What to watch: 6 shows to stream this weekend on ThreeNow, Netflix, Disney+ and Neon

A historic local drama, Jude Law on the telly and a new fave for MasterChef fans. These are the new shows and movies to watch this weekend.

Tangata Pai - ThreeNow

Te wiki o te reo Māori might be almost over, but our chance to engage with and embrace te reo is never done. Tangata Pai is a new bilingual local drama with 30% reo spoken by the cast (it’s a first for broadcaster Three). It started on Tuesday, so there’s only one episode to stream this weekend … but if you’re anything like me, you will be hooked immediately. The set up is a little bit like (Emmy Award-winning) The Pitt, a little bit like 24: the series follows five characters over an hour, with each episode focused on eight minutes of that hour. In the background, we’ve got a land occupation, a bomb threat, relationship breakdowns and a politician in the firing line. It’s tense, the acting is strong and you’ll be kept on the edge of your seat. Ka pai rā tēnei mahi!

Black Rabbit - Netflix

If you want to get your heart racing - in a good way and not in a ‘is somebody a doctor’ way - this chaotic gangster drama series is the ticket. Split between the glamorous nightlife and the grizzly backrooms of New York City, Jason Bateman (Ozark) and Jude Law (The Talented Mr Ripley) play brothers living on very different sides of the tracks. Bateman, with his big bushy beard, is a screw up who owes some bad people a lot of money, while Law and his nice sunglasses is a respectable(ish) restaurateur, and together, they have to find a way out of whatever mess they’ve got themselves into. Cue the guns, cars and lots of bad language.

Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy - Pieces of the past - Disney+

Hey parents and caregivers, did you know school holidays are next week? Yeah, I guess they are pretty hard to ignore. And how do we feel about a little bit of screen time these days? Bad? Good? Okay in times of desperation? If you need something to keep the small humans in your life busy or just out of your hair for a few minutes, I’ve got the solution - Lego, Star Wars and a bit of silly comedy fun. This series (I shan’t write the name again, because it is long and full of those little ™ and Registered Trademark signs) is an animated sequel to 2024’s Rebuild the Galaxy and features characters like Jedi Bob, Servo (not an Aussie guy who works at the petrol station, I am informed) and Mark Hamill, who pops up as Luke Skywalker for the purists. This is one you can happily watch alongside your kids because, hashtag QualityTime.

Next Gen Chef - Netflix

I miss MasterChef. I miss watching those lovely Australians (and our Kiwi friend Ben) cooking away on TV (what happily felt like) 29 times a week, and having fun while they did it. So if you, like me, have a hibachi-shaped hole in your life, this might fill it. In very Netflix/American style, things are big and noisy and definitely not as nice as MasterChef, but a cooking competition to find the next big foodie star is always going to be pretty delicious. The food looks fantastic - and occasionally terrible, but we love a reality TV rollercoaster ride - and the stakes (steaks?) are huge: the last one standing gets $500,000 and a fair bit of glory. Plus, the contestants, who are all under 30, got to cook at the CIA … the Culinary Institute of America.

Becoming Madonna - Neon

How good is an origin story? Whether it’s Superman landing from space, Gollum’s descent into obsession or Mad Men’s Don Draper and the slow reveal of his secrets, where someone comes from is (often) more interesting than where they end up. And you could argue Madonna falls into that camp. This doco uses audio interviews and archival footage to chart her rise from dancer to mega star from 1972 to 1992. Yes, Madonna’s accent is all over the place in this - when she suddenly sounds British, it is clear what time of her life she’s looking back from - but isn’t that slight wackiness part of her allure?

Swiped - Disney+

Dating is hard work. And finding new ways for people to do that dating is even harder. Just ask Lily James, who plays Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd in this new streaming film. A plucky tale of someone overcoming the haters - and the tech bros - Swiped explains how Wolfe Herd became the youngest female self-made billionaire, all by helping people find love*. Playing a Real Life Person is becoming second nature for James (she portrayed Pamela Anderson in the terribly received and terribly misjudged Pam & Tommy miniseries, and her character in the far better Iron Claw was based on a real woman, too) - and this is one of the more shiny, slick projects she’s got to do it on.

* or, you know, other stuff.

Bridget Jones joined the New Zealand Herald in 2025. She has been a lifestyle and entertainment journalist and editor for more than 15 years.