What to stream this week: The Lighthouse, Teenage Bounty Hunters, Cobra Kai, Bill & Ted and more

When it first came out in cinemas, it was already grotesque. Now, after months in various stages of lockdown, it’s even more horrifying.

This week’s streaming recommendations is a list of extremes.

There’s the grotesquerie of The Lighthouse, which is a repulsive but truly fascinating film, and then at the other end of the spectrum, you’ve got something like the cheery inspiration of The Biggest Little Farm.

So whatever you’re in the mood for, we have an idea for you.

SOMETHING HEAD-TRIPPING

The Lighthouse was disturbing when it was released earlier this year; it’s even more so now.

The Lighthouse : You’ll never think of seagulls the same away again after the very bold and arresting The Lighthouse – that’s a promise. Robert Eggers’ (The Witch) horror movie was already plenty disturbing and nausea-inducing before coronavirus, but now its story of two lighthouse keepers stranded on an island takes on a different dimension.

Now, The Lighthouse’s claustrophobia and isolation is eerily relatable – but hopefully not too relatable because they spiral into madness. I guess you can always be thankful that at least your cabin fever isn’t as bad as theirs. Watch it: Foxtel Now/Amazon Prime Video

Mulholland Drive: Frequently proclaimed as the best movie of this millennium, David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive is a neo-noir, psychological thriller-cum-dreamscape turned nightmare turned a gazillion other things your subconsciousness in your deepest sleep couldn’t conceive of. Starring Laura Harring as an amnesiac car crash survivor and Naomi Watts as an aspiring actor, Mulholland Drive is a hallucinatory experience that still reveals secrets on the 18th viewing. Watch it: iTunes/Google Play

SOMETHING FRESH

Teenage Bounty Hunters has sass.

Teenage Bounty Hunters: This Jenji Kohan-produced series doesn’t look like much from the outside, and could easily bleed into Netflix’s over-teeming cohort of youth-oriented shows, but there’s a sass and a point-of-view that you don’t find in most of those other series. There’s the hijinks side when teenage twins Sterling and Blair become accidental bounty hunters when they crash their dad’s cars. But the more interesting part is how the series explores the girls’ discovery of sexuality in a conservative Christian school and an environment of performative faith. Watch it: Netflix

I May Destroy You: Perhaps you’ve seen the Americans and the Brits frothing over Michaela Coel’s series in the past few months, and now that it’s dropped (very suddenly) in Australia, you can see what all the fuss is about. Coel’s series, which she created, wrote and starred in, is raw and illuminating, partly because the story of a writer dealing with the aftermath of a sexual assault is based on Coel’s own experiences. Watch it: Binge/Foxtel Now

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SOMETHING RETRO

Rewatch Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure before Bill & Ted Face The Music.

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure: If you need a reminder why there is a Bill & Ted Face The Music more than three decades after the original, then you need to rewatch (or watch for the first time!) this completely uncynical, low-stakes comedy about two friends and aspiring musicians who time-hop through history so they can pass their history class. Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves’ characters may be dimwitted, but they’re so likeable. Most triumphant. Watch it: Stan

Cobra Kai: Maybe you don’t even need to be told about Cobra Kai because it’s spent the past week in Netflix’s top 10 list. Released a couple of years ago on YouTube’s paid subscriber platform, the Karate Kid sequel series has never had the love it’s deserved simply because so few people – especially those who love the original movies – knew about it. Now that it’s on Netflix, fans new and old can pick up the story of Ralph Macchio’s Danny and William Zabka’s Johnny, plus a new generation. Watch it: Netflix

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SOMETHING UPLIFTING

The Biggest Little Farm: Soothing and inspiring.

The Biggest Little Farm: Whether you’ve had aspirations of a tree change, swapping out the city life for a smallholding with farm animals and the sound of nature, or you just like watching people work and succeed, this is a great doco. It follows a Californian couple doing exactly that and through myriad challenges, they prove they can live a life that respects the land. Watch it: Stan, from September 12 and DocPlay, from September 17

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story: Hedy Lamarr was truly an impressive person. She may be better known as a glamorous star from Hollywood’s Golden Age, but behind those wide doe eyes was the sharp brain of a self-taught inventor. Among her many achievements was her work on pioneering frequency-hopping technology that would go on to form the basis of Wi-Fi. This doco will give you a whole new appreciation for a screen legend. Watch it: DocPlay

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SOMETHING LIFESTYLE-Y

Take a peek inside Reese Witherspoon’s wardrobe.

Get Organised With The Home Edit: If you loved Marie Kondo’s tidying tips but couldn’t actually stand the people she was helping (that couple in the first episode needed marriage counselling, not tidier sock drawers), then Get Organised could hit the right spot. The eight-episode series will go into the homes of celebrities (Reese Witherspoon, Neil Patrick Harris) and clean up their clutter. But if anyone puts a label on a clear jar that obviously has spaghetti inside, we’re out – those crazy people need to be stopped. Watch it: Netflix, from September 9

The Nineties S1: There’s nothing we like doing more than looking back at what was – so much less confronting to be steeped in nostalgia than deal with the present moment, right? This seven-part series looks back at the glories, tragedies and oddities of a decade you could have sworn was only two years ago. From Y2K and Nirvana to the Lewinsky Scandal and the Columbine shooting, relive the era. Maybe you can dig out those neon-striped bike shorts for the occasion. Watch it: Foxtel Now, from Thursday, September 10