Alien invasions are so hot right now. Do you want to know where you’ll find the best bang for your buck among the streaming services? The competition grows eerie this week with a fictional account of humans and aliens going toe-to-toe in an Amazon Prime movie and a (supposedly) reality-based Discovery+ series about one of the greatest extraterrestrial-related mysteries of our time. For that reason (and because you want to ditch a Fourth of July BBQ to fight aliens, like Will Smith’s Independence Day character) we’re gonna go ahead and put Amazon in first place this week for not only staying on-point, subject wise, but also giving us a summer blockbuster experience at home. Discovery+ nabs the runner-up spot because not only are we getting more alien talk, but Martha Freaking Stewart stars in a new series where she gets her hands super grubby (because she knows what the people want).
However, don’t count out the other streaming services mentioned below. Disney+ is still going strong with Loki installments that will charm your Variant pants off. Netflix has several new options to binge, including a series where Channing Tatum portrays a potty-mouthed and ripped George Washington, and do not sleep on HBO Max, Hulu, Peacock, and Apple TV’s newest offerings. Without further delay, here’s everything that you should consider putting in your queues this weekend (and beyond).
Amazon Prime
The Tomorrow War (Amazon Prime film) — A summer blockbuster movie lands in your living room at no extra cost to Amazon Prime subscribers, so how lucky are you feeling right about now? The film stars Chris Pratt (alongside J.K. Simmons, Yvonne Strahovski, Betty Gilpin, Sam Richardson, and more) in a world where time travelers from 2051 arrive to warn mankind that a global war against an alien species is coming. The only way possible for this to turn out well for humans is if soldiers and civilians join the future fight by time traveling, and this film comes from the mind of director Chris McKay (The Lego Batman Movie), so we’re in good hands all around. Go get your microwave popcorn and enjoy the explosive action goodness.
Bosch: Season 7 (Amazon Prime series) — Everyone’s favorite loose-cannon detective (portrayed by Titus Welliver) who doesn’t shy away from extralegal tactics is back for one final lap, and hopefully, he’ll be weirdly eating pancakes again at some point before this show ends. Please let us see more crooked law enforcement members get their comeuppance, and maybe some mercenaries and drug rings here and there, and Bosch going further than he safely should to achieve justice in every instance. Oh, and after this season ends, there will (at some point) be a spinoff that will pretty much be more Bosch on the way, as Bosch moves into a new phase of his career. Strange, right?
Discovery+
Martha Gets Down and Dirty: Season 1 (Discovery+ series) — The frequent onscreen and business partner of Snoop Dogg goes solo while traveling home to her 150-acre farm where, as the title suggests, she gets her hands seriously dirty. Martha Stewart might be 79 years young and a total perfectionist, but she’s entirely engaged in prepping her farm for summertime, and that means some serious digging in the dirt alongside her gardener, Ryan McCallister. That’s only part of the dirty work on this show, and Stewart duly promised, “I’m going to take you behind-the-scenes as I get my hands dirty around my property, as well as help my celebrity friends and surprise some unsuspecting callers.” So… Snoop? C’mon, Martha.
Roswell: The Final Verdict (Discovery+ limited series) — The recently declassified UFO reports from the Pentagon didn’t exactly satisfy curious minds, so there’s no time like the present for revisiting the 1937 Roswell, New Mexico incident, in which a rancher claims to have witnessed strange debris gathering, which led to decades of denials by the U.S. government and endless conspiracy theories. This series will revisit eyewitness accounts in an attempt to uncover the whole truth.
Relentless (Discovery+ series) — This Blumhouse Television/Stick Figure Entertainment series releases three episodes of this journey by an obsessive filmmaker (Christina Fontana) to uncover what really happened to a missing young woman (Christina Whittaker), a 21-year-old who left a 6-month-old child behind in Missouri. Less than a year later, Fontana touched base with the family and soon found herself staring down a trail of conspiracies and betrayal while becoming part of the story. Fontana soon realized how accounts lacked consistency across the board during interviews, and it’s fair to say that the filmmaker risked her own career and safety while telling this story.
Disney+
Loki: Episode 4 (Disney+ series, releasing in the wee hours of Wednesday morning) — Tom Hiddleston has an absolute blast playing the mercurial trickster of the MCU, and we shall reap the benefits while he helps (or hinders) the Time Variance Authority during the process of cleaning up the timeline. This week, the show will follow up on Sophia Di Martino’s “Variant” character teaming up with Loki, after the series inserted a significant detail into canon while appearing to also confirm a theory about the TVA.
The Mysterious Benedict Society: Season 1 Premiere (Disney+ series) — Gather round for this adaptation of Trenton Lee Stewart’s bestselling book series about a group of orphans who are recruited by Mr. Benedict, who is very peculiar, to save the world from “The Emergency.” Together, the orphans must infiltrate an underworld society to uncover the truth about why the globe’s gone so wrong, and except the unexpected when it comes to revelations about the source of this crisis. Tony Hale stars, along with Kristen Schaal and Ryan Hurst (RIP, Opie from Sons of Anarchy).
Netflix
America: The Motion Picture (Netflix film) — Channing Tatum voices a very profane (and buff) George Washington in this series that’s directed by Archer‘s Matt Thompson and produced by The Mitchells vs. the Machines‘ Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Washington declares that he wants to “start a f*cking revolution,” and he’s accompanied by a beer-guzzling Sam Adams, an angry Geronimo, Paul Revere, and Thomas Edison as they decide to take on Benedict Arnold and King James. In the synopsis, Netflix promises, “[T]hese are not your father’s Founding… uh, Fathers.”
Fear Street Part 1: 1994 (Netflix film) — Author RL Stine’s works find new terrifying life in this first trilogy installment about a group of teenagers who inadvertently stumble upon a source of ancient evil. Before long, they’re wrapped up in a 300-year-old nightmare that’s messed with their Shadyside community, and expect more where this came from when Fear Street Part 2: 1978 and Fear Street Part 3: 1666 eventually arrive.
We The People (Netflix series) — This show aims to educate young Americans about basic U.S. civics lessons, but the method is anything but basic and involves combining groundbreaking animation and original music. Expect tunes from H.E.R., Janelle Monáe, Brandi Carlile, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Adam Lambert, Cordae, Bebe Rexha, KYLE, and Andra Day. Poet Amanda Gorman will also be on hand to inspire the masses like she did at the recent inauguration.
Somos. (Netflix series) — This series recreates stories that are inspired by the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ginger Thompson. She dug into a small down called Allende during a period that’s rocked by a massacre, which was sparked by a drug war and a DEA operation that did not go as planned.
Prime Time (Netflix film) — The time is 1999, and the occasion is New Year’s Eve. A 20-year-old man takes hostages after entering a TV studio. The man doesn’t know his plan, nor does anyone else, although he has a message that’s interrupted by police, and as he waits it out, he apparently bonds with his hostages. Hmm.
Audible (Netflix film) — This coming-of-age documentary follows a group of Deaf high school students as they confront the impending reality of graduation and heading into the real world. A popular athlete, Amaree, tears up the football field following a tragic loss, and overall, this group of teens seek to conquer adversity while looking toward the future and intending to prove their worth to the world.
Young Royals (Netflix series) — A teenage prince heads to a ritzy boarding school, where he intends upon exploring his identity and figuring out what he’d really like to do in the future. His dreams turn to freedom and unconditional live and away from royal duty, but those dreams are thwarted when he finds himself next in line to become king. Will he choose love… or his apparently predestined life?
HBO Max
No Sudden Move (Warner Bros. film on HBO Max) — Right at home in the comfort of your own living room, you can enjoy the newest Steven Soderbergh-directed picture that’s set in 1954 Detroit. The cast includes half of Hollywood, it seems, including Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, David Harbour, Jon Hamm, Amy Seimetz, Kieran Culkin, Ray Liotta, and Brendan Fraser. The name of the game is a botched plan by a gathering of small-potatoes criminals, who must hunt down who hired them and find out what’s actually going on in the rapidly morphing city.
Tom and Jerry in New York: Season 1 (Warner Bros. Animation series on HBO Max) — This spinoff to the recent Tom and Jerry movie (starring Chloe Moretz) strips things down to the classic duo’s adventures while cat and mouse continue to cause mayhem in the Big Apple and, more specifically, the Royal Gate Hotel. Naturally, chaos follows everywhere that the iconic pair travels, surrender to the madness.
I’ll Be Gone In The Dark: Special Episode (HBO series on HBO Max) — The one-year anniversary of Joseph James DeAngelo’s guilty plea as the Golden State Killer fast approaches. So, HBO’s revisiting the dogged investigating efforts of true-crime blogger Michelle McNamara after the revolutionary docuseries of 2020. Original series director Liz Garbus will be back to produce alongside Patton Oswalt (McNamara’s husband at the time of her death) and true-crime writers Paul Haynes and Billy Jensen (who helped piece together McNamara’s research into the book) for a special episode, which contains revelations about another case that informed McNamara’s true-crime obsession.
Betty: (HBO series on HBO Max) — The skateboarders are back. It’s what we really need to heal our pandemic-addled minds, and somehow, director Crystal Moselle managed to gather the Skate Kitchen crew back up for a second season and film on the streets of New York City. The main players are all back — Rachelle Vinberg as Camille, Ajani Russell as Indigo, Dede Lovelace as Janay, Moonbear as Honeybear, and Nina Moran as Kirt — and they’re still making the act of soaring through the streets look like the coolest thing on Earth.
Hulu
Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Hulu film) — Questlove’s stepping into the director’s seat for the first time for this cinematic historical record that celebrates Black history over the course of six weeks. The culmination, of course, turns out to be the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, and this film brings you never-before-seen footage of performances from Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, B.B. King, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and many more.
False Positive (Hulu film) — Hide your uteruses! Pierce Brosnan is the worst fertility doctor. As if being a woman wasn’t hard enough, Hulu (through this A24 film) will give us even more fuel to dread going to a gynecologist, or baby doctor, or fertility whiz, or whatever term you want to use. Ilana Glazer stars as one half of a couple, alongside Justin Theroux, who seeks to become pregnant, and things aren’t exactly going well with the natural route, so they find themselves seeking professional help. And from there, things get all Rosemary’s Baby in a very 2021 way, and in an entertaining way, too. From there, the this trailer shows how the gaslighting really kicks in, and could it be… Satan?
Peacock
The Boss Baby: Family Business (Peacock film) — Alec Baldwin’s back as the Boss Baby, who is now (apparently?) all grown up. He’s even a hedge fund CEO, but another boss baby, who’s even more of a whippersnapper, might bring the first boss baby back together with his older brother (James Marsden), and then they’ll all attempt a family business. The best news, perhaps, is that Amy Sedaris is voicing a new infant on the block, and there are dark secrets and mysterious ways afoot at BabyCorp. In the end, expect some lessons on the meaning of family because, yup, we’re in family territory.
Apple TV+
Central Park: Season 2 (Apple TV+ series) — Get ready for more animated musical madness that takes on themes of gentrification and capitalism with such an ease that feels, well, natural. Voice performances from Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, Stanley Tucci, and Daveed Diggs will all entertain with whimsy, and oh, do not forget the presence of Tituss Burgess, ever. The series is co-created by Loren Bouchard of Bob’s Burgers fame, and it’s a heartwarming and unique comedy series following a cast of evolving characters.
Mythic Quest: Season 2 season finale (Apple TV+ series) — Rob McElhenney’s workplace comedy made it back to the office after you-know-what forced the work-at-home situation. They built upon Raven’s Banquet success with a new expansion, but nothing’s going smoothly. Snoop Dogg stopped by this season to spread his feel-good… vibes. And now, it’s time to end this sophomore chapter with an eye toward the future.
