New to TVNZ+: September 28-October 4

Gold Diggers (October 1) is an ABC comedy set in the Victorian goldfields of 1853, when two sisters seek to strike it rich by landing themselves newly-rich idiots. 

The Guardian dubbed it “a breakneck Blackadder” and “boisterously amusing“:

Every version of history narrativised on screens recreates the past through the prism of the present. The creator and co-writer Jack Yabsley milks this for comedy, past and present somehow in cosmic temporal alignment, with modern-day issues projecting a reverse shadow on to history.

ScreenHub wasn’t quite as effusive: “The 1850s Victorian gold rush is ripe for comedy but this broad and bawdy series sometimes feels like a summer-camp talent show.”

On Thin Ice: Putin vs Greenpeace (September 29) is an “absolutely gripping” BBC docuseries about how Greenpeace Greenpeace sailed to the Arctic to peacefully protest against Russian offshore drilling in 2013 — only to be threatened, illegally boarded, arrested and accused of piracy.

Said The Telegraph: “It initially plays out in the style of an action thriller: the recruitment of the crack team, the daredevil plan to penetrate a floating fortress, the arrival of the baddies toting guns.

“And then the story goes off script as 30 Greenpeaceniks are banged up in a Murmansk jail, possibly for 15 years.”

“The pacing of this series, which edits into six tidy half-hour episodes a mix of recollections and footage (some taken by the crew to place us right there in the thick of things), just doesn’t let up,” The Times said.

“The vivid, edge-of-sofa details here for once made you feel that a movie version would be superfluous.”

Also new are:

• The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (September 30), which streams ahead of its Duke debut (9.35 October 4)
• Milli Vanilli (October 4), which charts the untold circumstances of the the lip-syncing scandal that destroyed the careers of  Robert ‘Rob’ Pilatus and Fabrice ‘Fab’ Morvan
• Follow the Leader with Jamali Maddix (October 1), in which the award-winning documentarian and comedian visits some of  America’s most controversial sub-cultures to try to understand their growing infuence
• The comedy series A.P. Bio (October 3), which ran from 2018-21 and already has aired on TVNZ 2
• And the linear debuts of The Dog House Australia, Hunting Aotearoa, Hacks S3, Hunted UK and The Voice Australia.