Every single week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.
TIE: 10. The Boys in the Boat (Amazon MGM Studios film streaming on VOD and Amazon)
George Clooney, conga-line hand shaker extraordinaire, hopped back into the director’s seat to adapt the 2013 novel about the real-life U.S. rowing team that went to the 1936 Olympics in Germany ahead of World War II. Callum Turner stars as a student who didn’t plan on Olympic glory when he simply signed up for his school’s rowing team, but he rolled with it. You can also see Turner soon in Masters of the Air, so this is a good appetizer as well as a worthwhile watch on its own merits.
TIE: 10. The Holdovers (Focus Features film streaming on Peacock)
Paul Giamatti Oscar nomination coming? This is entirely possible, considering that he won a Globe for his role as a boozed-up teacher who isn’t thrilled to be stuck on campus over the holidays. The Billions star is having a pretty fine year already, so let’s hope that trend continues. Also, get ready for those many Billions spinoffs that will eventually come to Showtime.
9. Fargo (FX series streaming on Hulu)
Our own Brian Grubb power ranked the season finale, and finally, pancakes and biscuits (along with Ole Munch) are receiving the recognition that they deserve: “I do not think I have ever seen a television show that featured this much graphic violence and gory open wounds that also made me hungry for baked goods almost every week.” Yes, and John Sasquatch somehow fared better than Jon Hamm’s nipple rings. We love TV.
8. Killers Of The Flower Moon (Apple TV+ movie)
Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of David Grann’s nonfiction narrative saga takes a different route to than the books to shine a same-themed light on a devastating chapter in U.S. history. Many incredible indigenous actors (including Yancey Red Corn, Everett Waller, and Cara Jade Myers) hold their own alongside powerhouses including Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, and Brendan Fraser, but Lily Gladstone’s performance as Mollie Burkhart will be the most remembered of the bunch.
7. Echo (Disney+ series)
If you are looking forward to Charlie Cox’s Daredevil standalone show, then you will definitely want to tune in for his cameo opposite Alaqua Cox’s Maya Lopez. Once you are on the scene, then you will hopefully want to keep watching this origin story, which is unlike any recent Disney+ show in recent memory. Unfortunately, there’s plenty of MCU (and DCEU) burnout of late, but this show should hang on for another weekend because the entire season is available for binging.
6. The Bear (FX series streaming on Hulu)
The rise of Cousin Richie is something that few people could have seen coming, which is an overriding reason why this show only gets better with time. The third season is in the works, and hopefully, the writers can find a way to work in Ayo Edebiri’s shoutout to her Irish people in between moments of Carmy totally losing his sh*t. What do y’all think will happen with the restaurant? I’m thinking that the Chefs will aim for a Michelin star, and maybe Jamie Lee Curtis’ horrible mother character will drive attempt to drive through the front door, but Lionel Boyce’s Marcus will use his donuts to save the day.
5. Ted (Peacock series)
Everything is being revived or rebooted, so Seth MacFarlane is taking another swing with this profane teddy bear. This series acts as a prequel film to the films starring Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, and Amanda Seyfried, but don’t worry, MacFarlane’s voice definitely showed up to drop all of those F-bombs because the franchise demands it.
4. True Detective (HBO series streaming on Max)
Those who miss the first-season supernatural elements and chemistry of Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey will enjoy the push-pull of Jodie Foster and Kali Reis’ investigators as they battle the elements to solve an eerie mystery. Foster’s police chief has seen some sh*t, and that sh*t gets stirred back up when an unsolved bunch of homicides isn’t the freeze-and-dried case that it might have initially seemed to be. The season co-stars John Hawkes, so you know that something sinister will definitely go down, and the chilly ensemble cast includes Christopher Eccleston, Finn Bennett, and Fiona Shaw. Issa López wrote, directed, and acted as showrunner while doing justice to the original spirit brought to screen by Nic Pizzolatto before, well, you know.
3. Fool Me Once (Netflix series)
Harlan Coban readers are here for his next chess move to streaming TV supremacy, and the binging is ongoing for this adaptation of a nanny-cam that changes everything with two possibly connected murder cases. The first of which involves a woman who believes that her husband was killed, but somehow, he still lives and appears on camera, and there are many disturbing truths that will come to the forefront during the course of this twisting tale.
2. Society Of The Snow (Netflix film)
Less than two weeks after its debut on Netflix, this movie emerged on the streamer’s Most Popular Non-English list, and it will likely end up on the service’s top All-Time film list, too. This story brings the Andes Mountains crash survivors in 1972 onscreen in vivid detail, and given that both arctic blasts and air-travel chaos is in the news these days, this might feel too timely of a watch in a way. That hasn’t discouraged the binging, however, and this film continues to rack up view and critical acclaim alike.
1. Reacher (Amazon Prime series)
The second season finale streamed this week, and once again, Reacher and the Special Investigators have lived up to their motto. Star Alan Ritchson has already delivered a peek at his third-season crustiness, and now, everyone can wonder exactly which of Lee Childs’ Jack Reacher books that the show will adapt next. Seriously, nobody would be upset if they managed to write Roscoe into the show again, too. She did receive a shoutout this year, after all. Details matter!
