Alex-feature-images-2025-05-23T155901.985.png

Pop CultureMay 26, 2025

New to streaming: What to watch on Netflix NZ, Neon and more this week

Guest writer
Alex-feature-images-2025-05-23T155901.985.png

We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+

Don’t (TVNZ+, May 29)

Bubbah, the comedian you might recognise as Tina from Turners, is staring down the barrel of 30. With big questions about marriage, parenthood and homeownership swirling in her noggin, the riotous and irreverent Don’t sees her team up with fellow local comedians Courtney Dawson, Rhiannon McCall, and Bailey Poching. Together they explore these pressing choices and ask: Does this generation want the same things as our mātua?

Anora (Neon, June 1)

Anora swept the 2025 Oscars, picking up four awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress for Mikey Madison as the titular vivacious exotic dancer. Preferring to go by Ani, she is introduced to Mark Eydelshtey, aka the Russian Timothée Chalamet, at a Midtown Manhattan club and the two begin a pay-to-play relationship. Before long, they impulsively elope to Vegas, but their marital bliss is short lived once Eydelshtey’s oligarch parents and three hired thugs set out to annul their marriage. This screwball Cinderella tale is “both thrilling and heartbreaking, both boisterous and shatteringly sad.”

And Just Like That (Neon, May 30)

And just like that, we’re back in Manhattan with Sarah Jessica Parker as she settles into her Gramercy Park townhouse. In season three of the Sex and the City sequel, the cosmopolitan connoisseur is joined again by John Corbett, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis, who, with the wisdom of age, continue to navigate the complicated reality of life, love and friendship in the Big Apple. While And Just Like That may never never live up to its predecessor, it’s “intensely quotable, brilliantly watchable and packed with hilarious high jinks.”

Dept. Q (Netflix, May 29)

Based on the book series by Jussi Adler-Olsen, Dept. Q reunites Oscar nominee and The Queen’s Gambit director Scott Frank with the always superb Matthew Goode. In this hair-raising police procedural, Goode plays a notorious English detective who’s made misty Edinburgh his adopted home. Returning to the beat after a tragic shooting left his partner paralysed, the doleful detective is now in charge of a newly formed, rag-tag police unit that investigates cold cases. Unearthing some blood-curdling secrets, Dept. Q is set to be thrilling from start to finish.

Bono: Stories of Surrender (Apple TV+, May 30)

Unlike Songs of Innocence, the 13th studio album by U2, Andrew Dominik’s Bono: Stories of Surrender won’t appear without explanation on your phone. Rather, this kinetic reimagining of the U2 frontman’s one-man show premiered at Cannes a week ago, receiving a seven-minute standing ovation. The half-concert film, half-documentary sees the divisive megastar musing on life, love, and loss in what has been called a “captivating” free-form, monochromatic musical memoir that is bound to hit all the right notes.

Pick of the Flicks: Mountainhead (Neon, June 1)

Succession creator Jesse Armstrong’s debut feature Mountainhead stars Cory Michael Smith, Steve Carell, Ramy Youssef, and Jason Schwartzman as a posse of tech billionaires who, in the midst of a global crisis, gather at a Bond villain-like ski lodge for a lads’ getaway. Owing to a new vitriolic social media platform and its powerful generative AI tools that continue to escalate the crisis, the fate of humanity now rests in the hands of these Muskian plutocrats. Blending “erudition, wit, cruelty, and perversity,” Armstrong’s timely vivisection of tech and social media is sure to pull no punches.

The rest

Netflix

Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders (May 26)

Mike Birbiglia: The Good Life (May 26)

CoComelon: S13 (May 26)

F1: The Academy (May 28)

Dept. Q (May 29)

The Heart Knows (May 30)

A Widow’s Game (May 30)

Aunty Donna’s Coffee Cafe (May 30)

TVNZ+

Love Triangle UK S2 (May 27)

Don’t (May 29)

American Princess (May 29)

Legally Blonde(May 29)

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde (May 29)

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (May 29)

Aotearoa Music Awards (30 May)

Porn, Power, Profit (June 31)

Nashville (June 1)

ThreeNow

90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? S7 (May 30)

All American S1-S6 (June 1)

Neon

Vida the Vet (May 26)

Gladiator II (May 27)

Terms of Endearment (May 27)

Filthy Fortunes S1 (May 27)

Rick And Morty S8 (May 28)

The Equalizer S5 (May 29)

And Just Like That S3 (May 30)

Baby Looney Tunes S2 (May 31)

Ben 10 (2005) S2 (May 31)

Jellystone! S2 (May 31)

Regular Show S3-4 (May 31)

Steven Universe S1-S3 (May 31)

Murder Under The Friday Night Lights S4 (June 1)

1000-lb Sisters S5 (June 1)

Naked and Afraid S10 (June 1)

Mountainhead (June 1)

Anora (June 1)

How To Have Sex (June 1)

Ka Po (June 1)

The Seeding (June 1)

Prime Video

The Better Sister (May 29)

Grimm S1–S6 (June 1)

Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey (June 1)

Masters of the Universe (June 1)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (June 1)

Road House (June 1)

The Pink Panther Show S1–S4  (June 1)

The New Pink Panther Show S1–S2 (June 1)

Mr. Robot S1–S4 (June 1)

Law & Order: SVU S24 (June 1)

Disney+

Tracker: S2 (Episodes 15-20) (May 28)

Little Fires Everywhere (May 28)

Adults (May 29)

Apple TV+

Bono: Stories of Surrender (May 30)

Lulu Is a Rhinoceros (May 30)

Shudder/AMC+/Acorn/HIDIVE

Boglands (Acorn TV, AMC+, May 26)

The Whip and the Body (Shudder, May 26)

Hagazussa (Shudder, May 26)

Vampire Hunter D (Shudder, AMC+, HIDIVE, May 30)

The Righteous (Shudder, June 1)

Hypochondriac (Shudder, June 1)

In My Skin (Shudder, June 1)

Wolfcop (Shudder, June 1)

Another Wolfcop (Shudder, June 1)

DocPlay

Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story (May 26)

Keep going!
Ryan Bridge interviews David Seymour on Herald Now (Screengrab / Design: Tina Tiller)
Ryan Bridge interviews David Seymour on Herald Now (Screengrab / Design: Tina Tiller)

MediaMay 26, 2025

Review: Ryan Bridge’s hectic new live morning show

Staff writer
Ryan Bridge interviews David Seymour on Herald Now (Screengrab / Design: Tina Tiller)
Ryan Bridge interviews David Seymour on Herald Now (Screengrab / Design: Tina Tiller)

Tara Ward watches the first episode of new digital news show Herald Now.

“The journalists are already sick of me,” Ryan Bridge announced in the opening moments of Herald Now, NZ Herald’s new digital news show that premiered this morning. The broadcaster explained that he’d been standing in the middle of the NZME newsroom all week, rehearsing to launch the weekday show that promises “the news you need to know now”. But this time, not only was Bridge standing in the newsroom, he was also streaming live on both YouTube and nzherald.co.nz, and at 7am he was ready to kickstart the morning’s first news bulletin. 

“You’ve probably heard Niva’s voice before, but she’s a looker too,” Bridge said of Niva Retimanu, who read the news from the Newstalk ZB studio. Back in the newsroom, Bridge began with “Bridge does the business”, while behind him, journalists darted around as they hustled the morning headlines. While Bridge rattled off the latest OCR figures, my frazzled early-morning brain did business of its own by wondering what was really hiding inside the NZME newsroom fridge.

An interview about benefit sanctions was quickly followed by an appearance from soon-to-be-deputy-prime-minister David Seymour, who seemed to have all day to lean on the desk and tell us how stink the country is right now. In contrast, Bridge, having already hosted Newstalk ZB’s Early Edition at 5am this morning, was fast and full of hand-waving energy. He pressed Seymour about spending $20 million a year on the Regulatory Standards Bill, to which Seymour rambled about Nick Smith “getting away scot free” about earthquake regulations, or something. 

Bridge had lots of paper on his desk and lots of things to discuss, including Seymour’s upcoming debate at the Oxford Union. Seymour explained he would speak against the argument that “no one can be illegal on stolen land”. Bridge brought up David Lange’s iconic “I can smell the uranium” Oxford Union one-liner back in 1985 – would Seymour think of some jokes ahead of time? “Sometimes the best jokes just happen,” Seymour said. 

Speaking of jokes: on to the bleak state of our public health system. Journalist Michael Morrah stopped in to discuss his exclusive story about the pressures on Middlemore Hospital last winter, when more than 1,500 patients were treated in corridors during a 36-day period. Hospitals are overloaded and understaffed, Morrah confirmed, sharing heartbreaking comments from stressed medical professionals in the first of his three-part series about the desperate condition of the system. 

It was an important issue, but Bridge didn’t take it up with Nicola Willis, whose interview followed Morrah’s. Willis stood in for prime minister Christopher Luxon, who was suffering from a winter virus, and Bridge questioned her about changes to KiwiSaver. “We’re worse off overall,” he argued, to which Willis suggested people should just look at the retirement website. Bridge concluded the interview by asking if Willis was wearing the same blue dress she wore on Budget Day. “If you are, go for it girl,” he said. 

“The 1950s called, and they want their line of questioning back,” Willis replied, while I wanted to put my head deep inside that NZME staff fridge.  

After the 7.30am news, Bridge was also searching for answers. “I enjoy a nice dress as much as your next gay man,” he began. “Should I have asked about it? Probably not.” No matter, here’s Heather with the weather, and a budget review with business entrepreneur Carmen Vicelich, who was forced to Zoom in from the Koru Lounge shower rooms due to the lack of privacy. “We need some private rooms so we can do business,” she complained. It was Middlemore Hospital all over again, except with a 20% government tax break for new machinery purchases.

At 7.56am, after a frenetic hour of interviews, Bridge took what seemed to be his first breath of the morning during the sports round-up. Later, after more ads selling me the wet weather gear that All Black Scott Barrett wears when he milks the cows, Dame Julie Christie and Matt Heath popped by for a Monday morning panel and Christie dropped a Costco bombshell: you have to buy 48 rolls of toilet paper at once. 

While I reeled from this astonishing revelation, Bridge discussed the supermarket duopoly with a supermarket duopoly expert and read out the morning’s viewer feedback. Rob was glad there was now something “substantial” to watch in the morning, while Philip asked “how do I pause and rewind please?” Viewer Alan’s attention was elsewhere: “What is annoying for me is the background activity.”

“Perhaps you guys could just all go away?” Bridge turned and joked to his colleagues, who grinned and waved. They’re busy, Bridge assured Alan, but maybe David Seymour was right. Between the Herald Now’s toilet paper chitchat, shower room revelations and that mysterious newsroom fridge, sometimes the best jokes do just happen.

Herald Now streams live on YouTube and NZ Herald, Monday-Friday from 7am.

Pop Culture