PICK OF PAY TV AND MOVIES

NETFLIX

NEW! NIGHT ON EARTH

(Season 1) HHH Netflix’s nature series is an eerie portrait of what wild creatures do at night. Sometimes, this feels rather similar to what they do in the day – only darker – but the episodes filmed at sea and in a city are utterly riveting. From Wednesday.

BOJACK HORSEMAN

NEW! (Season 6) HHHH The final episodes of what is arguably Netflix’s deepest and finest original show, despite it being a cartoon about an alcoholic horse who used to be a sitcom star in the 1980s. From Friday.

THE STRANGER

NEW! (All eight parts) HHHH This adaptation of

Harlan Coben’s thriller is the TV equivalent of a pageturner, and stars Richard

Armitage (right) as a family man whose world is upended by a single piece of information. Look out for

Jennifer Saunders in a rare dramatic role. From Thursday.

UNCUT GEMS

MOVIE (2019) 15 u HHHH Fans of Adam Sandler’s subtler work – see Punch-drunk Love – will enjoy his portrayal of a jeweller and gambling addict in this exhausting but satisfying thriller set in New York. From Friday.

AMAZON PRIME

NEW! TED BUNDY: FALLING FOR A KILLER

(All five parts) HHHH Haunting documentary that tells the story of the US serial killer Ted Bundy from the perspective of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Kendall, and her daughter. It blends this intriguingly with a portrait of the rise of feminism in the 1970s. From Friday.

BONES

DRAMA (All 12 seasons) HHH

A grisly but rather frothy drama from the US, about a brawny FBI agent (David Boreanaz) and a brainy forensic anthropologist

(Emily Deschanel) who investigate mysterious human remains – and start to fall for each other as the years go on.

DRAMA OUTLANDER

(Seasons 1-4) HHH The timehopping romance is returning to Amazon for a new, fifth season on February 17, so now is a good time to catch up on Claire and Jamie’s chequered romance.

MOVIE BOOKSMART

(2019) 15 u HHHH This film about an unorthodox female friendship didn’t do as well as it should have at the box office. Olivia Wilde directs the coming-of-age tale of two American girls who’ve devoted their whole school lives to study, not fun, and decide to change that on one big night out.

SKY ON DEMAND/ NOW TV

NEW! SKY COMEDY BOX SETS

HHHH To mark the arrival of the Sky Comedy channel on Monday, a lot of US comedy series are being added to Sky’s on demand catalogue. These include: Sex And The City,

Girls, Veep (starring Julia

Louis-dreyfus, right),

Everybody Hates Chris, Parks

And Recreation and the first nine seasons of Curb Your

Enthusiasm, which returns for a new run on Tuesday on

Sky Comedy at 9pm. From Monday. NEW! DC’S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW (Season 4) HHH One of the lightest and brightest US superhero dramas, about a time-travelling band of misfits. From Friday.

REVERIE

DRAMA (All ten parts) HHHH People lose themselves inside virtual reality environments in this US drama, and only one woman can get them out. It’s a short run of episodes, but there’s a decent ending.

MOVIE BAD BOYS (1995) 18 s HHHH The bracing original outing for Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s detective duo, who recently returned for a second sequel.

BEST OF THE REST

NEW! STOCKHOLM REQUIEM

(Walter Presents via All 4) HHHH Cleverly constructed detective thriller from Sweden, which bounces around in time and feels a bit like The Bridge. From tomorrow, 12 midnight.

SHRILL

NEW! (BBC3 via iplayer) HHH There’s a real sweetness and honesty to this returning US comedy about an overweight woman learning to push back against the people who have walked all over her. At the start of season two, she may well have gone too far. From today.

PAY MOVIES

DOWNTON ABBEY

(2019) PG ● (BT TV Store, Sky Store, Virgin) HHHH It’s 1927, and King George V and Queen Mary are coming to visit in a well-handled cinematic outing that hits all the notes you’d expect, and doesn’t stint on the bons mots for Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess.

AD ASTRA

(2019) 12 u (BT TV Store, Sky Store, Virgin) HHHH Serious-minded space mystery in which Brad Pitt’s deadpan astronaut looks for his father in the empty madness of space. The action sequences are awe-inspiring. Both from Monday.