Our pick of the video-on-demand programmes and webseries
Summer: it’s bound to rain some time. Take the chance to seek out all those great shows you’ve been meaning to catch up on. Here are a few to be going on with.
TRANSPARENT Jeffrey Tambor, the trans parent of the title, may or may not be leaving the show, so catch the first four superb seasons as the Pfefferman family demonstrate that their exasperating, heartbreaking totality is greater than the sum of their inventively dysfunctional parts. Lightbox
WHAT NEXT? TVNZ offers a glimpse of what we might look like in 2037. Presented by Nigel Latta, who looks quite excited, and John Campbell, who looks a little scared. TVNZ OnDemand
BETTER CALL SAUL The prequel to Breaking Bad, when Walt White’s lawyer, Saul Goodman, was still small-time lawyer and con man Jimmy McGill. The carnage is less to the body, more to the soul. Lightbox
THE HANDMAID’S TALE It’s no accident that in 2017 women in the US dressed in handmaids’ scarlet robes and white bonnets to protest a bill that would restrict abortion rights. In Margaret Atwood’s
Gilead, women are state property and handmaids must breed for the infertile rich. Netflix
SEARCH PARTY The lives of twentysomething friends spin out of control after the search for a missing college classmate goes awry. Think Girls with a touch of Tarantino, a bleakly hilarious ensemble cast and the wonderful Alia Shawkat. Lightbox
ARRANGED Never mind the dismal Married at First Sight; this is the real deal. The series follows the fortunes of couples whose marriages have been arranged by their families.
“We have not kissed yet. Hopefully after the wedding.” ThreeNow
BIG LITTLE LIES A stellar cast playing mommies at war – Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley – give heft to soapy high jinks that begin with a murder at a Californian elementary school fundraiser. Neon SENSITIVE SKIN Relocated to Toronto and not quite as good as the British version starring Joanna Lumley, but Sex and the City’s Kim Cattrall does a fine job. Davina works in a gallery, has a hypochondriac pop-culture critic husband and a difficult grown-up son and is having a midlife crisis. More fun than it sounds. Netflix
And a couple of great local webseries:
SO THIS HAPPENED Astonishing and incredibly timely animated webseries in which real women tell their stories of sexual harassment, abuse and everyday sexism, from catcalls to the full Weinstein. A revelation. TVNZ OnDemand/YouTube
FRIDAY NIGHT BITES TGIF? It depends. Flat 3 girls Perlina, Jessica and Lee are back with another hilarious, poignant, accomplished, bingeworthy webseries featuring the awkward, endearing exploits of three AsianKiwi flatmates. TVNZ OnDemand/YouTube