Whether you are in the mood for a sweeping family saga, a tense legal battle, a true-crime experiment or something warm and funny, this week’s streaming line-up offers plenty of reasons to stay on the couch. There is also a gripping mountaineering documentary and a romantic period drama for anyone looking to escape into another world.
John Steinbeck’s classic novel returns to the screen in an ambitious new limited series starring Florence Pugh, Christopher Abbott and Mike Faist.
Set in California’s Salinas Valley during the early 1900s, East of Eden follows a fiercely independent and enigmatic woman whose arrival drives a wedge between two brothers. The consequences of their rivalry continue across generations as the series explores family legacy, love, betrayal and the struggle between good and evil.
Pugh takes on the complex role of Cathy Ames, with Abbott and Faist playing brothers Adam and Charles Trask. Created by Zoe Kazan, whose grandfather Elia Kazan directed the celebrated 1955 film adaptation, the seven-part drama approaches Steinbeck’s sprawling story through Cathy’s perspective while retaining its central questions about whether people are bound by the choices of those who came before them.
At 8611 metres, K2 is the world’s second-highest mountain and one of its most dangerous. For decades, climbers attempted to achieve what had never been done: reach its summit during winter.
This documentary follows the mountaineers involved in the historic 2021 expedition that achieved the first successful winter ascent of K2, a triumph overshadowed by the deaths of five climbers during the season. Through their experiences, the film examines the physical and emotional cost of elite mountaineering, as well as the changing culture surrounding it.
Beyond the extraordinary footage and ever-present danger, The Last First: Winter K2 considers the commercialisation of climbing, the influence of social media and tensions between marginalised climbers and the traditional mountaineering establishment. The result is a story about ambition and survival that also asks who receives recognition when history is made.
Dominic West and Sienna Miller lead this legal drama set within the polished but ruthless world of London’s most prestigious law firms.
The first season centres on the divorce of technology billionaire Morgan Henderson, played by West, and his estranged wife, internationally famous film star Carla Duval, played by Miller. Their separation quickly becomes the case of the century, with rival firms Cathcarts and Taylor & Byrne each convinced that victory is within reach.
As the legal battle intensifies, loyalties begin to fracture and carefully guarded secrets threaten careers and reputations. Designed as an anthology in which each season will explore a different legal dispute, War combines the personal stakes of a marriage breakdown with the manoeuvring, rivalries and moral compromises of elite law.
Could you convict someone of murder when there is no weapon, no confirmed cause of death and little physical evidence? That is the question facing 12 everyday Australians in the latest season of SBS’s fascinating true-crime experiment.
The five-part series restages a real Australian manslaughter trial, with professional actors delivering testimony word for word from the original court transcripts. The case concerns a woman who disappeared, only for her remains to be discovered buried in a former backyard a decade later.
With no clear time, place or cause of death, the jurors must weigh circumstantial evidence, conflicting testimony and their own assumptions before deciding whether the case has been proven beyond reasonable doubt. Once they have delivered their verdict, a final revelation challenges what they believe about the difference between legal justice and the truth.
Roland is in the grip of a midlife crisis when he finds himself caring for a dog he never wanted. Reluctantly returning to the local dog park, he meets eternal optimist Samantha and an eclectic group of dog lovers who gradually begin to draw him out of his shell.
Leon Ford stars as the weary Roland opposite Celia Pacquola as Samantha, with Brooke Satchwell, Elizabeth Alexander, Grace Chow and Ras-Samuel among the ensemble cast. What begins as a story about an unwilling dog owner develops into a warm and funny exploration of friendship, loneliness and the unexpected places people find community.
With six episodes of around half an hour each, Dog Park is an easy weekend watch that balances humour with the messier realities of relationships, ageing and starting again.
Before Jane Austen became one of the world’s most celebrated authors, she was a young woman facing the expectations placed on women in Georgian England.
Anne Hathaway stars as Jane, whose financially strained parents expect her to make a sensible marriage to the nephew of the wealthy Lady Gresham. Jane understands that accepting him would provide security, but she also fears a loveless union would cost her the independence she values.
Her path changes when she meets the charming but penniless Irish lawyer Tom Lefroy, played by James McAvoy. Inspired by what is known of Austen’s early life, Becoming Jane imagines a romance that may have helped shape the sharp observations, spirited heroines and complicated love stories found in her novels. Maggie Smith, Julie Walters and James Cromwell round out the impressive cast.
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