New to TVNZ OnDemand in February

TVNZ OnDemand will drop the full season of Bel-Air on February 14 — the same day it premieres on US streaming service Peacock.

A fresh take on Will Smith’s comedy classic set in modern-day America, The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, it’s a serialised one-hour dramatic reimagining of the ’90s sitcom that leans into the original premise: Will’s complicated journey from the streets of West Philadelphia to the gated mansions of Bel-Air.

It leads a robust slate for next month.

Rules of the Game (February 8, full season) stars Maxine Peake in a workplace thriller, as the manager of a family-run business who is rattled when she arrives at the office one day to find a body at reception.

She begins to reflect on recent events at the company and how she had resisted when the new HR officer (Rakhee Thakrar) started to examine historic cases of misconduct and question the toxic work culture.

Radio Times described the four-part BBC thriller, which went to air last week in the UK, as “gripping” and “bolstered by its stellar cast and thought-provoking storylines.”

But the Independent said it “fails to capture the nuance of abusive workplaces”.

Ragdoll (February 1, full series) is a new psychological thriller from the executive producers of Killing Eve.

It stars Henry Lloyd-Hughes as a freshly demoted cop who returns to the field – only to have his dark past follow him.

“Ragdoll avoids feeling like yet another serial killer caper sewn together from better thrillers, thanks in part to its dry humour and killer cast chemistry,” was the verdict on Rotten Tomatoes, where it earned a 90% rating based on 10 reviews.

Sorry for Your Loss (February 26, full series) stars Elizabeth Olsen as a recently-widowed writer who quits her job writing an advice column and moves in with her mother, navigating the challenges of grief while questioning how well she really knew her husband.

The 2018 Facebook Watch commission was favourably reviewed by the likes of RNZ (“one of the best TV shows about loss and grief”), Rolling Stone (“smart and affecting”), and Variety (“draws viewers in for its patience, tenderness, and refusal to gloss over the least flattering (and most fascinating) parts of grief”).

Killer Camp (February 11, full series): Eleven British strangers get the shock of their lives when they discover that they are not going on a fun new reality show called Summer Camp, but instead a horror whodunit called Killer Camp.

The contestants have to try and earn cash while avoiding being ‘killed’ and therefore eliminated from the game, all while spending five gruesome nights in an ’80s-themed US lodge.

Reality Blurred dubbed the 2019 series “a playfully stupid UK show that ends each episode with a hilariously corny murder of one of its contestants. As a reality competition, though, it has a few near-fatal flaws.”

Outcry (February 13) is a five-part 2020 Showtime documentary about a high school football star who was convicted of molesting a four-year-old boy and sent to prison for 25 years.

The Guardian called it “the most surprising docuseries of the summer … reveals things are not as they seem.”

The Harper House (February 19, full season) is a Paramount+ animated comedy about a formerly “moderately wealthy” family forced to move into a decrepit home on the poor side of town.

The Hollywood Reporter said the episodes “waffle between random humour, feel-good earnestness and light satire without going quite far enough with any of them.

“Eventually, it settles into a quirky-sweet groove in the vein of Schitt’s Creek or Bob’s Burgers.”

The Sydney Morning Herald thought Home Ground (February 15, S1-2 ) “a rather excellent Norwegian football drama with a distinct feminist edge and compelling on-field drama … Think Friday Night Lights with sing-songy Norwegian accents and high cheekbones.”

Also new will be Kiwi paranormal comedy Dead (February 16), RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World (February 2), S1 of CSI: Vegas (February 15), S4 of The Long Song (February 21), Madam Secretary S1-6 (February 5), and Under the Dome S1-3 (February 24) while debuting on District Channel will be the full season of The Inbetween (February 3) and the full series of Alphas (February 10), and on HEIHEI, Riddle Me This (February 21).