Streaming Sneaks: Surprising heroes and villains in September
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Colin Farrell stars in The Penguin, a spin-off on the villain in the 2022 superhero film The Batman.
PHOTO: HBO GO
Follow topic:
SINGAPORE – In this monthly column, The Straits Times’ streaming picks for September feature complicated villains, ageing spies, underperforming cops and high society miscreants in new and returning series.
Anti-hero’s journey: The Penguin
Premieres on HBO and HBO Go on Sept 20
Colin Farrell was so compelling as Oswald Cobb – the villain known as The Penguin in The Batman, the 2022 superhero film starring Robert Pattinson – that he earned the character its own spin-off.
Set a week after the events of the movie, which ended with the disastrous flooding of Gotham City, the eight-episode limited series traces the Penguin’s anti-hero journey as he becomes a power player in Gotham’s criminal underworld.
But he must first wrest control from Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), the mentally unhinged daughter of a kingpin whose death has created a power vacuum.
Why watch it: Farrell somehow manages to humanise this grotesque-looking supervillain – not easy given the thick make-up and prosthetics, which make the former Hollywood heart-throb unrecognisable.
Sexy murder mystery: The Perfect Couple
Premieres on Netflix on Sept 5
(Clockwise from back row, left) Sam Nivola, Billy Howle, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor, Dakota Fanning, Nicole Kidman and Eve Hewson in The Perfect Couple.
PHOTO: NETFLIX
Directed by Danish film-maker Susanne Bier (The Undoing, 2020; The Night Manager, 2016), this sexy murder mystery stars Irish actress Eve Hewson, daughter of U2 rocker Bono, as Amelia, a young woman poised to marry into the richest family in town.
Her future mother-in-law Greer (Nicole Kidman) spares no expense for the high-society nuptials, even though she does not approve.
But festivities screech to a halt when a dead body washes up at their New England beach house, and everyone becomes a suspect in the investigation, which threatens to expose a web of secrets and lies.
The series – based on the 2018 novel of the same name by romance author Elin Hilderbrand – also stars Liev Schreiber, Dakota Fanning and Meghann Fahy.
Why watch it: Bier – who won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for Danish drama In A Better World (2010), and is known for her unnerving explorations of family dynamics and moral ambiguities – describes The Perfect Couple as elegant popcorn. And while Kidman is acclaimed for her serious dramatic turns – in films such as The Hours (2002), which earned her an Oscar, and the television drama Big Little Lies (2017 to 2019) – she is most enjoyable in campy roles like this.
Ageing spy frenemies kick butt: The Old Man 2
Premieres on Disney+ on Sept 13
Jeff Bridges in The Old Man 2.
PHOTO: DISNEY+
Debuting in 2022, the first season of thriller drama The Old Man introduced Jeff Bridges as Dan Chase, a former intelligence agent and army veteran who has been living a quiet life off-grid for many years.
But he is forced out of retirement when he kills an intruder who breaks into his home, and has to go on the run.
Hot on his heels is Harold Harper (John Lithgow), a former spy with whom Chase has a knotty past, and who sends an assassin after him.
But the frenemies team up in Season 2 to rescue a woman who has been kidnapped by an Afghan tribal leader, and whom both claim as their daughter.
Why watch it: Bridges and Lithgow’s masterful performances as capable but flawed protagonists grappling with the past elevate this beyond the usual spy drama. Both are still skilled and dangerous, but the acknowledgement of their physical limitations gives the show added realism and emotional weight.
Clueless crime-fighters: Seoul Busters
Premieres on Disney+ on Sept 11
(From left) Lee Seung-woo, Park Se-wan, Seo Hyun-woo, Park Ji-hwan and Kim Dong-wook in Seoul Busters.
PHOTO: DISNEY+
This kooky K-comedy follows the Songwon Homicide Division, which every year ranks as the worst-performing in the entire South Korean police force.
To turn things around, the division is assigned a new elite captain, but he has his work cut out for him as he attempts to transform these clueless detectives into a top-tier crime-fighting team.
Kim Dong-wook, who starred in the popular romantic comedy series Coffee Prince (2007) and hit sports drama Take Off (2009), plays the captain, and the detectives are portrayed by Park Ji-hwan, Seo Hyun-woo, Park Se-wan and Lee Seung-woo.
Why watch it: No one in the cast is a massive star, and this does not look like a big-budget production. But Seoul Busters’ offbeat humour and novel premise are a nice departure from the standard police procedural.
