Netflix Quietly Released One of Its Best Shows Ever — and More Streaming Must-Sees (and Must-Skips) in March 2025 │ Exclaim!

It’s March, which means awards season is mercifully over, the clocks have sprung forward, and tax season is right around the corner. In the first two months of the year, streaming offerings exceeded expectations introducing some really great programming that has outdone the theatrical options, and this month is no different.

Two personal favourites return for their third go around and only continue to up the ante, and I finally caught up with a buried Netflix series from one of Japan’s preeminent auteurs. On the comedy side, the Baroness von Sketch Show finds the funny in menopause and a new Disney+ series sees third culture kids wrapped up in mafia-like situations.

For more streaming recommendations, be sure to read our past editions of Tune In or Turn Off here.

Tune In: Asura
(Netflix)

Netflix makes a lot of questionable moves, chief among them the decision to release arguably the most beautiful show they’ve ever slapped their name onto, only to act like it doesn’t exist. Written and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, the seven-episode show is based on the Japanese series Ashura no Gotoku, adapted from a novel by Kuniko Mukōda. Asura follows the Takezawa sisters — four women of varying ages representing different sides of the female experience in 1979 Japan — who catch their father with another woman and a small boy who refers to him as “papa.” It’s tender, funny, raw — everything that makes television a transformative experience. Netflix may seemingly not care about this series, but we all should.

Tune In: Deli Boys
(Disney+)

Grieving over the sudden death of a parent already comes with its own challenges, but finding out your father was a drug dealing kingpin and that the convenience store chain he ran merely exists as a front should be grounds for an understandable breakdown. Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh star as the Dar brothers in such a situation — Ali as the ambitious, by-the-book son, and Shaikh as the stoner, third-eye kind of guy. The two attempt to succeed their father in the criminal underworld with hilarious results. It’s a highly bingeable show that uses sitcom pacing to its advantage with clever writing and sharp performances.

Tune In: Grand Theft Hamlet
(MUBI)

While many did their best to cosplay artisan pastry chefs during the pandemic lockdowns, two British filmmakers decided to mount Shakespeare’s Hamlet within the online multiplayer game Grand Theft Auto. Beyond the fact that the results are surprisingly hilarious, the documentary stands as a testament to creativity and persistence — characteristics we needed to get by those days, and lessons that continue to echo.

Tune In: Invincible, Season 3
(Prime Video)

Invincible came onto the scene just as the cinematic world of superheroes began to wane. In its third season now, the Robert Kirkman-created series continues to separate itself from others in the genre (especially as its peers have become so forgettable). While Season 3 doesn’t offer the same levels of gruesomeness, it exchanges the violence for a deeper look into Mark’s life as a young man and superhero. It’s a welcome reprieve that sets Invincible on its own footing as one of most refined and entertaining storytelling offerings currently on the air.

Tune In: Reacher, Season 3
(Prime Video)

While I enjoyed Season 2 of Reacher generally speaking, it didn’t quite grab me in the same way the debut season had. But lucky for me and other Reacher fans, Alan Ritchson and co. answered the call with a return to form in Season 3. This season’s story follows Lee Child’s Persuader, the seventh book of the series, which sees Ritchson’s Jack Reacher carefully wading through a criminal enterprise as he tries to save a DEA informant. It’s one of the most “dad” shows that’s ever been made, and it fires on all cylinders for dads and non-dads alike.

Tune In: Small Achievable Goals
(CBC Gem)

It’s been five long years since the Baroness von Sketch Show left us, but fans can rejoice with the reunion of Jennifer Whalen and Meredith MacNeill, playing two women navigating menopause at different phases and assigned to produce a podcast together. Small Achievable Goals finds the humour in the highs and lows of aging, office politics and parenting in another banging TV outing by two of Canada’s great comedic voices. Menopause comedy isn’t a thing yet, but Whalen and MacNeill certainly make a case for it.

Turn Off: With Love, Meghan
(Netflix)

I didn’t plan on watching Netflix’s latest contractual obligation to Meghan Markle (sorry, Sussex), but social media got the better of me and a hate-watch commenced. The series positions the Duchess of Loudly Leaving the Royal Family but Still Using Titles as a lifestyle expert — a Martha Stewart- or Ina Garten-type for a new generation — and while the overall aesthetic may fit the part, the former actress falls short. In attempting to make her relatable, With Love, Meghan only leaves its host wildly out of touch and, at times, seeming simply bizarre. It’s not quite as bad as the memes and clips suggest, but that doesn’t mean With Love, Meghan is anywhere near an acceptable use of anyone’s time.

Turn Off: Zero Day
(Netflix)

I don’t mean to make this entire month about Asura, but the amount of attention Netflix placed on shows like With Love, Meghan and Zero Day baffles me entirely, when it made nary an announcement about housing some of Kore-eda’s finest work. Sure, a lifestyle show backed by tabloid fodder and a series led by Robert De Niro himself can’t compare marketing-wise, but substantively, they’re worlds apart. Zero Day stands as one of my biggest disappointments of the year so far. Filling the show with acting veterans and icons like De Niro, Angela Bassett, Joan Allen and Matthew Modine, and newer talents as exciting and capable as Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons and Dan Stevens is already enough to pique the interest, but the technological collapse of the world also offers a compelling and timely premise to reckon with. Unfortunately all of the promise doesn’t come close to passing muster. Just watch Asura instead.