March is the month the streaming gods decided to give us everything at once. Peaky Blinders is finally getting its movie send-off. One Piece Season 2 is arriving. Daredevil: Born Again is back. Scarpetta has Nicole Kidman hunting serial killers across two timelines. Invincible Season 4 is here. It is, frankly, an embarrassing amount of content for one month. And most people are going to spend the entirety of it watching the same five things everyone else is watching.
Which is exactly why this list exists.
If you're already sold on the big releases, and there's nothing wrong with that, feel free to close this tab. But if you're the kind of person who wants something to watch after the credits roll on Tommy Shelby's finale, here are the titles that deserve to be on your radar this March.
Bait (Prime Video, March 25)
Riz Ahmed writes, produces and stars in this six-episode comedy about a struggling actor whose life implodes when word gets out that he's in the running to play the next James Bond. Premiered at Sundance to strong early buzz, it's been compared to The Studio for its Hollywood satire, but Ahmed has been clear this isn't really a showbiz show. It's about the very universal feeling of constantly having to prove yourself to people who may not even be paying attention. Early reactions from Sundance described an Eid family gathering scene in episode three that apparently hit harder than anyone expected. That alone has my attention.
Jo Nesbø's Detective Hole (Netflix, March 26)
Scandinavian crime has given us some of the best television ever made, and this one looks set to continue that tradition. Based on Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole novels, thirteen of them, somehow, the series follows an Oslo detective who is brilliant at his job and an absolute disaster as a human being. Think John Constantine without the magic, or a less polished but more interesting version of every brooding detective you've ever rooted for. Nine episodes, anti-hero lead, and source material that's been waiting for a worthy adaptation for years.
Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen (Netflix, March 26)
Executive produced by the Duffer Brothers and directed by Weronika Tofilska — the same director behind Baby Reindeer — that alone should tell you everything. The series follows a couple in the week leading up to their wedding, and predictably, things go sideways. What sets it apart from your standard horror-drama is the creative team's deliberate focus on character first, dread second. It's the kind of show that gets under your skin before you even realise it's happening.
Deadloch Season 2 (Prime Video, March 20)
If you slept on the first season of this Australian dark comedy crime series, fix that before March 20th. Set originally in a small Tasmanian town and now moving to the Northern Territory, it has the bones of a prestige crime drama and the soul of something far weirder and funnier. Season one reached the Top 10 in over 165 countries and won five AACTA awards, and most people still haven't heard of it. Season 2 picks up with detectives Dulcie and Eddie investigating a body part found in a remote town full of crocodile tourism and cagey locals. It shouldn't work as well as it does, and yet.
Vladimir (Netflix, March)
Rachel Weisz leads this adaptation of Julia May Jonas's novel about a literature professor whose admiration for a younger colleague tips into something more complicated. Quiet, literary, and the kind of character study that tends to disappear into the algorithm the moment something louder drops the same week. Don't let it.
The Man in the High Castle (Netflix, from March 11)
Not new, but arriving on Netflix for the first time via a surprise licensing deal. All four seasons of the Philip K. Dick adaptation that criminally flew under the radar during its original Prime Video run. The premise — what if the Axis powers won World War II — is executed with a richness and restraint you rarely see in high-concept sci-fi. 84% on Rotten Tomatoes and most people still haven't seen it. March is as good a time as any.
March belongs to the franchises. But it doesn't have to.
