Halloween is over, but apparently, Netflix didn’t get the memo: November is heaving with titles fixated on murder, bloodshed and more murder. A Jim Carrey doco does make an appearance mid-way, as a sort of calm before the storm that is Marvel’s The Punisher. Just remember to take breaks during binge sessions. All watch and no rest makes Jack a dull boy.
Alias Grace (series)
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Netflix’s latest crime drama Alias Grace is based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name. It’s the second Atwood adaptation in recent times, so you’d be forgiven for initially confusing it with The Handmaid’s Tale: both leading ladies are blue eyed, wear bonnets, and lead cruel lives at the hands of cruel men. But whereas The Handmaid’s Tale portrays a dystopian future, the grim events in Alias Grace actually happened.
In Canada, 1843, Grace Marks (Sarah Gadon), a poor Irish servant, and stable hand James McDermott (Kerr Logan) were convicted of murdering their employer and his housekeeper. Details of the case were cloudy, but Grace’s lowly status made her the perfect scapegoat. She spent 30 years in jail before being exonerated, making her one of the most notorious figures in Canadian crime history.
All six episodes of Alias Grace air November 3 on Netflix Australia.
6 Days (film)
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Netflix has secured distribution rights for Toa Fraser’s gripping title, which recounts the six-day hostage crisis that went down at the Iranian Embassy in 1980s London. The film tails a negotiator, an SAS counter-terrorism operative, and a BBC reporter’s attempts to mediate the situation, save 26 hostages and escape unscathed. Unfortunately, six days is a long time for gunmen to wait for their demands to be met – the resulting bloodshed was fairly inevitable. 6 Days stars Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot), Mark Strong (Kingsman) and Abbie Cornish (Limitless).
6 Days premiered in October at the London Film Festival, and will air November 3 on Netflix Australia.
The Sinner (series)
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The Sinner has been out for a couple months now on USA Network, and delayed Nielsen viewing data has crowned it as the number one new cable series of 2017. Trust Netflix to want in on this hype: all eight episodes will be available to stream on November 7. Based on the eponymous novel by Petra Hammesfahr, The Sinner follows Cora Tannetti (Jessica Biel), a young mother who inexplicably stabs a stranger to death, but has no idea why. When Detective Dan Leroy (Dohn Norwood) tries to find Cora’s motive, he uncovers a psyche marred by gruesome horrors from her past.
The Sinner airs November 7 on Netflix Australia.
Mudbound (film)
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Adapted from Hillary Jordan’s 2008 novel, Mudbound chronicles a white family and a black family’s hardships in post WWII-America. The McAllens have left Memphis to pursue a life of farming in the Mississippi Delta. The Jackson family, who currently reside on the cotton farm as sharecroppers, must now once again readjust to new white landowners. Both families face common struggles – unyielding land and an unrelenting social hierarchy – but nothing is quite as eviscerating as the racial persecution faced by the Jacksons. This is the Jim Crow South, after all. Mudbound stars Carey Mulligan (The Great Gatsby), Garrett Hedlund (Tron: Legacy), Jason Mitchell (Straight Outta Compton), and Mary J. Blige, whose performance garnered an IndieWire Honor for Breakthrough Performance.
Mudbound airs November 17 on Netflix Australia.
Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond (documentary)
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Jim Carrey may be making some erratic moves of late, but that shouldn’t take detract his acting talents – the guy’s a two time Golden Globe Award winner, remember. One of those statues came from his superb portrayal of comedian Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon (1999).
18 years on, Director Chris Smith delves into 100 hours of footage shot on set to track Carrey’s transformation into Kaufman over four months. The late Andy Kaufman was enigmatic in life, as well as in death – part of his legacy lives on through a cultish fandom that believes he faked his own death “to get away from being Andy Kaufman”.
In Jim & Andy, Carrey reflects on the odd parallels between him and Kaufman, and how he got into the comic’s head to achieve one of the greatest performances in his career.
Jim & Andy airs November 17 on Netflix Australia.
The Punisher (series)
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After months of dropping agonizing hints and clues about Marvel’s The Punisher, Netflix finally decided to announce its release date: November 17. Just casually, it’s the same date as the premiere of DC Comic’s Justice League. We’ll just chalk that up to coincidence, then?
Jon Bernthal reprises his role as Frank Castle from Marvel’s Daredevil. The former soldier is on a mission: to seek revenge on those who killed his family. This loss has understandably turned Castle “brutal”, “damaged” and “tortured”, and almost normalizes his ensuing homicidal rampage, in a John Wick-esque kind of way. Now, just imagine if the crims had killed The Punisher’s dog.
The Punisher airs November 17 on Netflix Australia.
