Movies

The streaming year is off to flier. For anyone who’s spent the dark winter months hibernating at home in their downtime, Netflix, BBC, HBO, Apple TV and all those other giants of small-screen entertainment have really delivered on the assignment. To help us hunker down with shows to dispel the winter blues or, in the case of Netflix’s bleak and brutal American Primeval, make them slightly worse – albeit in thunderously widescreen style. And there’s plenty more ahead. Apple TV has The Studio, Seth Rogen’s eagerly-awaited, cameo-packed Hollywood satire, Netflix has announced the finale of Squid Game this summer, along with the end of Stranger Things, more Black Mirror, a second run of Tim Burton’s Wednesday and about a zillion other things, while Disney+ delivers another series of Andor, arguably the standout show of 2022. Here’s everything you need to see... so far. You’re gonna need a comfier couch.RECOMMENDED: 🎥 The 50 best movies of 2025 (so far)🔥 The best TV and streaming shows to watch in 2025📺 The 100 greatest ever TV shows you need to binge

Sometimes a Netflix binge comes along that stops you in your tracks, that demands you stop scrolling and really lock in.  Adolescence is one of those – a gritty, gripping and deeply empathetic crime drama that will speak to a nation shocked by rising knife crime rates among Britain’s young people. To add to its hefty bona fides, it comes from the team behind 2021 restaurant thriller Boiling Point – and its BBC spinoff series: co-writers Jack Thorne (Help) and Stephen Graham, who also stars, and director Philip Barantini. They bring their hyper-kinetic, all-in-one-take approach to an even more heavyweight story of a teenage boy accused of murdering a classmate. Photograph: NetflixOwen Cooper as Jamie Miller and Stephen Graham as dad Eddie What is Adolescence about?  Adolescence follows the intense fallout when a 13-year-old called Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) is arrested for the murder of a teenage girl from his school. Told over four episodes in real time and via four continuous shots, it follows the key players in the drama: not just Jamie, but his dad Eddie (Graham), as well as the investigating detective (Ashley Walters) and the clinical psychologist assigned to Jamie’s case (The Crown’s Erin Doherty). ‘We could have made a drama about gangs and knife crime, or about a kid whose mother is an alcoholic or whose father is a violent abuser,’ says Graham. ‘Instead, we wanted you to look at this family and think, “My God. This could be happening to us!” And what’s happening here is an ordinary family’s worst nightmare.’ Photograph: NetflixStephen Graham in ‘Adolescence’ Where was Adolescence filmed? While most TV series can jump around from location to location without worrying too much about the distance between them (see: Toward Zero, Out There and Playing Nice), Adolescence’s unique one-take approach meant that all of its locations had to sit cheek-by-jowl with one another so the actors – and camera – could travel between them in real time. ‘Basically that means we press record on the camera, and we don’t press stop until the very end of the hour,’ explains director Philip Barantini. ‘But it’s much more complicated than it sounds. It takes months of preparation and weeks of rehearsals and an incredible team of people to pull it off at every stage, from the script to the locations to the production design to where exactly the camera is going to be able to shoot and from what angle.’  Photograph: NetflixAshley Walters as DI Luke Bascombe Pontefract, West Yorkshire Much of Adolescence was filmed in Pontefract in the West Yorkshire city of Wakefield. The decision was partly influenced by the casting of its young lead, Owen Cooper, who hails from Warrington, 60-odd miles away. ‘We knew it was going to be set somewhere in the north of England,’ says Barantini, ‘and we also knew it would be from somewhere around wherever our Jamie was from, because it would have been unfair to make him do an accent.’ Photograph: Adam Tomlinson/Production ParkA studio set build at Production Park Production Park, South Kirby, Yorkshire Executive producer and Warp Films head honcho Mark Herbert suggested this 100,000-square-foot production hub near Pontefract. It’s a regular rehearsal space for artists like Sam Smith, Coldplay and Elton John, as well as a state-of-the-art film studios. ‘It was a massive, brilliant space, and we were able to build our police station there, and also our [police] interview room,’ says Barantini. ‘It became the nerve center of the entire production.’  Photograph: NetflixThe drone shot that ends episode 2 Is it based on a true story? Loosely inspired by real events, rather than based on a specific incident, Adolescence seeks to capture emotional and social truths rather than recreate a single event.  ‘There was an incident where a young boy [allegedly] stabbed a girl,’ Graham tells Netflix’s site, Tudum. ‘It shocked me. I was thinking: “What’s going on? What’s happening in society where a boy stabs a girl to death? What’s the inciting incident here?” And then it happened again, and it happened again, and it happened again. I really just wanted to shine a light on it, and ask, “Why is this happening today? What’s going on? How have we come to this?”’ When can I watch Adolescence? All four hour-long episodes are streaming on Netflix now. How realistic is Adolescence? A police officer explains.The best shows to watch on Netflix.

Toxic Town is a new four-part Netflix drama that explores the huge impact of an environmental catastrophe on local families. In 1995, dozens of babies in the Midlands town of Corby were born with disabilities as a result of toxic waste polluting the air. Jodie Whittaker headlines the cast bringing this harrowing drama to the screen for the first time. Here’s what you need to know about the true story behind Toxic Town. Credit: Ben Blackall/NetflixJodie Whittaker stars in Toxic Town What is the true story of Tracey Taylor and the residents of Corby in Northamptonshire? An unexplained cluster of birth defects occurred in the small town of Corby, Northamptonshire in the mid-’90s. The town had been a hotbed of industry but its steelworks closed in 1981. The local council was then put in charge of its reclamation, which meant removing toxic waste that was a byproduct of the former steel works, in a bid to rebuild on the site and grow the local community. including transporting toxic waste in a bid to revive the town. But those in charge opted for speed over safety and cut corners when it came to transporting the toxic waste. Uncovered vehicles raced through the residential streets, with toxic matter spilling over the side of the trucks, turning into dust once dry. After years of anguish, local families, determined lawyers and whistleblowers in the local council worked together and realised that the toxic matter had been inhaled by pregnant mothers, which caused the limb differences in the babies. What followed was a decade-long fight for justice, as the families embarked on an exhausting court case battle to hold those responsible to account.   Credit: NetflixJodie Whittaker with the real Susan McIntyre What was the result of the toxic waste scandal? Spoiler warning for episode four of Toxic Town. In April 2010 a settlement was agreed between Corby Borough Council and the families. The full cost to the council was £14.6 million. No criminal charges were ever brought against those responsible. In total, 19 settlements were reached and legal history was made. The landmark decision was the first in the world to establish a link between atmospheric toxic waste and the impact on babies carried by women breathing it in.  The series ends with some harrowing facts that show the same danger could still be present across the UK. A 2021 study of Environment Agency data shows there are at least 21,000 former landfill sites across England and Wales. Up to 1,287 contain hazardous waste, with 167 of these sites located under housing, shops and restaurants, and at least four of them are under schools.    Credit: NetflixJodie Whittaker in Toxic Town Are all of the characters in Toxic Town based on real people? Many of Toxic Town’s characters are direct representations of the real people caught up in the scandal, with names staying the same. Jodie Whittaker takes the lead role as Susan McIntyre, one of the mums impacted by the scandal when her son is born with a birth defect.  Sex Education’s Aimee Lou Wood and Bridgerton’s Claudia Jessie portray Tracey and Maggie, two other mothers who were part of the legal battle. It was really nerve-racking when the mums came on set ‘The mums did come on set one day,’ says Whittaker. ‘It was really emotional and nerve-racking, because I knew how fiery Susan was. If she didn’t like the way I was doing it, she’d say so.’ Former council worker Sam Hagan (Robert Carlyle) was a real person and the series is dedicated to his memory. Lawyer Des Collins (Rory Kinnear) is also lifted from the true story. Some of the characters were created for purposes of the drama, with council staff Pat Miller and Bill Martin both being entirely fictional, while Deputy Council Leader Roy Thomas is based on a number of men, none of whom lived to see their plans for Corby fully realised. Credit: NetflixThe cast of Toxic Town with their real-life counterparts How many families were impacted by the Corby case? Although Toxic Town focuses on three of the families impacted by the Corby scandal, a total of 19 were involved. ‘We met with the mums of all 19 families,’ writer Jack Thorne told Radio Times. ‘Because it had taken them so long to win the case and the council had put out a lot of propaganda against these women in terms of cost to taxpayers, quite a few families didn’t want that scrutiny again.  Quite a few of the families didn’t want the scrutiny again ‘We focused on those who we thought would show the tapestry of the town, because the fact that toxic waste was airborne meant it was democratic and affected everyone. Susan was the natural leader.  loved everything I read about her, then I met her and loved her even more - she’s a complicated, wonderful person, joyous to write. When is Toxic Town available to watch on Netflix? All four episodes of Toxic Town are available to stream on Netflix now. Check out the trailer below for a glimpse of the drama. Netflix increases the cost for all UK subscriptions. The 23 must-see TV shows for 2025 you can’t miss.

How do you recreate a long-gone corner of street-level New York? For Daredevil: Born Again, a Marvel renaissance full of broken glass and broken bones, the answer lay across the city. Hell’s Kitchen, the spiritual home of blind lawyer/vigilante Matt Murdock, is a bit too gentrified these days to do justice to the grimy, scary corner of Manhattan prowled by Daredevil, the Punisher, Kingpin and the other OGs from Stan Lee’s comic book.  Instead, the Marvel production followed the example of Netflix’s 2015-2018 Daredevil run and redressed other corners of the city to create its grungy, ’70s-tinged Hell’s Kitchen. Here’s how they did it – and everything else you need to know about the much-anticipated Disney+ series.   Photograph: Marvel TelevisionMatt Murdock and Wilson Fisk face off What is Daredevil: Born Again about? The series follows the yin-and-yang extremes of blind lawyer Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox, reprising the role he took on for three Netflix series). His courtroom struggles for justice are augmented by some very literal, and very bruising, crime fighting in Hell’s Kitchen as superhero Daredevil. For Murdock, balance is never easy to strike and a sense of Catholic guilt eats away at him as he dispatches goons by the truckload.  The new series reunites him with an old nemesis: Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), a man who carries a similar dark passenger in his psychotic, ambitious alter ego Kingpin. This time, Fisk holds political office and is looking to sweep vigilantism off the streets – especially with a serial killer called Muse, a street artist with a nasty habit of using his victim’s blood for murals, on the loose. It’s about what happens when the system starts to break down ‘These people are inextricably linked,’ says D’Onofrio of Fisk and Murdock’s temporary truce in Empire magazine. ‘That link is violent and toxic and scary and bleeds over into their lives. They define each other. We did a version off that I haven’t seen before.’ ‘It’s a story about two larger-than-life figures,’ adds executive producer Sana Amanat. ‘It’s also the story of New York City and what happens when the system starts to break down and good people are taken in by bad ideas.’ Cox calls this new Daredevil ‘more visceral’ – an understatement judging by the trailer – while ‘a romcom with punching’ is showrunner Dario Scardapane’s more tongue-in-cheek description.  Photograph: Giovanni Rufino/MarvelMatt Murdock (Charlie Cox) in action as Daredevil Where was Daredevil: Born Again filmed?  Like the Netflix run, and unlike the Ben Affleck Daredevil of 2003, which found its Hell’s Kitchen in LA, Daredevil: Born Again has built its version of Murdock’s gritty Manhattan enclave from a patchwork of New York locations. ‘Out the Kitchen’ was the show’s apt production name.And ‘grounded’ is the word most often used to describe a show that prides itself on taking you on a street-level tour of a tumultuous, urban corner of the Marvelverse. ‘It was important for us to shoot practical shots on the streets of New York,’ stresses director Jeffrey Nachmanoff. Here’s where they did it. Photograph: Giovanni Rufino/MarvelWilson Fisk‘s Gracie Mansion office was filmed at Silvercup Studios Silvercup Studios, Queens A studio that was once home to The Sopranos, this Queens hub played an integral role in Born Again, hosting the sets for Muse’s lair, as well as Wilson Fisk’s home and mayoral office. Those builds were based on the real mayor’s residence: the federal-style Gracie Mansion in Manhattan’s Yorkville neighbourhood – right down to the wallpaper prints. ‘The real Gracie Mansion feels like it’s like somebody’s grandmother’s house,’ says production designer Michael Shaw. it’s hilarious to see this powerful figure (Wilson Fisk) in such a delicate world.’ Photograph: ShutterstockYonkers City Hall Yonkers City Hall The picturesque Westchester County landmark is another municipal buildings used in Born Again. Filming took place outside the building in March 2023, with the location used as a surrogate for several government building. ‘We realised that what happens in the political and social systems in a place like New York City is as interesting as anything that happens in the other-worldly scale of an Avengers movie,’ explains executive producer Brad Winderbaum of those municipal settings. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Curious Uptowner (@thecuriousuptowner) Harlem Filming in March 2023, the Daredevil crew took to the streets of Harlem, a key location in everything from Spike Lee joints to Die Hard With a Vengeance, ‘The great thing about shooting in New York City is that it can be as big or as small as you want it to be,’ says exec producer Sana Amanatand. ‘We wanted to make the city its own character.’   Photograph: Giovanni Rufino/MarvelMatt Murdock in Brooklyn Williamsburg, Brooklyn The so-hip-it-hurts Brooklyn suburb hosted the so-violent-it-hurts show in March 2023. The Netflix Daredevil made heavy use of the area too: local dive bar The Turkey’s Nest was turned into Josie’s Bar, a key Matt, Foggy and Karen hangout, in the three-season run. ‘You capture the energy of New York and that bleeds into the fabric of the series and tone of the story,’ says Shaw of the location work. ‘Shooting in the city gives you the size and scope where you could really believe that a person like Wilson Fisk could become mayor.’ Photograph: ShutterstockManhattan Municipal Building Manhattan Municipal Building  This iconic 40-story edifice, aka the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building, appears in the show. It has Daredevil comic-book history, too: a vast Muse graffiti is daubed on the building in Daredevil #597 (2018). Should we expect that scene to play out again here?  Photograph: Giovanni Rufino/MarvelDeborah Ann Woll is back as Karen Page Who stars in the show? Alongside Cox and D’Onofrio, two other veterans from the Netflix Daredevil run are returning in Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll. The pair play Murdock’s allies and friends Foggy Nelson and Karen Page. ‘You can’t do this show without Karen and Foggy,’ Scardapane tells Empire. ‘They’re Matt’s family.’ Newcomers this time out include Severance’s Nikki James, who plays Kirsten Mcduffie, a former New York City DA, and Margarita Levieva. The Acolyte star plays therapist Heather Glenn, Matt Murdock’s love interest in Born Again. Photograph: Marvel TelevisionLegal eagles Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) and Kirsten Mcduffie (Nikki James) Ayelet Zurer (Man of Steel) plays Fisk’s guileful wife Vanessa, who wrestles with her long-missing husband’s sudden return. Jon Bernthal is also back as Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, and the man most likely to punch literally any other character through the nearest wall. Also appearing, posthumously, is Kamar de los Reyes who plays martial art guru Hector Ayala, aka White Tiger. Tragically, the Puerto Rican actor passed away in December 2023. The second episode is dedicated to his memory. Where can I watch Daredevil: Born Again? The first two episodes of the nine-episode run land on Disney+ at 6pm PT/ 9pm March 4 in the US, and at 12am on March 5 in the UK. Additional episodes land weekly at the same time, except on March 25/26 when two episodes will drop. Episode 9 will drop on April 15/16. Will there be a second season of Daredevil? Yes, and filming is already underway. According to an interview with Collider, it will have eight episodes.  How Best Picture winner Anora put this unusual New York neighbourhood on the map.The best TV and streaming shows of 2025 (so far).

Zero Day is a fast-paced political thriller in the mold of The Parallax View and The Manchurian Candidate. The new Netflix six-part series dares to wonder how the American people, and even more pertinently its politicians, would handle a huge cyber attack across the country.  It launches in mid-February and promises to trigger anyone who still remembers their panicky Y2K projects or generally worries about not owning a transistor radio. Here’s what you need to know about it – and its real-world setting.  Photograph: Courtesy of NetflixScenes featuring the Zero Day commission were filmed on a Brooklyn soundstage What is Zero Day about?  After every piece of technology in America is turned off for a minute, thousands of people die, as planes fall out of the sky, trains collide, and cars crash. Former President George Mullen (Robert De Niro) is pulled out of retirement by current POTUS Evelyn Mitchell (Angela Bassett) to oversee the so-called Zero Day commission. With unprecedented access to technology and given free rein to break civil liberties, Mullen tries to find the people or even country responsible.  But as he dives deeper into the search, Mullen finds a vast web of lies and conspiracies, while he also struggles mentally with the pressure, especially as another cyber attack could result in the deaths of thousands more.   While Zero Day unfolds in a thought-provoking fashion – covering topics such as government oversight, the rise of conspiracy theorists, and how much we can truly trust our politicians – there are also some delightfully melodramatic aspects to its plot and characters that will keep viewers binging through each episode.   Photograph: NetflixRobert De Niro as George Mullen and Angela Bassett as President Mitchell on the set of ‘Zero Day’ Where is Zero Day filmed? Set primary in New York and Washington DC, Netflix spared no expense making sure that Zero Day feels as genuine as possible. How – and where – exactly did Zero Day achieve this? Take a look below to find out.   Photograph: NetflixFormer President George Mullen (Robert De Niro) addresses the crowds on Wall Street Manhattan locations Robert De Niro has previously joked that he looks for projects that will film in New York, ‘so [I] can stay at home’. And Zero Day granted the great man’s wish, because most of the heart-stoppingly tense thriller show indeed shot across the Big Apple. In Manhattan, the Lincoln Center’s Leon Lowenstein Center on the Upper West was turned into the CIA headquarters. The legendary Eleven Madison Park restaurant, meanwhile, was used for a meeting between George’s trusted right-hand man Roger Carlson (Jesse Plemons) and the shady Robert Lyndon (Clark Gregg).    Photograph: JOJO WHILDEN/Netflix © 2024Connie Britton as Valerie Whitesell and Robert De Niro as George Mullen in episode 5 Production also took place on Wall Street. It’s here that George shoots back into public consciousness after calming down a scared crowd in the wake of the cyber attack. Other locations include The New York Public Library – hello Ghostbusters! – on Fifth Avenue; Fordham University campus; North Cove Marina; The New York County Courthouse in Foley Square; and the Wall Street Helipad, all of which bring a level of authenticity to the six episodes.  Brooklyn locations The neighbouring borough of Brooklyn was another key filming spot for Zero Day. The Red Hook Marine terminal is a key location towards the end of the second episode, when one of the suspects finds himself trying to escape the commission’s agents and an assassin aiming to keep him silent. And the soundstage space at Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Steiner Studios provided many of the show’s interiors too. Located within the Brooklyn Navy Yard neighborhood of the borough, Steiner Studios is the largest production studio complex in America, located outside of Hollywood. This is most likely where the crew were able to set up the interior of the Zero Day commission headquarters, and all of its state of the art surveillance technology that Mullen and his team use to try and find the hackers.  Photograph: Jojo Whilden/NetflixRobert De Niro as George Mullen in Zero Day Upstate New York locations When Zero Day begins Mullen has long retired and is contemplating turning his excessive notes into a memoir. He also lives in Hudson, New York, away from the bustle of Manhattan, but with quick access to the city when required. When it came time to film George and his wife Sheila’s (Joan Allen) huge home, production took place on a private estate in Sleepy Hollow, New York.  Photograph: Courtesy of NetflixJoan Allen as Sheila Mullen Filming also took place at the Hilltop Hanover Farm in Yorktown, where officers search for some of the hackers. Nyack Fresh Market also appears on screen, as well as Nyack’s YMCA and a laundromat in the town. Photograph:JOJO WHILDEN/NETFLIXMatthew Modine plays Richard Dreyer, the Speaker of the House Washington DC locations Any political thriller worth its mustard needs to shoot some scenes in the US capital. Zero Day has establishing sequences outside the White House, the United States Capitol building, and of George and Roger being driven over Arlington Memorial Bridge. These led to various road closures across the city for a few days in the middle of June 2024. When does Zero Day launch on Netflix? All six episodes of the show launch globally on February 20.  What are the reviews like for the show? ‘Preposterously entertaining’ is The Guardian’s verdict. ‘It’s as fine a piece of hokum as you could wish to see – not least as it stars an on-form Robert De Niro in his first big small-screen outing.’‘It’s a fun techno-thriller, and while it won’t feature prominently in De Niro’s list of accomplishments, the mystery of who is orchestrating the Zero Day sabotage of the world’s IT infrastructure is spun out with pulpy good cheer,’ writes The Irish Times.  Empire points to some saggy pacing in the middle episodes, but writes that ‘once the truth starts unravelling, the show kicks back up a notch, and the last two instalments are truly nail-biting’. The Wrap is not as impressed. ‘[It’s] an entire season of repetitive dead-end plotting and muted performances that don’t do much to elevate the script beyond clichés,’ grumbles its critic. ‘The look of Zero Day is about as dim and sludgy as the story,’ agrees Variety. The Slant damns the show for not taking a line on the themes it explores. ‘The series is so stacked with asterisks and caveats meant to neutralise any point of view,’ it writes, ]that it stands for nothing’. The best TV and streaming shows of 2025 (so far).  How Hulu’s A Thousand Blows made the 19th century cool as hell.

Have we finally reached peak streaming? With 282 million Netflix subscribers worldwide and Apple TV+ finally beginning to complement its high-calibre shows with some actual viewers, well, maybe not. And the year ahead is another feast of new and returning pop-culture powerhouses, some of which, including the finale of Stranger Things, have finally emerged after the tangle of Hollywood strikes. As ever, there’ll be some bolts from the blue – who saw Baby Reindeer coming 12 months ago? – but from this vista, there’s still plenty of good reasons to plump up those sofa cushions. Here’s 23 to kick off with.RECOMMENDED: 🔥 Best TV and streaming shows in 2025 (so far)📺 The 40 best TV shows of 2024 you need to stream📽️ These are the must-see films for 2025 you can’t miss