SCREENING GUIDE
EDUCATORS TVNZ OnDemand
This popular local comedy returns to the head of the class for another season. If you’ve wagged the previous two seasons report to detention at once. Not for nothing did our television reviewers call the unscripted sitcom “the funniest local comedy in ages”, saying its “final grade is an easy A”. What makes it such fun is that its characters are terrible teachers and, for the most part, terrible human beings. In that regard it follows in the unlikable footsteps of comedies like Seinfeld, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The League while borrowing the freewheeling improvisation style of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Keen television viewers will note these are all heavyweight comparisons and pleasingly Educators stands tall among them. Full season streaming from Wednesday.
LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER Netflix
Love and sex collide in this adaptation of author D.H. Lawrence’s forbidden novel about forbidden love. The story follows a young lady who marries into wealth and privilege.
However, when her new husband returns from the war and they begin spending quality time together their dreamy marriage begins to resemble a nightmare. Neglected, Connie finds solace, and sizzling sex, in the arms of the estate’s gamekeeper. Despite their best efforts to keep their tryst under wraps, the gossip mill starts churning. This puts Lady Chatterley into an extremely awkward position and forces her to a fork in the road - stay with her husband or begin an ostracised new life with her lover. Critics have been largely impressed with this most recent attempt to capture the breathless eroticism of the source material and present it on the screen. Emma Corrin as the titular character and Jack O’Connell as her lover have both been praised for their smouldering chemistry. One critic noted the film does not shy away from “full-on sex”, while another said that this lush retelling of this tale of infidelity “has the power to move”. Streaming from tomorrow.
THE BATMAN
Neon
The caped crusader returns to the shadows and detective work in this latest Batman movie. Writer/ director Matt Reeves has embraced the iconic comic book character’s detectivenoir routes. With The Batman, he’s made an artistic statement, with most scenes taking place in the stylistically dark and gritty shadows of Gotham’s criminal underbelly. The movie follows billionaire Bruce Wayne as he transitions into his new role as the vigilante Batman, which he is using as a way to cope with the psychological trauma of seeing his parents gunned down by a robber when he was a child.The comic has one of the richest rogue galleries of villains to choose from and here Batman comes up against a fair few of the classics, including Riddler, Catwoman and the Penguin. Robert Pattinson’s turn in the pointy eared cowl earned him praise and critics found Reeves’ take on the character arresting, with one calling it “a gripping, gorgeous and at times genuinely scary psychological crime thriller”. Streaming from tomorrow.