Streaming with Scott Ellis: School holiday viewing the kids will actually learn something from

Looking for something the kids can watch and actually learn something from this winter school holidays?

3AW Afternoons streaming guru Scott Ellis has some ideas!

For the kids:

Built to Survive on ABC iView right is a great Aussie nature series looking at the various animals of Australia showing how they evolved to survive here. First up host Phil Breslin heads into the rainforests to look at Australia’s biggest snake, the scrub python. It’s huge, deadly and very cool, what’s not to love?

And great fun with a great message is Raised by Refugees on Stan. Written by NZ comedian Pax Assadi it’s the story of how he arrived down under and tried to fit in. Full of heart and relatable for anyone with parents from overseas, this is also very funny as it shows just how foreign our (NZ/Aus) culture can be to someone from outside.

And for grown ups:

The best crime drama I’ve seen in a while is Tokyo Vice on Paramount+, starring Ansel Elgort (from Baby Driver and West Side Story) as an American journalist who moves to Tokyo in 1999 and sparks a friendship with a detective that leads him down the rabbit hole of organised crime in Japan. It’s a story we haven’t seen done properly before — there’s no weird samurai stuff here, just legit stories, the whole series is based on the memoirs of an actual journalist who did the same thing — and is a fantastic look into a world that’s usually completely invisible to outsiders.

Still with crime, but very funny is The Outlaws on Amazon Prime, a comedy/crime film about a group of people busted for various offences and given community service to fix up an old neighbourhood centre. They bond, they learn from each other… and then they find a giant bag full of money that makes them all question exactly how devoted they are to giving up their criminal ways after all. Do they hand it in? Do they keep it? Can they keep it when the bad guys who stashed it there discover it’s been found? Stand by for madness. Stars Christopher Walken as a very bad grandpa.

If you thought Game of Thrones was full of family political intrigue, take a look at Becoming Elizabeth on Stan, the story of Queen Elizabeth the first’s rise to power. This is a warts-and-all retelling of what life was like in the British royal family after Henry VIII, leaving three kids to claim the throne. Proof again that history is filled with stories that can beat Hollywood any day of the week!

Great political intrigue aplenty in Stan’s The Undeclared War, starring Simon Pegg as part of a team who are fighting cyber war in Britain’s very near future… like two years from now. It’s terrifying to see how the scams, trolling, gaslighting and fake news we have now could evolve very quickly to threaten the world.

Less serious now… Remember Joey Essex from I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here? The guy with the blindingly white fake teeth who kept shouting “Cheeese!” for no reason? Well he’s back to show us again how he became famous as one of 14 reality stars pulled together for Paramount +’s  All-Star Shore on air from yesterday. There’s “stars” from Geordie Shore, Bachelor in Paradise, Jersey Shore, The Only Way Is Essex, Love Island, Bachelor in Paradise, Ex On The Beach etc, etc, etc all competing for $150,000… somehow. The rules seem unclear. Who cares though because basically every vacuous spotlight-loving d-lister who needs cash signed up for this and it’s hilarious.