Annihilation (Cert 15, 120 mins, streaming and available to download from March 12 exclusively on Netflix, Sci-Fi/Thriller/Action/Romance)
FOR his follow-up to the sleekly engineered sci-fi horror thriller Ex Machina, writer and director Alex Garland remains in similarly unnerving territory with Annihilation, an otherworldly battle for mankind's survival based loosely on the first novel in Jeff VanderMeer's best-selling Southern Reach trilogy.
Natalie Portman leads the cast as cellular biology professor Lena, who agrees to investigate a phenomenon known as The Shimmer, which has reduced her soldier husband Kane (Oscar Isaac) to a zombified husk.
Venturing inside the quarantined zone with mission commander Dr Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and three fellow scientific specialists (Tuva Novotny, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson), Lena encounters hideous genetic mutations that flout the laws of nature and pose a devastating threat to humanity's lofty position on the food chain.
Style meets substance throughout courtesy of eye-popping special effects and Garland's slippery script, which poses tantalising questions that resonate long after the blood-curdling screams subside and the end credits roll.
Sneaky Pete Season 2 (10 episodes, streaming from March 9 exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, Thriller/Drama/Romance)
The con is still on but some of the targets are dangerously unpredictable in the second series of hugely entertaining crime drama Sneaky Pete, created by Breaking Bad's leading man Bryan Cranston and David Shore.
When we left resourceful trickster Marius Josipovic (Giovanni Ribisi), he had successfully assumed the identity of cellmate Pete Murphy (Ethan Embry) and wormed his way into the affections of Pete's estranged grandparents Otto and Audrey Bernhardt (Peter Gerety and Margot Martindale).
The first series concluded with a lip-smacking cliffhanger: Marius was abducted by shady felons, who revealed that the real Pete is sitting on 11 million US dollars of their money – and they intend to kill the Bernhardts unless these ill-gotten funds are forthcoming.
Cue 10 intricately plotted episodes of bluff, deception and narrative sleight of hand, complicated by Pete's release from prison, which should expose Marius's deception.
Endeavour Complete Series Five (Cert 12, 537 mins, ITV Studios Home Entertainment, available now on Amazon Video/iTunes/ITV Hub and other download and streaming services, available from March 12 on DVD £24.99, Drama/Thriller/Romance)
Detective Sergeant Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans) unravels a series of grisly murders with the assistance of WPC Trewlove (Dakota Blue Richards) in the 1960s-set prequel to Inspector Morse, which broadcasts on ITV1.
Also this series, Morse oversees the development of an enthusiastic new recruit DS George Fancy (Lewis Peek), Detective Inspector Fred Thursday (Roger Allam) awaits news of a sweeping departmental merger, racial tensions rise in Oxford in response to a protest at a hair salon, and the team probes a murder attempt at a high-profile sporting event.
The two-disc DVD box set includes the episodes Muse, Cartouche, Passenger, Colours, Quartet and Icarus.
