What to watch on streaming: today's picks from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and more

Many writers have used the Covid pandemic as a springboard for exploring the fragility of social interactions, but there’s nothing new in that: Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio had similar inspiration in the mid-14th century, when he conceived a collection of short stories based around tales told by those sheltering from the Black Death. Now it’s revived as a satire full of sex, debauchery and barbed comment on the rich/poor disparities that grow in a time of crisis.

Zosia Mamet, always somewhat underrated in the cast of Girls, stars.

Jack Seale

The real Second World War mission Operation Postmaster forms the basis for this raucous comedy from director Guy Ritchie. In 1942, Gus March-Phillipps (Henry Cavill) is tasked with leading a black ops sabotage raid on Italian vessels near the island of Fernando Po. When Alex Pettyfer’s SOE agent is captured by the Gestapo, it soon becomes a life-or-death rescue job. Based on a 2014 book by author Damien Lewis, the film takes a fast-and-loose approach to history, which may rankle some. But with an excellent ensemble — including Freddie Fox as Ian Fleming and Rory Kinnear as Winston Churchill — it plays to Ritchie’s strengths.

As with his Cavill-starring remake of The Man from UNCLE, this is a rollicking adventure with some energetic action sequences and a freewheeling sense of fun.

James Mottram

An Australian drama that makes fine use of its location: in the wilds of north Queensland, there are snakes everywhere, literally and in the form of dangerous criminals, forever lurking in dark, remote places.

Investigating them are a great odd-couple pairing, damaged ex-cop Conkaffey (Thomas Jane) and deeply damaged ex-con Pharrell (Nicole Chamoun). Both now experience a revival of trauma from their own pasts as they look into another murder, involving bikers and a drugs gang.

Jack Seale

Terry Gilliam’s 1981 film adventure is rebooted in the hands of producers, co-stars and What We Do in the Shadows creators Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. Dorky, history-obsessed British kid Kevin (Kal-El Tuck) opens his wardrobe to find a time portal, through which he steps into the past — and joins a band of time-travelling thieves who are not very good at stealing stuff.

Lisa Kudrow is in her element as the group’s eccentric leader, and the show’s huge visual effects budget doesn’t stop it majoring on silly, quirky gags.

Jack Seale

Baltimore in the 1960s is the backdrop for an engrossing drama based on the book by Laura Lippman that has much more to it than just a murder investigation. Natalie Portman is Maddie Schwartz, a well-to-do housewife so disaffected by family life that she abandons it to look into two local killings, of a white girl and a black bartender.

Jagged timelines allow the bartender, played by Moses Ingram, to be a parallel main character in a show laden with a sense of disquiet and foreboding.

Jack Seale

To Ancient Rome for a drama that covets the epithet “epic”. We’re in the first-century CE and the emperor Vespasian (Anthony Hopkins, no less) is reaching the end of his reign. Cue a lot of political jostling, as his sons — one a serpentine politician, the other a war hero — form their own plans for the future of the empire, while the rest of Roman nobility wonders whether to step in.

In the meantime, gladiators and those people who make a living from bloody entertainment (like Iwan Rheon, who plays Tenax) continue to go about their business. But, far from Rome, the colonies are revolting.

Episode one struggles to escape the clichés of the genre.

Jack Seale

One of the original and arguably best modern dating shows (as in, the ones where ludicrously attractive people in their 20s share a villa) returns for a shaken-up sixth season. This is the show where any sexual interaction is punished by a reduction in the overall prize pool, overseen by digital assistant Lana.

This year there are new twists — and the addition of, wait for it, “Bad Lana”.

Jack Seale

A warning to those scared of heights: this may destroy you. Russian “rooftoppers” Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus travel the world to scale mankind’s biggest structures, usually illegally. They scurry up staircases, cranes and antennae and make tricksy poses, risking jail or death for an Instagram shot or €500 from a sponsor.

Filmed over six years, this true-life thriller offers some smaller, more personal moments of reflection, but it’s the staggering climbing scenes that stick.

Jack Seale

The Colombian telenovela upon which Ugly Betty was based returns. Betty (Ana Maria Orozco) joined the staff of a Bogota clothing company as a lowly, frumpy assistant.

One visual transformation and several years of unlikely plot twists later, she’s the estranged wife of the firm’s rogue CEO — as they both hire hot divorce lawyers, the melodrama intensifies.

Jack Seale

If the upcoming Bergerac remake starring Damien Molony runs for as long as the original, its makers will be happy. For a decade John Nettles faced down criminals looking to take advantage of Jersey’s tax haven status, though his epic battle was waged against wheeler-dealer former father-in-law Charlie Hungerford, played by Terence Alexander. When we return to the Channel Islands, it’ll be Zoë Wanamaker portraying a gender-flipped Charlie.

David Brown

Lesley Manville is charming as a Battersea cleaning lady in this fanciful confection, based on Paul Gallico’s 1958 novel. War widow Ada (Manville) sets her heart on a Christian Dior dress and, after a little financial luck, takes off to the City of Light to realise her dream. The film makes no bones about its fairy-tale qualities, with its saintly characters (Isabelle Huppert and Lambert Wilson) who help Ada at every turn.

Themes of class, wealth and humanity give the story depth, as British postwar gloom gives way to colourful Paris.

James Mottram

Ben Song (Raymond Lee) is leaping through time again in the revival of the beloved 80s/90s sci-fi. In the latest episode he’s on a cargo plane flying over Russia in 1978, joining snarky Air Force operatives who are such good company, it’s a shame we say goodbye to them at the episode’s end. Back at base, there’s disturbing news about what’s happened while we and Ben were away.

The show offers reliably entertaining escapist drama.

Jack Seale

Who would have thought that the TV sequel to the Karate Kid movies, with the core members of the cast retained regardless of their level of subsequent success, would run for six seasons? Yet here it is, once again tracking the rivalries between various teen karate dojos in California’s San Fernando Valley. As we rejoin, peace reigns, but surely that can’t last.

Meanwhile, the show continues to pump out cheesy, soapy, semi-serious drama, undeterred by its ludicrous premise and the fact that nobody in it can really act.

Jack Seale

American gymnast Simone Biles is probably the greatest exponent of her sport of all time, but her timeline of triumphs has a gap in it. The run of spectacular wins, including Olympics and World Championships, was interrupted for three years starting in 2020, when Biles took time off to safeguard her own mental health.

So this documentary series, following her comeback and preparation for the 2024 Olympics, is fraught with emotion and with valuable conversations about the stress placed on elite athletes.

Jack Seale

Danny Dyer takes on his first major role since hanging up Mick Carter’s waistcoat in EastEnders for this new comedy, written by and co-starring Ryan Sampson (Plebs). They are chalk-and-cheese estranged brothers Lee (Dyer) and Glen (Sampson). Lee’s past has more shade than a parasol, and he’s now living in his car with their dad’s ashes in a biscuit tin. Meanwhile, carpet salesman Glen plods along trying to cause as little fuss in life as possible. Then Lee crashes into his quiet life...

Like a well-worn carpet, this is patchy in places — but as you’d expect, Dyer is great value as he turns “Danny Dyer” up to 11, bowling about with the swagger of a cowboy and the language of a docker. How many of those c-words were in the script or were improvised?

Frances Taylor

This US crime procedural is a low-key cracker. It sounds fairly boilerplate — cases are solved by a super-observant, dyslexic detective (Ramón Rodriguez) whose background has shaped him into a kind but brittle man — but the scripts crackle with a wonderfully laconic wit and, thanks to Will’s ability to bewitch female colleagues, not a little sexiness.

Season two opens with the arrival of a potential new flame, and a gripping story involving a man who is being tracked by hitmen, but doesn’t seem to care.

Jack Seale

The actor still best known for the Lord of the Rings movies embarks on a series of three death-defying sporting challenges, starting with wingsuiting, a form of skydiving in which being attached to a large rectangle of specialist material enables a late deployment of the parachute.

Bloom, whose daredevil antics prior to acting fame included breaking his back in his late teens, speaks openly about his psychological motivation for taking what are clearly very real risks.

Jack Seale

It’s now six months since Pearl (Kerry Godliman) and Mike (Howard Charles) decided to be just good friends, and as series two of the pleasant Kent-set whodunnit gets under way each are in rebound relationships. Those fresh love interests are played by Robert Webb and Emily Head — but newcomers Tom and Kat don’t yet realise that PI Pearl and her detective ally are surely destined to end up an item.

As before, cases keep throwing them together: the first in this latest run involves a missing boy whose custody arrangements prove fraught.

David Brown

If there were a Turner Prize for twisted psychopaths, the killer in this lurid six-parter from 2021 would romp home. In a creative but crazed move, they’ve stitched together body parts from many different victims and presented them as a grisly Frankenstein’s monster of a corpse. Well, it’s one way to make an impression. Into this ghastly but unlikely scene comes DS Nathan Rose (Henry Lloyd Hughes), your textbook Police Officer with Problems. He, and viewers, may require a sick bucket.

David Brown

It has been nine years since fans first met the villain kids from the Isle of the Lost who shook things up upon their arrival at Auradon Prep, and a lot has happened since then, marking the introduction of Chloe (Malia Baker) and Red (Kylie Cantrall). Descendants: the Rise of Red fast-forwards ever so slightly from the events of Descendants 3, in which Mal (Dove Cameron) and Ben (Mitchell Hope) have set off on their travels.

The new movie introduces us to the rebellious daughter of the Queen of Hearts from Wonderland, played by Rita Ora, who has a decades-long grudge against Auradon and her former best friend Cinderella, played by Brandy. And when Red is invited to study at Auradon, a light bulb goes off – and she seeks revenge by inciting a coup.

Katelyn Mensah

Based on the hit 2016 movie, this eight-part spin-off retains the adult animated film’s robust language, ridiculous storytelling and stellar cast. Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Michael Cera and Edward Norton return, respectively, as Frank (a sausage), Brenda (a hot dog bun), Barry (a sausage) and Sammy Bagel Jr (a bagel).

In the new show, food takes over the world and for a while all is peachy, but when disaster strikes, the sentient groceries need human help.

Jack Seale

A third and final series for the Vikings spin-off, a show that’s built up enough memorable characters and epic grudges to stand up on its own. As Harald Sigurdsson, Leif Eriksson and the mighty Freydis Eiriksdottir (Frida Gustavsson) meet their fates and 11th-century Norway decides whether it prefers Christianity or the ancient gods, there will be a whole lot of sex and swordplay before the end.

The spectacular landscapes and brutal fight sequences mean there’s always something to entertain.

Jack Seale

AppleTV+ stands out as a streamer that’s willing to commission series that are simply very odd. Here is one such, starring Rashida Jones as Suzie, an American ex-pat in Japan. Her husband and son have just died in an air crash — since this is a near-future where robot helpers are common in homes and offices, she is sent a droid called Sunny to help her rebuild her life. But Suzie and Sunny end up investigating the air crash, because all is not as it appears, with the tragedy or with the nation’s robots.

If you like Japan, Black Mirror, conspiracy dramas and confusing flashbacks, stick with this and hope those elements coalesce into something comprehensible.

Jack Seale