Disney+ and Hulu are rolling out a tightly curated slate this week that swings from sweeping wildlife adventure to bone-cold true crime and a sun-baked caper about a spray-tan startup gone off the rails. The headliners: Werner Herzog’s Ghost Elephants, Hulu’s haunting Friends Like These: The Murder of Skylar Neese, and the Aussie-born sitcom Sunny Nights with Will Forte and D’Arcy Carden.
Ghost Elephants Leads With Awe And Urgency
Herzog, who turned obsession into art in Grizzly Man and Cave of Forgotten Dreams, partners with naturalist Dr. Steve Boyes for Ghost Elephants, a trek into the Angolan wilderness chasing whispers of a giant elephant never photographed. What could be another scenic National Geographic stroll becomes, in Herzog’s hands, a meditation on rarity, memory, and the human impulse to map the unmapped.
Context matters here. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists African savanna elephants as Endangered and African forest elephants as Critically Endangered after reassessments underscored decades of poaching and habitat loss. Conservation groups have noted that so-called “tuskers” — bulls with massive tusks — now number in the mere dozens worldwide. By foregrounding a possibly unseen giant, Ghost Elephants speaks to scarcity as story: when a species thins, myths expand to fill the void.
From a streaming perspective, this is also a savvy dual drop. Disney+ traditionally houses nature docs through National Geographic, while Hulu’s broader audience often discovers them via recommendation engines. Nielsen’s The Gauge has shown streaming holding a dominant share of TV usage in recent quarters, and cross-surface premieres like this capitalize on that momentum by meeting viewers where they are.
True Crime Spotlight: Friends Like These on Hulu
Hulu’s true-crime bench remains deep, and Friends Like These: The Murder of Skylar Neese may be the most unsettling entry of the week. Director Clair Titley revisits the disappearance of a 16-year-old West Virginia student whose case twisted into betrayal and a confession that stunned a community. The film avoids sensationalism and instead builds queasy tension from proximity — the killers were in the victim’s circle all along.
The appetite is there. Parrot Analytics has consistently ranked true crime among the highest-demand unscripted genres, and Hulu’s partnerships with ABC News Studios and documentary producers have turned it into a reliable destination for viewers who want narrative propulsion with journalistic rigor. Expect this title to ride word of mouth, particularly among podcast-era sleuths who follow cases beyond the credits.
Sunny Nights Brings Spray-Tan Shenanigans
Need a palate cleanser after the documentaries? Sunny Nights imports a punchy, Australia-first sitcom framework and layers it with American comedic firepower. Will Forte and D’Arcy Carden play siblings hustling a mobile spray-tan business that careens into blackmail and criminal IOUs — think scrappy entrepreneurship meets escalating absurdism.
Directed by Trent O’Donnell, whose credits stretch from Brooklyn Nine-Nine to No Activity, the show is a case study in how global commissioning pipelines now feed US streamers. Screen Australia has highlighted the rise of local productions with international casts, and this fits the mold: faster development cycles, shared risk, and a tone that travels.
Also New This Week on Disney+ and Hulu Streaming
Rounding out the drop are more true-crime and reality staples: Killing Faith adds to Hulu’s crime catalog, while The Tech Bro Murders examines Silicon Valley excess with investigative bite. Fans of long-running franchises can tuck into new runs of American Monster, City Confidential, and The Great Food Truck Race, alongside MythBusters seasons that scratch the “how does that work” itch.
On the lighter side, 90 Day Gone Wild (also known as Hunt for Love) cranks up the relationship chaos; Bigfoot Took Her feeds the cryptid-curious; and dermatology diehards get Dr. Pimple Popper: Breaking Out. Disney+ keeps families engaged with a new Locker Diaries: ZOMBIES installment, while a fresh American Idol episode hits the music competition slot. Anime watchers aren’t left out either, with I Parry Everything and a new season of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? landing on Hulu. For feature-film comfort, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. makes a welcome streaming stop.
How to Watch and What to Expect from This Week’s Releases
With the unified Disney+/Hulu experience, subscribers can use a single login and jump between branded hubs. That matters for households: profile-level controls and content ratings make it easy to silo the gritty true crime from family viewing. Antenna’s market research has shown lower churn when streamers bundle services, and this integration doubles down on that play by reducing friction at the app level.
Technical notes for the discerning viewer: nature titles like Ghost Elephants typically arrive with high-bitrate 4K and HDR where available, which pays off in low-light savanna shots and sweeping aerials. If you’re traveling, both services support offline downloads for most documentaries and series; queue the first episode of each headliner to road-test before committing to a full-season binge.
Bottom Line: Why These New Picks Are Worth Your Time
This week’s slate is a three-act pitch: wonder, shock, and relief. Ghost Elephants gives Herzog room to roam and reflect; Friends Like These channels the methodical dread that true-crime fans seek; and Sunny Nights lets the laughter in without going weightless. Whether you come for the elephants, the murder case, or the spray tans, there’s range — and, crucially, a reason to press play on all three.
