what to watch in February

As summer has well and truly set in, we hope you’re able to while away some hours in the comfort of air-conditioning. And what better way to spend that time than with some new treats to stream?

This month, our experts are watching the smash-hit ice-hockey romance Heated Rivalry; getting familiar with Martin Scorsese and who he is behind the camera; and keeping the Australian Open vibes going with a new miniseries about Evonne Goolagong Cawley.

We hope you find your next great binge watch in this selection!

Goolagong

ABC iView

Evonne Goolagong Cawley was one of Australia’s greatest champions of all time.

Goolagong, a compelling and inspiring three-part mini-series honouring the Wiradjuri tennis legend, is a rags-to-riches story about a small-town girl with a ball and a piece of 2 x 4 who dreams of one day winning Wimbledon. A little Aussie battler.

Evonne is portrayed by the remarkable Whadjuk and Wardandi Noongar actor Lila McGuire, who delivers a sublime performance that compellingly showcases Goolagong’s vulnerability, resilience, grace and fighting spirit. The ensemble cast of Australian actors provides a rich, talented and authentic foundation for the story.

This series is not just for tennis fans, who will relish the big tournament moments and the portrayal of renowned players of the time, such as John Newcombe, Margaret Court, Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. This is a story for all Australians.

Skilfully directed by Batjala, Mununjali and Wakka Wakka man Wayne Blair, the series offers an in-depth look at the complexities of athletes’ lives both on and off the field, and an intimate portrayal of an Indigenous family’s life in rural Australia during the 1970s.

The mini-series delves intimately into Goolagong’s personal life, the international tennis circuit and what it takes to be the world’s best.

– Liza-Mare Syron

Read more: Goolagong is a compelling and inspiring mini-series – a story for all Australians

Heated Rivalry

HBO Max (Australia), Neon (New Zealand)

Heated Rivalry, written and directed by Jacob Tierney, has become a massive hit. Rachel Reid’s romance novel was written for a mainly female readership, and it doesn’t quite capture all of the nuances of a gay male relationship. Tierney’s adaptation brings a whole new understanding to the intricacies of gay love.

Heated Rivalry follows the romantic relationship between two rising professional hockey players: the Canadian captain of the Montreal Metros, Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams), and the Russian captain of the Boston Raiders, Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie).

Tierney’s perspective makes the pair fully realised people who are each battling their own demons. He emphasises that queer men’s lives aren’t just full of spicy, sexy moments. Often, our sexuality can be a point of difference in how we are perceived in our careers, family lives, relationships and on the wider world stage.

Tierney’s adaptation honours both the women who will come to the show from the novel, and the show’s new male audience. He understood the show had to be spicy and honour the books, but also be authentically gay.

Tierney’s Shane and Ilya cry, have good sex, share their hurts and worries, and work through their vulnerabilities together. All while still being active, attractive and complicated queer men.

– Harry Stewart

Read more: Why the Heated Rivalry TV series understands gay men better than the book

Beyond the Bar

Netfilx

Beyond the Bar offers a fresh lens on gender, and society’s moral and ethical dilemmas, viewed through the prism of the law. This new 12-episode South Korean limited series is co-created by Kim Jae-hong, who also directs, and Park Mi-hyeon, who is a writer and former lawyer.

It stars two well-known actors who give outstanding performances: Jung Chae-yeon (The King’s Affection) as the young female lawyer, and Lee Jin-wook (Squid Game) as her boss. Creative choices – such as the camera lingering on their exchanged looks – create pauses that underscore their connection. In an unusual representation of a marriage of minds, it becomes clear they admire one another’s ethical judgement and professional success.

The series features female-centred storylines, relationships and legal dilemmas. The number three symbolises balance and harmony. This motif recurs: three women at different career stages, including the female head of the firm signal a shift in sexual politics in South Korea; three sisters struggling with poverty; three female housemates who vow enduring support wherever life takes them.

There are two types of men in the series: men who work supportively with women, and the lazy scheming male lawyers, who are villains derided as “salary thieves”. In contrast the women and their male collaborators strive for fairness and transparency, engaging ethically with arising problems.

I loved the women-led stories and the central relationship, where the expected sexual frisson is replaced by genuine intellectual chemistry.

– Lisa French

Dog Park

ABC iView

Raise a paw if your dog ever helped you to meet a new two-legged friend? The premise of Dog Park capitalises on the fact that pet ownership in Australia is increasing, with canines being the most popular choice.

Roland (Dog Park co-creator Leon Ford) is a middle aged recluse and all-round grump who has a hard time trusting or liking other humans. His sense of dissolution takes a further dip when his estranged wife Emma (Brooke Satchwell) departs for work in the United States, leaving the TAFE career counsellor in charge of his distant teenage daughter Mia (Florence Gladwin) and disdained dog Beattie.

The first turning point of this six-part series occurs when Beattie goes missing and boozehound Roland searches for her at the local park. This is where Roland meets the always sunny Samantha (Celia Pacquola) and a ragtag bunch of overly friendly folks and their fur babies (AKA the Dog Park Divas), all of whom are quite familiar with Beattie already.

The Dog Park Divas dole out life lessons, trying to help slow Roland’s downhill roll. Their interventions slowly begin to take effect – which gives hope that all humans are ultimately redeemable.

Dog Park is tender in a darkly bittersweet way with an underlying theme of connection and chosen family. Beattie (played by a poodle of unspecified breed named Indie in real life) is pretty cute – and proof that dogs really are the superior species.

– Phoebe Hart

Read more: Dog parks are an unexploited arena for a television dramedy – so now we have ABC's Dog Park

Mr. Scorsese

Apple TV

Canonisation has an irritating habit of smoothing over the rough, interesting edges. I kept thinking about that while watching Mr. Scorsese. At its best, the series pushes back against that tendency. Chronologically structured, it opens with a rich, evocative portrait of Martin Scorsese’s Italian American childhood in New York, shaped by illness, Catholic ritual and an intense, almost unhealthy devotion to cinema.

The attention given to Scorsese’s student years and early experiments is especially welcome. We see a filmmaker borrowing styles, pushing form, overreaching, then pulling back – trying to invent a language before he fully understands its grammar. That groundwork matters when the series turns to his masterpieces Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas and Casino.

Rebecca Miller’s documentary does an excellent job of cutting through decades of familiarity, reminding us just how abrasive, violent and volatile these films remain.

It is revealing to hear Scorsese and his collaborators reflect on the personal and professional peaks and troughs of his career, especially given how securely he now sits in the cultural landscape.

The only real criticism I have with the series is the relatively limited attention paid to the later films, with some receiving only a perfunctory mention and others missing altogether. In a sense, however, this speaks to the scale of Scorsese’s achievement. There is simply too much ground to cover, and the series flies by. Five episodes could easily have been ten.

– Alexander Howard

Lesbian Space Princess

Netflix, from February 6

In Lesbian Space Princess, outer space emerges as a new and inclusive habitat for a smart, funny story exploring the inner spaces of lesbian consciousness and self-affirmation.

The film pushes hard against the gendered conventions of the sci-fi genre, re-pointing them to unexpected ends.

Can introspective Princess Saira rescue her ex-girlfriend, Kiki, from the evil clutches of a rogue group of incels known as the Straight White Maliens?

Low on self-confidence and belittled by her royal lesbian mothers, Saira sustains an unshakeable attachment to Kiki, a soft-butch bounty hunter who is as attachment-avoidant as Saira is clingy.

Saira battles through the beautifully drawn pink-hued reaches of constellations and moonscapes in a spaceship (depressively voiced by Richard Roxburgh). As she reluctantly traverses outer space, she must step up to its greatest challenge: plumbing the messy depths of her inner world.

Rather than provide lesbian romantic satisfaction or ground its utopian energies in the bold new world of queer community, in the future imagined here the way desire is experienced by the self is more important than who or what it is directed toward.

– Lee Wallace

Read more: Lesbian Space Princess is a cheeky, intergalactic romp that turns the sci-fi genre on its head

The Pitt, season two

HBO Max (Australia), Neon (New Zealand)

Last year the beloved, award-winning drama The Pitt reconceptualised medical storytelling post-COVID and post-network TV.

Set in a strained Pittsburgh emergency department, and featuring a terrific ensemble cast, the full 15-episode season covered an entire shift, each episode moving hour by hour. Patient and staff storylines, some ripped from the headlines, painted a powerful picture of care and humanity in the face of a broken health system and wider social crises.

Season two has been greatly anticipated. It’s the fourth of July, one of the worst days for accidents and injuries. Burnt-out ER boss Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Noah Wyle) has one last shift before he goes on extended leave, ready to take his new motorbike (hello, midlife crisis) and get out of Dodge. Clearly things won’t go smoothly.

Just about the whole gang is back – everyone from nurses, cleaners and experienced physicians to student doctors and ER regulars, many still dealing with the tragic events and disclosures of season one. The fast-paced, well-shot show remains adept at balancing dense mental jargon and frank representations of medical trauma with sharp, compassionate characterisation and wry humour. A few episodes in and a new omnicrisis is brewing… It’s compelling stuff.

– Erin Harrington

Stranger Things, season five

Netflix

Beyond its monsters and 1980s nostalgia, Stranger Things resonates because it tells stories of struggles familiar to young people: trauma that lingers, identity that wavers, and friendships that buffer against fear.

And by turning inner struggles into visible monsters, Stranger Things can provide a lens to discuss trauma, identity and resilience. Adults can use the show to talk to teenagers about their own mental health.

The Upside Down is a dark mirror of the Hawkins township – a shadow world where threats feed on secrecy and avoidance. It works as a metaphor for “unseen” unprocessed experiences, shame and anxious avoidance. The young people at the heart of the show must face their fears to overcome their power.

Vecna’s attacks dramatise shame and self-criticism. His voice echoes characters’ darkest self-judgments: Max hears accusations about Billy’s death; Eleven relives failures to protect friends. You can help young people by reminding them the harsh voice in their head isn’t who they are. It’s just a thought, like a bully they can fight.

And at its heart, Stranger Things is a friendship story. The party’s loyalty and shared rituals provide a scaffold against isolation and fear. Rituals of D&D campaigns, walkie-talkie check-ins and bike rides create a safety net. Adults can point out how the characters in Stranger Things share burdens and protect one another.

– Stephen Goldsmith

Read more: How adults can use Stranger Things to talk to young people about their mental health