Queer Eye, Patriot Act, Leaving Neverland, Veep: Shows to watch on Netflix, Amazon, HBO, Hulu in March

(Now Streaming is a monthly recommendations column that will guide you on the most interesting shows to stream online.) Alright, we’ve watched Umbrella Academy . We watched the _Game of Thrones_ season 8 trailer over and over, and dissected it. We even got out of our pajamas to go see Brie Larson kick butt in Captain Marvel . But this is 2019, so while we wait with bated breath for Avengers: Endgame and the new GoT season, the streaming gods have ensured that we have another lazy month of delightful feasts to gorge on. And consume them we shall. Here’s what’s new/returning and interesting on the popular streaming platforms this March. Netflix Binge it ‘cause it’s out already: Secret City: Under the Eagle (season 2) Anna Torv (Fringe, Mindhunter) is back as journalist Harriet Dunkley in the sequel to Secret City, the Australian political thriller set amidst Canberra and its power grabbers. The first season was an astute and whip-smart look at some of the most important socio-political issues plaguing us, including surveillance states, military gamesmanship and political cover-ups. Under the Eagle continues with Harriet out of prison, and on a quest to unearth a secret military program. An exploration of Australia’s geopolitical dynamics with China and the US make this show a welcome departure from the usual America-centric thrillers that saturate the small and big screens. Can’t wait for this one!

Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj: Volume 2 (weekly episode) Hasan please-don’t-call-him-brown-John-Oliver Minhaj has made Patriot Act into an absolute must-watch show. Each week as a new episode drops on Netflix, Minhaj brings his stand-up comedy chops to a range of topics — from student loans and immigration policies to the absolute absurdity of “hype culture.” Volume 2 continues in a similar vein; last week’s episode was about the slow erosion of civil rights under Trump’s presidency, and was as always, delightfully entertaining and informative.

Romance is a Bonus Book (weekly episode) If, like me, you’re a fan of the Sutton Foster-Hilary Duff show Younger, then the break between its seasons must make you just as restless with anticipation. Enter the Korean drama Romance is a Bonus Book, a kinda sorta remake of Younger, but set in Seoul instead of New York. Kang Dan-i is a 37-year old former advertising executive who’s making a return into the workforce following a long-ish career break. In the intervening years, she’s had a daughter; now homeless and divorced from her cheating husband, Dan-i finds herself starting at the bottom of a publishing firm where her childhood friend, 32-year old (yup, knowing a person’s age is apparently very important in Korean culture!) Cha Eun-ho is the company’s youngest ever editor-in-chief. There’s an interesting backstory between the two, lots of romance, some very well fleshed-out side characters, a good bit of insight into Korean society to satisfy the curious mind, and a subtly feminist narrative underlining the show. If you haven’t given this one a go yet, you should - you can easily binge through the first twelve episodes to catch up.

After Life (season 1) A British dark comedy. Created, produced and directed by Ricky Gervais. Gervais essentially plays a guy who says and does whatever he wants. ‘Nuff said.

Upcoming highlights Love, Death and Robots, 15 March Netflix’s very ambiguous synopsis of this David Fincher-Tim Miller animated anthology series - “sentient dairy products, werewolf soldiers, robots gone wild, garbage monsters, cyborg bounty hunters, alien spiders and blood-thirsty demons from hell - all converge in eighteen NSFW animated stories” - doesn’t give away much, but the deliberately glitchy trailer sure makes it seem intriguing. Littered with clues that beg to be freeze-framed and analysed, the trailer is not just a mix of stories, but also of different animation styles. There’s plenty of violence and gore (Miller is the director of Deadpool after all, in case you’d forgotten), but hopefully there’ll be some good storytelling accompanying it. Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse has now raised audience expectations regarding anything animated, so fingers crossed for this one.

Queer Eye - 15 March  Yassssss! The Fab Five are back! Be prepared to weep, bawl, laugh, learn, and be sad and happy at the same time, because Tan, Jonathan, Antoni, Karamo and Bobby are back once more: to change our lives, upgrade people’s wardrobes/homes/hair/personalities, and stomp all over preconceived prejudices. Can it just be 15 March already?

Santa Clarita Diet (season 3), 29 March After two seasons of madness and laughs, Santa Clarita Diet has moved on from its original Desperate Housewives-meets-Dexter-meets-The Walking Dead premise to become one of the funniest shows around. There’s a certain manic-ness to this Drew Barrymore-starrer that makes it completely unpredictable and utterly enjoyable. Season 2 ended hilariously, with the Hammonds and Eric about to go on the run, just as sheriff’s deputy Anne Garcia found out about Sheila’s zombism, and her and Joel’s subsequent foray into murder and mayhem. The uber-religious Anne now considers Sheila to be some sort of religious phenomenon, which is a LOL-worthy thought in and of itself. I’m sure season 3 is going to be more nuts than we expect it to be, and I’m already expecting it to be pretty darn nutty.

  Amazon Binge it ‘cause it’s out already: The Widow (season 1) Kate Beckinsale stars in this thriller, as a woman who believes her husband has been dead for three years, only to spot him in the background during a televised news report. Dun dun dunnnn. I haven’t gotten round to watching it yet, and reviews have been mixed, but I’m somehow convinced that Beckinsale’s posh Oxford-enhanced accent can make any drama infinitely better - even one that may be trying to punch much above its weight.

Upcoming highlights - Hanna (season 1) - 29 March Based on the 2011 movie of the same name starring Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana, Hanna is an action drama series about a young girl raised in the Scandinavian wilderness by her ex-CIA operative father, to be an assassin. Another senior CIA agent tries to track down Hanna and her father, hoping to kill both. The movie was beautifully shot and had won rave reviews for Ronan and Blanchett, so let’s hope the series does it justice. Besides the rich source material, I’m excited for this show because of three words - The Killing reunion! Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman, who played homicide detective partners Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder on all four seasons of The Killing, star together in Hanna - except this time, they’re on opposite sides and gunning for each other. As a Linden-Holder superfan, I’m obviously stoked! The trailer doesn’t look quite as stylistic as the movie, but I’m very interested to see how the story unfolds. A temporary release of the first episode back in February got rave reviews, so there’s that too. Bring it on please!

  Hulu Upcoming highlights Shrill (season 1), 15 March Based on Lindy West’s 2016 self memoir Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman, Shrill is a comedy series starring Aidy Bryant as Annie - “a fat young woman who wants to change her life - but not her body. Annie is trying to make it as a journalist while juggling bad boyfriends, sick parents and a perfectionist boss, while the world around her deems her not good enough because of her weight. She starts to realize that she’s as good as anyone else, and acts on it.” I suppose you could argue that the body-embracing millennial sitcom genre was kind of lacking, and Shrill seems like it’s poised to unapologetically fill the generously-sized shoes.

The Act, 20 March  After last year’s Munchausen Syndrome by proxy nightmare that was Sharp Objects, this time it’s Hulu’s turn. The Act - based on the true story of a mother suffering from Munchausen Syndrome by proxy and her relationship with her “sick” daughter, is based on a horrifyingly disturbing and sad real life case chronicled in a BuzzFeed investigation by Michelle Dean. Patricia Arquette stars as the mother Dee Dee Blanchard, while Joey King (of Kissing Booth fame) plays her adult daughter Gypsy.

  HBO Binge it ‘cause it’s out already: Leaving Neverland HBO’s two-part documentary, which focuses on the two men who have alleged that they were sexually abused by Michael Jackson when they were children, may be a tough, grating pill to swallow if you’re a fan of the legendary pop star. But it’s an important one nevertheless.

Upcoming highlights - The Case Against Adnan Syed, 10 March  We listened to Serial religiously, obsessively. We loved it unequivocally. We read all the Reddit forums and then campaigned and petitioned against the wrongful conviction of Adnan Syed. Now Amy Berg picks up from where Sarah Koenig left, in the new true crime docuseries The Case Against Adnan Syed, which continues to explore narrative threads, relationships, the damning (as well as potentially exculpatory) evidence, and guilt and innocence surrounding Hae Min Lee’s death and Syed’s subsequent conviction for her murder.

The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, 18 March  HBO continues its documentary flex with The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley - about Elizabeth Holmes and her former multibillion dollar company Theranos. I’m not one for giving deceitful former billionaires the time of day, but knowing Theranos’ shameful $9 billion to less-than-zero valuation slide, I’m interested in understanding the role Holmes played in her company’s downfall. Let’s just hope this deters potential Silicon Valley heist enthusiasts, and doesn’t give them leverage and ideas instead!

Veep (season 7), 31 March After six seasons of arguably the best comedy involving unlikeable people since Seinfeld, Veep will sadly end its run this year. The last we saw them, Selina and Jonah ‘not even his mom’s favourite Jonah’ Ryan are both running for President…which should go quite well, said no-one ever. When Veep first started its run nearly seven years ago, it was funny and satirical and audacious. It still is all of that - the only difference is that back then, we were naive enough to believe that inefficient Presidents, corrupt and impotent administrations, and a clusterf**k of a presidency was something that only happened on TV and in movies. Ah, good times.

Also coming to HBO this month are Grisse (6 March), Psi season 4 (29 March), and Barry season 2 (31 March). And then…there are all of these: