What’s new on Netflix, Crave, Prime and Criterion this week

It stands to reason that Netflix release schedules are determined months in advance; in the last couple of days we’ve had reason to believe that absolutely nothing is set in stone. That being said, it likely means that Netflix is going to release more stuff, not less.

Bloodride is a Norwegian horror anthology series about a bunch of people trapped on a “spectral bus.”

Presumably each episode tells the story of a passenger on said bus.

From the somewhat neighbouring Iceland comes The Valhalla Murders, a TV series that furthers the tried-and-true tradition of Nordic crime drama.

100 Humans is a documentary series in which 100 people are put through various challenges to test out various theories that may or may not fall in the realm of urban myths or tall tales. Reviews are not particularly kind to the show, which is admittedly being released at the worst possible time.

Finally, the last of today’s Netflix releases is Lost Girls, a crime drama feature film that was one of Netflix’s many Sundance pick-ups. Amy Ryan stars as the mother of a disappeared girl (played by Thomasin Mckenzie of Jojo Rabbit fame) who uncovers a series of murders of young sex workers in Long Island.

New on Netflix on Thursday

March 19 sees another flurry of releases — ones that were presumably timed for March Break in the United States. Releases of interest to grown-ups (or anyone, I think, who isn’t a cabin-fever-stricken child) include Feel Good, a new series starring Canadian/British comedian Mae Martin based on her own life; The Platform, a high-concept satirical horror movie from Spain that many loved at TIFF (though I did not); Self-Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker, a miniseries starring Octavia Spencer as the titular black-hair-care mogul; Ultras, an Italian drama about an ageing soccer hoodlum; and Tiger King, a true-crime docuseries about a man who owned elaborate, tiger-centric businesses… only to be sentenced to jail for violence against the same animals.

New on Crave

Crave subscribers are not presented with such a slate. Besides a slew of short animated films from the Cartoon Hangover online network, March 13 sees the release of season of Where to I Do, a reality show about people trying to find their perfect wedding venue, which is sure to be extremely relevant to all of us trapped inside our homes eating toilet paper.

Crave subscribers with the HBO + Movies package can also finally catch up to the sluggish, depressed Dark Phoenix and the Canadian sci-fi film Code 8. Throughout the week, however, many beloved series are returning: Westworld, Black Monday, Brockmire, My Brilliant Friend. Also premiering is the anticipated adaptation of Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America which stars Zoe Kazan and John Turturro.

New on Amazon Prime

On Prime, season 3 of Loudermilk, a show created by Peter Farrelly and starring Ron Livingston as an embittered rehab counselor — a show that I’ve never heard a single person mention in my life — is dropping on March 15 alongside the latest season of The Good Wife spin-off The Good Fight, starring Christine Baranski.

Prime’s pretty thin in terms of movies: you can assuage your morbid curiosity with Jay & Silent Bob Reboot, Kevin Smith’s umpteenth plundering of his back catalogue or The Wedding Year, a romcom starring Sarah Hyland (Modern Family) and Tyler James Williams (Everybody Hates Chris).

New on Criterion Channel

Criterion Channel’s collection-based release schedule is perhaps best suited for quarantine-driven consumption. On March 15, the channel premieres Starring Rita Hayworth; the 13-film series of movies features the ’40s star dubbed “the Love Goddess.”

On March 18, a retrospective of the work of independent director Kathleen Collins drops. Though she only had two shorts and a feature under her belt at the time of her sudden death, she is considered a trailblazing filmmaker by many. Finally, March 19 sees the release of three movies from Harvard University’s Sensory Ethography Lab. All three films are directed by the lab’s supervisor, Lucien Castaing-Taylor; all three are also rather radical documentary film experiences. ■

See what’s new on Netflix Canada here.

For what’s new on Crave, click here.

Find out what’s new on Amazon Prime here.

See what’s new on Criterion Channel here.

Read about Quebec’s first Netflix production (in cinemas now, coming to Netflix on March 27) here.