A(nother) Nicole Kidman TV show, a quiet & electric action film, and an under-the radar comedy

Your weekly streaming TV guide

A change in strategy at Netflix? Big TV show releases during the week, with movies dropped on a Friday?

Smart move, I’d suggest - it creates more of an event out of a Friday movie release, while giving some workplace/school word-of-mouth for new Wed/Thu release TV shows on the Friday.

This week has cinema enthusiast Nicole Kidman in her second TV show of the year (she has also done two movies - one was for Netflix), following the very good Expats on Prime Video. The Perfect Couple, which is streaming now on Netflix, is a murder-mystery set at a wedding.

On Friday, Netflix has programmed the new film from Blue Ruin’s Jeremy Saulnier. Rebel Ridge has a pretty generic Netflix actioner name and, if I didn’t notice it was Saulnier directing, I’d probably skip right past it.

Reviews are a bit mixed, but those who are into it are really into it. Benjamin Lee at The Guardian warns viewers not to dismiss it out of hand:

Sounding like some anonymous action slop that might star a lesser-known Hemsworth, one might expect that, along with a brawn over brains trailer and a barely existent PR campaign, it’s yet another one of the streamer’s low-impact time-erasers. But there’s far more here to chew on, a full three-course meal cropping up on a platform that usually distracts us with snacks, and one of the most damning arguments to be made against a film-maker of note partnering with them, a movie that deserved the very most somehow saddled with the very least.

Netflix has a real marketing problem with the (very much earned) perception of its original movies. They’ve made a strategy pivot, but it’ll be another year or more until we start to see that pay off for them.

You’ll note the TV show on a Thursday, movie on a Friday release happening again next week on Netflix with a fresh batch of Emily in Paris followed by new film Uglies.

Something I really enjoyed during the week is new half-hour comedy English Teacher. Starring the show’s creator/director Brian Jordan Alvarez (with some episodes written by his regular collaborator and co-star Stephanie Koenig), the show is set in a Texas high school where the young-ish teachers are struggling with the friction between their more progressive, millennial attitudes and the bureaucracy of dealing with parents and students alike.

The first episode is pretty decent, but make sure you follow it with the second episode where the show settles in quickly to its groove.

Paul Simms (who, for years, has coasted off the goodwill of his excellent 90s sitcom Newsradio), is the co-showrunner of English Teacher. He has amassed a career now of working with young/first time showrunners in bringing off-beat comedies to TV. You’ll find his fingerprints on Flight of The Conchords, What We Do In The Shadows, Bored To Death, Atlanta, and Girls.

But the real event this weekend is the return of Slow Horses on Apple TV+. If you haven’t pressed play on it yet, you’ve made a big mistake in your life. Maybe cancel your weekend plans and engage in a course correction.

Slow Horses (s04), Tell me Lies (s02), Power Book II: Ghost (s04-2)

English Teacher - Hulu / FX [US] | Disney+ [International]

Stars: Brian Jordan Alvarez, Stephanie Koenig, Enrico Colatoni
Evan Marquez is an English teacher in Austin, Texas, who often finds himself at the intersection of the personal, professional and political aspects of working at a high school.

The Perfect Couple - Netflix

Stars: Eve Hewson, Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber
When a lavish wedding ends in disaster before it can even begin - with a body discovered just hours before the ceremony - everyone in the wedding party is a suspect.

Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist - Peacock [US] | BINGE [Australia]

Stars: Kevin Hart, Samuel L Jackson, Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard
The infamous armed robbery story after Muhammad Ali's historical comeback fight in 1970.

Dead and Buried - BBC Northern Ireland

Stars: Annabel Scholey, Colin Morgan
A woman is shocked to run into the man who killed her brother 20 years ago because she had no idea the man had been released from jail and lives in her town.

Murai In Love - Hulu [US] | Disney+ [International]

Stars: Ryubi Miyase
The story tells a romantic comedy between Tanaka, a high school teacher who loves otome games, and Murai, a high school boy who is in love with Tanaka.

Rebel Ridge - Netflix

Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Stars: Aaron Pierre, Don Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, David Denman, Emory Cohen, Steve Zissis, Zsane Jhe, Dana Lee, and James Cromwell
A former Marine confronts corruption in a small town when local law enforcement unjustly seizes the bag of cash he needs to post his cousin's bail.

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That’s the TV listings newsletter for this week.

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