The long-awaited animated film Nimona headlines this week’s streaming releases, backed by a couple of big TV series returns for Warrior and Jack Ryan, and the years-long-awaited local debut of Yellowstone!
SERIES
Warrior S3
Showmax – 30 June 2023
All good things must come to an end, and this is potentially it for Warrior, the Bruce Lee-inspired action-drama that was arguably the best thing on TV most people weren’t watching. After an initial cancellation at the end of season two that left things rather unresolved for Andrew Koji’s Ah-Sahm and the rest of the cast in this 19th century martial arts gangster epic, the show was moved by Warner Bros. Discovery onto HBO Max where it found a new audience, big enough to warrant a resurrection to wrap things up. And now we have the third and maybe final season kicking off locally on Showmax with the first three hour-long episodes dropping today and the remaining seven episodes debuting weekly. I’ve been fortunate enough to have seen the entire season already, and I can confidently say that fans are in for one hell of a kick-ass ride. And newcomers: Now’s the time to discover the awesomeness!
Jack Ryan S4
Amazon Prime Video – 30 June 2023
Since Alec Baldwin first brought him to life onscreen in 1990’s The Hunt for Red October, we’ve had four more actors portray Tom Clancy’s fan-favourite literary hero Jack Ryan. And now the latest of these, John Krasinski, is hanging up the… ear-piece? Snarky attitude? Damn, Jack Ryan really needs some kind of iconic piece of wardrobe or equipment of his own to hang up! Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan debuts its fourth and final season today Prime Video, with Krasinski’s CIA analyst now taking a break from breaking up terrorist cells on foreign ground. Well, there’s still more of that, but the threat is now also seemingly internal. That forces Ryan to only turn to people he can trust, and this is where the long-time Tom Clancy fans start getting all excited as Michael Peña joins the cast as fan-favourite Domingo “Ding” Chavez. In the books, Ding is a key member of Clancy’s Rainbow Six franchise, and Peña is already being eyeballed for his own spinoff series. Whether that’s a Rainbow Six show or something else, we don’t know. We do know that rumours have also abounded that Michael B. Jordan, who played fellow R6 operative John Clark in Amazon’s unrelated Without Remorse film adaptation, wants to see the two franchises crossover. This may be the end of Jack Ryan, but this world is going nowhere.
Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire S1
Disney+ – 5 July 2023
Executive produced by Spider-Man: Across the Universe director Peter Ramsey and developed by award-winning Cape Town based Triggerfish Studios, Kizazi Moto is a ten-episode animated sci-fi anthology series inspired by Africa’s diverse histories and cultures. With all stories told by a talented new generation of African animators, “This is Africa as you’ve never seen it before!” as they all put their spin on what Afro-futurism means to them. The stacked voice cast includes the likes of Florence, Kasumba, Tumi Morake, Pearl Thusi, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Lillian Dube, Nasty C, Kehinde Bankole, and more.
The Lincoln Lawyer S2
Netflix – 6 July 2023
I’d like to think I know a thing or two about a thing or two, but I’ve learned over the years that you almost never predict the entertainment business. If you told me that Netflix was adapting author Michael Connelly’s The Lincoln Lawyer – previously adapted as a 2011 legal thriller feature film starring Matthew McConaughey – into a TV series procedural, I would have predicted it would probably just get lost in the noise. Instead, the Manuel Garcia-Rulfo-led show ended up getting pretty good reviews and drew a big enough audience to warrant a second season renewal just a few weeks after its May 2022 debut. And now that second season is here. Kind of. As has been the trend as of late, The Lincoln Laywer’s 10-episode second season is being split into two parts, with the first half dropping on 6 July and then the remainder hitting screens on 3 August.
Yellowstone S1-5
Showmax – 6 July 2023
Created by acclaimed screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (Sicario, Wind River, Hell or High Water), Yellowstone has been an institution on US TV since its debut in 2018, racking up the ratings and awards (with lead Kevin Costner walking away with the Golden Globe this year). Following the drama surrounding the Dutton family, owners of largest cattle ranch in Montana, the show’s immense popularity has already resulted in two already-aired spinoffs with another four on the way, featuring talents the likes of Sam Elliot, Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, David Oyelowo, Dennis Quaid, and more. And now – finally! – South Africans can see what the fuss is all about (well, at least those who haven’t sailed the high seas by now to get it) as Showmax is releasing all five seasons of Yellowstone next week, available for you to binge until your eyeballs dry up.
MOVIES
The Black Demon
Apple TV/Google Play Movies – 28 June 2023
There are days where you want Michelin star fine dining, and other days you just crave the junkiest of junk foods. Movies are the same. And based on this trailer, it doesn’t get more junk food-y than The Black Demon, the very latest in Hollywood’s long-standing schlocky tradition of making movies about giant sharks wanting to eat people. In this case, the underwater apex predator is a supposed-to-be-extinct Megalodon shark (not to be confused with its distant cousin the Jason Statham-starring bit of schlock The Meg) which has set its sights and massive teeth on a family stranded on a crumbling oil rig off the coast of Mexico. I stand under absolutely zero delusions whatsoever that this movie is good in any way, but it could be very fun. Maybe even fun enough to justify the R45 rental on Apple TV.
Nimona
Netflix – 30 June 2023
Created by ND Stevenson (of Paper Girls fame), Nimona is a multi-award-winning science-fiction/fantasy graphic novel about a titular shapeshifter, who becomes the sidekick to a villain intent on destroying the despotic Institute which wants to squash all those that go against its rules. So it’s a little ironic what transpired when it was picked up to become a feature film adaptation. Originally in development at Blue Sky Studios, a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox Animation, it saw itself abruptly cancelled when Disney took over Fox and shuttered Blue Sky Studios, despite the film being quite far along in the process (reportedly 75% done). Although not officially confirmed, the general consensus is that the traditionally conservative Disney balked at Nimona’s unapologetic LGBTQ representation, giving it the chop as a result. Enter Annapurna Productions and Netflix, with the acclaimed indie studio and streamer partnering up to revive the production, with it now being lauded as the flagship title of Annapurna’s new animation division. And it definitely looks the part, boasting an incredible animation style to go with its already acclaimed story. And now, three years after it was original scheduled to release, Nimona is finally here!
Wham!
Netflix – 5 July 2023
Yo! Where my fellow 1980s kids at?! The youngsters reading this probably won’t even know what a “Wham!” actually is, but for many of my generation and before, the British pop duo of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley were a global musical phenomenon with hits such as Careless Whisper, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Last Christmas, Club Tropicana, and Everything She Wants. And with unprecedented access to never-before-seen-and-heard footage interviews from the two musicians’ personal archive, this new feature-length documentary “charts in their own words the four year journey from teenage school friends to global superstars.”