New to TVNZ OnDemand in May

Middling thrillers, an Idris Elba comedy series and Big Brother Australia spearhead TVNZ OnDemand’s May premieres.

The pick of the newcomers will be In the Long Run (May 26), which is set in 1985 in a London tower block, where Sierra Leone immigrants Walter (Elba) and Agnes Easmon (Madeline Appiah) have their quiet, routine lives upended by the arrival of Walter’s brother Valentine (Jimmy Akingbola), whose lust for life changes everything.

Elba based the 2018 series on his childhood. The Guardian dubbed it a “joyful portrait of community” while the Daily Mail thought it “quite broad and there are no belly laughs, but it is warm and is as much about what binds people together as it is about what divides them”.

Secret Bridesmaids’ Business (May 14) is an Australian thriller about how a bride’s perfect wedding turns deadly after one of her bridesmaids unknowingly invites a malevolent stranger into their lives.

It’s the second screen adaptation of the 2002 play and, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, “feels formulaic and forced and not entirely convincing”.

Dig (May 2) is a 2015 dud about an FBI agent (Jason Isaacs) investigating the murder of a young American in Jerusalem that turns out to be part of an International plot.

The New York Times thought it “generally polished and intelligent” but most critics echoed Time’s analysis: “Dig looks like something we’ve dug up before: another thriller that spends a lot of time pinning up multicolored string to a corkboard, but never gets around to spinning a good yarn.”

The Brave (May 16) stars Anne Heche as a hi-tech spy chief in a 2017 series that lasted only one season and which Rotten Tomatoes scorned as “formulaic to a fault”.

Big Brother Australia will open with four episodes on May 4, with subsequent eps fast-tracked.

As well as new runs of Coroner (S3, May 4) and Taskmaster UK (S8, May 14), TVNZ OnDemand will resurrect S1-2 of The Jacqui Brown Diaries (May 26), S1-6 of Packed to the Rafters (May 21) and S1-4 of Wynonna Earp (May 8), which previously had a limited run on Sky’s The Zone.

Other highlights will include RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under (weekly from May 1), te reo Māori music series Waiata / Anthems (May 1), The Vloggingtons (S2, May 17) and from May 1 on the branded channels:

[adult swim]

• Robot Chicken: DC Comics Special S1

iWonder

• Edward VIII: The King Who Threw Away His Crown
• Mermaids
• The Viral Threat: Measles and Misinformation
• 3100: Run and Become

Lifetime

• I Was Lorena Bobbitt
• The Evil Twin
• Baby Sellers
• Ann Rule’s A House on Fire

Outdoor Channel

• Mud Slingers S1
• Dropped S2

OutTV

• The Tranz Form S1
• Holly Stars: Inspiration S1
• The Alaska Thunderf*ck Extra Special Comedy Special

Pulse

• For My Father’s Kingdom
• Real Fake: The Art, Life and Crimes of Elmyr de Hory
• Viewer Discretion Advised
• Zulu Summer

Walter Presents

• Perfect Places S1-3.