What To Watch: Our Picks For The TV Shows And Movies We Think You Should Stream This Week
By Josh Kurp,
6 hours ago
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Each week our staff of film and television experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
You might know Brian Jordan Alvarez from his videos on TikTok and Instagram as TJ Mack, the singer of earworm “Sitting.” He’s also the star and creator of English Teacher , about a teacher who “often finds himself at the intersection of the personal, professional, and political aspects of working at a high school. Evan wants to be a principled person but often runs into trouble because of it.” His first lesson to his students: sitting is the opposite of standing.
There’s a few things you should know about Slow Horses :
1. As we previously wrote : “Each season is six episodes long and focuses on a distinct mystery or conspiracy and is full of little twists and turns and double-crosses. Sometimes there are stolen diamonds. Sometimes the slow horses will reveal themselves to be drug addicts or gambling addicts and it’ll muck everything up for a little. Sometimes you’ll be watching someone do something and assume they’re taking a brave and bold stance for righteousness and then realize they’ve been manipulated into accidentally doing the bidding of someone smarter and more conniving than they are.”
2. There is so much farting . Like, even more than you think.
Colin Farrell’s scene-stealing performance in The Batman resulted in him being turned into a meme and, probably more impressively, getting a spin-off on Max. The Penguin explores Oswald Cobblepot’s (or as he’s called in the show, Oz Cobb’s) rise in the seedy Gotham underworld. The series, which also stars Cristin Milioti, Clancy Brown, and Theo Rossi, is getting comparisons to another crime drama in the HBO / Max family: The Sopranos . Not too shabby.
There’s a good chance you’ve already seen Inside Out 2 . It is the highest-grossing movie of 2024 after all. But now you can watch it again and again (especially if you have kids) on Disney Plus. The Pixar film brings back Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger from the original, and adds new emotions, including Maya Hawke as Anxiety and Ayo Edebiri as Envy. For more on the making of Inside Out 2 , read our interview with director Kelsey Mann.
After former SNL head writer Harper Steele came out as a trans woman, she and Will Ferrell went on a two-week road trip across America. Will & Harper follows their journey. “What if we went on a road trip together, giving her a chance to go into a cowboy bar or whatever places she misses, and I can be by her side and lend support as a friend?” Ferrell said about the origin of the documentary. “At the same time, it would give us a chance to reconnect and figure out what this transition means to our relationship.” If only all SNL cast members from the ‘90s were so open minded…
The acclaimed anime Dan Da Dan is about Momo, a high school girl from a family of spirit mediums, and her classmate / occult fanatic Okarun, who begin talking after she saves him from getting bullied. However, an argument ensues between them: Momo believes in ghosts but denies aliens, and Okarun believes in aliens but denies ghosts. It’s a real Mulder and Scully dynamic, if they were both Mulder (and there was a Turbo Granny ). Dan Da Dan , which is getting a weekly release, comes from animation studio Science Saru, who also made last year’s shockingly good Scott Pilgrim Takes Off .
One of the most talked-about shows at the moment is Nobody Wants This . It turns out, everybody wants to see Kristen Bell and Adam Brody in a romantic comedy, which is something I could have told Netflix without having to be paid an executive’s exorbitant salary. Nobody Wants This follows the unlikely relationship between a sex podcaster (Bell) and a hot rabbit (Brody). It’s very cute, and hopefully a sign that we’ll get more good rom-coms soon.
Quarantine hit The Platform is an allegorical horror film about class struggle, where inmates in a “Vertical Self-Management Center” are fed using a platform that’s initially filled with food but as it descends, there’s fewer and fewer options for the lower levels. Those at the bottom are lucky to get anything at all. Following a prisoner rebellion (and some delicious panna cotta) in the original, The Platform 2 has a new leader imposing their rule in the Platform, while “a new resident becomes embroiled in the battle against this controversial method to fight the brutal feeding system,” according to the logline from Netflix. “But when eating from the wrong plate becomes a death sentence, how far would you be willing to go to save your life?”
The Franchise is a long-overdue satire of superhero movies from creator Jon Brown and producers Armando Iannucci and Sam Mendes. It’s like The Boys , but less violent — although both shows do star Aya Cash. She’s joined by Himesh Patel, Jessica Hynes, Billy Magnussen, Lolly Adefope, Darren Goldstein, Isaac Powell, Daniel Brühl, and Richard E. Grant. The series makes fun of the chaotic world of superhero moviemaking and asks an important question: “How exactly does the cinematic sausage get made?” (With lots of greenscreen, that’s how.)
Earlier this year, Stephen King had this to say about Salem’s Lot : “Between you and me, Twitter, I’ve seen the new SALEM’S LOT and it’s quite good. Old-school horror filmmaking: slow build, big payoff.” King doesn’t always have the best taste in adaptations of his own work, but he makes a strong case here. 2024’s Salem’s Lot (the first feature-film adaptation of the author’s personal favorite novel, following two miniseries) stars Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Bill Camp, Pilou Asbæk, Alfre Woodard, and William Sadler, and was written and directed by Annabelle and It writer Gary Dauberman.
5. Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft (Netflix)
netflix
The first Tomb Raider game came out on the Sega Saturn nearly 30 years, but the love for Lara Croft remains strong. There’s been three movies, so many games (including a remaster of the first three mainline titles released earlier this year), and now, an anime. Hayley Atwell voices the titular explorer in Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft from animation studio Powerhouse Animation Studios, which also made the impressive Castlevania: Nocturne series. They have a stranglehold on Netflix anime.
The official synopsis for Teacup reads, “ Teacup follows a disparate group of people in rural Georgia who must come together in the face of a mysterious threat in order to survive.” But that leaves out the intriguing involvement of producer James Wan, or that the subject matter is so “horrifying,” it made star Yvonne Strahovski “feel sick.” Just in time for Halloween!
Caddo Lake, which is on the border of Texas and Louisiana, covers nearly 27,000 acres. It’s easy to go missing in there, which is what happens to an eight-year-old girl in the new horror movie from writer and director duo Celine Held and Logan George. The film (produced by M. Night Shyamalan) also stars Dylan O’Brien and Eliza Scanlen, who begin to link together a series of past deaths and disappearances.
La Máquina reunites Y tu mamá también stars Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal in a boxing drama-thriller. After a brutal loss, boxer Esteban “La Máquina” Osuna (played by Garcia Bernal) faces a low point in his career. But his manager and best friend, Andy Lujan (Luna), believes he still has promise to mount a comeback for one last fight… possibly for selfish reasons. Esteban is also facing issues in his personal life, including his journalist ex-wife Irasema (Eiza González), who is investigating corruption in the boxing world.
Alfonso Cuarón, the Oscar-winning director of Children Men , Y tu mamá también (big week for the YTMT freaks out there!), and the best Harry Potter movie, is back with his first new project in six years. Disclaimer stars Cate Blanchett as a journalist who receives a mysterious book in the mail that threatens to reveal her darkest secrets. The ensemble cast of the psychological thriller, which is told over seven chapters, also includes Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, HoYeon Jung, Louis Partridge, Lesley Manville, and Leila George. It’s nice to have a new anything from Cuarón.
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