What to watch on streaming in November 2024: Netflix, Disney, Stan, Apple, Binge and more

DUNE: PROPHECY (Binge, 18th)

After five years in development and production, the long-promised Dune spin-off series is here. This is blockbuster TV, fitting given the scale of Denis Villeneuve’s two cinema adaptations of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic.

Starring Emily Watson, Olivia Williams and a suite of Australian actors including Yerin Ha and Shalom Brune-Franklin, the six episodes are set 10,000 years before the Timothee Chalamet movies and will focus on how the mysterious sect of the Bene Gesserit sisters came to power.

BAD SISTERS S2 (Apple TV+, 13th)

The first season ended with as close to a happy ending as you could get but anything as dramatic as an abusive husband’s not-so-accidental death was going to have consequences. So, we return to the world of the five Garvey sisters, each dealing with the twists and turns of their lives in Dublin.

The new instalment moves beyond the story of the original Belgian series from which it was adapted, and there is another dead body, formidable new antagonists and the pervasive anxiety that comes from all those secrets.

A MAN ON THE INSIDE (Netflix, 21st)

Based on the Oscar-nominated documentary The Mole Agent, this series reunites Ted Danson with his The Good Place creator Mike Schur — a perfect combo of talent, as many will attest.

Danson plays a retired and widowed professor who responds to a job ad looking for a private investigator assistant. His mission is to go undercover in an old folks’ home to solve the mystery of a stolen heirloom. There, he finds a community of suspects but also potential friends, which makes investigating them a little bit harder.

THE AGENCY (Paramount+, 30th)

There are some very impressive names involved with The Agency, starting with producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov. The star-studded cast includes Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Jodie Turner-Smith, Richard Gere and Hugh Bonneville, through to writers Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth (Ford v Ferrari, Edge of Tomorrow).

Even more remarkable is the source material for The Agency: the excellent French espionage thriller Le Bureau des Legendes, which centred on an undercover spy who returns home after years in the field.

INTERIOR CHINATOWN (Disney+, 19th)

With Taika Waititi as the set-up director and Jimmy O Yang (Silicon Valley) and former Australian-based comedian Ronny Chieng as its stars, this offbeat comedy is created by Charles Yu, who adapted it from his own best-selling novel. The official logline sounds weird and the trailer was even stranger.

In theory, it’s the story of Willis Wu (Yang), a background character who isn’t even the lead of his own story, let alone the police procedural he’s “trapped” in. When he witnesses a crime, he becomes part of a plot involving the secrets of his family and of Chinatown. The cast also includes Chloe Bennet and Australians Diana Lin and Chris Pang.

SEX LIVES OF COLLEGE GIRLS S3 (Binge, 22nd)

Two years ago, Sex Lives of College Girls left audiences hanging as the futures of the show’s four leads hung in the balance. Everyone was facing a dilemma as their first year of university drew to a close. Soon, we’ll finally get some answers.

We know one thing, which is that cast member Renee Rapp won’t be returning as a regular but she’ll be around long enough to give character Leighton a proper exit. Sassy, honest and funny, the Mindy Kaling co-created comedy explores sexual desire, friendship and learning to become a better version of yourself.

BLITZ (Apple TV+, 22nd)

Once you get over the fact that Saoirse Ronan, who many of us remember as a child actor, is now old enough to play the mother of a young boy, you may notice that Blitz is directed by Steve McQueen, the gifted British filmmaker behind Shame, Hunger and Small Axe.

The World War II film is centred on a nine-year-old boy who fights his evacuation to the countryside by rebelliously returning to London as the city is being bombed.

THE DAY OF THE JACKAL (Binge, 7th)

Adapted from Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel which had previously been made into a 1973 movie, this TV version stars Eddie Redmayne as a ruthless assassin in a cat-and-mouse game with the intelligence agent tasked with his capture.

The 10-episode thriller updates the original story to the present day while the stretched time frame of a series allows for the story to explore the mysterious backstory of a cipher.

CRUEL INTENTIONS (Prime Video, 21st)

A study released last week found today’s teens are increasingly prudish about sexual content in TV shows and movies — perhaps that explains why the 2024 remake of the sexually charged 1999 teen movie upgraded its characters from high school to university.

The broad strokes remain the same as Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s scandalous 18th-century novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a cautionary tale of privileged rich folks toying with people for kicks and power. The transplants from the Sarah Michelle Gellar movie include the cocaine crucifix necklace, that vintage Jaguar and Sean Patrick Thomas.

BEATLES ’64 (Disney+, 29th)

Martin Scorsese is the producer behind this documentary about Beatlemania in America. Directed by David Tedeschi, the film will feature previously unseen and rare footage of the band’s tour of the continent in 1964, when standing in a crowd of feverish, screaming fans might have burst an eardrum.

Beatles ’64 not only tries to capture that public hysteria but also the intimate experiences of four lads from Liverpool. There are also new interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

OUTLANDER S7.2 (Binge, 23rd)

Outlander stars Sam Heughan and Catriona Balfe have already finished filming the show’s eighth and final season but we’re getting ahead of ourselves because the historical, time-travelling series adapted from Diana Gabaldon’s books still has to roll out the second half of season seven.

Jamie and Claire were sailing back to Scotland after their adventures in the American Revolutionary War but it’s not the homecoming either had expected. Asked what to expect from the upcoming batch of episodes, Heughan has promised, “revenge”. How ominous.

YELLOWSTONE S5.2 (Stan, 11th)

When it comes to swagger and aggression, Yellowstone has it by the bucket load. The soapy western returns for what is likely to be its final season with the Dutton family facing off against each other. Everyone wants power, land and money and no one has any interest in de-escalation.

The Taylor Sheridan-created show is coming back without its former star Kevin Costner, after the actor fell out with producers over scheduling conflicts and accusations of contract breaches. Maybe the best Yellowstone drama is happening off-screen.

BASED ON A TRUE STORY S2 (Binge, 21st)

In the same way that everyone tried to make their own true crime podcast, every streamer seems to want a TV show about people trying to make a true crime podcast. This version stars Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina as a couple who come across a real-life serial killer and collaborate with him on a podcast about his murders — as you do.

It’s supposed to be a satire but it was too lightweight to actually grapple with the ethics of the contentious genre. Still, it provided occasional chuckles and mildly charismatic performances. The second season has a new showrunner in Physical’s Annie Weisman so maybe it can find some bite.

JOY (Netflix, 22nd)

It takes nine months for a human baby to gestate but it took a hell of a lot longer for the world’s first test tube baby to arrive in 1978. Starring Thomasin McKenzie, James Norton and Bill Nighy, Joy is the story of the medical team that spent 10 years trying to crack the science in making it happen.

It’s told through the experiences of Jean Purdy, the young nurse and embryologist, who worked with a scientist and a surgeon to develop IVF.

MY OLD ASS (Prime Video, 7th)

If you missed My Old Ass at the cinemas (tsk tsk, shame on you), the tender coming-of-age story arrives on streaming this month.

While it has a high-concept premise — during a mushroom trip, 18-year-old Elliott meets her 39-year-old future self who warns her to stay away from anyone named Chad — it’s really about that time in your life when you’re impatient to grow up but should really slow down and appreciate what you have before it’s gone.

JURY: DEATH ON THE STAIRCASE (SBS On Demand, 6th)

Adapted from a UK format, the docuseries is something of a social experiment. The way it works is this: the show will take the details of a historical, real-life manslaughter trial, change the names, dates and locations but otherwise re-enact it word-for-word.

Deciding the fate are 12 volunteer jurors designed to represent a cross-section of Australian society, who will hear the case. Will they arrive at the same verdict as the previous jury, and what does it reveal about the system set up to judge our peers?

CROSS (Prime Video, 14th)

Since 1995, James Patterson has written more than 20 Alex Cross novels, so there is plenty of source material for stories about the fictional Washington DC-based detective and psychologist who seems to get caught up in all manner of deadly plots.

The character has appeared in three previous screen adaptations and two of those starred Morgan Freeman, so they are big shoes for Aldis Hodge to fill.

SILO S2 (Apple TV+, 15th)

The Rebecca Ferguson-led sci-fi series set up an intriguing premise in its first season — the last 10,000 human inhabitants of Earth live in an underground structure, but is what they have been told about the toxic world above them true?

The second season picks up where the previous one left off, with Ferguson’s character, Juliette, having made it to the surface where her discoveries kick off what promises to be new mysteries.

MY BRILLIANT FRIEND S4 (SBS On Demand, 14th)

We only ever got a new season of My Brilliant Friend every two years but the wait was always worth it. The richly textured, lush and intense drama is adapted from Elena Ferrante’s Neopolitan novels, the story of two women, Lenu and Lila, whose lives have been intrinsically bonded since they were children in 1950s Naples.

With the fourth season, the story shifts to the 1980s and the differences that made them unlikely friends may be what saves them. The series has always been an immersive, intoxicating portrayal of a time and a place, and the people born and shaped by that.

MURDER IN A SMALL TOWN (7plus, 19th)

The Canadian procedural stars Rossif Sutherland (son of Donald, half-brother to Kiefer) and Kristin Kreuk (Smallville) as a detective and a librarian, respectively, who solve crimes in, you guessed it, a petite village.

Based on the Alberg and Cassandra Mysteries by LR Wright, the series does manage to call up some interesting guest stars, including James Cromwell, Stana Katic (Castle) and Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica).