it was known for its cringe comedy. And when the Steve Carrell-led US remake happened a few years later, that cringe was still there. But it wasn’t just cringe though. In fact, after a rough first season, Carrell and crew turned that show into one of the most endearing and beloved character-driven sitcoms in history. It was so successful that it prompted a further international expansion of the series, with new versions springing up in more than a dozen other countries (an Afrikaans South African version was even announced earlier this year) much to respective local fans’ delight. But when the trailer for the most recent franchise entry debuted a few months ago, things looked very different. Prime Video’s new effort is an Australian remake starring Felicity Ward as the self-awareness-lacking boss of a packaging company, and the cringe is in full effect. Like, a lot of cringe. So much so that the trailer was widely derided and criticized for how terrible it looked. However, in the last few days, as review embargos dropped, this new version of The Office has received a surprisingly positive critical reception. Was this just a case of a terrible trailer? Or like its predecessor, does this show just take a little time to grow on you? Well, we can all find out today!
Rivals S1
18 October 2024 – Disney+
Ah, the 1980s! Drugs, music, big hair-dos, and capitalist greed! Fun times! That’s the world we step into in Rivals, a new British drama series adapted from Jilly Cooper’s 1988 novel of the same name. Alex Hassell, David Tennant, Aidan Turner, Bella Maclean, and much more lead this wild-looking ensemble effort set in the cutthroat world of independent television where ambitions and egos clash in both the boardrooms and bedrooms of the social elites.
Territory S1
24 October 2024 – Netflix
Anna Torv has been so good in several American TV series such as Fringe, Mindhunter, and The Last of Us, that I often forget that she’s actually Australian. That definitely won’t happen while watching Territory, a sweeping Netflix neo-western production set in Australia’s Northern Territory. The six-episode miniseries follows the Lawson family, who for generations have been in control of Marianne Station, the largest cattle station in the world. When a shocking death of the family patriarch leaves the Lawson throne without a clear successor, it kicks off a heated contest between family members, rival cattle farmers, local gangsters, indigenous elders, and mining magnates, all seeking to take over the Lawson dynasty for themselves.
Doctor Odyssey S1
24 October 2024 – Disney+
I’ve been fortunate enough to have done several cruises now already. Outside of some noisy partygoers and unruly people in the buffet line, they’ve all been rather relaxing and uneventful affairs. That is generally your typical cruise experience. But apparently not if those cruises are being dreamt up by Ryan Murphy! Doctor Odyssey, the prolific TV producer’s latest drama effort, is billed as a “high-octane procedural” set aboard a “luxury cruise ship where the staff works hard and plays harder”. Okay then. Joshua Jackson stars as Dr. Max Bankman, the ship’s new onboard doctor, who must lead his “small but mighty medical team to navigate unique medical crises and each other, miles from shore.”
Like a Dragon: Yakuza S1
24 October 2024 – Prime Video
While Darryn can never stop gushing the praises of the long-running Yakuza series of games, I’ve never been able to get into them thanks to their very quirky Japanese gameplay and aesthetic, which is a shame as by all accounts the epic storylines are fantastic. Well, now I get to experience those stories minus the over-the-top combat and absurd minigames as Prime Video’s big-budget live-action TV series adaptation hits our screens next week. Set in the fictional town of Kamurocho and playing out across two intersecting time periods in 1995 and 2005, respectively, Like a Dragon: Yakuza plunges into the dark underworld of Japanese organized crime. Following protagonist Kiryu and his friends – jumping between young Kiryu as a fledgling petty thief with ambitious dreams and older Kiryu as a hardened ex-con pulled back home to protect his comrades – the show explores the universal theme of family not only through bloodline but also through ties between yakuza bosses and their underlings, orphans and their caretakers, as well as mentors and students.
MOVIES
Woman of the Hour
18 October 2024 – Netflix
Anna Kendrick has proven herself an accomplished performer in many respects and now she’s adding one more category to her portfolio as she steps behind the camera for the first time. Also starring in this, her directorial debut, Woman of the Hour sees Kendrick as an aspiring actress in 1970s Los Angeles, who meets a mysterious man by pure chance when they are both cast in an episode of The Dating Game. What begins as a meet-cute turns deadly though as the man is actually a serial killer in the midst of a yearslong murder spree.
VOD RENTALS/PURCHASES
The following movies have recently become available for digital purchase/rental:
The Wasp
Purchase: Apple TV – R170 / Google Play Movies – R170
Rental: Apple TV – R45
And in case you need some more female-led psychological thriller action, here’s one filled with all kinds of nail-biting twists. The Wasp is the first English-language film by award-winning Spanish director Guillem Morales and scripted by Morgan Lloyd Malcom, adapting her own 2015 play of the same name. This potboiler stars Naomie Harris and Natalie Dormer as two estranged friends who reunite one day, only for one to make a dangerous offer to the other, kicking off a deadly plot that will irrevocably alter their lives. Harris and Dormer have both received a tonne of praise for their performances here, with several reviewers calling for awards for both of them.
Alien: Romulus
Purchase: Apple TV – R150 / Google Play Movies – R146
Thanks to original director Ridley Scott’s very divisive Prometheus films, the Alien franchise has not been in a good spot for years now. With Alien: Romulus though, acclaimed horror filmmaker Fede Alvarez looked to take the acclaimed sci-fi series back to its creepy, claustrophobic roots. And he did just that. Maybe a little too much though. As Tracy noted in her 7/10 review, with its foreboding atmosphere, intentional smaller scale, and return to practical effects, Alien: Romulus is a pretty good film – the best we’ve had in the franchise in ages – but it could have been a great film if Alvarez and co were just more willing to stand on their own instead of stuffing the movie with homages and callbacks to previous efforts. Even with those stumbles though, there’s still a lot to like here, in particular fantastic turns from Cailee Spaeny and David Johnson as smart and capable lead Rain and her defective android “brother” Andy, respectively.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Purchase: Apple TV – R150 / Google Play Movies – R170
Rental: Apple TV – R170
And speaking of sequels… If it felt like Tim Burton’s follow-up to his 1988 cult classic Beetlejuice was in development for forever, it’s because it was. Usually, films stuck in development hell for as long as this end up being rather messy, and seemingly that is the case with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. But as Noelle explained in her 7/10 review, despite it being “a hot, overstuffed mess”, this sequel is quite a fun ride thanks to “everyone in the cast, and director Tim Burton, clearly having a blast”.
Borderlands
Purchase: Apple TV – R150 / Google Play Movies – R146
Know what’s not a fun ride? Borderlands. Even with a score of 4/10, Noelle was still much kinder in her review of this box office and critical disaster than I would have been. The film is filled with puzzling creative choices from top to bottom: Why was Eli Roth, a filmmaker known for super gory horror flicks, chosen to direct a colourful video game adaptation? Why was that adaptation then nerfed of all its violent and ascetic bite with a PG-13 rating? How did they convince the likes of Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, and Jamie Lee Curtis to play roles they were so clearly wrong for? And who the hell thought it was a good idea to not include the original franchise’s most iconic villain for some other forgettable stand-in? And if you read all of that and still want to experience it for yourself, you can now do so at home. Just note that rental options will only be available in the next few weeks. Anybody who chooses to purchase this movie needs to rethink their life choices.