Columnist NICK OVERALL looks at the hot shows streaming into the new year and what better place to start than the beach!

IN 2020, filmmaker Chris Smith helped put zany zookeeper Joe Exotic on the cultural map with Netflix’s pandemic sensation “Tiger King”.

While season two of “Tiger King” is now turning some heads again, there’s another of Smith’s projects streaming on Binge that doubles down on the madness of real-life characters who are stranger than fiction.

This one is called “100 Foot Wave” and it follows a group of surfers who put themselves not in harm’s way of deadly tigers, but waves the size of buildings.

It’s the story of pro surfer Garrett McNamara and his obsessive, decade-long search to surf a wave that reaches 100 feet (more than 30 metres) into the sky.

The footage captured here is nothing short of staggering. The daredevil surfers appear as tiny specks upon gigantic sea monsters that at many points in the documentary seem to eat them alive.

The sheer force of the water is enough to break bones, cause lifelong injury and, sadly for many of the surfers who have tried to brave some of these perilous swells, even result in death.

One of the surfing hotspots in the hunt located off the coast of Hawaii is known as “Jaws”, named for its mind-blowingly large waves and their unpredictable nature, described “like a shark attack” in the series.

Whether a fan of surfing or not, the documentary makes for a thrilling, real-life depiction of man vs nature with some stunning cinematography to get swept up in.

That’s just the start of New Year streaming.

BINGE has also reunited the cast of “Sex and the City” for a new, 10-episode follow-up called “And Just Like That…”.

The show tracks the more complicated lives of the leading ladies in their 50s and sacrifices some of the original’s pithy form in an attempt to tell a more mature story in line with the age of its characters.

Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis all return as Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte but as Kim Cattrall decided not to reprise her role her character, Samantha, has conveniently “moved to London”.

While on the whole audiences are split on how well the series justifies its existence, the reunion of its iconic characters has excited fans who say they’re as watchable as ever. 

NETFLIX has kicked off 2022 with the return of one of its biggest crime shows “Ozark”.

“Arrested Development” star Jason Bateman somehow makes an everyman both captivating and charismatic in this show, which sees a financial planner take his family on the run after a money-laundering scheme for a Mexican drug cartel goes horribly wrong.

The family is forced to launder $500 million in five years in exchange for their lives and relocate to the Lake of the Ozarks, a beautiful holiday destination infused with an eerie underbelly.

Now hurtling towards its conclusion, this series is an engrossing and entertaining look at how money moves and represents one of Netflix’s best offerings.

STAN’S also bringing in 2022 with some triple-A stars in its newest original productions.

Isla Fisher and Josh Gad are paired up in the eyebrow-raising drama-comedy “Wolf Like Me”. This six-parter set in SA is the story of two strangers who are brought together by a car crash and who soon after end up on a date, but there’s more than meets the eye to this chance encounter. The audience soon starts to switch on to the secrets drifting beneath the surface of these two characters. Has the universe brought them together for a reason?

“Wolf Like Me” may take a while to get into gear, but in the meantime Fisher and Gad make it worth the wait.

Stan also secured superstar Zac Efron for one of its newest original films releasing on January 26 that looks set to be another tense thriller from Australian director Anthony Hayes.

“Gold” is the story of two outback drifters who stumble across the biggest gold nugget ever found. However, the rejoicing is short-lived when dreams of endless wealth and greed turn the discovery into a crazed and brutal battle for survival.

The film looks like it’ll be another notch in the belt for Efron whose acting continues to mature and who is now beginning to show the breadth of his talent. 

He did, after all, go from playing singing high-schooler Troy Bolton to serial killer Ted Bundy. Talk about a change of pace.