New to Lightbox in November

October 16, 2018 0 Comments

Lightbox has picked up for streaming next month an acclaimed BBC series that for too long has been absent from our screens.

Three Girls, which The Guardian hailed as “a powerful and important three-part drama, based on the Rochdale child sexual abuse scandal,” screened 18 months ago in the UK — a gap that’s ridiculously long in the streaming era, especially when a series has earned such sterling reviews.

The last such egregious oversight was BAFTA-winning National Treasure, which TVNZ took almost as long to air.

“I have rarely had to watch anything as emotionally charged, and which is also so upsettingly well grounded in reality,” said The Independent of Three Girls.

You can’t tell yourself to relax because it’s just a lot of silly Hollywood special effects, like Alien or something. This was real horror. You have to confront what is unfolding in front of the screen; and confront it you should.
The Rochdale sexual abuse cases – the so-called ‘grooming’ scandal – are some of the most horrifying of our times. The scale, as with the Jimmy Savile affair, is still difficult to comprehend even as the facts have become so familiar; but each victim has their own unique tale.

Next month also also will see the return of Vikings — season 5b will stream on Lightbox ahead of Netflix NZ — and Outlander while Rebecka Martinsson is the Spark platform’s latest Scandi-noir exclusive.

Based on a series of four novels by Asa Larsson, it stars Ida Engvoll (The Bridge) as a successful Stockholm lawyer who returns to her home town when a childhood friend suddenly passes away, only to find everything is not as it seems to be.

Said The Euro TV Place: “True to what makes many Nordic noir shows such compelling series to (binge) watch, Rebecka Martinsson is dark and moody, with intricate but not overly-complicated storylines, a slow, intentional pace that maintains the undercurrents of tension and anticipation, and a bleak yet beautiful setting that solidifies the sense of place and local flavour.”

Lightbox will dip into the vault to bring back Friday Night Lights and launch a 2016 10-part US thriller, Eyewitness, a “chilly adaptation” of a Norwegian series by Adi Hasak (whose Jennifer Lopez cop drama, Shades of Blue, continues to be missing in action here).

It stars Julianne Nicholson (Masters of Sex) as the sheriff of a small town where two teenagers witness a killing spree but are reluctant to come forward because of their gay relationship.

Streaming in order of their debuts will be: