There’s a lot to give thanks for this week with the long-awaited return of Doctor Who, the VOD debuts of Oppenheimer and Talk to Me, the local premiere of Twisted Metal, and much more!
SERIES
Twisted Metal S1
23 November 2023 – Prime Video
I’ll be honest, when the first teaser trailer dropped for Twisted Metal, I didn’t have much faith. PlayStation’s old over-the-top vehicular combat video game series just didn’t seem like a good fit for a TV series adaptation, but Peacock had other ideas. Hell, the streaming service even managed to get Anthony Mackie and Stephanie Beatriz involved, but the first clip of the show didn’t quite do it for me, and I promptly filed it away as another bad idea that some exec wasted millions on. And then the show came out in July, and much to the surprise of many, it was actually…. good? It wasn’t blowing anybody’s minds, but it was straight up fun entertainment according to those who saw it. And that was apparently a lot as Twisted Metal’s 10-episode first season became Peacock’s “most-binged” comedy premiere with reportedly over 400 million viewing minutes in its first weekend alone. Of course, this was all only in the USA and a select few other European countries where Peacock had launched. Luckily though, Prime Video has now picked up the international distribution rights and us South Africans can finally see what the fuss was about!
In Your Dreams S1
24 November 2023 – Prime Video
Billed as Prime Video’s first South African Amazon Original, In Your Dreams is a new fantasy action-adventure series filmed locally with local talent. The show follows best friends Marcus (Jesse Suntele) and Lloyd (Kiroshan Naidoo) who run into an old childhood friend, Dineo (Didintle Khunou), now dealing in exotic antiquities. When one of the artifacts in Dineo’s collection turns out to have the power to literally turn your dreams (or nightmares) into reality, it kicks off a series of escalating events as people become willing to go to extremes to attain its power.
Doctor Who – The Star Beast
25 November 2023 – Disney+
ALLONS-Y! Following the rather shocking events of the final moments of Jody Whittaker’s run as the iconic Timelord in… checks calendar because this can’t be right… oh crap it is… December 2021, the Doctor is back! And yes, by that we mean the tenth Doctor is back! Just how is the wibbly-wobbly alien once again wearing the face of David Tennant? And what does this have to do with Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), his erstwhile companion who had her memories of their shared adventures in time and space erased to protect her life? Also, where is Ncuti Gatwa, the actor who is supposed to play the new Doctor?! Well, the start of the answers to all these mysteries kicks off this Saturday in the first of a trio of specials from returning fan-favourite showrunner Russell T. Davies (with the remaining parts following on 2 and 9 December, respectively). After the BBC signed a new deal, Doctor Who has now found a streaming home on Disney+, making life extremely easy for Who fans outside of the UK, such as myself. Unfortunately, it will only be the new series (which is being confusingly billed as “season one” despite the seminal sci-fi series celebrating its 60th anniversary two days ago) and none of the previous episodes will be found on the streaming platform.
Slow Horses S3
29 November 2023 – Apple TV+
The most dysfunctional team of British spies are back! Led by Gary Oldman’s as-brilliant-as-he-is-slovenly Jackson Lamb, the team of MI5 rejects have already stopped two major terrorist threats across the show’s brilliant first two seasons. But now all the dark secrets they uncovered, particularly the ones about themselves, have come back to bite them in the most explosive way possible, threatening not just the agents of Slough House but MI5 itself! And if you somehow couldn’t tell from my use of multiple exclamation points, I’m a gigantic fan of the masterful espionage drama series. If you haven’t watched it yet, you need to fix that now.
Obliterated S1
30 November 2023 – Netflix
From the creators of feel-good 80s revival Cobra Kai, comes a new series… that is absolutely nothing like Cobra Kai! Obliterated is billed as “a high-octane action-comedy” that tells the story of an elite special forces team who saves Las Vegas from a deadly bomb threat. The problem is that they follow this success up with a barnstormer of a celebration party filled with booze, sex, and drugs, only to discover that the bomb they deactivated was a fake and they need to get back into the field ASAP, fighting both terrorist threats and their now raging intoxication and hangovers, or watch the City of Sin go up in smoke.
MOVIES
Renfield
30 November 2023 – Showmax
News broke earlier this week that Nicholas Hoult has more than likely been cast as Lex Luthor in James Gunn’s upcoming DC Universe reboot kick-off Superman: Legacy. Hoult is a great pick as the talented young actor is at home in just about any genre. Take, for example, Renfield, a ridiculously gory and fun take on the Dracula mythos which sees Holt star as the vampire lord’s titular manservant, here portrayed as a superpowered bug eater trying to steer his master’s taste for blood away from innocents and towards those types of ne’er-do-wells who could do with being removed from society. Of course, as good as Hoult is, the real attraction here is Nicolas Cage simply chewing the scenery like… well, like a classic movie monster, with an incredible Bela Lugosi-inspired spin on Dracula that has to be seen to be believed.
Family Switch
30 November 2023 – Netflix
It’s not December yet, but I guess we’re due for our first Christmas miracle movie… but with a twist! Family Switch sees Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms as Jess and Bill Walker, a married couple, struggling to stay connected to their increasingly distant teenage son and daughter. When trying to rekindle their familial spark with a Christmas family photo, a random astrological encounter sees their frustrated kids’ wish of their parents being able to experience their lives come true. As they wake up in each other’s bodies, it kicks all sorts of hi-jinx as adults and teens now have to navigate the respective challenges of the very people who they assumed had it easy.
VOD RENTALS/PURCHASES
The following movies have recently become available for digital purchase/rental:
Oppenheimer
Purchase: Google Play Movies – R182
Currently still my top pick for movie of the year, filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer was the most incredible IMAX experience I’ve had in ages. And based on the fact that it made just short of a billion dollars, it looks like a whole lot of you had that experience as well. But for the few of you who haven’t seen it yet, Nolan’s explosive magnum opus, detailing the rise and fall of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the father of the atomic bomb, is now available on VOD. There are only rental options available for now, but if there’s one movie that deserves a purchase, it’s this one. Make sure you watch it, at least, before it cleans up at the Oscars next year. Just note: If you have a decent home theatre system, you need to turn the sound way up. If the neighbours aren’t complaining about the bass rattling the fillings right out of their teeth, it’s not loud enough.
Talk to Me
Purchase: Apple TV / Google Play Movies – R150 / R161
Rental: Apple TV / Google Play Movies – R45 / R50
Looking for a horror movie that will stop your heart but just so occasionally also touch it? Well, look no further than indie genre breakout Talk to Me, which Noelle described in her very glowing review as “scares where you care”. Written and directed by brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, this Australian supernatural nailbiter follows a group of teenagers who discover a mysterious severed and embalmed hand that allows them to communicate with the spirits of the dead. But what begins as a fun party game, soon turns very deadly. BIG SURPRISE! Made on a budget of just $4.5 million, Talk to Me ended up grossing approximately $92 million worldwide and earned rave reviews across the board. If you didn’t watch it in cinema, now’s your chance to fix that.