Gael Garcia Bernal plays a conductor with unconventional techniques in Lightbox's Mozart in the Jungle.
Gael Garcia Bernal plays a conductor with unconventional techniques in Lightbox's Mozart in the Jungle.
As the competition ramps up between online television platforms we thought it was time to highlight some of the recent additions to Lightbox and Neon (Sky TV's new online platform which does not require a Sky subscription) which haven't been seen here before.
Mozart In The Jungle (Lightbox)
Mozart InThe Jungle is a fun, over-the-top comedy, made by Amazon, which seems fitting for a popcorn binge. It revolves around the fictional New York Symphony, who gets a new young rock star conductor (Gael Garcia Bernal) with some unconventional techniques. It's inspired by Blair Tindall's 2005 memoir of the same name, about her life as a professional oboist in the New York Philharmonic and other companies, so it's grounded in the real world, but also takes great delight at making fun of various classical music cliches and tropes. It also makes a star out of Lola Kirke (the younger sister of Girls' Jemima Kirke) as an aspiring but bumbling oboist.
Suits (Lightbox)
Suits is set in the uber-competitive testosterone fuelled world of American corporate law, with a bunch of well-suited professionals lobbing witty and withering remarks at each other in their fancy high rise offices, and occasionally finding ways to settle cases before they reach the courtroom.
The series centres around one main case per episode, but focuses equally on the personal lives of hotshot attorney Harvey Spencer, and his new recruit Mike Ross, who's untrained, but a genius.
Vikings (Lightbox)
Vikings is on to its third season (the first two are also available on Lightbox), and fans can expect plenty more bloody battles, family feuds, love triangles, and power hungry games.
The new season picks up approximately a year on from season two's finale, with Ragnar Lothbrok as king, and the men preparing to head to England for raiding season.
Turn: Washington's Spies (Neon)
A scene from Turn: Washington's Spies.
Turn: Washington's Spies takes us back to the Revolutionary War, and looks at a little known story about anti-British conspirators known as the Culper Ring. Espionage, spying, playing two sides, the question of family loyalties, Turn has it all. The action begins in the fall of 1776, and focuses on young cabbage farmer Abraham Woodhull, played by Jamie Bell, who finds himself drawn to the side of the Patriots for complicated reasons.
Crossbones (Neon)
Crossbones delves into the golden age of piracy, the 1700s, and stars John Malkovich as Blackbeard - not as intimidating or dangerous as you might've expected him to be, more eccentric, and political.
He is the target of a British spy, who poses as a doctor aboard a ship attacked by Blackbeard's men. The doctor/spy finds himself in custody on the new-world-order type island, ruled by Blackbeard.The pair develop a rather more complicated relationship than anyone intended.
The Bridge (Neon)
The Bridge (US) takes the vague set-up of the Scandinavian and British drama series' of the same name, and takes it to the border between Texas and Mexico. And this change in location is enough to make it seem like fresh viewing, even if you've seen the predecessors.
Starring Dianne Kruger and Demian Bichir, it uses its investigation of a serial killer plot to untangle all sorts of sociopolitical issues surrounding the cities of El Paso and Juarez, and of course the relationship between the two very different detectives is also a key theme.
