Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
20. Living for the Dead (Hulu)
Kristen Stewart’s gay ghost-hunting show has everything: slayances, spook-kikis, haunted strip clubs, and comedian Roz Hernandez snacking on donuts while she yells at homophobic poltergeists. The group – a hodgepodge of paranormal experts that includes a psychic, a witch, and a tarot card reader – road trips across the country in this docuseries produced by the Queer Eye creators, chatting it up with demonic entities and benevolent spooks to get to the root of some very real, very human problems. If there’s a better way to spend your weekend than watching a group of well-dressed Queer spiritualists commune with the dead while cracking jokes and busting stereotypes, we don’t want to know about it.
Rustin is all of the following things:
— A biopic of Civil Rights leader Bayard Rustin, who helped MLK organize the 1963 March on Washington but whose efforts were minimized at the time and therefore largely forgotten since because he was openly gay at a time when that was not convenient for public figures
— From Higher Ground, the production company helmed by Barack and Michelle Obama
— Loaded with talent like Colman Domingo and Chris Rock and Jeffrey Wright and Audra McDonald
Learn something cool this week. Check it out.
18. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Netflix)
Nearly every actor from the original, cult-favorite Scott Pilgrim film is back for this anime-inspired Netflix series that also functions as a clever remix. Is it as good as the actual run of sequels we should have been given over the last 15 years? Noting could be, but it comes close, leaning on its all-world voice cast and the very specific charm that drove the film and Bryan Lee O’Malley’s original graphic novels.
Taylor Sheridan currently has 6666 in the works on the Yellowstone side, but first, he’s taking viewers back to the real Old West. David Oyelowo portrays the legendary Black U.S. Deputy Marshal. This series will harken back to the Post-Reconstruction era, in which Bass Reeves became a notorious frontier hero by capturing thousands of the most frightening criminals in the land. Oyelowo will be accompanied by Dennis Quaid, Garrett Hedlund, and Donald Sutherland.
What if there was an animated movie for kids where Adam Sandler — now hear me out — voiced a talking lizard? And it was co-directed and co-written by Robert Smigel, the comedy genius behind many of the greatest SNL moments ever? And the rest of the voice cast included Jason Alexander, Cecily Strong, Bill Burr, Heidi Gardner, and Stephanie Hsu? Would you believe such a movie exists? Well, it does. It’s called Leo, and it’s on Netflix. Your kids need to be introduced to Adam Sandler eventually. Maybe start here and not, say, Uncut Gems. Save that until they’re older.
15. Monarch: A Legacy of Monsters (Apple TV+)
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters stars Kurt Russell and Godzilla and… are you already sold? You should be. The first live-action TV show in the MonsterVerse — which also includes Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla vs. Kong — makes you care as much about the humans, including Kurt and his son Wyatt, as Godzilla and his “Titan” friends. In an up-and-down year for genre shows, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is a highlight.
There are cringe comedies and then there’s Showtime’s The Curse, a limited series about a married pair of alt-HGTV home flippers gentrifying their New Mexico neighborhood via eco-friendly monstrosities and calling it philanthropy. Created by two masters of squirm – Benny Safdie and Nathan Fielder – the show is a voyeuristic exercise that tests fans’ capacity for second-hand embarrassment as its main characters, the affluent Asher (Fielder) and Whitney (a shockingly unlikable Emma Stone) bulldoze the soul of their small, impoverished community with just a few reality TV cameras and a staggering amount of white privilege. It’s the best, most uncomfortable TV show you’ll watch this year.
13. The Fall of the House of Usher (Netflix)
Mike Flanagan fans, get ready. The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass showrunner is back along with Carla Gugino, who will spook your soul right out of your bod and deliver a “consequential” evening to “a collection of stunted hearts” that is the Usher family. Yikes. Do not expect a literal adaptation of the Edgar Allen Poe short story. The story focuses here on the hell created by ruthless siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher, who built Fortunato Pharmaceuticals into an empire of wealth, privilege, and power. Horrible secrets shall surface when the heirs to the Usher dynasty start dying at the hands of a mysterious woman, portrayed with glee by Gugino.
12. The Killer (Netflix)
David Fincher — director of movies like Fight Club and The Social Network — is back with another uplifting tale about a well-adjusted dude. From the official description: “Solitary, cold, methodical and unencumbered by scruples or regrets, a killer waits in the shadows, watching for his next target. Yet, the longer he waits, the more he thinks he’s losing his mind, if not his cool.” Jokes aside, Fincher does these kinds of movies as well as anyone and usually makes them compelling, so give it a go if you want to spend a few hours with a murderous sociopath in the safest possible way.
11. May December (Netflix)
There’s been a debate online on whether May December qualifies as “camp.” We have no idea, but we do know it’s a very good movie, one of the year’s best. The Todd Haynes film stars Natalie Portman as an actress who shadows a one-time tabloid sensation played by Julianne Moore for a role. It’s best to go in without knowing more than that, although fair warning: while May December is very funny, it’s also quietly devastating.
10. For All Mankind (Apple TV)
Somehow, Joel Kinnaman has now been physically transformed to barely look like Joel Kinnaman while still starring in this alternate-history space-race series, and in the year 2003, the Earth’s nations are competing like hell to capture and mine asteroids full of precious minerals. That doesn’t sound ominous at all, and of course, there’s still plenty of beefing between nations after Happy Valley has grown in size on Mars’ surface.
9. Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Disney Plus)
What you need to know:
- This is a series based on the best-selling adventure books by Rick Riordan
- For those unfamiliar, Percy is “a 12-year-old modern demigod who’s just coming to terms with his newfound divine powers when the sky god Zeus accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt”
- This is probably a lot more than you had going on when you were 12
It’s a good time. Fun for the whole family.
Bradley Cooper has been nominated for nine Oscars (including four times for Best Picture as a producer) with zero wins. He’s really going for the gold with Maestro. Cooper not only stars alongside Carey Mulligan in the biopic of American composer Leonard Bernstein, he also co-wrote the script, directed the thing, and produced it. Did he also provide the catering? Maybe! Give the man an Oscar for all his hard work, jeez.
7. The Crown (Netflix)
The final six episodes of Netflix’s long-running look at the British royal family are here. We know how this all ends because we know the history. There’s a car crash and sadness and some controversy over how it’s all depicted. It’s still a fascinating cultural object, just the whole creative endeavor. If you’ve come this far, it’s time to dive in for the end. So much could have gone wrong here with the recounting and dramatization of tragic events that shook the world, but Netflix does the thing here. Not an easy feat for sure.
The bumbling spies are back, led by a frumpy and farting Gary Oldman. That sentence may not be the best way to sell the show (maybe it is???), but trust us: this show is good. Tense and fun and full of little twists and turns and all over and done with in six 45-minute episodes. Knock the whole season out in a weekend if you want. Once you get started, you might not be able to help yourself anyway
5. Rebel Moon (Netflix)
What we have here is the first part of a planned epic series by Justice League and 300 director Zack Snyder, one inspired by everything from Star Wars to the works of Akira Kurosawa to whatever else caught Snyder’s fancy. There’s outer space and mysterious warriors and tyrants deserving of comeuppance and everything else you’d expect here. The reviews have, uh, not been great, but the second installment is already in the pipeline so it could still be worth diving in now to see how
4. Fargo (Hulu)
Good news and bad news…
GOOD: Fargo is back, finally, for a fifth installment that features Juno Temple in Home Alone mode and Jon Hamm in a cowboy hat and a murderous little secret that ties them together. Joe Keery from Stranger Things plays a failson named Gator. There’s a lawyer named Danish Graves who has an eyepatch. There are homemade blowtorches and nipple rings and it’s all just extremely Fargo in all the ways you’ve come to expect.
BAD: Hmm. There’s really not any bad news here. But we already committed to this format so… let’s go with “it shouldn’t have taken until season five for them to cast Jon Hamm in Fargo.”
3. Leave the World Behind (Netflix)
You want a psychological thriller? Cool. Check out this premise: “A family’s getaway to a luxurious rental home takes an ominous turn when a cyberattack knocks out their devices, and two strangers appear at their door.”
You want a solid creative pedigree? Cool. This movie comes from the brain of Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail (who knows a little something about psychological thrillers ), who writes and directs based on a book of the same name.
You want star power? Cool. This sucker stars Mahershala Ali and Ethan Hawke and Julia Freaking Roberts, and features rising star Myha’la Herrold in a major role and Kevin Bacon in a smaller one.
All your bases are covered here.
Good news for dads and possibly you, too. Lee Child’s bestselling novels continue to come to hulking life (starring the 6’2″ Alan Ritchson) as opposed to the Tom Cruise movie. Season 3 is already filming, but the second round is now available and should satisfy those pie-and-vending-machine cravings in the meantime. This batch of episodes doubles down on the brilliant simplicity of both Jack Reacher and this show when he teams up members of his former Army unit to stop some murder business. Together, they continue to dive into a high-stakes mystery full of betrayal and revelations, and lest you think that Reacher is all brains and no brain, well, think again.
1. Barbie (Max)
Greta Gerwig’s massive summer blockbuster hits streaming. There’s not much to say that hasn’t been said. It’s wickedly smart and funny and sly. It’s much weirder than people expected, in the best ways possible. Margot Robbie is incredible as Barbie, providing layers of depth to a character who has rarely before had more than one. Ryan Gosling is a delight as the deeply confused Ken who is watching his simple little world crumble around him. There are cameos galore and touching moments and belly laughs. If you haven’t seen it yet, now’s the time. If you have, well, now’s the time to watch it again. This one is worth a rewatch. Or two. Or five. How you spend your time is your business.