Movies and TV New to Streaming, Oct. 20

It’s the weekend again, and time for another roundup of the new movies and television shows added to Hulu, Netflix and Amazon this week. So lets get to it!

HULU

Hulu has a few exciting additions this week, including Harrow, the Australian drama , starring Ioan Gruffudd. Gruffudd stars as a forensic pathologist,Harrow, who is  able to solve even the most difficult crime, and the series also stars Mirrah Foulkes, Remy Hill, Anna Lise Phillips and Robyn Malcolm. There are 10 episodes on Hulu, and season 2 has already been confirmed. And it gets a 7.4/10 on IMDb. Also new to Hulu, is  Venus in Fur, a 2013 French drama, directed by Roman Polanski. Based on the play of the same name by David Ives, this movie is about the casting of a lead role for a play, in Paris, that calls for a commanding actress.   The film stars Emanuelle Seigner and Mattheiu Amalric as the director and actress, and is said to be autobiographical, for Polanski and his real-life wife, Seigner. Venus in Fur got a lot of buzz at Cannes, winning the Best Director Award, and it gets an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. If you’re opposed to Polanski,  of course, don’t watch, but I just wanted to put it out there. Hulu has also added the 3rd season of Please Like Me, the Australian comedy/drama series from Pivot. This series stars Josh Thomas( who also writes a lot of the episodes), in the story of an awkward and kind of shy guy, who happens to be gay, and also stars Debra Lawrance, David Roberts and Renee Lim, as his friends and family. It’s a lovely, heartfelt and honest show, has won several awards, including from Australian Directors Guild Awards, for best direction, TV comedy, and gets an amazing 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.And, finally, since that’s about it for new additions on Hulu, I’ll give a recommendation for a thrilling show for Halloween,  Intruders, from BBC America. It’s from 2007,  and about a secret group of individuals and their quest for immortality. it stars Mira Sorvino, John Simm, Tory Kitties and Millie Bobby Brown( Eleven, from Stranger Things!), is dark and spooky, perfect for this time of year. And it gets a 6.7/10 on IMDb.

NETFLIX

Yes, Netflix has some good new additions this week, the foremost being  Wanderlust, a 2018 Netflix original British series. It has a great cast, with Toni Collette, Steven MacKintosh, Zawe Ashton and Emma D’Arcy, and deals with a couple with a tired marriage, as well as three kids, who decide to start dating other people. It’s a kind of old premise, at least with the open marriage, but it has a great cast, so I’m including it. And it gets a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes. Also, new on Netflix is Wild District, a 2018 series from Colombia. It stars Juan Pablo Raba, Cristina Umana, Camila Sodi and Paula Costano, and is the tale of an ex-guerilla, given the chance to go undercover to fight governmental corruption. There is very little info on this series online, as it is new, but  it gets an 8.5/10 on IMDb, so I’m watching. Netflix also has Best.Worst.Weekend.Ever., another Netflix original series, this time from New Zealand. This is a teen drama, in the tradition of Adventures in Babysitting, starring Sam Ashe Arnold, Brianna Reed and Cole Sand, as a bunch of kids on their way to Comic-Con. And it gets a 7.3/10 on IMDb.  Another foreign comedy was added to Netflix this week, How to Get Over  Breakup, from Peru. This 2018 movie is about an ad copywriter, who turns to blogging after her wrenching breakup, and stars Gisele Ponce de Leon, Karina Jordan and Jely Reategul. There are no ratings or reviews available for this movie, but it is funny, and female-centric, which I like. And, finally, Netflix has added Haunted, a new Netflix original series. But this series is not fiction, or so it says, it’s reenactments of people’s personal otherworldly experiences, as they themselves tell the story. I don’t know how reliable this is, again, there is little or no information about the show online, and there are no ratings on IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes. So watch at your own peril.

AMAZON

Amazon  has a few additions this week, one of them being Slice, a 2018 horror movie starring Chance the Rapper. You guessed it, it is a comedy as well, so when pizza delivery guys are getting murdered in a small town, the town goes wild, and anything can happen. Chance plays a werewolf, but there are many humans too, played by Zazie Betz, Chris Parnell and Paul Scheer and it gets a 59% on Rotten Tomatoes. If you want something more serious, Amazon also has The Humbling, the 2014 drama. Based on the Philip Roth novel of the same name, the Humbling is about an aging actor(Al Pacino) whose life brightens up with his relationship with a younger actress (Greta Gerwig), but there are other women, and problems arise regarding his age. It also stars Nina Arianda, Charles Grodin, Kyra Sedgwick and Dianne Weist, it is directed by Barry Levinson, and is written by Buck Henry and Michael Zebede. With such a good pedigree, I’m watching and it gets a 5.6/10 on IMDb. Amazon has also added The Yellow Birds, a 2017 war movie. It stars Tye Sheridan, Alden Ehrenreich, Toni Collette, Jason Patric, Jack Huston and Jennifer Aniston in a tale of  two soldiers trying to survive in Iraq. It gets a 5.7/10 on IMDb. and, finally, Amazon has Imprint, a 2007 supernatural thriller starring  Tonantzin Carmelo. Carmelo plays a Native American lawyer, who goes home for her father’s last days, and starts having visions and hearing voices after his death. It also stars Michael Spears, David Bald Eagle, Carla Rae, Charlie White Buffalo and Tim Black Bear and is directed by Chris Eyre(Smoke Signals). And Imprint gets a 6.0/10 on IMDb.

So sit back and binge this weekend on great TV and movies, new and old!