SBS On Demand has curated a collection of cracking movies and binge-able TV shows to help you figure out who you really want to be and why. Here are some highlights:
Minari
Our rich history of new beginnings through immigration is reflected in this luminous, semi-autobiographical film from Korean-American writer/director Lee Isaac Chung. It shares the hardships that followed his parents' purchasing a farm in rural Arkansas, pursuing the ‘American Dream’ and a better life for their kids. Burning star Steven Yeun is ace in the dad role alongside Han Ye-ri as his wife, with the inimitable Youn Yuh-jung picking up the Oscar as her mum. Adorable Alan Kim (Theater Camp) steals the show as the young Chung stand-in.
Minari is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
Rurangi
We can run from our problems, but the stuff that sent us packing is likely still clogged inside our heads. Facing the music is a big part of this beautiful, Emmy Award-winning Kiwi series from showrunners and . Remarkable star Elz Carrad plays youth worker, activist and proud trans man Caz, who returns to his rural milk production town nursing a broken heart after a decade in Auckland, during which he transitioned. Reconnecting with friends and family opens up old wounds and new potential across two gorgeous seasons.
Seasons 1 and 2 of Rurangi are streaming now at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Rurangi
series • drama • Maori
M
series • drama • Maori
M
Fried Green Tomatoes
If the combination of Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy hasn’t already hooked you into this ‘90s classic from director Jon Avnet – who intriguingly directed one episode of the short-lived US remake of Rake – then we don’t know what will. They play a frustrated housewife and a nursing home resident, respectively, who form a fast friendship that involves spiling the tea over what, exactly, went down in small-town Georgia some 50 years before. A grand reminder that we are not defined by our past as we forge new connections.
Fried Green Tomatoes is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Fried Green Tomatoes
drama • 1991
drama • 1991
Dreaming Whilst Black
If you’ve ever sweated the mundanity of a job that’s just not for you while fantasising about dropping everything to pursue your dreams, this London-set dramedy from is perfect for you. The BAFTA Emerging Talent Award-winner plays aspiring filmmaker Kwabena, who ditches a recruitment gig that comes with infuriating casual racism in favour of finishing that screenplay and getting it shot. Only he's about to discover that many of the same hurdles thrown at him in the office are alive and unwell in the film industry, too.
Dreaming Whilst Black is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Dreaming Whilst Black
series • comedy
M
series • comedy
M
Arab Blues
French-Iranian Extraction star Golshifteh Farahani depicts Selma, a Parisian psychoanalyst who returns to the hometown in Tunisia her family left behind when she was ten in filmmaker Manele Labidi’s astute comedy about a canny businesswoman who knows she’ll face way less competition here. As the locals duly arrive in their droves to unpick their messiest personal business, it’s a tough gig explaining how the sessions should run and that the enticing divan does not mean that she’s a sex worker. It’s neurotic good fun.
Arab Blues is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Arab Blues
comedy • 2020
comedy • 2020
The Change
Menopause has never been hotter than this ferociously funny feminist show created by and starring . She plays supermarket worker Linda who, cracking it at the thousands of unpaid/unloved labour she's done for family and friends over the years, hops on a motorbike and sets out for the Forest of Dean to live wild and free for her 50th birthday. An awesome ensemble of women aged above that landmark year includes Tanya Moodie, Susan Lynch and Monica Dolan, and they are all magnificent powerhouses.
The Change is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
The Change
series • comedy
MA15+
series • comedy
MA15+
Count Abdulla
Not all new starts are fresh, as any undead person will tell you. But is an insatiable hunger for blood haram? That’s the dilemma faced by British-Pakistani, kinda-practicing Muslim doctor Abdulla Khan, played by the peppy Arian Nik. He’s bitten by Jaime Winstone’s biker-jacketed Cathy, a sassy vampire with a taste for fresh halal meat, but don’t think that she’s going to show him the ropes when he suddenly has to navigate his newfound aversion to sunlight. Handily, he can switch to nightshifts at the hospital and help himself to blood bags.
Count Abdulla is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
The Last Man On Earth
We’re more familiar with impending apocalypse than is entirely comfortable after the last few years. Oddly, that didn’t stop us from mainlining this darkly vicious comedy, about the actual end of the world, during the lockdowns. The series was created by and stars Saturday Night Live alum Will Forte who plays Phil, seemingly the last survivor of a viral plague. Phil is scouring North America for company to rebuild the rubble of civilisation. When he finds a fellow traveller in Kristen Schaal’s irksome Carol, the phrase ‘Careful what you wish for’ springs to mind…
The Last Man On Earth is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
The Last Man on Earth
series • sitcom
MA15+
series • sitcom
MA15+
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning
New beginnings can also mean a healthy engagement with the truth of our mortality. If you relished author Sarah Krasnostein’s fascinating biography of trans woman Sandra Pankhurst, The Trauma Cleaner, and her life’s mission to clean up after those that life has forgotten, there’s a fair chance you’ll dig this reality TV series spun from Margareta Magnusson’s book of the same name. Narrated by Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler and with a dash of , it follows a group of Swedish death cleaners who help the still-living to clear out before they check out.
Stream the entire debut season free at SBS On Demand on 1 January, or tune in for episodes weekly on Sundays from 7 January at 10:30pm on SBS Viceland.
Stream free On Demand
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning
series • reality
M
series • reality
M
Find more fresh starts, resolutions and and life-changing moments - from newly arrived Italian crime series to dance class comedy - in the at SBS On Demand.
OR DIVE INTO OTHER GREAT DRAMA
Top new series coming to SBS On Demand in January 2024
