Best new movies and TV series on Amazon Prime Video NZ: April 2023

Each month, new films and TV shows are added to Amazon Prime Video’s New Zealand library. Eliza Janssen presents her picks for titles worth watching. For the full list of everything arriving on the platform, scroll down.

Top picks

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Season 5 (April 14)

Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) has had a real rollercoaster of a ride up to the top of the comedy scene from her humble housewife beginnings: at times her success has felt a tad too easy, but then there was last season, which saw her emceeing stand-up at a strip club which got raided by the fuzz. In the fifth and final season of Prime’s celebrated period series, I hope she leans on the good graces of comic pal Lenny Bruce, who’s promised to help reboot her career just in time for the show to end on a fab final punchline.

Dead Ringers: Season 1 (April 21)

I love David Cronenberg, I love Rachel Weisz being sexy and sinister: I’m probably going to love this TV adaptation of Cronenberg’s unforgettable psycho-thriller from 1988. They didn’t even have to change the names of Jeremy Irons’ twin characters—Elliot and Beverly Mantle—for Weisz to step into the dual lead roles as twin gynaecologists. Their relationship has always a sick, manipulative balance, but it’ll be completely thrown off by lust and obsession, over the course of six twisty episodes.

Three Thousand Years of Longing (April 30)

This isn’t a simple, palate-cleansing love story by George Miller in between chapters of his Mad Max franchise. Instead, it’s a lush mess of fantasy, stories-within-stories, and Orientalism, starring Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba as a shy academic and the ancient Djinn she now commands. Despite making about three thousand pennies at the box office, Miller’s romantic epic has some stunning moments, and even some cogent commentary on contemporary disconnection: can our redeeming myths of love and power survive in the cruel modern world?