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. Borderlands – Lionsgate movie on VOD & Amazon Prime
Although this movie’s VOD tour could never be substantial enough to help this misfire recoup its budget, some viewers’ curiosity is still strong enough to pull in a moderate amount of living room streams. Don’t expect a faithful adaptation to the game, however, because this story uses the same universe as a launching point, and that’s about it. Hollywood will likely take many lessons away from this film for many years, but after Craig Mazin’s distancing from the project (and he knows a bad script when he sees one), maybe executives should have seen this coming.
9. 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.
8. Fight Night: The Million-Dollar Heist – Peacock limited series
Kevin Hart, Samuel L. Jackson, Taraji P. Henson, Chloe Bailey, Don Cheadle, and Terrence Howard star in this story based upon iHeartRadio’s Fight Night podcast, which chronicles the October 1970 night when Muhammad Ali returned to boxing, and “Chicken Man” (Hart) pulled off a historical heist during a party full of ultra-wealthy post-fight patrons. The brazen crime spree then became a longwinded headache for J.D. Hudson (Cheadle), who also helped protect Ali on his way to the ring and was one of Atlanta PD’s first Black detectives. Let’s hope that Hudson enjoyed a long vacation at some point because he was tasked with investigating a multi-million-dollar crime spree.
7. Dark Winds – AMC series streaming on AMC Plus and Netflix
This George R.R. Martin and Robert Redford-produced crime drama qualifies as a sleeper series that has maintained an enthused audience, but their numbers have swiftly grown over the past month with the series now streaming on Netflix. The show is based upon Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee books, in which 1970s Navajo cops (at a remote area near Monument Valley) confronted by a series of violent crimes that threaten to shatter established beliefs. Writers, cast, and crew are all majority Native American and ensure authenticity to stories of Indigenous people and communities, and the devotees will be able to enjoy a third season in 2025.
6. Beetlejuice – Warner Bros. movie streaming on Max
Michael Keaton’s juice is most certainly loose again after Jenna Ortega’s Astrid said those fateful words. This sequel’s opening weekend was wildly successful and has already surpassed the original’s box-office total, so do not be surprised if a third film is eventually announced (and here’s a damn fine idea for how that could go well). Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara reprise their role, and their chemistry (and that of director Tim Burton) is still flowing with Keaton like nobody’s business. Do we need to shout, “It’s Showtime!” to encourage you to revisit the original film? Done.
5. Industry – HBO series
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. Last week, Harington was revealed by the show runners to be the mastermind behind a scene that manages to at once be both salacious and heartwarming, and that doesn’t even begin to touch what’s going on with these characters in the workplace setting. Get in there and find out why audiences are growing more addicted to this show with each passing season.
4. The Perfect Couple – Netflix series
Streaming service highlights are colliding with Nicole Kidman adding a combo-The White Lotus/Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery-style plot to her current collection of TV shows. This presumably limited series stars Kidman as the matriarch of a wealthy Nantucket family, whose expansive Nantucket beach home is about to become a wedding destination, but the weekend becomes derailed when the estate becomes a crime scene. If you need a slightly more unsettling streaming story also starring Kidman content revolving around a Kidman character, Nine Perfect Strangers will do quite nicely on Hulu. That show will receive a second season, although The Perfect Couple remains a limited series until Netflix declares otherwise.
3. Emily In Paris – Netflix series
Due to a split season, this Darren Star series is now returning for the back half of the fourth season, and the consolation prize for the wait time is this: Emily is going on holiday. First, she’ll attempt to ski and then she will head to Rome. One of these adventures goes much better than the other, and of course, this presents a question that must be asked: Who is Emily, if she’s not an American in Paris? You’re about to find out. If you are also addicted to Emily’s frothy adventures, don’t fret. I am not sure why I cannot stop watching either, so it’s time to simply accept the fact that this show is addictive despite being a series with zero consequences or substance. Fingers crossed for a spin off, though.
2. 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.
1. Rebel Ridge – Netflix film
Aaron Pierre delivers a potentially Bond-making turn in Jeremy Saulnier’s action-conspiracy thriller about an ex-Marine who receives an unwelcome stop from police, who — long story short and to avoid spoilers — messed with the wrong guy. This film carries First Blood vibes but leans more cerebral and does so more successfully than Reacher, which of course is a crowd pleaser on its own merits. The film co-stars Don Johnson, playing another bad cop here (see also HBO’s Watchmen) who ain’t no Sonny Crockett.
