Enjoy new episodes of the scandalous reality series The Mommy Club this month on Showmax, as well as the conclusion of the story of cop-turned-serial-killer Rosemary Ndlovu in Rosemary’s Hitlist. Then, catch up on eagerly awaited foreign programs such as the upcoming season of Bel-Air, Kevin Costner’s neo-Western Yellowstone, and the heartwarming misfit story Somebody Somewhere.
Below are some selected movies and TV shows from us to you.
Faithless: Showmax Original; Thursdays from 6 July
Rosemary Waweru (Tabasamu) plays the lead in the Kenyan Showmax Original. Esther, a struggling waitress who stumbles into the proceeds of a botched theft.
As her church mates, Avril Nyambura (Pepeta), Beatrice Mwai (Paa), and Fatma Mohammed (Kina) co-star as they must decide whether to spend the money for good or succumb to the temptations that come with ill-gotten earnings.
Morris Mwangi (Famous), Peter Kamau (Selina), Arabron Nyyneque (Second Family), Abubakar Mwenda (Subira), Brian Ngaira (Pepeta), and news caster Mark Masai also star in the Kenyan criminal drama.
Faithless is directed by Abdi Shuria and King Muriuki (Igiza) and Janet Chumbe (Sanura) for Live Eye TV.
Son of a Critch S1: 19 July
Son of a Critch brings us a heartfelt glimpse into the life of a 1980s junior high schooler who relies on comedy and self-deprecation to win friends and connect with the people in his limited world.
The show is based on the memoir of award-winning series creator Mark Critch, who plays Mark’s dad, with Benjamin Evan Ainsworth (the voice of Robert Zemeckis’ Pinocchio) leading the show as the young Mark, and Malcolm McDowell (Bombshell) as his grandfather.
Son of a Critch has already been renewed for a second and third season.
Halloween Ends: 6 July
One of the most successful horror franchises of all time reaches its dramatic, horrifying end as Laurie Strode squares off against the embodiment of evil, Michael Myers, for the final time.
Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is working four years after the events of 2021’s Halloween Kills to free herself from dread and wrath and embrace life. However, when a young man is accused of murdering a boy he was babysitting, it sets off a chain reaction of violence and fear that will push Laurie to confront the evil she can’t stop once and for all.
The cast includes franchise co-creator John Carpenter, triple Oscar nominee Jason Blum, and The Righteous Gemstones’ David Gordon Green and Danny McBride.
Bandit: 17 July
Bandit, based on a true tale, stars Josh Duhamel (Transformers) as Gilbert Galvan Jr. (aka The Flying Bandit), a suave career criminal who went on a record-breaking rampage of 59 bank heists throughout Canada while being pursued by an increasingly frustrated police task force.
Elisha Cuthbert (24), Nestor Carbonell (The Morning Show), and Oscar winner Mel Gibson (Braveheart) also appear, but Duhamel steals the show, with Uproxx declaring, “Duhamel has never been better.”
The Swearing Jar: 13 July
The Swearing Jar depicts the narrative of Carey, a singer and teacher who hosts a birthday concert for her husband, which takes her back in time. We follow the story of Carey and Simon’s relationship, the birth of their child, and the lie that threatens to f*&k it all up through romance, music, and memory.
The Canadian romcom, starring Adelaide Clemens (Rectify), Patrick J Adams (Suits), and Kathleen Turner, has a 94% reviewers’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with The Globe and Mail calling it “a movie you didn’t anticipate… “Equally thoughtful and emotional.”
Muru: 24 July
Inspired by actual events, Muru is the story of a local Police Sergeant ‘Taffy’ Tāwharau, who must choose between duty to his badge and his people when the New Zealand government invokes antiterrorism powers to launch an armed raid on Taffy’s remote Urewera community on a school day.
Muru has a 92% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Stuff praising it as “absolutely bloody brilliant… a film that ticks every box as a political thriller, as an occasional action movie and as a drama of violence unfolding in a small town.”
The Beta Test: 17 July
Multi-award-winner Jim Cummings (Thunder Road) co-directs, co-writes and co-stars in The Beta Test as a Hollywood agent whose life unravels when he accepts an anonymous invitation to a no-strings-attached sexual encounter weeks before his wedding. It has a 92% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus says, “A darkly amusing thriller that discomfits as it entertains, The Beta Test satirizes Hollywood with savage flair.”
Fall: 10 July
Becky (Grace Caroline Currey, Shazam! Fury of the Gods) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner, Halloween) are best friends who love for conquering phobias and pushing boundaries. They are stranded with no way down after climbing 2 000 feet to the top of a lonely, abandoned TV tower.
In this adrenaline-fueled thriller, Becky and Hunter’s exceptional climbing skills will be pushed to the ultimate test as they urgently fight to survive the elements, a lack of supplies, and vertigo-inducing heights.
In their four-star review, Empire Magazine says, “A white-knuckle disaster in the sky, Fall does exactly and only what it says on the tin. Do look down!”
Bad Behaviour: 21 July
This Australian limited series centres on Jo Mackenzie (Jana McKinnon), a scholarship student at an exclusive wilderness boarding school called Silver Creek, where she encounters a group of teenage girls exploring intense friendships, shifting loyalties, their own emerging sexuality, and a ruthless struggle for power.
“Bad Behaviour is very astute about how keenly you feel every tiny slight, how much you crave approval, how easily you can be led, and how casually cruel you can be,” says ScreenHub, adding that the show’s director and writers, “rarely indulge in the melodramatic horror the show’s premise invites. Instead, they skewer the more banal miseries people inflict on each other, and the destructive behavioural patterns that get baked in when we’re teenagers.”
Bel-Air S2: 24 July
Bel-Air imagines the iconic comedy The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air through a new, dramatic perspective on Will’s difficult journey from the streets of West Philadelphia to the gated mansions of Bel-Air, set in modern-day Los Angeles. Will must cope with the power of second chances while navigating the tensions, emotions, and biases of a world unlike the only one he’s ever known.
The Peacock Original’s second season begins with Will at a crossroads in his life as a new character questions what he has learnt in Bel-Air and he seeks to mend the trust that was ruptured at the end of the first season. As Will and Carlton get closer, their brotherhood begins to change, and Hilary’s relationship with Jazz is affected as she assumes more leadership roles in her influencer community. While attempting to pursue their own career paths and rediscover the things that are essential to them, Viv and Phil must fight to manage marriage and family.
Fans of the original series will be thrilled to see Tatyana Ali, who originally played Ashley Banks, joining the series this season as Mrs. Hughes, Ashley’s English literature teacher at Bel-Air Academy.
Peacock has already renewed Bel-Air for a third season.
