What to watch on Showmax in July 2023

The chill has set in, and there’s no better time to settle down with your favourite series or movies. This month on Showmax, enjoy new episodes of sensational reality series The Mommy Club, and the final parts of the story of cop-turned-serial-killer Rosemary Ndlovu in Rosemary’s Hitlist. Then, check out hotly anticipated international series like the next season of Bel-Air; Kevin Costner neo-Western Yellowstone and the sweet misfit tale Somebody Somewhere.

In movies, watch Harry Styles in Don’t Worry Darling, Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween Ends and Javier Bardém in kids movie Lyle, Lyle Crocodile.

Showmax Originals

Faithless | Showmax Original | Thursdays from 6 July

Rosemary Waweru (Tabasamu) stars in Kenyan Showmax Original Faithless as Esther, a struggling waitress who stumbles upon the proceeds of a heist gone bad. 

Avril Nyambura (Pepeta), Beatrice Mwai (Paa), and Fatma Mohammed (Kina) co-star as her church friends who must decide whether they will use the money for good or give in to the temptations that come with ill-gotten gains. 

The Kenyan crime drama’s cast also includes Morris Mwangi (Famous), Peter Kamau (Selina), Arabron Nyyneque (Second Family), Abubakar Mwenda (Subira), Brian Ngaira (Pepeta) and news anchor Mark Masai.

Produced by Live Eye TV, Faithless is helmed by Abdi Shuria and King Muriuki (Igiza) and Janet Chumbe (Sanura).

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International series 

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Bel-Air S2 | Two episodes on Monday from 24 July

Set in modern-day Los Angeles, Bel-Air imagines the beloved sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air through a new, dramatic take on Will’s complicated journey from the streets of West Philadelphia to the gated mansions of Bel-Air. As his two worlds collide, Will reckons with the power of second chances while navigating the conflicts, emotions, and biases of a world far different from the only one he’s ever known. 

Season 2 of the Peacock Original picks up with Will at a crossroads in his life as a new figure comes into his life who challenges what he’s learned in Bel-Air, even as he tries to rebuild the trust that was broken at the end of last season. Will and Carlton’s brotherhood starts to evolve as they grow closer, while Hilary is stepping up as a boss in her influencer world, which impacts her relationship with Jazz. Meanwhile, Viv and Phil must work to balance marriage and family while trying to forge their own career paths and reconnect to the things that are important to them. 

Boasting a 90% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Bel-Air won Outstanding Drama Series at the 2022 Black Reel Awards, where its breakout star, Jabari Banks, was up for Best Actor as Will.

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. 

Yellowstone S1-5A | Binge from 6 July 

Kevin Costner won Best Actor – Drama at this year’s Golden Globes and Critics Choice Super Awards for his performance as ruthless patriarch John Dutton, who will do whatever it takes to protect the lucrative Yellowstone ranch from bloodthirsty enemies, indigenous communities who believe the land is rightfully theirs, and developers whose ambitions put the ranch in peril. 

Yellowstone’s stellar supporting cast includes Luke Grimes (American Sniper); Wes Bentley (Mission: Impossible – Fallout); and Kelly Reilly (True Detective), who was nominated for Best Actress in a Drama Series at the 2023 Critics Choice Awards and the MTV TV Awards, with the series up for Best Drama at both.  

The neo-Western has an 84% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Buzzfeed saying, “There’s little doubt it’s America’s most important drama right now.”

Somebody Somewhere S2 | First on Showmax | 10 July

Comedian and singer Bridget Everett was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award as Sam in Somebody Somewhere, a critically acclaimed HBO Original comedy series she also executive produces alongside the likes of the Duplass brothers. It’s one of Rotten Tomatoes’ most anticipated series of 2023 and one of the American Film Institute’s TV Programs of the Year for 2023. 

Grappling with loss and acceptance, singing was Sam’s saving grace in Season 1, leading her on a journey to discover herself and a community of outsiders who don’t fit in but don’t give up. In Season 2, Sam and Joel (Jeff Hiller) have settled into a comfy routine but nothing stays the same forever.

Somebody Somewhere’s second season was hailed as “laugh out loud funny” by Rolling Stone and as “TV’s sweetest slice of life” with “performances that will break your heart and heal it all over again” by The Daily Beast. HBO has already renewed the critically acclaimed comedy series for a third season.

The Equalizer S3 | Binge from 14 July

The Equalizer stars Oscar nominee Queen Latifah, who was once again nominated for Best Actress in an Action Series at this year’s Critics Choice Super Awards for her performance as Robyn McCall, a single mother and former CIA operative who helps those with nowhere else to turn. 

Season 3 opens with McCall herself in the firing line, which could have far-reaching consequences for her family down the line.

A reimagining of the classic 80s series and the blockbuster movie series with Denzel Washington, The Equalizer has gathered a slew of awards and nominations, and has already been renewed for a fourth season. 

A Friend of the Family | Binge from 7 July

A Friend of the Family is inspired by the chilling true story of the Broberg family, whose daughter Jan was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and brainwashed multiple times over a few years by a charismatic, obsessed family “friend”.

Colin Hanks and Anna Paquin star as Bob and Mary Ann Broberg, a kind-hearted suburban family who became great friends with Robert (Jake Lacy from The White Lotus) and his wife, Gai (Lio Tipton). Over a few years, Robert manipulated the Brobergs, driving a wedge between the parents and one of their daughters, Jan (Mckenna Grace from The Handmaid’s Tale). 

It has a 92% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with The Guardian hailing it as “the most jaw-droppingly incredible true-crime story there is.” Almost 50 years later, Jan Broberg serves as a producer, alongside her mother, on the series. 

Becoming Elizabeth S1 | Binge from 17 July

Becoming Elizabeth follows the younger years of Elizabeth Tudor, an orphaned teenager who becomes embroiled in the political and sexual politics of the English court on her journey to secure the crown and become Queen Elizabeth I. Award-winning German actress (and real-life countess) Alicia von Rittberg (Genius) stars as the young Elizabeth.

Season 1 of the period drama has an 85% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus says, “Angsty as a disgruntled teenager and all the better for it, Becoming Elizabeth finds fresh drama in the Tudors by shifting focus onto the royal court’s web of spiders.”

Bad Behaviour | First on Showmax | Binge from 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.”

Son of a Critch S1 | Binge from 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.

Minx S2 | 2 Episodes a week from 24 July | First on Showmax

Set in 1970s Los Angeles, Minx follows Joyce, an earnest young feminist (Ophelia Lovibond from Feel Good and Elementary) who joins forces with low-rent publisher Doug (Critics’ Choice nominee Jake Johnson from New Girl) to create the first erotic magazine for women.

Season 2 picks up as Doug and Joyce sell Bottom Dollar to a retired shipping magnate and Minx becomes a commercial success. Under new leadership, Doug struggles to maintain his control within Bottom Dollar while Joyce loses sight of her core beliefs as she rises to stardom. As our Bottom Dollar misfits go mainstream, they start to question who they’re becoming and what they really want from this newfound success.

With five-time Emmy nominee Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, The Office, Love Life) among its exec producers, Season 1 was nominated for Best Comedy and Best Actress in a Comedy (for Lovibond) at the 2023 Satellite Awards. It has a 97% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus says, “The rapport between Ophelia Lovibond and Jake Johnson is the irresistible centrefold of Minx, a bawdy and sharp comedy that merits a full-page spread.”

Look out for Elizabeth Perkins from Weeds and Sharp Objects joining the cast this season.

Fifteen-Love | First on Showmax | 25 July

From the production company behind Vigil and Line of Duty, Fifteen-Love tells the story of tennis prodigy Justine Pearce, a one-time rising star whose sudden success at 17 took her and her coach, Glenn Lapthorn, to the quarterfinals of the French Open. But five years on from a devastating injury that cut her career short, Justine makes an explosive allegation against her former coach …

Newcomer Ella Lily Hyland and Empire Award winner Aidan Turner (Ross Poldark in Poldark, and Kili in The Hobbit movies) co-star, alongside the likes of BAFTA nominee Anna Chancellor (Pennyworth, The Watch), Steffan Rhodri (House of the Dragon, Steeltown Murders), Elizabeth Berrington (The Responder, Spencer, In Bruges), and Amar Chadha-Patel (The Third Day, Willow).

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Movies

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Don’t Worry Darling | 31 July

Florence Pugh (Marvel’s Yelena) and Harry Styles (Dunkirk) star in Don’t Worry Darling as Alice and Jack, a picture-perfect 1950s couple living in an idyllic company town. But their utopia may not be all it seems, and Alice soon begins to worry that her husband’s glamorous company could be hiding disturbing secrets.

The psychological thriller is directed by House actress Olivia Wilde. London Evening Standard says, “Wilde (who dazzles in a supporting role) is a misunderstood genius and her sly erotic thriller is one of the best films of the year.”

Fall | 10 July

This unrelentingly tense survival thriller follows best friends Becky (Grace Caroline Currey, Shazam! Fury of the Gods) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner, Halloween), who live for conquering fears and pushing limits. But when they climb 2 000 feet to the top of a remote, abandoned TV tower, they find themselves stranded with no way down. 

Now Becky and Hunter’s expert climbing skills will be put to the ultimate test as they desperately fight to survive the elements, a lack of supplies, and vertigo-inducing heights in this adrenaline-fuelled thriller.

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!”

Violent Night | 3 July 

To hell with “all is calm.” Just in time for a butt-kicking Christmas in July comes Violent Night, a coal-dark holiday action-comedy starring David Harbour (Stranger Things) as a Nick who’s no saint when a crew of ambitious hostage takers make his naughty list on Christmas Eve. 

London Evening Standard says, “David Harbour’s slick new action movie combines slaughter and sleighbells. It’s brazenly amoral and outrageously sappy.”

Halloween Ends | 6 July 

One of the all-time highest-grossing horror franchises comes to its epic, terrifying conclusion as Laurie Strode faces off for the last time against the embodiment of evil, Michael Myers.

Four years after the events of 2021’s Halloween Kills, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is working to liberate herself from fear and rage and embrace life. But when a young man is accused of killing a boy he was babysitting, it ignites a cascade of violence and terror that will force Laurie to finally confront the evil she can’t control, once and for all. 

The team behind the film includes franchise co-creator John Carpenter, triple Oscar nominee Jason Blum, and David Gordon Green and Danny McBride, both from The Righteous Gemstones.

Also watch Halloween, up for Best Sci-Fi/Horror at the 2019 Critics Choice Awards, on Showmax. 

Bandit | 17 July

Based on a true story, the crime comedy-drama Bandit stars Josh Duhamel (Transformers) as Gilbert Galvan Jr. (aka The Flying Bandit), a charming career criminal who went on a record-breaking spree of 59 bank heists across Canada with an increasingly frustrated police task force on his tail. 

Elisha Cuthbert (24), Nestor Carbonell (The Morning Show) and Oscar winner Mel Gibson (Braveheart) also feature but it’s Duhamel who steals the show, with Uproxx saying, “Duhamel has never been better.”

The Swearing Jar | 13 July

The Swearing Jar tells Carey’s story: a musician and teacher who throws a birthday concert for her husband, which plunges her into the past. Through romance, music and memory, 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!

Starring Adelaide Clemens (Rectify), Patrick J Adams (Suits), and Kathleen Turner, the Canadian romcom has a 94% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with The Globe and Mail calling it “a movie you didn’t expect… equally thoughtful and full of feeling.”

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.”

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.”

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Kids

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Puss in Boots: The Last Wish | 24 July

When Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for adventure has taken its toll and he has burned through eight of his nine lives, he sets out on an epic journey to restore them in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

Nominated for a 2023 Oscar, it’s the sixth Shrek film – AV Club calls it “easily the best film in the Shrek franchise.”

Antonio Banderas reprises his role as the swashbuckling Puss alongside Salma Hayek as Kitty Softpaws. The movie has a 95% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus says: “The smart, sweet, and funny Puss in Boots: The Last Wish proves some franchises only get better with age.”

Lyle, Lyle Crocodile | 16 July

Josh struggles to adjust and make friends after his family moves to New York City. All of that changes when he discovers Lyle – a singing crocodile (voiced by pop star Shawn Mendes) who loves baths, caviar and great music, and his charismatic owner, Hector P Valenti, played by Oscar winner Javier Bardem. 

Based on the best-selling children’s story by Bernard Waber, it’s written by Annie Award winner Will Davies (Puss in Boots), with original songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (the Oscar-winning duo behind The Greatest Showman), and performed by Shawn Mendes, Javier Bardem, and Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians). 

Recommending the film for ages 6+, Common Sense Media sums up the movie as, “a story about found family and finding your joy, even when things seem overwhelming.”

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Local

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Desert Rose S1 | Binge from 24 July

The Greyling siblings reunite at their family home in the Namaqualand desert in the Northern Cape after one of them reneges on a decade-long deal to settle the debts they took on when their father (Neil Sandilands from DAM and Sweet Tooth) abandoned them and disappeared. To get out of ruthless debt collector Eugene Van As’s crosshairs, they need to come up with the cash or find their father – before Van As and his thugs take them all down.

2021 SAFTA winner Tinarie Van Wyk Loots (Gat In Die Muur), Moffie lead actor Kai Luke Brummer, Amalia Uys (Die Byl), and SAFTA nominee Christia Visser (Tess, Kaalgat Karel) co-star as the Greyling siblings.

Unmarried S3 | Binge from 10 July

Enzo, Rea, and Confidence wade through the murky waters of dating in the age of social media in Season 3 of the SAFTA-nominated Unmarried, produced by Ferguson Films for Mzansi Magic.  

This season’s cast is led by Khanya Mkangisa (Blood Psalms), three-time SAFTA nominee Mapula Mafole (Rhythm City), and Florence Mokgatsi (Isibaya). 

Spoorloos S4 | Binge from 20 July 

Titled Die Eiland (The Island), Season 4 of the popular anthology series Spoorloos centres on Stefan Claassen (singer Bobby van Jaarsveld) as a young architect whose life is thrown into chaos following a chance encounter with his long-lost first love, Emma (Izel Bezuidenhout from Dis ek, Anna). When she goes missing just hours later, Stefan becomes the prime suspect in her murder.  

Turkish telenovelas, in Afrikaans!

Dubbed by some of South Africa’s hottest acting talents – think Vinette Ebrahim, Danielle Retief, Sesethu Ntombela and Stephanie Baartman – the Turkish dramas Kind van die Noodlot and In Die Ysterhand Se Greep will have you glued to your seat. 

Kind van die Noodlot is set in the glamorous world of Defne and Kahraman Yorukman, a wealthy couple who find that the one thing money can’t buy them is a child. Their lives are thrown into turmoil when Defne decides to hire a surrogate mother.

In die Ysterhand se Greep follows the story of successful businessman Yiğit Kozan, who is bound by a dark secret that holds him and his powerful family prisoner. Yiğit doesn’t believe in love but the beautiful Nur is about to change all that. 

ALSO WATCH: 

Wie Word ‘n Miljoener? S2 | Binge from 27 July 

The Afrikaans version of one of the world’s biggest game shows is back, with host Rian van Heerden once again taking contestants through the questions that stand between them and R1 million.

Moja Love classics

Moja Love’s reality shows made it the Coolest TV Channel of 2022 at The Sunday Times’ GenNext Survey, and they’re always a hit on the Showmax Top 20. From 1 July, you can catch two episodes a week of Lekunutu S2 – where long-kept secrets are revealed – and, from 3 July, Season 12 of Mamazala, the show hosted by Dingaan Khumalo that provides mediation for troubled in-law relationships in order to bring families together.

Mzansi Comedy Nights S4 | Binge from 20 July

Hosted by Comics’ Choice winner Skhumba and Trevor Gumbi, the one-of-a-kind stand-up comedy series Mzansi Comedy Nights sees talented and brilliant young comedians take to the stage to perform a standup set in front of a live audience.

Face to Face S2 | 24 July 

Actress and presenter Noluthando Nqayi (The Sing-Off SA) hosts the Mzansi Magic reality series Face 2 Face, which brings hurt lovers together to sit down with their partners and the other party, with the hope of resolving things.

Ezomshado S1 | 21 July

Hosted by Uthando Nes’thembu stars and Mseleku wives, MaCele and MaKhumalo, Ezomshado hosts interventions aimed at giving marriages a fighting chance.

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Non-Fiction

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Schumacher & Schumacher | 3 July

Schumacher & Schumacher looks at the life of record-breaking Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher, who became the highest-paid athlete in the world. Despite his profession, he enjoyed thrill-seeking outside of his career, activities would change Schumacher’s fate.

Love Island UK Season 10 | First on Showmax | Date TBC, express from the UK

Following its sizzling ninth season, filmed in South Africa (coming to Showmax in August 2023), things are set to get even hotter as Love Island UK returns to the Mallorca villa for Season 10.

The BAFTA- and MTV TV Award-winning dating reality show has 35 brand new islanders from across the UK lined up for a brand-new instalment of the original, record-breaking edition that started it all, becoming ITV’s most-watched show ever in 2018, and continuing to dominate as the network’s top TV show among 16- to 34-year-olds.

Glow Up presenter Maya Jama returns to present the new season, with British comedian Iain Stirling once again narrating. And… for only the second time ever, this season’s line-up of love birds includes a returning contestant from Season 2, who’ll step in to shake things up just as everyone’s getting cosy.

To End All War: Oppenheimer & The Atomic Bomb | 16 July

Ahead of Oppenheimer, the movie releasing in theatres this month, the feature-length documentary To End All War: Oppenheimer & The Atomic Bomb tells the true story of how one man’s brilliance, hubris and relentless drive changed the nature of war forever, led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and unleashed mass hysteria, and how, subsequently, the same man’s attempts to contain the fallout of his invention made him a pariah and led him down a path of deep despair.

J. Robert Oppenheimer was a fascinating, tragic, complex and consequential physicist. But the great achievement of his life – the atomic bomb – was a heavy cross to bear. Driven by intellectual curiosity and patriotic duty to invent the bomb, only when he succeeded did he allow himself to freely ponder its grave consequences. It was then that this scientific genius lauded for his technical brilliance became a voice of moral conscience to a civilization that suddenly had the unprecedented power to destroy itself. And when that happened, the war machine that he had helped to build turned on him.

The Manhattan Project was the defining turning point not only in Oppenheimer’s life, but arguably, in the history of the world, which can be split into two sharply contrasting periods – before and after the bomb. The narrative centrepiece of the story – and the zero hour in the history of warfare – is the Trinity test in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945. For Oppenheimer, the successful detonation of the first atom bomb validates years of tireless work. But in this moment of seeming triumph – as the first mushroom cloud ever seen envelops the pre-dawn sky – Oppenheimer is struck hard by the gravity of what he has done. He sees before him a destructive power of almost supernatural magnitude. As he would say later, he feels he has “become death, the destroyer of worlds”… and life will never be the same.

Directed by Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Christopher Cassel (Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero, Rise of the Superbombs, Rome), To End All War has a 9.2/10 rating on IMDb. The film features interviews with filmmakers Christopher Nolan and Jon Else, science communicator Bill Nye, grandson Charles Oppenheimer, Hiroshima survivor Hideko Tamura, Los Alamos resident Ellen Bradbury Reid, nuclear physicist Michio Kaku, and nuclear security expert Mareena Robinson Snowden, as well as knowledgeable biographers and historians like David Eisenbach and Alan Carr.

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Also coming to Showmax in July

3 July

Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle | Hannes Aan Huis S7 | Pursuit of a Killer | Teletubbies: Ready Steady Go! | The Thunderbolt Fist | Twisted House Sitter | Undercover Punch and Gun

6 July

A Week in Paradise | Met ‘n Huppel In Stap S13 | Moonbound | The New Legend of Shaolin | Sniper | Spasie S2 | Unhuman

10 July

The Academy of Magic | Dankie Lottoland S7 | Family Camp | Fiesta S24 | Hearts Beat Loud | In The Night Garden: ZinkyZonk Specials | November Criminals

13 July

Diamond in the Rough | Laeveld Bewoners S1 | Mulan Princess Warrior (aka Kung Fu Mulan)

17 July

Hokaai My Meisie S2 | Killer Condo (aka Secrets In The Building) | Malkamper S2 | Step Brothers

20 July

A Second Chance at Love | Chappie | District 9 | The Estate | Rush for Your Life | Warning

24 July

Big Trip 2: Special Delivery | Blade Runner 2049 | Killbird | Net Mens

27 July

Escape the Field | Every Breath She Takes