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 Buccaneers (Apple TV+ series)
Corsets are somehow all the rage again. That’s to be expected in the era of Downton Abbey, The Gilded Age, Bridgerton, and Queen Charlotte supremacy. Christina Hendricks stars in this series with similar opulent surroundings and wiggery, but that’s not all. The story revolves around the new rich in America and their daughters, known as The Buccaneers, who make a spectacle of themselves in London while attempting to find some aristocratic dudes who are both handsome and classy. Gotta dig that hot corset action.
TIE: 10. Dumb Money (Sony Pictures movie streaming on VOD & Amazon Prime)
The GameStop short-squeeze of 2021 saw a fairly fast turnaround into a movie starring Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Seth Rogen, and Shailene Woodley. Dano stars as a dude (Keith Gill) who puts his life savings into the stock starting in 2020, soon enough, much of Internet joined him. This doesn’t last too long, however, when billionaires grow incensed that someone is gaming their system that they, too, are gaming. This led to mass chaos for the Robinhood platform, and before long, those involved saw their lives upended.
9. Blue Eye Samurai (Netflix series)
This animated series starring Maya Erskine, Brenda Song, Kenneth Branagh, and Masi Oka will appeal to Quentin Tarantino fans, not only for the revenge story but several other touches, including choreographed violence. The story takes place in 16th century Edo-period Japan, where a young warrior is driven into vengeance by sword. Mizo is a mixed-race sword master, in fact, and she conceals herself, including those blue eyes — which would make those suspicious of foreigners to take notice of her — and her gender, while undertaking her mission. You’re in good hands with creators Amber Noizumi and Michael Green, the latter of whom penned Blade Runner 2049 and Logan.
8. The Fall Of The House Of Usher (Netflix series)
Never doubt horror maestro Mike Flanagan, especially because his latest spooky series is going strong well into November. Here, he casts Carla Gugino again, practically in several roles as the shapeshifting Verna. This show is so brazenly up in the Edgar Allan Poe references with so many macabre happenings that we put together a death ranking. Also, this isn’t a literal telling of the Poe story but one that successfully incorporates modern ills while skewering the concepts of wealth, privilege, and power.
7. No Hard Feelings (Sony Pictures movie streaming on Netflix)
Sometimes, you simply wanna tuck in with a simple, non-stressful movie that isn’t four hours long and features Jennifer Lawrence is raunchy mode. As it turns out, a lot of people have had the same wish for months, since this movie did respectably at the box office and has been going strong on streaming for weeks. In this R-rated sex comedy, Lawrence portrays Maddie, a fail-hard young woman who needs to make some money, fast, so she answers a Craigslist ad from parents who would really like a nice woman to “date” their awkward 19-year-old son. Despite the bawdy premise, this movie also has heart, and Lawrence dove right in on both fronts.
6. Lawmen: Bass Reeves (Paramount+ series)
Taylor Sheridan currently has 6666, 2024, and 1944 in the works on the Yellowstone side, so he’s got the modern cowboys covered. For the moment, however, he’s taking viewers back to the real Old West. David Oyelowo portrays the legendary Black U.S. Deputy Marshal in a series that harkens back to the Post-Reconstruction era, in which Bass Reeves became a notorious frontier hero by capturing thousands of the most frightening criminals around. Co-stars include Dennis Quaid, Garrett Hedlund, and Donald Sutherland.
5. Gen V (Amazon Prime series)
The season finale (to quote Bill Murray in Ghostbusters) came, saw, and kicked ass with a short but highly impactful cameo from the original series to top things off. Speaking of which, Antony Starr only gets worse/better as Homelander, and his appearance, along with that of Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher, lets us know where the cards will be stacked for Season 4 of The Boys. Oi.
4. The Killer (Netflix film)
Michael Fassbender does yoga in this David Fincher film. Oh, do you want more? Well, Fassbender also portrays an assassin who is usually incredibly good at never failing at his job. At one point, however, he gets emotional, and that might be his fatal flaw. Uh oh. He also uses several aliases, including Felix Unger, Archibald Bunker, and Oscar Madison, so there’s that to look forward to as well. It’s a lean and mean film that did the festival circuit and has now swiftly landed in your living room to enjoy at home.
3. Invincible (Amazon series)
So, is Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) a villain now? That’s a major question explored during the first episodes of Season 2 from Robert Kirkland, and the voices of Walton Goggins and Sandra Oh are here to help guide you toward an answer. This season goes deeper into emotions and motivations for most characters, and it’s still the same smart and visually lush production as last time. No one is better at crowd-pleasing comic-book adaptations right now than Amazon, and that probably wasn’t on anyone’s nerd-bingo card five years ago, yet we will take it.
2. Loki (Disney+ series)
The second season finale left the door open for more of Tom Hiddleston’s trickster god. He’s still burdened with glorious purpose, and this season even took on shades of a romantic comedy when Miss Minutes wasn’t scaring the pants off everyone. Of course, there was plenty more about the temporal time loop with more questions about fate and whether or not Jonathan Majors will remain in the MCU. No word yet on that last awkward note.
1. Five Nights At Freddy’s (Blumhouse film streaming on Peacock)
This film simultaneously scared up box-office and streaming success on the same weekend. The timing was perfect, given that this film not only fit the spooky time of year but also blossomed as yet another successful video-game-to-screen adaptation. Josh Hutcherson did not have the quiet little evening at work that his character imagined, since this no ordinary pizzeria. Animatronic horror villains are no less scary than horrific and homicidal dolls like M3GAN and those sporting ski masks and chainsaws, as it turns out. And now, the wait for the green lighting of a sequel shall begin.
