New to ThreeNow in December

Scrublands (full season, December 2) is a four-part Aussie noir set in a remote town where a dedicated young priest (Jay Ryan) fatally shoots five parishioners.

One year later investigative journalist Martin Scarsden (Black Sails’ Luke Arnold) arrives to cover the anniversary of the tragedy — and finds himself in a life and death race to uncover the truth.

“Scrublands shimmers with a kind of golden glow,” one Australian critic said. “It doesn’t feel quite as oppressively hot and parched as The Dry, perhaps, but it does create the sense of a town that could go up in flames at any moment, as much from its internal tensions as any external factors.”

Dead Lucky (full season, December 6) is a 2018 Australian thriller about a veteran cop (Rachel Griffiths) and her trainee who try to stop a murderous armed robber from wreaking havoc across Sydney at the same time as an international student disappears, store owners take the law into their own hands and a violent fugitive lurks.

Reviews were mixed, ranging from “thoughtful, considered, twisty and pacey” (The Age) to “convoluted and soapy” (The Guardian).

The Garden: Commune or Cult (full season, December 7) is a Discovery series about a co-operative “leaderless” community in the Ozarks that’s suspected of being a mind-controlling cult.

Bounty Hunters S1-2 (December 27) is a 2017 action-comedy about the suburban son (Jack Whitehall) of an antiques dealer (Robert Lindsay) who tries to save the family business by shifting some looted Syberian treasure that involves terrorists and bounty hunters.

“Few gags really zing, and the tension only occasionally grips,” Choirtle acknowledged. “However, Bounty Hunters certainly works on the level of glossy popcorn TV.”

Also new are series that have streamed on other platforms — Nashville S1-6 (December 4), The Fall S1-3 (December 22), The Royals S1-4 (December 11) — as well as SAS US S2 (December 18), Body Parts S1 (December 16), Married at First Sight US S11 (December 1), My Mum, Your Dad US (December 1) and Selena + Chef: Home for the Holidays (December 1).

Streaming the same day as their linear broadcast are:

• 100 Day Dream Home S4 (December 3, HGTV)
• SAS Australia S4 (December 4, Three)
• Windy City Rehab: Alison’s Dream Home (December 7, HGTV)
• Rocket Around the Xmas Tree S1 (December 10, Rush)
• American Chopper S4 (December 12, Rush)
• Parental Guidance Australia S2 (December 15, Three)
• Our DNA Journey S3 (December 15, Three)
• Buddy vs Christmas S1 (December 25,  Eden)
• Naked and Afraid S5 (December 18, Rush)
• Building Alaska S10 (December 20, Rush)
• Curse of the Bermuda Triangle S1 (December 22, Rush)
• Lil Jon Wants To Do What? S2 (December 29, HGTV)
• The 1% Club S2 (December 30, Eden).