Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Good Doctor, Star Trek: Prodigy
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts | Stream from 29 January
The fifth-biggest movie in South Africa in 2023, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts centres on ex-military electronics expert Noah Diaz and artefact research intern Elena Wallace as they work with the Maximals and the Beasties to fight an invasion that threatens to consume Earth. It’s both a prequel to 2007’s original Transformers and a standalone sequel to 2018’s Bumblebee.
Directed by Black Reel winner Steven Caple Jr (Creed II), Transformers: Rise of the Beasts stars Emmy nominees Anthony Ramos (In the Heights) as Noah and Dominique Fishback (Swarm, Judas and the Black Messiah) as Elena, with Grammy nominee Tobe Nwigwe as Reek. Also listen out for the likes of Ron Perlman, Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage, Peter Davidson, Colman Domingo and award-winning Zimbabwean actor Tongayi Chirisa as transformers.
Screen Rant calls it, “The perfect summer movie,” while Geeks hails it as “perhaps the best Transformers movie since the first.”
Also watch the first six Transformers movies on Showmax, starting (chronologically) with Bumblebee.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods | Stream from 22 January
Teenager Billy Batson (Asher Angel) and his adult superhero alter-ego, Shazam (Critics’ Choice nominee Zachary Levi, aka Chuck and Marvel’s Fandral), have annoyed the wrong people goddesses in the epic #1 box office hit movie Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Now, Billy and his foster siblings will have to grow up fast as they face off against the Daughters of Atlas.
The sequel to 2019 blockbuster Shazam!, Fury of the Gods also stars the likes of Oscar winner Helen Mirren (Fast saga), Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou (Marvel’s Korath), Golden Globe winner Rachel Zegler (West Side Story, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes), Emmy nominee Lucy Liu (Charlie’s Angels, Elementary), MTV Movie Award winner Jack Dylan Grazer (It) and Teen Choice winner Adam Brody (The O.C.).
IndieWire praised the film’s “humour, sweetness, and delightfully human heroes, bright spots in a genre too often obsessed with the dark and the gritty.”
Libby, Are You Home Yet? | First on Showmax | Binge from 24 January
Winner of Best Factual Series at the 2023 BAFTAs, Libby, Are You Home Yet? tells the story of 21-year-old Libby Squire, who wasn’t allowed to enter a nightclub because she was drunk, so was sent home by her friends in a taxi – but never arrived.
Libby, Are You Home Yet? was named Best True Crime Documentary at the Broadcast Digital Awards, who described it as, “A masterclass in true crime storytelling” and “a stark portrait of grief that told a parent’s worst nightmare in a sensitive and moving way.”
The three-part series was the second highest-performing original on Sky Crime last year.
Savior Complex | First on Showmax | Binge from 19 January
Savior Complex follows Renee Bach, a young American missionary who felt called by God – and was then called a killer. After Renee set up a charity for malnourished children in Jinja, Uganda, allegations arose that she was treating the sick children herself, without medical qualifications.
Detailing Renee’s divisive journey, the three-part HBO documentary series addresses the wider questions around “white saviourism” and the ethics of foreign aid work done in the name of humanitarian and religious ideals. With extraordinary access to Renee herself, as well as her accusers, lawyers, activists, and the mothers who seek to hold her accountable, Savior Complex addresses the timely and provocative issues at the intersection of religion, race, and power.
Directed by Emmy winner Jackie Jesko (Vice) and executive produced by Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams (God Loves Uganda, Love to Love You, Donna Summer), Savior Complex has a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As TIME Magazine says, “What Jesko uncovers isn’t the individual malice of a typical true-crime psychopath. It’s something more frightening in its tenacity: the collective, racially charged hubris of well-meaning, white, often evangelical Americans in Africa.”
The Good Doctor S6 | Binge from 15 January
Check your heart rate! Season 6 of The Good Doctor picks up after last season’s cliffhanger ending on the rooftop of the St Bonaventure Hospital. Shaun and Glassman go head to head as the lives of Lim (Christina Chang) and Villanueva (Elfina Luk) hang in the balance. Asher (Noah Galvin) and Morgan (Fiona Gubelmann) find themselves in peril, along with a patient in need of emergency surgery.
As the brilliant autistic surgeon Dr Shaun Murphy, Freddie Highmore has racked up Best Actor nominations at the likes of the Critics Choice, Golden Globes, People’s Choice and Teen Choice awards, while Emmy winner Richard Schiff (The West Wing’s Toby Ziegler) was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Critics Choice Awards as Dr Aaron Glassman.
Created by Emmy-winning showrunner David Shore (House M.D.), The Good Doctor has an 8/10 rating on IMDb and has won multiple awards.
Star Trek: Prodigy S1 | Binge from 11 January
Star Trek: Prodigy invites younger viewers (and grown-up fans) to boldly go alongside an intrepid group of enslaved teenagers who hijack the Protostar, a derelict Starfleet vessel, to escape and explore the galaxy.
The animated series has already won a Children’s and Family Emmy Award, with a further four nominations, including for Outstanding Animated Series. It has a 94% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 4/5-star rating from Common Sense Media, where they recommend it for ages 7+, saying “Star Trek: Prodigy is a treat for the eyes… entertaining, fun, and fast-paced… bringing new life to the beloved franchise for the next generation… Although intended for a younger audience, this new take on a treasured series can be enjoyed by the whole family.”
The star-studded voice cast includes the likes of Annie Award winner Ella Purnell (Jinx in Arcane), Star Trek: Voyager alums Kate Mulgrew and Robert Beltran, Daveed Diggs (Hamilton), Jason Alexander (Seinfeld), People’s Choice nominee Jameela Jamil (The Good Place), Emmy nominee Jimmi Simpson (Westworld), and Looney Tunes royalty Eric Bauza (whose voice credits include Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck).
Blindspotting S2 | Binge from 12 January
Nominated for a 2023 Emmy Award for its Choreography, Season 2 of Blindspotting has a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The spin-off sequel to the award-winning 2018 film of the same name, Blindspotting picks up the story of Miles’ long-time girlfriend Ashley, who was forced to move herself and their son, Sean, in with Miles’s mom and half-sister after he was sent to prison. The final season picks up nine months later, with Ashley feeling the stress as Sean’s birthday and Miles’ first family visitation weekend are both coming up fast.
As Ashley, Emmy and Grammy winner Jasmine Cephas Jones (Hamilton, The Photograph, Mrs. Fletcher) was nominated for a 2023 Black Reel award for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Comedy Series, as well as Best Actress, Comedy at the 2023 Hollywood Critics’ Association Awards, where the show was up for Best Cable Series, Comedy.
Blindspotting also stars Oscar winner Helen Hunt (Mad About You, As Good As It Gets), with Kaitlynn Simone (Treasure in Empire) and Tamera Tomakili (Cookie Keely in Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty) joining the cast this season.
AVClub praises the series for continuing “to shine a light on the ludicrous, beautiful, and often harsh realities of life, while celebrating the power of music and dance,” adding, “There’s just nothing like it on TV.”
Heels S2 | Binge from 19 January
Teen Choice winners Stephen Amell (the Arrowverse’s Oliver Queen/Green Arrow) and Alexander Ludwig (Bjorn Ironside in Vikings and Cato in The Hunger Games) return in Season 2 of Heels, which brings us back to rural Georgia and the family-owned, small-town wrestling organisation, Duffy Wrestling League (DWL). As they work to find their own identities as a “face” (good guy) or a “heel” (villain), brothers and rivals Jack and Ace Spade continue to fight over their late father’s legacy and their individual versions of success.
Heels has an 8/10 rating on IMDb and a 93% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As the critics’ consensus there says, “There are no jobbers in Heels‘ second season, which utilises the full breadth of its ensemble to show-stopping effect.”
Created by Emmy winner Michael Waldron (the producer of Rick and Morty and the writer of Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), Heels was nominated for three Critics Choice Super Awards: Best Action Series, Best Actor in an Action Series (for Ludwig) and Best Actress in an Action Series (Mary McCormack from The West Wing and The Kids Are Alright).
AJ Mendez (aka WWE’s AJ Lee) joins the cast as Elle Dorado this season, with Teen Choice nominee Josh Segarra (Danny Brackett in Scream VI, Adrian Chase in Arrow) coming in as Brooks Rizzo.
Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin | First on Showmax | Two eps every Monday from 8 January
The Peacock comedy series Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin sees Adam Devine (The Righteous Gemstones’ Kelvin) return in his Teen Choice- and MTV Movie Award-winning Pitch Perfect role as Bumper Allen.
Ten years after college, singing a cappella has become just a hobby for the former Treblemaker, who’s now working as a security guard at his alma mater. But when a surprise phone call from his old acquaintance Pieter Krämer (Flula Borg, aka The Suicide Squad’s Javelin) reveals that one of Bumper’s songs has gone viral in Berlin, he decides to drop everything and move to Germany for a shot at pop stardom.
Critics Choice nominee Sarah Hyland (Modern Family’s Haley) co-stars, alongside People’s Choice nominee Jameela Jamil (Tahani in The Good Place), multi-award winner Udo Kier (Swan Song, Hunters), and Emmy nominee Jason Jones (The Flight Attendant) as Tonehanger Jason.
Developed and executive produced by multiple-Emmy nominees Elizabeth Banks (Cocaine Bear) and Megan Amram (The Good Place, Silicon Valley), Bumper in Berlin also boasts a get-up-and-dance soundtrack with hits from the likes of Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Shaggy, Aha, and Guns N’ Roses.
Fantasy Football | Stream from 11 January
In Fantasy Football, teenager Callie A Coleman discovers she can magically control her father’s performance on the American football field through her gaming console, transforming him from a fumblitis-plagued journeyman to a star running back bound for superstardom.
Fantasy Football stars four-time BET Award winner Marsai Martin (Diane Johnson in Black-ish, Little Jordan Sanders in Little), who also gets a producer credit, at just 19 years old. Black Reel winner Omari Hardwick (Power’s James “Ghost” St Patrick) plays her dad, opposite the likes of four-time Grammy winner Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child fame and Emmy winner Rome Flynn (Gabriel Maddox in How to Get Away with Murder and Zende Forrester Dominguez in The Bold and the Beautiful).
Anton Cropper (Black-ish, Suits) won the 2023 Image Award for Outstanding Directing in a TV Movie for Fantasy Football.
Essex County S1 | Binge from 29 January
Directed by Emmy winner Andrew Cividino (Schitt’s Creek), Essex County follows two interconnected families in rural Canada. The five-part series is adapted from the acclaimed Essex County Trilogy graphic novel by Sweet Tooth creator and Moon Knight writer Jeff Lemire, who is the showrunner here.
Emmy nominee Molly Parker (Mrs. Darling in Peter Pan & Wendy and Jackie Sharp in House of Cards) plays country nurse Anne, who’s caring for her uncle, Lou (award winner Stephen McHattie from A History of Violence). Child actor Finlay Wojtak-Hissong plays Lester, who has to go live with his uncle Ken (Brian J Smith from World on Fire, The Matrix Resurrections), a stoic farmer.
Toronto Guardian praises the show’s “brilliant writing,” calling it “beautifully executed and perfectly cast… truly an event to watch.” Essex County was nominated as Best TV Series at the 2023 Venice TV Awards and picked up Directors Guild of Canada awards for its editing and production design.
Everything on Showmax in January
To see everything on Showmax in January 2024, including SAFTA Best Drama winner Lavish, SAFTA Best Variety Show winner Sunday Sexy Love, and Tshedza Pictures’ telenovela, Gqeberha: The Empire, click here:
