If you were one of the biggest and best streaming services on the planet, knowing that every single calendar month you face the same challenge of ensuring your subscribers stay happy and don't cancel, February might look like quite a tall order.
After all, it's very famously the shortest month of the year, meaning you have less time than usual to space out your releases for maximum impact. For the viewer, though, it's great news – a veritable deluge of new releases. I've had a look at everything coming down the pike in a very busy month for Amazon Prime Video, and picked out five highlights you'll want to know about if you're a member.
56 Days
- Streaming from: 18 February
The golden era of the erotic thriller is arguably quite a long time gone, but that doesn't mean people don't still want them – and Prime Video seems to have gotten wise to that fact. Its latest, 56 Days, looks like it'll tell a story that goes to places you won't be able to predict, with a fun central mystery.
After a whirlwind romance, someone ends up dead in a luxury apartment, but the body's impossible to identify, leading to a race against time for detectives to figure out just who the heck the victim is. Expect steamy love scenes, brutal revelations, and a web of lies – sounds like fun, no?
Cross Season 2
- Streaming from: 6 February
Prime Video's also made it a really impressive destination for those looking for memorable detective characters – with heroes like Jack Reacher and Harry Bosch having propped things up for a while. Cross is another of its biggest highlights in the genre, and the main man is back for another season early in February.
This time, it looks like the budget might have gone up, which is never a bad thing, and Cross himself is going to have to reckon with another brutal case. A serial killer is slicing fingers off their victims, and Cross has it all against him as he tries to figure out just who the culprit might be.
Love Me Love Me
- Streaming from: 13 February
Another super steamy-looking option for those who want some romance in their lives, Love Me Love Me will drop the night before Valentine's Day, which seems pretty obviously a smart bit of tactical timing from Prime Video. It's likely to work, too, since this also echoes some of the plot details from previous hits.
It sees a young woman forced to move her life to a new country as she joins an elite private school and almost immediately falls into a doozy of a love triangle. Forced between the classic choice between a bad boy and someone who might be too squeaky clean, drama's guaranteed to ensue.
Paul McCartney: Man on the Run
- Streaming from: 27 February
Lovers of The Beatles have done quite well in recent years, with Get Back being a particular highlight in terms of archival footage. Those who want to know more about Paul McCartney specifically will now get their time in the limelight, though, thanks to a documentary looking specifically at him.
In fact, it's even more specific than that, since the movie seemingly focuses on his time starting a solo career after his world-famous band fell apart. With an array of massive hits still to come at that point, it should be an eye-opening look at a life lived in the spotlight, and a generational musical talent.
The Gray House
- Streaming from: 26 February
This is an interesting one – a fascinating-looking series that zooms in on an improbable story, but one that Amazon hasn't really trailed yet at all. That hasn't stopped some hype building up, though, and it seems like it could be a sleeper hit if the stars align.
It looks at how some brave women used the underground railroad in Confederate territory as a vehicle by which to get secret messages and spywork done. The stakes are therefore immediately and very obviously enormously high, which should make its drama even higher as nasty individuals get closer to figuring out what's going on.
