With March already being underway, we have a pretty good idea at this point of what’s coming to all the major streamers this month — barring, of course, any last-minute additions they decide to drop on us. For that reason, we thought we’d offer a closer look in this post at some of the biggest and best TV series and movies headed to the various streamers over the next four weeks, including everything from Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert movie that’s finally dropping on Disney+ to some major new Netflix releases.
These snapshots, below, are arranged in order by release date, and we’ll start with a new Netflix original movie that mixes action and fantasy, starring a certain Stranger Things actress.
Damsel (Netflix, March 8)
When Juan Carlos Fresnadillo first read the script for Damsel — the new Netflix movie starring Millie Bobby Brown — back in 2018, he felt as if he’d had a connection to the project for a long time already. “Since I was a kid,” he explains in a Netflix promotional interview, “I’ve always been attracted to folk tales, fables, fairy tales, especially ones that have a dark twist — I explored the origin of such tales in my previous movie, Intruders, for instance — and I think the most interesting themes that these stories have in common all revolve around the loss of innocence.
“How, in some ways, becoming an adult is about losing one’s innocence, how that experience is a very painful process, and how the process of that transformation, the journey that you have to go through, is almost like a survival experience.”
Survival is very much the name of the game in Damsel, wherein Brown plays a damsel in distress — albeit one who’ll try and save herself, thank you very much.
Basically, her character agrees to marry a handsome prince, and a fairy tale wedding is soon in the works. The twist here is the damsel learning that it was all a sham, that the only reason she’s been accepted into this royal family is so they can sacrifice her to pay an ancient debt. She’s thrown into a cave with a fire-breathing dragon and must rely on nothing but her will and her wits to survive (This release, by the way, coincides with International Women’s Day).
When season one of Eugene Levy’s Apple TV+ travel show debuted last year, I remember feeling like the dad jokes would be strong with this one and that his schtick would get old after a while — especially since he didn’t have a comedic partner like Catherine O’Hara to play off of.
However, I’m happy to report that not only were my assumptions wildly off the mark, but The Reluctant Traveler — in which Levy jets off to remote and swoon-worthy locales around the world — is the very definition of comfort TV. He’s curmudgeonly, but inoffensively so; he playfully whines when he encounters anything he doesn’t like, be it food or a stomach-churning height that must be traversed; and the part I like the most is his sort of “what I learned” narration he tacks on to the end of each episode.
Levy goes out of his way to praise each new stop on his travels and reminds viewers how important it is to get out of your comfort zone. Even while at the same time acknowledging that he can’t stand certain foods and that he also adores his creature comforts, like a luxury hotel suite. Season two of this delightful TV series finds him “doing Europe,” from practicing moose-calling in Sweden to exploring his family history in Glasgow, Scotland.
Here’s the thing about this three-and-a-half-hour concert film from director Sam Wrench that’s going to send Disney+ viewership through the roof this month. It’s not, I repeat, not a carbon copy of the version of the film that was shown in theaters (and which generated more than a quarter of a billion dollars at the box office).
The somewhat awkwardly named Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version) includes, for example, four songs not shown during the theater version of the concert film. There are also four unseen performances as part of an acoustic collection you’ll need to stick around for after the credits. Swifties should definitely make sure they have a blank space in their schedule starting Thursday, March 14.
This next TV series will be an absolute beast of a release for Netflix for two reasons.
First, it’s an adaptation of one of the most celebrated sci-fi novels of all time. What’s more, it’s the first post-Game of Thrones project from Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to get across the finish line — which is to say, they’re going to be under the microscope from critics in a major way with this eight-episode TV series.
And not just from critics, come to think of it. A Chinese adaptation of the novel is actually available to stream right now on Peacock, Prime Video, and Rakuten Viki. And Chinese TV seasons tend to be an order of magnitude longer than American ones, such that we’re talking about an eight-episode adaptation of the book on Netflix versus a 30-episode adaptation on those other streamers. But what I’m getting at is that Netflix’s version will definitely be scrutinized in comparison with the locally made adaptation.
Despite the extra episodes, though, the Chinese adaptation has already been criticized for downplaying and just wholesale leaving out aspects of the book from author Liu Cixin that involve China’s Cultural Revolution. Netflix’s version, whatever flaws it may or may not have, won’t shy away from depicting that era.
“The story,” Netflix’s Tudum site explains, “begins in 1960s China when a young woman makes a fateful decision that reverberates across space and time into the present day. “When the laws of nature inexplicably unravel, a tight-knit group of brilliant scientists must join forces with an unflinching detective to stop humanity’s greatest threat. 3 Body Problem is an epic story that redefines sci-fi drama with its layered mysteries and story of human connection.”
Parish (AMC/AMC+, March 31)
This final TV series for the month we’re going to recommend is a gem that will probably fill the Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul-sized hole in your heart.
If you squint, you can kind of imagine that it’s Giancarlo Esposito here as Gustavo Fring, the proprietor of Los Pollos Hermanos, in some kind of spinoff of Vince Gilligan’s masterful AMC series (a guy can dream!). In reality, Parish finds Esposito playing Gracian “Gray” Parish, a family man who owns a luxury car service in New Orleans. When his business collapses and his son is murdered, an old friend from Parish’s wild days as a wheelman sends him on a collision course with a violent crime syndicate … which sounds an awful lot like we’re going to see this guy break bad.
The cast of Parish, which was shot on location in New Orleans, includes Bradley Whitford as a recurring character named Anton — he’s the “charming and intelligent” face of Louisiana’s business landscape who secretly heads up a criminal enterprise. Anton’s dispute with a human trafficking ring also puts him at cross purposes with Parish.