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. Back In Action – Netflix movie
Cameron Diaz came out of acting retirement, and the streaming audience is here for her and Jamie Foxx as married and retired CIA spies who get drawn back into the game, Godfather III style. As a bonus, Diaz’s Knight And Day is also trending on Netflix with similar vibes and Tom Cruise. You might forget Back In Action in a week, much like everyone (myself included) forgot that Knight And Day existed, but never dismiss the appeal of a popcorn movie, even when that movie streams at home.
9. Black Snow – Stan series streaming on Sundance Now & AMC+
Not to be confused with Black Doves, the second season of this Australian crime drama series follows the investigation of a young woman who disappeared at her birthday party, and the chief detective is (as is often the case) also plagued by a case that makes things personal. Dark Winds viewers will (while they wait for the AMC series’ third season) want to hop on this show because the Aussies are doing their part to fuel hunger for mystery shows while spy and superhero shows run rampant. Black Snow, in particular, goes beyond the mystery into an even deeper injustice while never forgetting the names of the victims whose cases lead them down that path.
8. Twin Peaks – Twin Peaks Productions/Spelling Television series streaming on Paramount+
Following David Lynch’s death at age 78, the binging of his phantasmagorical crime series has gone down hard with people climbing back onboard Agent Cooper’s investigation into who killed Laura Palmer. Likewise, Twin Peaks: The Return is receiving an otherworldly amount of visitors to revisit the scene of the crime 25 years later with the help of the thrillingly dulcet tones of “The Nine Inch Nails.” Sure, Mulholland Drive is trending like wildfire, too, but there’s “nothing like a great cup of coffee” to relive this Great’s past.
7. Prime Target – Apple TV+ series
So, this is a high concept series revolving around a supposed math genius, and of course it’s not going to please staunch mathematicians who desire accuracy. Leo Woodall portrays a postgrad math student who comes together with an NSA agent to unravel fears that his wielding of prime numbers could be used (in the wrong hands) to harness the world’s computers. To drop an out-of-context quote from an Internet famous cycling instructor, “It’s not that deep,” but if you are a Ridley Scott completist (he produces here) and a conspiracy-TV addict, there are worse ways to spend an afternoon.
6. The Pitt – Max series
The never-ending appetite for primetime medical dramas is further fueled by this watchable Noah Wyle series that surely will not mind visits from the ER crowd. The show relies heavily on FOX’s 24 gimmick by delivering an hour-in-the-life episode each week, which adds up to 15-hour shift for Wyle’s attending physician in Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital’s emergency room. For better or worse, this is no soap opera, but it might inspire you to start really watching health habits, not only for obvious, life-extending and money-saving reasons but also to avoid landing in an ER that feels like The Bear. Yikes.
5. American Primeval – Netflix series
A team of creative minds behind Narcos, The Revenant, and Friday Night Lights have come together for this Neo-Western limited series, in which Taylor Kitsch and Betty Gilpin go through hell on earth. The year is 1857, and they’re fighting through frigid elements amid the Mountain Meadows Massacre, during which Mormon soldiers killed hundreds of pioneers at the behest of Brigham Young (Kim Coates of Sons Of Anarchy). This clash involves Indigenous nationals also rising up to fight for their own survival within the same contested territory, and this ain’t Yellowstone, baby.
4. Marianne – Netflix series
Shades of several classic horror titles, including numerous nods to The Ring are pushing viewers toward the comfort onscreen scares in a time when reality isn’t that much better. What’s particular wild about the show’s current trending status is that this French horror series was cancelled five years ago after only one season, but guess what? Stories about writers attempting to vanquish demons through their writing are always timely.
3. Paradise – Hulu series
Sterling K. Brown and Dan Fogelman are having a This Is Us reunion over on Hulu for a thriller series that could alternately scratch your escapism itch or feel too close to home. Without spoiling anything for the first three episodes already streaming, Brown portrays a security agent fronting a team that is tasked with protecting the president (James Marsden), but this show isn’t a meat-and-potatoes conspiracy story. Like This Is Us, expect non-linear storytelling that helps build context behind the overriding mystery of the series. A slower burn than many streaming series of the same nature helps this show stand apart, and the test for future seasons will be whether audiences will be patient enough without tidy explanations at every turn.
2. Severance – Apple TV+ series
If you’re a Helly fan and you are feeling conflicted this season, you are not alone. Creator Dan Erickson and director Ben Stiller are having too much fun tugging at heartstrings over the fan favorite character, and thank goodness that the core four (Mark, Irving, and Dylan, too) are back together, even if the job will never be the same as before the Innies explored the Outie world. With that said, this show has managed to deliver a different experience from the first season, which makes the three-year wait almost worth enduring. Now, about those goats?
1. The Night Agent – Netflix series
Peter’s newfound Night Action gig wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be, and every “call is coming from inside the house” variant is on display during this second season, which includes lingering effects, including PTSD, of Rose and Peter’s first adrenaline-filled mission. With Peter’s second-season crisis off the books, the show was able to step back (since he is AWOL and hiding) to reflect upon how they are dealing with their trauma in different ways. They still came together again, though, which makes this season finale hit even harder. Now the wait for the third season (and more or less Rose?) begins.
