Marvel’s Fantastic Four: First Steps makes its streaming debut this week, alongside the likes trues-story survival drama Last Breath, and star-studded historical miniseries Death by Lightning.
SERIES
All’s Fair S1
4 November 2025 – Disney+
I’ve seen very little of Kim Kardashian on-screen talents outside of reality television, and I can’t say that what I’ve encountered has impressed me mightily. But there’s no denying that the popular influencer’s name alone is going to be enough to get people tuning into All’s Fair. Luckily for the new legal drama, it has a lot more going for it than just a famous name… A whole bunch of famous names! These having all earned their fame via their thespian efforts though. We’re talking the likes of Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts, Glenn Close, Neicy Nash-Betts and more, who, along with Kardashian, star as a team of brilliant female divorce attorneys who decide to leave their male-dominated firm to open their own legal practice, finding themselves embroiled in high-stakes breakups, scandalous secrets, and shifting allegiances – both professional and personal.
Death by Lightning S1
6 November 2025 – Netflix
“Assassination can no more be guarded against than death by lightning,” a quote from James Garfield that could not have been more prescient. The 20th President of the United States of America, serving from 1881 until his death, Garfield was a man who dragged himself up from a poverty-stricken birth to become the most powerful person in his country, despite the fact that he actually didn’t want the position… only to be fatally shot by an assassin a year after assuming office. Death by Lightning is a four episode limited series starring Michael Shannon, Matthew Macfadyen, Nick Offerman, Betty Gilpin, Bradley Whitford and Shea Whigham, and brings to life the epic and stranger-than-fiction true story of the reluctant President Garfield (Shannon) and his greatest admirer Charles Guiteau (MacFayden), the man who would come to kill him.
MOVIES
Ballad of a Small Player
29 October 2025 – Netflix
I really don’t understand Netflix sometimes. Every once in a while, the streamer will have a new release made by recognizable people which they will just… not promote at all. Key in point, Ballad of Small Player, which you may have noticed in the details above actually released two days ago! You would never have known though as it’s not even appearing on my New on Netflix screen and is nowhere to be found in the charts, which is really odd for a movie which is headlined by Oscar nominee Colin Farrell and directed by Oscar winner Edward Berger (Conclave, All Quiet on the Western Front). Hell, even on Netflix’s own media site, there’s not even a blurb for this movie. Weird. Either way, it’s here now and this is adapted by writer Rowan Joffé (28 Weeks Later) from Lawrence Osborne’s 2014 novel of the same name. Farrell stars as Lord Freddy Doyle, a high-profile gambler laying low in the casino-rich Macao, wasting away what money he has left on drinks and cards. Struggling to keep up with his fast-rising debts, he is offered a lifeline by the mysterious Dao Ming, a casino employee with secrets of her own. Unfortunately for Doyle, his plan to get back his life becomes very tenuous when private investigator Cynthia Blithe (Tilda Swinton) shows up looking to confront him with all he’s been running from.
Piece by Piece
2 November 2025 – Showmax
If you thought Robbie Williams being portrayed as a monkey in his biopic was unexpected, wait until you see what Pharrell Williams did with Piece by Piece. Directed and co-written by Oscar winner Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom, this feature documentary biopic tells the story of the 13-time Grammy Award-winning and two-time Oscar-nominated rapper/singer/producer Williams like you’ve never seen it before – in Lego! Featuring other musical personalities like Kendrick Lamar, Gwen Stefani, Timbaland, Snoop Dogg, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Daft Punk, Busta Rhymes, Pusha T, and more, this highly original telling of Pharrell’s life story asks you to “turn up the volume on your imagination and witness the evolution of one of music’s most innovative minds.”
Last Breath
3 November 2025 – Showmax
Based-on-a-true-story survival drama Last Breath dropped in cinemas in March this year and barely made a ripple on the cultural zeitgeist while bellyflopping at the box office. But don’t let its low-profile fool you. Directed and co-written by Alex Parkinson, this is a feature film remake of Parkinson’s own 2019 documentary about a 2012 saturation diving accident that left diver Chris Lemons trapped on the ocean floor of the North Sea, 100m down, with no heat or light, and only a tiny amount of breathable gas in an emergency cylinder. Finn Cole stars as Lemons, with Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu playing the other two members of his dive crew who had to somehow devise a way of rescuing Lemons when a technical malfunction leaves them and the diving bell they used to submerge, cut off from support. The result is a tense little drama which Noelle described in her 7.5/10 review as “something of a shock to the system in that it seemingly avoids cinematic exaggeration, unwavering in its commitment to telling its low stakes true story. It can’t escape all survival thriller clichés but it is powerful and credible nonetheless.”
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
5 November 2025 – Disney+
If there was one common theme for 2025’s two highest profile comic book movies, it was the much-appreciated willingness to embrace and not be embarrassed by their sometimes-silly comic book roots. For DC’s Superman, that meant a hero actually being heroic. For Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, it meant a family of scientific explorers from a bygone era. And I loved it. After Fox’s two previous cinematic versions of the iconic team (one kind of cheesy but fun, the other an unmitigated grimdark disaster), Marvel finally get to not only bring Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Susan Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) to screen themselves, but finally do justice to their iconic enemy Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and introduce a new Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), all while marching the MCU closer to Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. It’s a lot to pull off, and director Matt Shakmann (WandaVision) doesn’t focus as much on some aspects as you may expect, but the result is a movie decked out in an eye catching 1960s aesthetic with a rousing score from Michael Giacchino, anchored by surprisingly powerful dramatic performances from most of its cast (poor Ben Grimm has most of his scenes left on the editing room floor). Vanessa Kirby’s take on a pregnant Sue Storm is without a doubt the MVP showing here, finally giving us the powerhouse leader comic book fans have wanted to see on screen for so long. And as Noelle pointed out in her 8/10 review, “a sincere and warm-hearted commitment to capturing the essence of its comic source material, and overall visual panache help to make this one something special.”