It’s always refreshing to see a crime thriller come from a country that’s not the US, says streaming columnist NICK OVERALL. 

In an age where crime thrillers are a dime a dozen, a different backdrop can make a big difference in bringing viewers on board.

That’s certainly the case for Netflix’s new series Bodkin, a dark comedy crime drama that comes from Ireland.

In this one, it’s not detectives or cops cracking the case either, but rather a team of podcasters.

Starring a talented cast including Will Forte who viewers might have seen in The Last Man On Earth (Disney Plus), this group of aficionados team up in a bid to find out what’s behind the disappearance of three strangers in an idyllic coastal town in Ireland.

The premise makes for a fun, satirical poke at crime dramas and the modern obsession with podcasts. There’s some clear inspiration here from Only Murders in the Building (also on Disney Plus), another series about true-crime podcasters who get caught up in a mystery themselves.

Bodkin still certainly does enough to craft its own identity though.

It’s a light yet gripping seven-part series that’s probably not up for any awards but still, a unique crime show topped off with a shamrock twist.

JUST over a month ago Oppenheimer hit streaming so it wasn’t going to be long before it’s pinker, less-explosive counterpart was also going to be available to watch at home.

I refer to the box-office breaking Barbie, which has now hit Netflix and Binge, giving audiences plenty of chances to watch or rewatch 2023’s most talked about movie.

Much like its billion-dollar box office haul, the film has continued to do numbers on streaming platforms, reaching the top of the charts across multiple services.

That’s no doubt been helped by Ryan Gosling’s viral performance of the film’s song “I’m Just Ken” at the Oscars which has hit more than 14 million views on YouTube, further cementing this film in the pop-culture consciousness.

At this point, does it even need an explanation?

Barbie stars Margot Robbie as the iconic doll who is given a life-changing reality check while on an adventure to the real world, soon discovering its very different from her idyllic home in Barbie Land.

It’s like Toy Story meets The Truman Show but all mixed in with a biting social commentary on gender and a surprising side of existentialism. Worth the hype.

FROM the galaxy-spanning saga Foundation to the dystopian drama Silo to the mindbending breakout Severance, there’s no platform that’s peddling big budget sci-fi quite like Apple TV Plus.

Its latest series is Dark Matter, a tale about an astrophysics expert (played by Australia’s own Joel Edgerton) who gets abducted into a parallel universe, setting him on a multi dimensional fight to get back to his own world before his alternate version harms his family.

Yet again with the multiverse thing.

Audiences have seen it in everything from Marvel films to Rick and Morty to 2022’s Oscar winning flick Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Dark Matter’s audience at this point are likely to be so familiar with the concept of the “multiverse” that an explanation is no longer needed, and yet the show insists on a long-winded breakdown spanning multiple episodes as if its the first to introduce this now well-worn idea.

This makes the series very slow off the mark, but once all the exposition is out of the way and the brainy goodness gets going alongside some impressive effects, Dark Matter has plenty of entertainment value to give.

Those who like the mind-bending antics of films such as Inception or The Matrix should find something to enjoy here.

With yet another big budget sci-fi production added to its catalogue it seems Apple is in desperate search of a universe where subscriber numbers might begin to rival that of their competitors.