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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Stream on Demand: More ‘Shade,’ a revamped ‘Green Gables,’ and Aziz Ansari

By Sean Axmaker For The Spokesman-Review

What’s new for home viewing on video-on-demand and Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other streaming services.

Pay-Per-View / Video-On-Demand

Things get even kinkier in Fifty Shades Darker,” the second film in the erotic romance series with Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan exploring the world of bondage (R). Also on DVD and Blu-ray.

Available same day as select theaters nationwide is the comedy Folk Hero & Funny Guywith Alex Karpovsky and Wyatt Russell (not rated) and inspirational British drama Urban Hymnwith Shirley Henderson (not rated).

Netflix

The wacky British crime spoof Mindhorn (2017), about a washed up TV actor (Julian Barratt) who reprises his fictional TV detective to stop a deluded serial killer, and the family-friendly animated comedy Sahara (France, 2017) make their respective American debuts as streaming exclusives (both not rated).

Family series Anne with an E: Season 1 offers a fresh take on “Anne of Green Gables” with Amybeth McNulty as the red-headed orphan in 19th century Canada. 8 episodes.

More streaming TV: Aziz Ansari’s comedy Master of None: Season 2,” FX drug-trade thriller/revenge drama Queen of the South: Season 1 with Alice Braga, the family dramas The Fosters: Season 4 and Switched at Birth: Season 5from Freeform, and the animated All Hail King Julien: Exiled: Season 1 for kids.

True stories: Get Me Roger Stone (2017) profiles the real-estate mogul turned political adviser to Donald Trump. Also new: National Bird(2016) looks at drone warfare and When the Bough Breaks (2017) casts its lens on postpartum depression (not rated)

Also new: young adult alien invasion drama The Host(2013) with Saoirse Ronan (PG-13), Hong Kong cop drama Cold War 2 (2016) with Chow Yun-Fat, and the horror films Beyond the Gates (2016) and Stake Land II (2016) (not rated).

Stand-up: Norm Macdonald: Hitler’s Dog, Gossip & Trickery.”

Amazon Prime Video

Kevin Bacon and Kathryn Hahn star in the new series I Love Dick,” a comedy from “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway. Eight episodes available.

Also new: The Ardennes (2015), a gritty crime drama from Belgium (not rated, with subtitles) and Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown (1997) with Pam Grier and Samuel L. Jackson (R).

Amazon Prime / Hulu

The comic drama “A Hologram for the King” (2016), from the novel by Dave Eggers, stars Tom Hanks as a middle-age businessman trying to remain relevant in the modern world (R). (Amazon Prime and Hulu)

Hulu

The Hulu original documentary Batman & Bill celebrates the forgotten co-creator of Batman, writer Bill Finger (not rated).

Also new: the documentary The Red Pill (2016) on the men’s rights movement (not rated).

HBO Now

Tom Hanks is Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger in Sully (2016), Clint Eastwood’s old-school portrait of American professionalism and everyday heroism (PG-13).

Stand-up: Chris Gethard: Career Suicide.”

Arriving Saturday night: Jason Bourne (2016) with Matt Damon (R).

Showtime Anytime

Hardcore Henry (2015) is a first-person action film with the audience plunged into the extreme stunts of the hero (R).

True stories: Jackson frames the fight over reproductive health care rights around the last abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi (not rated).

FilmStruck / Criterion Channel

FilmStruck presents the Italian TV crime epic Romanzo Criminale: Complete Series (with subtitles) and Criterion Channel debuts Brian De Palma’s Blow Out (1981) and Abdellatif Kechiche’s The Secret of the Grain,” (France, 2007), both with all the supplements featured on Criterion’s special edition discs (R).

Acorn TV

Criminal Justice,” the British crime drama that inspired HBO’s “The Night Of,” makes its American debut.

Richard Roxburgh returns as the self-destructive lawyer in the cheeky Australian comedy Rake: Series 3.” 8 episodes.

YouTube Red

It’s fitting that the Turkish documentary on the cats of Istanbul Kedi (2016) goes directly to the pay service of YouTube. It is, after all, the ultimate cat video (not rated, with subtitles).

New on disc

“Fifty Shades Darker,” “Things to Come (2016)” “Heat: Director’s Definitive Edition,” “Orange is the New Black: Season 4”

At Redbox: “Hidden Figures,” “The Bye Bye Man,” “Beaches (2017)”

Sean Axmaker is a Seattle film critic and writer. His reviews of streaming movies and TV can be found at http://streamondemandathome.com.