WHAT TO WATCH AS THE NIGHTS DRAW IN THIS NOVEMBER
▶ Farah Andrews has the complete list of fan favourites and other releases for this month
Anew month means a new deluge of content flooding our streaming platforms and November looks set to impress with its offerings. As we get closer to December, Christmas content is landing on Netflix. There are also fan favourites making their return. Expect plenty of Hollywood star power, with shows and films from Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, Vanessa Hudgens, Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga and Alexander Skarsgard all dropping this month. There is also the South Korean show Hellbound, South African film Happiness Ever After and Netflix’s first Arabic reality series, The Fastest, to look forward to.
Here we round up some of the most exciting television shows and films to look out for this month.
Dickinson
Apple TV+, November 5
Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Toby Huss, Adrian Blake Enscoe
The final season of Dickinson is here. A dark comedy take on Emily Dickinson’s (Steinfeld) life, the story follows the great American poet’s coming-ofage years.
Finch
Apple TV+, November 5
Starring: Tom Hanks, Caleb Landry Jones, Lora Martinez-Cunningham
Finch (Hanks) is a robotics engineer who survives an apocalyptic event in his underground bunker with his dog, Goodyear. The Finch robot built to protect Goodyear learns about life, love, friendship and what it means to be human in this sci-fi film.
Hello, Jack! The Kindness Show
Apple TV+, November 5 Starring: Jack McBrayer
30 Rock star McBrayer features in this live-action children’s television show that teaches youngsters about kindness, imagination and creativity.
Love Hard
Netflix, November 5
Starring: Nina Dobrev, Lochlyn Munro Harry Shum Jr
A Los Angeles girl, unlucky in love, falls for an East Coast guy on a dating app and decides to surprise him for Christmas, only to discover that she’s been catfished. This light-hearted romantic comedy chronicles her attempt to reel in love.
Narcos: Mexico Netflix, November 5
Starring: Diego Luna, Jose Maria Yazpik, Scoot McNairy
Narcos: Mexico is back for a third season. Set in the 1990s, when the globalisation of the drug business ignites, the series examines the war that breaks out after Felix’s (Luna) arrest. As newly independent cartels struggle to survive political upheaval and escalating violence, a new generation of Mexican kingpins emerges.
Unlikely Murderer Netflix, November 5
Starring: Robert Gustafsson, Sovi Ryden, Cedomir Djordjevic
Unlikely Murderer is a fictional mini-series of how Stig Engstrom, the graphic designer who was named as the probable murderer of Sweden’s former prime minister Olof Palme, managed to elude justice right up to his death through a combination of audacity, luck and a perplexed police force.
What do we know about Engstrom? How could the police let him get away, despite being on his track? The murder was not planned well, Engstrom did everything wrong from the beginning and almost no one believed his lies about what he actually did during that fateful night in 1986, in Stockholm.
Animal
Netflix, November 10
With modern filming technology and contemporary style, Animal gets under the skin of eight charismatic wild families. Through stunning visuals, immersive soundscapes and the latest scientific revelations, in this series we enter the animal worlds to discover what sets them apart. Following the story of a central character in each episode – including a mother lioness, a wild dog family, a kangaroo joey and a young pacific octopus – and meeting a range of other species, we enjoy an emotional, immersive and revelatory ride into some of the greatest wildernesses on Earth.
Gentefied
Netflix, November 10
Starring: Carlos Santos, Joaquin Cosio, Karrie Martin
Created by two Chicano firstgen writers, Gentefied is a dramatic comedy adapted from the 2017 digital series of the same name, and it’s back for its second season. In this bilingual series about family, community, love and the displacement that disrupts it all, three Mexican-American cousins struggle to chase the American dream, even while that same dream threatens the things they hold most dear: their neighbourhood, their grandfather and the family shop.
Happiness Ever After Netflix, November 10
Starring: Khanyi Mbau, Renate Stuurman, Yonda Thomas
Happiness Ever After is the sequel to the highly successful film Happiness Is a Four-letter Word. The glamorous group of friends are back four years on. The rom-com shows the lifestyles of Johannesburg’s successful black professionals as they grapple with relatable issues of relationship stress, parenting and family tensions.
Passing
Netflix November 10
Starring: Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, Alexander Skarsgard
Based on the novel by Nella Larsen, the movie follows two black women (Thompson and Negga) who can pass as white and choose to live on opposite sides of the colour line in 1929 New York.
Red Notice
Netflix, November 12
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot
When an Interpol-issued Red Notice – the highest-level warrant to hunt and capture the world’s most wanted – goes out, the FBI’s top profiler John Hartley (Johnson) is on the case. His global pursuit finds him in the middle of a daring heist where he’s forced to partner with the world’s greatest art thief, Nolan Booth (Reynolds), in order to catch the world’s most wanted art thief, The Bishop (Gadot). The adventure that ensues in this film takes the trio around the world, across the dance floor, trapped in a secluded prison and into the jungle.
The Shrink Next Door Apple TV+, November 12
Starring: Paul Rudd, Will Ferrell
A new dark comedy series inspired by the popular podcast of the same name. Charming psychiatrist Dr Isaac Herschkopf (Rudd) slowly implants himself in the life of his patient Martin Markowitz (Ferrell), raising alarm that he’s crossing boundaries he should not.
Tiger King 2 Netflix, November 17
Starring: Joe Exotic, Jeff Lowe With Joe Exotic behind bars and Carole Baskin closing in on ownership of his disreputable zoo, the Emmy-nominated saga continues its twisted course with Tiger King 2, as newfound revelations emerge on the motivations, backstories and secrets of America’s most notorious big cat owners. Old enemies and frenemies, including Jeff Lowe, Tim Stark, Allen Glover and James Garretson, return for another season.
The Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star
Netflix, November 18 Starring: Vanessa Hudgens, Nick Sagar, Remy Hii
The Princess Switch movies just keep coming. In the third festive outing, a priceless relic is stolen, which forces Queen Margaret and Princess Stacy to enlist the help of Margaret’s audacious lookalike cousin Fiona who teams with a dashing, mysterious man from her past to retrieve it ... rekindling the sparks of a Christmas romance and resulting in a very unexpected switch.
Blown Away: Christmas
Netflix, November 19 Starring: Bobby Berk
Blown Away is cranking up the heat for a holiday showdown. The glass-blowing reality show is returning with five fan favourites, set to compete in a series of Christmas-themed
challenges. The winner will receive a $10,000 cash prize and an additional $10,000 donated to their charity of choice.
Hellbound
Netflix, November 19
Starring: Yoo Ah-in, Park Jeongmin, Chase Yi
The South Korean series is about otherworldly beings who appear out of nowhere to issue a decree and condemn people to hell. These supernatural events cause great mayhem and enable the religious group The New Truth to grow in influence. A few people, however, become suspicious about its activities and begin investigating its involvement in mysterious events.
tick, tick … BOOM! Netflix, November 19
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Vanessa Hudgens
Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda makes his feature directorial debut with tick, tick ... BOOM!, an adaptation of the autobiographical musical by
Jonathan Larson, who revolutionised theatre as the creator of Rent.
Cowboy Bebop
Netflix, November 19 Starring: Daniella Pineda, John Cho, Mustafa Shakir
Cowboy Bebop is an action-packed space Western about three bounty hunters trying to outrun the past. As different as they are deadly, Spike Spiegel (Cho), Jet Black (Shakir) and Faye Valentine (Pineda) form a scrappy crew to hunt down the solar system’s most dangerous criminals.
The Fastest
Netflix, November 24
Starring: Tarek Al Harbi
Netflix’s first Arabic reality show The Fastest will put the region’s love for fast cars to the metal. From glistening vintage US muscles to sleek German speedsters and Japanese sports cars, the trailer features plenty of breakneck rides, with no shortage of rev and roar. But the show is, perhaps, less about the cars than the men and women driving them.
Bruised
Netflix, November 24
Starring: Halle Berry, Stephen McKinley Henderson
In this film, Jackie Justice (Berry) is a Mixed Martial Arts fighter who leaves the sport in disgrace. Down on her luck and simmering with rage and regret years after the fight, she’s coaxed into a brutal underground fight by her manager and boyfriend Desi and grabs the attention of a fight league promoter who promises Jackie a life back in the octagon. But the road to redemption becomes unexpectedly personal.
Robin Robin Netflix, November 24
Starring: Gillian Anderson, Bronte Carmichael
In this animated film, protagonist Robin ends up being raised by a loving family of mice after her egg rolls into a rubbish dump. As she grows up, her differences become more apparent, so she sets off on the heist to end all heists to prove to her family that she can be a really good mouse – but ends up discovering who she really is.
Selling Sunset Netflix, November 24
Starring: Mary Fitzgerald, Chrishell Stause
The luxury real estate reality show is back. This season, The Oppenheim crew deals with even more mind-blowing mansions, shocking new romances and explosive truths that will change their lives, relationships and careers forever.