New to TVNZ OnDemand in February

TVNZ OnDemand will expand its foreign language slate with the addition of three new series from February 13.

The Disappearance is an eight-part 2015 French adaptation of a 2007 Spanish whodunit (which spawned a 2017 US version) about a missing child.

“If you’ve seen the pillars of the genre (The Killing, The Missing) you know what to expect,” the New Times says.

It has some regional flavour — with much of the action centred on a corner cafe in Lyon, France, run by the family of the disappeared girl — but it’s mostly menu typique … There’s an inescapable ordinariness to the series, and a larger portion than usual of domestic soap opera. Fans of police procedurals who make it through three or four episodes will want to stick around to find out who done it. The experienced ones will figure it out in Episode 6 or 7.

But The Guardian dubbed it “a deeply human tragedy, lightened by some comedy Frenchness – everyone was gorgeous, grumpy and having an affair. But the plot twists were exhausting”.

TVNZ OnDemand’s also picking up seasons one and two of another French series, The Returned.

Based on the 2004 movie Les Revenants, it’s set in a small town where dead people reappear (TVNZ 2 screened the US version).

Rebecka Martinsson: Arctic Murder is a seven-part 2017 Scandi-noir about a Stockholm lawyer who returns to her icy hometown after a childhood friend’s death.

“In a television world now awash in female coppers,” said the Wall Street Journal, “there aren’t many as interesting and human as Rebecka.”

Also new to TVNZ OnDemand will be:

I Date Rejects (full season from February 22): NZ On Air-funded series for TVNZ OnDemand about four flatmates who create their own dating agency.

Riverdale spin-off Katy Keene (weekly from February 7): Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars) plays a fashion legend-to-be five years after the events of the original series.

Zoey’s Original Playlist (weekly from February 17): A whip-smart computer coder can hear people’s innermost wants and desires through popular songs.

Other newcomers will include S2 of Bancroft (February 2), S2 of House of Drag (February 1), and S1-7 of Mad About You (February 29).

TVNZ OnDemand also will stream from February 29 the Mad About You revival starring Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt in a reprisal of their ’90s roles.

Variety thought it  “a pleasant surprise” and better than other sitcoms reboot Will & Grace, Murphy Brown and Roseanne.

But the New York Post said: “Time has not been kind to the kind of sentimental, shticky humour that once made Mad About You popular.”