The Kardashians
From Thursday, February 6th, Disney+
It’s season six in the real-life saga of the United States’ favourite femmes fatales, and don’t worry: they’ve lots more drama in store for this new chapter in their fashion-forward lives. “In this family there has to be drama,” says one. (I can’t remember which, but her name begins with K.) They’ll be “doing so much more together” this season, says another (whose name also begins with K). Expect trips to Las Vegas, India and lots of shops and beauty parlours, ostentatious displays of wealth, style and cleavage, and the unexpected return of an old flame – absolutely not staged to beef up the storyline. But life is not all kosy and kute: the K-girls will have to deal with the increasingly komplex challenges of motherhood, relationships, family dynamics, business pressures and keeping viewers engaged with their blingtastic brand.
Apple Cider Vinegar
From Thursday, February 6th, Netflix
Wellness culture is under the microscope in this fictional drama based on the true story of the Australian influencer Belle Gibson, who claimed to have been cured of brain cancer through healthy food and exercise. With Instagram becoming a thing, Gibson was able to build up a lucrative wellness brand, convincing her followers that they can cure cancer by simply changing their diet and lifestyle. But her pseudoscience was soon debunked, and when it was revealed that she never had cancer in the first place, Gibson’s social-media empire began to crumble. The American actor Kaitlyn Dever nails the Aussie accent as Gibson, with Alycia Debnam-Carey as her rival influencer Milla Blake.
The Åre Murders
From Thursday, February 6th, Netflix
Readers of Viveca Sten’s bestselling crime novels will already know the Swedish town of Åre; now Netflix is bringing this beautiful, remote ski resort to life (and death) in a new Scandi-noir series based on two of Sten’s books, Hidden in Snow and Hidden in the Shadows. Carla Sehn stars as Hanna Ahlander, a newly single Stockholm cop who, after being suspended from her job, has retreated to her sister’s holiday home in the town to lick her wounds. But when a young girl goes missing somewhere in the snowy landscape, Hanna offers to help the understaffed and under-resourced local police with their investigations, claiming she’s here on a special assignment. Soon, however, the secret of why she was suspended is out, and her own life is in danger.
Clean Slate
From Thursday, February 6th, Prime Video
Harry Slate is an old-fashioned, cornfed southern businessman running his car wash in Mobile, Alabama. He hasn’t seen his son Desmond for 23 years, but then, out of the blue, he gets an email telling him his boy is coming home. When Harry answers the door he’s shocked to find that Des is now Desiree; he’ll have to process this new gender reality while Desiree will have to reconnect with a father who was never emotionally available to her. It’s like a 1970s comedy transplanted to the 21st century, and although it comes with a message of diversity and acceptance, the message – and the gags – are delivered with all the clunkiness of Harry’s creaky fax machine. The comedian George Wallace stars as affable stick-in-the-swamp Harry, with the Emmy-winning trans actor Laverne Cox as the flamboyant but vulnerable Desiree. It’s one of the final comedies the legendary producer Norman Lear was working on before his death, in 2023, at the age of 101.
Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+: 10 of the best new shows to watch in February
Ray D’Arcy conjures up a Storm Éowyn image that would leave anyone feeling disconcerted
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I am now very fit. I am ready for Ireland’s fittest family to adopt me
Surviving Black Hawk Down
From Monday, February 10th, Netflix
Ridley Scott’s gritty war movie Black Hawk Down thrilled moviegoers in 2001, telling the gripping story of US troops trapped behind enemy lines in Somalia when their Black Hawk helicopters are shot down. The movie is based on a real-life event, the Battle of Mogadishu, in 1993. In this three-part docuseries, Scott’s production company goes back to Somalia to recount the real events that inspired the blockbuster hit. The series features interviews with US soldiers and militiamen who fought against them, along with Somali citizens, including a local photographer who felt it his moral duty to document the events. There are no Hollywood stars in this true version of events, but there are dramatic re-enactments and graphic footage taken in the thick of battle.
Reacher
From Thursday, February 20th, Prime Video
Bet you’re glad you bought that huge TV in the January sales, because now you can sit back and watch Lee Child’s humongous hero as he looms back for third helpings and eats another bunch of bad guys for breakfast. But you might need an even bigger screen, because in this third series, based on the seventh Jack Reacher book, Persuader, the extra-large ex-military man has to fight an adversary twice his size. “Last time I saw a guy twice your size was on Mount Rushmore,” his colleague quips. Alan Ritchson plays the titular giant living off the grid but still driven by an unstoppable sense of justice; this time around he has to infiltrate a crime syndicate and rescue an undercover agent, as well as deal with some emotional sucker-punches from his own past.
Zero Day
From Thursday, February 20th, Netflix
Robert De Niro stars in his first TV series, and it reads like a Democrat’s fever dream. Hollywood’s top never-Trumper plays a retired US president, George Mullen, who is called back to the Oval Office after a global zero-day cyberattack that has left thousands dead. Angela Bassett plays the current US president, Evelyn Mitchell, who puts Mullen in charge of hunting down the cyberterrorists. It’s like Mission: Impossible, although De Niro is unlikely to be riding a motorcycle off a cliff. Still, the ex-president will have to use all his old-boy wisdom to deal with a public backlash, thwart his political enemies and find the perpetrators before they launch another cyberattack. This heavy-hitting series also stars Jesse Plemons, Lizzy Caplan, Connie Britton, Joan Allen and Matthew Modine.
A Thousand Blows
From Friday, February 21st, Disney+
Stephen Graham stars as a hard-chaw bare-knuckle boxer, Sugar Goodson, in this new series written by Steven Knight, the Peaky Blinders creator, and set in the seedy underworld of the East End of London in the 1880s. Malachi Kirby plays Hezekiah Moscow, a Jamaican immigrant who quickly learns that he must think, and fight, on his feet if he’s going to survive in this unforgiving environment. Erin Doherty is Mary Carr, the leader of a notorious all-women band of thieves known as the Forty Elephants. As Hezekiah is drawn deeper into the world of illegal bare-knuckle boxing, he will come into Mary’s orbit, with potentially explosive consequences, and inevitably clash with Goodson, both in and outside the ring. Graham cuts a formidable figure as Sugar Goodson – he makes Vinnie Jones look like Rodney Trotter.
Surface
From Friday, February 21st, Apple TV+
You’ve watched series one of this twisty psychological thriller, and you think you have an idea what’s going on. You have no idea. Gugu Mbatha-Raw returns as Sophie, who is trying to put together the missing pieces of her life after losing her memory following a head injury. She apparently tried to kill herself, but something doesn’t add up, and she’s soon wondering if she can trust what her husband and friends are telling her. As she uncovers layer upon layer of secrets and lies, Sophie decides she’ll have to “disappear”, so she fakes suicide and heads to her home city of London, embedding herself in posh society and continuing her quest for answers. Mbatha-Raw is joined in this second season by the new cast members Joely Richardson, Rupert Graves, Tara Fitzgerald and Freida Pinto.
House of David
From Thursday, February 27th, Prime Video
Here’s a story of biblical proportions from the film-makers Jon Erwin and Jon Gunn, who have produced a string of successful Christian-based films and series. Michael Iskander stars as David, the future king of Israel, destined to take over the throne from the increasingly arrogant and self-serving King Saul. David is serving in Saul’s court, and as the king’s power wanes, the young acolyte becomes ever more powerful, making friends in high places (God) but also making a few enemies along the way. But never mind that: what we really want to see is that epic battle with Goliath. It had better beat Reacher.
