TV
House of Cards season four (available 4 March)
It’s election year, and our power-hungry President Frank Underwood is gunning for another term. Trouble is, his equally power-crazed ex-wife Claire is trying to scupper his chances of re-election with the help of hard-nosed Democratic fundraiser Leann Harvey, played by Neve Campbell. Is America ready for a second Machiavellian race to the top?
Better Call Saul season two (episodes released every Tuesday)
Show-runner Vince Gilligan told the Guardian recently that he is worried Jimmy McGill is breaking bad and becoming Saul Goodman too soon – but we’re happy to watch Jimmy ramp up the petty scams and long-cons over many seasons yet. This is a spinoff that is just starting to step away from its parent show and become its own beast – and it’s all the finer for it.
Flaked (available 11 March)
Will Arnett – better known to Arrested Development fans as GOB – teams up with the creator of AD to bring us his most close-to-the-bone project yet. Arnett writes, produces and stars in this show about an alcoholic stool-maker who moves to Venice Beach to get his life back on track. It sounds bleak, but with these two at the helm there are sure to be belly-laughs by the minute. Come on!
The Characters season one (available 11 March)
With absolutely no strictures, eight standup comics – from Saturday Night Live writers to Orange Is the New Black’s awkward prison guard (Lauren Lapkus) and Broad City’s naff personal trainer and secret porn star (Paul W Downs) – get to make their own 30-minute sketch show. It is a luxury project that only a mega-moneyed company could get away with, but it sounds like it may well come up with the goods.
Marvel’s Daredevil season two (available 18 March)
Matt Murdock, AKA The Man Without Fear – everyone’s favourite blind lawyer who moonlights as a crimefighter – is back for a second bout. This season, Frank Castle or The Punisher (played by The Walking Dead’s Jon Bernthal) and Elektra (Elodie Yung) are the villains to combat. With Charlie Cox’s lead performance, a classy noirish treatment and Netflix’s mounds of cash, the Marvel man may soon manage to erase all memory of Ben Affleck’s largely loathed film version.
Jane the Virgin season one (available 22 March)
Given how convoluted the latter seasons became, it is hard to remember just how fresh and fun Ugly Betty used to be. This similar “telenovella for the masses” comedy is still in the honeymoon period, meaning that its sharply drawn characters and far-fetched plotlines are still sparking with surprising success. It also helps that it’s anchored by a Golden Globe-winning performance from Gina Rodriguez, who brings a screwball touch to her role as a virgin accidentally impregnated with the baby of her crush. Told you it was far-fetched.
Film
Desperately Seeking Susan (available 1 March)
Seminal 80s number that made Madonna’s stock (and sales of lace gloves and hairspray) soar.
Something Wild (available 1 March)
Netflix continue their run of ultimate 80s films with this roadtrip caper starring Jeff Daniels as supreme yuppie Charles S Driggs who gets kidnapped by Melanie Griffiths’ Audrey Hankel.
The Real Miyagi (available 1 March)
Daniel-san’s trainer learned it all (murdering flies with chopsticks, waxing on and off) from Sensei Fumio Demura, a nunchuk pioneer and true karate king. This documentary explores the life of a man revered by everyone from Pat Morita (Mr Miyagi) to Bruce Lee. Watch as he smashes apples off someone’s head with his nunchuks like a modern-day William Tell.
Gored: a Love Story (available 1 March)
Master matador Antonio Barrera has been gored more than any other living bull-fighter – 23 times. This documentary is an intriguing study in passion, deadly drive and cruelty to animals.
Wayne’s World 2 (available 1 March)
The spirit of Jim Morrison and a “weird naked Indian” meet Wayne in a desert dream and convince him to put on the ultimate rock show with Garth. We’re not worthy, we’re not worthy!
Labor Day (available 4 March)
Terrible melodrama from Jason Reitman, who made his name with Thank You for Smoking, Juno and Up in the Air. Kate Winslet stars as depressive mom Adele, who gets mixed up with an escaped con who sure bakes a good pie. Winslet really should have known better.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (available 12 March)
The dullest of the Marvel superheroes. Stick with Daredevil.
The End of the Affair (available 16 March)
Graham Greene fans, rejoice. Everyone else, steer clear. Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw called this “crass”, “banal” and “a bit of a travesty” when it was released in 2000.
My Beautiful Broken Brain (available 18 March)
After an ordinary weekend in 2011, Lotje Sodderland woke in the middle of the night and found that she had forgotten everything. A haemorrhagic stroke had cut her adrift from language and logic. This documentary explores her rehabilitation – and the fragility of all that we take for granted.
The Ouija Experiment and The Ouiji Experiment 2: Theatre of death (available 22 March)
Feeling nostalgic about the most terrifying days of your teenage years? Watch this dire double bill, then get a glass out and contact the dead for old times’ sake.
Barney Thomson (available 31 March)
Robert Carlyle plays a Glaswegian barber who finds himself at the centre of a serial killer investigation. This brutal noir was also Carlyle’s directorial debut – but it’s Emma Thompson who steals the show as his hard-as-nails mother.
45 Years (available 31 March)
Charlotte Rampling may not have won the best actress Oscar for this film – possibly because she weighed in to the #OscarsSoWhite debate by saying it was “racist to white people”. But her performance in Andrew Haigh’s drama about an ageing couple is astonishingly moving and well worth a watch (when you can finally look past her unfortunate statement).
Absolutely Anything (available 31 March)
Robin Williams plays the voice of Simon Pegg’s dog Dennis in his final ever role – but it’s far from the movie to remember him by. It is directed by Monty Python’s Terry Jones, and the cast is strong – Kate Beckinsale, Joanna Lumley et al – but at its core, this is a film about Pegg being given godlike powers for good, and using them to get the perfect six-pack, make poo fly … absolutely zilch, actually.
