Best new movies and TV series on Netflix New Zealand: March 2025

Each month, loads of new films and TV shows are added to Netflix‘s library. Eliza Janssen presents her picks for titles worth watching. For the full list of everything arriving on the platform, scroll down.

Top Picks: TV

With Love, Meghan (March 4)

Five years ago, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made an eye-watering deal with Netflix to produce exclusive “scripted and unscripted” content, for a reported price tag of $100 million. Nothing much has surfaced from this collab so far, and so Meghan Markle gives in and lets us into her kitchen and garden for what will hopefully feel like an intimate, humanising visit.

Filmed near the couple’s California residence and featuring celeb chefs and friends as guests, the farm-to-table docuseries promises to embrace “playfulness over perfection.” But I suspect it’s merely going to piss off all the expected haters and gripers.

The Leopard: Miniseries (March 5)

I adore the seminal Italian novel upon which this new series is based; the great Burt Lancaster starred in a 1963 Luchino Visconti adaptation, too. Big, ornate leather boots to fill. The heartbreaking story follows a riches-to-rags arc of sorts, chronicling a fading prince and his family throughout 19th-century Sicily as the fast-paced modern world leaves them behind.

The prose of the book is so glittering and acute, it’ll be quite the feat if director Tom Shankland and his Italian cast can translate it to the small screen.

The Residence: Limited Series (March 20)

Set in the “upstairs, downstairs and backstairs” of the White House and featuring pop queen Kylie Minogue (!!) in a supporting role as herself, there’s plenty of reasons to tune into this political whodunnit—including the fact that it’s the latest venture from super-producer Shonda Rimes.

Uzo Aduba plays the detective tasked with solving a murder that occurred during a high-profile state dinner, interrogating butlers, ushers, secretaries and maids to get to the ugly truth. Julian McMahon plays the Prime Minister of Australia!

Top Picks: Movies + Specials

The Watchers (March 4)

2024 was a big year for M. Night Shyamalan: the dude put out a great new thriller himself, which starred one of his daughters in a pretty terrible damsel-in-distress role. Just before that, though, his other kid Ishana helmed this eerie sci-fi, a solid companion to the above Aotearoa flick, actually.

Starring Dakota Fanning, it’s a bit of a mystery box of a feature, trapping some unsuspecting folks in a glass box in the woods to gaze outwards at mysterious entities beyond. Are they keeping guard, or merely being shown off for some sinister purposes? In her dad’s twisty tradition, Shyamalan Jr. wouldn’t want me to give anything too solid away.

Plankton: The Movie (March 7)

Apart from the undying friendship between Spongebob and Patrick, and the steamy chemistry Mr Krabs shares with his money, the love story between evil Plankton and his robo GF Karen is Bikini Bottom’s most romantic. That relationship’s going to be tested in the latest slick, CGI Spongebob feature made in collaboration with Netflix, following on from Sandy Cheeks’ solo movie. How will the scheming, teensy Plankton take it when his AI bae attempts world domination without his help?

The Electric State (March 14)

Chris Pratt, Millie Bobby Brown and Ke Huy Quan are seriously getting wiggy with it in this expansive sci-fi epic from the MCU’s Russo brothers. Look at their mop-tops: there better be some head-banging action moments to show off them locks!

Based on a graphic novel, the tale of a teen searching for her brother across a world ravaged by robo-pocalypse is stacked with big names like Jason Alexander, Stanley Tucci, Colman Domingo, Woody Harrelson and Giancarlo Esposito, who by this point would show up for the opening of an envelope. Looks quirky and diverting.