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. Terminator Zero – Netflix series
Did the world need an anime series from this franchise? Arguably not, but this franchise has injected unexpected life into what would otherwise be a crushed crop of cyborgs. The film follows a Japanese developer’s work on a SkyNet competitor back in 1997, and as it turns out, these rivals are not content to let the market settle their rivalry. Cue a warrior from the future heading back in time to attempt life-saving intervention. The voice cast includes André Holland, Rosario Dawson, Sonoya Mizuno, and yes, that is Timothy Olyphant’s unmistakeable voice and swagger coming from the T-800.
9. Fight Night: The Million-Dollar Heist – Peacock limited series
This heist story is based upon iHeartRadio’s Fight Night podcast, which heads back to October 1970 when Muhammad Ali returned to boxing in what turned out to be the same evening that “Chicken Man” (Kevin Hart) pulled off a historical heist during a party full of ultra-wealthy post-fight patrons. By the end of the evening, multi-million-dollars of thievery went down, and this shockingly brazen crime spree became a longwinded headache for detective J.D. Hudson, one of Atlanta’s first Black detectives.
8. A Quiet Place: Day One – Paramount movie streaming on Paramount+
Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, and Frodo the Cat star in this rendition of what happened when John Krasinski’s sound-hunting aliens landed in Manhattan. This franchise hasn’t missed yet, and whispers of a fourth movie are circulating as the threequel arrives as part of a streaming package. Enjoy the chaos in your own living room, and root for that damn cat, will you?
7. Dark Winds – AMC series streaming on Netflix
This George R.R. Martin-produced crime drama (anything to avoid writing Winds of Winter, but in this case, GRRM’s procrastination is well worth the diversion) qualifies as a sleeper series that I highly recommend binging at some point. (Mostly) Native American writers are doing the thing here with Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee book series and the two 1970s Navajo cops (at a remote area near Monument Valley) confronted by a series of violent crimes, and these investigations present sights that make them second guess their spiritual beliefs. A third season is on the way, and the show’s recent Netflix arrival has opened up a whole new audience for what’s next.
6. Bad Monkey – Apple TV+ series
Vince Vaughn returns to leading-man mode while embracing those comedic roots in this series adaptation of Carl Hiaasen’s cult-favorite and bestseller novel of the same name. Likewise, producer Bill Lawrence follows up his Ted Lasso feel-good vibes with less wholesome subject matter to follow Vaughn’s Andrew Yancy, a former cop-turned-health-inspector, becomes involved in a mystery investigation. Co-stars include Rob Delaney, Jodie Turner-Smith, Michelle Monaghan, Alex Moffat, and a dash of Zach Braff. If this doesn’t redeem Vaughn for that second True Detective season, then nothing else will.
5. The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power – Amazon series
This past week was Tom Bombadil Week, which brings some much needed controversy to Middle-earth and Jeff Bezos’ dream of really achieving his own Game of Thrones. Heck, this show might even be the reason for Amazon launching original content in the first place, and fortunately, we got Reacher and Mr. and Mrs. Smith out of the deal, too.
4. Industry – HBO series
Harry Lawtey will soon surface as an early Harvey Dent in the Joker sequel, and he’s still kicking around in all the wrong places as Robert in this show that is getting its due with a growing audience. This series, which also stars Myha’la, Marisa Abela, Ken Leung, and the newly installed Kit Harington, has received plentiful comparisons to Euphoria due to the off-hours debauchery on display, but the third season is leveling up with more intricate and complex arcs for its impressively disastrous characters
3. Joker – Warner Bros. Pictures movie streaming on Max
The reviews for the Lady Gaga-starring musical followup are not kind overall, but the film could still hit a billion dollars at the box office. In the meantime, people are revisiting Joaquin Phoenix’s first performance as the Clown Prince of Crime. Director Todd Phillips did the thing here, and it remains to be seen how theatergoers respond to Arthur Fleck’s second outing. Will he still be considered a complex early version of the chaotic figure who slipped through the cracks with homicidal results, or will the dancing shows have worn thin?
2. The Perfect Couple – Netflix series
Nicole Kidman has not-so-quietly been amassing TV series on HBO, Hulu, and Amazon, so it only makes sense that she would follow up her A Family Affair Netflix movie with a TV series on the same streaming service. This (presumably limited) series looks like a cross between The White Lotus and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery with Kidman portraying the matriarch of a wealthy Nantucket family. In this adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s book, the fam is about to welcome a daughter-in-law, yet unfortunately, the wedding weekend turns into a murder scene, and the whodunit begins.
1. Slow Horses – Apple TV+ series
Fart City, ahoy! That would be London when Jackson Lamb is walking around. Meanwhile, are you ready to see his living space? Because that’s coming this season, along with other messy thrills for these f*cked up MI5 agents who find themselves handling matters of utmost national importance. This season follows Mick Herron’s fourth Slough House novel, Spook Street, and Jackson’s cadre of misfits will find themselves embroiled within a terror attack in a shopping district. Come for the action and intrigue, and stick around for a grumpy, farting Gary Oldman in the role of his life.
