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.
10. Salem’s Lot – WBD film streaming on Max
The feature-length adaptation of Stephen King’s second novel sat on the shelves for years before finally making it to the small screen after the long-ago miniseries. This movie is optimal for spooky season and follows what happens when a King-created author, Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman), decides that it’s a great idea to go back home for inspiration, only to discover that an outbreak of blood-sucking vampires is afoot. The Donald Sutherland role of Straker got picked up by Pilou Asbæk, also known as the Game of Thrones actor who had the best villainous face of that fantasy show’s entire eight-season run. Fight me on that one. The cast further includes Alfre Woodard, who held her own in the recent See series starring Jason Momoa.
9. Yellowjackets – Showtime series streaming on Paramount+
Another Showtime series (waves to Dexter) is beginning to fly on Netflix, which should boost interest before the show’s third season surfaces next year. If you haven’t watched this series yet, do not eat before you start binging, and that’s not only because of the cannibalism that eventually ends up being on display. My main takeaways from this series (because the “mystery” got teased too long, imo) is that Sophie Thatcher should be in more projects, that Melanie Lynskey is a national treasure, and that the rise of Ella Purnell should continue unabated. Very scientific takes for sure.
8. Strange Darling – Magenta Light Studios film on VOD & Amazon Prime
If you know Willa Fitzgerald from Reacher and The Fall Of The House Of Usher, then you should run, not jog, to your nearest streaming TV device and fire this up. The less said about the plot, the better, but the story revolves around an ominous one-night stand and a serial killer. Willa is incredible, and in all roles, she lets the world know not to f*ck with her in more layered ways than casual viewers of her work might expect, at first.
7. Slow Horses – Apple TV+ series
Dads love their Dad TV. Also, Gary Oldman does not want to let go anytime soon of this series that he absolutely loves due to being a spymaster who can let his gas fly onscreen, unlike James Bond. This year, the action follows Mick Herron’s fourth Slough House novel, Spook Street, and we are truly living in a golden age of TV streaming takes on prolific spy book series, but this show occupies a special spot in showcasing intelligence agents who do not have their own sh*t together but still must protect society from those who aim to destroy it.
6. Grotesquerie – FX series streaming on Hulu
Ryan Murphy seldom misses with his target audience, who are all-in for this vengeance-soaked crime-drama series that brings back Monster secret weapon Niecy Nash-Betts. She steps in here as Detective Lois Tryon, who is unfortunately stuck in the variety of investigators who find that violence in her community is hitting too close to home. She also harbors those classic inner demons, but Murphy puts his own style on these tropes, and Lois teams up with Sister Megan (Micaela Diamond), who multitasks as both journalist and nun to wild results. The series also stars Courtney B. Vance, Lesley Manville, and Nicholas Alexander Chavez.
5. The Penguin – Max series
Come for Colin Farrell in prosthetics, and stay for the liberal use of Pepsi-Bismol and Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone. Matt Reeves’ The Batman sits outside the DCU, as does this spin off show with Colin Farrell’s Oswald Cobblepot navigating the Gotham underworld’s power vacuum and finding exactly where he fits in after the murder of mob boss Carmine Falcone by Paul Dano’s The Riddler. Farrell certainly gives this character his full energies with a New York accent to boot. The word “unrecognizable” is overused with transformations these days, but it’s entirely appropriate to use here.
4. Agatha All Along – Disney+ series
This week’s sexual tension actually aired on Disney+, although to be fair, subtlety worked in this show’s favor. WandaVision launched the Disney+ MCU shows with much fanfare that has since lost its intensity, but that first show’s spin off brings Kathryn Hahn’s powerful witch back (there’s a catch there) and adds witchy Aubrey Plaza, too. Additionally, this series surprised everybody by debuting with a nude scene that far surpasses the Captain America jokes about “America’s Ass.” Hey, this could be a new Marvel Studios phase in more ways than one.
3. The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power – Prime Video/Amazon series
Jeff Bezos’ personally-driven answer to Game of Thrones is paying off handsomely in viewership numbers even if you hear fewer discussions in the “water cooler” sense from this fantasy epic series. The season finale should go well at tiding people over for a few years with other fantasy series, including A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and The Sandman poised to pick up the ball while production on this Middle-earth saga hunkers down before taking over living rooms again.
2. Nobody Wants This – Netflix series
This series, starring Kristen Bell as a sex-friendly podcaster and Adam Brody as a single rabbi, has stirred up some Sex and the City-reminiscent controversy, but nonetheless, the streaming service has scored viewership in the romcom-series department. Creator Erin Foster has maintained that the series is partially based upon her own real-life experiences and adult conversion to Judaism, and the wait has already begun for a second season.
1. Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story – Netflix series
Ryan Murphy does it again, y’all. Monster: Dahmer drew not only true crime junkies but enough curious Netflix subscribers to qualify as a true Ryan Murphy anthology series with more to come. That first season still sits at #3 on Netflix’s Top 10 English-speaking TV series of all time, which is higher than every single Bridgerton season out there. This season purports to chronicle acts by the Menendez brothers, who were convicted in 1996 for the murdering their parents, Kitty and Jose Menendez, and this season is somehow proving to be as controversial as its predecessor.
