The best TV shows and movies to stream in February

Bringing together a huge and diverse ensemble cast, New Gold Mountain is SBS's new drama shining a light on Chinese miners who came to Australia during the Gold Rush. The four-part series takes place on Victoria's goldfields (naturally, it was partly filmed at Sovereign Hill), where European, Chinese and Indigenous characters are living side by side and hoping to strike it rich. It's a compelling revisionist western that's going to change your perception of this moment in history.

Watch the trailer.

Maid details the story of Alex, a young mother who escapes an abusive relationship with her young daughter Maddy and struggles to make ends meet. It's an emotional and powerful portrayal of domestic violence, intergenerational poverty and the complexities of escaping it, and it stars real-life mother and daughter Andie MacDowell and Margaret Qualley.

Watch the trailer.

This investigative documentary from LadBible Australia and Amazon Prime Video dives into the insidious issue of racial injustice in Australia. Unheard is a six-part series shining a stark light on racial discrimination in Australia, focusing on Indigenous deaths in custody, Islamophobia, attacks on people of Asian descent during the pandemic, vilification of Australia's African communities, and the treatment of asylum seekers. 

Watch the trailer.

Yes, the housewives are back for their fifth season. The new season kicks off with Jackie, Janet and Gamble returning alongside, newcomers Cherry Dipietrantonio (a wellbeing enthusiast), Simone Elliott (a business woman and fashion lover), Kyla Kirkpatrick (a "Champagne dame") and former CNN news anchor Anjali Rao.

Watch the trailer.

Love Life is back with a new cast to fall in love with this October. The Good Place actor William Jackson Harper stars as Marcus Watkins, our protagonist searching for romance after getting out of a long-term relationship. Jessica Williams stars alongside Harper as Mia Hines, who butts up against our protagonist's own ideas of himself.

Watch the trailer.

What further horrors await the shattered ego of Jeremy Strong’s Kendall Roy (aka ‘Yuppie RoboCop’) in the third season of HBO’s lethally funny media satire? If there’s any consolation for the put-upon offspring of sweary media tycoon Logan Roy (Brian Cox), cousin Greg (‘the poorest rich person in America’) will probably have it worse – albeit while remaining largely oblivious to the insults. If this isn’t the best thing on the small screen at the moment, it’s pretty damn close. 

Watch the trailer.

Princess Diana was beloved worldwide, as is Diana the Musical – though for slightly different reasons. Streaming now on Netflix, the unintentionally hilarious musical based with campy, ridiculous lyrics. Keep in mind this production was due to premiere on Broadway in early 2020, before theatres were shut. It's a bizarre but very entertaining work of art. 

Watch the trailer.

The idea of knowing what people did last summer may have lost some of its chilling ESP genius recently – we were all at home watching the TV, duh – but this small-screen redux of the 1997 hit horror should still have shocks in store. The premise, of course, has a group of teens stalked by a killer the year after a fatal accident on graduation night. Running over eight instalments (the first four land on October 15, the remainder arrive weekly after that), it has the bloody fingerprints of horror maven James Wan and the original’s Neal Moritz on it as producers.

Watch the trailer.

Loved the Goosebumps book series as a child? Just Beyond is inspired by the writings of Goosebumps author R.L. Stine and arrives online just in time for Halloween. It's an eerie anthology series, with each of the eight episodes detailing a separate spooky event in a reality "just beyond" our own. 

Watch the trailer.